From ‘The fifth year of war’, 3 August 1918: There are those who think that Germany will try to regain the initiative, and may very likely succeed. They point to the large unexhausted reserves under the command of Prince Rupprecht, and remind us that we have an unpleasantly narrow slit of territory to manoeuvre in between the Flanders front and the Channel coast. We are more sanguine. The recent rains have re-created the bogs of Flanders, and though the ground is drying, the autumn is not far distant. The ‘greatest effort’ of Germany lies in the past.