NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16309, 5 September 1918, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tho first report that Lens had boen captured has not yet boen officially confirmed, but its occupation by our forces will be announced, in all probability, in a day or two. Tho place lias boen in the hnrvis of the Germans sinco thoir first invasion of north-eastern Franco, and though on • one occasion it was stated to have been Avon from them, the report was premature, by two pr throe years. At n subsequent date it was announced that Lens could bo taken at any "time if necessary, but tho Germans had so honeycombed the ruins with macliino-gun nests, and had so heavily minod the town that its capture could only bo effected at a great cost, too great unless possession of the town was absolutely necessary for strategical purposes.

Lens is tho centre of France's "Black Country," tho richest coalfield in the country. In itself it was not a. largo place, its population before the war being about 30,000, or, as some havo reckoned, 40,000. The larger estimate probably included ous suburbs known as cites —Citedu Moulin, C-ito St. Emile, Cite St. Antoine, and so on, oach consisting of a croup of miners' cottages, clustering round a central pit. Further eastward a series of mining townships stragilcb almost to Douai. The whole cor.lheld, of -which Lens was the capital stiotelies over an area of about 05 miles, and about thrcivfifths of tho coal raised in Franco annually before "J® war came from it. Tho " million tons of coal is one of tho reasons why France has had to draw so } ' on British supplies throughout tho •war.

Everv coal-mining district bears certain characteristic signs. In Lens and the surrounding district these take the form of huge mounds of slag and shale and rubbish from the mines. These artificial hills, rising in numerous instances 200 ft above the surrounding plain, and the "fosses" or mines with the mine buildings clustering round them, have for several years made admirable positions for defence, and have on more than one occasion proved difficult to capture. They are locally known as "crossiers, and the famous "Double Crossier" of Cite Sat. Pierre, and the Green Crossier, will be remembered as figuring at one June fairly frequently in the war cables. Other features of the Lens landscape which make it different from any other on the 'Western front are the tall towers rising above the mouths of the pits. Of these tho most remarkable were the twin iron-lattice pylons c* Loos, known to our Tommios as tho Tower Bridge, from their distant resemblance to that structure across tho Thames. .They stood 300 ft above the ground, and were visible amid the forest of tall chimneys and watertowers for a distance of twenty miles.

Lens was seldom so nearly won as after tho battle of Loos in September, 1015. Loos, about two miles from Lens, was captured after a brilliant advance by the 15th and 4/tli Divisions, the former being composed of Scottish regiments, and the latter of London Territorials. It was on this occasion that tho London Irish, on going "over the top," dribbled a football across the* thousand yards that lay between their parapet and the first German lino, and a piper of the King's Own Scottish Borderers won the V.C. by playing his brigade, composed of Borderers, Scottish Rifles, and Highland Light Infantry, into action. It was of the chargo by the 44tli (Highland) Brigade—Black Watch, Seaforths, Camerons, and Gordons—that Buchan writes: "In that sinister mist, reeking of powder, and gas and blood, the fury of battle possessed the souls of men who a "'ear before had been sober, law-abiding civilians. Singing, cheering, and shouting mad encouragements the Highlanders went down the slope. One sergeant is reported to have rebuked the profanity of his men. 'Hold your swearing, lads,' he cried, 'and keep your breath. The next stop's Potsdam.' . . . An hour and ten minutes after thev had left their trenches, the Highlanders went surging through the streets of Loos."

But they did not stop there. The order was to take Loos and to occupy the famous Hill 70 beyond it. Whether n further order had been given that they were to push on as far as'possible, as supports" were following them, seems to bo somewhat doubtful, but the men certainly understood that such an order had been given, and so, "streaming up the hill like hounds," they took it in their stride and, not waiting to secure it. possibly because they thought supporting troops would consolidate the captured positions, they pressed on until they won, to the outskirts of the Cit<s St. Auguste, "In less than three hours the heroic brigade had advanced nearly four miles and had passed beyond all the German trench lines. Lens seemed already fallen, and for one moment the fate of Lille and the plain of Douai trembled in the balance." But the position was an impossible one; the brigade formed a salient. "Up in the air,"' with no supports, it was being attacked from behind as wellaß from the Hanks and front, and it had to retire losing heavily. The Guards Division was later on sent in to hold Hill 70 and subsequently the French took over the sector which still included a porIjon of the hill, though not its dominating crest.

Some fighting took place in tho vicinity of Lens early in 1916, and artillery fire hardly ever ceased, but it was not until April last year that another great attack was made, when the Canadians wra Vimy Ridge and tho town of Lievin, close to Lens, making tho German positions in that area untenable. Later in the year, in August, the Canadians won Hill 70, ,and the western and north-western suburbs of Lens, taking a great number of prisoners and much booty. In fact, in the last two years the fighting in the lLons area has been practically in tho hands of the Canadians, who one hopes, will participate in its final capture.

Lens to-day is, of course, a dead city. It was so moro than a year ago. It was torn at intervals for year after year by our artillery fire, and tho enemy destroyed it wholesale to clear the way for his machine-guns. In June last year a correspondent viewing •it from tiie Vimy Hidge, declared that it wfcs like the ruins of a city in £omt> ancient civilisation that had disappeared in the burial grounds of history. There was not then a single house left with its roof. Whole blocks had been blown un and lay shattered heaps of red brick. The garrison lived underground, in deep tunnelled vaults, and those captured by the Canadians in occasional raids among the #,lag-heaps and rums, looked ■ like men who were stricken with nightmare. Lens is tho abomination of desolation above ground. Underground it must be worse, for the enemy, recognising that they must eventually abandon t!:<> place, have no •doubt done as ranch damage n.i possible to the mines and machinerv.