tacked the Germans from Givenchy, but
there had been but little artillery fire on the part of the British
there, and the wire entanglements stopped them from more than keeping
the German troops in the position which they had held. The Second
Corps, on March 12, was to have advanced at 10 a. m. southwest of
Wytschaete. The fog that prevailed on that day, however, prevented
a movement until 4 p. m. Then the First Wiltshires and the Third
Worcesters of the Seventh Brigade began a movement which had to
be abandoned when the weather thickened and night fell.

The attack on L'Epinette, a hamlet southeast of Armentieres, was
much more successful on the same day. The Seventeenth Brigade of
the Fourth Division of the Third Corps advanced at noon, with the
Eighteenth Brigade as its support. It advanced 300 yards on a front
a half mile in length, carrying the village, which it retained in
spite of all the counterattacks.

The work of the artillery was not confined to the main attack,
for it was very effective in shelling the Quesnoy railway station
east of Armentieres, where German reenforcements were boarding
a train for the front. The British artillery fire was effective
as far as Aubers, where it demolished a tall church spire.

The work of the aviators, from March 10 to 12 inclusive, deserves
special mention. Owing to the adverse weather conditions, it was
necessary for them to fly as low as from 100 to 150 feet above
the object of their attack in order to be sure of their aim.
Nevertheless they destroyed one of the piers of the bridge over
the Lys at Menin. This bridge carried the railroad over the river.
They also wrecked the railway stations at Douai, Don, and Courtrai.
The daring of the British aviators even took them over Lille, where
they dropped bombs on one of the German headquarters.

To summarize the fighting about Neuve Chapelle, it may be said that
the British had advanced something more than a mile on a three-mile
front, replacing the sag which had existed in their line by a sag
in that of the Germans. The British had not won the ridges which
were the key to Lille, but they had advanced their trenches close
to those ridges. The entire moral effect was a gain for the British;
but even that and the gain in advancing the front had been obtained
at a too great sacrifice of the life of their men. The words of
the Germans in characterizing the tremendous bombardment of the
British were: "That is not war; it is murd