New-York tribune., 1917-07-22
TEUTON AND BRITON-A YEARS HISTORY
How the Successors of the Original "Con-
temptibles" Learned the Art of Mod
ern Wharf.-The Somme as
Training School
By FRANK H. SIMONDS
Author of ''The Great War;" "They Shall Not Pass"

last offensive of the Somme series, which
took Beaumont Hamel, attracted attention
all over the world as the first clear indica-
tion that the British high command and
staff had learned modern war. Even then
military opinion questioned whether the
British staff could rival the achievement
unfolded by the French in the two attacks
on Verdun in October and December.
The answer to this question was made
in April of the present year. At that time
the British army attacked again, but it
was no longer a new army. There were no
longer the old weaknesses of staff work
which lost Loos and made Neuve Chapelle
shambles. There was no longer the fail
ure of July l between Thiepval and
Gommecourt. On the contrary, from the
Souchez River to the Cojeul a great Brit
ish army stepped forward and wrested
from the Germans all its objectives. The
Vimy Ridge, which had defied French ef-
forts, which had baffled Foch in 1915,
which was believed by the Germans to be
impregnable, fell beneath the assaults of
the Canadians, while to the southwark
along the Scarpe, British battalions passed
through four miles of German trenches
and reached Monchy, far beyond. Twenty
one thousand prisoners, more than two
hundred guns, many of them heavy, were
the immediate prize of this attack. The
moral and military superiority actually
attained at the Somme was demonstrated
at the Scarpe.
Arras Shows Progress
Whatever else might have been said at
the time of the Battle of the Somme, II
was no longer possible to doubt that in
the Battle of Arras the Germans had been
outgunned, outmanned, outfought and
outgeneralled. The new British artillery
had achieved mastery over the old German
artillery. German army had been sur
prised, swept off its feet. 1t had lost
ground which it had been fortifying for
nearly three years. 1t was able to avoid
complete disaster only by repeating the
sacrifice of the French in the first days of
Verdun and bringing up its choicest troops
to build a living wall while it could repair
the breach in its dixie.
In the history of the strife between the
new British army and the German the
Battle of Arras is the second stage. There
was a third. From the days of October,
1914, the Ypres salient had been the Achil-
les heel of the British front. The ground
lost in 1914 had placed the Germans on the
high land from which they commanded the
whole Ypres salient and from which they
exacted a never ending toll of casualties.
No offensive operations in this field could
even be prepared without immediate warn
ing to the Germans. Yet in the full view
of the German army the British prepared
an offensive on the ground. In plain sight
of German observation and under the fire
of German artillery they gathered their
strength, they organized their stroke.
The third battle of Ypres represents the
high water mark of British achievement,
because in all respects the British were
able, having directly challenged the Ger
mans, to achieve their objectives without
DELAY and at moderate cost. In few hours
the Germans were swept from the Mes
sines Ridge. They were swept out OF the
villages of Wytschaete and Messines. They
were driven down into the lowlands of the
Lys. All the advantageous points won IN
the battle of October and November, 1914,
were surrendered in a period of minutes.
Seven thousand prisoners, many guns,
much material, were left in British hands,
and so completely successful was the at
tack that it was, as Mr. Belloc pointed out,
forty hours before the Germans were able
TO organize a counter attack, which was
abortive.