On land, though the victories of the Allies have not
been so sensational as on sea, it is clear that the efforts of his generals to win the Kaiser a birthday present have been singularly unsuccessful, and have resulted in what in any previous war would have been called most serious losses. The French communique of Thursday afternoon puts together a record of the military results of the Kaiser's fifty-sixth birthday and the days leading up to it, and shows how bloodstained was the natal fiasco. The birthday attacks began on Monday wills violent assaults against the British forces near La Bamee, and the French east of Ypres and west of Craonne. At first they were successful, but there followed the usual counter-attacks which won back the whole of the lost ground. On Thursday it could be reported from Paris that "the day [Wednesday] was good for us throughout the whole extent of the front" Summing up the record of the three days—Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday—the French military authorities estimate that the enemy's losses "seem to exceed twenty thousand men." They add that the prisoners taken in the region of Gramme "are all under the impression of having sustained a big reverse."
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