Note 37 — THE OPERATIONS OF THE FOURTH ARMY FROM 20th OCTOBER TO 31st OCTOBER 1914

The ‘well-planned maze of trenches behind broad wire entanglements’ would have been most welcome to the British. Unfortunately there had been no time or opportunity to do more than dig in hastily where the advance of the I Corps had been checked, while such trenches as the 7th Division had dug at Zonnebeke were hastily prepared in such loose and sandy soil that they collapsed when bombarded; wire was conspicuous by its absence.