e our
mother wits. My problem was to give ground as slowly as possible and at
the same time not to delay too long, for retreat we must, with the
Boche sending in brand-new divisions each morning. It was a kind of war
worlds distant from the old trench battles, and since I had been taught
no other I had to invent rules as I went along. Looking back, it seems
a miracle that any of us came out of it. Only the grace of God and the
uncommon toughness of the British soldier bluffed the Hun and prevented
him pouring through the breach to Abbeville and the sea. We were no
better than a mosquito curtain stuck in a doorway to stop the advance
of an angry bull.

The Army Commander was right; we were hanging on with our eyelashes. We
must have been easily the weakest part of the whole front, for we were
holding a line which was never less than two miles and was often, as I
judged, nearer five, and there was nothing in reserve to us except some
oddments of cavalry who chased about the whole battle-field under vague
orders. Mercifully for us the Boche blundered. Perhaps he did not know
our condition, for our airmen were magnificent and you never saw a
Boche plane over our line by day, though they bombed us merrily by
night. If he had called our bluff we should have been done, but he put
his main strength to the north and the south of us. North he pressed
hard on the Third Army, but he got well hammered by the Guards north of
Bapaume and he could make no headway at Arras. South he drove at the
Paris railway and down the Oise valley, but there Petain's reserves had
arrived, and the French made a noble stand.

Not that he didn't fight hard in the centre where we were, but he
hadn't his best troops, and after we got west of the bend of the Somme
he was outrunning his heavy guns. Still, it was a desperate enough
business, for our flanks were all the time falling back, and we had to
conform to movements we could only guess at. After all, we were on the
direct route to Amiens, and it was up to us to yield slowly so as to
give Haig and Petain time to get up supports. I was a miser about every
yard of ground, for every yard and every minute were precious. We alone
stood between the enemy and the city, and in the city was Mary.

If you ask me about our plans I can't tell you. I had a new one every
hour. I got instructions from the Corps, but, as I have said, they were
usually out of date before they arrived, and most of my tactics I had
to