Zigzag trenches in Champagne. The strip on which the armies are clinched varies in width and winds over dunes, marshes, woods and mountains.
To a proper understanding of a campaign or a battle, some knowledge of the topographical conditions is essential. The chief scene in the act—where the grand attack falls—is the beautiful vineyard region of Champagne. Here the German front is the same as they established and fortified it after the Battle of the Marne. It rests on the west side on the Massif de Moronvillers; to the east it stretches as far as the Argonne. It was intended to cover the railroad from Challerange to Bazancourt, a line indispensable for the concentration movements of the German troops. The offensive front, which extends from Auberive to the east of Ville-sur-Tourbe, presents a varied aspect. From east to west may be seen, firstly, a glacis or sloping bank about five miles wide and covered with little woods. The road from Saint-Hilaire to Saint-Souplet, with the Baraque de l'Épine de Vedegrange, marks approximately its axis.
The Champagne District.
(2) The hollow, in which lies the pretty village of Souain and where the first German line follows its edge. The road from Souain to Pomme-Py describes the radius of this semicircle. The farm of Navarin stands on the top of the hills two miles north of Souain.
(3) To the north of Perthes, a comparatively tranquil region of uniform aspect, forming between the wooded hills of the Trou Bricot and those of the Butte du Mesnil a passage two miles wide, barred by several lines of trenches and ending at a series of heights—the Butte de Souain, Hills 195 and 201 and the Butte de Tahure, surmounted by the second German line.
(4) To the north of Mesnil, a very strong position, bastioned on the west by two twin heights (Mamelle Nord and Trapèze), on the east by the Butte du Mesnil. The German trenches form a powerful curtain between these two bastions, behind which a thickly wooded undulating region extends as far as Tahure.