In the Battle of Bapaume (August 21st-September 1st) the Third and Fourth British Armies, twenty-three divisions against thirty-five German divisions, drove the enemy from one side of the old Somme battle-field to the other, recovered all the ground lost in the spring, and took 34,000 prisoners and 270 guns.  The enemy’s morale was now failing; surrenders became frequent, and there were many signs of the exhaustion of the German reserves.  And again, by the turning of his line, large tracts of territory were recovered almost without fighting.  By September 6th, five months after we had stood “with our backs to the wall” in defence of the Channel ports, the Lys salient had disappeared, and the old Ypres line was almost restored.

In the Battle of the Scarpe (August 26th-September 3rd) General Horne’s First Army, with the Canadian Corps and the Highlanders in its ranks, drove eastwards, north and south of the Scarpe, till they had come within striking distance of the Drocourt-Queant line.  In twelve hours, on the 2nd of September, the Canadian Corps, with forty tanks, Canadian cavalry and armoured cars, had captured “the whole of the elaborate system of wire, trenches, and strong points,” which runs north-west from the Hindenburg line proper to the Lens defences at Drocourt; while the 17th Corps attacked the triangle of fortifications marking the junction of the Drocourt-Queant line with the Hindenburg line proper, and cleared it magnificently, the 52nd (Lowland) Division especially distinguishing itself.  There was “stern fighting” further south that day, right down to the neighbourhood of Peronne; but during the night the enemy “struck his tents,” and began a hasty retreat to the line of the Canal du Nord.  Sixteen thousand prisoners and 200 guns had been the spoil of the battle.

The Battle of Havrincourt (September 12th-18th) was a struggle for the outer defences of the Hindenburg line, which had to be carried before the line itself could be dealt with.  Six days secured the positions wanted for the final attack, and in those six days fifteen British divisions had defeated twenty German divisions, and captured nearly 12,000 prisoners and 100 guns.

That rapid summary has brought me back to the point from which I started.  In three months and a half the “mighty conflict,” in which, on the British side, something short of 700,000 bayonets were engaged, had rushed on from victory to victory; Foch and Haig working together in an ideal marriage of minds and resources; the attack retaining everywhere by the help of the tanks—­of which, in the Battle of Amiens, General Rawlinson had 400 under his command—­the elements of surprise and mobility.  The harassed enemy would find himself hard pressed in a particular section, driven to retreat, with heavy losses in ground, guns and prisoners; and then, as soon as he had discovered a line on which to stand and had thrown in his reserves, the attack would be broken off, only to begin again elsewhere, and with the same energy, unexpectedness, and success.  British Staff work and British tactics were at their highest point of excellence, and the spirit of the men, fanned by that breeze which Victory and Hope bring with them, were, in the Commander-in-Chief’s word, “magnificent.”