8 
LAND & WATER 
September 7, 1916 
diminishing resources l>ya retirement that would shorten 
his hne. 
Superficially this is " Verdun all over again." l'\nida- 
mentally it is very different. For Verdun was a desperate 
" staving off " by diminishing against increasing forces 
in men and mateiial. The Somme is part of a general 
increasing and culminating squeeze exercised by a 
waxing set of military against a waning set of opposed 
energies. 
This week-end the British forced Guiflemont and half 
Ginchy and took over 1,000 prisoners ; the French 
to their right forced all I-e Forest and Clery and took 
more than 6,000 prisoners and thirty-six guns (up to 
Monday at noon). But such trophies are not an end in 
themselves.. They are indices of a whole situation. 
They are proofs that the pressure is maintained at a 
maximum against the enemj', that each successive stroke 
deliberately prepared can. at the chosen moment, be 
driven right home ; that the concave arc the enemy has 
to hold here can be. and is methodically extended by 
the Allies and that the process of time finds the Alliccl 
energy unabated by the heavy artillery, which is the 
great organ of this work, always dominating, the observa- 
tion from the air (and now from the crest of the ridge 
also), mastering the enemy's counter-power of observa- 
tion, and the enemy always and progressively yielding 
and suffering under each new blow. He has already had 
to pass nearly fifty divisions through this fire ; he must 
always keep some twenty in the burning of it : and with 
every week that passes the strain of sucb a task — in view 
of all the new work imposed upon him in the East, and 
of the increasing thinness of his \Vcs;:cn line elsewhere 
than at Verdun, and on the Sonune — bring-.i him nearer 
and nearer to his fate. 
Test of Unwounded Prisoners 
One very practical and just way of seeing how the 
thing goes, is to note the regular methodic way in which 
each swing of the hammers on this front may be measured 
in the unwoimded prisoners taken after the first " break- 
ing of the crust," which filled the first ten days of July 
and accounted for an initial " foundation," so to speak, 
of some seven thousand men. Mark at once the apparent 
exiguity of each day's announcement and — what is far 
more important — the unceasing rate and persistence of 
the work. 
I would particularly call the attention of the reader to 
the way in which a detailed following of the thing contra- 
dicts the false impression of a rapid rush followed by 
something resembling a stalemate. Upon the contrary, 
the whole thing is like a series of blows in a boxing match, 
delivered by a superior against an inferior opponent and 
gradually acquiring accumulative effect. 
On July nth in the Wood of Mametz 296 more un- 
wounded prisoners were reported ; and near Contal- 
maison i8f). On that same day the whole of Contal- 
maison fell into the hands of the British. They 
counted a further capture of a heavy piece and three 
field guns. 
The i2th of July, Wednesday, was a dav of German 
counter-attack — which achieved nothing decisive and 
the following day. Thursday the 13th, was a day of heavy 
artillery fire marked only by the capture of a few pieces, 
where and how the despatch did not tell us. 
Upon Friday, July 14th, came the second main launch- 
ing of the infantry. The attack opened before dawn, at 
half-past three in the morning, and was vigorously 
pursued all day. By the Saturday evening at half-past 
7 Headquarters could report another 2,000 prisoners. 
A considerable belt of ground was taken in this second of 
the main attacks, but I ^m particularly calling attention 
not to ground, but to attrition, and to' thi- way in which 
^ the British sector of the Somme offensive has been week 
after week a series of successful blows. 
On Monday, July i8th, some hundreds. 
As the month proceeds, you get the items day after 
day : 
126 wounded prisoners. Next, on the i8th an un- 
coimted batch which appears in the future total. On the 
iQth 60 ; on the 20th another uncoimted small batch, 
and on the 21st another. 
Then came the " lull " of an arti|iery preparation, 
and uncounted batches of prisoners day after day, of 
which we have exact numbers only upon the 24th and 
the 28th — 151 and 2oq respfctively. Though to each of • 
these j)recise figures, which relate only to a portion of the 
field, must be added batches under the title of " a few " ; 
" a number " continually repeated. 
L'pon July joth an exactly enumerated 450 are 
mentioned. 
Upon Monday, July 31st, another lull of artillery 
work and consolidations. So ended the -first month of 
the business. And judged by that single criterion of 
prisoners taken alone something close upon 4,000 were 
already in British hands over and above the large initial 
captures of the first days. 
Wearing Down German Numbers 
It is indeed a sound criticism to say that this criterion 
is most imperfect. The business of all these actions is 
the wearing down of Gennan numbers. There will be 
days in which very few men will fall unwounded into the 
liands of the force which is securely pressing its 
superiority against an inferior enemy, and yet during 
which the losses may be exceptionally heavy through 
enemy reinforcement being caught in the open, through 
the exceptional success of the heavy artillery work against 
communications and billets, points of concentration and 
batteries behind the enemy's front. 
Nevertheless, rough and very imperfect as the criterion 
is, this daily tale of prisoners is the only precise numerical 
guide we have, and we may usefully follow it. 
We come to August. . 
Upon August 5th came another considerable infantry 
action, the attack north of Pozieres, in which the Aus- 
tralians and three other regiments did the work. The 
advance in the line we neglect, but we note the capture* 
of another batch of prisoners called in the despatch 
" several hundred " and enumerated in private corres- 
pondence at something between 400 and 500. 
The next two days were days of unsuccessful counter- 
attack by the enemy. August qth gave another " small 
batch " of prisoners. August loth 72. Sunday, August 
13th, after another lull, gave " a small batch, "but these 
days were full of a very strong German counter-attack in 
which there was a local temporary loss of a sector of 
trenches near Pozieres. 
The 17th, a day of exceedingly heavy German losses 
when a considerable body of the enemy's troops were 
caught in the open, is not mentioned in the despatch as 
furnishing prisoners, but the ne.xt day yielded 200, and 
upon Saturday the 19th, the morrow, the official despatch 
talks of " several hundred " prisoners, and private 
advices of a thousand ; 796 had passed through up to 
4 o'clock of that day. 
Tuesday, August 22nd, gave 164 more, including some 
captured, but not mentioned upon the day before. 
Thursday, the 24th, gave another batch unenumerated, 
and an additional 62 from some part of the field where 
there had been delay in making the returns. 
Friday the 25th, accounts for over another 100, and 
the total to date approaches or perhaps passes the 14,000. 
August's Record 
With the end of the month a full total is rendered. 
It shows the daily work of August on almost exactly the 
same curve as that which marked the preceding month 
after the initial capture of the first line, and by the last 
day of August nearly 16,000 valid prisoners are in the 
hands of the British alone. 
Now we are in the third month— September. We 
have advices of what has happened in the first four days. 
Ihe losses in prisoners— since we are following that test 
—we have seen. It is an exact continuation upon the 
same curve " some hundreds," over " 1,000 ha\'e been 
passed through so far." 
That is the way to look at the operations in Picardy. 
rhe test of prisoners is, I repeat, a most imperfect one. 
Ihc artillery accounts for much more, the first line 
hghtmg for much more. Even the combined attrition 
IS not all the meaning of the thing. But even the im- 
perfect test here chosen is exceedingly significant. 
It proves the regularity, the persistence, and the 
success of but one of cow ei^ht intensive sectors of effort 
that are deciding the war. H. Belloc 
