History of the World War, Vol. 3

e prepared defenses along the line of the Aisne, the war in the western theater resolved itself into a play for position from deep intrenchments. Occasionally would come a sudden b

nd there a bulge would be made by the terrific pressure of men and material in some great assault like that first push of the British at Neu

n in England as elsewhere up to that time to rate the Germans as supermen, to exalt the potency of the scientific equipment with which the German army had taken the field. W

Ground Of N

reinforcements had been shifted by the Germans from the trenches between La Bassée and Lille. The earthworks at Neuve Chapelle had been particularly depleted and only a comparatively small body of Saxons and Bavarians defended them. Oppos

aration, and this was chosen by the British general. An artillery concentration absolutely unprecedented up to that time was employed by him. Field pieces firing at point-blank range w

rces, was in command of the first army. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien commanded

Wednesday, March 10, 1915, the British artillery was lazily engaged in lobbing over a desultory shell fire upon the German trenches. It was the usual breakfast appetizer, and nobody on

CHARGE OF THE

caused havoc in the British ranks. The Ninth Lancers rode straight at them, across the open, through a

witzers sent high explosive shells, containing lyddite, of 15-inch, 9.2-inch and 6-inch caliber into the doomed trenches and later into the ruined village. It was eight o'clock in the morning, one-half hour after the beginning of the artillery action, that the village was bombarded. During this time British soldiers we

s describing

Neuve Chapelle. For five months they had remained undisputed masters of the positions they had here wrested from the British in October. Ensconced in their comfortably-arranged trenches with but a thin outpost in their fire trenches, they had watched day succe

ted Lond

GH BARBED WIRE

tly smashed by the artillery preparation and the infantry

y morning none were aloft to spy out the strange doings which, as dawn brok

the German positions through Laventie and Richebourg St. Vaast, poor shattered villages of the dead where mont

ent these sturdy sons of Britain's four kingdoms marching all through the night. Sir John French met the army corps co

e us. Thus long, it was reckoned (with complete accuracy as afterwards appeared), must elapse before the Germans, whose line before us had been weakened, could rush up reinforcements. To e

as they awaited the signal to open the attack, and the a

eafened by the sharp reports of the field-guns spitting out their shells at close range to cut through the Germans' barbed wire entangl

g amid clouds of earth and dust into the German trenches, a dense pall of smoke hung over the German lines. The sickening fumes of lyddite blew back into the British trenches. In some places the troops were smothered in earth a

ht, whistles resounded along the British lines. At the same moment the shells began to burst farther ahead, for, by previous arrangement, the gunners, lengthen

and dust. At the sound of the whistle-alas for the bugle, once the herald of victory, now banished from the fray!-our men scrambled out of the trenches and hur

CHARGING THE GERMAN TR

e Indian troops proved to be among the most loya

line of trenches, in order to let the Royal Irish Rifles and the Rifle Brigade through to the village. The Germans left alive in the trenches, half demented with fright, surrounded by a welter of dead and dying men, mostly surrendered. The Berkshires were opposed with the utmost gallantry by two German officers who had remained alone in a trench serving a machine gun. But the lads from Berkshire made their way in

on whom devolved the honor of capturing the village, waited. One saw them standing out in the open, laughing and cracking jokes amid the terrific din made by the huge howitzer shells screeching overhead and bursting in the village, the rattle of machine guns all alo

deal of bloodshed, can be prevented. If there is individual resistance here and there the attacking troops cannot discriminate. They must go through, slaying as they go such as oppose them (the Germans have a mono

ERMAN TRENCHE

usted, for breathing even a whiff of the yellow cloud meant death or serious injury. This picture shows th

struck it. The published photographs do not give any idea of the indescribable mass of ruins to whic

as devastated, the very dead plucked from their graves, broken coffins and ancient bones scattered about amid the fresher dead, the slain of that morning-gray-green forms asprawl athwart the tombs. Of all that once fair village but two things remained intact-two

d dugouts, their hands above their heads, others dodging round the shattered houses, others firing from the windows, from behind carts, even from behind

y had been brigaded in India. The little brown men were dirty but radiant. Kukri in hand they had very thoroughly gone through some houses at the cross-roads on t

the British field telephone system by shell and rifle fire. The check of the Twenty-third Brigade banked other commands back of it, and the Twenty-fifth Brigade was obliged to fight at right angles to the line of battle. The Germans quickly rallied a

orcements to the troops that had been held up by barbed wire and other emplace

ad reached Neuve Chapelle, when it was to charge through Aubers. With the tragic mistake that cost the Twenty-third Brigade so dearly, the plan affecting the Seventh Division went awry. The German artillery, observing the concentration of the Seventh Division opposite Aubers, opened a vigorous fire upon that front. During the aftern

hed from the trenches in an effort to carry Aubers, but the enemy artillery now greatly reinforced made that task an impossible one. The

assigned to such action, and had the telephone system not been destroyed the success of the thrust would have been complete. The delay of four and a half hours between the first and second phases of the attack caused virtu

heavy fog to recapture the village. The effort was made in characteristic German dense formations. The Westphalian and Bavarian troops came out of Biez Wood in waves of gray-green, only to be blown to pieces by British guns already loaded and laid on the mark. Elsewhere the Britis

r which a fearful price had been paid but out of which came a confidence that was to hearten

and Belgium. It writhed and twisted, now this way, now that, as one side or the other gambled with men and shells and airplanes for some brief advantage. It bent back in a great bulge when von Hindenburg made his famous retreat in the winter of 1916 after the Al

y for position here was met by a counter-thrust in another place. German inv

ive in the open. The power of human adaptation to abnormal conditions was ne

BLOODY BATTLE

in their great offensive of 1916-17; in the last desperate effort of the Germans in 1918 they plu

s away, a distance which permitted a very deadly fire. It is easy to realize that if the enemy occupied three successive lines and a line of reinforced intrenchments, the attacking line was likely, at the lowest estimate, to be decimated during an advance of 350 yards-by rifle fire at a range of 350 yards' distance, and by the extremely quick fire of the machine guns, each of which delivered from 300 to 600 bullets a minute with absolute precision. In the field-tr

ters were dug for non-commissioned offi

hey had completed the work necessary for the protection of all. The tools of the enemy "casualties," the spades and picks left behind in deserted villages, were all gladly piled on to the French soldiers' knapsacks, to be carried willingly by the very men who used to grumble at being loaded with even the smallest regulation tool. As soon as night had set in on the occasion of a lull in the fightin

ome of the trench barracks

nding a cow wandering about in the danger zone, had the bright idea of finding shelter for it in the trenches. The example was quickly followed, and at this moment the --th Inf

a tale of yet another one of the comforts of

bath every day from ten to twelve. We call this teasing the 'boches,' for this bathin

bove the bottom of the trench, so as to remain dry in wet weather. The floor of the trench is also sloped for purposes of draining. Some trenches are provided with head-cover, and others with overhead cover, the latter, of course, giving protection from the weather as well as from shrapnel balls and splinters of shells.... At all p

y and night (you never see a roof now), is the only real method of existence. There are loads of straw

nd buildings within its zone, but upon the very face of nature itself: "In the trenches crouch lines

ect labyrinth. A trench runs straight for a considerable distance, then it suddenly forks in three or four directions. One branch merely leads into a ditch full of water, used in dri

sides the surface of the earth is ploughed and furrowed by fragments of shell and bombs and distorted by mines. Seen from a

from above or some mine explosion from beneath-a life which has one dull, monotonous background of mud and water. Even when there is but little fight