A. Showing the German front which the French attacked on the first day, September 25, 1915. B. Showing the position of the French front on September 29, 1915.] [Footnote 61: See chap. xxxi.] [Footnote 62: South Tirol, on the north-east frontier land of Italy; part of Austria, but inhabited chiefly by Italian-speaking people, and therefore claimed by Italy, which also claims the coast-lands round the head of the Adriatic Sea.] [Footnote 63: River rising at the junction of the Julian and Carnic Alps and flowing southwards in a winding course to the Gulf of Trieste. Its length is about seventy-five miles, of which but little is navigable.] [Footnote 64: Austrian territory along the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea.] [Footnote 65: Louis Botha, born 1863, commanded Boer forces during the South African War; became first prime minister of the Union of South Africa (1910); and in 1914 was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union defence forces.] [Footnote 66: For an account of German South-West Africa, see Vol. III., p. 177.] [Footnote 67: Shakespeare's _Julius Cæsar_, Act IV., Sc. iii.] [Footnote 68: As the safety pins were not withdrawn, they did not explode.] CHAPTER XLII. IN CHAMPAGNE. We are now to read the story of the great offensive which the Allies undertook in the West during the month of September 1915. I have already told you that the German lines were by this time so studded with skilfully placed forts, full of machine guns, that no living infantry could carry them until a road had been blasted through by artillery fire. You remember the maze of trenches and forts known to the French as the Labyrinth. The same sort of fortification extended along the whole German line. It was folly to break through the enemy's line on a narrow front, for the troops which entered the gap were at once enfiladed and exposed to a murderous fire on their flanks. This is precisely what happened in the unsuccessful attack at Stony Mountain. If the German front was to be really broken, a rent of at least fifteen miles must be made in it. In order to do this, long preparation was necessary. Thousands of guns and mountains of ammunition were required, and, above all, the part of the line to be broken must be carefully selected.