Art. 13.-THE COURSE OF THE WAR.

AFTER the battle of Messines (June 7), there followed a period of comparative calm on the British front in the West, which was undisturbed by any important event until the end of July. It was a period of preparation on both sides for changing the scene of the principal operations, in which the capture of the Messines-Wytschaete ridge was a preliminary step. British troops and guns, withdrawn from the St Quentin-Arras front, were brought up on General Plumer's left, prolonging the line from the Menin road to the neighbourhood of Boesinghe. A French corps, under the command of General Anthoine, occupied the space between the British left flank and the inundations which cover the Belgian front from the region of Noordschote to Nieuport; while the line between Nieuport and the sea was taken over by a British force. These dispositions did not escape the observation of the Germans, who responded by drafting large reinforcements into Flanders, with the result that, by the end of July, the Allied and German armies were concentrated in great strength in the region round Ypres.

In the mean time the enemy had snatched a local success in the sector adjoining the coast, where the positions held by our troops north-west of Nieuport formed a bridgehead on the further bank of the Yser, facilitating an advance along the causeway of the Dunes, between the inundations and the sea. The purpose of the German enterprise was to deprive us of this advantage, by throwing our advanced detachments back across the river. After an intense bombardment, which lasted twenty-four hours, the attack, embracing the front from Lombartzyde to the sea, was delivered at 7.45 a.m. on July 10. The defences on the Dunes, in front of the German right wing, had been completely levelled, and the bridges over the canal demolished, by the artillery fire. The defenders, consisting of two battalions, deprived of cover and cut off from support, fought with great gallantry; but they were ultimately overpowered. In front of Lombartzyde the German left wing, after gaining a momentary advantage, was driven back to its own lines by a counterattack; and subsequent attempts in this locality, on July 14 and 19, met with no better success.