d a
curtain of fire. It makes a difference. It seems to me we are steadily
beating the Boche at his own game. He used to be strong in the matter of
guns, but that's been taken from him. He used gas--do you remember the
way the Canadians got the first lot? Well, now our gas shells are a bit
too strong for him, and so are our flame shells. I bet he wishes now
that he hadn't thought of his flame-throwers! ... Then there's another
thing, and that's the way our chaps keep improving. The Fritzes are not
so good as they used to be. You get up against a bunch now and again
that fight well, but we begin to see more of the 'Kamerad' business.
It's as much up to the people at home to see this thing through as it is
to the men out here. We need the guns and shells to blow the Germans out
of the strong places that they've had years to build and dig, and the
folks at home can leave the rest to us. We can do the job all right if
they back us up and don't get tired. I think we've shown them that too.
You'll get all that from the papers, but maybe it comes better from a
soldier. You can take it from me that it's true. I've seen the
beginning, and I've been in places where things were pretty desperate
for us, and I've seen _the start of the finish_. The difference is
marvellous. I've only had an army education, and it might strike you
that I'm not able to judge. I'm a soldier though, and I look at it as a
soldier. I say, give us the stuff, keep on giving us the tools and the
men to use them, and--it may be soon or it may be long--we'll beat the
Boche to his knees."

The truth seems to be that the Germans are outmatched, first and
foremost, in aircraft and in guns. You will remember the quiet certainty
of our young Flight-Commander on March 1st--"When the next big offensive
comes, we shall down them, just as we did on the Somme." The prophecy
has been made good, abundantly good!--at the cost of many a precious
life. The air observation on our side has been far better and more
daring than that on the German side; and the work of our artillery has
been proportionately more accurate and more effective.

As to guns and ammunition, "the number of heavy shells fired in the
first week of the present offensive"--says an official account--"was
nearly twice as great as it was in the first week of the Somme
offensive, and in the second week it was 6-1/2 times as great as it was
in the second week of the Somme offensive. As a result of this great
a