It was, of course, already obvious that the German retreat on the Somme
was not--so far--going to yield us any very large captures of men or
guns. Prisoners were indeed collected every day, but there were no
"hauls" such as, little more than a month after this evening of March
3rd, were to mark the very different course of the Battle of Arras.
Discussion turned upon the pace of the German retreat and the possible
rate of our pursuit. "Don't forget," said an officer, "that they are
moving over good ground, while the pursuit has to move over bad
ground--roads with craters in them, ground so pitted with shell-holes
that you can scarcely drive a peg between them, demolished bridges,
villages that give scarcely any cover, and so on. The enemy has his guns
with him; ours have to be pushed up over the bad ground. His
machine-guns are always in picked and prepared positions; ours have to
be improvised."
And also--"Don't forget the weather!" said another. Every misty day--and
there were many in February--was very skilfully turned to account.
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