his brilliant advance in Champagne. The Americans
were pushing forward in the Argonne. Both movements were
indispensable; but it was the capture of this great fortified system
which really decided the war. "No attack in the history of the world,
was ever better carried out," said Marshal Foch to Mr. Ward Price, in
Paris, on April 16th last--"than the one made on the Hindenburg line
near St. Quentin and Cambrai, by the Fourth, Third and First British
Armies, on September 27th-29th. The enemy positions were most
formidable. Nothing could stop the British. They swept right over
them. It was a glorious day for British arms." It was also the climax
of two months' fighting in which French, British, and Americans had
all played to the full the part laid down for them by the history of
the preceding years, and in which it fell to the British Army to give
the final and victorious blow.

_Non nobis, Domine!--non nobis!_

It will, I think, be of use to the non-military reader if I append to
the sketch I have just given of the last phase of the British effort,
the following paragraphs written last January by an officer of the
General Staff, in response to the question indicated in the opening
sentence.

"I have been asked to say what in my opinion were the most critical
and anxious stages of the series of great successful battles opened on
the 8th August, 1918. The question is not easy, for the whole period
was one of high tension, calling for continuous and unsparing effort.

"From one point of view, the opening battle east of Amiens was
decisive, for it marked the turning point of the campaign on the
British front. Its moral effects, both on our own troops and on the
enemy, were far-reaching and give the key to the whole of the
succeeding struggle. Nothing less than a sweeping success, such as
that actually achieved, could have produced this result. The days
preceding the attack, therefore, constituted a most anxious period. On
the other hand, from the purely military point of view, our chances of
success were exceedingly good. The attack was to be delivered by fresh
troops, second to none in the world in fighting qualities, assisted by
an unprecedented concentration of mechanical aids to victory.
Preparations had been long and careful, every contingency had been
thought out, and there was every reason to expect that our attack
would be a complete surprise.

"Militarily, the more critical period was that which immediate