The first of the series occurred on 2 June between the village of Hoop and Hill 60, where Canadians held the British trenches. An intense bombardment of four hours was fol lowed by a massed infantry attack by nine or 10 battalions. The attackers came forward con fidently, thinking that the guns had left them nothing to do. But the crumbling trenches sheltered a few who had strength and reason enough left to rise and fight desperately, some of them with undamaged rifles, some with the butts of broken weapons or with entrenching tools, and some with naked fists. The fierce battle lasted well into the night, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the Canadian Mounted Rifles bearing the brunt of it. At nightfall the Canadians fell back to re organize, yielding their enemies a gain of 700 yards. Next day came a counterattack through which most of the lost ground was recovered, but so destnictive a rain of shells fell upon it that it could not be held; nor could the Ger mans stay in it under the British fire. It be came a new addition to No Man's Land.
On 6 June the enemy attacked again, this time at Hooge and to the northward. The ac tion opened with heavy bombardment and the explosion of several mmes, with the result that Hooge itself was occupied. It proved a bad gain for the Germans; for their line which had formerly been on high ground overloolcing the British in the plain, was now brought down to the plain also. The Canadians, however, were not willing to leave the situation as it was. Their pride was aroused and they made a coun terattack on 13 June and took the most import ant part of their old trenches. But Hooge was not recovered. After this the Ypres sector re turned to the less exciting practices of night raids and intermittent bombardments. The at tacks in June and in the preceding months had not interfered with the preparation for the Somme drive, they had not reduced the British holding-s materially, and we must consider them failures.
2. First Battle of the Somme.— The battle of the Soinme lasted from 1 July to 30 Nov. 1916. It was a grand effort by the British and French armies to penetrate the Gerrnan de fenses at a vital point and force the Gemrans out of a large portion of occupied France. Three million men fought here on the two sides and a third of that number were killed, wounded or captured. It was undertalcen after a great deal of preparation had been made. Verdun was launched by the Germans in order to anticipate the part France would talce on the Somme. The losses of France at that point lessened somewhat her striking force in the North, but not more than the German striking force was lessened. Was the battle of the Somme fought too soon? Undoubtedly it would have been better to have waited a few weeks longer, as first intended, but there is little to suggest that the ultimate result would have been satisfactory to the Entente Allies if they had waited. The battle was undertalcen as a decisive thrust against the Germans in the West, to begin their defeat, if not to encompass it actually. Joffre and Haig worked together in good hope, striving to make the best possible preparations, and although the terrific grind of death was going on at Verdun the preparations for the great battle were not interrupted. Time
and again Haig offered to break them off and send help to Verdun. Joffre's reply was ever that the French could take care of Verdun and that the British should go on with their prepa rations for the great :battle. At last, however, the June fighting showed that French endur ance was wearing thin on the Douauroont pla teau. Then Joflre consented that Haig should play his part, and the great battle was opened on 1 July in order to talce pressure off Verdun. It probably saved the fortress from capture.
The place selected for the attack was 35 miles north of the great angle in the battle line near Noyon, on the Oise. If the British could break through here and the French a little southward and sweep along in a straight line to the east they would get behind a large section of the German line and force it to fall badc. If they could go through veith dash and reach Saint Quentin, 40 miles in the rear, they would cut vital railroad lines and make it impossible for the Germans in the sector just east of Novon to get out safely with their heavy guns and other materials. The blow was to be given by two great armies, British and French, one on the north and one on the south side of the Somme River. The British line of advance was a sector from Gommecourt to Maricourt, on the north bank of the Somme, a distance of 18 miles. The French sector of advance extended from Maricourt across the Somme to Fay, eight miles southward. The country was dry rolling ground, a comfort to the 13ritish, who were weary of fighting in the water-logged fields around Ypres.
The direction of the 18-mile sector of the British advance line was generally southeast, but at Fricourt it turned due east for four miles and then resumed its southeasterly course. This jog in the line was the place at which the Brit ish were to win their most notable success in the battle. Another thing to be remembered is that the national highway from Amiens to Cam brai, and thence on to Valenciennes, Mons, Namur, Liege and Cologne cut this sector at its middle point. It passed through Albert, two miles west of the line, and Bapaume, nine miles northeast. This highway, an old Roman road, was the axis of the British battle as planned; but by the failure of the attack of the northern wing it became the northwestern limit of the area of actual progress. The British went about thcir preparations for battle with that careless indifference for their foes that cost them so dearly in the first two years of the war. They made shght efforts to conceal their activities, as though they thought concealment unnecessary. Thus warned, the Germans made unusual de fensive preparations. The challcy soil lent itself to entrenchments, and they spent days and nights in making dugouts strong enough to resist bom bardment. Behind their first line they con structed a second line, and behind that a third was begun. When the attack was delivered this particular sector was the best defended in the entire German line.