led to an advantage created by the blowing of a mine being squandered by the artillery. Bornemann wrote that artillery battery observation posts had been left unmanned, on the assumption that they had been superseded by artillery liaison officers in the front line. Reporting had been inadequate due to complacency and reports should have been circulated to all headquarters rather than individual officers making assumptions that the information had been communicated. The gunners should avoid settling into routine firing, since prisoners had reported that its predictability made it easy to evade; limiting firing to the area in front of batteries should cease and oblique firing into adjacent sectors begin, to ensure that British artillery could not fire with impunity from the flanks. Concentrations of fire consumed too much ammunition on local targets and should be limited to conserve ammunition for firing on other targets, to disrupt British operations and to reassure German infantry that they would not be abandoned by the artillery. Retaliatory fire should be prompt and authority to order fire should be shared by all artillery officers, rather than relying on unreliable communications to request authority to fire on targets as they were observed. Bornemann recommended that if a British artillery battery was detected, it should be engaged with immediately. Co-operation with artillery observers in aircraft and balloons should be improved, with at least one target selected for bombardment in every aircraft sortie, for which the artillery commanders should draw up gridded drawings of targets within range. When British aircraft were overhead, battery positions should cease fire to remain hidden and German aircraft units should be contacted to drive the British away. Bornemann suggested that artillery group commanders should have control of all artillery ammunition allotted to the group and that artillery regimental headquarters should be responsible for replacing stocks and passing on demands for more ammunition to higher headquarters. Fortification of the Western Front, 1915 On the Western Front, General Erich Falkenhayn Chief of the General Staff at the (OHL, German army high command) instituted a construction plan in January 1915, by which the western armies would create field fortifications built to a common system, intended to economise on infantry, while offensive operations were conducted on the Eastern Front. Barbed-wire obstacles had been enlarged from one belt wide to two belts wide and about apart. The front line had been increased from one trench to three, about