WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

CAMPAIGN OF THE MUD: PASSCHENDAELE 417
defence which was the last blossom and ultimate triumph of
German strategists. This is, from the strategic point of view, the
most signal triumph of this attack. It is not merely that it is
ground of the first importance that we have taken, or the number
of German regiments we have shattered, but we have broken,
and broken at a single blow, in the course of some three or four
hours, the German system of defence.
All that happened was that we had with heavy casualties
pushed back the enemy less than two thirds of a mile on
a narrow front. The ridge, which was the first objective of
the battle, was after weeks of sanguinary fighting, still in
the possession of the Germans, and most of it remained in
their possession when the Commander-in-Chief finally called
off the fight. We had therefore to win another "shattering
victory", pushing the enemy back another kilometre, picking
up another three thousand of his wounded in the recovered
ground. We again utilised this captured post as a starting
point in the first week in October for still another smashing
triumph a few hundred yards ahead.
This last battle, which produced no tactical, let alone
strategical, results of any importance, was hailed in the Times
as "the most important British victory of the year." It adds:
"In short, the particular task which Sir Douglas Haig
set his armies, has been very nearly accomplished."
We had captured two or three kilometres of the ridge
which Sir Douglas Haig had informed us was the first objective
in his big drive.
As a matter of fact, the whole of the ten weeks' ghastly
struggle had not given him, up to and including this last
fight, one sixth of his first objective.
The Times has two leading articles on successive days on
the Broodseinde victory, as it was called. Who remembers
the name now? (Try it on one of your friends.) In each of
these leading articles the Times waxes lyrical over the result.