October 18, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
onlv by the fear of entering into heavy commitments on the 
I'last with forces severely reduced and with her fate clearly 
dependent upon the Western fighting where two-thirds of her 
armies and the overwhelming mass of her material is con- 
centrated in the effort to stave off defeat. 
THE WESTERN FRONT 
On the West the week was marked by two successive blows, 
the fourth and the fifth of those launched by the British 
H ighcr Command during the present offensive ; and each of 
these blows was further remarkable for the unprecedented 
rapidity in preparation which it showed. 
On Tuesday, October gtli, was fought an action the news of 
which reached London too late for inclusion in our last issue. 
1 1 was the first of these two last blows and was struck from the 
south of Houthulst Forest in the north to the eastern slopes of 
the Ridge just south-east of the Broodseinde Cross Roads on 
the south. On- the extreme left the French co-operated 
with us, the British left (on the right of the French) 
consisting of English, Welsh and Irish troops and the Guards. 
In the centre was a Territorial Division comprising the 
Manchester, East Lancashires and Lancashire F'usiliers 
regiments ; on the right Ijy Broodseinde were the Australians. 
The attack, which was launched at twenty past five in the 
morning, had again something of the effect of a surprise; 
especially on the north, between the railway and Poelcappelle, 
where two German divisions were caught, the one in the act 
of relieving the other. The troops coming in, those of the 227th 
Division, naturally suffered the most. It had rained heavily 
during the night and the' difficulties of the low ground were 
very great. And some hours after the first advance of about 
a thousand yards the local difficulties, especially apparently 
those of transport, necessitated a retirement over about half 
the belt occupied. It was not, by the accounts received, 
undertaken under enemy pressure nor with any recorded loss. 
On the ridge itself an advance of one mile towards 
Passchendaele was effected by the Territorial division just 
mentioned, on the left of whom were the Warwickshires and 
certain units from Yorkshire. The objectives fixed here .fell 
short of the ruins of Passchendaele. Nevertheless a portion 
of the British forces appear to have entered these ruins for a 
moment, pushing beyond their objectives as was the case last 
week in the Australian advance up the road from Broodseinde. 
They fell back later on to the objectives originally assigned 
for them. 
By the evening of the second day the total amount of 
prisoners was just over 2,000, of whom 400 had been taken by 
the French. 
Rain fell at intervals during and after the advance, and the 
chances of a repetition of the attack seemed to grow worse 
and worse. Nevertheless, after so short an interval as only 
three days from the inception of the fourth blow a fifth was 
launched" at 25 minutes past five in the morning of Friday, 
October 12th, upon much the same front, but excluding the 
portion.jiear Houthulst Forest where the French had pre- 
viously advanced. \'ery heavy rain had fallen again in the 
night betore this attack' iwhich was therefore made under the 
most difficult conditions conceivable. The rain set in again 
with the later morning and the attempt to push the thing 
farther was abandoned. This stroke was also successful 
.within its limits, counting before it was over 943 prisoners. 
Later, during the Saturday, heavy rain continued to fall 
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