chapter. "I am feeling awfully well," he writes, "and am enjoying myself
no end. All lights are out at eight o'clock, so we lie in our blankets
and tell each other lies about the number of Germans we have shot and
the hairbreadth escapes we have had. Oh, it's a great life!"




IV

THE MAN WITH THE BAYONET


Some military writers have declared that with the increasing range of
rifle and artillery fire the day of the bayonet is over. Battles, they
say, must now be fought with the combatants miles apart. Bayonets are as
obsolete as spears and battle axes. Evidently this theory had the full
support of the German General Staff, whose military wisdom was in some
quarters believed to be infallible--before the war.

As events have proved, however, there has been no more rude awakening
for the German soldiery than the efficacy of the bayonet in the hands of
Tommy Atkins. In spite of the employment of gigantic siege guns and
their enormous superiority in strength, though not in handling, of
artillery, the Germans have failed to keep the Allies at the theoretical
safe distance. They have been forced to accept hand-to-hand fighting,
and in every encounter at close quarters there has never been a moment's
doubt as to the result. They have shriveled up in the presence of the
bayonet, and fled in disorder at the first glimpse of naked steel. It is
not that the Germans lack courage. "They are brave enough," our soldiers