[Illustration: A French Bayonet Charge in the "Labyrinth."
(_By permission of The Illustrated London News._)
In the left background is seen the cemetery of Neuville St. Vaast, through the walls of which French troops are seen advancing towards the Labyrinth. Our illustration shows the fighting reported by the French on June 6. At Neuville St. Vaast, said the report, we captured several houses, and drew closer to a redoubt on the north-west and occupied the communication trench which leads to it. We captured new trenches in the centre and in the south of the Labyrinth, and advanced a hundred yards. In this great work the struggle has continued without ceasing for eight days, and we now hold two-thirds of it.]
Next day the French were hard at it again. They pushed on to the outskirts of Loos, attacked the church on the Lorette ridge, took trenches to the south of it, seized the cemetery at Neuville, and beat off the German reserves which had been hurried up in motor cars. Everywhere the fighting was most desperate, for the Germans had turned every possible place into a little fort, and each of them had to be carried by storm. By Wednesday, 12th May, the Germans in Carency were surrounded. More than 20,000 shells had been hurled into the village, and 2,000 Germans were obliged to hold up their hands. Meanwhile the summit of the Lorette ridge had been carried, and only two or three strongholds on this high ground held out. The Germans at once rained shells on the ridge, and the ghastly scenes of Hill 60 were repeated. The French, however, clung to their trenches; nothing could move them.
On the 13th, amidst drenching rain, and in teeth of a bitter north wind, they returned to the assault. They had broken the German line; but their work was by no means done, for though the trenches had been carried, the German forts all along the front still held out, and each of them had to be besieged. The strongest position of all lay to the south of Neuville, and was known as the Labyrinth.[39] It was a wonderful network of trenches and redoubts, tunnels and roofed-in pits; it covered two square miles, and was so situated that the long-range fire of the French artillery could not get at it. Probably never before had such a stronghold been constructed. It was a cunning maze, furnished with every death-dealing device known to the science of war. It contained engines for making poison gas, machines for throwing liquid fire, scores of small fortresses, and underground passages which enabled the defenders to get to the rear of the attackers. In the background an enormous collection of big guns was in position, ready to sweep away any troops advancing upon it. Such was the Labyrinth which the French were attacking. They could not proceed until it was captured, for, as you will observe from the map on page 223, it enfiladed their advance.