bombardment was continued vigorously for three-quarters of an
hour. That the allied range finders had been doing accurate work was
evidenced by the appearance of the German trenches when the British
and French fire was turned against the supporting German trenches; but
the Teutons' wire entanglements remained intact. Heretofore the big
guns had been able to sweep such obstructions away. When the infantry
reached the barbed wire, it found the Germans had improved this
particular method of defense by using specially manufactured wire
cable, well barbed, which was from one and one-half to two inches in
diameter. And, to protect their cable entanglements, the Germans had
built parapets in front of the entanglements. Their enemy's charging
infantry coming upon such an obstruction could not cut it, and the
only means of circumventing this new device was for the attacking
force to throw their overcoats on the entanglements and crawl across
the wire in the face of rifle and machine-gun fire.

For a considerable distance along this part of the front the distance
between the German and British trenches was not more than two hundred
yards. At not a few sections the opposing trenches were near enough to
permit the soldiers to converse with their opponents. The trenches for
the most part were built on the marshland with sandbags, those of the
British being khaki-colored, and the German being black and white.
When the inevitable order to charge was given, the British artillery
shifted its range to the German rear and the Eighth Division dashed
over the black and white sandbags behind which the Germans were
crouching. Beyond them was a ridge, in horseshoe formation, which was
the last barrier that lay between the Allies and the plains that led
to Lille. This ridge trails off in a northeasterly direction at Rouges
Bancs. Near the hamlet there was a small wood which had been taken by
the Pathans and Gurkhas before the cannonade started. Among the
regiments that led the attack of the Eighth Division were the
Kensington Battalion of the London Regiment, the First Gloucesters,
the Second Sussex, and the Northamptons. They were supported by the
Liverpool Territorials, the First North Lancashires, the Second King's
Royal Rifles, and the Sussex Territorials. The Germans had large
bodies of reenforcements held at Lille, but they were unavailing; and
the British took the first line of trenches though it required fifteen
and a half hours to do i