But he underestimated his attrition. His losses thus
far in the fighting, culminating in the Second Battle
of Ypres, and destined to grow with the Third,



26o MOPPING UP!

had bjeeti stupendous. As the attacking force, he
paid a heavier penalty in casualties than did the
defenders.
Against his infantry attacks, supported by a stun-
ning tempest of artillery, the rifle fire poured into
his gray-clad masses did such terrible execution that
he faltered on May 8. Afterward he sullenly lay
down, and then gave his major attention to the
Eastern Front. In his estimation Russia afforded
an easier nut to crack I

Fortune eventually favored him, but not before
the Slavs had fought gallantly against the odds of
treachery in their own camps, and amazed the men
who, by this time, had the self-styled prefix of
" super '* pretty nearly knocked off by the battlers
of every nation engaged against them.
Man for man, what nation among all these con-
tending against Germany, has failed to surpass her
in sportsmanlike fighting? Two elements have
worked for Germany; or make it one: organized
ruthlessness. Could the Allies have achieved the
co-ordination the Kaiser's crowd has shown, the
" inner ring " would have been smashed before now.
But, at the present writing, the Allies seem to be
learning.
Thus far, the Kulturhounds had been sniffing,
trying to find a weak place in the line of the Western
Front. After the battles pf Ypres their disap-
pointed gaze turned eastward.
