It prolonged the war, and gave Germany a fresh lease of fighting strength, but it was not sufficient to secure victory.

She did her utmost with it in 1918, and when she failed, the older factors that had been at work, through all the deadly progress of the preceding years of the war, were seen at last for the avengers, irresistible and final, that they truly were.
"The end of the war," says the Commander-in-Chief, "was neither sudden, nor should it have been unexpected." The rapid collapse of Germany's military powers in the latter half of 1918 was the logical outcome of the fighting of the previous two years.

_Attrition_ and _blockade_ are the two words that explain the final victory.

As to the cost of that victory, the incredible heart-rending cost, Sir Douglas Haig maintains that, given the vast range of the struggle, and the vital issues on which it turned--given also the unpreparedness of England, and the breakdown of Russia, the casualties of the war could not have been less.

The British casualties in all theatres of war are given as 3,000,000--2,500,000 on the Western front; the French at 4,800,000; the Italians, including killed and wounded only, 1,400,000; a total of _nine million, two hundred thousand_.