October 4. 1917 
LAND & WATER 
of ground means the loss before the end of the year of all the 
onemv i^ vet fighting for. Short of comparativeK' rapid 
yielding of ground you have to choose between holding the 
iront line densely, with the certain expense in men and in 
guns, and the present method, with ,a fair security for ,the 
material and a gamble lietween bearable loss and \-ery heavy 
and ultiniatelv unbearable loss, according to the success or 
failure of your counter-attacks. The enemy has chosen the 
latter alternative, and it is pr.-tty well the only course now 
open to him. What we shall see is whetlvr it will enable him 
to save the sea-coast and I.ille, and whether it will bring his 
resoiurces in men to the breaking point or no. 
The Action 
Of all tliis the action fought last week was an e.xamplc. 
Just beff)re the British blow was delivered the enemy hafl 
attacked strongly north of the Menin Road as though to 
forestall what wa^ coming, and had s(jmewhat pressed back 
the British line at tliat point. But when the full strength of 
the blow fell this previous action of his proved useless. Five 
days had sufficed to prepare it— a very short interval, betray- 
ing the greatest activity in arranging the affair. 
oP-G 
"m 
/ TUE^f 2 
T^TbsscheiuiulelZui^s/wi^Lng present approxuBOtB^iii^ line 
It was just after ilaybreaU oi Wednesday' last, Septemhei 
2bth, that the new stroke was delivered by Sir Douglas 
Haig upon the gradually yielding defensive iine of the enemy 
in IHanders. 
Its capital point, as before. wa5 the southern end of that 
crescent defensive position, the general name of which is the 
Passchcndaele Ridge — that is, the southern pillar upon which 
the crescent repo^k-s. Far more progress wa-s made in mere 
space, in' positions to the north where the advance carried 
Zf)nnebeke and established itself therefore upon the first 
slojx-s f)f the centre of the crescent. Tlie \ital point in all 
this, as in the actions major and minor of many past weeks, 
was still tliat southern pillar, th" liearl of which was cut out 
in the victory of the week ix'fore \vhen the new defensive 
s\stcm was mastered by the new devices of the attack. It 
was against the British here that the enemy massed by far 
the greatest density of troops for his cotmter-attacks, and it 
is by the tenacity and success of the British i)ressurc here 
that the whole action must be judged. 
Familiar as my readers must be b\- this time with the details 
of this capital point, "the southern pillar " of the Passchcn- 
daele Ridge, I must beg leave to reproduce a map with sundry 
new features in it which may make the effect of last Wed- 
nesday's action more clear. 
Before the majn attack launched in the terrible weather of 
July 31st and August ist last, the German defensive organisa- 
tion in this region consisted of a. triple line. 
There was fij-sl of all the " pie-crust," the advanced strongly 
enforced line vipon which nnich the most of the enemy's 
labour has been spent during the past two years. It followed 
the western slope of tlv.' low heights which form what I have 
called the soutliern pillar and ran in a semicircle from tht 
neighbourhood of H<K)ge round through, and then outside ttie 
southern portion of, Sanctuary Wood. ^ 
.\bout a thousand yards behind this came the second f«ie 
which in those days of continuous trenches uf)on the enemy's 
side was very strong, though not so elaborately organised as 
the front line ; it covered Glencarse Wood, ran through 
Inverness Copse, used the ruins of Herentha|;e Chateau, and so 
curled round the wood which the British Amiy calls ShreV^^- 
bury Forest. The enemy had already abandoned the cori- 
tinuous trench svstem of defence here and was beginning to 
rely upon the new concrete isolated machine-gun points and 
the organisation of shell craters. 
It was roughh' ujxm this second line that the attack was held 
upduring August and the earlier part of September, and it will 
be remembered what heavy fighting continued throughout all 
those w( eks for the retention of the vital point upon the Menin 
Road, which is marked by Inverness Copse. The British forces 
yielded ground at one moment in this shattered wood, but never 
left the whole of it. The north-wester n corner was always, held. 
Meanwhile, the new system of (jerman defences held the ■ 
greater part of the copse, Herenthage Chateau to the south 
of the road, with its sheets of marsh and water called " Dum- 
barton Lake," and the greater part of Cilencarsse Wf)od to the 
north of the road. The successful action of last week carried 
the whole of this old second line. It occupied Inverness Copse 
in its entirety, passed Herenthage Chateau, passed the ruins of 
the Kantinje Inn, upon the fall of the road beyond Inverness 
Copse, entered the ruins of V'eldhock and reached and held 
the slight Tower Hamlets Ridge. In this position the British 
forces stood immediately in front of what used to be the old 
third line. This old third line was no longer, of course, 
a continuously lield trench position, because, as we have been 
told, that system had been given up by the enemy. It none 
the less marked the string of defensive positions which the 
enemy had constructed and roughly corresponded to the line 
I if resistance which had next to be carried. It ran. as will be 
seen upon the accompanying map, from the south of Polygon 
Wood, through Carlisle Farm, just east of X'elhoek, crossed 
the Menin Road about 500 yards below or eastward "of 
Kantinje Inn and then ran along or just above the 55 metre 
contour which marks the eastern slope or shallow escarpment 
of the Tower Hamlets Ridge. It was this chain of posts which 
was attacked at dawn of last Wednesday, the main weight of 
the attack being developed north of the road in front of 
\'elhoek. 
Details of the Action 
In the first thrust the works on the eastern slope of the 
Tower Hamlets Ridge, on the extreme right of the attacking 
line were seized and held, and a strong counter-attack directed 
from (iheluvelt was defeated. To the north of the road the 
struggle lasted all day and was exceedingly severe, and the full 
lesult was not known in l.ond(m until the morning despatch 
of the next day. Tin\rsday the i/th, in which we were informed 
that the counter-attacks in this region had broken down 
and that all the British gains were held by the linglish, Scotch,- 
Welsh and Australian troops concerned. This fighting 
bi'tween the Polygon Wood and the Menin Road was 
marked by many striking incidents, the chief of which was 
the isolation, some time beff)re the main thr^ist was delivered, 
of two companies of the Arg\ll and Sutherland Highlanders, 
who held out until they were relieved by the ad\ance of the 
Wednesday. In the course of Thursday night tlie enemy 
vohmtarilv gave up ground which he was tr\ang to hold 
upon the tittle stream of the Reutelbeck. south-east of Carlisle 
farm, and thus admitted the defeat of his efforts. It was 
remarked that the eiiem\- loss«-- in these very heavily weighted, 
but happily unsuccessful attempts to recover the lost positions, 
were exceptionally severe. 
Such was the story of the fighting which carried the last 
slopes of the " Southern Pillar " and brought the British forces 
to the outskirts of the ruins of Gheluvelt. Meanwhile, the 
battle extended up northwards for another five miles and 
scored considerable territorial results. Immediately to the 
north of the important obstacle Polygon Wood was carried 
by the .\ustralians in its entiretv, including the xcxy difficult 
aiid strfinglv organised point of the Butte or mound in the 
X.K. corner just beyond the racecourse. The Australian 
