On the Western front attack and counter-attack have increased in
importance, and we must expect them to do so week by week, if the weather permits, till they pass almost imperceptibly into the great, and possibly the decisive, struggle of the spring and summer. The first event we have to record turned to the disadvantage of the French. Between Tahure and bfassiges, in Champagne, the Germans (according to their own account) advanced half-a-mile on a front of a mile and a half and took eight hundred and fifty-eight prisoners, including twenty-one officers. The French say that they have since inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, and this statement seems to be justified, as no further German movement has been hoard of in this region. Sir Douglas Haig immediately answered the German challenge by making the most signal advance of the year up the Ancre Valley. The German positions at Miraumont and Petit Miraumont were captured and nearly eight hundred prisoners were taken. Other British raids followed. South-east of Ypres, for instance, our troops did much damage and brought back one hundred and fourteen prisoners and four machine gans ; and south of Armentieres much damage was again done to the German defences and forty-four prisoners were taken.
