while their own losses in these air combats amounted to only three machines.

According to the British official report 6,190 Germans had been made prisoner during four days' fighting in this sector.

On a front of about a mile and a half the British troops on November 18, 1916, again forged ahead for an average distance of 500 yards or so on the south side of the Ancre. On the north of the river they pushed on at daybreak through fast-falling snow until the British line was now within three-quarters of a mile to the northeast of Beaucourt and 500 yards beyond the Bois d'Holland, which was in British hands. The last advance had brought them to the outskirts of Grandcourt and here bomb fighting at close range went on throughout the day of November 18, 1916.

To the west of this village ran the original main German second line, which lower down passed through such famous places as the Stuff and Zollern Redoubts. With its parallel lines of trenches and complications it was quite as formidable as the main first line constructed about the same time two years before. The British had already broken through the line up to a point some 600 yards north of Stuff Redoubt. On November 18, 1916, their troops again smashed the line for a distance of more than 500 yards. The Germans still held positions on the line to the south of Grandcourt, but the British had penetrated so far to the right and to the left that the line could no longer serve as a barrier to the village. The British advance was begun about 6 a. m., preceded by a short but fierce bombardment of the German line, and which according to the account afterward given by prisoners caused the Germans to seek the shelter of their dugouts. Troops from the British Isles and Canada who made the advance together were among the Germans before the latter could issue from their shelters after the withering storm of shells. At different places savage hand-to-hand fighting went on in the trenches. On the sides of the ravine below Grandcourt, where the slopes were swept by machine-gun fire, the British were unable to advance. But for some two miles to the right they swept all resistance away. Especially important were the British

gains on the extreme right, which gave them possession of another stage of the descent along the minor spur running in a northerly direction. The whole of the south side of the Ancre to the edge of Grandcourt was now firmly held by British troops.

In the night of November 21, 1916, after a heavy preparatory bombardment by trench mortars, the Germans carried out a successful trench raid on British lines south of St. Elie. A considerable part of the British front-line trench was demolished by German fire and twenty-six British were taken prisoner by the raiders.

The clear weather that prevailed along the Somme front at this time encouraged German, French, and British airmen to engage in raiding expeditions. On November 24, 1916, British machines attacked and routed a formation of twenty German aeroplanes, and held possession of the field without losing one machine. At other points the British flyers smashed eight German machines and drove several down to earth in a damaged condition. In these encounters the British lost three aircraft of various types.

In Lorraine three British aeroplanes fought an engagement with a considerable number of German machines. The result was that the British drove down an enemy machine in the forest of Gremecy, remaining masters of the field without incurring any losses themselves. On the Somme front there was incessant activity among the French airmen, who fought about forty engagements, during which they brought down five German machines. Quartermaster Sergeant Flachaire destroyed his sixth machine near Manancourt and Lieutenant Doullin his tenth south of Vaux Wood.

WEATHER

CHAPTER XIII

CONDITIONS-MOVEMENTS

AROUND LOOS

OVEMBER, 1916, the fifth month of the Battle of the Somme, drew to an end with fog and drizzling rain, the whole fighting area a drab expanse of mud and pools of water. For two months there had not been an interval of more than three or four days of fine weather at a time, and the ground had grown steadily more and more water-logged, which greatly hampered military operations. Except on the Ancre, where the British had taken 7,000 prisoners, no other important victories had been won by them, but each day marked some gain, and in the aggregate the ground won, the casualties inflicted, and the slow but continuous attrition of the enemy were of importance. The British claimed that in November alone they had taken prisoner between 9,000 and 10,000 Germans and had put out of action fully four times as many.

The wastage of the Allies' aircraft in November, 1916, was considerably less than in any of the previous four months. In the official reports it was definitely stated that 148 British, German, and French machines had been brought down. Of this total thirty-two British machines were admitted by General Headquarters to have been lost or were counted missing. As an offset to these losses the British airmen had destroyed twentyfour, captured seven, and brought down damaged twenty-six German machines. In addition to these the Royal Naval Air Service operating under French military authorities had brought down five hostile aeroplanes.

It was claimed by the French that they had destroyed, captured, and driven to earth in a wrecked condition fifty German machines. Lieutenant Guynemer continued to hold his lead among French airmen, having scored in November, 1916, his twenty-third victory. In three days of this month he brought down six German aeroplanes. Guynemer's victories in the air

had inspired other members of the French flying corps to fresh deeds of daring, and during November, 1916, Lieutenant Nungesser and Adjutant Dorme destroyed their fifteenth and sixteenth hostile machines respectively. In the only reports pub. lished by the Germans during this month it was claimed that they had destroyed or put out of action thirty-six hostile machines.

On December 1, 1916, British troops successfully raided German trenches south of Armentières. On the same date the Germans attempted a trench raid northeast of Neuve Chapelle which was beaten off by the British, who inflicted some losses on the raiders. On the French front their airmen were active in bombing enemy positions.

A German attack was made in force on December 3, 1916, after a heavy bombardment of the British trenches south of Loos. After a spirited struggle the Germans were driven off, having suffered heavy casualties. On this same day British aircraft won some important successes inside the German lines, when they bombed among other objectives a railway station and aerodrome. The British Naval Air Squadron also engaged in a number of air combats on this date, destroying two German machines and damaging four others.

Heavy bombardments of enemy positions by day and the usual trench raids at night continued for more than a week, during which the Allied troops registered minor successes, insignificant when considered separately, but important in the aggregate. It was not until December 13, 1916, that any important engagement was fought, when a German attack was made on Lassigny, that part of the French front nearest to Paris. It was estimated by French headquarters that the Germans had brought together for this attack 40,000 troops and had concentrated corresponding quantities of artillery. After an intense bombardment of the French lines that lasted for some hours the German troops pressed forward. If they had hoped to take the French by surprise, they were speedily undeceived. The assaulting waves were received by a withering fire from the French 3-inch and machine guns that tore great gaps in the German close-formed ranks.

A barrier of fire thrown to the rear of the Germans caught and ravaged the supporting reserves.

The French trenches were reached over a frontage of about 300 yards, but an immediate counterattack enabled the French to recapture their lines. Only a few survivors of the German attacking column escaped. Most of them were killed after a determined resistance. An hour later the Germans renewed the assault and again failed. As their reserves came up they were easily dispersed by the heavy French artillery.

CHAPTER XIV

FRENCH WIN AT VERDUN

N December 15, 1916, the French troops won an important victory in the region of Verdun, north of Douaumont, when they broke through the German lines on a front of six and a quarter miles, extending from the Meuse River to the plain of Woevre, penetrating to a depth of nearly two miles. In this advance the French troops captured the villages of Vacherauville and Louvemont, the fortified farm of Chambrettes, and the fortified fieldworks of Hardaumont and Bezonvaux. The results gained by the French in this advance compare favorably with General Mangin's sensational exploit on October 24, 1916, when Fort Douaumont was taken.

The battle began at 10 o'clock in the morning as the church clock near by sounded the hour. Immediately every French gun started a storm of steel, showering shells immediately behind the German front line. While this intense bombardment was at its height, the French infantry made a dashing advance and gained the village of Vacherauville, where they encountered stubborn resistance. There was hand-to-hand fighting from house to house until finally the Germans were driven out, resisting every step of the way. Pressing on beyond the village the French next attacked an important German trench known as "Bethmann's