WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

SUMMARY AND RESULTS OF 1917 CAMPAIGN 577
in the aggregate these individual deeds of sustained courage
and skill won the War.
The real conflict resolved itself into many occasional
combats, but more often into manoeuvres to escape attack.
There were a myriad heroic incidents and episodes, none of
them reported, where only a handful of men were engaged
at a time. The story as a whole is the greatest epic in our
history, but each line was composed separately by different
men at diverse times. The battle on land was pyrotechnic —
and therefore made good copy. A convoy of tramps gave a
thrill when you saw it, but there was none of the shuddering
drama of the great tragedies enacted on land. Here thousands
of great cannon were firing millions of shells until the reverberations
could be heard across the Channel by multitudes
well within our shores: masses of men dashed along in the
face of shot and shell: here was indeed the lightning and
thunder of war: crowded hospitals scattered all over the
land advertised the immensity of the devastation: and yet
nothing happened that finally determined the event of the
War. Even the air bombing of London and the destruction
of a few Zeppelins attracted more attention than the silent
fight with the U-boats. During the night whilst London,
with its teeming millions, was stricken with nervous fear
by the throbbing sound of German aeroplanes hovering in
the moonless sky and by the thud of the explosive bombs
they dropped on the darkened city, a number of humble
steamers would be navigating in formation, escorted by two
or three torpedo boats flitting around to watch over their
flock like faithful shepherd dogs. It was almost a noiseless
procession, whose movement was not heard above the
breaking of the waves or the sough of the winds. The enemy
was hidden under the waters. He might be waiting for the
heavy-laden packhorses of the sea — the tramp steamers —
to hurl his crashing torpedo at the unresisting plates. One detonation
and a ship disappeared in the deep. The noisy land