CHAMPAGNE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11504, 28 September 1915, Page 3

CHAMPAGNE.

WHERE THE FRENCH ARE ADVANCING. THE COUNTRY DESCRIBED. After the big French offensive in Champagne during February and March, tho Press Bureau issued an account of an official observer with the French forces, describing tho country and tho results achieved. The threo p lac as which aro always mentioned, which form tho points of reference, said the observer, are Perthcs-lez-Hurlus, Lo Mesnil-lez-Hurlus and Beausejour Farm. The distanco between tho first and the last is throe and a half miles; tho front on which tho fighting took placo is about live miles; and tho French have been attacking at one point or another in this front every day for the last three weeks. It is, therefore, an operation of n different kind to those which wo havo seen during tho wintor months. Thoso were local efforts, lasting a day or two, designed to keep the enemy busy, and prevent him from withdrawing troops elsewhere; this is a sustained effort, mado with the object of keeping a constant pressure on his first line of defence, of affecting his use of tho railway from'Bazancourt to Challerange, a few miles to the north, and of wearing down his reserves of men and ammunition. Wo must first know something of the nature of the country, which is entirely different to that in which tho British Army is fighting. It is ono vast plain, undulating, the hills at most 200 ft higher than tho valleys, gentle slopes everywhere. The soil is rather chalky, poor, barely worth cultivating; after heavy rain, the whole plain becomes a sea of shallow mud; and it dries equally quickly. The only features aro the pine woods, which have been planted by hundreds. From the point of view of profit, this would not appear to havo been a success; either tho soil is too poor, or else it is unsuitable to the maritime pine; for the trees, are rarely more than 25ft high. As each rise is topped, a new stretch of plain, a new set of small woods appear, just like that which has been left behind. A GOOD TRAINING GROUND. Tho villages are few and small, most of thera aro in ruins after the fighting in September; and the troops live almost entirely in colonies of little huta of wood or straw, about 4ft high, dotted about in the woods, in the valleys, wherever a little water and shelter is obtainable. Lack of villages means lack of roads ; this has been one of the great difficulties to be faced : but at the same time, the movement of waggons across country is possible to a far greater extent than m Flanders, although it 19 often necessary to use eight or ten horses to get a gun or waggon to the point desired. # From the military point of view, tho country is eminently _ suitable for troops, with its possibilities of concealment, of producing sudden surprises with cavalry, and of manoeuvre generally. It is, "in fact, the training ground of the great military centre of Chalons; and French troops have doubtless been exorcised over this ground in every branch of military operation, except that in which they are engaged at the present moment. What commander, training his men over this ground, could have imagined that the area from Perthes-lez-Hurlus to Beausejour Farm would become two fortress lines, developed and improved for many months; or that he would have to carry out an attack modelled on the same system as that employed in the last great siege undertaken by French troops, that of Scbastopol in 1855? Yot this is what is being done. Every day an attack is made on a trench, on the edge of one of the little woods or to gain ground in one of them; every day the ground gained has to be transformed so as to give protection to its new occupants and means of access to their supports; every night, and on many days, the enemy's counter-attacks have to be repulsed. Each attack has to bo prepared by a violent and accurate artillery fire; it may bo said that a trench has to be morally captured by gun fire before it can bo actually seized by the infantry. Ouce in the new trench, the men have to work with their entrenching tools, without exposing themselves, and wait for a counter-attack, doing what damage they can to the_enemy with hand grenades and machine guns. '.Thus the amount of rifle lire i's very small; it is a war of explosives and bayonets. LITTLE TO SEE. Looking at tho battle at a distance of about 2000 yards from tho enemy's line, the stillness of what one sees is in marked contrast to the turmoil of shells passing overhead. The only movement is the cloud of smoke and earth that marks the burst of a shell. .Here and there long white lines are visible, when a trench has brought the chalky subsoil up to the top; but the number of trenches seen is very small compared to the number that exist, for one cannot see into the valleys, and tho top of the ground is an unhealthy place to choose for seeing a trench. The woods are pointed out, with the names given them by the soldiers: but it needs field .glasses to see the few stumps-that remain in those where the artillery has done its work. And then a, telephone message arrives, saying that tho enemy aro threatening a counter-attack at a certain point; and three minutes later there is a redoubled whistling of shells. At first one cannot see tho result of this lire—the guns are searching the low ground where the enemy's reserves are preparing for the movement: but a little later the ground in front of the threatened trench becomes alive with shell bursts, for the searching has yiven place to the building up of a wail of fire through which it is impossible for the foe to pass without enormous loss. The German treuche.s were protected by a network of barbed wire. Blockhouses. often of concrete, dotted the front, and in all the woods field guns and machine guns wrc stationed. Tt was against these . fortifications that the French hurled themselves again and again. After three weeks of fighting, the total gain to the French varied from -00 yards, near Perthes, to 1400 yards, between Lc Mesuil and Btausejour. '