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FTER a pause of more than a month the battle of Flanders, which is rapidly losing its designation as the third battle of Ypres, has been renewed by the Allies with redoubled fury. Meanwhile, they had evidently solved to their satisfaction the problem set them by the Germans early in September, when the civil population of several towns of the Flanders plain were ordered to leave their homes. Between the 20th of September and the middle of October the periodic assaults made on the front southeast, east, and northeast of Ypres forced into the enemy's lines a new salient of far greater proportions than that eliminated last Summer.

German military critics believe that it reveals a desire on the part of the Allies to gain the coast, where the submarine bases of Ostend and Zeebrugge are in operation, and where intervening dunes conceal the aerodromes whence attacks are made upon England. English and French critics rather favor the idea of an encircling movement of Lille from the north. According to the military results themselves, either objective-or bothwould be logical. The complete occupation of the high ground, the so-called Passchendaele Ridge, which runs like a series of mounds northeast, would command the lowlands to the coast, almost parallel to it, twenty-odd miles away. The possession of the road to Menin with the town itself would seriously threaten Lille or at least deprive it of one of its most important railway connections.

In detail the engagements of the month have been characterized by the “tank" vs. the concrete "pill box," and by counterattacks broken up by the low-altitude fire of swarms of Anglo-French aviators. The losses to the enemy are known to have been prodigious, while those of the

Allies have been comparatively lightdemonstrating the thorough artillery preparation before attack, and the varied and ingenious methods of throwing back counterattacks.

Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig opened the ball on Sept. 20, with many and sundry extras on Sept. 26. These efforts appeared to have for their objective the control of the Ypres-Menin road. Then came similar and well-defined operations further north along the ridge, in which he was assisted by the French of Pétain-Oct. 4, 9, and 12. Most of the attacks were begun at sunrise, and before noon had usually reached their objectives, and, not infrequently, consolidated the positions won.

Meanwhile, formidable and almost daily naval and aerial attacks were being launched against Ostend and Zeebrugge, and aerial attacks against the aerodromes of the dunes. On Sept. 22 a German counterattack from the air over Ostend resulted in the loss of three enemy seaplanes; on the night of Sept. 27 British naval aircraft raided the Zeebrugge lock-gates, submarine docks, and the aerodromes at St. Denis-Westrem, Goutrode, and Houttave. On Sept. 30 the photographs of a similar raid revealed well-defined loss to the enemy. All these raids seemingly lend color to the dictum of the German critics that the coast is the main objective of the battle of Flanders.

Fighting for Polygon Wood

The attack of Sept. 20 began precisely at 5:40 A. M. on an eight-mile front, between the Ypres-Comines Canal and the Ypres-Staden Railway. The North Country regiments carried Inverness Copse; the Australians, Glencorse Wood and Nonne Boshen; the Scottish and South African brigades, Potsdam,

Vampir, and Borry Farms; the West Lancashire Territorials, Iberian Farm and the concrete pile known as Gallipoli. All these points were reached in the élan of the attack. Then, on the right, the English county troops proceeded with sharply contested advance to their final objectives in the woods north of the Ypres-Comines Canal and in the neighborhood of Tower Hamlets; in the centre the North Country and Australian battalions fought on for over a mile, enveloping the southern hamlet of Veldhoek and the western portion of Polygon Wood. This was the greatest penetration. All was done according to

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schedule, almost on schedule time. fore the morning was over a number of local German counterattacks had been broken up and the British troops were resting.

On the 22d strong German counterattacks were launched and repulsed, save on a small section on the right. These repulses were principally accomplished by the low-altitude firing of the British airmen, some 300 machines being engaged. Three days later the Germans won a temporary gain on Passchendaele Ridge near Polygon Wood.

Then on the 26th came the second smashing drive on a six-mile front with

from a half mile to a mile depth. South of the Ypres-Menin road the English home troops completed the capture of the Tower Hamlets Spur, and gained their objective-the German concrete works on its further slope. In the centre some companies of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders met with a stubborn resistance, so that the assault further north was carried into the afternoon, with the Australians clearing the remainder of Polygon Wood and the English, Scottish, and Welsh battalions accomplishing their remote objective-Zonnebeke, a mile away. On the extreme left the North Midland and London Territorials reached their objectives on both sides of the Wieltje-Gravenstafel and St. JulienGravenstafel roads. This advance reached half a mile through a maze of fortified farms and concrete redoubts.

Almost simultaneously the Germans had launched seven heavy counterattacks, which, carried into the following day, nevertheless left the British in full possession of their objectives-with light losses to them but with heavy losses to the enemy.

British Win Main Ridge

The attack of Oct. 4 began at 10:35 on a front of over eight miles from south of Tower Hamlets to the Ypres-Staden Railway, north of Langemarck. It gave the British possession of the main ridge up to 1,000 yards north of Broodseinde. The weather prevented further advance, as it doubtless did counterattacks on the part of the enemy, although a few were attempted in the afternoon southeast of Polygon Wood. In this attack the French protected the British right. Evidently a more formidable drive had been prepared; as it was, the British losses were light, and the German heavy, including, since Sept. 20, 10,000 prisoners.

The main strength of the two subsequent attacks--Oct. 9 and Oct. 12-was also directed over the Passchendaele Ridge. Meanwhile, it was learned from prisoners that the attack of the 4th had anticipated a fierce German assault by half an hour, during which time the barrage fire of the British had unconsciously wrecked five divisions of the Germans,

massed for the advance which never took place.

On the 9th the operations extended over a front of ten miles. The French, on the north, pierced the German positions to a depth of a mile and a quarter, capturing the villages of St. Jean de Mangelaere and a northern hamlet of Veldhoek, with numerous intervening concrete redoubts. The British drove to a depth of a mile and a half, going beyond Poelcapelle. This operation put the English and French within long-range gunshot of Roulers and gave them the principal heights of the ridge commanding the plain of Flanders.

With the advance of the 9th it became geographically, if not strategically, obvious that another drive of similar magnitude would unlock the German front from Bixschoote to the sea. Such a drive, however, did not at once occur. The three hours' assault in the early morning of the 12th, succeeded by a consolidation of positions on the 13th, brought the Allies on a six-mile front to within 500 yards of the town of Passchendaele. Rain then brought operations temporarily to a standstill.

Results of Five Engagements

The foregoing five engagements have carried the Allies to the Ypres-Roulers road on the northeast, and to the neighborhood of Passchendaele, a distance of a little over three miles; they have gained nearly a mile to the southeast over the Ypres-Menin road; the area covered includes about twenty-three square miles. Their losses have been comparatively light, according to official bulletins and reports of eyewitnesses, while those of the Germans, particularly when their attempted offensives have been prematurely assailed and in their counterattacks, have been correspondingly large. Indeed, the slaughter of the Germans surprised in mass formations has been compared to their most fatal days before Verdun.

The second stage of the month's fighting in Flanders, over the commanding Passchendaele Ridge, has been compared by some critics to the decisive battle of the Marne. It is hardly that, but rather the occupation of commanding positions,

from which such a decisive battle may be developed.

The ground occupied by the Allies has revealed several interesting things, uncovered several German secrets. More and more are the Germans abandoning their patent and marvelously perfected system of trenches for purposes of defense; more and more are they relying on the concrete redoubt, called the "pill box," which is easily observed by the French and British airmen, and almost as easily blown to pieces by accuracy of their artillery fire-the survivors are left to the "tanks." Again, it has been observed that three out of five of the German shells thrown fail to explode. An examination of them has revealed poor substitutes for metal caps and priming. Many of their high explosive shells detonate without great concussion, and in a cloud of black smoke, like the burning of common gunpowder. Individual initiative on the part of officers below the rank of Colonel is becoming very rare. Small detachments group for surrender, rarely for a last stand. All this eloquently betrays the waning morale of the enemy.

Germans Control Gulf of Riga

When the Germans occupied Riga in the first week of September it was obvious that this port could be of little use to them unless they also controlled the waters of the Gulf of Riga, on the eastern shores of which troops might be disembarked for a land investment of the Russian naval base of Reval. For, although it was quite out of the question to expect Germany, with her depleted man power, to deploy through the 300-odd miles necessary to reach Petrograd, yet the same object might be attained by the Gulf of Finland if only the protected ports of the southern shore could be eliminated. Landing parties, not necessarily permanent, would be required to attack these ports from the shore side, and work along the coast under the guns of warships. But where could these detachments find a base as long as the Russians controlled the Gulf of Riga?

The Russian fleet, on account of the revolution, was believed to be at a low grade of resistance, yet weeks passed

without a move being made by the German fleet to secure the gulf. The reason is now believed to be the mutiny at Wilhelmshaven, the first news of which was revealed by Admiral von Capelle, the German Minister of Marine, in the Reichstag on Oct. 9.

From German naval refugees in Switzerland it has subsequently been learned that the mutiny was much more serious than officially reported-it embraced not only Wilhelmshaven but the Baltic base of Kiel. At both places storehouses were wrecked and supplies destroyed, and 12,000 men on board twenty-five ships were involved in an actual revolt against the Kaiser. The first outbreak began as far back as July 30; the second, principally at Kiel, was on Sept. 2-the very day on which the German advance guard rode through Riga.

Two Islands Captured

The mutiny, however, merely postponed what was both a strategic and a tactical necessity if the occupation of Riga was to be anything more than a political gesture. On Oct. 8 a strong German naval force was observed off the Danish Island of Bornholm, sailing eastby-north. Two days later German motor boats appeared in the Gulf of Riga, and were dispersed by the shore batteries. Evidently their observations were to the effect that an entrance to the gulf could not be forced through the defended waters between Oesel Island and Cape Domesnees-a mined channel twenty miles wide-for on Oct. 13 German detachments under the protection of the guns of warships were landed on the shore of the Gulf of Tagalah, a northern inlet of Oesel Island, and near the village of Serro on the southern shore of Dagö Island. By Oct. 15, Arensburg, the chief city of Oesel, was in the possession of the invaders, and the garrisons of both islands were fleeing to the mainland eastward. (The islands have together an area about equal to Rhode Island, and a population of 50,000.) On Oct. 18 the Russian Admiralty reported the loss of the battleship Slava, 13,516 tons, in defending the gulf.

Thus, what Germany attempted to do in August and September, 1915, when