Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

108 HISTORY OF THE WAR.

noon of Sunday, 3rd October, while our monitors Qo oe busy shelling the Belgian coast, two attacks were launched against our front between Loos and the La Bassée Canal. One was directed against the line between the Quarries east of Cité St. Elie and the Vermelles-Hulluch road, where our position formed the side of a salient. This was beaten off with heavy losses to the enemy, who did not succeed in reaching our firing trenches. But a simultaneous attack farther to the north had better success. Our front at the Hohenzollern was precarious at the best. We held the redoubt, but not the trenches connecting it with the original main German line, and the enemy’s recapture of Fosse 8 exposed our defence to a galling enfilade. On this day we were driven out of most of the redoubt, and left with no more than its western rim, a situation which meant that the opposing lines were in some places only a few yards apart.

Little happened during the next two days except an artillery duel and some bombing encounters at Loos and Vimy. But on Wednesday, the

Oe l6 6th, the French in Champagne made a

"°° great effort against Hill 192, called the Butte of Tahure, north of Tahure village, and commanding the Bazancourt-Grand Pré railway. The village itself was a mass of ruins, but elaborate underground defences had been constructed in its cellars which connected with the German trench lines on the Butte. The French front was curiously placed. From the Navarin Farm in the west it ran nearly straight across the Butte de Souain to just south of Tahure village, where it fell back owing to the sharp salient made by the German defence on

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