BEFORE THE SOMME
William: "Why are you so heavily bombarding the remains of that 'contemptible little British army'?"
Prince of Bavaria: "I am afraid the remains are bombarding us."
The German view of the situation at the end of June was well shown in a typical article by the military correspondent of the "Berliner Tageblatt," Major Moraht, actually published on July 1.
The writer began by declaring that "all the belligerent armies were now at a critical stage." The Allies had undoubtedly increased the energy and the uniformity of their conduct of war, and their great resources in money and men and their command of the sea would enable them to do everything possible "to hamper Germany's final victory."
The British offensive was about to begin, and "without a serious settlement of accounts with England on the battlefields in the west the Germans would not come a step nearer to peace." Major Moraht and the other German writers betrayed no sense of the immensity of the coming events, and it was clear that the Germans had not begun to dream of the defeats that were about to be inflicted upon them.
The Times History of the War.