. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . protrude through the loam mantle in unusual num-bers and which, we have seen, are so inhospitable to agriculturethat they remain wooded. Altogether the Ypres region is a mili-tary stronghold of the highest importance, and this importanceis fully attested by the number of pages in history which recordbloody struggles for its defense or conquest. Siege and assaulthave followed each other in a long succession of which the greatBattles of Ypres of the World War were merely the most recentchapters. The Mon
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . protrude through the loam mantle in unusual num-bers and which, we have seen, are so inhospitable to agriculturethat they remain wooded. Altogether the Ypres region is a mili-tary stronghold of the highest importance, and this importanceis fully attested by the number of pages in history which recordbloody struggles for its defense or conquest. Siege and assaulthave followed each other in a long succession of which the greatBattles of Ypres of the World War were merely the most recentchapters. The Mont Cassel-Mont Kemmel ridge and the Messines-Passchendaele ridge meet in an apex near Mont Kemmel, form-ing a bastion pointing southeast, the flanks of which present amost formidable natural obstacle to an enemy advancing fromeither the south or the east. Neither to the north nor to the CLAY BELT 39 south of it could hostile troops press very far westward withoutincurring heavy risks, so long as the obstacle remained unshakento threaten their flank and rear. On the south especially would a. Fig. 14—Block diagram of the Flanders and Somme battlefields, showingsalient features of the topography. westward advance of necessity be limited, for the Vimy Ridgeside of the Arras bastion (p. 189) and the Mont Cassel-MontKemmel wall of the Ypres bastion formed the two jaws of agiant trap which might at any time prove fatal to an army 4o BATTLEFIELD OF FLANDERS pushing too far over the plain between them (Figs. 14 and 36). TheMont Kemmel-Mont Cassel ridge is continued westward by thehills east and west of Watten until it meets the northwesternprolongation of Vimy Ridge west of St. Omer. Between the twobastions there is thus a triangular re-entrant, or curtain, oflow plain hemmed in by higher land. Into this curtain an enemycould safely venture only if both bastions were conquered anddanger from the higher land removed. We shall not be surprised,therefore, to find much of the fighting in t
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