their trenches to the north and east of the wood which had been
captured by the French on the day before. Two other counterattacks
were repulsed, and the French made fresh progress, particularly to the
north of Mesnil, where they captured two machine guns and one hundred
prisoners. The Germans made their seventh unsuccessful counterattack
on Les Eparges on February 21. The French advanced posts fell back on
the main line in Alsace on both banks of the Fecht; but the main line
was strongly held, and the Germans, attacking in serried and deep
formations, suffered heavy losses.

On the Belgian front the French batteries demolished one of the German
heavy guns near Lombaertzyde on February 22, 1915. On the same day the
French artillery dispersed German troops and convoys between the Lys
and the Aisne. The French made progress on the Souain-Beausejour
front, taking a line of trenches and two woods, and repulsed two
particularly violent counterattacks. Many prisoners were taken by the
French in this action. In the Argonne the French artillery and
infantry had the better of the almost continuous fighting. This was
especially true near Fontaine-aux-Charmes and Marie Therese, as well
as at the Bois Bolante.

The bombardment of Rheims continued on February 22, lasting for a
first period of six hours, and a second period of five hours. One
thousand five hundred shells were fired into all quarters of the town.
The cathedral was made a special target and suffered severely. The
interior of the vaulted roof, which had resisted up to this time,
fell. Twenty houses were set on fire and twenty of the civilian
population were killed.

The French captured more trenches in the region of Beausejour and held
their gains of previous fighting, on February 23, 1915. Their
batteries blew up a German ammunition store to the northwest of Verdun
at Drillancourt, in the region of the Bois de Forges, on the same day,
February 23, 1915, and stopped an attempted German attack in Alsace
from the village of Stossweiler.

There was an action of some importance in the Wood of Malancourt, on
February 26, 1915, when the Germans sprayed the French advanced
trenches with burning liquid. The French troops evacuated them, the
soldiers being severely burned before they could escape. A
counterattack was immediately made. This checked the German advance.
On the same day, in the region of Verdun and on the heights of the
Meuse, the French heavy artillery envel