(ca-lĕ´) and cut the direct line of communication between England and
France. Antwerp surrendered to the Germans on October 9; Lille (leel) on
the 13th. In tremendous massed attacks the Germans sought in vain to
break through the British lines (Battle of Flanders, October 17 to
November 15). The German losses were upwards of 150,000 men. On the
coast the Belgians cut the dikes of the river Yser (ī´ser) and flooded
the neighboring lowlands, thus putting a stop to any further advance of
the enemy.

TRENCH WARFARE.--By this time the combatants had reached a temporary
deadlock. Both had adopted trench tactics, and for over three hundred
miles, from the sea to the Swiss border, two systems of entrenchments
paralleled one another. The trenches were protected in front by
intricate networks of barbed wire. Looked at from above, the trenches
seemed to be dug with little system. But they rigidly adhered to one
military maxim,--that fortifications must not continue in a straight
line, because such straight trenches are liable to be enfiladed from
either end. Hence the trenches curve and twist, with here and there
supporting trenches and supply trenches. Sometimes the trenches are
covered; sometimes dugouts and caves are constructed. Every turn or
corner is protected with machine-guns. In some portions of the line
these trenches faced one another for over four years with scarcely any
change in their relative locations.

GERMAN TREATMENT OF OCCUPIED TERRITORY.--Eastward of the German
trenches lay all of Belgium except a very small corner, and the richest
manufacturing districts of France, including eighty per cent of the
iron and steel industries, and fifty per cent of the coal. On the other
hand the Allies had occupied only a small section of German territory at
the southern end of the line, in Alsace.