Nieuport.

Givenchy was once a mining village situated on a spur of the Aubers
Ridge, which, running west to east, looks down upon the flat ground,
stretching uninterruptedly northwards through Festubert, Neuve Chapelle
and Laventie towards Armentieres. Someone had facetiously suggested in
the trench diary (a beautifully bound document that had been handed down
from battalion to battalion from early days) that "Givenchy Church be
kept in a state of repair for the Huns to register on," and therein lies
an important fact. Had the church tower been standing, and one could
have got into it, a glorious view of a large part of Northern France
would have been obtained. Looking eastwards one saw La Bassee half
concealed by thick woods while to the northeast were the outskirts of
Lille. Southwards and south-west were the mining villages of the Lens
district with their huge conical fosses. In other words, Givenchy was an
important tactical point and the fiercest efforts of the Boche in 1914
had failed to move British troops from it, although at the end of the
fighting it lay in a very sharp salient, which was only straightened out
after Festubert in 1915.

Since those days typical old-fashioned trench warfare had prevailed.
There were wonderful ramifications of trenches, front line, duplicate
firing line, support trenches, reserve trenches, and numerous
communication saps, all built on the old style with numerous sandbags.
On the flat ground to the north it had been impossible to dig down for
defence, and both sides had built up earthworks on the somewhat marshy
ground, so that sandbags were again the most noticeable feature. Running
behind the breastworks in this portion was a convenient
trench-tramway--for rations, ammunition, etc. To the south of Givenchy
were the famous La Bassee Canal and the brickstacks.

When mankind started to fight each other under the earth, as well as on
it and above it, No Man's Land in front of Givenchy began to be really
churned up. Huge craters had been blown up by both sides in such numbers
that they formed the most distinctive feature of this part of the line.
The whole of the ground across the ridge between the lines presented the
appearance of a model of the Alps on a rather large scale. These craters
had to be carefully represented on all trench maps, and they bore
distinctive names such as Warlington Crater and Red Dragon Crater. Both
sides had pushed forward saps as far as possible through