losses. Napoleon said that no body of
men could lose more than 25 per cent of their fighting strength in an
action without being broken in spirit. Our men lost double that, and
more than double, but kept their courage, though in some cases they lost
their hope.

The 55th Division of Lancashire men, in their attacks on a line of
pill-boxes called Plum Farm, Schuler Farm, and Square Farm, below the
Gravenstafel Spur, lost 3,840 men in casualties out of 6,049. Those
were not uncommon losses. They were usual losses. One day's fighting in
Flanders (on October 4th) cost the British army ten thousand casualties,
and they were considered "light" by the Higher Command in relation to
the objects achieved.

General Harper of the 51st (Highland) Division told me that in his
opinion the official communiques and the war correspondents' articles
gave only one side of the picture of war and were too glowing in their
optimism. (I did not tell him that my articles were accused of being
black in pessimism, pervading gloom.) "We tell the public," he said,
"that an enemy division has been 'shattered.' That is true. But so is
mine. One of my brigades has lost eighty-seven officers and two thousand
men since the spring." He protested that there was not enough liaison
between the fighting-officers and the Higher Command, and could not
blame them for their hatred of "the Staff."

The story of the two Irish divisions--the 36th Ulster; and 16th
(Nationalist)--in their fighting on August 16th is black in tragedy.
They were left in the line for sixteen days before the battle and were
shelled and gassed incessantly as they crouched in wet ditches. Every
day groups of men were blown to bits, until the ditches were bloody and
the living lay by the corpses of their comrades. Every day scores of
wounded crawled back through the bogs, if they had the strength to
crawl. Before the attack on August 16th the Ulster Division had lost
nearly two thousand men. Then they attacked and lost two thousand more,
and over one hundred officers. The 16th Division lost as many men before
the attack and more officers. The 8th Dublins had been annihilated in
holding the line. On the night before the battle hundreds of men were
gassed. Then their comrades attacked and lost over two thousand more,
and one hundred and sixty--two officers. All the ground below two knolls
of earth called Hill 35 and Hill 37, which were defended by German
pill-boxes called Pond Farm and Gall