hey called for the man who had won victories and the Kaiser
gave them von Hindenburg, whom fortune favored when he sent armies
inspirited by his leadership against amateur soldiers in veteran
confidence, while the weather had stopped the Allied offensive in the
West.

Imagine Lee's men returning from Gettysburg to be confronted by
inexperienced home militia and their cry, "The Yanks have given us a
rough time of it, but you fellows get out of the way!" Such was the
feeling of that German Army as it went southward; not the army that it
was, but quite good enough an army to win against Rumania with the
system that had failed at Verdun.

XXXI

_AU REVOIR_, SOMME!

Sir Douglas Haig--Atmosphere at headquarters something of Oxford and
of Scotland--Sir Henry Rawlinson--"Degumming" the inefficient--Back
on the Ridge again--The last shell-burst--Good-bye to the mess--The
fellow war-correspondents--_Bon voyage_.

The fifth of the great attacks, which was to break in more of the old
first-line fortifications, taking Beaumont-Hamel and other villages, was
being delayed by Brother Low Visibility, who had been having his innings
in rainy October and early November, when the time came for me to say
good-byes and start homeward.

Sir Douglas Haig had been as some invisible commander who was
omnipresent in his forceful control of vast forces. His disinclination
for reviews or display was in keeping with his nature and his conception
of his task. The army had glimpses of him going and coming in his car
and observers saw him entering or leaving an army or a corps
headquarters, his strong, calm features expressive of confidence and
resolution.

There were many instances of his fine sensitiveness, his quick
decisions, his Scotch phrases which could strip a situation bare of
non-essentials. It was good that a man with his culture and charm could
have the qualities of a great commander. In the chateau which was his
Somme headquarters where final plans were made, the final word given
which put each issue to the test, the atmosphere had something of Oxford
and of Scotland and of the British regular army, and everything seemed
done by a routine that ran so smoothly that the appearance of routine
was concealed.

Here he had said to me early in the offensive that he wanted me to have
freedom of observation and to criticise as I chose, and he trusted me
not to give military information to the enemy. When I went to tak