The trenches and trench warfare could be seen comfortably enough in the cinema—but at Verdun, from February 1916 onwards, month after month the fighting was terribly bloody and grim. Yet the Germans failed, a failure characteristic of the military situation. On the Somme, the war of position was likewise long and bloody. If the Eastern front had been the more generally important in 1915, the centre of gravity shifted again to the French front in 1916. In Russia, the Germans were carrying out their pan-German plan; and, at the beginning of 1917, Mitau fell. Hindenburg and Ludendorff had been placed at the head of the German army in August 1916; and, in the following December, General Nivelle in France took over the chief command from Joffre—on whom the dignity of Marshal was bestowed—while Foch became Chief of Staff. In April 1917 Nivelle sought in vain to break through the German front; his losses were too heavy. The Germans, for their part, began unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, and shortened their land front in the West by taking up the Siegfried line in March.
Since the beginning of 1916, large British reinforcements had been reaching the front. Though, at first, they were kept in Belgium and the North, their presence was felt along the whole French line. By 1916, too, the Allies had evidently become preponderant in munitions and war material; the German army began to grow nervous and to lose confidence.
I watched the growth of the British army, saw the recruiting and the life in camp and barracks. For the “Tommies” I felt a hearty liking. The Canadians also came through London; and, as the French Canadians and their language interested me, I went to see them. A Continental observer could not fail to be struck by the superiority of British military equipment and general arrangements; and in this respect the Americans outdid even the English. In them both one must recognize the good, nay, the great qualities of steadfastness and tenacity. Mr. Steed always used to console us-and our English friends—by saying that Englishmen take time to get going, but when they start they keep it up; and in 1916 Mrs. Humphry Ward wrote much the same thing of the British war spirit. It turned out to be literally true.
The unexpected death of Kitchener on June 5 seemed a bad omen to many people in England, though the evacuation of the Dardanelles (January 18, 1916) and the capitulation of Kut-el-Amara in Mesopotamia (April 28) had already taken place. A German mine, not a submarine, is said to have sunk
