But all our leadership would have been vain had it not been supported by the high efficiency of every branch of the services, and by the general excellence of the _materiel_. As to the actual value of the troops, it can only be said with the most absolute truth that the infantry, artillery, and sappers all lived up to the highest traditions of the Old Army, and that the Flying Corps set up a fresh record of tradition, which their successors may emulate but can never surpass. The materiel was, perhaps, the greatest surprise both to friend and foe. We are accustomed in British history to find the soldier retrieving by his stubborn valour the difficulties caused by the sluggish methods of those who should supply his needs. Thanks to the labours of the Ministry of Munitions, of Sir William Robertson, and of countless devoted workers of both sexes, toiling with brain and with hand, this was no longer so. That great German army which two years before held every possible advantage that its prolonged preparation and busy factories could give it, had now, as General von Arnim's report admits, fallen into the inferior place. It was a magnificent {309} achievement upon which the British nation may well pride itself, if one may ever pride oneself on anything in a drama so mighty that human powers seem but the instruments of the huge contending spiritual forces behind them. The fact remains that after two years of national effort the British artillery was undoubtedly superior to that of the Germans, the British Stokes trench-mortars and light Lewis machine-guns were the best in Europe, the British aeroplanes were unsurpassed, the British Mills bomb was superior to any other, and the British tanks were an entirely new departure in the art of War. It was the British brain as well as the British heart and arm which was fashioning the future history of mankind. {310} CHAPTER XIII THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE November 13, 1916 The last effort--Failure in the north--Fine work of the Thirty-ninth, Fifty-first, and Sixty-third Divisions--Surrounding of German Fort--Capture of Beaumont Hamel--Commander Freyberg--Last operations of the season--General survey--"The unwarlike Islanders."