n the Belgian coast. For
twenty-four hours the Germans had maintained an intense bombardment
which lasted from 6 o'clock in the morning of the 10th up to midnight
and was renewed again at dawn on the following day. The firing was on
such a huge scale that it could be distinctly heard as far as London.
The effect of this bombardment was to level all the British defenses
in the dune sector and to destroy their bridges over the Yser.
According to the Berlin reports 1,250 men were captured by the Germans
in this battle.

To the southward, in the region, of Lombaertzyde, the Germans only
obtained a temporary success, the British in a strong counterattack
driving them out of the positions they had won before they had time to
organize for defense.

That the Germans were enabled to succeed in this coup was largely
owing to the weather conditions. A heavy gale was blowing on the
Belgian coast and British naval support was impossible. The Germans
enjoyed the advantage of having strong coast batteries all along the
dunes which they could move about at will from one point to another.
There was, however, no blinking the fact that a weak point existed in
the British defenses. Such success as the Germans won was attributed
by some critics to their superiority in the air, the British at the
time being short of machines.

The net gains to the Germans in this battle was the capture of British
positions on a front of 1,400 yards to a depth of 600 yards. The
British losses in the shelled terrain between the river Yser and the
sea were estimated at 1,800.

During the night of July 11, 1917, British naval aeroplanes carried
out successful raids in Flanders in and near five towns, when several
tons of bombs were dropped with good results. Railway lines and an
electric power station at Zarren were attacked by gunfire from the
air, and bombs were dropped on a train near St. Denis-Westrem. The
British airmen's bombs caused a fire near Ostend, and heavy explosions
at the Varssenaere railway dump followed by an intense conflagration
which was still flaming fiercely when the British returned safely to
their own lines.

On the French front there was increasing aerial activity on July 12,
1917, on both sides from daybreak to midnight. In some cases as many
as thirty machines were actively engaged. As a result of these
encounters fourteen German aeroplanes were brought down and sixteen
others were driven out of control. Nine British machines we