Non nobis, Domine!—­non nobis!

It will, I think, be of use to the non-military reader if I append to the sketch I have just given of the last phase of the British effort, the following paragraphs written last January by an officer of the General Staff, in response to the question indicated in the opening sentence.

“I have been asked to say what in my opinion were the most critical and anxious stages of the series of great successful battles opened on the 8th August, 1918.  The question is not easy, for the whole period was one of high tension, calling for continuous and unsparing effort.

“From one point of view, the opening battle east of Amiens was decisive, for it marked the turning point of the campaign on the British front.  Its moral effects, both on our own troops and on the enemy, were far-reaching and give the key to the whole of the succeeding struggle.  Nothing less than a sweeping success, such as that actually achieved, could have produced this result.  The days preceding the attack, therefore, constituted a most anxious period.  On the other hand, from the purely military point of view, our chances of success were exceedingly good.  The attack was to be delivered by fresh troops, second to none in the world in fighting qualities, assisted by an unprecedented concentration of mechanical aids to victory.  Preparations had been long and careful, every contingency had been thought out, and there was every reason to expect that our attack would be a complete surprise.

“Militarily, the more critical period was that which immediately followed the battle when, having reached the line of the old Somme defences of 1916, it was decided to switch the point of attack to the area north of the Somme.  On the success of this manoeuvre depended whether the attack of the 8th August was to be a single isolated victory comparable to the battle of Messines in June, 1917, or whether it was to develop into something very much greater.  The decision was a grave one, and was in some sense a departure from previous practice.  The enemy was now on the alert, the troops to be employed had already been severely tried in the earlier fighting of the year, and failure would have called down severe criticism upon the wisdom of abandoning so quickly the scene of our first great success.

“It was only after the first days of heavy fighting (in the battle of Bapaume), during which progress was comparatively slow and the situation full of anxiety, that the event proved that the step had been wisely taken.

“Then, when the success of this bold manoeuvre had declared itself, and the enemy had begun the first stages of his great retreat, the next critical period arrived on the 2nd September, when the powerful defences of the Drocourt-Queant line were attacked and broken.  The effect of this success was to render the whole of the enemy’s positions to the south untenable and to throw him back definitely upon the Hindenburg line.