s of war as it is to-day had to be rubbed in by another
dearly bought experience, and in a hard and bitter school.

The first surprise came when the "Jack Johnsons" began to fall. This
was a nickname given by the men ("Black Marias" was another) to a
high-explosive shell fired from 8-in. howitzers, which had been
brought down from the fortress of Maubeuge to support the German
defensive position on the Aisne. They were our first experience of an
artillery much heavier than our own. Although these guns caused
considerable damage and many bad casualties, they never had any very
demoralising effect upon the troops.

As day by day the trench fighting developed and I came to realise more
and more the much greater relative power which modern weapons have
given to the defence; as new methods were adopted in the defensive use
of machine guns; and as unfamiliar weapons in the shape of "trench
mortars" and "bombs," hand grenades, etc. began to appear on the
battlefield, so, day by day, I began dimly to apprehend what the
future might have in store for us.

This drastic process of education went steadily on, but still reports
came periodically from our aircraft, from our trenches, and from the
French on either flank, that the enemy in front of us was "weakening,"
that (phantom!) columns had been seen marching north, etc.--and so the
small still voice of truth and reality, trying to speak within me,
remained faint and almost unheard.

Presently came Maunoury's great effort to turn the German
right flank. I witnessed one day of this fighting myself with General
Maunoury and came back hopeful: alas! these hopes were not fulfilled.
Afterwards we witnessed the stupendous efforts of de Castelnau and
Foch, but all ended in the same trench! trench! trench!

I finished my part in the Battle of the Aisne, however, unconverted,
and it required the further and more bitter lesson of my own failure
in the north to pass the Lys River, during the last days of October,
to bring home to my mind a principle in warfare of to-day which I have
held ever since, namely, that given forces fairly equally matched, you
can "bend" but you cannot "break" your enemy's trench line.

Everything which has happened in the war has borne out the truth of
this view, and from the moment I grasped this great truth I never
failed to proclaim it, although eventually I suffered heavily for
holding such opinions.

The great feature of the pursuit on the 11th was the