But though the rumours of activity in the westernmost section
of the line have been so insistent, as a matter of feta there has been very little doing there of late. Indeed, the activity has been chiefly on our side, for it was announced on Wednesday that, with the aid of French artillery fire, we had captured a German trench north-east of Ypres. In the French part of the line—that is, to the north of Arras —there has, it is true, been a great deal of German fire, but without much practical result. In the Verdun section, how- ever, to the south-east of St. Mihiel, the Germans, after an extremely violent bombardment, took the offensive, and at one point succeeded in penetrating the French first line on a front of seven hundred metres. Here, indeed, the enemy appears to have made good, though everywhere else be was repulsed with heavy losses. The alleged "overwhelming advance" of the Germans has certainly not yet taken place in the west.
