through our wire & take a prisoner. The success of the enterprise depended entirely on surprise & the utmost secrecy was necessary. None of the officers & rank & file of battalions were told about it until 4 or 5 days before zero day, & the men after being trained with the tanks were cautioned if by any chance they were taken prisoner during a raid to say that we heard the Germans contemplated retiring & we were going to follow them up with tanks. Four nights previous to the battle the Germans raided the trenches of 36th Division & captured 7 prisoners & two nights afterwards they raided one of our posts & got a wounded man in the Shropshires. He was said to be one of their pluckiest men, & the