I was talking to Teribus, not you, Keith. I hope you can read your history books better than you can read my little posts. And Teribus, I have no interest in comparing the relative competences of the generals of various nationalities. My comments are confined to the British because I'm disputing what you say about them. So, Day One, a front 25 miles long. 20000 dead and 40000 wounded. That averages out at not much short of a thousand dead and two thousand wounded per mile. Almost all killed or wounded following an extremely ill-advised push. You say there were good bits and bad bits. All I know is that I can walk a mile in about 15 minutes. So in 15 minutes I walk past nearly 3000 blokes lying in the dirt who were all fit and well that morning with mothers at home. And I keep walking and walking and walking and that scenery doesn't improve for the length of a marathon. You can't fit three thousand men lying end to end in the space of a mile without a lot of doubling up. Just trying to imagine it, that's all. You just shut it out. You'd have made a good general, that's for sure.