Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

COUNTER-STROKES IN THE WEST. 125

purpose, for they used up lavishly the shrinking German reserves. For example, apart from prisoners taken, the Prussian Guard Corps left more than half its effectives on the battlefields of the Artois. A counter-attack, if it is to be called successful, must either recover the ground lost or at any rate bring the enemy’s advance to a standstill. But the German counter-attacks achieved neither end. The Allied line at the end of October was a little farther forward than a month before. The immense sacriSee of life which the German commands were ready to face had been fruitless. How great was that sacrifice it is as yet impossible to determine. Casualty figures are the hardest things to discover with any accuracy during the progress of a campaign. By the end of September the Germans claimed—and they secured the assent of various critics among the Allies, but not of the French Staff—that the losses of the attack had been considerably greater than those of the defence. The claim was almost certainly false. But by the end of October there could be no question on which side the debit balance lay. From the beginning of November we may date a growing pessimism, which reflected itself in the tone of Ministers and army commanders and in a vast stifled popular discontent, and which the apparent successes in the Balkans did little to soothe.

In the October fighting the British losses had fallen again to the normal scale of trench warfare.® But on the 24th of the month we lost from a chance

* The official returns gave a total on the Western front between 25th September and 18th October of 59,666, of whom over 11,000 were dead. Casualties among officers were 2,378, of whom 773 were Killed.