Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1917-04-05
tBy Sir Philip Sassoon, Aid de Camp
to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.)

10 flelQ haFSnal SlF douglas HAS
London.-what has been bent car
be broken.
For two years, despite the superior
ity of the enemy in all the essential:
Of modern war, the gallantry of oul
first armies broke the enemy's utmosI
efforts: while behind our thinly held
line we forged the weapons viii
which to conquer.
At the beginning of last summer
our weapons at length were ready
They were forged, and no ,one coulc
be certain how they would bear the
strain when tried in the fire of battle
The story of how our forces stood
that test is now known to all, and nc
matter what the victories that await
us IN the future, that story will re
main for all time as one of the proud
est records of the British nation. ]
say nation a~dvisedly, for in it all had
their part. our soldiers in the trenches
and all who labored d~evotedly, pa
tiently and hopefully at home, men
and women, in all manner of employ.
ments and in every walk of life.
Ii has 8been the battle of a nation
and it is a naton's victory. In the
course OF FIVE months fighting on the
Somme we proved ourselves time and
again more than a match for a nation
that for half q century has made mill.
tarism its idol. For the first tin. our
soldiers and our allies, fighting side
by side. bent back the iron ring thar
threatened France.
What has been bent can be broken
Troops "Eas.d" Into Battle.
Troops, no matter how good mater.
ial they may be. have got TO get
gradually hardened 10 war before
they q hope o face conditions sach
Is those that prevailed last Summer
on the somme-
II was here thar the care and
wgtehfalness q gur leaders refe
shown. without which a splendid ma.
chine might SO easily have beer 5rox.
en bF unskilfal handling Measure.
we're taken 10 ensure That fresh troops
haald have an easy fatrodaestoz 10
the sh1s end sounds Of hattie - Thai
when thsy went dorm 10 The great
LEE -
tght teg already knew asmethzg "a
ws1
There z foqaa tae eaezay aast
baalad aafauses 10 take which ii
wes haze n@d AZ impose
bic Az to destroy Tie walls Of Jerleao
WITH rs ssaad Of t9pmpets
Tie ensrsg barbed wire ensangas
maats sesore his trenches we're il
belts al wide as TWO cricket pitches
and they we're not content with oae
belt Their dagouss were az deep be
aev the surface Of the ground as i
roorl il nlgh. They had enough guns
1tscbtne guns. and trench raortars, 81
seeEned, to sweep an attacking force
Of the fsce of The earth before 1T Nas
hall wss from It's trenches.
Yet on the frst day Of the attack
oar men drove over these defense;
almost Is though they had not beer
there and though the enemy rallied
ard fought With the greatest deeper
alton from that day on We we're I'll
vars advancing, sometimes more
slowly. sometimes more rapidly, bu,
never stopping.
The enemy could not stop us, ans
he isag not stopped tg now.
Monotonous Fights Win Battle.
He coBid NOT gel his troops up fas
enough to ave his second line. Tha
fell Ms the first had done. But ii,
that time his masses OF reinforcelments
had rolled ap. and before our troop
could reach his third line there EN-
sued ii long, grim and deternfnes
struggle, lasting through AugustNans
into September. In which the fnes
divisions insth1 German army werl,
pifsed against NV one after the other
and nj after the other had to n
Withdrawn shattered.
THEN when the anerny's third Iiul
had All length been reached and On
frentt asy rs Iii si:t along The crssts5S
the ridge, w were able To begin III