26th, but the trenches in the northern one had been mined, and the
French had no sooner seized them than they were blown up. At F there was
another small redoubt; part of this was taken on the 19th from the east,
but the work was not finally captured till the 27th, when 240 corpses
were found in it. On the extreme west, at G, is a wood which has twice
been unsuccessfully attacked. On the first occasion troops got into the
wood, but a severe snowstorm prevented the artillery from continuing to
assist them, and they were driven out. The second was an attempt to
surprise the enemy at 2 A.M. on the 25th; this also failed. A third
attack was made on March 7 and was successful; the French line now runs
through the wood.

The above will serve to show the tenacity which is required for an
operation of this kind. Up to the present the French have made steady
and continuous progress, and their success may be best judged from the
fact that they have not been forced back on any day behind the line they
held in the morning, despite innumerable counter-attacks. And this is
not merely a question of ground, but one of increasing moral
superiority, for it is in the unsuccessful counter-attacks that losses
are heavy, and these and the sense of failure affect the morale of an
army sooner or later.

Will the French push through the line? Will a hole be made, or is the
enemy like a badger, who digs himself in rather faster than you can dig
him out? I cannot tell; it would indeed be an astonishing measure of
success for a first attempt, and the enemy may require a great deal more
hammering at many points before he has definitely had enough at any one
point. But these operations have brought the day closer, and turn our
thoughts to the time when we shall be able to move forward, and one
finds the cavalrymen wondering whether perhaps they, too, will get their