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We must not write as if the credit of the

recent advance belonged solely to the British. Our French Allies have supported us in the most gallant and practical manner. It would be useless to speculate what the action of the next few days may bring, but it is obvious that since the capture of Coarcelette the German hold not only on Combles but on Thiepval has become a matter of extreme difficulty and also of extreme danger—the danger of those who linger too long on a point of rock when a spring tide is racing in from the ocean. It may be, indeed, that the strong places now so nearly surrounded have already been evacuated save for a small group of men with a good number of machine guns, who have been instructed to keep up a show of defence as long as possible.

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