The above will serve to show the tenacity which is required for an
operation of this kind. Up to the present the French have made steady
and continuous progress, and their success may be best judged from the
fact that they have not been forced back on any day behind the line they
held in the morning, despite innumerable counter-attacks. And this is
not merely a question of ground, but one of increasing moral
superiority, for it is in the unsuccessful counter-attacks that losses
are heavy, and these and the sense of failure affect the morale of an
army sooner or later.
Will the French push through the line? Will a hole be made, or is the
enemy like a badger, who digs himself in rather faster than you can dig
him out? I cannot tell; it would indeed be an astonishing measure of
success for a first attempt, and the enemy may require a great deal more
hammering at many points before he has definitely had enough at any one
point. But these operations have brought the day closer, and turn our
thoughts to the time when we shall be able to move forward, and one
finds the cavalrymen wondering whether perhaps they, too, will get their
chance.
The Germans Concrete Trenches
By F.
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