The salient consists mainly of a chalky plateau full of hollows, each with its village or little town. The fields are hedgeless, and are cut across by many white roads. The ravines of the plateau and the many villages had been made almost impregnable by the Germans, who had set up all along their line numberless little forts, armed with machine guns, and connected by a maze of trenches. There were at least five lines of very strong trenches, one behind the other, in that part of their position which lay between Loos and the village of Ablain. It was a desperate task which the French now set themselves, but should it prove successful it would be well worth the sacrifice entailed. Further, an assault on the German lines in the west was now necessary. The Russians at this time were being driven back by a storm of artillery to which they could make no resistance, and General Joffre saw that something must be done to draw off German forces from the Eastern front if the Russians were not to be overwhelmed and put out of action altogether. His plan was as follows: the French were to try to capture Lens, and the British, further north, were to make a desperate push towards Lille. If these movements succeeded, the line of railway all along the German front from Lille to Soissons would be captured, and the enemy would be forced to retreat into Belgium. I shall tell you the story of the British assault in a later chapter. I will now confine myself to the French effort. On Sunday, 9th May, General Foch, who had brought up no less than 1,100 guns of all kinds, began to bombard the German trenches between the villages of Carency and La Targette. You will notice from the map on page 223 that these trenches were called "The White Works." They were so named because the parapets, being cut from the chalk, showed up white and clear. The French bombardment was the most terrible that had ever been known in Europe up to that time. It went on for hours, and the French 75's, which can fire twenty-five aimed shots a minute, seemed to be pouring out shells like gigantic machine guns. When the bombardment ceased the White Works were simply a ploughed field strewn with fragments of wire and human bodies. More than 300,000 shells were hurled upon them in the course of the day. [Footnote 38: _Loce_, about a mile to the north-west of Lens.] CHAPTER XXX. THE BATTLE OF THE ARTOIS.--II.