On the morning of the 22nd a strong position lay to our immediate front. It followed a line BIXSCHOOTE-LANGEMARCK-ZONNEBEKE-REUTEL-GHELUVELT; and the I and IV British, as well as the IX French Corps,[36] all picked troops, had already been located there. They had dug a well-planned maze of trenches behind broad wire entanglements before a single German shell arrived to disturb their work.[37] The few stretches of rising ground in the district had been included in the skilfully selected positions as observation posts, and the defenders were thus able to bring our advancing columns under accurate artillery fire at long range. This was especially the case from the high ground near ZONNEBEKE, whence the whole ground in front of the position as far as LANGEMARCK could be enfiladed. All these difficulties, however, were not sufficient to deter the offensive spirit of the German troops, and '_Vorwärts_' was still their watchword: forwards and back with the enemy, so that the rigid western front might once more be mobile. The main body of the XXVI Reserve Corps attacked the fortress of LANGEMARCK[38] from north and east, whilst the XXVII Reserve Corps fought for the upper hand in the woods between ZONNEBEKE and BECELAERE. The great efforts made by the artillery to follow up the infantrymen with its guns and support them with their fire were in vain, owing to the difficult country, and the well-aimed fire from the enemy's prepared positions reaped a big harvest. Leaders of all grades were killed, and officers of high rank took their places and reorganised the intermingled units. With the failure of the 46th Reserve Division to gain a decisive victory between BIXSCHOOTE and LANGEMARCK on 22nd and 23rd October the fate of the XXVI and XXVII Reserve Corps was also settled. For the time being any further thought of a break-through was out of the question. The troops up till now had met the enemy full of a keen fighting spirit, and had stormed his positions singing '_Deutschland, Deutschland über alles'_ regardless of casualties, and had been one and all ready to die for their country; but they had suffered heavily in the contest against a war-experienced and numerically superior opponent entrenched in strongly fortified positions. Even when the last reserves of the Army, the 37th _Landwehr_ Brigade and the 2nd _Ersatz_ Brigade, had been placed at the disposal of the XXVI Reserve Corps, they could only be used to stiffen the defence. During the night of 23rd-24th October the expected Anglo-French counter-attacks began, and continued throughout the 24th, against the front of the XXVI and the right wing of the XXVII Reserve Corps. By utilising temporary local successes and putting in fresh forces the enemy vainly hoped to prepare the way for a break-through; but the German troops though weakened held up all these furious onslaughts from positions which had never been selected for defence, but were merely those reached at the close of the attack.[39]