29 AUGUST 1914, Page 2

The accounts of the first phases of the first battle

that are now coming in from our wounded and from other sources show that our men not only acquitted themselves with great valour—that was certain—but showed the very greatest efficiency in the arts of war. The marksmanship of the infantry seems to have been specially good, and all the accounts show that the Germans were not able to get near our men. The Germans, though they showed great bravery, do not appear to be handy riflemen, and, to the reversal of all former experience, the greater number of our men seem to have been wounded by artillery fire. It is, of course, generally said in war that, though artillery has a great moral effect, it kills very few people, and that the death work is all done by the rile bullet.