where it was held by such seemingly
impregnable works.

An attack at La Bassee in the first weeks in June, 1915, started
with the British Second Army making a pretended advance in the
Ypres region. The British in the forest of Ploegsteert drove a
mine into the German lines and blew it up. The explosion followed
by a British charge, which resulted in the taking of a part of
the German trenches. This forest extended northwest of Lille and
south of Messines. Under the ground in this section the sappers
had built a city, whose streets were named for the thoroughfare
of London. Thus there was "Regent Street," "Piccadilly Circus,"
"Leicester Square," and many others. There was also a "Kensington
Garden," in which grew wild flowers transplanted from the forest
by the soldiers.

The Germans had been driven out of the forest in the fall of 1914
when they made their dash to reach Calais; but their trenches were
only about 400 yards beyond the eastern edge. The earth here was
especially adaptable for mines, and both sides made many attempts
to work destruction by tunneling forward. In this activity it was
soon found necessary to have men in advanced positions in the tunnels
to listen to the mining operations of their opponents. As soon as
such operations were discovered, a countertunnel was driven in
that direction and a mine exploded, thereby destroying the enemy's
tunnel and burying his sappers. Sometimes, however, the men in the
countertunnel cut through to the other excavation and engaged in
a hand-to-hand conflict beneath the surface of the earth. Then
primitive methods were used. Though mining had taken place on other
sections of the western front, as at Hill 60, it was in this forest
area that it was probably brought to its highest development.

The British mine here, as noted above, on June 6, 1915, blew up
the German trenches, and the British charged into the crater and
drove the Germans out with bayonet and bomb. A similar crater was
the result of the mining at La Bassee. Five mines at the end of
tunnels constructed by the Germans did not go far enough toward
the British trenches, and when the explosions occurred the trenches
remained intact.

The sappers, however, had other things to contend with; this was
the case when a tunnel was driven toward the German trenches between
Rue du Bois and Rue d'Ouvert, near the La Bassee Canal. Water was
found below the German intrenchments. The British managed to keep
the water