On December 10, the Germans launched three attacks against the British troops in front of St. Eloi, only one of which gave any result. The enemy captured the first trenches of the Allies' line, but were driven out on the following night by a counter-attack. Other attempts were made during the following week, with the same negative result. On December 17, the Germans attacked in force to the north-west of Ypres. Zonnebeke, Langemarck and Bixschoote were bitterly disputed, and the two last-named villages remained in the hands of the enemy. These battles were fought in a sea of mud formed by the rain and the flooding of the land by the Belgians. One Colonel wrote: "The ground on which we are fighting is awful. There is a crust about a foot thick which is comparatively good, but underneath there is bottomless mud. Men standing in trenches four or five feet deep are almost unable to get out, and gradually sink until it takes several men to extricate them." The first fortnight of January was comparatively quiet. During the second fortnight a strong German attack broke down before the front-line trenches near Bixschoote. The continual rains in this previously flooded district rendered all activity impossible, save that of the artillery, which continued to bombard unceasingly during February. [Illustration: THE FRONT-LINE DURING THE WINTER CAMPAIGN OF 1914--1915] It was only in the first half of March that the opposing armies became really active. From the 5th to 11th, powerful German attacks were repulsed between Dixmude and the Lys. The British, on their part, were not inactive during this period. They fought a vigorous action between the Lys and La Bassée, captured Neuve-Chapelle after prolonged strenuous fighting, and took a thousand prisoners, including several officers. As the weather conditions improved, the number of local engagements increased. In an enemy attack on St. Eloi, between March 12 and 18, the British first lost and then recaptured that village. Further south, during the first half of April, fierce engagements were fought without decisive result in front of the villages of Kemmel and Wulverghem. The Germans continued to bombard Ypres with large calibre shells, heaping ruins upon ruins. =THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES= (April--May--June, 1915.) The long period of enforced inaction during the winter months, and the depressing waiting in the icy mud, were now succeeded first by local enemy attacks, then by a fresh powerfully organised attempt by the Germans to capture Ypres. The battle began on April 14 with a strong unsuccessful thrust to the north of Ypres. The British replied by attacking Hill 60. On April 17, after the firing of a powerful mine, the hill was brilliantly captured, and in spite of bitter counter-attacks on the 18th by the Germans, who fully realised the importance of this _point d'appui_, the position remained in the hands of the British.