sides and destroyed. However, they defend themselves obstinately.

XII.

*Attacked by 750,000 Germans.*

[Official Summary, Dated Dec. 3.]

Col. E.D. Swinton of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of
the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium, in a narrative
dated Nov. 26, gives a general review of the development of the
situation of the force for six weeks preceding that date.

There has recently been a lull in the active operations, he says. No
progress has been made by either side, and yet there has come about an
important modification comprising a readjustment in the scope of the
part played by the British Army as a whole. He explains the movement
from the River Aisne to the Belgian frontier to prolong the left flank
of the French Army, and says that in attempting this the British force
was compelled to assume responsibility for a very extended section of
the front. He points out, as did Field Marshal Sir John French,
Commander in Chief of the British forces, that the British held only
one-twelfth of the line, so that the greater share of the common task of
opposing the enemy fell and still falls to the French, while the
Belgians played an almost vital part.

With the fall of Antwerp the Germans made every effort to push forward a
besieging force toward the west and hastened to bring up a new army
corps which had been hastily raised and trained, their object being to
drive the Allies out of Belgium and break through to Dunkirk and Calais.
Altogether they had a quarter of a million of fresh men. Eventually the
Germans had north of La Bassee about fourteen corps and eight cavalry
divisions, that is, "a force of three-quarters of a million of men with
which to attempt to drive the Allies into the sea. In addition, there
was immensely powerful armament and heavy siege artillery, which also
had been brought up from around Antwerp."

The official eye-witness tells of the blows delivered by the Germans at
Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres, where "at first the Allies were greatly
outnumbered." For a whole month the British army around Ypres succeeded
in holding its ground against repeated onslaughts made by vastly
superior forces. The writer goes into details of the German attacks and
describes how they were frustrated by the Allies.

The British force, says Col. Swinton, which consisted all along of the
same units, had "to withstand an almost continuous bombardment and to
meet one