As soon as circumstances allowed, we began to sink an adequate number of wells; and while in some places our fighting men obstinately strove to protect their defensive works from the treacherous floods, in others our workmen dug and bored into the unkindly soil in search of a stratum yielding potable water, which was struck at a depth of 125 metres—sometimes even further down. This alone will give some idea of the obstacles that had at all costs to be overcome. Our desperate and unwearied efforts were happily crowned with success, and soon the whole army, including the many auxiliary services of the advanced zone, enjoyed an abundance of good water.
6. The Telephone System.—Everybody knows how very important the telephone has become during the present war; but even the most far-sighted people who had strongly urged the general employment of this essentially practical and rapid means of communication, had not anticipated the extraordinarily wide scope which was to be given it.
To-day the telephone is the real bond of union between all units serving at the front, from the observer crouching in his advanced post to the commander-in-chief. It links those who issue commands with those who obey them, the lowest with the highest, and makes it possible for all efforts directed towards a single end to be correlated most efficiently in the performance of the common task. If so bold a comparison may be permitted, the telephonic network is the nervous system traversing the huge body of an army in action. The best mode of showing the prime importance of this network is to give some figures, which certainly exceed all the calculations that the layman would be likely to make. Would he imagine, for instance, that, by about the middle of the year 1917, the telephone wires of a single sector held by the Belgians had a total length greater than half that of the equator, or exactly 21,950 kilometres?
It is not difficult to realise what labour was needed to install such a system. The innumerable wires and posts had not merely to be put in place, but to be protected from destruction, sheltered against incessant bombardment, and repaired at once if unavoidably damaged. In the most dangerous areas the wires had to be buried deep, or, where they crossed flooded areas, laid under water. This meant the excavating and filling-in of hundreds of kilometres of deep trenches before the delicate work of burying wires and cables was completed. The 21,950 kilometres of wires in the Belgian front system are made up of 6,600 kilometres of buried or submerged wires and 15,350 kilometres of aerial line. The telephone instruments in use number nearly 8,000; the exchange switch-boards, not far short of 1,000.
Let us add that this network requires unremitting attention, and that it is being extended and improved daily, and we shall have said enough to give an idea of the prodigious task accomplished by the special corps entrusted with the management of this arduous undertaking.
7. The Batteries.—The Belgian Army began the war with but a limited supply of 75-mm. guns and hardly a couple of dozen 149-mm. and 150-mm. howitzers; so that it was for a long time compelled to face its powerfully equipped enemy on very unequal terms, a state of things which gave rise to much anxiety. Its battery crews, however, though so seriously handicapped, always fought with remarkable courage and technical skill. During the violent battle of the Yser, especially, their self-sacrifice and devotion won the deepest admiration: and they were also largely responsible for the heroic stand which will be one of the most glorious pages in our army's history.
It was apparent in the very first encounters that artillery would play a much more important part than had been assigned to it by pre-war theory. As soon as the two opponents had dug themselves in opposite one another, it became evident that strong entrenchments, forming an unbroken barrier along an extensive front, could be mastered only by the number and weight of guns brought into action.
We shall say nothing here about the great effort which enabled us to solve the second part of this momentous problem,[C] our immediate object being to demonstrate the intense effort which the fighting army had to put forth in organising the Yser front.
When the last struggles of the battle had ceased, our artillerymen vied with one another in the keenness and industry with which they screened their pieces from enemy observation in the open plain whereon they had perforce to establish them. It was impossible to dig into the ground and sink the guns behind solid earthworks. As with the trenches, all structures had to be laboriously fashioned out of imported materials, not merely under the enemy's eyes but under the fire of his formidable artillery. Over and over again the gunners had to cease work in order to reply to the enemy, giving him as much as he gave, and showing themselves always ready for a fight, whatever the odds. The duel over, they picked up their tools, repaired any damage done, and cheerfully carried on.
However, thanks to the steady augmentation of Belgian resources, the German superiority gradually disappeared; while, on the other hand, the number of works to be executed increased. As the positioning of mere field-pieces was a very troublesome business, one can guess what was entailed by the installation on such unstable ground of heavy batteries with ponderous platforms to support them. Nevertheless, our men patiently overcame all difficulties.