Apart from the victory which was gained, the whole operation, as shown above, afforded very useful lessons in the new conditions of warfare, and it was utilized to the full in this sense. Particular attention may, perhaps, be drawn to the experiment of Machine-Gun Battalions, which was found to have more than justified the change of system. The M.G. Battalion of the 62nd Division had now fought in two battles: in a defensive battle in the previous March, and now in an offensive battle on the Marne, and the improvement in the Machine-Gun service was estimated at sixty per cent. at least. Partly, its success might be ascribed to the fact that the Commanding Officer of the Battalion was not selected for expert gunnery, but was a good Infantry Officer, with an eye for country, a knowledge of tactics, and a power of command. But where all units and Commanders did so well, it is invidious to select one Arm. We may more fitly close this section of the Second Battle of the Marne with some extracts from the congratulatory messages earned by General Braithwaite’s Division. There was, of course, the new fact of a close _liaison_ between British and French Troops, which caused more than common punctiliousness in the preparation and dispatch of these epistles; but the tone is exceptionally cordial, the sentiments are extraordinarily sincere, and the praises were very thoroughly deserved. General Bertholot, Commanding the Fifth French Army, published an Order of the Day, dated July 30th, of which the following is a translation: ‘Now that the XXIInd British Corps has received orders to leave the Fifth Army, the Army Commander expresses to all the thanks and admiration which its great deeds, just accomplished, deserve. ‘On the very day of its arrival, the XXIInd Corps, feeling in honour bound to take part in the victorious counter-attack, which had just stopped the enemy’s furious onslaught on the Marne, and which had begun to hurl him back in disorder towards the north, by forced marches and with minimum opportunity for reconnaissance, threw itself with ardour into the battle. ‘By constant efforts, by harrying and driving back the enemy for ten successive days, it has made itself master of the Valley of the Ardre, which it has so freely watered with its blood. ‘Thanks to the heroic courage and proverbial tenacity of the British, the continued efforts of this brave Army Corps have not been in vain. ‘Twenty-one Officers and more than one thousand three hundred other ranks taken prisoners, one hundred and forty machine-guns and forty guns captured from an enemy, four of whose Divisions were successively broken and repulsed; the upper Valley of the Ardre, with its surrounding heights to the north and south reconquered; such is the record of the British share in the operations of the Fifth Army.