ly
followed the battle when, having reached the line of the old Somme
defences of 1916, it was decided to switch the point of attack to the
area north of the Somme. On the success of this manoeuvre depended
whether the attack of the 8th August was to be a single isolated
victory comparable to the battle of Messines in June, 1917, or whether
it was to develop into something very much greater. The decision was a
grave one, and was in some sense a departure from previous practice.
The enemy was now on the alert, the troops to be employed had already
been severely tried in the earlier fighting of the year, and failure
would have called down severe criticism upon the wisdom of abandoning
so quickly the scene of our first great success.

"It was only after the first days of heavy fighting (in the battle of
Bapaume), during which progress was comparatively slow and the
situation full of anxiety, that the event proved that the step had
been wisely taken.

"Then, when the success of this bold manoeuvre had declared itself,
and the enemy had begun the first stages of his great retreat, the
next critical period arrived on the 2nd September, when the powerful
defences of the Drocourt-Queant line were attacked and broken. The
effect of this success was to render the whole of the enemy's
positions to the south untenable and to throw him back definitely upon
the Hindenburg line.

"Undoubtedly the most critical and anxious period of the whole advance
arrived at the end of September. The culminating attacks of the 27th
and 29th of that month on the Canal du Nord and Hindenburg line
defences shattered the most formidable series of field defences that
military science has yet devised and drove the enemy into open
country. These attacks, indeed, accomplished far more than this. They
definitely broke the power of resistance of the German Armies in the
field. In the battles which followed, our troops were able to take
greater and greater risks, and on every occasion with complete
success.

"Yet again, the risk was great. If the enemy had succeeded in holding
the Hindenburg position, he would have been little, if anything, worse
off, territorially at any rate, than he had been before he began his
great adventure of the spring. It was clearly a time for him to pull
himself together and hold on at all costs.

"On the other hand and with all its difficulties, so favourable an
opportunity of securing immediate and decisive victory, by pres