It is being undertaken with a political
rather than a strategical object.
_The official British Eyewitness, under date of May 11, 1915, gives an
account of the German attempts on the previous Saturday and Sunday to
break the British lines around Ypres, and of the beginning of the
Anglo-French offensive north of Arras. He said:_
The calm that prevailed Thursday and Friday proved to be only the lull
before the storm. Early Saturday morning it became apparent that the
Germans were preparing an attack in strength against our line running
east and northeast from Ypres, for they were concentrating under cover
of a violent artillery fire, and at about 10 o'clock the battle began in
earnest.
At that hour the Germans attacked our line from the Ypres-Poelcappelle
road to within a short distance of the Menin highroad, it being
evidently their intention while engaging us closely on the whole of this
sector to break our front in the vicinity of the Ypres-Roulers Railway,
to the north and to the south of which their strongest and most
determined assaults were delivered.
Under this pressure our front was penetrated at some points around
Frezenberg, and at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon we made a
counter-attack between the Zonnebeke road and the railway in order to
recover the lost ground.
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