elivered against two different points. A
feint against one position that would bring the German corps reserves,
that were always available in some central point, to the assistance of
their comrades. This corps army we knew always come on the third day
of a fight. We would have it come to the wrong place. Then a fierce
storm of artillery fire would be delivered at the point where the real
gap in the line was to be made; a drive through it with the infantry,
with plenty of supports; such were Wellington's methods. Then a "steam
roller" advance for the objective, surrounding and disregarding
fortified villages and redoubts, that would send the Germans
scattering right and left for the Rhine. We realized that our task as
part of the trench army would be a difficult one, but we had every
confidence that the trench army could open the gate for a field army
at any point in the line required. But a trench army in so doing would
lose one third of its effectives, and putting a regiment in the
trenches for a long tour of trench work destroys its initiative as far
as field manoeuvring is concerned. All these things were planned and
marches calculated. It was figured out where the Germans might make a
stand, generally where some famous battle had been fought in the past,
how they would be overwhelmed with fresh divisions on their flanks,
brought up in motor trucks and their troops blown out of the earth
with hundreds of "four point five" and "six-inch" field howitzers
which were proving to be such excellent guns for our troops. That is
how we planned to drive the enemy out of Flanders. Alas, most of those
young ardent soldiers who were so well trained by our military
colleges to carry on the staff work of such an army of invasion were
doomed to give up their lives in the sodden and muddy trenches. We had
confidence that the day would come soon when a big field army would be
ready behind us, and it would be only a case of "whoop" and "haloo"
and the German fox would be off full tear for the cover of the Rhine
and its fortress strongholds.

For days we had been gaining superiority in various ways over the
enemy. Our riflemen dominated theirs. When we took over the trenches
first, if we fired one shot they answered with ten. Now they did not
answer at all. When our guns fired on their guns for every shell we
handed to them they religiously gave us five back. Now they kept still
and took their gruel. They had given us trouble with their