The papers of Monday published a valuable account from the
" Eyewitness " of the recent character of the fighting in Flanders. It was dated November 29th, and said that the preceding days had been days of peace compared with the heavy artillery duels of a week or two before. " For hours on end nothing is beard but the infrequent boom of one of the Allies' guns." The fighting was chiefly among the advanced trenches, where the trench howitzers and the bombs and grenades thrown by band were the principal means of a rather blind warfare. A most interesting change in the Germans' method of attack is also recorded. The costly advances across the open have been abandoned, and the Germans now attempt to advance by "narrow end-on approaches, which are either open to the air or a foot or two below the surface." When open these "approaches," or saps, are zigzagged to avoid enfilading. When several of them have been made to reach a point from which an assault seems possible, the ends of them are joined up by a lateral trench. In this trench the stormers collect for their fresh rush.
Previous page
