WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

CAMPAIGN OF THE MUD: PASSCHENDAELE 337
between the character of the enemy's troops now and in the
early part of the War. Formerly, all the enemy troops consisted
of troupes de choc, but now only a portion of the
enemy's forces could be regarded as such. Hence, in most
parts of the line we should find rather mediocre troops opposed
to us. Besides, the new offensive would be entirely
different in method from those hitherto attempted. That was
the solemn warranty of Nivelle and his Staff and we were all
anxious to believe it. The soldiers who had to take the personal
risks accepted the assurance in all confidence and it
gave them renewed courage.
But as soon as the troops went over the top they found
that they had to pass through exactly the same experiences
as those to which they had been subjected in the discredited
offensives of the past few years — machine guns playing
upon their crumbling ranks from positions which had not
been touched by their artillery — a few kilometres of captured
wilderness littered with dead and wounded comrades
— a break-through as remote as ever — the enemy still entrenched
behind a line of impregnable earthworks. That had
happened before under Joffre. They were promised faithfully
that it would never occur again — and here it had happened.
Added to this is the fact that the actual losses, great
as they were, were at first grossly exaggerated by apprehensive
rumours, and that the arrangements for the wounded
had been badly bungled. After the repulse the troops were
at first just sullen and discontented, but there was no actual
outbreak of insubordination. Gradually the disquieting facts
as to the conditions under which the offensive was launched
percolated down to the trenches. It became known that there
had been serious dissensions amongst the Generals before
the attack; that some of the more experienced amongst them
opposed the attack altogether, and predicted that in the circumstances
success was impossible. It also became known