and the final destruction of our enemies will be
swift and sudden. Our Zeppelin fleets will play an important part in
future operations and will demonstrate more than ever their power as a
factor in modern warfare."

The opening of the year 1916 found Great Britain in the throes of a
momentous controversy over the question of adopting conscription. In
the west the Franco-British armies hugged the belief that their lines
were impregnable to attack. An offensive on the part of the Germans
was certainly expected, but where and when it would materialize none
could foretell, though the French command had a shrewd suspicion. It
was purely a matter of deduction that the Germans, having so far
failed to break a passage through the circle of steel that encompassed
them on the east and the west, would be forced to concentrate their
hopes on an offensive on the western front. They had carefully taken
into consideration the Battle of Champagne. They admitted that the
French had opened a breach in their line, and they would probably
argue that the imperfect results of the operations were due only to
the inability of their enemies to exploit the first advantage that
they had gained. They appear to have decided to copy the French
example, but to apply to it the German touch of thoroughness. The
French, they might argue, fired so many shells on a front of so many
miles and destroyed our trenches; we will fire so many more shells on
a narrower front, so that we can be certain there will be no obstacle
to the advance of our infantry. The French had not enough men to carry
their initial success to its conclusion, consequently we will mass a
very large number of men behind the attack. With this object
undoubtedly in view, the Germans indulged in a succession of feints up
and down the whole frontier, feeling and probing the line at all
points. This procedure cost them thousands of men, but it probably did
not deceive the strategists on the other side. All that remained
indeterminable to the French Staff was the precise date and locality.

A general survey of the front for the first days of January, 1916,
reveals activity all round. In Belgium there was artillery fighting
over the front of the Yser and along the front at Yperlee, and a
similar duel between Germans and Belgians near Mercken. In front of
the British first-line trenches the Germans sprang mines, but did not
trouble to take possession of the craters. The British sprang some
m