nation owed to the organising genius of Lord Haldane and his General
Staff, has passed away, passed into history, with the retreat from Mons,
the first victory of Ypres, the saving of the Channel ports; but its
spirit remains, and its traditions are firmly planted in the new
attackers. I think of the men I saw in March, during that long and weary
wait; of the desire--and the patience--in their eyes.

And of patience they and the nations behind them will still have ample
need. Since surprise on the Somme front was no longer possible, the great
advance has gone surely indeed, but more slowly. On _July 14_, after delay
caused by extraordinarily heavy rains, _the German second line was
breached_, and their trenches carried, on a front of four miles and held
against counter attacks. Longueval, the wood of Bazentin-le-Grand, and the
village, Bazentin-le-Petit, were attacked and captured with an _elan_ that
nothing could resist. "The enemy losses in guns," said the British
Headquarters, "are now over 100. We have not lost one." On _July 17_,
Ovillers was cleared, Waterlot Farm taken, and 1,500 more yards of the
German line. The British had by now taken 11,000 prisoners, to a somewhat
larger number taken by the French, 17 heavy guns, 37 field-guns, 30 trench
howitzers, and 66 machine-guns. On Saturday night, _July 22-23_, the
greater part of Pozieres, on the high ground toward Bapaume, was taken.
"Shortly after midnight," wrote the official correspondent at
Headquarters with the Australian Imperial Forces in France, "on the 23rd,
by a splendid night attack, the Australians took the greater portion of
Pozieres." The previous bombardment had been magnificent. "I had never
before seen such a spectacle. A large sector of the horizon was lit up not
by single flashes, but by a continuous band of quivering light." And under
the protection of the guns, the Anzacs swept forward, passing over
trenches, so entirely obliterated by shell-fire that they were often not
recognised as trenches at all, till they were in the heart of the village.
Then for two days they fought from house to house, and trench to trench;
till on July 27th came the news--"The whole of the village of Pozieres is
now in our hands." And the _Times_ correspondent writes "our establishment
at Pozieres will probably be regarded historically as closing the second
phase of the battle of the Somme."

Since then (I write on August 16) three weeks have passed. The German
Thir