“Then when it got a little lighter and the barrage had crept on, we could see thousands of our men popping up from their barely visible ‘assembly slits’ in the ground and pouring up the slope in a slow-moving, loose sort of crowd with no discernible formation, and with and among them, the Tanks. “They had previously come up across an apparently deserted valley over the heads of our waiting infantry in their shelter trenches. They appeared breasting the hill and disappeared over the brow together with the attacking waves of troops. The enemy’s shrapnel and high explosives that came back were almost laughable in comparison with what we put over them, and our casualties were, on the whole, unusually light. Where I was watching was reported to be the hardest nut on the whole line.[22] “What with the barrage and the Tanks the defence appears to have just collapsed, and a few minutes and a few casualties gave us possession of a wonderful redoubt that the enemy had lavished extraordinary ingenuity and industry in preparing for many months past. “I saw it all from a hedge in a hillside about 1000 yards away. I had determined on the spot, and, as luck would have it, I found when I got there that there was a half-finished observation post with a lovely little pit to jump down into if things got hot. However, there was no need to use it. It was only getting into it that was rather exciting. I got spattered with débris time and again, but by tacking, waiting, and using the country, I got through without any real unpleasantness. “It’s been a real thoroughgoing victory so far as we can see and hear--or rather hear, for I only saw the first phase. Good old Willies, it’s partly their victory, too, as all can see. Wonderful messages come in, a dozen or more to the hour, reports, telegrams, telephone messages, kite balloons, aeroplanes, pigeon letters, etc., and nearly all good, _awfully_ good. “‘We have reached Z.22.B.64 and are going strong.’ “‘Have taken Tilloy Village.’ “‘Over 2000 prisoners in our Corps cages already, including thirty officers and a Battalion Commander.’ “‘Nine hundred prisoners, scared and starved, _moral_ rotten.’ “‘Have reached the Blue Line,’ _Signed_ Daphne, ‘Consolidated at Y.13.C.68 to 15.D. Central,’ only we don’t consolidate, we just hammer on line after line exactly to programme and as never before. “‘Tanks seen zero plus 5 hours 15 minutes in the “Howitzer Valley” accompanied by infantry. Guns still in position, gunners not.’ “And so on; and our blue cardboard slips representing infantry and little red flags, denoting Tanks, march on and on and on.”