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

COUNTER-STROKES IN THE WEST. 119

slopes of that hill, bending south-east to a point 1,200 yards south of Loos Church, whence it runs due west back to our old lines. The chord of the salient we have created in the enemy’s line, measured along our old front, is 7,000 yards in length ; the depth of the salient at the Chalk Pit is 3,200 yards.”

But in Champagne on that day a counter-stroke was attempted far better judged than the futile efforts in the north. The veteran von Heeringen did not make the mistake of the Bavarian Crown Prince. The French advance in September had left on the west a German salient between Auberive and Rheims. If this salient could be advanced, then the Rheims-Chalons railway might be cut, and the French forces forced back behind the river Vesle and the Vesle Canal. Such a success would be followed by a combined attack on Rheims, which would then be in danger of envelopment. Observers in Britain throughout the campaign were inclined to forget the strategic significance of Rheims, that great junction of road, railway, and water communications. It was not less important than Verdun. Had Germany in these months adopted a serious offensive in the West it is likely that Rheims would have been the point chosen at which to break the French line. As it was, that area offered the best chance for a counter-attack which might nullify all the gains to the eastward.

On the night of the 18th the Germans began a great bombardment upon the six miles of the French front which lay roughly along the road ., |g from La Pompelle, one of the Rheims Ble je forts, to the village of Prosnes. For three hours high explosives rained on the French front lines,