h dominated a region rich in coal, but also
for the purpose of keeping the Germans so busy on the western front
that none could be sent to the eastern front and further embarrass
Russia. The artillery of both the British and French attempted to
wreck the German trenches before their infantry should be sent
against their foe. In this effort the British, using principally
shrapnel, made little headway; but their ally, using high-explosive
shells, such as they had been hurling at the Germans for weeks at
the rate of a hundred thousand a day, was successful. Soon the
Teutons' front was screened by clouds of yellow, green, black and
white smoke. But this was not to be a one-sided artillery engagement,
and the Germans soon had their artillery in action. They trained
it on their enemies' trenches, believing from the size of the
bombardment that an assault was soon to be made and that the trenches
would be filled with troops. Their surmise was correct, but the
Allies had suspected their opponents would reason thus, so the
French and British infantry were in covered positions. Of course
the Germans did not know how well their opponents were protected,
so they sent thousands of shells against the allied positions.
And again the allied artillerists replied in kind. This time they
caught the German reenforcements, with the result that many of
them were slain before they could reach their own front. In this
work the British shrapnel was more effective than the French
high-explosive shells.

The 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 wir