It was dreadful country to live and fight in after
the Germans had gone back over it, much worse than anything that troops
have to face after any ordinary capture of an enemy line.
The fact is that old axioms are being everywhere revised in the light of
this war. In former wars the extreme difficulty of a retreat in the face
of the enemy was taken for granted. But this war--I am trying to
summarise some first-hand opinion as it has reached me--has modified
this point of view considerably.
We know now that for any serious attack on an enemy who has plenty of
machine-guns and plenty of successive well-wired positions a great mass
of heavy and other artillery is absolutely indispensable. And over
ground deliberately wrecked and obstructed such artillery _must_ take
time to bring up. And yet--to repeat--how rapidly, how "persistently"
all difficulties considered, to use the King's adjective, has the
British Army pressed on the heels of the retreating enemy!
None of the officers with whom I talked believed that anything more
could have been done by us than was done.
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