started--at Neuve Chapelle, Givenchy, Loos--only to give up hope when
these battles stagnated after a day or two. Now there were preparations
going forward again, this time apparently on a much larger scale than we
had ever seen before, so we felt justified once more in hoping for the
great event. Curiously enough the possibilities of a Boche big push were
never considered, and everyone of us was firmly convinced that, except
perhaps for a blow at Ypres, offensive action on the part of the enemy
was out of the question. This spirit animated all our work, which was
consequently very different from our opponents. Our trenches always had
a we-shall-not-stay-here-long air about them, his were built to resist
to the last man. It was the same in training and in billets, we
unconsciously considered ourselves an advancing army, and thereby,
though we may not have realized it, we ourselves supplied the finest
possible stimulant to our moral.

The IIIrd. Army (Gen. Allenby), to which we now belonged, introduced at
this time the Army School--an important innovation, shortly taken up by
all the other Armies. This School, first commanded by Col.
Kentish--afterwards Commandant of the Senior Aldershot School--aimed at
training junior officers to be Company Commanders, who owing to
casualties were now hard to find. The course, which lasted five weeks,
consisted of drill, tactical exercises, physical training, musketry,
bayonet fighting and bombing, lectures on esprit de corps--in fact
everything that a Company Commander should know, but many things that in
trench warfare had been forgotten. The Instructors were always
up-to-date, and the best use was at once made of any of the latest
inventions, while the school also kept a very efficient "Liaison"
between all parts of the Army. Students from one Division would exchange
latest schemes, ruses, and devices with others from another part of the
line, and so no valuable lessons were lost or known to a few only. Our