ger the plans of General Brussilov.

The British had been receiving reenforcements steadily, and were at
the beginning of 1916 in a position to lengthen their line sensibly.
In the neighborhood of Arras they were able to relieve an entire
French army, the Tenth. The French on their side had by no means
exhausted their reserves at Verdun, but it would prove a welcome
relief to them if by strong pressure the long strain were lifted in
Picardy. Sir Douglas Haig, it was stated, would have preferred to
delay the Somme offensive a little longer, for while his forces were
rapidly increasing, the new levies were not as yet completely trained.
In view, however, of the general situation of the Allies in the west
it was imperative that the blow should be delivered not later than
midsummer of 1916.

The original British Expeditionary Force, popularly known as the "Old
Contemptibles," who performed prodigies of valor in the first terrible
weeks of the war, had largely disappeared. In less than two years the
British armies had grown from six to seventy divisions, not including
the troops sent by India and Canada. In addition there were large
numbers of trained men in reserve sufficient, it was believed, to
replace the probable wastage that would occur for a year to come. It
was in every sense a New British Army, for the famous old regiments of
the line had been renewed since Mons, and the men of the new
battalions were drawn from the same source that supplied their drafts.
The old formations had a history, the new battalions had theirs to
make. This in good time they proceeded to do, as will be subsequently
shown.

In the Somme area the German front was held by the right wing of the
Second Army, once Von Billow's, but now commanded by Otto von Below a
brother of Fritz von Below commanding the Eighth Army in the east. The
area of Von Below's army in the Somme region began south of Monchy,
while the Sixth Army under the Crown Prince of Bavaria lay due north.
The front between Gommecourt and Frise in the latter part of June was
covered in this manner. North of the Ancre lay the Second Guard
Reserve Division and the Fifty-second Division (two units of the
Fourteenth Reserve Corps raised in Baden, but including Prussians,
Alsatians, and what not), the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-eighth Reserve
Divisions, and then the Twelfth Division of the Sixth Reserve Corps.
Covering the road to Peronne south of the river were the One Hundred
and Twent