30 SEPTEMBER 1916, Page 1
For we have fairly taken the measure of the Germans.
Our men know that they themselves and their French comrades are better fighting men. The fact is so obvious now that congenital pessimists even begin to wonder at their former pessimism. The Germans could not force our thin and ill-prepared line at Ypres in the bad days of the war, but we have forced Combles and Thiepval, which for the mechanical strength of their defences exceeded anything hitherto dreamed of. The Germans failed before Verdun, but the British and French Armies progress without intermission before strongholds as powerful as Verdun.
