them out of the dug-outs and collect the survivors. Until the attack is
comfortably established in the captured trench, the fire upon the old
counter attack position goes on. This is the grade, Grade B2, to which
modern warfare has attained upon the Somme front. The appearance of
the Tank has only increased the offensive advantage. There at present
warfare rests.

There is, I believe, only one grade higher possible. The success of B2
depends upon the completeness of the aerial observation. The invention
of an anti-aircraft gun which would be practically sure of hitting and
bringing down an aeroplane at any height whatever up to 20,000 feet,
would restore the defensive and establish what I should think must be
the final grade of war, A3. But at present nothing of the sort exists
and nothing of the sort is likely to exist for a very long time; at
present hitting an aeroplane by any sort of gun at all is a rare and
uncertain achievement. Such a gun is not impossible and therefore we
must suppose such a gun will some day be constructed, but it will be of
a novel type and character, unlike anything at present in existence.
The grade of fighting that I was privileged to witness on the Somme, the
grade at which a steady successful offensive is possible, is therefore,
I conclude, the grade at which the present war will end.


2

But now having thus spread out the broad theory of the business, let me
go on to tell some of the actualities of the Somme offensive. They key
fact upon both British and French fronts was the complete ascendancy of
the Allies aeroplanes. It is the necessary preliminary condition for
the method upon which the great generals of the French army rely in this