gs. Those were for
the fifteen-inchers, or the 9.2's. There was enough high-explosive force
littered along those roads above the Somme to blow cities off the map.

"It does one good to see," said a cheery fellow. "The people at home
have been putting their backs into it. Thousands of girls have been
packing those things. Well done, Munitions!"

I could take no joy in the sight, only a grim kind of satisfaction that
at least when our men attacked they would have a power of artillery
behind them. It might help them to smash through to a finish, if that
were the only way to end this long-drawn suicide of nations.

My friend was shocked when I said:

"Curse all munitions!"

II

The British armies as a whole were not gloomy at the approach of that
new phase of war which they called "The Great Push," as though it were
to be a glorified football-match. It is difficult, perhaps impossible,
to know the thoughts of vast masses of men moved by some sensational
adventure. But a man would be a liar if he pretended that British troops
went forward to the great attack with hangdog looks or any visible sign
of fear in their souls. I think most of them were uplifted by the belief
that the old days of trench warfare were over forever and that they
would break the enemy's lines by means of that enormous gun-power behind
them, and get him "on the run." There would be movement, excitement,
triumphant victories--and then the end of the war. In spite of all risks
it would be enormously better than the routine of the trenches. They
would be getting on with the job instead of standing still and being
shot at by invisible earth-men.

"If we once get the Germans in the open we shall go straight through
them."

That was the opinion of many young officers at that time, and for once
they agreed with their generals.

It seemed to be a question of getting them in the open, and I confess
that when I studied the trench maps and saw the enemy's defensive
earthworks thirty miles deep in one vast maze of trenches and redoubts
and barbed wire and tunnels I was appalled at the task which lay before
our men. They did not know what they were being asked to do.

They had not seen, then, those awful maps.

We were at the height and glory of our strength. Out of England had come
the flower of our youth, and out of Scotland and Wales and Canada and
Australia and New Zealand. Even out of Ireland, with the 16th Division
of the south and west, a