divided into three waves: the first (one company), after the explosion of the mines, was to seize the position, pass it, and push on; the second (one company) was to consolidate the captured position; the third (a battalion) was to reinforce the attacking party and exploit the success. Each assaulting column was preceded by a bomb-thrower and followed by sappers with sand-bags and entrenching tools. At 8 a.m. the mines were fired, one of them blowing up a German mine. Two [Illustration: GRUERIE WOOD. SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE, 25 FT. DEEP _Awaiting inspection by General commanding Sector._] minutes later the three assaulting columns, led by their officers, dashed forward. The position, attacked from three sides, was taken, and a hundred Germans were killed in the trenches. Four prisoners and a machine-gun were captured. At 8.30 the French held 350 yards of the German trench, and reached the second line, which was full of Germans. The enemy then launched fierce counter-attacks, which gave them back their second line. On the French side the second wave had arrived to reinforce the first company in the captured position. Two machine-guns mowed down the advancing Germans, but were in turn put out of action by the enemy, who renewed their counter-attacks with grenades. The French were reinforced by two companies of the third wave, the third company being used to revictual the combatants with grenades, bombs, and sand-bags. The Germans renewed their counter-attacks, but were driven back. Between 1.30 and 3 p.m., after a violent bombardment with artillery and _minenwerfer_, which churned up the ground, the enemy counter-attacked the French right in force with bayonets, but were checked. The attack was renewed with grenades and bombs, and this time the Germans advanced through all the trenches in the vicinity. After a heroic resistance the French had to give way, and at about 4.30 p.m. the position was lost. The enemy then attacked the rest of the trench on the flank; under an incessant hail of bombs, the French were forced to withdraw, retreating step by step--200 yards in two hours--with a loss of 40 per cent of their forces. Little by little, their ammunition exhausted, and in the face of the impossibility of bringing up supplies, they were obliged to abandon the position and return to the trench from which they had started. A company of Chasseurs fought for two hours with German rifles and ammunition, and with unexploded German bombs. On March 1 another desperate struggle took place at Blanleuil. At about 7.15 a.m. three enemy mines exploded under the French trenches, and the Germans rushed into the craters, overwhelming two companies in the first line, the survivors of which fought hand-to-hand. The Germans, heavily reinforced, made considerable progress in Fontaine-Madame ravine, but a counter-attack by a French battalion stopped and held them. At nightfall another battalion counter-attacked in a snow-storm, and after four hours