d on
our full strength. Thenceforward the chief strain lay on the
constantly developing Armies of Great Britain. From July, 1916, to the
Armistice, Sir Douglas Haig bids us conceive the long succession of
battles fought by the Allies in France as "one great and continuous
engagement." "Violent crises of fighting" within such a conflict may
appear individually as "indecisive battles." But the issue is all the
time being slowly and inexorably decided. And as soon as the climax is
reached, and the weakening of one side or the other begins, nothing
but the entry of some new and unexpected factor can avert the
inevitable end. When Russia broke down in 1917, it looked for a time
as though such a new factor had appeared. It prolonged the war, and
gave Germany a fresh lease of fighting strength, but it was not
sufficient to secure victory. She did her utmost with it in 1918, and
when she failed, the older factors that had been at work, through all
the deadly progress of the preceding years of the war, were seen at
last for the avengers, irresistible and final, that they truly were.
"The end of the war," says the Commander-in-Chief, "was neither
sudden, nor should it have been unexpected." The rapid collapse of
Germany's military powers in the latter half of 1918 was the logical
outcome of the fighting of the previous two years. _Attrition_ and
_blockade_ are the two words that explain the final victory. As to the
cost of that victory, the incredible heart-rending cost, Sir Douglas
Haig maintains that, given the vast range of the struggle, and the
vital issues on which it turned--given also the unpreparedness of
England, and the breakdown of Russia, the casualties of the war could
not have been less. The British casualties in all theatres of war are
given as 3,000,000--2,500,000 on the Western front; the French at
4,800,000; the Italians, including killed and wounded only, 1,400,000;
a total of _nine million, two hundred thousand_. On the enemy side,
the Field Marshal gives the German and Austro-Hungarian losses at
approximately eleven millions. And to these have to be added the
Russian casualties before 1917, a figure running into millions; the
Serbian, Roumanian, and Turkish losses, and, lastly, the American.

Some _seven million young men_ at least have perished from this
pleasant earth, which is now again renewing its spring life in beauty
and joy, and millions of others will bear the physical marks of the
struggle to their