Читать книгу The War History of the 1st/ 4th Battalion, 1914-1918. The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment онлайн

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The British trenches suffered severely too. In the morning L 8 was a wreck, most of the trench battered down, and the communication trench, which was revetted with hurdles, also badly damaged. The trench was saved in many cases, though, by the hurdles bending and not collapsing as sandbag revetting would have done. It was at L 8 that the brunt of the firing was. In some places there the trench lines were completely obliterated, and in very many places so badly damaged as to need extensive repair before being of much use again.

The British report of June 16th, as issued by the Press Bureau, read:—

“Yesterday evening, we captured the German front line of trenches east of Festubert, on a mile of front, but failed to hold them during the night against the strong counter-attacks delivered by the enemy.”

The communique issued at the German Main Headquarters says, according to the “Daily Telegraph”:—

“Wednesday.

“Again influenced by Russian defeats, the French and English yesterday attacked with strong forces of men at many points on the Western front.