Every sign spoke of the coming storm, but none told from which quarter we must expect it. The Germans were concentrating in such a way--at the base of the great salient formed by their line--that they could plant their blow wherever it might at the last moment seem good to them. For better or worse, it was decided that our available forces were to be impartially distributed all along the line. Not that we had very much choice, as with our limited resources a concentration at any one strategic point must imply virtual gaps in our defence elsewhere. For we had in January taken over an additional forty miles of line, and the men for whom the High Command in France had so frequently pleaded had not been sent out to them. We were in for a lean three months, and to hold the extended line was as much as we could hope to accomplish. The British and French Spring Campaign must be a defensive one. There was no longer a Russian front, and till the Americans were ready--which could not be till Midsummer at earliest--the Germans would have a numerical preponderance of nearly a quarter of a million men. Besides this, their position on interior lines and their superior lateral railway communications could at any moment give them an overwhelming local superiority. However, we had faced worse odds before. We could form a strong line and cunning schemes of defence against which the enemy would hammer in vain. Our first defence was a deep forward zone. It consisted first of an outpost line and second of a “line of resistance.” The line of resistance was extremely carefully laid out. About every mile redoubts of special strength were so arranged that on this sector an attack would be entrapped into our wire and held exposed to a cross-fire from our machine-guns. The line was, in fact, to offer “patches” of resistance, and so break up the ordered advance of the enemy, who was to arrive at the next line, the “battle zone,” weakened and disorganised. Here the main fight was to take place, and upon this zone we lavished all our skill and industry, and, having faith, we prepared no serious positions in rear of it. The Tanks were spaced out all along a sixty-mile front. Near Lens in the 1st Army area was the 1st Tank Brigade. The 2nd Brigade was in 3rd Army Reserve at Haplincourt, near Bapaume. The 3rd Brigade--which was in process of being equipped with Whippet Tanks--was also in 3rd Army Reserve. The 4th Brigade was attached to the 5th Army and established itself in camps near Péronne. The 5th Brigade was in process of forming, and therefore had no definite task allotted to it, though, as we shall see, the 13th (its nucleus) Battalion actually saw a considerable amount of fighting.