ged the roads--French rules of the road--Absence of system
conceals an excellent system--Spoils of war--The Colonial Corps--The
"chocolates"--"Boches"--Dramatic victors--The German line in front of
the French attack--Galloping _soixante-quinzes_.

Anyone with experience of armies cannot be deceived about losses when he
is close to the front. Even if he does not go over the field while the
dead of both sides are still lying there, infallible signs without a
word being spoken reflect the truth. It was shining in panoplies of
smiles with the French after the attack of July 1st. Victory was sweet
because it came at slight cost. Staff officers could congratulate
themselves on having driven a thrifty bargain. Casualty clearing
stations were doing a small business; prisoners' inclosures a driving
one.

"We've nothing to fire at," said an officer of heavy artillery. "Our
targets are out of reach. The Germans went too fast for us; they left us
without occupation."

Where with the British I had watched the preparations for the offensive
develop, the curtain was now raised on the French preparations, which
were equally elaborate, after the offensive had gone home. General
Joffre had spared more guns from Verdun for the Somme than optimism had
supposed possible. Those immense fellows of caliber from twelve to
seventeen-inch, mounted on railway trucks, were lions asleep under their
covers on the sidings which had been built for them. Their tracks would
have to be carried farther forward before they roared at the Germans
again.

Five miles are not far for a battalion to march, though an immense
distance to a modern army with its extensive and complicated plant. Even
the aviators wanted to be nearer the enemy and were looking for a new
park. Sheds where artillery horses had been sheltered for more than a
year were empty; camps were being vacated; vast piles of shells must
follow the guns which the tractors were taking forward. The nests of
spacious dugouts in a hillside nicely walled in by sandbags had served
their purpose. They were beyond the range of any German guns.

For the first time you realized what the procession which gorged the
roads would be like if the Western front were actually broken. Guns of
every caliber from the 75's to the 120's and 240's, ammunition pack
trains, ambulances horse-drawn and motor-drawn, big and little motor
trucks, staff officers' cars, cycle riders and motor cycle riders, small
two