[29]“The territory lying within the crescent was practically all reclaimed swamp land including Ypres and as far back as to St. Omer, both of which, a few hundred years ago, were seaports. All agriculture in this area depended on careful drainage, the water being carried away in innumerable dykes. So important was the maintenance of this drainage system considered, that in normal times a Belgian farmer who allowed his dykes to fall into disrepair was heavily fined.”
Across this terrain two great armies had faced each other for nearly three years.
The Salient was, after Verdun, the most tortured of the Western battlefields. Constant shelling of the low ground west of the ridges had blocked or diverted the streams and the natural drainage, and turned it into a sodden wilderness.
If August was a wet month, as it had been the year before for the Battle of the Somme, our chance of success was scanty.
[30]“Much rain would make a morass of the Salient where Tanks could not be used, transport could scarcely move, and troops would be exposed to the last degree of misery.”
However, the previous shelling of the ground was as nothing compared with the bombardment which we now intended to inflict.
Every corner of the enemy’s ground was to be drenched with our fire.
[31]“The present battle was to be preceded by the longest bombardment ever carried out by the British Army, eight days’ counter-battery work (begun on July 7) being followed by sixteen days’ intense bombardment. The effect of this cannonade was to destroy the drainage system and to produce water in the shell-holes formed, even before the rain fell.”
II
The enemy had for long been in no doubt of our intentions. The coming battle was much discussed in Germany.