de
a successful raid against German trenches to the east of Le Sars with
good results.

The closing days of the year were not marked by any important military
operations on either side. Though no great attacks were attempted, the
old business of trench warfare being resumed, the opposing forces
continued to harass and destroy each other at every opportunity. The
grim object of British, French, and German was to kill wherever shell
or machine-gun bullet could reach an enemy. This period of "peace" was
really one of ceaseless activity, and the British distinguished
themselves in keeping the Germans constantly on the alert. To prevent
the building of defenses, or smash them when built, to concentrate
gunfire on communication trenches so as to render them impassable, to
destroy reliefs coming in or going out, to carry death to the foe in
ditches and dugouts--in short, to injure him in any way that human
ingenuity and military science could devise--such were the tactics
employed by belligerents during the days and nights when in official
language there was "nothing to report."

Official announcement was made on New Year's Day by the British Prime
Minister's Department that General Sir Douglas Haig, commander in
chief of the British armies in France, had been promoted to the rank
of field marshal. His chief aids on the French front, Lieutenant
General Sir Henry Rawlinson and Major General Sir Hubert Gough,
commanding the Fourth and Fifth Armies respectively, were also
gazetted for promotion.

In reviewing the work of the Allies for the past six months Field
Marshal Haig made no secret of the fact that he had been forced by
circumstances to assume the offensive in July somewhat earlier than he
intended. Had he waited until his munitionment was complete and his
raw drafts had acquired more experience, the Battle of the Somme might
not have resulted so favorably to the Allies. The Germans were near
the outskirts of Verdun and striking hard, and the moral and political
consequences of the fall of Verdun would have been so serious that it
was impossible to delay the offensive. Field Marshal Haig stated in
his summing up that the Battle of the Somme was begun to save Verdun,
to prevent the transfer of further German reenforcements from the west
to the Russian or Italian fronts, and to wear down the strength of the
enemy forces, and that all these purposes were fulfilled.

The brief period of so-called "peace" which had prevail