reason, it was found expedient to move
infantry, a few machine-gun crews would take the place of the soldiers
with the rifle and maintain a fire which would be almost as effective
in checking the British advance as the infantry had been. The British
had no such number of machine guns. They lacked this necessary part of
their equipment just as they lacked shells, cannon, aircraft, and
other war material which the Germans had developed and accumulated in
large quantities under the supervision of the German General Staff.

The German munition factories had been making and storing enormous
supplies for an army of several millions of men. On the other hand the
British had believed in the excellence of their comparatively small
army to such an extent that it required all of the fighting from the
time their troops landed on the Continent up to Festubert to convince
them that they must make and maintain a military machine at least
equal, if not superior, to the one her foes possessed. It is true the
British needed more men in the ranks, but what was needed more was
large additions to the supply of machine guns, artillery, and
ammunition.

For those reasons the British generals avoided clashes with the
Germans after the battle of Festubert, except when it was necessary to
hold as many of the Germans as possible to the British part of the
western front. This plan was maintained throughout the summer of 1915.
In the meantime the Germans were constructing, beyond their trenches,
the most elaborate series of field fortifications in the history of
warfare. The German staff realized that the time was coming when the
British would again take the offensive. When that time arrived the
Germans would thus be prepared to make every foot of ground gained as
costly as possible to their foes. In fact they had reason for
believing that it would be almost impossible for their opponents to
gain ground where it was held by such seemingly impregnable works.

An attack at La Bassee in the first weeks in June, 1915, started with
the British Second Army making a pretended advance in the Ypres
region. The British in the forest of Ploegsteert drove a mine into the
German lines and blew it up. The explosion followed by a British
charge, which resulted in the taking of a part of the German trenches.
This forest extended northwest of Lille and south of Messines. Under
the ground in this section the sappers had built a city, whose streets
were named for