A group of German artillery officers had been captured and they were behaving with studied arrogance and insolence as they smoked cigarettes apart from the men, and looked in a jeering way at our officers.

“Did you get any of our gas this morning?” I asked them, and one of them laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“I smelled it a little. It was rather nice⁠ ⁠… The English always imitate the German war-methods, but without much success.”

They grinned and imitated my way of saying “ Guten Tag ” when I left them. It took a year or more to tame the arrogance of the German officer. At the end of the Somme battles he changed his manner when captured, and was very polite.