THE DEFENCES OF FNDERSAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2837, 31 July 1916, Page 4

THE DEFENCES OF FNDERSAL

A MELANCHOLY COUNTRYSIDE. (From 'Mr. H. Warner Allen, the representative of the British Press with the French Army.)/ It is no easy matter in the flat plains of Flanders to reach the advanced lines. The smallest eminence gives so wide a, view that the enemy's look-puts can on .a clear day spot a motor-car many miles away, and the German gunners are generally ready to welcomo such a. target. However, there is', much mist in Flanders, and under its cover it is possible ,to reach without danger points where in sunshine one would surely havo been bombarded. Nowhere along the lino is war more invisible than in Flanders. Literally there is nothing to be seen. A misty, grey line of trees, a -ruined. farmhouse, a stake or two with tangled barbed wire— Hi at is all there is to show whore the enemy is lying. Yet there is alwavs tho haunting impression ever present on the front that unseen hostile eyes are watching. There is a certain sand dune, scarcely to be distinguished from other sand dunes except that perhaps it is a little higher. Nono the less it is important to see that motor-cars are drawn up out of sight of this dune, for it is in German hands, and their look-outs' nro always on the watch. As for our own defences, they are at first glance not very visible, but on closer inspection they prove most encouraging. A master mind had been at work, 'taking advantage of every little hill and depression in the monotonous plain. Is there a road or a field apt to be swept by a machine-gun? A few minutes' search will show an unobtrusive humniock, which, in approach, proves to be heavily defeuded, proof against everything but the largest shell. Is there a spot where barbed wire, entanglements can lie concealed from the enemy's artillery, to prove at the moment of the' assault a fatal obstacle ? < There vou will hud neat tows of slakes intertwined with that deadly burner, which has done so much to change the whole system of warfare. Occasionally the bare expausc is broken' by a good-skied wood. In such flat country the cover given by trees is invaluable. Indeed, the undergrowth of -i coppice, is a. fur more powerful defence than ■ the strongest wall of a mediaeval castle. Such a. wood may hold a rpsriinenl a brigade, a division—a veritable arniv and its resistance could onlv be- overcome at terrible cost by an enemy that hall completely surrounded il. And as for surrounding it, (he task is almost impossible. It is a desolate, meluiicholr country and to the stranger tho onlv" gar thin" about it is the windmills, ' Right up within the /.one of Km thev continue to throw up their arms with" extravagant gesture.-; to the skies, waking away steadily at their daily task, despite the invader, with iruo IJelgum persistence ond obstiuncy. Some of them have been mutilated by the enemy's shells, and ono 1 saw had only a single sail left, which still stood upright as though defy'iii" the Germans a. few hundred yards away In this land of dykes and canals', perhaps the most interesting features are lh» formidable barricades which, prevent tho flood water from reaching thy sea, and maintain the inundations which guard the line. They are such barriers as°h-:'ul olsewlwe along the front been raised to hold back the barbarians— thousands of sandbags neatly piled one on tha-other, and in tiino of frost, when Hfc tide is low,. covered with an armour of ice. Against such tremendous obstacles no bombardment con bo effective. _\ lucky shell may displace a score or lira of sandbags, but they can be without delay, and the whole barrier is only the stronger. So it is wilh the bridges: it takes many score of big projectiles before a bridge is damaged, and then the damage can be repaired in a few hour;, and the whole work of destruction must be dona «--» acain,