The heavy and persistent rain of last week, which turned
the battlefield of Western Flanders into a quagmire, restricted the MIMOSA of the great attack of Tuesday, the 9th, on the Passchendaelo Ridge. Despite the rain, Sir Douglas Haig made a resolute attempt on Friday, the 12th, to complete his victory. He attacked on a six-milo front the northern end of the ridge, from just below Passchondaele to the outskirts of Houthubrt Forest. Our gallant inert waded through the swamps and flooded shell-holes and captured a whole system of farms and " pill-boxes." They took nine hundred and forty-throe prisoners, of whom forty-one—an exceptionally high proportion—were officer& But the rain and the mud, not the enemy, opposed so stout a resistance that Sir Douglas Haig broke off the action before his objectives were reached. It must have been a great disappointment to him and to the Army, but they have the satisfaction of knowing that they can, if they. please, complete the capture of the ridge as soon as the weather improves.
