d French troops were allowed no
respite by the Germans, who would not renounce their hope of regaining
the important positions on the heights. In the night of July 26, 1917,
no less than five attacks were made by the Germans in the vicinity of
the height south and west of Moronvilliers, but all broke down under
fire of the French artillery. East of Auberive, several groups of
Germans led by an officer tried a surprise attack which led to close
fighting and from which hardly one German soldier escaped unwounded.
The ground around the French position was strewn with dead, including
that of the officer who led the attack.

[Illustration: Barrage or curtain fire used to protect and clear the
way for an infantry advance. Here the fire is being used to protect
French troops for an advance on Fort Vaux.]

From the Flemish coast southward past Lens the great gun duel
between the British and Germans continued without ceasing. The
Germans had brought up vast stores of ammunition and poured shells
into Nieuport, Ypres, and Armentieres, and for miles around sprayed
the country at large with the hope of smashing hidden British
batteries. To this wide sweeping storm of fire the British were
replying with far greater violence, sending two shells to the
enemy's one, a rivalry of destruction that had not been surpassed on
any previous occasion since the war began. Except for occasional
raids the infantry remained quiescent under this gunnery. North of
Arras and east of Ypres the British raids netted a considerable
number of prisoners and machine guns. The fury of the British fire
was not without effect on the generally stolid and imperturbable
Germans, for at Fontaine-les-Croisilles they ran away without
firing a shot when a British raiding party rushed forward to attack.

The three weeks' bombardment in Belgium closed on the morning of July
31, 1917, when British and French troops launched an attack on a
gigantic scale along a front of nearly twenty miles from Dixmude on
the north to Warneton on the south. The Allies won a notable victory,
capturing in the first day of the battle ten towns and over 5,000
prisoners, including ninety-five officers. The attack began a little
before 4 o'clock in the morning, just when the first faint light of
dawn was breaking, German trenches had been either leveled or were
completely wiped out by the preceding bombardment. The shelling
increased in violence as the troops of the Allies left their posit