. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . low maritime plain and the sea stretches thegreat barrier of sand, from one to several miles broad, capped bydunes which keep out the ocean waters. The dunes are from 30to 100 feet high and, while sheltering more trees than the levelplain, show large spaces of barren white or yellowish sand, con-spicuous even at great distances (Fig. 20). The sandy soil ismuch drier than that found on the plain; but the water lies closebelow the surface, as the Duke of York discovered when he foundit impossible, durin
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . low maritime plain and the sea stretches thegreat barrier of sand, from one to several miles broad, capped bydunes which keep out the ocean waters. The dunes are from 30to 100 feet high and, while sheltering more trees than the levelplain, show large spaces of barren white or yellowish sand, con-spicuous even at great distances (Fig. 20). The sandy soil ismuch drier than that found on the plain; but the water lies closebelow the surface, as the Duke of York discovered when he foundit impossible, during his siege of Dunkirk, to protect his flanksby trenches because they encountered water at a depth of two DUNE BELT 49 In form the individual dunes are extremely irregularbut often arranged in two or more bands parallel to the sea andenclosing broad depressions or basins called pannes, occasionallycontaining ponds of fresh water. The higher parts of the dunespermit the digging of dry trenches, which must, however, bespecially walled to prevent the slumping of the loose sand ( Fig. 19—Defensive position sited along a canal draining the low Flanders when the water in the canal is low, its muddy bottom and marshy bordersmake it a moat of some tactical value. (Belgian official photograph.) 21). Shells bursting in dune sands do less damage than in almostany other type of terrain. Because the dunes are higher and less humid than the plain,they contain an unusually dense population. They are out of thereach of floods and at all seasons of the year serve as a highway fortraffic along the coast in preference to the low and muddy the flat strand of the beach between the dunes and the sea,and the depressions between the principal dune ridges, parallel 14 Fortescue, Vol. 4, Part I, p. 128. 50 BATTLEFIELD OF FLANDERS to the sea, have been used as routes of travel and for the advanceof armies. The dunes contain the least objectionable waters fordrinking p
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
