d
when our men were getting near to them, making us pay a heavy price for
every little copse or gully or section of trench, and above all serving
their machine-guns at La Boisselle, Ovillers, above Fricourt, round
Contalmaison, and at all points of their gradual retreat, with a
wonderful obstinacy, until they were killed or captured. But fresh waves
of British soldiers followed those who were checked or broken.

After the first week of battle the German General Staff had learned the
truth about the qualities of those British "New Armies" which had been
mocked and caricatured in German comic papers. They learned that
these "amateur soldiers" had the qualities of the finest troops in the
world--not only extreme valor, but skill and cunning, not only a great
power of endurance under the heaviest fire, but a spirit of attack which
was terrible in its effect. They were fierce bayonet fighters. Once
having gained a bit of earth or a ruined village, nothing would budge
them unless they could be blasted out by gun-fire. General Sixt von
Arnim put down some candid notes in his report to Prince Rupprecht.

"The English infantry shows great dash in attack, a factor to which
immense confidence in its overwhelming artillery greatly contributes. ..
It has shown great tenacity in defense. This was especially noticeable
in the case of small parties, which, when once established with
machine-guns in the corner of a wood or a group of houses, were very
difficult to drive out."

The German losses were piling up. The agony of the German troops under
our shell-fire was reaching unnatural limits of torture. The early
prisoners I saw--Prussians and Bavarians of the 14th Reserve Corps--were
nerve-broken, and told frightful stories of the way in which their
regiments had been cut to pieces. The German generals had to fill up the
gaps, to put new barriers of men against the waves of British infantry.
They flung new troops into the line, called up hurriedly from reserve
depots.

Now, for the first time, their staff-work showed signs of disorder and
demoralization. When the Prussian Guards Reserves were brought up from
Valenciennes to counter--attack at Contalmaison they were sent on to the
battlefield without maps or local guides, and walked straight into our
barrage. A whole battalion was cut to pieces and many others suffered
frightful things. Some of the prisoners told me that they had lost
three-quarters of their number in casualties, and