From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 24 April 1915:
THERE are two very important military events to record during the week. The first is the capture by the British of Hill 60, a part of a ridge which runs close to the south of Ypres. Ypres is on what we may call the dead Flanders plain, and the bill is on the low elope which overlooks it. We captured the bill by a very successful piece of sapping and mining. We tunnelled under the German trenches which held the hill, blew them into the air, and before the enemy could recover from their surprise occupied the trenches with our own troops and immediately prepared them against re- capture by their previous owners. The Germans have ever since been making furious counter-attacks, but they have been in every case repulsed with heavy lose.
The latest news seems to show that the struggle for Hill 60 may become a second battle of Ypres, for the German attacks are said to be spreading on both sides of the bill, the Germans bringing up large bodies of troops and some of their famous 17 in. howitzers. We have little doubt that our men will snake good their position. It is, however, conceivable that the incident may provoke the great battle in Flanders which has been so long expected. If it does, England may await the event with composure. The strength of our forces and of our military position generally is very much greater than it was at the first battle of Ypres, when the tenuity of our line gave cause for no small anxiety. But while we are very much stronger, there is no reason to suppose that the Germans have had any accession of strength. Their forces are presumably not less than they were in numbers, but they are not greater, and at the some time the quality is almost certainly not so good. Since last November their losses in front-line troops have been very serious. Again, while their artillery has been more or less stationary, ours has greatly improved.
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