It was bad all along the line. The whole plan had gone astray from the beginning. With an optimism which was splendid in fighting-men and costly in the High Command, our men had attacked positions of enormous strength⁠—held by an enemy in the full height of his power⁠—without sufficient troops in reserve to follow up and support the initial attack, to consolidate the ground, and resist inevitable counterattacks. What reserves the Commander-in-Chief had he held “in his own hand” too long and too far back.

The Guards went in when the enemy was reorganized to meet them. The 28th Division, afterward in support, was too late to be a decisive factor.