rable
time.

[Sidenote: Vast stores accumulated.]

[Sidenote: Shelter and communication facilities prepared.]

Vast stocks of ammunition and stores of all kinds had to be accumulated
beforehand within a convenient distance of our front. To deal with these
many miles of new railways--both standard and narrow gauge--and trench
tramways were laid. All available roads were improved, many others were
made, and long causeways were built over marshy valleys. Many additional
dugouts had to be provided as shelter for the troops, for use as
dressing stations for the wounded, and as magazines for storing
ammunition, food, water, and engineering material. Scores of miles of
deep communication trenches had to be dug, as well as trenches for
telephone wires, assembly and assault trenches, and numerous gun
emplacements and observation posts.

[Sidenote: Mining operations.]

Important mining operations were undertaken, and charges were laid at
various points beneath the enemy's lines.

[Sidenote: Water supply insured.]

Except in the river valleys, the existing supplies of water were
hopelessly insufficient to meet the requirements of the numbers of men
and horses to be concentrated in this area as the preparations for our
offensive proceeded. To meet this difficulty many wells and borings were
sunk, and over one hundred pumping plants were installed. More than one
hundred and twenty miles of water mains were laid, and everything was
got ready to insure an adequate water supply as our troops advanced.

[Sidenote: Spirit of the troops.]

Much of this preparatory work had to be done under very trying
conditions, and was liable to constant interruption from the enemy's
fire. The weather, on the whole, was bad, and the local accommodations
totally insufficient for housing the troops employed, who consequently
had to content themselves with such rough shelter as could be provided
in the circumstances. All this labor, too, had to be carried out in
addition to fighting and to the everyday work of maintaining existing
defenses. It threw a very heavy strain on the troops, which was borne by
them with a cheerfulness beyond all praise.

[Sidenote: Formidable enemy position on the Somme and the Ancre.]

The enemy's position to be attacked was of a very formidable character,
situated on a high, undulating tract of ground, which rises to more than
500 feet above sea level, and forms the watershed between the Somme on
the one side and t