er powers
mysterious to us; the sword with which he thrust and feinted and
guarded in the ceaseless fencing of trench warfare, while higher
authorities than he kept their secrets as he kept his and bided their
day.

That morning one of the battalions which had its pencilled place on
the map had taken a section of trench from the Germans about the
length of two city blocks. It got into the official bulletins of both sides
several times, this two hundred yards at Pilken in the everlastingly
"hot corner" north of Ypres. So it was of some importance, though not
on account of its length. To take two hundred yards of trench
because it is two hundred yards of trench is not good war, tacticians
agree. Good war is to have millions of shells and vast reserves ready
and to go in over a broad area and keep on going night and day, with
a Niagara of artillery, as fresh battalions are fed into the conflict.

But the Germans had command of some rising ground in front of the
British line at this point. They could fire down and crosswise into our
trench. It was as if we were in the alley and they were in a first-floor
window. This meant many casualties. It was man-economy and fire-
economy to take that two hundred yards. A section of trench may
always be taken if worth while. Reduce it to dust with shells and then
dash into the breach and drive the enemy back from zigzag traverse
to traverse with bombs. But such a small action requires as careful
planning as a big operation of other days. We had taken the two
hundred yards. The thing was to hold them. That is always the
difficulty; for the enemy will concentrate his guns to give you the
same dose that you gave him. In an hour after they were in, the
British soldiers, who knew exactly what they had to do and how to do
it, after months of experience, had turned the wreck of the German
trench into a British trench which faced toward Berlin, rather than
Calais.

In their official bulletin the Germans said that they had recovered the
trench. They did recover part of it for a few hours. It was then that the
commander on the German side must have sent in his report to catch
the late evening editions. Commanders do not like to confess the loss
of trenches. It is the sort of thing that makes headquarters ask: "What
is the matter with you over there, anyway?" There was a time when
the German bulletins about the Western front seemed rather truthful;
but of late they have been getting into bad h