h which they
had been making, gaining on an average about twelve yards a day.
Following the concentration of French troops, the German commanders
brought up reenforcements to the number of 80,000. Some of these
were taken from La Bassee, and others from a contingent which had
been intended for a northern offensive movement.

Because of the chalk formation of the soil in this section of the
front, the excessive moisture of this season of the year drained
rapidly, leaving exposed an undulating section on which were small
forests of fir trees. The nature of the ground made it an easy
matter to move troops even in winter. General Joffre took advantage
of this fact, and assembled a quarter of a million men against the
German lines in Champagne. This caused the German commanders to
mass troops just in front of Perthes. The concentration continued
until there were 220,000 German soldiers packed there in close
formation. The French attacked, and quickly a rain of more than
a hundred thousand shells fell upon the Germans.

The Germans sought to reply by bringing up twenty-two batteries of
heavy guns and sixty-four field batteries; but the French gunners
kept command of the field. In the twenty days' battle--from February
16 to March 7, 1915--the French won scarcely a mile of ground;
but they found and buried 10,000 German dead. The French staff
estimated that 60,000 German soldiers had been put out of action.
The German staff admitted they had lost more men in this action
than in the campaign in East Prussia against the Russians, where
fourteen German army corps were engaged. The French lost less than
10,000 men.

In the last week of February, 1915, it had been learned by General
Joffre that General von Falkenhayn of the German forces had withdrawn
from Neuve Chapelle, and the section north of La Bassee six batteries
of field artillery, six battalions of the Prussian Guard, and two
heavy batteries of the Prussian Guard. These had been withdrawn for
the purpose of checking the supposed French advance at Perthes, as
already narrated. Hence, it was known that the English, in command
of Sir Douglas Haig, at Neuve Chapelle, were opposed by a thin line
of German troops who were making a demonstration of force for the
purpose of concealing the weakness of their line.

[Illustration: THE WESTERN BATTLE LINE, JANUARY 1, 1915]

The British officers in the region of Neuve Chapelle received complete
instructions on March 8, 1915, in