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At first this withdrawal was not un- derstood, but in the battle of Arras (April 9-May) which followed, it was found that Hindenburg had improved his own positions and given the Allies a devastated and shell-scarred terrain to fight over. There were gains for the Allies at first, but, as before, the battle waned into raids, and there has been no aggressive fighting in this region for weeks. Again the only tactical result of great effort has been the number of Germans who have been put out of action. A terrific blast of over 1,000,000 pounds of high explosives which had been placed in mines under a salient at Mes- sines, south of Ypres, wrecked everything in the German trenches (June 7, 1917) and gave the British possession; but no tactical gain has followed, , and this is cited merely to show the proportions to which mining operations have grown. Since then north of Ypres the Germans, by a concentration of artillery unnoticed by the airplanes, destroyed British forces across the Yser Canal and captured their position. prev next |