y be to cause
considerable damage; trenches and their parapets were demolished,
shelters, screening reserves, were torn open. At that moment when
the attack is to be launched, the German artillery drops the "fire
curtain" behind the enemy trenches to prevent reenforcements from
arriving. Such are the tactics almost constantly employed by the
Germans.

Despite their most furious efforts during the winter of 1914 and
the spring and summer of 1915, in at least forty different attacks,
the German gains were very insignificant, and if one considers
the line they held after the battle of the Marne and compares it
with their present position, one may gather some idea of how little
progress they have made.

It was in June and July, 1915, that the Germans displayed their
main efforts in the Argonne. Their three great attacks were made
with greater forces than ever before (two or three divisions), but
the results were as profitless as their predecessors. The heroism
of the French barred the way.

At Arras in June, there was almost as much activity as at Ypres.
During the last part of the campaign in the Artois, General d'Urbal
began an advance between Hebuterne and Serre. The former had been
held by the French and the latter by the Germans. The two villages
were each on a small hill and not quite two miles apart. There were
two lines of German trenches in front of the farm of Tout Vent
which was halfway between the villages.

The trenches were held by the Seventeenth Baden Regiment which was
attacked by the French on June 7, 1915. The French troops consisted
of Bretons, Vendeans, and soldiers from Savoy and Dauphine. The
work of the infantry was preceded by a heavy bombardment to which
the German artillery replied. Then the French charged with a dash
that seemed irresistible.

On the following day, June 8, 1915, the French gained more ground
to the north in spite of the activity of the German artillery.
June 9, 1915, saw desperate fighting in the German communicating
trenches, and on June 10, 1915, several hundred yards of trenches
to the south were taken. The Seventeenth Baden Regiment was only a
name and a memory when the fighting ceased; and two German battalions
had fared but little better. Of the five hundred and eighty prisoners
taken ten were officers.

General de Castelnau, on the day before the fighting at Hebuterne,
made a break in the German line east of Forest of l'Aigle which is
a continuation of the Forest