in Ypres. People were killed there
every day. To go past the Menin Gate was considered to be asking for it.
So a terror of the Menin Gate was bred in me before I had ever seen the
gruesome, stinking spot. And the Menin Gate had taken its toll on
Messines Night.

My letter continues: "At 6 I went to bed again. Just as I was doing so,
gas shells began to burst once more, but we did not smell much; the wind
could not have been very favourable to the enemy. I soon got to sleep
again. We all did. In my room, apart from myself, there are Verity,
Priestley, and Barker. They are in different companies from me.

"We got up at midday to-day. Things are very much quieter; there are
only, on an average, about one or two bangs per minute; and those are
generally caused by our guns firing shells on the enemy. Very few German
shells have burst here to-day since the terrible bombardment in the
early hours of the morning. We lost no officers last night, but a few
non-commissioned officers and men were killed and wounded while
returning last night. An official message has come through that all our
objectives were captured this morning."

It was on this afternoon that Major Brighten gathered all officers
together for a conference in Headquarters Mess, and read out to us, in
great exultation, a "secret" Special Order of the Day by Sir Douglas
Haig dated, if I remember rightly, the day before Messines. I wish I had
a copy of that Order in my hands now in order that I might quote it
verbatim here. In the course of his Order I remember the Field-Marshal
declared that another such blow as those which we had inflicted upon the
enemy on the Somme, on the Anare, and at Arras would win the war! Major
Brighten, with his eternal optimism, honestly believed it; and so did
everybody else. Everybody was effervescing with excitement about
Plumer's brilliant victory at Messines. I hold now with Mr. John Buchan,
and I realized then, that "Sir Herbert Plumer had achieved what deserves
to be regarded as in its own fashion a tactical masterpiece"; but, as I
have already pointed out, I took a much more telescopic view of the
World War than that. So, while sharing the satisfaction of the others in
the Messines success, I could not endorse the ultra-optimistic view of
the course of the campaign which Sir Douglas Haig had inspired. Major
Brighten was beaming with delight as he read out Sir Douglas Haig's
Order, and informed us that General Jeudwine and Genera