There were not enough troops to man continuous lines of trenches; a new method was devised around a three zone system which the British had learned from the ‘defence in depth’ concept developed by the Germans in the winter of 1917 - ‘18. The first line of defence was called the Advanced Zone, a thin line of infantry supported by numerous strong posts composed of infantry and machine guns. Along this line were a series of listening and observation posts, for example there was one platoon of men from the 2nd Dublin Fusiliers in a post called Zebra Post which was only six hundred and thirty yards from the observation post in the 2nd Dubs Advanced Zone trench. This post was commanded by 2nd Lieut. O’Connell. Behind Zebra Post was another post, named Yak Post, commanded by 2nd Lieut. Jackson and contained one platoon. On staff military maps, it was shown as a Blue Line.

distance of about two miles. The front line of the 1st Battalion of the Dubs was between a farmhouse called Malassie Farm and a wooded area called May Copse. Both the farm and wood are still there to this day. It was a distance of about fifteen hundred yards. The 2nd Battalion of the Dublins was to the right of the 1st Battalion. Their front line was approx. one thousand one hundred yards long. The communication trench that linked the men of 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Dublin Fusiliers in the Advanced Zone with their Battalion HQ was called St. Patrick’s Avenue. Behind the Battle Zone was yet another zone, it was the Rear Zone, where reserve formations were placed. It was depicted on the staff maps as a Yellow Line. Behind these three main lines of defence lay a further two defensive lines and yet two more colours to depict on the staff maps. They were the Brown Line, which ran in front of St. Emile and the finally the Green Line which ran in front of Tincourt. The last two lines were not actually dug and were only marked out on the map. The order of colours were Blue, Red, Yellow, Brown and Green. (One might wonder did Haig’s Generals plan the defence of Paris on a snooker table in some elegant French Chateaux.)

The 1st Battalion had a strength of twenty eight officers and six hundred and forty five other ranks. The strength of the 2nd Battalion was twenty three officers and six hundred and forty three other ranks. The War Diary for March the 20th of the 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers contains the significant entry:

Enemy attack is expected any day now. It is now stated to be certain, although on many previous occasions it was given out that it was about to take place.

The pattern of fighting in the First World War was massive bombardments on the opposition followed by a massive infantry assault on their lines of defence. Both the German and British armies followed this pattern from the beginning to the end of the war. In 1914, the first battle of Ypres was a German offensive, the Battle of the Somme was a British offensive, the third battle of Ypres in Autumn 1917 was a British offensive, now in March 1918 it was the turn of the Germans to launch their offensive. The common feature about these mass offensives was that little ground was made, all ended in stalemate and all had unbelievable tragic loss of human life. The historian, Sir Arthur Bryant in his English Saga (1840 - 1940) describes the philosophy which had ‘taken hold of the British military mind’ during the First World War.

The dominating idea was that as the total population of the Allied Powers was higher than that of their foes, the process of scaling down both fighting populations, man for man, as rapidly as possible must end in the ultimate survival of the larger. The quicker the rate of mutual destruction the military statisticians argued, the sooner the war would be over.

At 4:45 am on a foggy 21st of March 1918, the Germans threw their last great offensive at the Allies. It was called, ‘The Battle of The Somme 1918,’ otherwise known as the, 'German March Offensive.' The bombardment extended to a depth of eight miles. With Biblical undertones, the 2nd Battalion of the Dubs had been in the front line without relief for forty days and forty nights. They were due for relief when the Germans launched the first wave of their attack using gas. Major Wheeler was in command and Rev. Father Casey was their Chaplain.

Between 04:45 and 14:30 on the 21st of March 1918, over a distance between Zebra Post in the 2nd Battalion's sector and the village of St. Emile, i.e. a distance of approx. two miles, one thousand and sixty two men of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Dublin Fusiliers had been gassed, blown to bits or had been driven crazy and gone missing. Among the dead was a Dublin postman named Andrew Kinsella, who came from Arbour Place in Dublin. Andrew was a member of the 1st Bat. Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he was thirty six years of age when he was killed somewhere near the French village of Epehy. He was typical of the thousands of Irish men who lost their lives in the many bloody battles that made up the Great War and have for so long been forgotten, or labelled as not real Irishmen.

At the risk of being totally annihilated, the Dubs were ordered to retreat. The retreat of the entire 16th (Irish) Division lasted ten or eleven days. The official history records the losses as 7,149 men killed, wounded or missing which means they were taken prisoner, buried from artillery or just blown to bits. The Ulster regiments suffered 6,109 casualties. The losses for the entire VII Corps which consisted of five  divisions was 25,000 men.