uation. Take Ypres and Verdun for example. This
retirement on the Somme is clever, though it may tell on the
morale of his men. On the other hand, the Boche relies, and
always has relied, much more on discipline than on morale for
keeping his army together. He has never developed _esprit de
corps_ as it has been developed in our army, or the French, but
there's no denying that his discipline is something pretty
considerable. That discipline, as far as can be gauged, has as
its foundation a very efficient system of N.C.O.'s. His officers
are intelligent, but nothing to write home about, but his
N.C.O.'s are unquestionably very good. I have myself witnessed
their influence among gangs of prisoners we have taken.

It must necessarily come about in the course of a War that
situations arise when _esprit de corps_ is equivalent to, and
even produces, discipline. That is where brother Boche fails to
rise to the occasion. I am not of those who think the Boche a
coward, but undoubtedly an unexpected situation very often plays
the very deuce with both his courage and his organisation. In his
plans he allows for most possibilities, but he is nonplussed when
the situation does not turn out exactly as it should on paper.
Again, man for man, he loses "guts" in tight corners, because of
this same lack of initiative. It is perhaps a temperamental
failing. There have been moments in this War when only his
incapacity to deal with a suddenly-developed situation has stood
between him and stupendous success. He has assumed, let us say,
that by all the rules of War the enemy must have reserves
available, and has therefore ceased his attack until such time as
he could muster his forces to meet the counter-attack by these
imagined reserve troops, when actually his enemy had no reserves
at all. Conversely, he has assumed on many occasions that his
enemy must, by all the rules of War, be battered into pulp or
asphyxiated, and that he has only to advance over the bodies of
his foes to win an overwhelming victory; yet somehow or other
from out of the indescribable debris and havoc wrought by his
artillery or gas, arise survivors who, though half-dead, yet have
enough life and pluck to hold him back.

Take as illustrations either the second battle of Ypres or
Verdu