“This break-away from trench war gives us a much better time.  We know now that we are the top dogs, and that we are keeping the Germans on the move.  And they’re busy wondering all the time; they don’t know where the next whack is coming from.  Mind you, I’m far from saying that we can get them out of the Hindenburg line without a lot of fighting yet, but it is only a question of time.  It’s a different sensation going over the top now from what it was in the early days.  You see, we used to know that our guns were not nearly so many as the Germans’, and that we hadn’t the stuff to put over.  Now we just climb out of a trench and walk behind a curtain of fire.  It makes a difference.  It seems to me we are steadily beating the Boche at his own game.  He used to be strong in the matter of guns, but that’s been taken from him.  He used gas—­do you remember the way the Canadians got the first lot?  Well, now our gas shells are a bit too strong for him, and so are our flame shells.  I bet he wishes now that he hadn’t thought of his flame-throwers! ...  Then there’s another thing, and that’s the way our chaps keep improving.  The Fritzes are not so good as they used to be.  You get up against a bunch now and again that fight well, but we begin to see more of the ‘Kamerad’ business.  It’s as much up to the people at home to see this thing through as it is to the men out here.  We need the guns and shells to blow the Germans out of the strong places that they’ve had years to build and dig, and the folks at home can leave the rest to us.  We can do the job all right if they back us up and don’t get tired.  I think we’ve shown them that too.  You’ll get all that from the papers, but maybe it comes better from a soldier.  You can take it from me that it’s true.  I’ve seen the beginning, and I’ve been in places where things were pretty desperate for us, and I’ve seen the start of the finish.  The difference is marvellous.  I’ve only had an army education, and it might strike you that I’m not able to judge.  I’m a soldier though, and I look at it as a soldier.  I say, give us the stuff, keep on giving us the tools and the men to use them, and—­it may be soon or it may be long—­we’ll beat the Boche to his knees.”

The truth seems to be that the Germans are outmatched, first and foremost, in aircraft and in guns.  You will remember the quiet certainty of our young Flight-Commander on March 1st—­“When the next big offensive comes, we shall down them, just as we did on the Somme.”  The prophecy has been made good, abundantly good!—­at the cost of many a precious life.  The air observation on our side has been far better and more daring than that on the German side; and the work of our artillery has been proportionately more accurate and more effective.