when asked how
the battle was going were never too preoccupied to reply. It was
anybody's privilege to ask a question and everybody seemed to delight to
answer it. I talked with a group of men who were washing down their
bread with draughts of red wine, their first meal after they had been
through two lines of trenches. Their brigade had taken more prisoners
than it had had casualties. Their dead were few and less mourned because
they had fallen in such a glorious victory. Rattling talk gave gusto to
every mouthful.

Unlike the English, these victors were articulate; they rejoiced in
their experiences and were glad to tell about them. If one had fought it
out at close quarters with a German and got his man, he made the
incident into a dramatic episode for your edification. It was war; he
had been in a charge; he had escaped alive; he had won. He liked the
thrill of his exploit and enjoyed the telling, not allowing it to drag,
perhaps, for want of a leg. Every Frenchman is more or less of a
general, as Napoleon said, and every one knew the meaning of this
victory. He liked to make the most of it and relive it.

After having seen the trenches that the British had taken on the high
ground around Fricourt, I was the more interested to see those that the
French had taken on July 1st. The British had charged uphill against the
strongest fortifications that the Germans could devise in that chalky
subsoil so admirably suited for the purpose. Those before the French
were not so strong and were in alluvial soil on the plain. Many of the
German dugouts in front of Dompierre were in relatively as good
condition as those at Fricourt, though not so numerous or so strong;
which meant that the artillery of neither army had been able completely
to destroy them. The ground on the plain permitted of no such
advantageous tactical points for machine guns as those which had
confronted the British, in front of whom the Germans had massed immense
reserves of artillery, particularly in the Thiepval-Gommecourt sector
where the British attack had failed, besides having the valuable ridge
of Bapaume at their backs. In front of the French the Germans had
smaller forces of artillery on the plain where the bend of the Somme was
at their backs.

This is not detracting from the French success, which was complete and
masterful. The cooerdination of artillery and infantry must have been
perfect, as you could see when you went over the field where ther