the destructive effect of the artillery, Snowden wrote that it was more significant that inexperienced infantry had shown a capacity for tactical evolution. The 110th Brigade had advanced faster than the 7th Division, captured all its objectives and held them against the unexpectedly large counter-attacks that lasted from The coincidence of the German relief of the 123rd Division by the 7th Division had meant that three regiments of fresh troops (about were available. The capture of cost the highest divisional losses in the attack; more ground could have been taken had exploitation been allowed before the German counter-attacks began. In 2005, Prior and Wilson called the attack a considerable achievement which showed that if an objective could be bombarded by enough shells, it could be captured but that this had been only the first stage in the Fourth Army plan, which had extravagant ambitions to be fulfilled by infantry and cavalry beyond the terrain devastated by the artillery. Rawlinson had realised that the advance achieved on 14 July had been possible because of the accuracy and extent of the bombardment, which had smashed the German defences, obliterated the wire and exhausted the German survivors by concussion. Prior and Wilson wrote that the British failed to study the reasons for the results not reaching expectations and that this meant that Rawlinson and Haig had not learned from their mistakes. J. P. Harris, in 2009, wrote that the Fourth Army made solid gains on 14 July, with fewer casualties than on 1 July at much greater cost to the Germans. When the cavalry finally managed to attack in the evening, it inflicted about for eight dead. In two weeks the British had advanced beyond the German second position south of the Albert–Bapaume road and faced only scanty field defences. The victory was a false dawn, because the German 2nd Army improvised defences and converted High Wood and Delville Wood into fortresses. Piecemeal reinforcement of the German defences since 1 July had caused administrative chaos, an example being the crowding of the field kitchens of five regiments onto ground north of Courcelette, having to share the , the last open communication trench, to carry food forward at night. Below added to his secret order of 3 July, Staff officers of the German IV Corps wrote a report on the experience of fighting the British in July, which dwelt on the details of the