[bristol scout]

The French in the later war fought a lost battle as they were beset by the ghosts of W.W.1. The British also went into that second round fighting the demon of mass casualties---a demon that was never properly exorcised---and it's baleful influence is with us still-----the myth of the lost generation.

" For 50 years the Great War has been the British wooden leg...the wooden leg legend runs like this---British casualties were so colossal that the national life was enfeebled by the absence of a 'lost generation'...........this wooden leg legend is historically absolute rubbish"

Corelli Barnett---the Sunday telegraph magazine 1968.

The British overcame the demon enough to stay the course---the French failed of course.

But even though British casualties were only a fraction of what they had been in W.W.1 the simple fact is that at no time in the later war did Britain face anything other than 'detachments' of the main enemy.

The war had terrible attritional battles just like W.W.1--but there names are Russian names----the main German army was in Russia.

Dave.