This order was issued from G.H.Q. at 9 P.M. on the 17th December. My orders based on it were timed 2.45 A.M. on the 18th, and the operations planned were ordered to commence at 10 A.M. on the same day. At 10.15 A.M. G.H.Q. issued instructions that the efforts of the Second, Fourth, and Indian Corps should be concentrated only on such objectives as were reasonably feasible. At the risk of going into technical details for a moment, I must give the orders in their sequence so that military readers may realise the difficult conditions under which I had to carry on operations until the German attack came on us. On this same date (December 18) another order from G.H.Q. issued at 4.15 P.M. said the Second, Third, Fourth, and Indian Corps would continue to demonstrate on the 19th December along the whole front and seize every favourable opportunity which may offer to capture any of the enemy’s trenches. Now in order to capture enemy trenches it is necessary to make elaborate and detailed arrangements. You cannot issue orders the same as you might do in open warfare, and indeed it is the carefully-thought-out and elaborate plans adopted since those early days that have turned this trench warfare into an exact science, and why two years later even less highly trained troops, assisted, it is true, by an overwhelming Artillery fire, grenades, howitzers, etc., were able to carry out their programme with something approaching mathematical exactitude. But all this was different in 1914; we had then to do our best without these aids and to take the consequences. I have often thought how different might have been the results of some of the many attacks carried out by Indian troops had we arrived “After” instead of “Before” unlimited ammunition and all the other helps to victory had come to be looked on as part of the absolute necessaries for any advance. A distinguished General said to me in 1917: “When _you_ were in France it was a crime to say it was necessary to success to have a large gun support; now any one volunteering to carry out an enterprise except with an unlimited amount of shells would be looked on as a fool and take his _congé_ at once.” What a pleasant change! On the 18th and 19th, operations were carried out by the Indian Corps as will shortly be narrated, and G.H.Q. was of course kept fully informed. On this latter date the Commander-in-Chief’s orders were as follows: Issued at 6 P.M. The operations conducted yesterday were attended in several cases with marked success. Although the ground gained has not in all cases been maintained the balance of advantage rests with us and promises well for further progress. It is the intention of the Commander-in-Chief that the Second, Third, Fourth, and Indian Corps should continue until further orders to prosecute similar enterprises under Corps arrangements, taking every possible measure to consolidate and “extend” [my inverted commas] all successes achieved.