servation.

The whole cycle of operations outlined by the G.H.Q. can be briefly
summarised as follows: The entire movement of troops, guns, and tanks by
NIGHT and to remain under cover from enemy 'planes during daylight. An
abrupt massing on a nine-mile front of the engaging force during the
night prior to launching of tanks and infantry. A furious bombardment
would be opened by artillery at daybreak. Three tanks per Battalion
moving forward would crush gaps in the enemy barbed wire through which
advancing lines of infantry would pour into the Fritz trenches. The
forward movement throughout the day to be carried on in relays of three
Divisions, the final Division attaining and digging in as its objective.
The Ten Hundred, forming the place of honour on the left flank of the
29th Division had to carry an objective situated, of all difficult
places, on the crest of a long rise in the ground--Nine Wood.

At Brigade Headquarters a huge map was built on the ground complete to
the most minute of details. From aero photographs the entire area,
confined to the activities of the 86th was plainly portrayed for
inspection and explanation to the Platoons. Fritz trenches, wire,
observation posts, lines of support and communication; the rise and fall
of the ground; villages; were all emphasised upon until Tommy became to
a certain degree familiar with the ground over which Fritz had to be
bundled back five miles in one day. Points where, possibly, a stubborn
resistance might be offered were indicated and the advisability of
AVOIDING open breaks in enemy wire constantly reiterated. (Obviously, if
openings are voluntarily left here and there in the second line of wire,
to one cogent factor only can such procedure be attributed, i.e., men
will for preference make in a body for a clear passage and machine guns
trained from the rear into these breaches would account for a hundred or
so casualties before the men realised a trap.)

To merely undertake an offensive "on paper" only would be fatuous.
Actual rehearsal over country as similar as possible to the original has
to be carried out; villages and towns having to be "imagined" on the
training area in the very position they filled on the actual territory.

Tanks were to be used on a scale calculated to put the wind up whatever
enemy units held that sector. Approximately three hundred of these
cumbersome but doughty caterpillars were to line up on a nine-mile
frontage. They would be "fi