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diff --git a/43644-0.txt b/43644-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d82c3bf --- /dev/null +++ b/43644-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7457 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43644 *** + + G. H. Q. + + (MONTREUIL-SUR-MER). + + [Illustration] + + + + + G. H. Q. + + (MONTREUIL-SUR-MER) + + BY + + "G. S. O." + + WITH A MAP AND THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS. + + [Illustration] + + LONDON: + PHILIP ALLAN & CO., + QUALITY COURT, CHANCERY LANE, W.C. + 1920. + + + + + PRINTED BY + WHITEHEAD BROS., WOLVERHAMPTON. + + + + + TO + THE PEOPLE AT HOME + WHOSE UNBENDING RESOLUTION + AND UNGRUDGING GENEROSITY + UPHELD THE SOLDIERS' CONFIDENCE + THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY + DEDICATED BY THE + AUTHOR. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I.--BEFORE G.H.Q. WENT TO MONTREUIL 1 + + The first stages of the War--"Trench War," a good + German invention--The Battle of Eyes--Waiting for + the Big Push--The Loos disappointment--Moving G.H.Q. + to Montreuil. + + II.--MONTREUIL AND THE MONTREUILLOIS 16 + + How the Montreuillois once learned to hate the + English--Early history of the famous town--Its link + with the early Roman-British Empire--A border town + in the Anglo-French Wars--When G.H.Q. was bombed. + + III.--G.H.Q. AT WORK 29 + + The Functions of G.H.Q.--The varying conditions to + be met--The working hours--The organisation of a + branch--The Chief's system. + + IV.--G.H.Q. AT PLAY 47 + + The walks on the Ramparts--The "Monks" of Montreuil + had little time for sport--Precautions against + "joy-riding"--The jolly Officers' Club--Watching the + Map--Ladies at G.H.Q. + + V.--THE MUNITIONS OF THE WAR 66 + + The Shell shortage--When relief came--The dramatic + Tanks--Bombs--Some ammunition figures--The ingenious + inventor. + + VI.--THE MEDICAL SERVICES 80 + + The magic-workers of the war--Fighting the + Germans--Concerning the Victorian primness of + conversation and the present popularity of "v.d." as + a theme for small talk--The Army and "v.d."--The + etiquette of hospitals and the ways of matrons--The + war against Trench Feet--Mustard gas in 1918. + + VII.--THE ANIMALS OF THE FORCE 98 + + A happy lot--The mud season in Flanders--The effects + of mustard gas--The character of the mule--Forage + difficulties--The French object to our horse + ration--The Americans side with us--The animal + record in 1918. + + VIII.--THE FINANCIAL SERVICES 116 + + The generosity of the British People--G.H.Q. was not + a spendthrift--The Pay system--Curiosities of + banking in the field--Claims of the civilian + inhabitants--The looted rabbit. + + IX.--THE ECONOMY SERVICES 129 + + What the German submarines taught us--The Salvage + Organisation--O.C. Rags, Bones and + Swill--Agriculture's good work and hard luck--The + Forestry Directorate--Soldiers learn economy in a + stern school. + + X.--THE COMFORTS OF THE FORCE--SPIRITUAL AND OTHER 144 + + The Padres--The semi-religious organisations--E.F.C. + Comforts--Studying the Fighting man--The Great Beer + Save. + + XI.--THE LABOUR AUXILIARIES 155 + + The queer ways of the Chinks--How to bury a Chinaman + properly--The Q.M.A.A.C.s and their fine + record--Other types of Labour auxiliaries--The + Labour Directorate. + + XII.--G.H.Q. AND THE "NEW ARMY" 169 + + What G.H.Q. thought of the "Temporaries"--Old + prejudices and their reason--The material of the + "New Armies"--Some "New Army" Officers who did not + play the game--The Regular Army Trade Union accepts + its "dilutees." + + XIII.--G.H.Q. AND THE DOMINION ARMIES 183 + + Our Parliament at the Club--A discussion of the + Dominions, particularly of Australia--Is the + Englishman shy or stand-offish?--How the "Anzacs" + came to be--The Empire after the War. + + XIV.--EDUCATING THE ARMY 197 + + The beginning of an interesting movement--The work + of a few enthusiasts--The unexpected peace--Humours + of lectures to the Army--Books for the Army--The + Army Printery. + + XV.--THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT 209 + + The disappointments of 1916 and 1917--The collapse + of Russia--The Cambrai Battle--The German + propaganda--Fears of irresolution at + Home--Reassurances from Home--Effects of the + Submarine war--An economical reorganisation at + G.H.Q.--A new Quartermaster General--Good effects of + cheerfulness at Home. + + XVI.--ENTER THE AMERICANS 235 + + How the Germans were misled about the + Americans--Early American fighters--The arrivals in + May, 1918--American equipment--Our relations with + the Americans and what they thought of us--The + Portuguese. + + XVII.--THE GERMAN SPRING OF 1918 254 + + Was G.H.Q. at fault?--Where we could best afford to + lose ground--Refugees complicate the + situation--Stark resolution of the French--All + Pas-de-Calais to be wrecked if necessary--How our + railways broke down--Amiens does not fall. + + XVIII.--THE MOTOR LORRY THAT WAITED 272 + + How a motor lorry waited at the Ecole Militaire to + take away the maps to the Coast--The Motor Lorry + Reserve--An "appreciation" of the position--Germany + lost the War in the first three months--Some notes + of German blunders. + + XIX.--THE UNITY OF COMMAND 283 + + Was it necessary?--Was a French Generalissimo + inevitable?--Our share in the guiding of the last + phase of the campaign--Points on which the British + had their way. + + XX.--THE COMING OF VICTORY 293 + + The June Position--German attempts to pinch out our + lines of supplies--The attacks on hospitals--The + glorious last 14 weeks--G.H.Q.'s share. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + TO FACE PAGE + + THE CHIEF _Frontispiece_ + + THE BOULOGNE GATE 1 + + THE CAVÉE SAINT FIRMIN 14 + + OUTSIDE THE RAMPARTS 20 + + THE MARKET 26 + + LT.-GEN. THE HON. SIR H. A. LAWRENCE 30 + + LT.-GEN. SIR G. H. FOWKE 38 + + THE GRANDE PLACE 42 + + THE RAMPARTS 48 + + THE THEATRE 50 + + IN THE OFFICERS' CLUB 54 + + THE PLACE GAMBETTA 60 + + THE FOSSE 72 + + A BY-WAY 80 + + A ROYAL VISIT: DECEMBER, 1918 90 + + THE EAST RAMPARTS 102 + + THE ARMY COMMANDERS 110 + + MAJOR-GEN. SIR C. A. BRAY 122 + + MAJOR-GEN. L. B. FRIEND 126 + + AN ARMY POSTER 132 + + BRIG.-GEN. THE EARL OF RADNOR 136 + + AT FORESTRY H.Q. 140 + + BRIG.-GEN. E. G. WACE 168 + + THE BOULOGNE GATE (FROM THE TOWN) 182 + + MAJOR-GEN. C. BONHAM-CARTER 198 + + LIEUT.-COL. D. BORDEN TURNER 202 + + CAPTAIN H. P. HANSELL 204 + + ON THE RAMPARTS 210 + + LIEUT.-GEN. SIR TRAVERS CLARKE 226 + + THE ECOLE MILITAIRE 272 + + AT THE CHIEF'S CHATEAU 284 + + "SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE" 292 + + MAP AT END + + + + +FOREWORD. + + +That fantastic life at G.H.Q., so greatly detached from the normal--the +life of the men whose words had power to send Armies into and out of +action, to give this Division rest and surcease from the agony of the +struggle, to assign to that Division the stress of a new effort; the men +into whose hands the nation poured millions without stint and at whose +call the whole world moved to spin or dig or forge--will it be of +interest now to recall some of its memories, to attempt an intimate +picture of its routine? + +Fantastic the life was truly. One man of imagination, who had done his +work in the line so well as to win a reputation for great courage and +administrative ability, and had carried through with a quiet skill and a +simple dutifulness the responsibilities of the "small family" of a +regiment, found, when he was transferred to G.H.Q., that the sense of +responsibility was too great for his temperament. He was not a very +important cog of the machine. But the feeling that the motion which his +hand started set going so great a series of actions got on his nerves +to the extent that he could neither sleep nor eat with comfort, nor +decide the simplest matter without torturing doubt as to whether it were +right or wrong. He "moved on" within a few days. + +Fortunately that sense of vision was rare. The average man was content +to "carry on" with his task with what good judgment Heaven gave him, +deciding as the established routine, or the common-sense shift of a new +emergency, dictated. + +But looking back, reflecting on all the woeful results that might have +sprung from a careless blunder, from too great haste, from too +deliberate hesitation, from over fear or over confidence, it is to be +seen how fantastic, how abnormal was the life centred in that little +walled town of Montreuil, the focus of a spider's web of wires, at one +end of which were the soldiers in their trenches, at the other the +workers of the world at their benches. Yet we ate, drank, slept, played +a little and talked, very much as if we were workers in some commercial +house, directing coffee from a plantation to a warehouse and then to a +breakfast table, instead of dealing in blood and tears, drawing without +stint on human life and human hope so that the idea of Right and Liberty +might be saved in the world. + +It is well that Imagination went to sleep, or was lacking. For so the +work could be done and the war directed to its safe conclusion. But a +record of the life we lived seems now, in retrospect, almost indecorous. +It is as if we should not have munched food, talked trivialities, while +before our eyes and under our hands was played out the greatest tragedy +Man has known; as if it would have been more fitting if we had gone from +uneasy couches, tight-lipped and anxious, to our desks, haunted always +by a sense of doom. + +It was not like that. And, such as it was, I attempt to record it--a +serious enough life in any sense of the word, monkish in its denial of +some pleasures, rigid in discipline, exacting in work, but neither +austere nor anxious--such a life as studious boys might live in a Public +School, if there can be imagined a Public School in which sport was +reduced to the minimum essential to keep one fit for hard "swotting." +But a life with some relaxations, and some pleasures, cheerful, actually +light-hearted. + +Questions of the conduct of the war must obtrude somewhat in this book, +but it will be only in so much as they are a necessary background to the +story of the life of G.H.Q.--of G.H.Q. in its later phase when it had +moved from St. Omer to Montreuil and had become what it was in the final +result, a capable Board of Directors of as glorious a company of +soldiers as the world has known. There will be no attempt at a history +of the war, no battle pictures, which are usually vain efforts to +measure the immeasurable. Yet it is hoped that the reader will get from +it some idea of the character and the complexities of the struggle. + +Already fogs of controversy are obscuring many of the facts of the war. +There is a controversy whether the first Commander-in-Chief should have +been recalled when he was; about the merits of the second +Commander-in-Chief; about the "unity of command" decision; about the +relative merits of a strategy which would concentrate everything for a +supreme effort in France and a strategy which would seek a "back door" +to the German citadel; about the actual cause and duration of the shell +shortage. In accordance with our British custom we are mostly taking +sides, following some leader and putting our faith in his views, and all +his views, implicitly. Thus are formed parties. I claim with honesty, +and perhaps with correctness, not to belong to any of the parties. I +have set down these observations on G.H.Q. without a thought of whether +they may support this view or that view on the conduct of the war. + + THE AUTHOR. + +[Illustration: THE BOULOGNE GATE] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +BEFORE G.H.Q. WENT TO MONTREUIL. + +The first stages of the War--"Trench War," a good German invention--The +Battle of Eyes--Waiting for the Big Push--The Loos disappointment--Moving +G.H.Q. to Montreuil. + + +It was the task of General Headquarters to try to see the War as a +whole, to obtain a knowledge not only of the strictly military situation +but, to an extent, also of the moral and the political situation of the +enemy and of our own forces. In the later stages of the campaign that +task was being done, _pace_ all the critics, with an efficiency that was +wonderful, seeing that before the Great War the British nation did not +allow its Army any chance at all of war practice on a big scale. Our +Generals, whatever skill they might have won in studying the theory of +war, had had no opportunity to practise big movements. They were very +much in the position of men trained in the running of a small provincial +store who were asked suddenly to undertake the conduct of one of the +mammoth "universal providers." + +It is of G.H.Q. in the later stages of the war that I write, not G.H.Q. +of the earlier stages, when our Army was finding its feet. But a slight +generalisation regarding those earlier stages is necessary to an +understanding of the subsequent growth of the Army organisation and of +its Board of Directors at G.H.Q. + +The small Army which crossed to France in 1914 was organised as an +Expeditionary Force for a war of movement. It did gallant work in the +first phase, as all have admitted. When the war of movement stopped and +the struggle settled down to the War of the Trenches, though that gave a +good opportunity of recruiting, it brought up an entirely new set of +problems, for which our organisation had made no provision at all and in +which British natural gifts did not have the best chance of display. +Indeed our training system at home refused in 1914-15 to "recognise" +Trench War. The New Armies were trained on the same lines as the old +Regular Army, but of course more hurriedly, more intensively, less +efficiently. They learned Trench Warfare--an almost entirely different +game--when they got out to the Front. A reversal of the process--to have +taught the much simpler Trench Warfare in the home camps and left the +teaching of movement warfare to training intervals in France--was an +obviously more economical system, and it was that adopted at a later +stage. + +When a considered history of the war comes to be written, probably it +will give to the German High Command high praise for this period of +"Trench War." It was the one conspicuously good invention of the enemy. +It enabled him almost completely to stop the war in the one theatre +where he had to meet troops superior to his own, whilst his forces +ranged round Europe winning cheap victories and finally (though too late +as it proved) vanquishing opposition elsewhere. There is no doubt that +the Trench War device baffled our side for a time. I like the story of +Marshal Joffre explaining the position to an American war correspondent +and adding: + +"You see there is nothing to be done." + +"No. I suppose nobody could do anything?" + +"Nobody." + +"Not even Napoleon?" + +But Marshal Joffre paused at that, and after a moment's reflection said: + +"Yes, I suppose Napoleon could do something." + +Finally the "something" came in the shape of the "Tank." + +When Field Marshal Earl Haig took over the chief command he adopted the +system of frequent "raids" to give to the Trench War some of the +character of moving war, and that proved a highly useful step. Still, +this Trench War was not of the genius of our people; and it was very +dull. If I were seeking the fit adjective which could be applied to it +in its superlative it would certainly not be "exciting" nor yet +"dangerous." The life was exciting and it was dangerous--a little. It +was, however, neither very exciting nor very dangerous. But it was very, +very curious. Trench war had its moments, its hours of high emotion, of +intense excitement, of crowding dangers. Its routine--on the Western +front--was laborious, almost to the point of tediousness, demanding a +sober and constant carefulness in detail, and--provided you watched the +minutes and the winds, the twigs and the sky, had eyes, ears, and nerves +always on the alert--it was reasonably safe. + +Trench War exciting? No; you could not allow it to be. The moments were +rare (to the majority of officers they never came) when the call was for +a gallant shout and a forward rush in which leadership took its most +obvious and its easiest form. The hours were always when, with cool, +suspicious, deducting mind, you were watching a sector, awaiting the +enemy's raiding attack or directing your own. Stalking and being +stalked, it was interesting, absorbing, but you could not allow it to be +exciting, or you would not do your work properly. War was robbed, in +that phase of the struggle, of most of its fascinations by the +spectacled Germans who had spent the previous half-century in the +counting house, the laboratory, and the cellar, preparing to destroy the +humanities of civilisation. Trench War was a grubbing kind of business. + +Dangerous? Naturally, to an extent. But not nearly so dangerous as one +might judge from the lurid accounts of imaginative writers. It had its +hours of peril, of horror. But it was not all the time dangerous. For +six days out of seven, on an average, a soldier, if he observed the +strictest caution, was "following a dangerous trade," nothing more. On +the seventh day--I speak in averages--he had his risk about doubled. On +very rare occasions he had to take the risk of a fireman who goes into a +blazing house to rescue a child, or a policeman who stops a madly +bolting horse. Ordinarily one had to be careful "to watch the traffic;" +that was all. If you wished to take a long lingering look at the enemy's +trench you used a periscope. For a brief glance (to get a wide field of +view) you looked over the parapet. There were differing estimates of the +length of time it was safe to show your head over the parapet. Some said +five seconds, others twenty-five. + +"The German is slow in the up-take," remarked the officer who insisted +that twenty-five seconds was quite a safe time to look over the parapet. + +Behind the parapet it was almost as safe--and on dry days as +pleasant--as on a marine parade. A solid fortification of sandbags, +proof against any blow except that of a big high-explosive shell, +enclosed on each side a walk, drained, paved, lined with dug-outs, in +places adorned with little flower beds. I write, of course, of the +Trench War in its "settled" stage--not of those grim struggles around +Ypres in the Autumn of 1914. + +Not exciting, not as dangerous as one would imagine, the Trench War was +more curious, more "uncanny," than it is possible to describe. Try to +imagine the huge ditch, some 300 miles long, from the North Sea to the +Swiss lakes, which was our trench, facing another ditch which was their +trench, all lined with Eyes, thousands, millions of Eyes. All day, all +night, these Eyes stare and stare. At night the hands serving them break +up the dark with star shells, and the brains behind them welcome the +day, only because it makes the scrutiny of Death more easy. On the front +edge of each ditch the Eyes are thick in line; farther back, in every +possible post of observation, are groups of Eyes, and Eyes soar up into +the air now and again to stare into the secrets concealed on the other +side. There are Eyes of infantry, Eyes of artillery, Eyes of airmen. The +scrutiny never pauses for an instant. Let an Eye blink a moment and it +may mean catastrophe, a stealthy rush on a trench or a flood of +poisoning gas. The great dark gutter stretching across Belgium and +France was fringed with staring Eyes; and every Eye had to record its +message to G.H.Q. + +Carefulness, tedious, monotonous carefulness, absolute punctuality, and +grave attention to every detail--these were the warrior qualities in the +Trench War period. The minutes had to be watched, the grass watched lest +you trod down a path and gave away some secret to the Eyes yonder. All +the minute details of life were hedged in with precautions and +penalties. + +This tedious Trench War was not the game for British blood, though on +the whole it was done well, especially after Loos when the raiding +policy was instituted. But it was tedious; and very clearly it was +impossible to win while it lasted. For victory the Germans had to be +turned out of those trenches. So, during the tedium of the Trench War we +would comfort ourselves with the thought that very soon the Big Push +must come. Often the most definite news came that it was fixed for the +next month. This very definite news was usually traced back to some +signaller who had overheard something on the telephone. Perhaps +Divisional H.Q. had a Member of Parliament (doing a "Cook's tour" of the +Front) to dinner and peremptory messages were going down to the Coast +asking for lobsters to be sent up. Now a guileless signaller would never +imagine that Generals and the like were interested in lobster. If he +thought of their diet at all he probably imagined they lived on trench +maps--of which the consumption was certainly huge. Thus the signaller, +hearing strange peremptory messages about lobsters, might conclude that +this was some very secret code, and, the Big Push being in all our +thoughts, that it would have reference to that most certainly. But for +many months it was not the Big Push; it was only the lobster, which was +the standard of gaiety and dissipation at a Mess Dinner. + +At the time of the Loos attack it did really seem that the Big Push had +come. But we were disappointed. Perhaps at the Front we were as +impatient at the result as the people at home, but we could soothe our +impatience with the thought of the greatness of the technical +difficulties of arranging an advance with a battle-line hundreds of +miles in length, all entrenched (difficulties which did not occur to +those gentlemen who wrote weekly expert articles, to show how it should +be done). It was clear that if we could push forward a little at certain +vital points, a rich reward would be reaped. We knew that what would +seem the obvious thing--to press along the whole line and break through +in the weak parts--would have only landed us in a number of advanced +salients which would be hard, or impossible, to defend when they came +under enfilade fire. There were scores of places in which the German +would willingly have let us through; to destroy the advanced party +afterwards. We had to aim to push in wedges at our own selected points +where the salient thus formed could be defended and could seriously +threaten a German line of communication. It was not easy, for the number +of those points was limited and the German knew them all. + +Loos showed very plainly what we were "up against." There was a long +pause for further preparation, a pause which seemed unendurably long at +the time when the French were taking such a hammering at Verdun and we +were going on with tedious Trench War and still more tedious +preparations behind the lines. + +Criticism of the British military effort at this stage of the war was +fairly general and sometimes very hostile. Some assumed that we had +tried our last blow at Loos and that we would never do more than hold a +trench sector until the French could finish the war. At Home there were +critics who argued that the British military effort would have been more +wisely directed if, in the first stage of the war, the British +Expeditionary Force had been kept at home and used as the nucleus for +training a great continental army, ignoring the pressing circumstances +of August, 1914. + +Undoubtedly in that way a great British Army could have been far more +quickly raised. Undoubtedly, too, the task of forming the new British +Army was very seriously handicapped by the draining away to France of +practically all the fully-trained men of military age in Great Britain. +But with a choice of two courses Great Britain took the more daring and +the more generous one; and that in human affairs is generally the better +one. The material help which the Five Divisions of the British Army gave +to the French was not negligible. The moral help was much greater. The +lack of those Divisions might have lost Paris to the French and left the +Germans in control of all France north and east of the Seine; and that +event might have ended the war--it would certainly have prejudiced +seriously the French recovery. + +The risk taken by Great Britain in stripping her own territory of its +only efficient army was not inconsiderable. Direct attack by Germany was +seriously feared then. A bolder German naval policy, indeed, might have +secured an invasion of England. Plans were drawn up in England at one +time on the supposition of a German descent on our coasts being +successful in its first stages, and it was proposed to meet this by +converting a wide coastal section of England into a desert. + +Criticism was to be silenced in time, for presently we were to open that +giant battle which was not to finish until November, 1918, and which +was then to finish with the British Army the most important force in the +Field. + +G.H.Q. moved to Montreuil on March 31st, 1916. On the same date, it may +be said, the British Army in France came to man's estate. It had been up +to this an "auxiliary army" holding a small section of the front, and a +"training army" getting ready to take over--as ultimately it did take +over--the main burden of the war; for, counting its captures of +prisoners and guns from August, 1918, to November 11th, 1918, the +British Army's share in the final victory was almost equal to that of +the French, American and Belgian forces combined. + +G.H.Q. came to Montreuil because St. Omer, the old G.H.Q. town, was no +longer suitable as the centre for the vast operations pending. It had +served well enough when we formed the left wing of the French battle +line. Now we were to be the spear-head of the thrust against Germany. + +Look back upon the little British Army of at first four and then five +Divisions, which in 1914 took rank alongside the French by Mons, and +fell back fighting until the rally of the Marne; and then upon the Army +of 1916 of ten times the strength, which was directed from Montreuil. +The growth shows as marvellous, and especially so to those who +understand how an army in the field is comparable to an iceberg at sea, +of which the greater part is unseen. For every rifleman in the trenches +and gunner in the gun-pits there are at least three other people working +to keep him supplied with food, clothing, ammunition, and on +communications. So an Army's growth demands a growth behind the line +three times as great as that in the line. And this growth is not merely +a matter of the multiplication of riflemen and gunners and auxiliaries, +a heaping up of men. It must be an organic growth to be effective at +all; an adding one by one of highly complex and yet homogeneous units. + +A "Division" is the integral unit of any Army, and a Division must have +in the field its infantry battalions, cavalry or cyclist companies, +field batteries, signallers (with "wireless," telephone and telegraph +service), engineers, transport and supply services, medical and +ambulance services. All told, it numbered about 17,000 officers and men +at the close of the war, but in 1914 the strength of a Division was +nearer to 20,000. And this body of 20,000 was not a mob, nor a crowd, +nor yet even a simple organization such as a band of factory employees. +It was a nation in microcosm, its constituent numbers covering almost +the whole of the activities of life. It had to be organised to fight, to +keep up communications, to manufacture and repair, to feed itself and +its horses, to keep good health conditions in its camps and to succour +its sick and wounded. Besides fighting men it had doctors, vets., +sanitary engineers, mechanics of all kinds, chemists, electricians. +Behind the line the Division's supports, its munition and clothing +factories, its food providers, had to be organised just as carefully. + +Nothing can be made without making mistakes, and in the carrying out of +this giant task of making the Army of the British Empire there were many +mistakes of detail. It is in the nature of the human mind to see such +mistakes in high relief, as the human eye sees small patches of stone +stand out from a vast field of snow. But, making the worst that can be +made of the mistakes, if they are seen in proper perspective they cannot +blur the dazzling brilliance of a marvellous achievement. + +Most of the mistakes, moreover, were direct consequences of that +innocence of warlike intention and that passion for human right and +liberty which was common to Great Britain as to the rest of Western +Europe, and on which, clearly, the German Powers had counted as +sufficient to paralyse effective resistance to their deliberate and +designed preparation. Hindering those good qualities of peacefulness +proved to be, but not paralysing. After all, the task was done. That +most dangerous first rush of German militarism was stayed. The powerful +beast was kept within bounds whilst weapons were forged for his +destruction. In vain were all his efforts, backed by the skill of half a +century of preparation and Spartan discipline. + + * * * * * + +Montreuil was chosen as G.H.Q. for a wide variety of reasons. It was on +a main road from London to Paris--the two chief centres of the +campaign--though not on a main railway line, which would have been an +inconvenience. It was not an industrial town and so avoided the +complications alike of noise and of a possibly troublesome civil +population.[1] It was from a telephone and motor transit point of view +in a very central situation to serve the needs of a Force which was +based on Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe, and Havre, and had its front +stretching from the Somme to beyond the Belgian frontier. + +[Footnote 1: The population of Montreuil in 1906 was 2,883.] + +A great general, asked to define in a phrase what was wanted for a +Headquarters, said "A central remoteness." It was urged that this seemed +an oxymoron. "Well then, if you like, a remote centrality." The finality +of that allowed of no further argument. Montreuil provided both a +central position and a position remote from the disturbances and +distractions of traffic, of a large population, of gay social interests. +The great Ecole Militaire offered accommodation for the chief offices. +There was sufficient billeting accommodation in the town houses and +the neighbouring chateaux. + +[Illustration: THE 'CAVÉE' SAINT FIRMIN] + +G.H.Q. of course was never a great camp. Its total military population +was never more than 5,000, including those G.H.Q. troops who were needed +for guards and who were drawn first from the Artists' Rifles, then from +the Honourable Artillery Company, then from the Newfoundland Regiment, +and finally from the Guernsey Regiment. Accommodation at Montreuil was +reinforced somewhat by hutments in 1917-18, but on the whole the town +was big enough for its purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MONTREUIL AND THE MONTREUILLOIS. + +How the Montreuillois once learned to hate the English--Early history of +the famous town--Its link with the early Roman-British Empire--A border +town in the Anglo-French Wars--When G.H.Q. was bombed. + + +Military convenience alone dictated the choice of Montreuil as the site +of the General Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force in France +as soon as that Force reached to such a strength as to take its full +share in the campaign. But the choice might well have been influenced by +a sentimental desire to make this town, which was so intimately +associated with the old enmity between England and France, the centre of +the Great Reconciliation. Montreuil and the Montreuillois for many +centuries cordially hated England, and not without good reason. In +April, 1369, they chased the English from the town with hoots of "_A la +queue, à la queue les Anglais._" After 550 years, in April, 1919, they +saw the British G.H.Q. leave Montreuil with what different feelings! + +Very curious is the way in which Montreuil has been linked up with +Anglo-French history. In the days of the Roman occupation of Gaul the +Roman Empire had a naval station close to, or actually on, the great +fortress rock which guarded the mouth of the Canche and which was then a +peninsula jutting out into the sea. This station, no doubt, Julius Cæsar +used in his expedition against Britain. Later Carausius, a Roman Briton, +revolted against the Roman Empire and, by winning the command of the +Channel with his Fleet, maintained for a time an independent Britain. He +assumed the state of Cæsar and founded a Roman-British Empire. The +_Classis Britannica_ of the Roman Empire had had its chief station at or +near Montreuil. With the revolt of Carausius there was no longer a +"British Fleet" of the Roman Empire, and the _Classis Samarica_ (the +Fleet of the Somme) was organised to hold the coasts of Gaul for the +Roman Power against the British rebel, Carausius. This Fleet of the +Somme had a station on the Canche, at or near Montreuil. Doubtless in +those very early years of the Christian era there was many a naval +action between the British sea forces and those of the Romans stationed +on the Canche. + +Of any actual Roman buildings on the hill of Montreuil there exists +to-day no trace. But it may be accepted as certain that the Gauls had +fortified this great hill at the mouth of the Canche and that the Roman +Conquerors did not neglect its strategical advantages. It is well within +the bounds of the historic imagination to picture Carausius, the man who +first taught England that her fate depended on the holding of the Narrow +Seas, looking with vain hostility on a well-fortified Roman naval +station at Montreuil which often sent harassing expeditions against his +coast. In later years of Anglo-French enmity Montreuil was +Montreuil-sur-mer only in name, for the sea had retreated ten miles, and +Etaples was the port at the mouth of the Canche; but in the Roman days +and for some centuries after, Montreuil was a good harbour for trade or +for war. + +When the barbarian invasions overwhelmed the Roman Empire, Montreuil +disappeared from history until the Seventh Century, when the monk St. +Saulve (subsequently Bishop of Amiens) built a monastery on the great +hill. From this monastery, without much doubt, the name of Montreuil +comes; for in all old French manuscripts it is spelt "Monstereul," which +is an easy step from "Monasteriolum," "the place of the monastery." In +St. Saulve's day Montreuil appears to have been a bold promontory at the +edge of the sea, with the River Canche running close to its base and a +thriving village at its foot. According to some accounts, St. Saulve's +first monastery was built on the ruins of an earlier castle; if so it +would probably have been a castle of Roman origin. + +Montreuil became a famous shrine, and reports came from it of many +miracles. The Saints Omer, Riquier, Bertin and Josse, whose names are +kept on record in St. Omer and other neighbouring towns and villages, +were monks of the Montreuil monastery. There is a Forest of Josse just +near Montreuil, and I regret to say that some American officers were +persuaded to believe that it got its name from being the site of a +Chinese Labour Joss-house, to the lessening of the glory of St. Josse. + +With the ravages of the pirate Northmen another period of darkness falls +upon the town of Montreuil until the 9th century, when the famous Count +Hildgood (that is to say "hold-good," a stubborn man in the fight) +resolved to make head against the Northmen, and in defence of his county +of Ponthieu built on Montreuil Hill a strong fortress. Traces of this +fortress still exist in the town. The Hotel de France (which was a +meeting place for officers of G.H.Q. when a dinner away from Mess +formalities was desired) stands on part of the site of "Hold-good's" +fortress. + +Count Hildgood was something of a statesman as well as a soldier, and +encouraged a civilian population to collect at the foot of his fortress, +and used the glory of St. Saulve's monastery to attract to the place +other religious communities from Brittany and elsewhere. Montreuil +became thus a famous strong-point. It developed on the familiar lines of +a mediæval city with its well-established local rights, those of "the +peers of the peerage of Montreuil." The ravages of the Northmen in the +surrounding country continued, but Montreuil was too strong for them and +grew into a city of refuge, giving hospitality to many religious refugee +communities even from as far away as Brittany. + +It remained without dispute a part of the county of Ponthieu until 939, +when, as related by the monkish historian Richer, it was coveted by the +Count of Flanders and captured through the treachery of the governor, +Robert le Chepier. (One of the towers of the existing fortifications +still bears his name). The children of the Count of Ponthieu were taken +captives and sent to the English Court to be held as prisoners--giving +rise to one of the first of the many grudges that the good Montreuillois +had against England. The Count of Ponthieu appealed for help to the then +Duke of Normandy (William of the Long Sword). The help was given, +Montreuil was wrested from the Flemings, and handed back to the Count of +Ponthieu according to some accounts, held by the Normans according to +other accounts, which have a greater air of reasonableness, for the +Normans were good at taking and slow at giving back. + +[Illustration: OUTSIDE THE RAMPARTS] + +But all disputes as to the possession of Montreuil between the Counts +of Ponthieu and Flanders and the Duke of Normandy were settled by the +King of France, Hugo Capet, who made the town part of the Royal Domain +of France and built a great fortified château by the side of the old +citadel. A part of this château still remains, "the Tower of Queen +Bertha," so-called from the unhappy fate of Bertha, Queen of Philip I. +of France. She was the daughter of the Count Florent I. of Holland, and +had borne Philip three children when he became enamoured of the wife of +the Count of Anjou and shut his own wife up to die in Montreuil. To +quote the old chronicle: "Il la mist en prison en un fort chastel qui a +nom Monstereul-sur-la-mer." The poor lady seems to have been most +harshly treated, and was left dependent on the charity of the townsfolk +for her food. The children of Montreuil recall the story to this day +when begging for money for the churches with the cry "Give, give, to +your Queen." + +By this time the Norman Conquest had given England a place in European +politics. The 13th Century brought Montreuil under the English Crown. +Jeanne, Countess of Ponthieu and Montreuil, had married the King of +Castille and Leon. Their daughter Eleonora of Castille married Edward +I., King of England, and part of her dowry was Montreuil. Edward I. came +over in 1279 to take over his new possession, and promised the +Montreuillois to safeguard all their local rights and privileges. But +the good folk of the town did not like the English of that day, and +disputes were constant. They rejoiced when war broke out between France +and England (a war in which the French had the Scots as allies and the +English the Flemings); for the King of France exempted Montreuil from +her feudal duty to the English King. + +That war was stopped by the intervention of Pope Boniface, and a Peace +Conference assembled at Montreuil. One of the peace conditions was that +the Prince of Wales should marry the daughter of the King of France, and +this marriage was celebrated with great magnificence at Boulogne, the +young princess passing through Montreuil to the wedding. She received as +her pin-money from her husband the revenues of Ponthieu and Montreuil. + +But that marriage did not make for peace. On the contrary its fruits +were a new series of wars interrupted by an occasional truce or brief +peace. Crécy and Agincourt were both fought almost in sight of +Montreuil. The district round was ravaged again and again by the English +forces, and several times the town itself was besieged in vain. After +Crécy, Edward tried to take it and failed. An incident of one of the +peace treaties was the visit of Chaucer, the poet, to Montreuil as an +English plenipotentiary. An incident of one of the wars was the passage +through Montreuil of the funeral procession of King Henry V. + +So through the years Montreuil was in the very heart of the struggle +between English and French. It was in a manner the border town between +the territory in France which was admitted to be English, and the +disputed territory. Thus it learned a deep hatred of the English. Often +as a condition of peace it was handed over to English domination; never +was it content with that destiny. Finally, the ambition of the English +Kings to add France to their realms--an ambition which was as bad for +England as it was for France--was definitely frustrated. Montreuil, +passionately French in spirit, "the most faithful town in all Picardy," +as Henry of Navarre called it, was no more to be vexed either by English +governors or English marauders. + +But Montreuil cherished its dislike of the English, and probably had +never been so happy for centuries as when in 1804 it was the +headquarters of the left wing of Napoleon's Army for the invasion of +England. General Ney was the officer in command at Montreuil, and his +brilliant receptions brought back to the town some of its Middle Ages +pomp. It was from Montreuil that in 1804 General Ney addressed to +Napoleon a memorial begging him to take the Imperial Crown for the sake +of France. Napoleon himself visited Montreuil more than once, and a +house in which he slept is still shown in the Place Verte. + +Little or nothing of this was in the minds of our Staff in deciding upon +Montreuil as a site for G.H.Q. It was convenient (as its choice in old +times for Peace Conferences between England and France clearly shows) to +London and to Paris. It was off any main traffic route, and promised +quiet for telephone services. The feelings of the inhabitants were +presumed to be friendly, and the presumption was justified, though +curiously enough there was in 1918 a slight revival of the old +anti-English feelings, and I even heard whispered again "_à la queue les +Anglais_." It all arose from what must be admitted to have been rather +an undignified incident. + +There used to be a fable--no one was fonder of giving it circulation +than the Red Tabs--that there was a mutual agreement between the Germans +and ourselves that G.H.Q. on both sides was to be spared from air raids. + +"The arrangement is a classic instance of our stupidity," the Red Tab +humorist would remark, "for the German scores both ways." + +"How is that?" + +"Well, his Staff is spared, which is valuable to him. And our Staff is +spared, which is also valuable to him." + +Staff officers, B.E.F., could afford to pass on gibes like that in +1917-18 when British Staff work was the model which the new American +armies set themselves to imitate. + +But as a matter of fact in the summer of 1918 G.H.Q. was bombed pretty +regularly by the enemy. Those who lived there had unhappy proof of that. +There were several deaths from bombs in and near the town. After the +first bombing attacks orders were issued that no soldier, except +sentries and officers on night duty, was to be allowed to sleep in +Montreuil. The whole garrison was to go into the woods at night, or to +take refuge in the deep dug-outs which were tunnelled under the city. +Hardly a night passed without a bombing raid, until the tide of battle +turned and the German bomber had neither heart nor means for nocturnal +wanderings. + +There was no doubt that a good motive inspired the orders for the +nightly evacuation of the town by officers and soldiers except those +actually on duty. It was thought that the Germans had discovered G.H.Q. +and had resolved one night to "wipe it out." A really determined raid +concentrated on a small walled town might have effected that. But the +nightly march out of the troops did not impress favourably the +inhabitants, who mostly had to stay. Some of them openly jeered; others +made less parade of their feelings, but had them all the same. + +"Where are the English?" + +"The English are in the woods of Wailly." + +That was a favourite street-corner gibe. + +Most officers who did not get direct orders to leave the town of nights +kept to their billets, but all the rank and file were marched out, or +rather driven out by motor lorries. The Officers' Club closed early of +evenings so that the Q.M.A.A.C.s might be evacuated to a camp outside +the town. At this camp they evidently did not have the same conveniences +as in the town for dressing their hair and so on; and they had to start +off very early in the morning to be in time to wait at breakfast. +Tempers as well as coiffures were a little ragged in consequence. + +[Illustration: THE MARKET] + +One advantage that we won from the bomb 'scare' (if that word is +justified) was that it gave a stimulus to archæological research in the +town. There was at G.H.Q. at the time, as a Major, R.E., that fine +"sport" Professor David of Sydney University. Professor David has a +great celebrity as a geologist. His birth year was 1858, so he is not +exactly a youngster except in heart. But the spirit of adventure and +patriotism which sent him out to the South Pole with the Shackleton +Expedition in 1907-1909 sent him from Australia to this war. He did +useful work with an Australian Tunnelling Company in connection with the +famous Messines mine, and his knowledge as a geologist was afterwards +of great use to G.H.Q. in matters of mines, of water supply, and the +like. Now he was asked to take in hand the task of providing good +under-ground dug-outs for the Montreuil garrison. His researches +disclosed some very interesting old galleries or quarries under the +citadel. Passages were cut through to these from points in the Ramparts, +and I believe that even the good citizens of Montreuil did not disdain +to take advantage of the English "dug-outs" when the German bombs began +to fall. + +All the same, when that nightly march out of the town was dropped we +were all very glad; and our relations with the townspeople were restored +to their old serenity. + +At the worst the hostile section was not a very large one. Many officers +who were at G.H.Q. have memories of warm personal friendships with some +of the French residents, who did all that was in their power to make +them feel that France was a second home. At one residence (where I was +billetted for a time, that of M. Laurent and his wife) the lady had +established a homely little _salon_, which was quite a student's centre +not only for officers but for other ranks. Mme. Laurent spoke English +well, and it was her hobby to teach French to any willing pupil of the +British Army and to interest soldiers in the history of the old town. +There were many others who took the same kindly interest in our mental +welfare. + +The good Montreuillois of 1919 certainly did not hate the English as +their ancestors had done. They considered that the five years since 1914 +had washed out all old injuries.[2] + +[Footnote 2: See Appendix.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +G.H.Q. AT WORK. + +The Functions of G.H.Q.--The varying conditions to be met--The working +hours--The organisation of a branch--The Chief's system. + + +To the very end of the war, no doubt, an occasional young regimental +officer could be found who knew exactly what G.H.Q. did: "They swanked +about in Red Tabs and cars: had a gorgeous 'mike,' and, to keep up a +show of work, issued all kinds of fool orders which nobody in the +trenches had any time to read." + +This theory of the functions of G.H.Q. had quite a vogue in "regimental +circles" at one time. It was not, of course, founded on any mental +process or it would be deeply interesting to investigate how these +gentlemen came to think that ammunition and supplies could arrive +fortuitously, that a concentration of troops or of Tanks could "just +happen." + +[Illustration: LIEUT-GENERAL THE HON. SIR H. A. LAWRENCE (Chief of +the General Staff)] + +But, apart from that sort of thoughtless talk, there was, even among +senior officers, some lack of knowledge as to what exactly the hermits +of Montreuil did. They knew of them as issuing General Routine Orders in +the name of the Commander-in-Chief (some 5,000 of these G.R.O.s were +issued in the course of the war); as circulating, more privately, secret +orders and instructions, and perhaps of making occasional appearances on +the battle-field, though probably the majority of regimental officers +never saw a G.H.Q. officer. In brief summary, the more important +functions of G.H.Q. were: + + 1. G.H.Q. was the link between the B.E.F. and the British + Government. The War Cabinet sitting in London was the supreme + authority. The Secretary of State for War was its spokesman and, + with the War Office Staff, its adviser. The Commander-in-Chief was + the Army's spokesman and, with his G.H.Q., the negotiator with the + Secretary of State for War. In the final result the B.E.F. had to + do what it was ordered to do by the Secretary of State, but the + Commander-in-Chief was usually consulted beforehand, and had always + the right of discussion and of remonstrance. The relations between + the Home Government and the Army were recognised as the most + important matter dealt with by G.H.Q., and War Office letters had a + special priority. No one except the Commander-in-Chief communicated + directly with the War Office. + + 2. G.H.Q. was the link between the British Army in the Field and + the Allied armies--the French, American, Belgian and + Portuguese. Relations between these were maintained through + Military Missions, we keeping a Mission with the G.H.Q. of the + Allied Army, they keeping Missions with our G.H.Q. There was, quite + apart from big questions of operations, discussion of which was + confined to the Chief of the General Staff and the heads of the + foreign Missions, an immense amount of technical transport, supply + and finance work between the Allies. There was hardly an officer of + G.H.Q. who did not in some detail come into relations with the + foreign Missions. + + 3. G.H.Q. had to decide the strategy of the campaign in its + relation to the British sector. After the unity of Command there + was a somewhat lessened responsibility in this matter, but the work + was practically the same. The Commander-in-Chief, in consultation + with his Chief of Staff, his Quartermaster-General and his + Adjutant-General, decided when and with what forces we should + attack, when adopt a defensive policy. To come to those decisions a + close and constant study was necessary by the various branches of + G.H.Q. of the state of the enemy's forces, our own numbers and + _morale_, our possibilities of transport and supply. + + 4. G.H.Q. had to arrange the supply, from Home and from its own + workshops and local civilian workshops, of all the wonderful + equipment of the forces, from a Tank and a 15-inch howitzer to a + tin of dubbin; all the ammunition and all the food supplies to man + and beast. There came to the ports of France every month for the + B.E.F. about 800,000 tons of stuff. The men to be fed totalled over + 2,000,000 and the animals to be fed about 500,000. A month's supply + of ammunition weighed about 260,000 tons. + + 5. G.H.Q. managed a transport system which used constantly about + half a million horses and mules and about 20,000 motor lorries, + running over 9,000,000 motor miles per month; which carried on its + light railways about 544,000 tons a month and ran every day 250 + trains on broad gauge lines. + + 6. G.H.Q. was constantly building new railways and new roads, and + developing new harbour facilities. It ran big canal and sea + services, forestry and agricultural services, repair shops, + laundries, etc., on a gigantic scale. + + 7. G.H.Q managed the vast medical services for wounded and sick, + the veterinary services, the laboratories for the defence of our + men and animals against poison gas and for the gas + counter-offensive. It was responsible for the organisation of the + Chaplains' services, for educational work and the amusement of the + men. + +Such was the work of G.H.Q. It was carried on under these varying +conditions: + + 1. Maintaining a stabilised position. This was comparatively easy. + Wastage of men, horses and material could be calculated with some + certainty and replaced by a routine process. + + 2. Preparing for a big attack. This made the greatest strain on + Transport and Supply, and the necessary conditions of secrecy added + complications and difficulties. In preparing an offensive the + Traffic more than doubled per Division. The necessary making of new + railways and new roads and the accumulation of defence material to + fortify a new line were responsible for most of this. But the + accumulation of a big head of ammunition was also a factor. On a + quiet sector two Divisions could get along with about three trains + daily. For the purposes of a big attack ten Divisions might be + concentrated on that sector and those ten Divisions in the + preparatory stage of the attack would need about 33 supply trains a + day, and during the offensive about 27 trains a day. Put the + problem into terms of civil railway administration. Tell the + manager of the London to Brighton line that next week he must carry + 15 times the normal traffic for a number of days and that it is + extremely important that people observing his termini and his lines + should not notice anything unusual. + + 3. Resisting a big attack. The most difficult element of this was + its unexpectedness. The total provision needed for it was less than + for an offensive. The amount of supplies necessary to go up by + train per Division from Base would be 25 per cent. less than in the + case of the preparation of a big attack. We always carried a good + reserve stock of ammunition, food, and engineering stores close + behind the line, and a further reserve of ammunition already loaded + on trains at appropriate railway centres. In case of emergency, + ammunition could start moving up in just the time necessary to + hitch a locomotive on to a standing train. Experience of the German + offensive in 1918 showed that we carried near the front line too + great reserves, and we lost a good deal of food, stores and + ammunition in consequence. That big attack indeed disclosed several + chinks in our armour. It showed that in some cases during Trench + War units had allowed themselves to become immobile. (To give one + example, many Casualty Clearing Stations had burdened themselves + with surgical stores and equipment which should be reserved for + stationary hospitals. Thus burdened, they were tempted to evacuate + too soon). There were weaknesses, too, in Ammunition Columns, and + the railway system was not nearly elastic enough. But we pulled + through, largely because the British officer and soldier has always + a bit in reserve and never thinks so quickly or acts so bravely as + when in a tight corner. + + 4. Carrying on a general offensive. This was the supreme test of + the British Staff from August, 1918, to November, 1918. It called + for an effort that put in the category of easy things all that had + gone before. The effort was gloriously successful. The British Army + succeeded where the German Army in 1914, under far more favourable + circumstances, had failed. + +I have given only the most important of the functions of G.H.Q. and a +very inadequate idea of the conditions under which it had to carry on +its tasks, yet for all this there were only 300 officers at Montreuil +and 240 officers at the outlying directorates. + +It did not leave much chance for idleness! At G.H.Q., in my time, in my +branch, no officer who wished to stay was later than 9 a.m. at his desk; +most of the eager men were at work before then. We left at 10.30 p.m. if +possible, more often later. On Saturday and Sunday exactly the same +hours were kept. "An hour for exercise" in the afternoon was supposed +to be reserved, in addition to meal-hours; but it was not by any means +always possible. During the worst of the German offensive in the spring +of 1918 Staff officers toiled from 8.30 a.m. to midnight, with half-hour +intervals for meals. I have seen a Staff officer faint at table from +sheer pressure of work, and dozens of men, come fresh from regimental +work, wilt away under the fierce pressure of work at G.H.Q. + +The extreme character of the strain at G.H.Q. used to be recognised by a +special allowance of leave. A short leave every three months was, for a +long time, the rule. With pressure of work, that rule fell in abeyance, +and a G.H.Q. Staff Officer was lucky to get a leave within six months. +In the case of the big men at the head of the departments leave was +something to be talked of, dreamt of, but never realised. Compared with +conditions at G.H.Q. regimental work was care-free and pleasant. + +G.H.Q. was organised in this fashion. At the head was the +Commander-in-Chief and his personal staff consisting of an Assistant +Military Secretary, a Private Secretary, a Medical Officer, an Officer +in charge of escorts and five A.D.C.s. Attached to this personal staff +were an American and a French Staff Officer. There was one officer of +the Dominions on the Chief's personal staff, Captain Botha, a son of +the late General Botha, Prime Minister of South Africa. With his +personal staff the Commander-in-Chief was quartered at a château near +Montreuil. + +One rarely saw "the Chief." He seldom had occasion to come to the +offices in the Ecole Militaire, and it was only the highest officers who +had to go to confer with him. But his presence was always felt. There +was no more loyal band of brothers than the Grand Staff of the British +Army in 1918, and the humblest member at G.H.Q. expressed the spirit of +the Commander-in-Chief, and, within his sphere, was trying to do exactly +as the Commander-in-Chief would do. When "the Chief" did appear at +Montreuil all felt they had the right to desert work for five minutes to +go to a window to catch a glimpse of him as he passed from one side of +the Ecole Militaire to the other, or stopped in the great courtyard to +chat for a moment with one of his officers. + +Under the Chief the staff was divided into branches. There was the +"Military Secretary's Branch," a small branch under Major-General H. G. +Ruggles-Brise, whose duties were to look after honours, promotions, etc. +There was the General Staff Branch, under Lieut.-General the Hon. Sir H. +A. Lawrence, divided into the Operations Section, under Major-General J. +H. Davidson (having charge of the actual strategy and tactics in the +campaign); the Staff Duties Section, under Major-General G. P. Dawnay; +and the Intelligence Section, under Brigadier-General G. S. Clive +(having charge of the collection of information as to the enemy's +movements, dispositions, intentions, etc.). There was the +Adjutant-General's Branch, under Lieutenant-General Sir G. H. Fowke +(having charge of discipline). There was the Quartermaster-General's +Branch, under Lieutenant-General Sir Travers Clarke (having charge of +supply and transport). Finally there were certain officers with special +duties attached to G.H.Q. but not directly under any of these branches, +such as the Officer Commanding Royal Artillery, the Inspector of Machine +Gun Units, the Engineer-in-Chief, the officers in charge of Mines and +Searchlights, the Inspector of Training, the Chief Chaplains, the +Provost Marshal, and the Deputy Judge Advocate-General. + +[Illustration: LIEUT-GENERAL SIR G. H. FOWKE (Adjutant-General, B.E.F.)] + +Of the branches of the Staff, the Quartermaster-General's was far the +greatest, for under it came all the transport and supply services. This +was the formidable list: + + Director of Agricultural Production (Brig.-Gen. the Earl of + Radnor). + + Director of Army Postal Services (Brig.-Gen. Price). + + Deputy Controller of E.F. Canteens (Col. E. Benson). + + Director of Engineering Stores (Brig.-Gen. Sewell). + + Director of Forestry (Brig.-Gen. Lord Lovat). + + Director of Hirings and Requisitions, and President of Claims + Commission (Major-Gen. Rt. Hon. L. B. Friend). + + Controller of Labour (Brig.-Gen. Wace). + + Director of Ordnance Services (Major-Gen. Sir C. M. Mathew). + + Paymaster-in-Chief (Major-Gen. Sir C. A. Bray). + + Director of Remounts (Brig.-Gen. Sir F. S. Garrett). + + Controller of Salvage (Brig.-Gen. Gibb). + + Director of Supplies (Major-Gen. Carter). + + Director of Motor Transport (Major-Gen. Boyce). + + Director-General of Transportation (Major-Gen. Crookshank). + + Director of Veterinary Services (Major-Gen. Moore). + + Vice-Chairman Imperial War Graves Commission (Major-Gen. Ware). + + Director of Works (Major-Gen. Sir A. M. Stuart). + +Nor does that finish the list, for subsidiary directorates under the +Director-General of Transportation were: + + Director of Construction (Brig.-Gen. Stewart). + + Director of Docks (Brig.-Gen. Wedgewood). + + Director of Inland Water Transport (Brig.-Gen. Luck). + + Director of Light Railways (Brig.-Gen. Harrison). + + Director of Railway Traffic (Brig.-Gen. Murray). + + Director of Roads (Brig.-Gen. Maybury). + +The Transportation Directorate was, so to speak, a sub-branch of the +Staff. It had a great standard-gauge railway system which kept 900 +locomotives running, which in one day could send 196 trains from the +Bases to railheads (this irrespective of trains on lateral lines) and in +one week once moved 439,801 troops and in one month 1,539,410 troops. +Its railway system was constantly being pushed forward, being +duplicated, and being furnished with "avoiding lines." Further, +Transportation had a light railway system which carried 174,923 tons a +week. Those were only two of its activities. On inland waterways, +Transportation carried 293,593 tons a month, and it worked, in addition, +a coastal barge traffic, a cross-Channel barge service, and a +cross-Channel Ferry. Of roads, it maintained about 4,106 miles and was +always making new ones; and it took 4,400 tons of material--much of it +imported by sea--to make a mile of new road. + +These figures are impressive enough in themselves and yet give little +real sense of the full task of the Transportation Services. That can +only be realised when it is kept in mind that practically all the work +had to be carried out under conditions of shock and violent movement. It +was not a matter of peacefully carrying on a routine business. At every +point there was a constant liability to interruption and destruction by +enemy action. At every hour there was some new development requiring +some change of method, of destination. The vast machine had to be as +elastic as it was powerful. + +Yet that was only one sub-branch of the Staff. + +It will be of interest to note how all the directorates of the Q Branch +of the Staff were co-ordinated so that the man at the top could keep +control and yet not be smothered under a mass of detail. Under the head +(Lieutenant-General Sir Travers Clarke) of this Branch of the Staff were +two deputies (Major-General Ford and Major-General May). Under these +deputies were five Brigadier-Generals, and under them nine +Lieutenant-Colonels, and these Lieutenant-Colonels divided between them +82 subjects. A table showing the distribution of these subjects was +circulated throughout the Staff, and most matters got to the right +officer from the beginning, and if they were of a routine nature were +dealt with at once without further reference. Very important matters, or +new questions arising, went up to one of the Deputies and were referred, +or not, to the Q.M.G. as the circumstances dictated. Attached to the +Branch and directly under its head was an officer who had charge of all +orders and all publications. Nothing could be sent out as an order from +the Q.M.G. Branch, or nothing printed as an instruction from the Branch, +until it had gone through his hands; and it was his duty to see that one +section of the Branch did not tread on the toes of another, that orders +and publications did not overlap, and that an order in which several +directorates were interested was drafted in accordance with the views of +all of them. + +Other Branches of the Staff did not call for such elaborate +organisation, for their duties were not so various. But all worked on +very much the same plan--of delegating authority so that once a line of +action on any particular point was decided upon, a comparatively junior +staff officer could "carry on" without worrying his superiors by +frequent references. + +A G.H.Q. officer was distinguished not only by his red staff badges but +by a red and blue arm-band. An "attached officer," _i.e._, an officer +who was working with the staff as a learner or a helper and was perhaps +graded for pay, etc., as a staff officer, did not wear these +distinctions until he was actually appointed to the Staff. + +[Illustration: THE GRANDE PLACE] + +The red and blue arm-band was a chromatic outrage--its glaring colours +of course had a purpose--and quite spoiled the appearance of a tunic. +But it was dearly prized and as a rule was worn on leave, though it had +then no usefulness. In the field the distinguishing arm-band was of +great use, to indicate to officers and men the officials to whom they +could appeal in case of need. There were all sorts of arm-bands with +various colour symbols and initials in addition to the G.H.Q. one. A +list of them will indicate the complexity of the task of a modern army +in the field. Special arm-bands of different designs were authorised to +distinguish: + + General Headquarters. + Army Headquarters. + Army Corps Headquarters. + Corps Machine Gun Officers. + R.A.F. Headquarters. + Cavalry Divisional Headquarters. + Divisional Headquarters. + Tank Corps Staff. + Tank Headquarters. + Tank Brigade. + Cavalry Brigade. + Infantry Brigade. + Cavalry Divisional Artillery Headquarters. + Divisional Artillery Headquarters. + G.H.Q. Troops Headquarters. + Lines of Communication. + Provost Marshal and his assistants. + Signal Service. + Military Police. + Railway Transport Officers. + Embarkation Staff. + Staff, Directorate of Light Railways. + " " Roads. + " " Docks. + " " Transportation. + " " Inland Water Transport. + " " Broad Gauge Railways. + Light Railways District Superintendent. + " Inspector. + " Yardmaster. + " Controlman. + " Guard. + Officers, Staff Inspector War Trophies. + Servants to Military Attaches. + Stretcher bearers. + All medical personnel. + Press correspondents and servants. + Train Conducting Officers. + Checkers. + Town Majors. + Traffic Control. + Agents de Police Special. + Instructors of Machine Gun School, Lewis Gun School, + and Machine Gun Corps Base Depôt. + H.Q. Corps Heavy Artillery. + Special Brigade. + Area Commandants. + Billet and Camp Wardens. + Corps Chemical Advisers. + Divisional Gas Officers. + Instructors of Divisional Gas Schools. + Camouflage Officers attached to Corps. + Salvage Corps. + Civilian Platelayers. + Intelligence Police. + Sanitary Sections. + Belgian Civ. Rly. Staff. + M.L.O. Staff at Ports. + N.C.O.s and men of Intelligence Corps. + N.C.O.s and men of Dock Directorate. + Sentries on Examining Posts. + Interpreters, Indian Labour Corps. + Interpreters, Chinese Labour Corps. + +The Military Police were supposed to be able to keep all these in memory +and an officer in the field had to know the chief ones; and he took care +to know at least that for G.H.Q., for it represented the ultimate source +of honour and blame. Nothing important could happen to him except +through G.H.Q., and that ugly red and blue arm-band always demanded +attention, sometimes, no doubt, mixed with a little resentment, because +of the idea that G.H.Q. had nothing much to do except to bother the +unhappy regimental officer. + +We all tried to "live up to" our arm-bands in the crude +stained-glass-window colours. The Commander-in-Chief set a high example +by choosing his men carefully, giving them their particular jobs and +trusting them. He was not one of those fussy souls who want to oversee +every detail. The men who worked under him knew that whilst they did +their work conscientiously and carefully he would back them against any +niggling criticism and against any back-biting. It was a good policy +judged by its results. G.H.Q., B.E.F., France, in the summer of 1918 had +probably reached as high a summit of soldierly scientific skill as the +grand Staff of any Army in the world. The business of improvisation +which had been begun in 1914 was finished, actually finished. From +G.H.Q. was directed day by day a fighting force which met the chief +brunt of the last German attack, held it; then, while it absorbed a +great flood of recruits and helped to equip and train the American Army, +prepared to take the chief part in the final victorious offensive. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +G.H.Q. AT PLAY. + +The walks on the Ramparts--The "Monks" of Montreuil had little time for +sport--Precautions against "joy-riding"--The jolly Officers' +Club--Watching the Map--Ladies at G.H.Q.? + + +There was precious little play-time at G.H.Q. But there was some. It was +spent very innocently; not to say stodgily. A walk on the Ramparts was +the chief recreation of the great majority of the officers. + +What a boon those Ramparts were! Within a minute from the Ecole +Militaire one could get on the broad walk which crowned the old walls +and could follow it round the whole circuit of the town for a mile or +more. From every point there was a rich and ample prospect; southward +over the swelling downs and little copses towards the forest of Crécy; +westward over a richer and more luxuriant plain towards the sea; +northward across the woods and marshes of the Canche; eastward along the +valley of the river and its bordering hills. On a fine day at the coming +up and the going down of the sun, and every hour between, there was a +constant festival of light and colour. Stormy and rainy skies gave +another beauty to the wide prospect. To see a storm march up in grand +procession and pass with its sombre pomp was a fearful joy; and there +was a wild beauty, too, in looking out from the walls on the beating of +the obstinate rains against hill and plain. Painters from all over the +world used to come to Montreuil to attempt to put on canvas the glow of +its summer scenes, the wild grandeur of its winters. No day was without +its special beauty, and the beauty was ever renewed afresh. + +In the early spring the chinks and crannies of the old walls burst into +bloom of gillyflowers which hung them with tapestries of gold and red +and brown, contrasting gaily with the bright green foliage of the trees +growing at the base of the Ramparts and throwing their branches up to +their very top. As the season advanced the birds came to build in the +trees, and you might peep down into their nests and hear their indignant +chirrups at being so closely overlooked. With summer and autumn came new +colours, but always splendour and glow and movement. The country around +carried that wide variety of crops in which the French peasant's thrifty +and careful culture delights. There were beans and oats and wheat and +corn and flax and mustard and bits of pasturage, and of fodder crops, +weaving their many colours into a delightful carpet pattern which +changed with every day of the year and almost with every hour of the +day. + +[Illustration: THE RAMPARTS] + +Had it not been for those Rampart walks the toilsome life of G.H.Q. at +Montreuil would have been hardly possible. The road from anywhere to +anywhere, if time allowed, was by the Ramparts. Going from the Ecole +Militaire to the Officers' Club was three minutes by the street, seven +minutes by the Ramparts, and most went by the Ramparts unless work was +hideously pressing. For those with a little more time to spare there +were enchanting rambles around the base of the Ramparts along the Canche +valley or in the old fosses of the fortifications. + +Riding was not a common exercise. Horses were scarce. Very few officers +had their own chargers; and those who had could not find time to +exercise them properly. So most of the horses at G.H.Q. were pooled, and +an officer having time and inclination took what horse was available. +There were many pleasant rides, the favourite one being a shady stretch +along the bank of the river. + +At one point of the fortifications an old fosse had been converted into +hard tennis courts, and these were used a little, but not much. It seems +tiresome to be always repeating the same fact but really there was not +time to follow tennis or any other sport. At the Officers' Club there +was not such a thing as a billiard table; and I never saw a game of +cards played there. In some of the private messes there was a feeble +attempt to keep up a Bridge or a Poker circle. But to begin to play at +cards at 11 p.m. with the knowledge that the office is calling for a +clear rested brain by nine the next morning, needs far more than +ordinary enthusiasm. I can remember playing cards only three nights +during all my time at Montreuil. + +There was a theatre at Montreuil, usually given up to cinema shows but +occasionally visited by the variety companies which were organised for +the amusement of the troops and occasionally also converted into a +lecture hall. It was well patronised on special occasions, but in the +course of a year made little total demand on officers' time. When, as +was usually the case, the theatre was given up to "the pictures" it was +filled by "other ranks." The non-commissioned officers and privates who +were clerks in the various departments had generally just as little +leisure as their officers, but some of the military population had more +time to spare; what section I do not know, for even the grooms and the +batmen had not easy places. Officers junior to the rank of +lieutenant-colonel were not allowed a batman to themselves, but one +soldier acted for two or three officers and had various fatigue duties +in addition. + +[Illustration: THE THEATRE] + +Just outside the town, G.H.Q. Recreation Ground provided a lumpy +football ground and a still more lumpy cricket ground. Both our national +games languished, however, for the stock reason--want of time. There +were teams, and occasional matches, and sometimes an enthusiastic +sportsman would send an urgent whip round to call attention to our +deplorable neglect of the games that made England great. He would get a +few half-hearted promises of reform, but there was no hope in fighting +against the great obstacle. It was like a college in which every one was +a "swotter." + +So the 300 or so Monks of Montreuil lived their laborious lives. The +balance of G.H.Q. staff, some 250, scattered about the environs of +Montreuil with their offices at Paris Plage or Le Touquet or the Forest +of Crécy, could follow a somewhat milder discipline. They were "Second +Echelon" mostly. Current operations had not much concern for them and it +was possible to take horse-back exercise, to keep up football and +cricket and even tennis and golf. At Le Touquet, which was a well-known +pleasure centre before the war, there were good golf links and some +excellent tennis courts. On occasions the Commander-in-Chief decided to +think out his problems over a round of golf, and a little bungalow was +maintained at Le Touquet for his convenience. + +Paris Plage was a splendid beach, but so far as G.H.Q. officers were +concerned its attractions were wasted. Occasionally an officer having +business at one of the Directorates near by would spare an hour for a +swim, but it was not possible on a hot Saturday or Sunday to suspend the +battle, or the preparation for the battle, in progress and adjourn as a +body to the seaside. Not only time but transport was lacking. The only +means of getting down to the beach--a distance of about twelve +miles--was by motor-car, and regulations against "joy-riding" were +strict. Not only were there regulations; there were also precautions to +see that the regulations were kept. A car could go out from G.H.Q. +garage only on an order from the officer in charge of cars, and it was +his business to get a chit as to what was the reason for the journey. +Occasionally police patrols would be stationed on the roads with +instructions to stop every car and examine its papers. This was excused +as a precaution against espionage. It was designed more to be a +precaution against waste of petrol or "joy-riding," as a few officers +found to their cost. + +So the life of the Montreuil officer resolved itself ordinarily into +this simple routine: he worked and he walked on the Ramparts. But there +was one fine relief to tedium for the majority--a dinner-party every +night. The big generals, because they had to, and a few unwise souls, +because they chose to, favoured private messes and confronted at dinner +at night the same men as they met in the office all day; and, without a +doubt, found it rather monotonous. The majority of the officers messed +at the Officers' Club, which had a couple of hundred members and could +rival the old reputation of the House of Commons as "the finest Club in +Europe." + +The qualification for joining the Officers' Club was to be an officer of +the British Army or of an Allied Army stationed at Montreuil. The +subscription was five francs per month, and for that and a ridiculously +small sum per day the Club gave members three square meals a day and +afternoon tea. The Club kept up a good cellar, and to the very last, +when good wine was almost unprocurable in London or Paris except at +exorbitant prices, the Officers' Club, Montreuil, could sell a vintage +claret or burgundy at nine francs a bottle, a decent wine at five francs +a bottle, and champagne at fifteen francs a bottle. The Expeditionary +Force Canteens were the caterers, and aimed at only a nominal profit. +Once a week there was a fixed guest night and a band, but members could +bring guests at any time. Waiting was done by Q.M.A.A.C.s, neat deft +little ladies who brought a hint of home to the exiles. + +Custom was against forming coteries. So there were constantly differing +dinner-parties, and the conversation was rich in variety and interest. +The backbone of the Mess were the Regular Army officers, the majority of +them colonels, with a sprinkling of brigadiers, a few majors and a few +captains. The majority in the Mess, however, were temporary officers, a +few of senior rank, mostly staff captains or attached officers. There +were always some visitors, a politician or some other personage from +home, staff officers from the War Office or from the various Armies, +regimental officers having business at G.H.Q., guests from the various +private messes at Montreuil. + +Talk ranged from the most serious shop to the most airy nothings. There +were experts there in almost every department of human knowledge, men +who had seen many cities and known the minds of many men. The +representatives of the Allied nations gave an extra note of variety. You +might sit at the same table with an American one night, an Italian +another, or a Frenchman or Belgian or Portuguese. The majority of men +present were distinguished men either in the Service or in some civil +profession or business. Travel, science, art and literature, were all +well represented. + +[Illustration: IN THE OFFICERS' CLUB] + +Smoking was prohibited in the Officers' Club until a certain hour, and +the Q.M.A.A.C. waitresses had no difficulty in seeing that the rule was +kept by all ranks. At an earlier date, when a sergeant-major with men +orderlies had charge of the waiting, discipline on this point was not +so easily maintained. Any junior officer lighting up before the hour was +promptly checked. But a sergeant-major found it difficult to take +"disciplinary action" against an officer of General rank. One evening a +very lofty general indeed, a visitor to the Mess, started a huge cigar +at 8 o'clock. Smoking was not allowed until 8.20. The sergeant-major was +a man of resource. Bringing in a ladder, he mounted to the Mess clock +and solemnly set it on to 8.20. A General was smoking, therefore it must +be 8.20. + +As I have said, they fed us very well at the Mess. But of course we +grumbled at the food and found one point of criticism in the fish. +Montreuil being practically a seaside town, the fish was naturally not +good, authority having transferred to this English colony in France the +invariable tradition of British seaside resorts to send all the fresh +fish away and consume the refuse. Our fish was always plaice, and it was +often plaice that had known better days. One wag spoke of it as the +"vintage plaice," professed to know that it had been "laid down" the +year the war started, and that the "bins" would not be exhausted until +the war ended. + +But the plaice was never a really serious grievance. It gave +opportunity, but not valid cause, to grumble, and discussion of it died +away after an officer one night quoted mock heroically: + + Ah, friend--had this indubitable fact + Haply occurred to poor Leonidas + How had he turned tail on Thermopulai! + It cannot be that even his few wits + Were addled to the point that, so advised, + Preposterous he had answered--"Cakes are prime, + Hearth-sides are snug, sleek dancing-girls have worth, + And yet for country's sake, to save our gods + Their temples, save our ancestors their tombs, + Save wife and child and home and liberty,--I + would chew sliced-salt-fish, bear snow--nay, starve + If need were--and by much prefer the choice!" + +After dinner the routine was to go and look at the map before settling +down again to work. Military Intelligence, in one of its rooms, kept +up-to-date hour-by-hour a map of the fighting front, and after dinner we +would crowd to this room to see the latest official news put up on the +map and to hear the latest unofficial stories which embroidered the +news. One evening, as a great advance on our part was marked up on the +map, the clerk, moving the flag-pins, announced: + +"They say the enemy cleared out so quickly that they left the hospitals +behind, and the Australian corps has captured 50 German nurses. They +report that they are looking well after them." + +A titter went round the group of officers. It happened to be the night +after the story had circulated--a story which President Wilson has since +adopted among his family of anecdotes--that the Australians, having the +Americans to co-operate with, had had to remonstrate with them for their +undue rudeness to the Germans. The Australians had a reputation for +being quite direct enough in their method of teaching the Boche not to +be a Boche. + +The titter, perhaps, had an injurious inference to some ears, for a +General officer remarked, a little sternly: + +"Gentlemen, the Australians are a gallant race. The German--er--ladies +will be quite safe with them." + +So, of course, it proved. It was fiction that any Colonial troops showed +an undue sternness to prisoners. The average German knew that he was +quite safe in the hands of any British unit--whether it was from +Australia, Canada, or the Motherland. + +The after-dinner peep at the map was a great finish to dinner. When the +Armistice was signed officers were disconsolate for the loss of their +ten minutes in the M.I. room. "I miss," said one, "our pleasant daily +habit of advancing ten kilomètres on a front of fifty kilomètres." + +No, life at G.H.Q. was sober and strenuous, but it was not dull or +tedious. If a man has good work to do, lovely aspects of Nature to look +upon, interesting company at his meals, he has all the real essentials +of contentment; well, most of them. + + * * * * * + +Ladies at G.H.Q.? An almost accurate chapter might be written on this +point on the lines adopted in that exhaustive and conscientious book on +Iceland, which had a brief chapter: + + _The Snakes of Iceland._ + + There are no snakes in Iceland. + +There were no ladies at G.H.Q., not at any rate in the sense that would +be in the mind of the average inquirer. On the too rare occasions when I +was able to get a leave from G.H.Q., or was sent over to London on a +task, the civilians I encountered in London exhibited a considerable +interest in the ladies that were thought to haunt G.H.Q. + +This was by no manner of means an entirely or indeed a mainly feminine +curiosity. Many people have an ineradicable idea that an Army on a +campaign ravages the hearts of all the female population of the occupied +territory, as well as drawing on the beauty of its own land to recruit +charming camp followers. I can recall, on returning from a small war +some time before 1914, attending a dinner-party in London and being +tremendously flattered at the fact that as soon as the ladies went +upstairs all the men (some of them very distinguished men) crowded +round me in a spirit of inquiry. With all the resources at my disposal I +framed in my mind a brief and vivid appreciation of the campaign. +But--they did not want to know why the Turkish Army failed or the +Serbian Army succeeded. Someone rather well known in London had got into +a scrape in the course of the campaign, and there were some very +scandalous details alleged. My eager inquirers wanted to know all those +scandalous details, and were obviously disappointed to learn that there +was no reasonable foundation for them, and at once lost all interest in +the campaign. My "appreciation" had not the chance to be uttered. + +Probably they concluded I was rather an unintelligent person not to have +discovered all the horrid details. Certainly those to whom I told the +truth about the ladies and G.H.Q. thought I was either very sly or very +unobservant. Indeed one very hearty old gentleman, with a great passion +for horrid details, patted me on the back publicly. + +"That's right, that's right. I admire you for sticking to your friends. +But of course we do not believe you." + +Categorically, it is _not_ a fact that "beautiful leaders of British +society" constantly graced G.H.Q. with their presence. In the very early +stages of the war some of the "Smart Set" considered it rather the +thing to get over to the battlefields and make a week-end sensation of a +glimpse at the Calvary of Civilisation. They usually got over through +the influence of political friends, and most often by way of the Belgian +section of the Front, which was not so sternly guarded as the British or +French sections. Military authority discountenanced these +visits--however "fashionable" and beautiful the visitors--and soon put a +stop to them. After 1914, except nurses and Q.M.A.A.C.s it was very rare +for a woman to enter British Army areas. Those few who did come had very +definite business and were expected to attend very strictly to that +business and then to move off. + +There was a suspicion that some few, a very few, "workers" were in +France not so much for work as because they found it amusing. These got +no further than the Base ports as a rule, and were not officially +encouraged. The vast majority of the women workers in France were there +for patriotism's sake, attended strictly to their business, and had no +time (or inclination, presumably) for frivolity. + +All this is very disappointing, I am aware. But it is true. The life we +lived at G.H.Q. was truly monastic. We never saw an English woman unless +she were a nurse or Q.M.A.A.C. or some other uniformed fellow-officer or +fellow-soldier. + +[Illustration: THE PLACE GAMBETTA] + +Nor was there any idle local feminine society to take the thoughts of +officers from the stern tasks of war. Montreuil was very, very prim and +dull even for a small French provincial town. There may still be some +people whose ideas of French social life are based on those quarters of +Paris whose theatres, books, newspapers, restaurants, manners are shaped +by the wishes (or fancied wishes) of the floating population of visitors +and of a small section of idle and worthless French. But I fancy that in +these days such people are few; and most people know that the average of +French life is not at all like Montmartre or the Latin Quarter, which +are less typical of France than, say, Piccadilly Circus is of England. +For thorough straight-laced respectability there is nothing to beat a +small French provincial town. + +Montreuil was the most respectable place one could imagine before the +war. It sheltered a small colony of artists in the summer, attracted by +the wonderful panoramas from the ramparts; but they came to work, and +did not bring with them what is supposed to be the atmosphere of the +Latin Quarter. The local population was exceedingly decorous and rather +inclined to be clerical in sympathy, for Montreuil was a great centre +for schools. + +During our occupation of the town as the home of G.H.Q. there might be +noted occasionally the arrival from Paris, or elsewhere, of some gay +young lady or couple of ladies who, having heard that the British Army +had its headquarters there, had decided, from motives of patriotism, of +_camaraderie_, or from less admirable motives, to come and enliven the +dullness of the place. Departure would follow with ungallant +promptitude. The same day, or the next, the lady would move away, with a +gendarme to see that she did not miss her train. + +The monastic severity of life at G.H.Q. relaxed a little, I think, when +the immediate environs of Montreuil were passed. Then you had got out of +the area of First Echelon G.H.Q. and were in that of the Second Echelon, +which was largely made of subsidiary services not so directly concerned +with the administration of the fighting Army. Life was a little less +strenuous, and perhaps Aphrodite was not altogether neglected for Ares. +Here conditions reflected the average attitude of the British Army +administration in the matter of morals, which was practically that of +British civilian life, with somewhat more precaution and guardianship +but no grandmotherly supervision. The female personnel of the Army was +very carefully safeguarded. The male personnel, if it were absolutely +bent on it, could find opportunities for mischief in some of the Base +towns. G.H.Q. itself--partly perhaps because of the necessity of extreme +safeguards against espionage--was expected to lead a strictly single +life; to conform to the perfect standard that was supposed to rule in +the Provost Marshal's branch. That rigour, of course, was dictated not +by an exceptional prudery in the P.M. authorities but by military +convenience. Ordinarily, outside of G.H.Q. and the Provost Marshal's +branch, there was a margin allowed for human error. + +Paris Plage, the jolly beach at the mouth of the Canche near Montreuil, +was for a long time "out-of-bounds" to all British troops. Paris Plage +had, in pre-war days, rather a "Montmartre" reputation in Paris. It was +the beach for the cheap tripper. It was the beach to which the +hardworking _bourgeois_ of the city who had to stick to his bureau +during the summer sent his wife, and came down to see her on Sundays. It +was also the beach for the Don Juan of modest means to visit with his +temporary Juanita. Not this Paris reputation reacting on the traditional +British hypocrisy caused the long-standing ban on Paris Plage, but +practical sanitary reasons. It had not then a good reputation from the +point of view of health. But as the size and the activities of G.H.Q. +increased and it was necessary to find places for new departments near +Montreuil, Paris Plage had to be utilised. After being subjected to a +drastic sanitary inquisition it was thrown open to the troops and became +the headquarters of several minor departments. + +But of course the old gay life did not return. It was no longer a suburb +of Montmartre. Still it preserved a certain air of rakishness. Going +through there in a car one day with another staff officer we noticed a +little shop in the windows of which were displayed very coquettishly two +or three filmy articles of feminine _dessous_. A lightning glance +through the door showed that there was quite a bevy of fair shop +assistants--about three assistants to each item of merchandise. In the +window there was this simple device, in English: + + CHEQUES CASHED. + +We dared not investigate further. A G.H.Q. car is so clearly +recognisable as such that it could not stop outside, and the subterfuge +of drawing up at the Directorate of Inkstands and making a +reconnaissance on foot we felt to be _infra dig_. It was only possible +to pass the shop slowly on the return journey, and to look out for it +the next month when going that way again. It was still open, still bore +its artless device. It was a little bit of the old life of Paris Plage +that had escaped the shocks of war. + +In very truth we were a dull lot from one point of view. Even the +conversation at meals was ordinarily wanting in that type of anecdote +which--as Walpole said when he was asked why it was rife at his table, +where sat the greatest men of Europe, who should have had something +better to talk about--is popular "because every man understands it." +Perhaps the propriety of our conversation was partly due to the fact +that there was nearly always a padre within earshot. Perhaps I may dare +the explanation of the general absence of "sex interest" in our lives, +that here were gathered together a band of men with very exacting and +very important work to do, and that they simply had not time nor +inclination to bother about what is usually an amusement of idle lives. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE MUNITIONS OF THE WAR. + +The Shell shortage--When relief came--The dramatic Tanks--Bombs--Some +ammunition figures--The ingenious inventor. + + +As soon as any subject is involved in political discussion the facts +about it are apt to be distorted in the interests of some particular +view. The "Shell shortage" in the early stages of the war has become in +a sense a political issue; and that I do not intend to discuss. But some +facts about munitions supply must be given--for that was the very pivot +of the war--irrespective of what political case they help or harm. + +The British Force at the outset of the war suffered from a shell and gun +shortage as compared with its enemy, because it had been trained and +equipped for a different type of warfare from that which actually came. +It had very little high explosive shell, and what it had was rarely +"high explosive" in the real sense of the term. The patient search for a +foolproof fuse had been so successful that our H.E. shell was +comparatively inoffensive when it reached the enemy's lines. It +spluttered off rather than shattered off. All this was put right in +time. But the difficulties which the Munitions Supply Department had to +face at the outset were enormous. There were, considered in the lights +of the needs of this war, practically no shells, no guns, and no +machinery for making them. Essential material was lacking in many cases, +and the only source of quick supply was Germany, which alone in the +world had organised for war. + +But all difficulties were overcome. How great the growth some +comparative figures will show. The production of high explosive in 1914 +was almost negligible. The year's supply would not keep the guns of 1918 +going for a day. In 1915 we began to produce high explosive on a large +scale, and in amounts which made the 1914 output seem contemptible, but +still in quite inadequate quantities. In 1916 we had increased the 1915 +amount sevenfold. In 1917 we had increased that 1916 amount fourfold. +From March, 1915, to March, 1917, the increase was twenty-eight fold. Of +machine-guns we made samples in 1914 and we began to manufacture +quantities in 1915. In 1917 we made twenty times as many as in 1915. Of +aeroplanes the figures mounted in steep flights. In 1916 we seemed to be +producing vastly. In 1917 the rate of production for the first six +months had increased fourfold as compared with the previous year, and +another great acceleration was in progress. + +In the end we were enormously superior to any other Army in the field in +the matter of munitions. To the very day of the Armistice improvements +in the quality and rate of productions were still going on in +preparation for the Spring, 1919, campaign, which it was anticipated +would end the war. The German threw up the sponge before then. If he had +waited he would have been literally blown out of his trenches and his +chief cities. + +In one sense, of course, we never had enough, but if I were asked to +name a date on which a serious shortage of munitions ceased I should say +September 19th, 1915, on the eve of the battle of Loos. On that date, a +year after Trench War began, word was passed around to the batteries of +the British line in a phrase copied from the provision shops of London: +"Ammunition is cheap to-day." Every gun-pit stocked up with shell. The +gates of the dumps were opened and shell fairly poured out. Battery +Commanders, who knew the days when one shell per gun per day was the +limit allowed, saw with joy thousands of shells, and, as they began +eagerly to fire them off, thousands more coming. + +On the 23rd of September a regular bombardment of the whole German line +facing the British line began. The artillery was undertaking the +preliminary work of wire-cutting and parapet pounding. The 18-pounders +with shrapnel, the howitzers with high explosive, started at dawn, and +all through the day systematically smashed away at the German's +defences. That went on for two more days. The fourth day we intensified +our shell-fire. Along many sections of the Front the German wire was +down, and the parapet of the German trench breached. The enemy increased +his artillery fire, too, attacking our trenches and searching for our +observing stations and batteries, but on the whole getting the worst of +the artillery duel. On the morning of the 25th the final artillery duel +began. It was the greatest artillery bombardment in history up to that +date, though afterwards so eclipsed by the records of the Somme, the +Ancre and of Messines as to be remembered as a mere splutter. But at the +time it was vastly impressive. + +The morning was dull but the flashes of guns were so continuous as to +give a light which was almost unbroken. It flickered, but it never +failed. The earth itself quivered and shook with the repeated shocks of +the guns. The air became a tattered hunted thing, torn wisps of it blown +hither and thither by the constant explosions. + +The Battle of Loos did not give us the break-through we expected, but, +in so far as my observation is worth anything, the reason was not lack +of munitions. Loos showed that the task was a more complicated one than +merely smashing down the front line of enemy trenches. "Trench War" was +resumed, whilst the British Army prepared for the next phase opening in +July, 1916, with the first Battle of the Somme. By then munitions supply +had grown gigantically and in the mechanics of war we were far ahead of +the Germans. This was not only in artillery but in infantry equipment +and in our unique weapon the "Tank," which was the mechanical +contrivance having the most decisive results on the issue of the war. +These appeared in September, 1916, two years after "Trench War" had +begun, and were ultimately destined to make that sort of war impossible, +a task which the German poison gas had failed to accomplish. + +As a race we are never consciously dramatic, or I would have imagined on +that September 1916 morning that the arrival of the Tanks on the Somme +front had been carefully timed and stage-managed. The morning was dull +and misty. Over the seared and terrible land little wisps of fog rose +and fell. All likeness to our gentle mother earth had been battered out +of the fields, which were rubbish-heaps of churned-up débris of bodies, +dust, weapons--hideously pock-marked by the eruption of the shells. +Where had been villages were dirtier patches of desolation. Where had +been woods, groups of splintered stumps. It was an abomination of +desolation, like as when the earth was first formed out of the void. In +the midst of this desolation out of the mist came, crawling uncouthly, +the Tanks, like prehistoric saurians. + +The German forces were obviously frightened by the Tanks, which climbed +over their trenches, and impervious to rifle bullets, smashed up +machine-gun emplacements and redoubts. But that Tank of 1916 was nothing +like the perfected machine of 1918. Its rear steering wheel was a +weak-spot liable to be shot away. Its pace was too slow for it to keep +up with charging infantry. No real tactics had been evolved for its use. + +But, such as it was, that Tank at first brought alarm to more than the +enemy. In going to and from the battle front it "got the wind up" many a +British dug-out. Here is an artillery officer's yarn of the first "Tank +night": + +"Our 'Mess' was a roofed-over shell-hole a mile or so in front of +Martinpuich. The roof would keep out shrapnel bits but was no use +against a direct hit from a shell. I was Orderly Dog for the night and +it was my business to take action, when, outside, a strange spluttering, +growling, scratching, spitting sound broke into the steady barking of +the guns. It was like a thousand cats, a hundred dogs, and a sea-sick +elephant or two scrambling and squabbling together in a dust-hole. I +went to investigate. A Tank wandering home was within ten yards of our +Mess, heading straight for it. With all the _insouciance_ I could +command at such a crisis I begged the Tank to stop; urged that our roof +was designed to keep out splinters only and was neither shell-proof nor +Tank-proof; pointed out that if it persisted in its course seven +artillery officers, some of whom had wives and children, and all of whom +had mothers, would be pulped. Then I became calmer and told the Tank +that there was some wine in the Mess and even some whisky and soda, if +the Tank would now stop and have a drink. Fortunately a Tank is a slow +mover and my cooler arguments had effect by the time it had got within +five yards of our roof-tree. Then it backed water and we were safe. The +Tank is a noble animal, but it adds a little to the anxieties of life +underground." + +[Illustration: THE FOSSE] + +"The Tank" was the great mechanical find of the war, and it was an +all-British find. High authority had many fine name-proposals for the +useful monsters, but Tommy took the matter into his own hands and coined +the word "Tank," and "Tank" it remained. Those who are interested in +matters of language may note that the French do not use the word "Tank" +but describe a "Tank" as a _char d'assaut_, which is accurate, but has a +weak look. It is an illustration of their jealous and admirable care +of their language. They will not allow foreign words to intrude if that +can be avoided. We, on the other hand, are quite careless about our +language. The orders of our Army in France were bespattered with French +words and phrases for which there were quite good English equivalents. +(_Gare régulatrice_ for "distributing station" is one of the many scores +of cases in point.) It is a pity that we are so careless in regard to +our mother tongue. I made an effort once to persuade G.H.Q. that British +Army orders and instructions should be put out in English without any +foreign admixture, but met with little sympathy. The intrusion of French +words was not so bad, but German words had an almost equal degree of +hospitality. + + * * * * * + +But to return to our munitions. The hand bomb was a weapon which by 1914 +we had allowed to fall out of use. The British Grenadiers no longer +threw grenades. But Trench War brought back the bomb as a weapon, and +our bomb was soon better than the German bomb. At the first Somme battle +(1916) we showed a definite superiority in bomb supply and bomb use. +This development was altogether in our favour. The bomb--beastly weapon +as it is, and beastly as are the wounds it inflicts--lends its favour to +the quicker brain, the prompter courage, the keener leadership. The +football field and the cricket green both give a good foundation for the +murderous art of bombing. As soon as we had the bombs our bombing +superiority grew with every day. + +An instance to illustrate bombing: For the taking of the village of +Contalmaison (1916) a preliminary task was the capture of Horse Shoe +trench. The attack on this was prospering when it was held up at a +critical point by the unmasking of a German machine gun on our right +flank. To the fire of this gun we were fully exposed, and its effect was +murderous. A young cricketer rose to the occasion. Single-handed he +rushed the gun with a bag of bombs, got to his distance and destroyed it +with a couple of "hot returns from the outfield." + +In using ammunition the B.E.F. put up some startling records. On August +8th, 1918, when our big final thrust began there were used 15,598 tons +in a single day. On September 29th, 1918, there were used 23,706 tons. +Here are some other big figures: + + Date. Battle. Amount. + + 1/7/16 Somme 12,776 tons + 9/4/17 Vimy 24,706 " + 3/6/17 Arras 17,162 " + 7/6/17 Messines 20,638 " + 31/7/17 Ypres 22,193 " + 20/9/17} Polygon Wood 42,156 " + 21/9/17} + +In the depôts in France we kept a reserve of 258,000 tons of ammunition, +and the issues in a normal month ran to about that figure though it +varied a good deal month by month. Thus the average expenditure during +the last months of 1918 was: May, 5,478 tons daily; June, 4,748 tons +daily; July, 5,683 tons daily; August, 9,046 tons daily; September, +8,576 tons daily; October, 4,748 tons daily; November, 3,158 tons daily. +On November 11th, the last day of the war, we used 233 tons of +ammunition. + +Different varieties of ammunition had widely different rates of use. The +gigantic 15-inch howitzer on some days did not fire a single round. It +was a "big day" when it fired fifty rounds. It was just as well that it +was not a gun which indulged in thousands of rounds, for a ten-ton +broad-gauge railway truck would only take twelve rounds for it. The +18-pounder field guns would shoot 100,000 rounds on a normal day, and on +a heavy day would use 200,000 rounds. The cost of ammunition was, in a +time of heavy fighting, up to £3,000,000 _per day_. + +A heavy item in munitions was for defence against poison gas and for our +own poison gas service. We entered with extreme reluctance into the +ghastly business, but once we started we soon made the German sorry that +he had brought that element into the war. Our gases were more potent and +more plentiful than his. For lack of material he could not give his men +perfect gas protectors, while to our men we could and did. + +The last loathsome trick of the enemy in this direction was the +introduction of mustard gas, a powerful corrosive which was discharged +from shells. The use of mustard gas by the enemy raised a number of +problems for Supplies as apart from the Medical Staffs. The disinfection +with chloride of lime of ground contaminated with the gas, a prompt +change of clothing and bath treatment for men affected, proved +efficacious in dealing with mustard gas. There was, too, safety in +protective overalls of oilskin. Mustard gas affected the Veterinary +Service heavily, there being many casualties to horses and mules through +passing over ground infected with the gas. + + * * * * * + +The inventive spirit was naturally strong in the Army, and some of the +most useful of the new ideas in the way of munitions or equipment came +from men in the Field. These ideas were tested in the Army workshops, +and occasionally there was a certain amount of waste owing to the same +idea, or nearly the same idea, being experimented with simultaneously in +more than one Army. So an Army Order from Home recalled the King's +Regulation that War Office approval must be obtained before experimental +work was done in regard to any invention. But this, it was urged from +G.H.Q., would act prejudicially to the interests of the Force in France, +since many very useful inventions regarding stores and material had come +from officers and men of the Force and it was not in the best interests +of the public to put any obstacles in the way of future inventions. This +was recognised, and a subsequent Army Order gave authority to the +Commander-in-Chief of any Expeditionary Force to authorise trials of +inventions; but precautions were taken in regard to duplication and +overlapping. + +There were not in the Field so many foolish inventors as at Home. No +such merry idea came to G.H.Q. as that anti-submarine device with which +the Admiralty was plagued--a liquid air shell which on being exploded +anywhere in the vicinity of a submarine formed an extensive iceberg +(through the lowering of the surrounding temperature by a release of the +liquid air from pressure). On this iceberg the submarine would be +brought to the surface. The next step would be easy: open with an oyster +knife, sprinkle with pepper and salt and a dash of lemon juice, and +serve. + +The B.E.F. had never anything quite so naive as that. Its limit was the +inventor who claimed to be able to project an X-ray from an electric +battery so that it would kill anything within 1,000 yards. This +invention would have been a great war-stopper. It would have been only +necessary to set up a sufficient number of the projectors along our +Front, switch on the current and march on to Berlin. It was offered at a +time when inventions were rather the fashion, and it needed courage to +scoff at even the most curious notion. So it actually got to the stage +of a trial with a High Authority present. The inventor set up his +projector; an animal was let loose within its deadly range and, surely +enough, dropped dead. Unfortunately for the inventor a medical scoffer +subjected the animal to a _post mortem_ examination and found that it +had evidently resolved on suicide, for it had taken a large dose of +strychnine. This discouraged further trials of the X-ray device. + +The inventor with a "wireless" device for exploding enemy magazines also +cropped up. You projected a wireless ray and it blew up a dump. This +invention could be very convincingly demonstrated within your own lines. +All that was necessary was to provide in the dump a certain amount of +loose explosive, a fulminate, and a receiver tuned to receive your +wireless message. We were not on sufficiently good terms with the +Germans to persuade them to arrange their ammunition depôts in this way +for our convenience. + +There was a close _liaison_ kept up between the B.E.F. and the Ministry +of Munitions. When Mr. Winston Churchill was Minister of Munitions he +was over in France so frequently that a small château was kept up for +him at G.H.Q. He was wont to come into the Officers' Club for his meals. +There was always an air about him that he would have liked to be in the +jack-boots of his famous ancestor and give the world a spectacle of +another Marlborough winning victories in Flanders. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE MEDICAL SERVICES. + +The magic-workers of the war--Fighting the Germans--Concerning the +Victorian primness of conversation and the present popularity of "v.d." +as a theme for small talk--The Army and "v.d."--The etiquette of +hospitals and the ways of matrons--The war against Trench Feet--Mustard +gas in 1918. + + +Probably more than half the men at G.H.Q. had been "crocked" at one time +or another during the campaign, from wounds or one of those fevers of +the battlefield born of mud and filth and fatigue. Some came to work on +the Staff whilst still under medical treatment, and there was a local +hospital at Montreuil which was a boon to those out-patients needing +massage for their scars or quinine for their fevers. + +Apart from the doctors of this hospital only the very big men of the +medical services appeared ever at G.H.Q. It was a pleasure not easily +won to persuade them to talk over their work. But when they did talk, +what wonders they had to tell of! + +[Illustration: A BY-WAY] + +Socrates in prison, when the fetters were taken off his legs, as he +rubbed them to make the blood run freely again, speculated on how +pleasure always followed pain, so that the two seemed to be linked +together by some unbreakable bond. One would like to hear Socrates +to-day, as his limb, injured in Flanders, was rubbed back to usefulness, +talking to his masseur on the good that will follow the evil of the +Great War as surely as if the two had been linked together and one was +the consequence of the other. Matter for a fine homily there from the +stubborn old hero with the divinely clear mind! + +Those optimists who thought that a new heaven and a new earth would come +at the end of the war, and that even all politicians would become +sincere, alert, and vigorous in the public service, were perhaps not +reasonable and may be disappointed in some measure; but no one can +observe closely the phenomena of the war without being sure that from +its sacrifices and lessons much good will come. The dreadful fire that +had to be kindled to burn out the cancer of Germanism burned out evil +too in the nations that were the instruments of vengeance. Peoples who +went into war iron will come out steel ultimately; for the war, as well +as being preservative, will prove regenerative. + +There is no better proof of this than in the tale of our campaigns +against the germs, those pitiless enemies who are always attacking +human content and happiness. It was a wonderful part of the war, that +defensive and offensive against Disease, with its trench systems which +hold up foes whom we cannot destroy with our present weapons; its +Intelligence Department, spying with a thousand microscopes into the +designs and dispositions of the enemy; its clever diplomatic service, +always raising up allies in our blood against germ invasion; its long +illustrious roll of heroes who have given up life or health to hold +positions against odds or to go out on forlorn hopes. + +In this the benefits springing out from the Great War show splendid and +palpable. In the process of beating the Germans we made such great +advances in the war against the germs that we greet peace as a +definitely healthier people, organised to save, in a generation or two, +for service in this world, more than the total of all those who went to +a Higher Service from the fields of France and Belgium. + +Because the war has given a sounder national discipline, because it has +cleared so many obstacles from the path of medical organisation, the +world's death-rate, according to sound calculations, will in future +years show a substantial decrease. The toll taken by the Germans will be +more than made up by the lives saved from the germs. The British +Medical Service, following in the path of the victorious British Army, +and wielding an authority that it never knew before, carried on a war +against disease in Europe, Asia, and Africa that is now saving thousands +of lives, and will save millions in the ultimate result. Enteric, +cholera, dysentery, scurvy, small-pox, beri-beri, malaria, phthisis were +fought successfully. Even that national British disease, rheumatism, was +pushed back from some of its trenches and compelled to surrender not a +few of its ridges. + +Fascinating as a fairy tale, absorbing as a good detective story, +stimulating as the records of a stubborn battle, will be the record of +British medical work in the Great War when it comes to be written. It +will not be a story merely of drains and drugs and dressings, but also +of kindly amulets and beneficent golden fishes; of wicked germs who +chalk their throats to deceive with soft talk little red corpuscles; of +fairy princes who destroy wicked enchantments with spells from tiny +glass tubes. Those attentive gentlemen experimenting with neck ribbons +smeared with potent charms have not come to their second childhood; they +are on the track of the perfect cimicifuge which will keep lice off the +body and, keeping off lice, will reduce the range of typhus and other +diseases. A great tank of little live fish sent out to a malaria Front +does not mean that we are relapsing into the old Chinese school of +medicine (which prescribed a live mouse to be swallowed whole as a +remedy for one complaint), but that these little fish love to eat the +eggs of the anopheles mosquito, which spreads malaria. It lays its eggs +in ponds; the fish eat the eggs; the eggs don't hatch; the mosquitoes +don't come; and there is less malaria. + +If your mind is more attracted by detective stories than by fairy tales, +turn to a bacteriological laboratory and watch the tracking down of the +Hidden Hand that is responsible for odious diseases; for example, that +one known popularly as spotted fever, a very deadly disease of +over-crowding. A cunning criminal is the spotted fever germ, and he has +not yet been quite fully identified and convicted. A victim of spotted +fever has in his throat and spinal fluid the causative germ; but this +germ hides behind a smoke cloud of other germs and must be placed quite +definitely before it can be destroyed. It was found that it is a germ +shaped like a double bean, that it is to be distinguished from other +germs of the same shape by the fact that its hide is impervious to a +certain stain which those other germs will absorb. It was further found +that this spotted fever germ would not increase and multiply at a warmth +of 23 degrees C., whilst otherwise similar germs would. There certain +knowledge stopped for a time. Other double-bean, non-staining, +non-growing at 23 degrees C. germs existed, among whom the real criminal +lived and hid. Finally, four bad brother germs were found and are now +being dealt with, and the disease is no longer a serious menace. + +The divine purpose for good that runs stubbornly through life and has +made it impossible for the murderous German plans to thrive in spite of +all our neglects and stupidities, crops up insistently in the story of +the British medical campaign in this war. Thus, chlorine gas came into +the field first as the poison gas of the Germans; it remained in the +field on the British side chiefly as a means for purifying water. + + * * * * * + +One interesting result of the war which we noticed at G.H.Q. was the +abandonment of the Early Victorian primness in conversation in England. +Soldiers going home on leave noticed it from 1916 onwards; and on the +balance of the evidence I do not think they were at all responsible for +it. They would go away from Boulogne, after an extra careful bath and +the putting on of a clean tunic, with a steady resolution to put away +from their thoughts and their tongues all the coarseness of the camp; +and find themselves at their first dinner party in England tackled by +some young lady in her teens on the subject of lice; or by some matron +not yet in the thirties on the subject of venereal disease at the Front. +They would come back often with a distinct feeling of shame-shock, to +welcome the comparative reticence of Mess conversation. + +It was my duty once to see the representative of an organisation that +wished to have lectures delivered to all the soldiers on the subject of +"v.d." To my surprise the representative proved to be a lady--and a +young and attractive lady at that. She plunged into her subject without +the least trace of embarrassment. She wanted lectures, with pictures, in +every recreation hut of the B.E.F., France, and was firm to brush away +the objection that "the men might not like it," and scornful of the +reservation that if the lectures were permitted they were not to be +"parade lectures," _i.e._, the men were not to be compelled to attend. + +Finally, discovering that though the lady wanted "pictures" she had not +the pictures but expected the Army to supply them, I took refuge in a +subterfuge. "Very sorry, very sorry indeed, but there is no Vote out of +which we can get the pictures." + +But the lady was insistent. She knew that there were cinematographs +provided for the soldiers. + +"Oh, but that is not my department. That is Amusements." + +"Very well," she said firmly. "I'll see Amusements." + +And she went away to convince some other Staff Officer that universal +lectures on v.d., with pictures, would be an appreciated Amusement. + +I do not know where the idea sprang from that v.d. was very common in +the Army. So far as my observation went, and from what inquiries I made +of medical officers, the opposite was the case. Among the officers with +whom I came into touch during the campaign--many hundreds in the +aggregate--I only heard of one case. Among the men of my battery before +I was on the Staff I never heard of one case during 18 months of +regimental life. + +The Army's standard of health in this respect was better than that of +the average of the civilian population. There were some tragic +outbreaks--one in Cairo, another (of much less seriousness) with Amiens +as its focus--but on an average the record was good. + +British ideas did not favour the degrees of regulation and interference +in this matter that other countries tolerate. But the soldier had some +safeguards which the civilian had not. For instance it was the duty of +the Assistant Provost Marshal of a Division, whenever a man reported +sick from v.d., to go to the hospital, interview the patient and try to +find out the _fons et origo_. If his mission were successful the person +responsible was promptly expelled from the Army area. + +One of the Dominion Corps adopted the method of advising prophylactic +precautions (and supplying the means of prophylaxis). The British Army +on a whole did not follow that course, though in the later stages of the +campaign the means of prophylaxis were available if applied for. + +But enough on that point. It was the surgical rather than the medical +side of the R.A.M.C. that interested G.H.Q. So many had "taken a knock" +and put in a spell at a hospital. Opinion was practically unanimous that +"Hospital" was a place of real human sympathy as well as devoted skill, +and that "sister" was the best pattern of womankind. + +It is etiquette in the Army to call her always "Sister," though +technically "sister" is an intermediate grade between "nurse" and +"matron." Matron is a great dignitary. She has, in the language of the +Bar, "taken silk," and when her silk gown rustles into the room it is +etiquette for officers to stand up, provided they have legs and strength +to stand up. Otherwise you "come to attention" by smiling as well as you +can; a respectful, cheerful, but not an hilarious or free-and-easy +smile. It should convey the message that you are having the time of your +life in the best possible of hospitals under the best possible of +matrons. The Sister whose patient you are will be very much hurt if you +do not smile properly at Matron. "Sister" is of many different grades of +skill, but of an almost unvarying grade of devotion, the highest. + +A "strafer," in hospital language, is a Sister who by ten years or so of +hard anxious work and self-denial has reached to the height of an office +boy's wage and a professional skill which saves lives daily and cuts +weeks off one's stay in hospital. You are always glad when she has gone +away from your wound, but at the back of your gladness is the knowledge +that you want her for next dressing. A good "strafer" goes over a wound +with the enthusiasm of a thrush with a large family going over a lawn +for worms. She examines, searches, squeezes, probes, looking out for +shed pieces of bone, for "proud flesh," for odd corners where +inflammatory matter might lurk. She is looking for mischief, and any +mischief found is promptly "strafed." If it is bad she calls in the +doctor; if it is minor she has her own little armoury of +mischief-breakers, scissors, pincers, nitrate of silver, and the like. + +Matrons are easily offended. At a certain hospital in France the King +was half expected as a visitor. The Matron at once had a bad attack of +decoration fever. As I was a lightly-wounded that time I assisted her +policy of deceiving his Majesty into thinking that the hospital was +always a fairy bower by going out and "finding" some flowers. Then +Matron had clean quilts on all the beds, and the order went forth that +these were to be kept creaseless and smooth. But one patient would +persist in crooking up his knees. Matron argued with him. He disloyally +pleaded that he was much more comfortable that way. Now, having got the +flowers for the ward, I thought I had the right to give advice as a sort +of accomplice, and I suggested mildly: "Better break his knees, Matron." + +She was offended. Then the King did not come after all; and I think she +was inclined to blame me for that. + +But matrons are not altogether an evil; like the Staff and adjutants and +brigade majors, they are at the worst necessary evils, at the best quite +good sorts. But there is one matron-habit that should be dealt with +sternly by regulation. If a very pretty nurse were posted to a hospital, +Matron generally tried to assign her to the sick sisters' ward. +Obviously that was bad strategy. The prettiness of their nurse would +have no cheering effect on sick sisters, but to sick officers a pretty +sister irresistibly suggests the wisdom of getting well quickly. +Fortunately the supply of pretty sisters is too great to allow of their +all being absorbed in wards for sick sisters. + +[Illustration: A ROYAL VISIT, DECEMBER 1918] + +What reconciles one to Matron is the discovery sooner or later that, +despite silk gown and awe-inspiring manner, she is at heart still +"Sister," ready with skilful aid and encouraging sympathy in case of +need. It is a nice etiquette that makes the title "Sister" general, for +it is just sisterly affection which makes the atmosphere of a military +hospital so cheering and recreating. + +Distinctions of rank are abrogated in a military hospital to a large +extent. The officer of general rank has a special quarter where he meets +only other highnesses; but, for the rest, colonel and "pip-squeak" (the +odious term which is vainly designed to lessen the self-importance of +the second lieutenant) usually fraternise in a common cheerfulness. +There are no rank badges on pyjamas. But one distinction has +intruded--that between surgical cases and medical cases. The medical +case must bear himself very humbly if he gets into a ward where there +are surgical cases. Even that kindly authority "Sister" will in some +unguarded moment, unless she is very, very careful, refer to him as +"_only_ a medical case." + +One medical case, taught cunning by circumstances, discovered when he +was being moved from one hospital to another that a special sort of +headache he suffered from could be relieved by a large, impressive +bandage. With this head adornment he successfully deceived us at ---- +Hospital. A rumour went around that he was a trepanned case, and as +Rumour stalked from bed to bed the size of the silver plate in his skull +grew and grew until it was almost the size of a dinner plate. His +shameful secret was at length discovered; he was only a fever or a heart +or something, and, whilst we were all sorry for him, he no longer +disputed favour with our ward pet--a delightfully cheerful pip-squeak +whose body was so be-stitched that we felt sure they had a sewing +machine in the operating room for him. + +It is etiquette in a military hospital to be very much interested in +one's neighbour's wounds and to affect to hold lightly one's own. It is +very bad form to hint that your lot is more severe than his lot. + +"Oh, I am all right, thanks," (you say in answer to his first advances); +"except for a bit of my liver and a few yards of lung blown away, I'm as +fit as can be. But that looks an awful leg of yours." + +"Not at all, not at all. It is almost certain now to stay on. But it +must be horribly interesting to have a body wound." + +And so the ghoulish chat goes on. + +Quite half of G.H.Q. had hospital reminiscences to exchange; indeed a +spell in hospital with a bad wound was often the clinching argument +leading to "red tabs" if an officer were qualified for the distinction; +and Medical Boards in England were quite willing to certify a man as +fit for France if he was marked for a Staff Appointment even though his +category was "light duty." + + * * * * * + +"Trench Feet" gave the Medical Services more trouble than any other +single disease, and almost as much trouble as the shells of the enemy. +In the winter of 1915 a pilgrim to Flanders (supposing him to have a +military permit) might have observed in the rest camps behind the +British lines companies of men with bare feet, and officers bending down +anointing them. And he might have perhaps concluded that this was some +religious ritual of humiliation, such as the theatrical washing of +beggars' feet by the late Austrian Emperor once a year. But such a +conclusion would have been wrong. The proceeding was religious +certainly, in the highest sense, but in no way theatrical. It was +"Trench Feet" treatment. + +The disease known as "Trench Feet" was one of the most serious +developments which the Army on the Western Front had to face when the +Germans, beaten in the field, "dug in," and Trench War began. The +struggle with the disease was a long and strenuous one, taxing to the +utmost the resources of the British Army Medical Service. + +The causes of the disease were not plain at the outset, and inquiry +proved them to be various. Everybody knows that it is uncomfortable +and, to a certain extent, unhealthy to stand for too long at a time. +(The social legislation that shop employees must be allowed seats is an +indication of this). The soldier in the trenches must often stand for +long periods. That makes him to some extent liable to foot trouble. +Again, tight boots and tight bandages round the legs are bad for the +blood circulation, and can make foot trouble without any other cause. +The soldier used to be rather careless as to whether his boots were of a +proper fit, and he was apt to bind his puttees too tightly. + +Here were the beginnings of "Trench Feet." To have the feet wet, to have +the feet cold for long spells, will cause chilblains, _i.e._, local +inflammations showing first as red itching lumps, afterwards if +neglected, developing into open sores. Long periods of standing, and any +constriction of the circulation from tight boots or tight puttees, help +cold and damp to cause chilblains; and chilblains used to be almost +invariably neglected by the soldier. Then came the final aggravating +cause--the filth of the Flanders mud getting into the sores of the +broken chilblains, and, behold, a typical case of Trench Feet. + +In the early days cases were often of dreadful severity, sometimes +leading to amputation. In one of my billets at Montreuil was a French +soldier who had lost both his feet from this cause. Later, both +treatment of the disease and, more important, the prevention of it, +were so perfected that really bad cases were rare. + +The story of the fight against "Trench Feet" is one of the many fine +stories of the war. In the main it was, of course, a story of medical +skill and devotion, but also it was a story of unstinted generosity on +the part of the War Office, and of admirable and intelligent service on +the part of regimental officers. The medical staff told me that it would +have been impossible to carry on to success the campaign against "Trench +Feet" if they had not been intelligently and perseveringly backed up by +regimental officers, and if the War Office had not poured out very many +thousands of pounds sterling for the furtherance of every approved +preventive measure. + +Preventive measures covered a wide field; precautions against tight +boots and tight puttees; increased provisions of socks; increased +bathing facilities; provision of waterproof rubber boots for men while +in the trenches (these boots were of the high wader type); paving of the +trenches with "duck-boards" which gave a dry standing; more frequent +reliefs in wet trenches. These were material provisions. To second them +there was an active propaganda in personal hygiene, and here the +regimental officer and non-commissioned officer were enlisted to help +the medical staff to make the men understand that the smallest sign of a +chilblain was to be met with prompt treatment. A whale oil ointment was +provided both as a prophylactic and as a curative for mild chilblains. +When necessary this was reinforced by spirituous lotions. On officers +was put the responsibility of seeing that their men's feet were kept +clean and well anointed with oil, and that any breach of the skin tissue +was promptly treated. So officers became chiropodists, and you might see +enthusiastic company commanders assisting their men to wash and anoint +their feet, to show them how it should be done. + +The winter of 1917-1918 put to a severe test the precautions against +"Trench Feet," for in almost every part of the Western Front the British +had pushed the Germans back, and there was no longer the old organised +trench system. Nevertheless the British hospital records show that the +disease was held. It was still a trouble; but, thanks to the plentiful +supply of comforts and preventatives, and to the scrupulous care +demanded by regimental and medical officers, it was no longer a grave +menace. + + * * * * * + +The fight against mustard gas in 1918 was another fine achievement of +the Medical Services. But this subject of the medicine of the war calls +for a volume to itself. Let me only add here that the successful medical +results won in this war were largely due to the fact that--contrary to +the system of other wars--the doctor had a real influence and power at +G.H.Q. In his own department he was supreme. So were solved successfully +the vast medical problems which the Great War presented. The greatest +armies known to history grappled in a continuous and furious struggle, +not for a day or a night or a week, but for months. The wounds caused by +hand grenades and high explosive shells were often of terrible extent. +The battlefield to a depth of five miles was under constant shell fire, +and transport of the wounded for that distance was therefore always +under fire, and roads were torn up almost as soon as made. Conditions of +infection were extraordinarily favourable. Traffic regulation had to +overcome the most serious obstacles, since railways, roads and tracks +had to provide for the constant reinforcements, for the frequent passage +to and fro of relieving Divisions, for food and water for men and +horses, and also for ammunition unprecedented in quantity. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ANIMALS OF THE FORCE. + +A happy lot--The mud season in Flanders--The effects of mustard gas--The +character of the mule--Forage difficulties--The French object to our +horse ration--The Americans side with us--The animal record in 1918. + + +No two officials at G.H.Q. had a better right to be proud of their +departments than the Director of Veterinary Services (Major-General +Moore) and the Director of Remounts (Brigadier-General Sir F. S. +Garratt). These two were responsible for the welfare of the half million +animals of the B.E.F., and there was never a collection of war animals +that had a better time. + +It was a commonplace of German criticism of Great Britain's military +position before 1914 that the possibilities of a big quickly-trained +British Army were negligible, because, whilst rank and file might be +raised quickly enough, three things could not be improvised in a hurry: +knowledge of staff work, of gunnery, and of horse-mastery. The German +now knows that he was wrong, and in no particular was he more wrong +than in regard to horse-mastery. It is admitted over all the Continent +of Europe that horse-mastery in the "improvised" British Army reached +the highest standard of the campaign. + +In this matter the horse markets of Europe spoke after the Armistice +with no uncertain voice. When the British Army was disposing of its +superfluous horses, everybody rushed to buy them. Prices touched a truly +extraordinary level. The unhappy taxpayer amid all his burdens saw a +golden stream flowing into the Treasury, because his Army was a humane, +conscientious, and skilful horsemaster. The military advantage to +transport through keeping the Army's animals fit and well is so obvious +that it need not be dwelt upon. The advantage to the _morale_ of the men +is not so generally appreciated, but was none the less real. It helped +to keep our men in good heart that the animals who worked with them, and +for them, were in good heart and condition. To British men with their +fine tradition of humanity to animals it would have been demoralising to +have seen their brutes hungry and suffering. Finally, the world markets +came forward with their evidence that the British Army policy of +kindness to its animals was not only good for transport and good for +_morale_ but also good for business. + +By the Spring of 1919 we had sold out of the Army 252,676 animals +(horses and mules), of which 235,715 were sold for work and 16,961 for +meat. The total realised was £8,493,920, of which £8,081,607 was +realised from the working animals and £412,313 for those animals which, +because of old age or disablement, it was more merciful to send to the +slaughter-house. In addition a small item of £18,696 had been realised +from by-products, for our Army administrators, whatever might be thought +to the contrary, did study economy, and the animal which fell by the +wayside was usually put to some use. At least its hide was saved, and, +if transport were available, its fat and bones also figured in a +"salvage" return. + +This money was mostly foreign money, too. It was the policy of the Army +not to "profiteer" in the United Kingdom. Indeed, within our home +borders it was rather to help the small farmer with cheap animals than +to seek to get the best out of the market. + + * * * * * + +The mobilisation of the horse strength of Great Britain in 1914 was +wonderfully assisted by the willing and instructed patriotism of +farmers, landowners, and hunting men. It yielded far better results than +were anticipated. One calculation makes it that 17 per cent. of the +total civilian horse strength of the country was mobilised. + +But, of course, there was a tremendous gap between this result and the +needs of the New Armies. A wise prescience at the very outset decided to +reinforce horse strength with mule strength. Before the end of 1914 +mules imported from abroad were being tried as substitutes for horses in +the Army. Some of the experiments did not give promising results. The +mule, for example, did not prove possible in gun teams. But it +established itself in a very wide range of general utility and +materially helped to win the war. + +The improvisation of remount depôts and of training centres for horses +and for men who for the first time had to handle horses was the first +big problem. The winter of 1914-15 was a hard time. But extraordinary +results were won by the cordial co-operation of the "horsey" men of the +country. The hunting, coaching, and racing stables were great pillars of +strength. By the spring of 1915 the position in the United Kingdom was +good. + +In the winter of 1915-16 most of the difficulty had to be faced by the +B.E.F., France. We had a great concentration of troops in Flanders. The +mounted units were made up in the main of men new to horse-management. +The animals had to be nursed through a winter in what was the wickedest +country conceivable for horses. Stable accommodation was, of course, +absent. Not 1 per cent. could be housed in existing stables. Labour and +material were lacking for the building of new stables. Most of the +animals spent the winter in the open. The mud was a cruel enemy. In that +highly manured country a horse standing out in the mud had its hoofs +attacked at once. A "greasy heel" soon became a purulent sore. + +The "Mud Season" opens in Flanders in October and lasts until June; and +Flanders mud has a body and aroma all its own. A great French Marshal of +a by-gone age committed himself without reserve to the opinion that +"Flanders was no place to fight in." Thomas Atkins, as he pushed +obstinately and irresistibly through the mud towards some pill-box +objective, has endorsed that high strategical judgment. Perhaps in a +future war, if there is going to be a future war, Flanders will be a +closed area and no Army will be allowed to go there to fight under +penalty of a _procès-verbal_. That should be done if only for the sake +of the horses. + +[Illustration: THE EAST RAMPARTS] + +As every civilian stay-at-home knows, the Army is an entirely foolish +organisation with no knowledge of practical affairs. But I doubt whether +any civil organisation would have carried the same number of horses +through the same conditions with the same small percentage of losses. +The Army did not tackle the problem in any hide-bound way. A good deal +was left to the initiative and enthusiasm of individual officers. +Some general principles were set down. Within the boundaries of those +principles there was wide scope for personal ingenuity, and as the good +thing that one officer worked out soon became the property of all the +Division, a very high standard of horse-management was reached. + +Will it shock some old retired officers to hear that authority, the +highest authority, abolished the clipping of horses that year in +Flanders? Horse-clipping was once a sacred institution, with its fixed +dates and ritual, in the Army. That year in Flanders horse-clipping was +abolished, and the horses became wild and woolly but withal happy. I +used to love to see their flowing locks streaming in the cold wind as +they stood out in the lines, coated like St. Bernard dogs, and quite +comfortable. "Stables" became more arduous as horse-coats became longer, +but the horses flourished in the open with just break-winds, and +sometimes thatch rain-shelter overhead. I would never want to see a +finer lot of horses than those of the early Spring of 1916. They were +hairy and they were lean, and they would eat their nosebags, if given a +minute's grace after the feed was finished; but they were full of heart +and of work. + +The enemy was the mud. We found that if the horses were given good +standings and their feet kept out of the mud the rain did not trouble +them at all, and the wind troubled them little. But once off the pavé +roads all Flanders was semi-liquid, and the problem at horse-lines was +first to secure a solid "standing," next to secure a solid road in and +out to that standing, and finally to secure a solid road to and from a +solid watering place. A unit that built for its horses elegant brick +standings in the middle of a field, and forgot the rest, found after the +first rain that its lines were surrounded by a sea of mud. Then the +horses had to be given temporary refuge in the paved street of an +evacuated town, whilst a saddened unit faced scorn and obloquy and the +necessity of constructing another brick standing on another site, _not_ +an island site this time. + +Standings were usually made of bricks, and the Army requisitioned all +the brick yards in the occupied area. Shell-ruined villages were another +source of brick supply. Rubble brick was of no use for standings; the +bricks had to be set properly; rubble was lost in the soil within a day. +One officer got excellent results by preparing a well-sloped bed; +enclosing it with great logs, treating it with a thin layer of straw, +and close-setting the bricks over that. It seemed a poor use to put +straw to, but that stand lasted out the winter wonderfully well. + +The difficulty of getting good accessible watering places was very +great. Water, of course, there was in abundance, but the horses would +ordinarily have to go up to their bellies in mud to get at it. To set up +troughs accessible by some firm road was necessary, and the site of the +troughs had to be soundly paved. One Pioneer officer settled his +watering problem ingeniously. He had secured a pump and some hose, and +he sank a little well just on the edge of his horse-lines, and was able +to water by troughs set up on the brick standing. Watering by bucket was +forbidden except on the road, for the reason that there was never any +certainty by bucket watering that a horse would get enough to drink, and +a horse kept short of water for long is soon a lost horse. + +Losses from enemy action were not very high among the horses until the +last phase. There was, on the whole, little cavalry work except at the +end of the campaign and at its very beginning. Our air supremacy usually +saved horse-lines in the rear of our lines from very severe shelling. +But horse and mule losses increased greatly when the enemy began to use +mustard gas. That proved deadly to animals. The ground where a mustard +gas shell had fallen was infected for many hours afterwards. If horses +were picketed on it, or even passed over it, casualties were high. The +irritant poison of the gas attacked their skins wherever the hair was +thin, and caused the most dreadful wounds. Precaution, however, was +prompt, and an effective curative treatment was found in a dressing, +the chief ingredient of which was chloride of lime. + +From the spring of 1918 the British Army horse had to suffer severe +attacks from the air. We had by then established a very great transport +superiority, and the enemy devoted a good deal of his air strength to +bombing attacks on our horse-lines, with a view to lessening our +transport strength. At first these attacks were very deadly. But the +position was soon met. Horse-lines were cleverly concealed. The animals +were separated into small groups. The lines were protected by bomb-proof +traverses of earthwork, which localised the effects of explosions. + +In the summer of 1918 the wastage of animals had been cut down to the +lowest percentage reached in the whole campaign. This meant that battle +losses were being compensated for by a very low sickness rate, achieved +by careful and skilful horse-mastership. The British Army, which had +been always an army of horse-lovers, was now also an Army of skilled +horse-masters, and in spite of bombing raids, of long-distance shelling, +and of poison gas, the death rate kept dwindling. At this time forage +difficulties were acute, but there had been close organisation to grow +fodder in Army and Line of Communication areas, and our animals always +had a decent ration. + +But it was through the unsparing work of the men, with brain and hand, +that the horses were so happily situated. The public at Home can never +express sufficient gratitude for that work--work which had little +glamour or hope of reward, but which was as necessary to victory as that +of rifleman and gunner. + +The final triumph of our Army horse administration was in the summer of +1918, when it was able to take up a big part of the burden of horsing +the American units arriving in France. That, again, was a factor of +victory. Without transport or gun-horses the American troops could not +have given their magnificent help in the last stages of the campaign. + +In the sum the story of the British Army horse in the Great War is a +thrilling one. Our Home horse-lovers opened the chapter gloriously. The +British Navy followed up by making it possible to transport remounts +from all parts of the world. Then the men of the Old Army and of the New +Armies showed what grit and resource and kindness could do. So we rode +home to victory. + +The record of the animals of the B.E.F. should do something to dissipate +the marked prejudice against the mule in Great Britain. People here do +not understand its virtues as a draught animal. Granted that the mule is +not suitable for heavy draught work and may prove a serious nuisance on +a farm if it cannot be kept within its proper bounds--for a mule has an +omnivorous appetite--still there is a very wide field of usefulness for +this animal in city work, such as bread and milk and parcel carriage and +light van work generally; also as a transport animal for the small +farmer. The mule eats much less than the horse, has a longer working +life, is less liable to disease, needs less attention. The mule's rough +commonsense, which teaches him to be very careful of himself, is a +positive advantage. Given decent treatment, a mule is a reliable, +good-natured, and likeable animal. He has not the same charming manners +as a well-trained horse, but he has plenty of character, and it is +mostly good character. + +The wicked mule does exist, but he is the exception, not the rule. One +champion wicked mule I can recall. He was as big as a horse, black in +colour, and on the near side had a blood-shot fiery eye which was a good +danger signal. On the off-side he had a white eye. This was a deceptive +white-flag signal, for the beast kicked with equal viciousness on both +sides. Likewise he bit from all points of the compass. The one thing +that soured his life was the fact that he couldn't sting with his tail. +To groom Belial--that was his name--he had to be put in slings. But he +was an easy animal to shoe. Hold a shoe with the nails fixed in the +proper position, and the animal would attach itself firmly to the shoe +with one kick. An occasional Belial excepted, the mules were a pleasant +lot. + +The mule is a hard worker but a sensible worker. He will not try to +overtax his strength, and he goes on strike firmly if asked to do too +much. "I may be a bit of an ass," the animal tells you, "but none of +this heroic business of the Arab steed breaking his heart with a mighty +effort for _me_." + +This attitude is not poetic, but it is practical. And the mule +compensates by standing mud better, eating less, and putting up with +poorer food than the horse. The mule, however, is very particular about +what he drinks. Water that the horse will swallow greedily the mule will +turn up his Roman nose at. If you are watering mules and horses at the +same stream, the mules must have first drink, for they will not touch +the muddied water, though horses have no objection to it. + +G.H.Q. during the last stages of the campaign had a hard task to keep +the animals of the B.E.F. properly fed. At the outset of the War the +horse ration erred, if anything, on the generous side, and a good deal +of it wandered into the mangers of the civilian animals of the country, +much to their contentment. As the war dragged its exhausting length +along, money became scarce, food supplies scarcer still, and transport +facilities scarcest of all. Then the ration of the animals had to be +cut to a point which represented just sufficient and nothing more. Even +so, it was a much better ration than the French gave their horses, and +there were repeated efforts by the French Authorities to persuade us to +come down to their animal ration. Those efforts naturally had a much +greater chance of success when the union of the command made Marshal +Foch the Generalissimo of all the Armies in France. + +But our High Command was stubborn in its championship of the animals. +There was a very strong representation of the cavalry on the Staff; and, +besides, the British as a race have a sentiment about animals which is +not shared to the full by the Latin races. The average British soldier +would as soon go short of food himself as see his animals hungry. At one +time the British War Cabinet yielded to the strong representations that +were being made that the British Army wasted resources and transport in +its feeding of the animals, and ordered a heavy reduction of the horse +ration. Even then the British Command in the Field did not give up the +cause for lost, continued to argue the matter, and by pointing out that +a vast amount of extra work was just then being thrown upon the animals +by the reduction of Field Artillery ammunition teams from six horses to +four, secured a compromise decision which made a much smaller reduction +in the ration. + +[Illustration: THE ARMY COMMANDERS] + +The French Authorities without a doubt honestly believed they were in +the right and that we were "coddling" our brutes, for they made another +effort to get "unity of animal ration" as a kind of logical sequel to +"unity of command." This time they made an agreement with the Americans +that the latter should come down to their scale of animal ration. +Without a full knowledge of what they were doing, the Americans agreed +at first; and it looked as if the British horse also would have to have +his ration reduced. But with more complete knowledge of the facts the +American Army reversed its previous decision and decided that it could +not come down below the British animal ration. A whinny of joy would +have gone round the British horse lines at this decision if it had been +promulgated in horse language, for it saved the situation. I am honestly +of opinion that it had its effect, too, in bringing the campaign to its +triumphant conclusion. In the last stages between August and November, +1918, I do not think that the rapid pursuit of the enemy would have been +possible if the horse ration had been reduced further than it was in +July, 1918. As it was, that reduction put a stop to the decline in the +sickness rate and caused it to increase slightly. + +G.H.Q. did its best to make up for the reduced ration by organising +local growth of fodder crops wherever there was a chance, and there was +instituted an Inspectorate of Horse Feeding and Economies. The +I.Q.M.G.S. had to oversee all animals, except those on charge of +Director Remounts and Director Veterinary Services, to advise on all +matters of forage, to seek means of economy and generally to supervise +the "horse-mastery" of units. + +Horse-masters can best judge the rights of the fodder position for +themselves by noting the actual animal ration. Taking an average of +25,000 horses, light _and_ heavy, the weight of the rations at the time +of the controversy was: + + lbs. + American 23.6 + British 22.2 + French 16.1 + +Twenty-two pounds weight of food per day is not excessive for a horse +doing hard work; and that was the _average_. After the heavy horses had +their higher ration the light horses had to be content with less. + +Probably the French never saw our point of view and suspected that there +was not much more than English obstinacy in this determined stand for +the welfare of the dumb beasts. But the controversy was carried on with +good humour all the same, and in the end "those curious English" had +their own way. + +Whenever questions such as this arose between the Allied Forces it +proved in practice that the Americans usually had the deciding voice. +Perhaps it may be recorded without hurting anyone's feelings that the +American as a matter of instinct was inclined usually to take the French +side, because his stronger sympathy was in that direction; after +experience he was inclined usually to take the British side, for his +manner of thinking was more on our lines. + +The animal record for the last year of the war was a fine one. The +sickness rate was brought down to a figure practically as low as that of +a big stable under peace conditions, and this--the result of good +horse-mastery--helped to make up for battle casualties and casualties +from bombs. (It was in January, 1918, that the enemy first instituted a +definite policy of searching out our horse-lines and subjecting them to +aeroplane attack in order to cripple our lines of supply). In June, +1918, the sickness rate was actually lower than at any period in the +history of the force (7.7 per cent. as against 12.05 per cent. in May, +1917). Losses of animals in battle showed a marked reduction. The +general reduction in losses was partly due to a decrease in the losses +from enemy bombs, as a great deal of work had then been done to conceal +and protect horse-lines from aircraft attack. + +In July, 1918, the horse situation was even better, and the sickness +rate for the month was 7.5 per cent. (compared with 7.7 per cent. in +June and 8.73 per cent. in May). Unfortunately it was necessary that +month to reduce the hay ration by one lb. per day. (A more considerable +reduction proposed was abandoned, as I have pointed out). The shortage +in the supply of animals as compared with requirements, a shortage +principally due to the needs of the new American units, was met by +various expedients. Nearly 25,000 animals were made available by +reductions of the horse strength of artillery units. A further 14,000 +were saved by giving 6-inch howitzer and some 60-pounder batteries +mechanical transport. Another means of economy in horse-flesh was worked +out--the setting up of a "Category B" in animals. Those which were not +quite fit for arduous work with a fighting unit were withdrawn to units +whose demands on them were less exacting. + +In August, 1918, when our great attack began, the animals with the Force +had heavy losses. Battle casualties were high, partly because of the +large employment of cavalry, partly because of the intensive war from +the air against horse-lines. The precautions against this kind of attack +which we had developed could not be kept up during the rapid advance, +and horses in the fighting line suffered severely from bombs as well as +shell fire. But that was part of the necessary price of victory. What +was a matter for real regret, however, was the increase in the sick rate +which accompanied the revival of intensive operations. We all felt sorry +that the forage ration had been reduced, even though slightly, for there +was reason to think that even this slight reduction in the forage ration +had made it impossible in some cases to keep the animals up to the best +standard of condition. Very hard work was being done on a ration which +was cut very fine. + +After November 11th, when the Armistice was signed, our animal sickness +rate was only 9 per cent., and later, as we began to sell off our +animals, the advantage of humane treatment told in the market rates. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE FINANCIAL SERVICES. + +The generosity of the British People--G.H.Q. was not a spendthrift--The +Pay system--Curiosities of banking in the field--Claims of the civilian +inhabitants--The looted rabbit. + + +The financial side of the B.E.F. was one of the triumphs of G.H.Q. "Yes, +in spending money," someone may remark, thinking gloomily over his +Income Tax assessment. But the triumph I refer to is in the dealing with +vast sums with so little loss from peculation or from mistake. + +An Army in the Field should not be pinched for money if it is to work +with confidence and economy of life. Very often in the history of war a +"ragged Army" has done wonders, and the praise of those wonders has led +to some minds confusing raggedness with heroism, thinking that desperate +impoverishment is a good thing for an Army. It might have been sometimes +in the old days, when the sack of the enemy's country was the reward of +victory and it was a case of fight or perish. In modern times it is a +sound principle of warfare that the better an Army is supplied with the +means of warfare the less will be the cost of life in achieving its +purpose. + +The soldiers of the British Army in France have reason to feel grateful +to the people of Great Britain that there was never any sparing of money +at the expense of their comfort and safety. No Army at any known period +of the world's history was more lavishly provided for in food, clothing, +munitions and pay. To illustrate on one point only, that of munitions. +In the British Army 100,000 men in a day used 410 tons of munitions, in +the French Army the same number of men in a day used 246 tons. Part of +the disparity might be accounted for by superior economy on the part of +the French. Most of it was due to the fact that the British people were +able to supply, and did supply, their troops with far greater quantities +of shell, etc., so as to take as much of the burden of war as possible +off the flesh and blood of the soldier. + +The taxpayer for his part can be comforted with the knowledge that, so +far as the Army in the Field was concerned, there was an honest effort +to guard against waste. Of course war is a wasteful business, +essentially, and no possible precaution can guard against some losses. +Often the position is that a great amount of material has to be devoted +to a certain purpose though it is very likely to be wasted, because the +alternative is to incur a greater risk of life. It was always the +British system, a system which Parliament insisted upon equally with the +Generals in the Field, that any sacrifice of money and material was to +be preferred to a useless sacrifice of life. + +In peace times the Finance Branch of the War Office had a long-standing +reputation for artful meanness. It was accused of working on the +principle that an officer in the Army was always possessed of abundant +private means and therefore never really wanted any Army money, and that +a private soldier was clearly a fool and a failure for being in the Army +at all and therefore deserved little or no consideration. If he were +allowed money to spare he would waste it on dissipation. + +Certainly F. Branch War Office showed itself time and again very sharp +at construing the Pay Warrant to the benefit of the Treasury, but it was +never quite as bad as that. In the Field the spirit of economy had to +give place to the spirit of efficiency and of _morale_. Nevertheless, a +very tight check was kept on the money-bags to prevent dishonesty or +extravagance. The Financial Adviser at G.H.Q. was a potentate of great +ability and of enormous authority. No order which involved the spending +of money could go out without being referred to him and winning his +approval. He had the right of access to the Commander-in-Chief at all +times. It was said that since as a civilian he did not get prompt and +full respect from sentries, or from officers who did not understand his +position as Chancellor of the Army Exchequer, he was made a General in a +single day, and that when he first walked abroad as a General and +sentries presented arms to him he was greatly perturbed, thinking that +this might be the first step in an outbreak of personal violence. But +that was by way of _persiflage_. All officers who came into contact with +him recognised a man of ability and of sympathy. + +It was the Army Pay Department that most closely touched the lives of +the soldiers in France. It had to pay a total of about two and a half +million people of all kinds--officers who were either affluent or +careful and gave no trouble at all; officers who were neither and whose +impecuniosity had to be guarded against; a very few officers who were +actually dishonest; "other ranks" in whose pay there were infinite +complications due to separation allowances and the like; and furthermore +the women of the various auxiliary corps, the Labour Corps of various +nationalities, civilian auxiliaries and the like. As the war progressed +"Pay" had to act as money-changer, dealing with almost all the +currencies of the world, and as a Savings Bank and as liquidator of all +kinds of claims and as a third party in those highly convenient +transactions in which an officer bought clothes and other necessities +from "Ordnance" at a price which was sometimes less than half that +charged by London stores. + +The Army Pay Department in the Field was not the final paymaster. It +gave advances on account only, leaving the final adjustment to the Pay +office at Home. But during the war and up to the end of 1918 (by which +time demobilisation had broken up most of the units in France) it had +paid out nearly four thousand million francs, and its total losses from +forgeries, war losses, bad money, etc., were quite insignificant. At one +period in 1918 when an analysis was made, it was found that the bad +money passed off on to the Pay Department had averaged only eight francs +per week. + +The financial arrangements of the old Regular Army had to be modified +very considerably, especially in regard to officers, as the war +continued, though at first an attempt was made to apply them in their +entirety. The Army Pay Agents soon found out that a number of the new +officers who had come into the service had little or no sense of +financial responsibility, and the Pay Department had to tighten the +reins considerably. Exceedingly liberal arrangements had been made at +the outset to meet the convenience of officers. Thus any Branch of the +Bank of France would cash an officer's cheque up to £5, and any Field +Cashier--each Division had a Field Cashier--would cash his chit to the +same amount. Also, he might draw his allowances by cheque monthly, and +this cheque was good at any Field Cashier's office. + +Some early developments were startling. There is a tale of one officer +(he was in a position which gave him a wide range of movement) +collecting £125 in one day before going on leave. He had a "good leave" +presumably, but he had at the time only £3 due to him at his Army +Agent's, and it took some time for him to make up the balance on his pay +as lieutenant. To meet the case of gentlemen "raising the wind" on this +scale there was instituted an "Officer's Advance Book," the conditions +of obtaining and using which were gradually tightened, so that it was +only possible for an officer below "field" rank to obtain three advances +in a month of 125 francs each. That still left one loop-hole for +improvidence or dishonesty--cashing cheques at a Bank of France after +drawing the three advances. But not very many officers could get to a +bank except during a "leave," and a certain "overrunning of the +constable" was expected then and could be adjusted afterwards. Officers +who consistently drew beyond their means after warning were looked upon +as having dishonest intentions and were put on a "black list." They +could not draw cheques, and were deprived of their "Advance Books" until +they were in credit again. + +There was no serious amount of financial delinquency. At the worst the +"black list" just crept over the 100 limit. One incorrigible +spendthrift, having been deprived of his Advance Book, tried to obtain +another from a Field Cashier in another centre on the plea that his +previous book "had been captured by the enemy." + +It was very human, the Pay Department, for all its strictness, and in my +experience never refused an officer who was going on leave a "bit extra" +if he had a good financial name. One of its very kind customs was to +arrange for wounded officers evacuated to "Blighty" to be met in England +by Pay Agents who pressed on them change of a little cheque to meet +possible incidental expenses in hospital. It had, too, a nice habit of +watching the tactical situation and acting accordingly. After the great +German onrush of the Spring of 1918 many hundreds of officers were +destitute, their kits abandoned to the enemy. Pay Department promptly +relaxed all its rules to enable them to outfit again promptly; and, of +course, there was ultimately reimbursement to the officers of the value +of their kits. Up to the conclusion of the war "Pay" reimbursed nearly +20,000 officers for loss of kit. + +[Illustration: Photo by J Russell & Sons +MAJOR-GENERAL SIR CLAUDE A. BRAY (Paymaster-in-chief, B.E.F.)] + +"Pay" changed any sort of money into French currency; and it had to deal +with many varieties. Serbian, Egyptian, Nova Scotian, Greek, Kruger +money (from South Africa), Australian bank notes, Italian, Russian, +American, Canadian, local French "Bank of Commerce" notes (which were +monetised in some cases by the Bank of France), Mexican dollars--all +came to its counter and were duly honoured. But it turned up its nose at +American Confederate Bank notes and assignats of the First French +Republic (both useless except for wall paper). + +Various currency problems had to be solved by "Pay." The Bank of France +was always in a state of worry over the huge consumption of 5 francs +notes by the British Army. These were the most favoured units for paying +the men; they seemed to disappear from currency at a quick rate, and +they were expensive to print. The situation was improved by the adoption +of the suggestion of "Pay" that a 10-francs note should be issued. +Probably the Bank of France would have been quite content if they had +thought that the 5 francs notes were destroyed. But they knew that they +were being hoarded up by the French peasants, who absorbed every bit of +silver as soon as it was put into circulation, and, after silver, +favoured for their hoards notes of small denominations. At the time of +the German advance in the Spring of 1918 "Pay" had a curious +illustration of the hoarding ways of these French peasants. That advance +let loose a flood of silver coinage. The people who lived in districts +which might have to be evacuated changed their hoarded silver for notes, +which would be more handy to carry away. + +"Pay" at an early stage of the war put forward an interesting +proposal--the issue of International Army Notes in various denominations +which would be good in any one of the Allied Countries. The proposal was +never carried through, but its idea is being revived in the financial +world to-day by the proposal for an International Bank to take over some +or all of the war debts of the Allies and issue a paper currency good in +any one of the Allied Countries. + +The encouragement of thrift among the soldiers was part of the work of +"Pay." In August, 1915, it secured soldier subscriptions to the War Loan +to the extent of £25,200. The next year it established Savings Banks, +and in 1918 it set up agencies at all Army Post Offices for the sale of +War Savings Certificates. But its greatest achievement in the way of +thrift was the Chinese Savings Bank, which was started in August, 1918, +and in a fortnight had deposits of 400,000 francs. + +The last welcome task of "Pay" was to establish Field Cashiers in +Germany and to fix a rate of exchange for German money, which was +started at five marks=2s. 8d. + +The Claims Commission (established in December, 1914) was another branch +of the financial organisation. Its business was to decide upon claims +for damage done by the British Army to the property of civilians, French +or Belgian. The British Army paid for everything, even to an orchard +tree that an Army mule had nibbled at. Claims made were sometimes +ridiculous in character and in extent. In my regimental experience I +remember a market gardener claiming 200 francs on account of damage done +by a horse which had wandered into his potato patch for a few minutes. +The claim was very amicably settled on the spot by the payment in cash +of two francs. On an average, "Claims" paid about one fourth of the +total asked for, and the civilian population did very well indeed on +that. + +In the very early days of the war the civil population of France, filled +with relief and gratitude at the arrival of the British Force, of whose +coming they had almost despaired, greeted officer and soldier with the +most generous hospitality. Indeed as the "Old Contemptibles" marched +through Boulogne women stripped off their rings to give them to the +marching soldiers. Wine, fruit, and other delicacies were pressed on +everybody without payment. That generous enthusiasm could not last +through a four years' war, but to the very end the best of the French +population recognised a duty of hospitality to their British guests. It +was only natural, however, that many of the peasants and small traders, +hard hit by the war, should take advantage of their opportunities to +make profit out of our Army. This was particularly noticeable after the +coming of the Colonial troops, who were just as lavish in spirit as the +British Tommies and had a good deal more pay to spend. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL L. B. FRIEND (President of Claims +Commission)] + +The Claims Commission, which in the later stages of the war had its +headquarters at Paris Plage and Le Touquet, did its work to the +satisfaction of everybody. At first its responsibilities were confined +to paying claims for damage done. Later it took over all the financial +adjustments in connection with the hiring and the requisition of +civilian land and property. Its tasks called for a great deal of tact +and a wide variety of resourcefulness. In the Spring of 1918 the +abandonment in evacuated areas by civilians of wine and portable +property caused trouble. The events at Amiens illustrate the position. +As soon as the city came under enemy shell fire the civil authorities +left, and with them most of the respectable inhabitants. Less +respectable people remained, and probably were guilty of some excesses. +The British Army Authorities, however, were prompt in taking over +control, and on April 3rd the city was quiet and orderly. But very +serious reports of damage by British troops were put into circulation. +On investigation by the Claims Department the actual cases resolved +themselves into two: in one house three doors had been broken down; in +the other case the British Army had stolen a rabbit "which had been +abandoned by its owners." These were the only two charges definitely +preferred. But it was, seemingly, a fact that in some villages outside +of Amiens regrettable incidents arose from the fleeing civilians +abandoning stores of wine or disposing of them to the troops at +sacrifice prices. The French Authorities were asked to assist in +forbidding the importation by civilians of intoxicants into threatened +areas. + +Towards the end of the war some of the French towns which had been +sheltering large numbers of British troops raised the question of the +payment of octroi duties on the goods consumed by the troops. As I +suppose is well known, French towns have local customs duties (called +octroi because the right to collect them for local purposes was +originally a concession from the King). All food, etc., coming into the +town pays a small tax. Supplies for the British Army did not pay this +tax, and the towns complained of the loss thus caused to their municipal +revenues. G.H.Q. willingly conceded the payment of octroi. A lump sum +was allowed for the past period, and an arrangement made for the future +payment of so much per head every half year for each soldier billetted +within the town boundaries. The _per capita_ charge varied greatly. A +few French towns refused to make any claim, saying that they were well +content to make that concession to their British guests. + +On the whole the financial record of the British Army in France is +something to be proud of. We paid justly--sometimes generously--for +everything, and no civilian was left with a legitimate grievance. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE ECONOMY SERVICES. + +What the German submarines taught us--The Salvage Organisation--O.C. +Rags, Bones and Swill--Agriculture's good work and hard luck--The +Forestry Directorate--Soldiers learn economy in a stern school. + + +There is a sort of grim pleasantry in the fact that the German submarine +war, which was to bring Great Britain to her knees, only brought her to +a school of economy where she learned some lessons which will be very +useful in the future, once the after-the-war phase of reckless +extravagance has passed away. When the cumulative effect of the +unlimited submarine war made itself felt in 1918 it did not stop +operations, though it may claim some of the responsibility for the +extent of the German success in the Spring of that year, which might +have been much more limited if we had had full supplies of wire and +other defence material. What it did do was to set G.H.Q. to devising +valuable economies. + +The German was in effect too late with this, as with his other desperate +steps. At the outset of the war, with an inferior sea power, Germany +had yet the chance of using sea forces with great, and perhaps decisive, +effect by raids on the British supply routes with light cruisers and +converted merchantmen. She had prepared for this but neglected the one +necessary act of forethought and daring by not sending out to sea her +commerce destroyers. Such a sea policy would, of course, have been +ruthless; but it could have been made effective without violation of sea +law and without outrages on neutrals. After August, 1914, Germany sought +vainly to repair her initial lack of sound naval sense by the submarine +naval war, in which every canon of sea law and every sentiment of +justice and humanity were violated. The more the submarine war showed +signs of failing the more atrocious and reckless it became, until in its +final shape it set almost all the world against the German Empire. Yet +withal the U-boat atrocities went for nothing. The German people must +see now that their Prussian masters put them very much in the position +of the innkeeper of the old creepy German story. He and his wife +resolved to kill in his sleep and rob a chance traveller who had come to +their inn. They killed him and found that his purse was empty and that +he was their own long-lost son. + +On the debit side, as a result of the German submarine war we had in +1918 a lack of certain material--particularly of chocolate, biscuits, +and tinned fruits in the canteens. On the credit side we had those fine +economy organisations, Salvage, Agriculture and Forestry, the effect of +which was not only to make savings at the time but also to teach the +soldier a fuller appreciation of his civil duties. + +"Salvage" explained itself very clearly in its official publication: + + "The world shortage of almost every kind of raw material used for + war supplies makes Salvage an important Administrative Service. + Without a well-organised and thorough Salvage system, the full + maintenance of our Force in the Field would be made difficult. + + "The co-ordination of all Salvage work is in the hands of the + Controller of Salvage at G.H.Q. His duties include the inspection + of executive Salvage work, the arrangements for the disposal of + Salvage material, the investigation of methods for recovering + bye-products, and keeping of statistical records showing the amount + of material salved and disposed of and the resultant gain to the + State. + + "The Salvage Organisation is not intended to take the place of, or + in any way discourage, a consistent effort on the part of every + supply department to recover for repair and re-issue its own + articles and its own empties. It is intended to supplement that + effort; to collect and put to use what would otherwise become + derelict; to ensure that nothing utilisable is allowed to go to + waste. + + "To this end it is necessary to arrange, in the first place, for + the collection of unserviceable or derelict material, and, in the + second, for its disposal so that it may be brought again into use + with the least delay and to the best advantage." + +[Illustration: AN ARMY POSTER.] + +"Salvage," in order to secure a practical interest in its work, used to +issue statements to the soldiers showing how salved articles were +utilised. Some examples: + + Clothing: Cleaned and repaired + locally. If beyond repair, + sent to the United + Kingdom as rags. + + Sacking: Sent to the United + Kingdom. + + Entrenching tools: Heads cleaned and + sharpened. If irreparable, + disposed of as scrap. + + Steel helmets: Cleaned and relined. If + irreparable, indiarubber + pads in lining removed + and utilised for lining + serviceable helmets. Chin + strap sold as old leather, + and helmet disposed of as + scrap steel. + + Rubber (gum boots, Sent to Paris for classification + tyres, etc.): and repair. If + irreparable, sent to the + United Kingdom. + + Mess tins, camp Cleaned in caustic soda, + kettles, field reblocked, resoldered if + kitchen boilers: necessary, and retinned. + If irreparable, disposed + of as scrap steel. + + Water-bottles: Old felt removed--bottles + cleaned, recovered with + new felt and recorked. + Old felt sent to the United + Kingdom. Water-bottles + not fit for re-issue as such + are used for packing small + quantities of oil or paint + for the Front. + + Web equipment, Broken into component + cotton bandoliers, parts--dry-cleaned on + etc.: motor-driven brushes, + darned and repaired. If + irreparable, sent to the + United Kingdom as cotton + rags, after brass or metal + fittings have been removed. + + Leather equipment, Broken down into component + harness, saddlery, parts, washed with + etc.: soft soap in lukewarm + water, dried in a drying + cupboard at 100 deg. F., + treated with fish-oil and + repaired. If irreparable, + sent to United Kingdom + as old leather after brass + or metal fittings have been + removed. + + Boots: Classified, repaired and + passed through fish-oil + baths. The uppers of + irreparable boots as far as + possible made into shoe + laces or heel lifts and used + for filling. + +"Salvage" had to suffer much from kindly "ragging." It was known as +"Rags and Bones," and as "Swill." It was the favoured sport of the +humourist to devise new salvage dodges, one of which I recall as holding +the record for sheer asininity. It drew attention to the fact that the +little circles of paper, punched out of folios so that they could be put +on files, might be collected and sold as confetti! + +But with all this "ragging," G.H.Q. had a very real respect and liking +for Brigadier-General Gibbs and his Salvage Corps, and recognised fully +the solid and practical patriotism which made them devote a passionate +interest to the recovery of solder from old tins, to collecting waste +paper, old boots, nails, horseshoes, rags and buttons. "There is +nothing of the débris of the battlefield which we cannot put to some +use," General Gibbs announced; and by his personal enthusiasm he made +Salvage collection quite a popular sport in the Army. + +Some of the items of salvage value from a return will show the wide +range of the department: swill for piggeries, value 16,000 francs; +solder from old tins, value 91,000 francs; cotton waste, 14,000 francs; +tin-plate (won by unrolling old biscuit tins, etc.), 61,000 francs; old +lead, 10,000 francs; various bye-products 7,000,000 francs. The old rags +collected did a great deal to help the cloth shortage at Home, as they +made the best kind of shoddy. The old bones collected helped to find the +glycerine for explosives. + +But perhaps the moral effect of the Salvage department was even more +valuable than its excellent material results. War is a wretchedly +wasteful business and must inculcate in soldiers a spirit of waste. But +in the final phase of this campaign every soldier had brought home to +him most urgently the wisdom of saving and the real value of what seemed +to be waste bye-products. Many of them must have learned the lesson and +carried it home with them to the advantage of the general community. + +Agriculture was another economy organisation that we owed to the German +submarine war. It had begun in a small way towards the end of 1917; +indeed its germ was alive before then, for from the first our units had +helped the French with labour and horses during harvest time, and some +units enjoying a certain security of tenure had established flower and +vegetable gardens. But in December, 1917, the world's food position +suggested an earnest effort to utilise spare labour and spare land +within army areas in France to grow food. Major-General Ellison and Dr. +Keeble came over to G.H.Q. from the War Office, and a scheme was drawn +up to cultivate 50,000 acres of land. In January, 1918, an Agriculture +Directorate was formed under Brigadier-General the Earl of Radnor, and +search was made for a suitable area for a big farm. The quest was not a +simple one. We could not poach on land that the French might want. We +wished to avoid selecting an area which might be needed for a manoeuvre +ground for our troops in the carrying out of the next Big Push. In +seeking to avoid these two rocks we landed on a worse one. The area +selected around Roye-Nesle was the area which the Germans were going to +over-run in their Spring offensive. All unconscious of that, we began +ploughing in February, 1918. The Home authorities had supplied an +abundance of excellent machinery, and labour was quickly collected and +trained. By March 21st we had got up to a record of ploughing 300 +acres per day and a total of 4,742 acres had been turned over. Then +the German came. + +[Illustration: BRIG-GENERAL THE EARL OF RADNOR (Director of Agricultural +Production)] + +By a fine feat of organisation and courage the Agriculture Directorate +saved most of its machinery. Some of the agricultural tractors came in +useful as aids to the heavy artillery in the retreat. Others, charging +for home at their best speed, were mistaken for German Tanks and in one +or two cases fired on by our troops. + +Despite that unlucky experience with the big farm, Agriculture put to +its credit some useful work. It had promoted vegetable gardens in Base +Camps, and the total area of those gardens was 7,496 acres and their +products did much to help out the rations. Soon, too, "Agriculture" +found that though it had not sown on its big farm it might still reap in +other quarters. The German onrush had brought a great area of French +cultivated land within army areas, some of it actually within the zone +of fire. Since every ear of wheat was precious, Agriculture organised to +save this part of the French harvest, and actually reaped the product of +18,133 acres. It was gallant work, done mostly by fighting men in the +intervals between their turns in the trenches. Sometimes the area to be +reaped was under the fire and the observation of the enemy, and the crop +was cut at night. The enemy used gas shells to prevent this work, and +the reapers had to work in gas masks. One area of six acres of corn was +so close to the enemy trenches that the idea of saving it seemed a +desperate one. But volunteers were found, and one night seventeen men +with scythes cleared the whole six acres, in the three hours of darkness +that were available. I own that such acts of heroism impress me more +than deeds done in the heat and ardour of battle. + +In the Autumn of 1918 the enemy were in full run for the Rhine, and the +Agriculture Directorate resolved to make another attempt at cultivating +a big farm. An area of 20,000 acres was chosen, this time near Corbie. +The site had been desolated by the Somme battles, and the work of +preliminary clearing (which was done by Prisoners of War) was the +hardest part of its preparation for agriculture. But when ploughing +began with tractors other unexpected difficulties cropped up. The big +armour-piercing shell with delay-action fuse, when it missed the +emplacement for which it was designed and struck the ground, penetrated +to a great depth, exploded there, and often formed a big subterranean +cavern without showing any crater on the surface. A heavy tractor going +over one of these caverns would break through and disappear. Digging it +out would then be a laborious task. + +When the Armistice came the Corbie farm was, in accordance with the +wishes of the French Government, passed over to it. So the Agriculture +Directorate never got in a big crop of its own sowing. But it had done +excellent work on its farm gardens and in saving the French crop within +the battle area. + +Forestry was another department which we owed to the German submarine +war. In 1916 shipping losses were already so great as gravely to +prejudice the prospects of bringing in timber from Scandinavia. It was +Scandinavia which felt the earliest effects from the submarine campaign; +Norway, especially, which with fine courage had refused to allow its +mercantile shipping to take refuge in harbour. + +The Norwegian paper _Tidens Tegn_ published an optimistic statistical +review of the position as regards Germany's submarine war on October +9th, 1917. This, covering a wide period and dealing with a mercantile +service which the German pursued with particular venom, attracted great +attention at the time. Pointing out that for the week ending October 9th +not one Norwegian vessel was sunk by German submarines, the _Tidens +Tegn_ commented that this was the first time for a year that such a +thing could be said. It gave then in detail the record of U-boats' +ravages on Norwegian shipping from May, 1917, until October, 1917, the +record showing a steady decrease of losses. But the sad truth was that +the Norwegian shipping had suffered such terrible losses that there was +not much left of it to destroy. + +As early as November, 1916, owing to the difficulties in getting +Scandinavian timber, we had decided to draw our timber supplies chiefly +from the French forests and from Switzerland, Spain, and Great Britain. +Our Forestry Department started with a Canadian lumber-men's unit. +Brig.-Gen. Lord Lovat was Director. In October, 1917, a fresh agreement +was made with the French Government for the exploitation of French +forests for the benefit of the Allied Armies. The magnitude of the +operations can be gauged from the fact that the Forestry Directorate +grew to 425 officers and 11,000 of other ranks, and employed in addition +about 6,000 prisoners of war. But perhaps the public, with Whitehall +departments in its mind's eye, may object that employment figures are no +sound indication of work accomplished. But the production figures admit +of no cavil. From November, 1917, to November, 1918, the Forestry +Department produced from French forests 2,065,074 tons of timber. This +was four-fifths of the total needs of the Army. Reference will be found +in a subsequent chapter to our shortage of barbed wire in the Winter and +Spring of 1918. Forestry did a great deal to fill the gap, producing +90,000 tons of defensive pickets between February and May, 1918. + +[Illustration: AT FORESTRY H. Q., THE KING AND A MASCOT] + +In addition to its productive work Forestry was a valuable Directorate +in the teaching of economy in forest exploitation. If the lessons it +inculcated are not wasted, British forestry should benefit greatly in +the future. + + * * * * * + +Salvage, Agriculture, and Forestry were the three chief "Economy +Directorates" of G.H.Q.; and if their spirit can be carried back into +civil life by the demobilised soldier it will prove of real value in +making up for the economic wastage of the war, vast as that has been. I +wonder if those people who are celebrating peace with a long-drawn-out +carnival of slackness and extravagance recognise as clearly as we were +made to do at G.H.Q. in 1918 the extent to which the world is short of +everything! Of course it is difficult for those who are not accustomed +to give close attention to the problems of production to appreciate how +deeply a world war of four years' duration affects every industry; and +especially so when on one side the war was waged on the principle of +destroying everything that could be got at, whether it was military or +civil property, whether it was an enemy or a neutral possession. +Germany, making a ruthless and unlimited war on "sink without trace" +lines, forced practically the whole world to band against her in +self-defence; and over practically the whole world labour and capital +were largely withdrawn from production for purposes of defence. + +In the days when the builders of Jerusalem worked with the trowel in one +hand and the sword in the other, it may be concluded that progress was +slow. For years a great deal of the world had the rifle in one hand and +the gas mask in the other, figuratively or literally. It could do little +in the way of normal production, because its chief energies were taken +up with defence. + +In regard to any industry, trace step by step the effect of a war such +as this war. The first and most palpable loss is that of the labour +directly withdrawn for armies and navies. That would be serious enough +if it were the sole loss. But it was only one of many losses. A modern +industry depends as much almost on capital as on labour. Capital was +withdrawn from production and devoted to destruction at an appalling +rate. That meant that industry was starved of machinery, of +communications, of nutriment generally. Like a human body deprived of +proper nourishment, it began to suffer from debility. Every neglect to +replace machinery, to repair roads or to open up necessary new roads, +every draft, too, made on the administrative staff, is just as much a +weakening of an industry as the direct loss of hand workers. A healthy +industry should be able to withstand for some time these losses, just as +a healthy human body should be able to withstand some period of +privation and even of actual starvation. But there is a limit to the +power of endurance in both cases. It is quite clear that in many world +industries (and most particularly in those industries which are +connected with the great staples of human comfort, the food industries, +the clothing industries, the transport industries) that limit was +reached long before the war was over, and the world began to suffer from +a constitutional enfeeblement of its powers of production; something +more serious than the temporary interruption of production, something +which makes now a restoration of prosperity difficult and tedious. + +All this is so true as to be truism. But it does not seem to be so +clearly recognised by the people who stayed at home as by the people who +went to war. Perhaps as the returned soldier makes his influence felt +more strongly he will have his value in bringing the nation to a sense +of the duty of economy. It was not possible to have two views about the +need of economy when you had to forage the battlefield for old bits of +metal and rags. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE COMFORTS OF THE FORCE--SPIRITUAL AND OTHER. + +The Padres--The semi-religious organisations--E.F.C. Comforts--Studying +the Fighting man--The Great Beer Save. + + +"There has never been an army that had more chaplains, or that needed +them less." That was the verdict of one American observer on the British +Army--a sound one. The British Army was notably well supplied with +chaplains--"padres" as the soldier knows them; but this was not in +answer to a call for spiritual leaders to combat a special degree of +wickedness. Quite the contrary. The Army was a very well-behaved, +sober-minded institution on the whole, as if it recognised the solemnity +of its task and fitted its conduct accordingly. To this fact the French +population can bear witness. The French villagers among whom the British +soldiers have been quartered came to a view of them which was once +eloquently expressed: "They are lions in the trenches and lambs in the +villages." + +So the padre went out for duty with the troops having no task of leading +a forlorn hope against ramping wickedness. His trouble was rather in the +other direction. "I don't see how I can have the 'front' to preach to +these men," said a padre attached to an Artillery Division one day: "I'd +rather they preached to me." + +It really was a difficult task--that of the padre at the Front, and only +the best type of clergyman made a success of it. His attitude to life +had to be manly, his character brave. But the padre who ran risks just +for the sake of running them was often more of a bother than a help. The +best padre's spirit was that of the careful soldier who will face any +danger that comes in the way of duty, but will not go looking for danger +in a spirit of bravado. The padre could make two mistakes. He could take +things too easily and just be a parson available to conduct Divine +service when he was wanted to; or he could try to do too much, to +interfere too much and become a nuisance in the fighting line. The good +padre struck the happy mean. He had the knack of being there when he was +wanted, but he recognised that the Army's first duty was to fight, and +he did not get in the way of its fighting activities. Above all he did +not try to arrange a church parade for the morning after tired troops +from the line had reached rest billets. + +One of the most successful padres in France was known as "the Lost +Sheep." He had a Mess to which he was properly attached and this Mess +was responsible for having a comfortable billet for him. But he was +rarely "At home." He wandered all over the district, picking up a meal +here and there and sleeping wherever he found himself after dinner. At +first it was thought to be fecklessness on his part. As a matter of fact +it was artfulness. Moving about as he did, taking a meal and a bed +anywhere, he got to know everybody and found out who needed him as +padre. + +The actual organisation of the padre service was a little difficult for +the layman to understand. The "Principal Chaplain" with the Forces was a +Presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. J. M. Simms. Under him came all the +padres, including Roman Catholic priests, except the padres of the +Church of England, who had a separate organisation under a Deputy +Chaplain General, Bishop Gwynne, who had been Bishop of Khartoum before +the war. What was the exact reason for the division of authority I could +never quite make out. There was no ill-feeling at all or jealousy +between the various padres. The Principal Chaplain had his headquarters +at Montreuil and was a regular visitor to the Officers' Club. The Deputy +Chaplain General had his headquarters at Paris Plage. + +Of the typical padre it was said that he was responsible for at least +as many sports meetings in rest camps as Divine services, but was a +genuinely spiritual man withal. There was credited to one the aphorism +that the men did so much worshipful work in the trenches that in rest +camps the first thing to be rightly thought of was relaxation. + +G.H.Q. Staff I fear were poor Church-goers. The Commander-in-Chief set a +good example by attending Divine Service almost every Sunday at +Montreuil, but most of the Staff Officers followed the maxim "_laborare +est orare_" and were at their desks on Sunday. The padres understood the +position and there were no reproaches. + +At meals at the Officers' Club there were always a few padres. We were +not expected to make too much concession to "the cloth" in the way of +conversation, and the average padre stood his chaffing with the best of +them. + +I noted one, who had a rather pontifical manner (though he was a +thoroughly good fellow at heart), take a hard hit in a sporting fashion. +The conversation had turned on Lord Roberts' campaign before the war to +try to arouse the British people to a sense of the imminence of the war +and the necessity of preparation. The padre blundered in with: + +"It seems to me that Lord Roberts and his friends must have been +singularly lacking in clearness of argument and persuasiveness seeing +that, knowing the truth as they did yet they were not able to convince +the people." + +"Yes," retorted an officer, "arguing on the same lines, quite a number +of excellent gentlemen seem to have been singularly lacking in clearness +of argument and persuasiveness for nearly 2,000 years, seeing that, +knowing the greatest truth of all, they have not yet been able to +convince the world." + +The padre took it in the right spirit and owned that it is not +necessarily a reflection on a preacher if his hearers will not listen. +Lord Roberts' name was venerated by most officers, and the Army was glad +that when the time came for the good old man to lay down his sword it +was from among old comrades at G.H.Q. that he passed away. + + * * * * * + +In addition to the padre service the British soldier in the field had a +great number of semi-spiritual organisations looking after him. These +followed a sound rule, generally, of providing hot coffee and harmless +recreation as the best missionary work. G.H.Q. recognised the Y.M.C.A., +the Church Army and the Salvation Army as semi-religious agencies, and +all these bodies did excellent work in providing rest huts and reading +and recreation rooms for the troops, and thus keeping them out of +mischief when they had idle times. Satan, when he came roaming round, +found the British Army well dug in, and plenty of wire out. + +To some proposed forms of guarding the welfare of the soldier G.H.Q. had +to refuse sanction. There were many cranks with very curious notions on +this point. Perhaps the most remarkable proposal was that which came +from a lady, the goodness of whose intentions was obvious but who had "a +marked moral strabismus," as a Scots doctor pawkily observed. She wanted +to form an organisation of ladies (and said she could do so) to meet +soldiers at the ports of disembarkation and take them to homes where +would be provided all the comforts of domesticity. I believe that some +such organisation once actually existed in an Eastern country whilst it +was at war. But so far as the B.E.F. was concerned it had to be +discouraged. + +The last line of entrenchments against ennui and discomfort was provided +by that wonderful organisation the Expeditionary Force Canteens. It +provided for officers and men cheap shops, good rest and recreation +centres, and for officers excellent hotels. The officer thus had never +to wander to strange places. From the Expeditionary Force Canteens +during the greater part of the time you could buy cigars, cigarettes, +chocolate, sweets, all kinds of canned goods and so on, duty free, and +at prices far lower than those of the London shops. Whisky and beer +could be bought, too, duty free, under some restrictions. The E.F.C. +was, in short, the great comfort-bringer to the soldier at the front. I +say comfort-bringer, for all necessities were supplied by rations. + +Just consider what Tommy got from the country he was serving: an ample +supply of meat (fresh meat in the main), and bacon and cheese, of bread, +and of biscuit; a fair supply of vegetables, of butter, of jam, of tea, +milk and sugar; a moderate supply of tobacco and cigarettes; a small +ration of rum. I know from my own experience that one could live +excellently on the men's rations. Nothing was actually needed to +supplement them. But comforts, well, they were comforting; and the +E.F.C. by bringing them almost up to the front trenches (as they did) +helped materially to win the war. + +The Expeditionary Force Canteens organisation was formed early in 1915 +for the supply of canteen facilities to the troops in the field. Its +operations commenced in France, but were subsequently extended to all +theatres of war. The undertaking was from its commencement conducted by +Sir Alexander W. Prince and Colonel F. Benson, both of whom +patriotically gave their services. In due course the organisation took +on various other functions, but its canteen business alone made it by +far the biggest shopping concern in the world. The "supplies and +shipping" department of the E.F.C. had for canteens alone an average +annual turnover of approximately 500,000,000 francs. From three to four +thousand lines appeared on the stock sheets, ranging from a packet of +pins to officers' equipment. + +The tonnage handled was enormous, and during the month of November, +1918, it reached nearly twelve thousand tons, representing 320,000 +cases. But the record week was that ending March 16th, 1918, just prior +to the great German offensive, when 3,643 tons of canteen supplies were +landed, and a turnover amounting to 10,586,407 francs was reached. The +tonnage off-loaded for the year 1918 was 121,000 tons, and comprised +over three million packages. + +Here is a table of figures of total sales at canteens and depôts:-- + + Half-year ended Francs. + + June, 1915 3,283,641 + December, 1915 18,207,427 + June, 1916 48,629,071 + December, 1916 104,288,430 + June, 1917 150,786,105 + December, 1917 191,063,817 + June, 1918 223,931,847 + December, 1918 223,247,454 + ----------- + Total to end of December, 1918 963,437,792 + ----------- + +The E.F.C. was in business for the good of the troops, not to make +profits for anyone. All profits that were earned will go back to the +soldiers. But profits were kept to a strict minimum. By a happy decision +prices for the same goods were the same on every Front. You bought a tin +of tobacco at Baghdad for the same price as at Boulogne. Thus the +soldier on the more comfortable nearer-home Fronts was able to feel that +the little percentage of profit charged to him was helping his mate in +Mesopotamia. + +Yet another fine feature of the E.F.C. work was that it served the man +in the front line first and the man at the Base second. In 1917-1918 the +shipping position was so bad that economies had to be effected in every +possible direction. E.F.C. supplies had to suffer with the rest, and the +complaint came that what supplies did come over were largely absorbed at +Base and on Lines of Communication, and the men in the front line got +very little. The Q.M.G. got rid of that complaint very simply. An order +went out that: (1) certain luxuries which were in very short supply +should go only to front area canteens and not at all to the Base; (2) +other goods should go in the proportion of four to front areas and one +to the Base. As a consequence our Montreuil canteens were very poorly +stocked, for G.H.Q. of course did not count as a front area. But the +simple justice of the step was recognised. + +In 1918, the Home Government was forced to the conclusion that the +shipping position was so bad that no more beer could be consigned to the +troops. Beer was a very bulky article and its shipping space must be +saved. G.H.Q. did not like the prospect of stopping the soldiers' beer +just at a time when they had plenty of other troubles. Perhaps G.H.Q. +remembered a much earlier B.E.F. in Flanders in the reign of Henry +VIII., which did very badly until that great War Minister, Cardinal +Wolsey, took the matter of supplies in hand and saw that the Army was +well supplied not only with arrows but with beef and beer. Thereafter +that early B.E.F. retrieved its reputation. It occurred to G.H.Q., +B.E.F., 1918, that whilst beer is a very bulky article, most of the bulk +is water. Accordingly the Q.M.G. took over, in part or in whole, +breweries in our Army areas and arranged to brew beer locally, importing +only from England the malt and the hops, which were not particularly +bulky. + +I do not know whether the decision of the Home Government was in part a +concession to teetotalism and in part only governed by shipping +considerations. If so the teetotallers were disappointed. The British +Army in 1918 continued to number beer among its comforts. + +On the whole ours was the most comforted and comfortable Army in the +Field, as all _liaison_ officers from allied units agreed. The +Americans were as well off in most respects, but being a "dry" Army +interfered somewhat with the comfort of its majority. The average +American was not a teetotaller and did not object to wine and beer or +even an occasional whisky. At his own canteens he had to be. The French +of course always had a wine ration, but in other respects their +"comforts" were not up to our standard. The privilege that was extended +to French _liaison_ officers of dealing at our canteens was very highly +appreciated. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE LABOUR AUXILIARIES. + +The queer ways of the Chinks--How to bury a Chinaman properly--The +Q.M.A.A.C.s and their fine record--Other types of Labour +auxiliaries--The Labour Directorate. + + +The Great War revived, to a degree that few dream of, methods of very +old campaigns, when the hero had his attendant myrmidons and the Spartan +foot soldier his helots. Study a "ration strength" return of the B.E.F., +France, 1918, and discover how the actual fighting men in trench or +gun-pit had to be supported not only by Base soldiers but by British +non-combatant labour companies, by French civilian labour companies, by +Q.M.A.A.C.s, by prisoner-of-war labour companies, by Indian, West +Indian, Fijian, and Chinese labour companies. It was a big business, +this organisation of the labour behind the fighting area. + +Chinese labour was of very notable help to the British Army. At its best +it was the most efficient and hard-working force imaginable. At its +worst it was at least a good source of fun. The Chinaman came over to +the war with very definite ideas of making as good a thing out of it as +possible. "I sell my labour" was his formula in signing the contract, +and, though he probably would not recognise as his own the old British +law formula _caveat emptor_, that was the principle on which he acted. +If the buyer of his labour was fool enough to pay the price and not get +the work that was the buyer's look-out. + +Every Chinese coolie on arrival (as we soon found out) was "put wise" by +the representative of his secret society, his "Tong," that "this is a +good place. You have only to pretend to work." He acted on that, and +unless the people in charge knew how to deal with Chinese, so little was +done as to make the most finished British exponent of "ca-canny" go +green with envy. But, given an officer who knew his business, knew how +to get the Chinese headmen to get the Chinese coolies to work, and the +results were splendid. + +The Chinaman knew that by his contract he was not to suffer war risks, +that he was not supposed to work under shell-fire, and he was soon +sufficiently advanced to interpret an occasional air bombardment as +"shell-fire," and to give it as a reason for demanding more pay. As a +rule he was willing to take risks, if he were paid extra. When sick or +wounded he was a great nuisance, for if a Chinaman died of sickness +whilst in charge of the white man the conclusion was that he had been +done to death. Ordinarily a sick Chinaman demobilised two +workers--himself and some member of his own secret society who had to +accompany him to hospital to see that all was fair. + +The most earnest effort was therefore made to keep the Chinaman from +dying, not only from ordinary motives of humanity, but because as a +corpse he was an even greater nuisance. A British soldier might be +buried in a blanket, but the Chinese dead had to have wooden coffins, +and their graveyards had to be chosen with great care--preferably in a +valley with a stream running through it. All this to satisfy the +spiritual world of the Chinese, which seems to be very exigent in such +matters. The official instructions regarding Chinese graves stated: "The +ideal site to secure repose and drive away evil spirits is on sloping +ground with a stream below, or gully down which water always or +occasionally passes. The grave should not be parallel to the N.S.E. or +W. This is specially important to Chinese Mohammedans. It should be +about four feet deep, with the head towards the hill and the feet +towards the water. A mound of earth about two feet high is piled over +the grave." + +In matters of finance the Chinaman was also a little bothersome. He had +to have his pay right down on the nail; he distrusted any white man's +savings-bank or any system of deferred pay. In time Chinese +savings-banks were instituted, and these solved the difficulty that the +Chinaman would not let the white paymaster keep his money for him, and +if he had it in personal custody gambled it away. + +Keener even than his passion for gambling was the Chinaman's passion for +decoration. Was it in a sense of real fun on his part or was it an +accident that his taste for decoration culminated in the two "grand +passions"--an Australian hat and a Scotsman's kilt? If either of these +came within his reach the Chinaman knew real bliss. One Chinaman who +managed to get hold of both at once, and paraded a Base town in their +joint glory for a full half-hour was the legendary hero of all the +Chinese coolies in France. Of course to be in possession of an +unauthorised article of military equipment was an offence, and the +Chinaman going out in a kilt or an Australian hat, or a general's +red-haloed cap, knew that he was in for severe punishment. That was no +deterrent if his ingenuity could secure, by theft or purchase, such +glory. As often as it did the Chinaman was quite willing to stand the +subsequent racket. One Chinese coolie used to light up a quarter of +Boulogne with a decoration that challenged military discipline +successfully. He had secured one of those brass basins still used in +places as barbers' signs, had fixed this on his ordinary coolie hat, +polished it resplendently, and sported it with Celestial pride. His was +the brassiest hat of any brass hat in France; but the basin was not an +article of military equipment, and authority decided to wink at it. In a +hot sun you had to wink with both eyes. + +Discipline was good with the Chinese coolies if the controlling officers +knew their business and took care to "save face" of the headmen of the +gangs. An officer had to see that the headman did not fool him or +ill-treat the coolies and then to back up the headman always. If the +coolies got to think that the headman was out of favour with the white +boss nothing could be done with them. In matters of prohibitions the +Chinese language showed a strange inadequacy. It was decided to forbid +smoking in labour camps, and a notice "Smoking is Prohibited," was +printed in English, German, and Chinese, to be affixed in the compounds. +After some months a distinguished visitor, who was (or thought he was) +skilled in the Chinese language, pointed out to high authority that the +literal translation of the Chinese notice was "Do not get caught +smoking." The educated Chinese who had drawn up the notice originally +was sent for. He blandly insisted that that was the only way to say +"Smoking is Prohibited," in Chinese, and that the Chinese coolie would +understand nothing else. + +On the whole the Chinaman was a cheerful soul. He organised his own +theatrical companies and enjoyed those interminable Chinese operas which +are familiar to travellers in the East and to visitors to the Chinese +quarters of American or Australian cities. + +The "Chink" gambled as much as the regulations allowed him to. But he +could stand up to a hard day's work with constant cheerfulness, and, +apart from his craze for some prohibited military decoration, contrived +to make his uniform picturesque enough. The barber was an important unit +of every camp, for Chinese head-dressing is a matter of complicated +ritual. + +Taking one consideration with another, Chinese labour in France was a +success. It released many scores of thousands of men for the fighting +line. If the Germans had not thrown in their hand at the time they did, +it is probable that another 100,000 coolies would have been recruited in +China for France, though most other types of coloured labour were being +dispensed with as not being worth while. + +Chinese labour has a way of cropping up in British history. It might +have lost the Mother Country a whole continent of colonies at one time, +when Sir Henry Parkes, a leonine Norfolk peasant who had become Prime +Minister for New South Wales, dared Great Britain to veto Australian +exclusion of Chinese immigrants. Later it loomed, with vast +possibilities of mischief, over South African history. In the Great War +Chinese labour appeared again, but this time with no sinister threat of +trouble, but very helpful in matters of railway-building and +ship-building, and lightening, with a touch of Celestial humour, the +grim business of putting the German in his place. + +The Labour Directorate had control not only of Chinese Labour but of all +other non-combatant working units, except the W.A.A.C.s (or Q.M.A.A.C.s +as they came to be called when, as a reply to base gossip about their +morals, Queen Mary took nominal command of the corps and they became +Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps). Distinctly cruel--though it was +probably not meant to be cruel and was only thoughtlessness--was the +gossip about the W.A.A.C.s. According to some London scandal-mongers a +very large proportion of the Corps qualified for a maternity hospital +almost as soon as they got to France. As a matter of fact the standard +of conduct among them was very high. They represented at least the +average of British womanhood, probably they were ahead of the average, +and it would be a libel on our race to discredit them with a charge of +looseness. + +Nor was it a fact that the W.A.A.C.s were in a position unusually open +to temptation; it was quite the contrary. They were busy. The soldiers +among whom they worked were busy, and it wasn't a case of the Devil +having idle hands at his mercy. Further, the system of supervision was +well thought out and excellently administered. The W.A.A.C.s had better +guardianship than in the average British home. They lived in +settlements, with their own recreation rooms. These settlements were +strictly out of bounds for soldiers. All private houses, cafés, +restaurants, etc., were "out of bounds" to the W.A.A.C.s. Nor could a +W.A.A.C. "walk out" with a soldier in her leisure time except by +permission of her officer. + +At G.H.Q. there were very few W.A.A.C. clerks or telephone orderlies; +but there was a little band of W.A.A.C. waitresses at the Officers' +Club. A better set of girls it would be hard to find, and it is hardly +necessary to say that they were always treated with respect and courtesy +by the officers. A saying at G.H.Q. was that if you wanted to be sent +away suddenly there were two short courses to that undesirable end: one, +to curse your general to his face in public, the other to be caught +winking at a W.A.A.C. G.H.Q. did not wink at the W.A.A.C.s. We had too +much respect for them, too much gratitude for the spirit of +sportsmanship and patriotism that led them to come out to France to lead +a dull and laborious life for our comfort. It is difficult to imagine +what a touch of "England, Home and Beauty" those deft young women gave +after experience of soldier orderlies as waiters. + +From personal knowledge I can only speak of the W.A.A.C.s at G.H.Q. But +I had the best of means of judging their general standard of conduct +throughout France. In case of a lapse from grace a W.A.A.C. was retired +from the Corps, her uniform was withdrawn and she had a grant of £5 to +enable her to buy a civilian costume. There were not many cases of that +£5 being paid. + +But the W.A.A.C.s, as I have said, did not come under the Labour +Directorate but under their own Administrator. Every one else whose job +was to work rather than to fight did, and that made "Labour" an +extraordinarily interesting department. It had under its control: + + (_a_) The Labour Corps, including: + (_i_) Labour Companies. + (_ii_) Divisional Employment Companies. + (_iii_) Area Employment Companies. + (_b_) Canadian Labour Battalions. + (_c_) Middlesex (Alien) Labour Companies. + (_d_) South African Native Labour Corps. + (_e_) Cape coloured Battalion. + (_f_) Egyptian Labour Corps. + (_g_) Chinese Labour Corps. + (_h_) Fijian Labour Detachment. + (_i_) Indian Labour Corps. + (_j_) Non-Combatant Corps. + (_k_) Prisoner of War Companies. + (_l_) French and Belgian Civilian Labour. + +The core of the organisation was British loyal labour, men who were too +old or too decrepit to fight but who "did their bit" behind the lines, +making roads or working at various Army jobs. These were excellent stout +fellows, and as they did not object to taking the risk of death for +their country, they could be, and were, employed in areas of danger. +Another type of British Labour, not so admirable, were the Conscientious +Objectors. A few groups of these were employed in France as burial +parties, etc. Yet another type was known as the Middlesex +Contingent--why that county should have been associated with them I know +not. They were men British-born but of German parentage, whose loyalty +was suspect. They could not be trusted in the army; they were used for +some types of labour, but were not allowed near ammunition dumps or +other points where they might do mischief. + +Second in order of merit came French and Belgian civilian labour, men +too old or decrepit for the fighting line, but willing to work for a +wage. It was a condition of their employment that they should not be +stationed within range of long-distance shell fire, but this condition +was sometimes relaxed at their own wish and with the consent of the +French Government. At first the British Army insured these French +workers against accident, illness, and death through the French State +Insurance Department. Subsequently it was found more economical to +insure them directly. + +German prisoners of war labour was under the Labour Directorate, and in +the organisation of it some very good work was done. Prisoners were very +plentiful from 1916 onwards, and the Labour Directorate, when a new push +was mooted, made its plans to have skeleton prisoners-of-war companies +ready to be filled by the new prisoners as they arrived. I think the +record was in one case when three days after some Germans arrived at our +"cages," they were at work on the roads at the rear of the Army. It was +the law that prisoners of war should not be employed anywhere near the +firing line, and on the British side this law was very strictly +observed. + +My impression of the Germans as road labourers was not very favourable. +They seemed to loaf as much as they could. But some of the German +prisoners of the artisan class did excellent work in our various shops +and factories at Base. In tailoring shops, motor repair shops, etc., +there were many German prisoners who seemed to take a delight in +intelligent industry. German prisoners were very well treated and got on +very well with their guards. + +Now to the various classes of coloured labour. The Chinese I have +already dealt with. They were quite the most satisfactory on the whole. +The Indian labour was willing enough but did not stand the climate so +well. Kaffir labour proved on the whole unsatisfactory, and so did +Egyptian labour. A West Indian contingent did fairly good work. A model +lot were the Fijians, all volunteers (and all Christians, by the way), +and wonderfully good stevedores. Unfortunately there were very few of +them and they did not stand the climate well. One of the Fijian Labour +Corps left his studies at Oxford University to join up. + +The Labour organisation had two main objects: + + (a) To release the fighting soldier for his legitimate work. + + (b) To assist the Services and Departments to carry out their + tasks. + +Nine hours was the normal working day, exclusive of the time occupied +for meals and for going to and from the place of work. If the distance +from the place of parade to the work was more than 1-1/2 miles, the time +taken to march the excess distance was deducted from the hours of work. +For labour of low medical category the normal working day was eight +hours. + +Excellent work was done by the Labour Corps. Its _morale_ was carefully +studied and it was part of the instructions to officers that: + + All ranks should have briefly explained to them the object of the + work, for what, and by whom, it will be used, what purpose it will + serve, and, especially, that all the work is being done for the + prosecution of the war and is not merely a "fatigue." A few minutes + spent in rousing the men's interest in their work is usually time + well spent. A healthy spirit of emulation should be created by + pointing out the quantity of work of any kind which should be done + per day, and the amount done by other and better Companies. Above + all the men must be made to understand that whether they are + working on time, or on task work, no slacking can be allowed. The + men in the fighting line depend on the men of the Labour Corps to + keep them supplied with all they require. + + Our Allies are just as anxious for victory as we are. The French + and the Belgians have suffered more than we have, but, in spite of + it, never complain. Hence they should receive every consideration + at our hands. As we are in their countries we should respect their + customs and wishes as much as we can. In all our relations with any + of our Allies, it is obviously desirable for us to be polite and + courteous in our dealings with them. It must be borne in mind that + every misunderstanding or unpleasantness tends to weaken our + alliance and to help the enemy. + +The Labour Directorate, with many different races to manage, their +religions and food habits to study, had one of the difficult tasks of +the war; and carried it out on the whole very well. The chiefs of the +directorate in my time at G.H.Q. were Colonel (now General) E. G. Wace, +Lieut.-Col. S. G. L. Bradley, and Lieut.-Col. H. A. H. Newington, with +Colonel Fairfax as Adviser, Chinese Labour, and Colonel Pritchard as +Adviser, South African Labour. The staff was about equally divided +between big business men and typical Oxford men. It was always a +pleasure at dinner to sit at the same table with the "Labour" people. +They hunted, or rather dined, in couples as a rule, a leading light of +the commercial world pairing off with one of the "Oxford group." So one +could always reckon on good talk and argument from opposite points of +view. + +At the summit of its strength the Labour Corps mustered 387,000, a great +Army in itself, and it had representatives of almost every European +nationality, Chinese, West Indians, Pacific Islanders, Kaffirs, Zulus, +Burmese, Egyptians, Maltese and almost every Indian race including +Nagas, Pathans, Chins, Manipuris, Bengalis and Santals. And the Labour +Corps' patriotism cost it dear at times; for sometimes it had over a +thousand casualties in a month. + +[Illustration: Photo by Bassano Ltd. + +BRIG-GENERAL E. G. WACE (Controller of Labour)] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +G.H.Q. AND THE "NEW ARMY." + +What G.H.Q. thought of the "Temporaries"--Old prejudices and their +reason--The material of the "New Armies"--Some "New Army" Officers who +did not play the game--The Regular Army Trade Union accepts its +"dilutees." + + +What did G.H.Q., whose view may be taken as the authoritative one, think +in 1918 of what used to be known as "the New Army?" G.H.Q. in 1918 +represented in the main the pick of the old Regular Army. Nearly all its +senior officers were "Regulars." The majority of the junior officers +were "Temporaries." What was the feeling between them after the mutual +knowledge that the years had brought? + +Often I talked this over at dinner, sometimes with men whose opinions I +had known in 1914 and 1915. There was H----, for instance, who, in those +early years of the war, was an unsparing critic of the "New Army" which +was, he used to say then, slovenly and a makeshift sort of show and +could not salute properly, and suffered, and always would suffer, from +the "non-military mind." + +The non-military mind, according to him, was an affliction which was +born in one, like original sin, and could only be exorcised by going to +a Military Academy and becoming a Regular Soldier. I used to be very +meek and long-suffering with him (he was senior to me) and only +occasionally mentioned people like Blake (a civilian whom Cromwell made +a General, and afterwards an Admiral, and a right good General and a +right better Admiral he was) or non-militarily-minded men like Botha and +Smuts. + +But to what argument I did venture upon he was impervious. I noted that +fact for him and quoted it as, perhaps, a characteristic of the mind +which was _not_ non-military. And altogether we had some charming +quarrels, as amusing, almost, as those of old men in their clubs, who if +they could not bicker could not digest their dinners, and then where +would they be? + +Now H---- takes it all back. He is at last convinced that the New Army +is all right. Of course it is. Why should it not be? Is not the British +Empire all right? And is not the New Army a sort of Representative +Assembly of the British Empire? + +G.H.Q. in 1918 saw clearly enough that never before in the history of +any Empire was such splendid raw material for an Army gathered together +as in Great Britain in 1914-1918. There were things to offend dainty +tastes in the recruiting campaign of which the New Armies were the +harvest. But nothing can spoil the value of the result, that many +hundreds of thousands of the best men who ever served in an Army joined +the colours. + +Judge the New Army by the standard of the "Regulars." + +The soldiers of the first Expeditionary Force (the "Regulars," the men +who, despite the booming of certain special units, did the greater part +of the heroic work of Lord French's command up to Loos) have proved +themselves so nobly that it is possible to say now, without fear of +offence, that if they had been judged as individuals before they joined +the Army, they might not have been held to represent the best average of +the British people. There is nothing ungracious in saying this now, when +even the furious and blinded foe is compelled to admit their excellent +virtue. The men of the old Regular Army themselves would admit almost +unanimously that it was the Army that made them, and that they +occasionally took the King's shilling for lack of prospect of another +shilling. The people of England must confess, on their part, that they +rather boasted of "not being a military nation" and were content with an +army system which did not seek to levy fairly upon the average manhood +of the nation but trusted chiefly to the patriotism and instinct for +rule of an officer class. + +The material of the ranks was not bad material, nor even poor material. +The British blood is a good brew. For it has tapped the most adventurous +and hardiest veins of the Celt, the Anglo-Saxon, the Scandinavian, and +the Norman; and this British blood learned by some subtle alchemy to +draw always fresh savour and wholesomeness from the girdling sea. Put +out of consideration a few criminal degenerates, and the mentally +emasculated politicians who used to preach the gospel of no nationalism, +and no British stock is actually bad stock, as can be seen from the +superb young nations that have sprung, partly from its lees, in the +Dominions. + +But the raw material of the New Armies represented a great improvement +on the raw material from which was built up the old army. Other things +being equal, therefore, the New Armies could be expected to beat the +Expeditionary Force. Other things, unfortunately, were not equal, such +as officers' education and time of training. But in all the +circumstances the New Armies, after some blooding, might be expected to +attain, and actually did attain, the high standard set in the field by +the British Regular. + +The material of the New Armies was such as no recruiting sergeant in +1913 could have hoped to secure. In a fairly typical batch of recruits +which I had to take over one day were engine-fitters, brass finishers, +coal miners, agricultural labourers, gamekeepers, two foremen, one +compositor, one valet, one pugilist (a champion), one stud groom, one +cycle mechanic, one clerk. The wages of these men before they joined was +high, and only two out of thirty-eight had been of the "usually +unemployed" class. Among these men, accustomed to the discipline of the +workshop, many of them with experience as gangers or foremen, possible +non-commissioned officers were sprinkled thickly. I have seen batches of +recruits for the old army just when they joined, and they looked usually +rather forlorn--men accustomed to be unemployed, men at a loose end, +disappointed men, with just a sprinkling of eager men taking to the +soldier's life for the love of it. Only after three months of the +wholesome life, the wholesome food, the kindly discipline of the Army, +would they fairly compare in physique, manhood, and intelligence with +the recruits of the New Armies. + +A well-marked stream coming to join the flood of New Army recruits was +that of British men from overseas. The British blood is strangely +responsive to the magic of the seas. Send a careless young Englishman +abroad to Australia, South Africa, or to some foreign land such as China +or the Argentine, and the salt air of the seas as he traverses them +seems to set tingling in his blood a new keenness of Imperial pride. His +outlook comes closer to that of the Elizabethan Englishman. Perhaps it +is from the first actual consciousness of what it means to be one of a +nation which is mistress of the seas. Perhaps one must seek deeper for a +more transcendental explanation, finding it in something analogous to +the Greek myth of the giant who renewed his strength whenever he touched +Mother Earth. + +Let the reason be what it may, the fact is clear enough. Of British men +abroad--I speak now of British born, not of those born citizens of the +Dominions--one can dare the guess that ninety-nine out of a hundred +turned their thoughts at once to the joy of service on the outbreak of +this war. + +In a city of China I know there were 18 young Englishmen in various +commercial houses. Of them 17 came away home to the war. In most cases +it meant abandoning their positions and all their future prospects. +Money was scarce, and the little band travelled steerage. To realise how +great a sacrifice that was, one must know the tropics and the disgusts +of having coolies for fellow-travellers. From the Argentine, from Canada +and the United States, from New Zealand and Australia, the English +streamed home to serve. From such a place as the Argentine there was +almost a stampede of British men of fighting age. + +Starting with a big handicap of quality in their favour, the men of the +New Armies very soon found that it was all necessary if, within the +much briefer time allowed them to become fit for the fighting line, they +were to succeed in keeping level with the soldiers who would be their +comrades. The recruits of the old Regular Army before the war came into +an organisation which was officered, from brigade generals down to +junior subalterns, by specialists. Officers were drawn mostly from a +class with a tradition of rule, and were given a very close training. +Those who came in as officers from circles which had not that tradition +were in a minority, and during their course of training learned to +conform to the pattern set. Very much of the success of the British Army +has been due to the qualities of courage, coolness, and _noblesse +oblige_ of the officers. As a class they gave the best of leads--a far +better lead than did the generally domineering, sometimes brutal, German +officers. The recruits to the New Armies did not have the advantage of +coming to an organisation fully officered by men with this tradition of +command and technical knowledge of their work. They had to rely for +officers on material which was slightly poorer on the average. + +The officers of the New Armies came from five sources:-- + + 1. A few officers spared from units at the Front and devoting + themselves to the dull but glorious duty of helping on the new men. + These were usually first class. + + 2. "Dug-outs." A "dug-out" is not a form of entrenchment or shelter + but an officer who, having completed, as he thought, his soldier's + work, volunteered back to service in the New Army. Some of the + dug-outs were up to the standard of the Regular Army and, having + kept abreast of modern military progress, were able to "take post" + from the outset. Other dug-outs were more or less behind-hand with + modern military science. A few were frankly deplorable. But the + "dug-out" in the majority of cases made an excellent officer after + a little schooling (sometimes without). Lots of him were at G.H.Q. + Sometimes he proved valuable only for the preliminary work of + regimental organisation, and was then remorselessly passed over + when his unit was finally put into shape for the Front. He + bombarded the War Office with furious protests, then took up the + licking into shape of another raw unit. + + 3. Promoted non-commissioned officers from the Regular Force, + nearly always proficient in their technical work, and in the + majority of cases with also a sound instinct of leadership. + + 4. Recruited officers from the Universities and the public schools. + Almost invariably they had a sense of leadership. They had learned + a tradition of rule. In most cases they soon learned the technical + part of their work. + + 5. Recruited officers from the bulk of the community: in many cases + very good; sometimes just passing muster; in a few cases distinctly + poor. The necessity of a weeding-out was soon recognised. + +Summing up in regard to the officers of the New Armies it has to be +admitted that they came below the standard of the Expeditionary Force, +but not much below the standard: and that they got to the standard of +the Territorials. + +Put to the test of getting a post at G.H.Q., which was supposed to be +the crowning test of efficiency, the New Army Officers did not do badly. +I made a rough poll one night at the club dinner. More than half the +officers present were "New Army" men. In what may be called "specialist" +branches New Army men predominated. + +The very wide sweep of the net which gathered in recruits gave the New +Armies a very varied stock of knowledgeable men to draw upon. The ideal +army officer should be, besides a gentleman and a skilled tactician, a +good horse-master, a good house-keeper, and a clever mechanician, able +to train men, to repair a telephone, a saddle, a cooking-pot or a wagon. +No one man can have all that knowledge in perfection, but with the New +Armies it was possible to get within a unit men trained in civil life +to every form of skill wanted. A regiment, with average luck, would have +recruits from the most varied industries and trades, and the picked +specialists in time got to "staff jobs" as a rule. + + * * * * * + +The "Regular" in 1914 and early 1915 was, I suppose, pretty generally +convinced that there was not much hope in the "Temporary." Especially +was this conviction firm in the mind of the very junior Regular. The +"Shop" boy, the young second lieutenant just from Woolwich, had a +blighting scorn for the "Temporary," whom he called a "Kitchener" and +often affected to regard as not an officer at all but some sort of +stranger whom you had to admit to Mess and tolerate in uniform because +authority said so, but who obviously was not a "pukka" military man, for +he could not talk about his "year" or exchange stories about wonderful +"rags." The average senior Regular probably thought very much the same +sort of thing, but, having cut his wisdom teeth, did not allow it to +show so palpably. + +There was a certain amount of justification for this feeling, for the +advent of the huge number of "New" officers made a vast change in the +social conditions of the Army. It soon became obviously necessary that +the Temporary "Pip-Squeak" should come under a severely motherly +eye--that of the War Office and of various private philanthropic +agencies who would have us all dull and good (and if we cannot be both +we can be the one at least). That eye then also glared upon the +Temporary lieutenant and other Temporary officers of more exalted grade, +and also, to their intense disgust, on permanent officers, who professed +to understand why the "Temporary" should be the victim of sumptuary +regulation, but not the "pukka commission" man. All these officers +agreed that it was the wickedness of the Temporary Second Lieutenant +(otherwise Mr. Pip-Squeak) that had caused all the trouble, and could +not understand why authority did not recognise this view and make their +new rules apply only to the most junior officers. But the rain of rules +fell on the just and the unjust alike, and some of the just were wroth. + +I could sympathise a good deal, even if I laughed a good deal more, at +the officer who found himself "treated like a child," as he put it. The +dignity of the position of a British officer in the old Regular Army +_qua_ officer was remarkable. His officer's rank gave him the confidence +of his banker, of his tradesmen, of society generally. To see a British +officer in uniform with doubtful company or under doubtful circumstances +was almost unknown. The tradition of the officer clan was jealously +guarded by the system of training. When at last, having got his +commission, Mr. Regular Pip-Squeak reported to his regiment in the old +days he found himself still very much in leading strings. Until he had +won six months' standing his safest attitude, even in Mess, was that of +"don't speak unless you are spoken to." Justice he could expect from his +brother officers, and sympathy too, but the sympathy was tempered by +severe snubbings to restrain any tendencies to effervescence. Above all +things, he was trained to respect his uniform; and as he had generally +the right to wear mufti when off duty, this high respect was more easy +than in war time, when uniform had to be almost constantly worn. + +With the first recruiting of the New Armies, commissions were freely +issued to men with no training, and in some few cases with no manners. +For a little while a bewildered public did not appreciate the change, +and bankers, tradesmen, hosts, had some unhappy experiences. But what +may be called the "commercial" aspect of the question was soon put +right. Officers' rank ceased to give credit rights. Socially, the +readjustment was far less easy. The War Office was at last compelled to +assist that process of readjustment with various restrictive orders. + +"We have been asking for it," commented one officer grimly when some +particularly repressive regulations were published. And without a doubt +we had been asking for it--that is to say the conduct of some officers +had made not merely advisable but necessary a degree of motherly (or +grandmotherly) supervision. Exhortation preceded regulation by many +months. + +Afterwards commissions were only granted after some service or a Cadet +term of training. But the stringent regulations, which offended the +dignity of some "Regulars," remained. It was not that a milk-sop +standard was aimed at. It was not the case that leave was only given to +go out to Mothers' Meetings, Sewing Circles, and High Teas in +Presbyteries. It was recognised that boys will be boys. But there is a +time when parents must be parents; and the War Office was in this case +_in loco parentis_. + + * * * * * + +But all that in 1918 was an old tale and mostly a forgotten tale. At +G.H.Q. there was no scorn at all left for the Temporary who had done his +share of fighting, even when he joined the scarlet-tabbed ranks of the +elect. He was accepted as a brother officer with the fullest cordiality. + +"Very much more interesting show, the Army is now," confessed one +Regular Colonel to me. "Talk in Mess now _is_ talk. You've no idea how +solemn and stuffy a Regular Mess could be, say in India or in a garrison +town." + +There remained a little good-humoured chaff still for the Temporary who +had jumped to a high appointment without any real soldier life at all. +Brigadier-General ----, the eminent expert in ----, who became a General +very suddenly, was reported to go around partly in dreadful, partly in +proud anticipation of a guard turning out for him when he wandered from +G.H.Q. area. + +The chaff was good-humoured. It was never put under the nose of its +object. So it did not do much harm. In truth I was struck by the general +good temper with which the Trade Union of Officers ultimately took its +"dilutees." + +But without a doubt the Officers' Trade Union, or rather the Amalgamated +Society of Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Men of the Regular +Army, was rather inclined to give the cold shoulder to the "dilutees" in +Lord Kitchener's time. These New Army people had not put in their proper +term of apprenticeship, had not paid their Union fees. Should they be +treated as full members of the Society? But that feeling died away as +the blood-bond of a stubborn campaign broadened and stiffened. It could +not even be kept alive by the somewhat silly advertisement in some +quarters of Territorial units and New Army units and Colonial units at +the expense of their Regular brethren. + +[Illustration: THE BOULOGNE GATE From the town] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +G.H.Q. AND THE DOMINION ARMIES. + +Our Parliament at the Club--A discussion of the Dominions, particularly +of Australia--Is the Englishman shy or stand-offish?--How the "Anzacs" +came to be--The Empire after the War. + + +It was quite a little Parliament in its way, the Officers' Club at +Montreuil, and one of its pet subjects of discussion was the Dominion +soldier and the effect that the campaign would have on British Imperial +relations. The talk covered a wide field and was sprinkled with +anecdotes; it came up many evenings out of all sorts of incidents. + +"The Dominion men, many of them, are too touchy," says an officer who +has come back from a _liaison_ visit. "A Canadian officer--the talk +arising out of I do not know what incident--complained to me to-day: +'The Canadians do not seem to take on with the English.' 'Well, the +Canadians have a very taking way with them at the Front,' I replied, +hoping the allusion to Vimy Ridge would soothe him. But it didn't. I +hear from the Australians, too, the same complaint--that the English +people 'do not like them.'" + +"What greedy young men they are," comments another. "What more do they +want than the abject Anzac-worship and Canadian-worship among the +British people? If anything ever went to the heart of the old Mother +Country and dimmed her spectacles for her, it was the way in which the +colonial troops came into the fighting line." + +A Dominion officer at the table hazards that the British do seem +"stand-offish" until you know them. + +A British officer explains that the English are a shy people and a +people with a high ideal of personal liberty and individualism; that the +Englishman loves a corner seat in a train not so much because it is more +comfortable but because it leaves his shyness, and his desire to keep +himself to himself, safe on one side; that he does not like to be +bothered, that he is very shy from the fear of bothering other people. +"Those cold English passing you awkwardly by, my huffy Australians or +Canadians, are very proud of you, and they do not go up to shake you by +the hand and say so because they fear you would take it as a liberty." + +A staff officer who did _liaison_ work between Australians and the +British during the first battle of the Somme thinks that one of the +results of the Somme was the moulding during its course of a truly +Imperial Army. Forces of differing types went into the cauldron. One +type came out. All did a full share in the offensive, and by what they +taught and by what they learned had their influence in moulding this +"Imperial" Force. He blamed some newspapers for having devoted well +meant but mischievous energy to spoiling the work of this amalgamation. +A good deal of newspaper effort, if it had been taken seriously, he +says, would have fostered among the various troops a spirit of +third-class theatrical jealousy, as if they were a mob of people +competing for public favour and public notice: "Since the issue has been +raised in other quarters, let it be said that between Dominion troops +and British troops there was a fine emulation in skill and courage, and +that no sound judge could give the palm to any one section over another. +There were differences in method of courage and skill, no differences in +degree." + +We all agreed on that; and that the spirit of comradeship between all +was firm. Someone noted as a curious thing that there seemed to be an +understanding that what is known among soldiers as "chipping" should be +dropped in inter-imperial relations. A Durham might explain--with no +real but all apparent seriousness--how lucky it was for the Yorks to +have the Durhams to lean upon; and the Yorks would respond in kind. In +the next trenches a New-South-Waler might, with a vigour that concealed +well the want of earnestness in his _blague_, explain the hopelessness +of the Victorians. But between British, Canadian and Australian this +"chipping" was dropped. They were good comrades, but felt that their +mutual intimacy had not yet grown to a stage which allowed of "ragging" +or "chipping." + + * * * * * + +Officers' Club G.H.Q. was inexhaustibly interested in the "Anzacs." They +were frequently under discussion. There was far more talk of them than +of their fellow colonials, the Canadians. They seemed to have more +dramatic interest. Their rakish hats challenged notice, and their rakish +actions. + +Almost every day there was some fresh yarn of the Anzacs, a yarn of some +fine feat told admiringly, a yarn of some classic bit of impudence told +tolerantly. One tells a tale of the Anzacs' curious ideas of discipline. +Another caps this with the reminder that the Australian corps has the +best Salvage Record in the Army--that is to say is the most industrious +in rag-picking, shell-case gathering, waste-paper collecting, and so on. + +"I don't wonder," the first speaker retorts. "They're always after +records. They'd go over and raid the Boche trenches for Salvage sooner +than play second fiddle." + +"They did marvels saving the French harvest this year under shell-fire." + +"Yes, they are all right if you keep them busy. But they are the very +devil in rest camp. Now in Cairo----" + +But the table refuses to hear the story of Cairo again, because it is +not a very pleasant story. + +The conclusion I came to is that the British officer had really a very +soft spot in his heart for the "wild Colonial boys"--Canadians and +Australians. I was always being appealed to, as knowing Australia, to +"explain" the Anzac, which I did at great length on various occasions, +and here is the substance of it all: + +The Anzac striding--or limping--along with rakish hat and challenging +glance, for the first time brought Australasia actually home to the +Mother Country. These Australasians, the men of the Bush, were as +remarkable, as significant almost, as the Dacians in the army of another +Imperial nation two thousand years ago. Easily can they be picked out. +They walk the streets with a slightly obvious swagger. When they are +awed a little, it is a point of honour not to show it. When they are +critical a little, it peeps out. Two by two, they keep one another in +countenance and are fairly comfortable. Catch one alone and you may see +in his eyes a hunger for a mate, a need for some other Anzac. For all +his _bravura_ air, the Anzac has no great self-confidence; and he has a +child's shy fear of making himself ridiculous by a false step. The same +fear makes him difficult to know. He will often set up, as a protective +barrier against a real knowledge of him, a stubborn taciturnity, or a +garrulous flow of what Australasians call "skite" and Londoners call +"swank." + +In pre-war days an Australian in England might have felt himself a +little of the barbarian in so smooth a comity, where people loved +moderately and hated very moderately; walked always by paths; were +somewhat ashamed of their own merits and suavely tolerant of others' +demerits; and were nervous of allowing patriotism to become infected +with the sin of pride. But England at war understood them better--the +Anzacs, the young of the British. The young of the British, not of the +English only, though that is the master element of the breed. The Anzac +is a close mixture of English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh colonists, with +practically no foreign taint. + +There is, however, a wild strain in the mixture. One of the first great +tasks of Australasia was to take the merino sheep of Spain and make a +new sheep of it--a task brilliantly carried out. A concurrent task was +to take black sheep from the British Isles and make good white stock out +of them. The success in this was just as complete. The "rebels" of the +Mother Country--Scottish crofters, Irish agrarians, English Chartists +and poachers--mostly needed only full elbow room to become useful men. +Even for the Micawbers a land of lots of room was regenerative. + +Was it Charles Lamb's quip that the early population of the British +Colonies should be good "because it was sent out by the best judges?" +That was a truth spoken in jest. The first wild strain was of notable +value to a new nation in the making. It came to Australasia not only +from the original settlers but also from the rushes to the goldfields. +And--note here the first sign that the Anzac people were to be dominated +by the British spirit and were to keep the law even while they forgot +conventions--there was never a Judge Lynch in an Australasian mining +camp. The King's writ and Trial by Jury stood always. + +The Anzac started thus with good blood. To carry a study of the type to +the next stage, to note how the breed was influenced by environment, it +is necessary at the outset to put away the idea that the Australasian +people are engaged, to the exclusion of all other interests, in the task +of subduing the wildnesses of their continent. They have done, continue +to do, their pioneer work well, but have always kept some time for the +arts and humanities. To ignore that fact is, I think, a common mistake, +even in the days when every European opera-house of note had heard an +Australasian singer or musician, every European salon had shown +Australian pictures, and there was even a tiny representation of +Australian Art in pre-war Montreuil. + +"Does anybody in Australia then have time to read Greek?" a +schoolmaster's wife in England asked once with surprise. + +She was answered with another question: "Who is the great Greek scholar +of the day?" + +"Professor Gilbert Murray." + +"Well, he is an Australian." + +It was a specious argument, for one swallow does not make a summer. But +the truth--that Australasia produces at a high rate mental as well as +physical energy--could have been proved categorically. + +The Australian is not only a pioneer wrestling with the wilderness. He +is a creature of restless mental energy, keenly (perhaps with something +of a spirit of vanity) eager to keep in the current of world-thought, +following closely not only his own politics but also British and +international politics; a good patron of the arts; a fertile producer +and exporter of poetasters, minor philosophers, scientists, writers, and +artists. There is nothing that the Anzac, nationally, resents more than +to be regarded as a mere grower of wool and wheat, a hewer of wood and +digger of minerals. He aspires to share in all the things of life, to +have ranches and cathedrals, books and sheep. Above all, perhaps, he has +a passion for _la haute politique_. + +All this was in the blood. The "wild strain" was not only of men who +found in the old country a physical environment too narrow. It was +partly of men who desired a wider mental horizon. Some very strange +minor elements would show out in a detailed analysis of early +Australasian immigration--disciples of Fourier who gave up great +possessions in England to seek an idealistic Communism in the Antipodes: +recluse bookworms who thought they could coil closer to their volumes in +primitive solitudes. But one element was strong--the political and +economic doctrinaire; and the conditions of the new country encouraged +the growth of this element particularly, so that Australia soon won +quite a fame for political inventions (_e.g._, the "Australian Ballot" +and the "Torrens Land Title"). But the general growth of what may be +termed a "thinking" class was encouraged by the very isolation which, it +would seem at first thought, should have an opposite effect. Whilst +other young countries lost to older and greater centres of population +their young ambitious men, Australasia's antipodean position preserved +her from the full extent of the drain of that mental law of gravity +which makes the big populations attract the men who aspire to work with +their brains more than with their hands. Australasia will always be +claiming attention not only as a producer of wheat, wool and well-knit +men, but also of ideas. + +The ideas of this young nation of the British, nurtured in the +Australasian environment, would strike the pre-war England of five years +ago as naively reactionary. The Anzac, faced by natural elements which +are inexorably stern to folly, to weakness, to indecision, but which are +generously responsive to capable and dominating energy, had become more +resourceful, more resolute, more cruel, more impatient than his British +cousin. The men who followed the drum of Drake were much akin to the +Australasian of to-day. + +Australian Imperialism, in truth, must have had for some years past a +fussy air to the cooler and calmer minds of England; though the good +sense and good humour of the Mother Country rarely allowed this to be +seen. When New South Wales insisted on lending a hand in the little +Soudan War she was not snubbed. Nor was Victoria, pressing at the same +time a still more unnecessary naval contingent. In the South African War +Australian eagerness to take a part was more than generously recognised, +and when Australia next insisted on giving help also in the suppression +of the Boxer Rising, room was patiently found for her naval contingent. + +About this here is an illustrative story, which is welcomed as "quite +Australian." When the Australian Gunboat "Protector" arrived in Chinese +waters the British admiral went on board to pay his compliments and was +not stinting in praise of Australian military and naval prowess. +Thereupon the Australian band is said to have struck up with a tune from +"The Belle of New York:" "Of course _you_ can never be quite like us." + +It is perhaps a true story; certainly possible. There is a touch of gay +impudence in the Australian character which an ex-Governor confessed he +loved "because it was so young." + +Always one comes back to that word "young." It is the key to an +understanding of the Anzac--youth with its enthusiasms, rashnesses, +faults, shynesses; youth, raw, if you will, but of good breed and high +intentions. + +Australasian life leads to a certain hardness of outlook. Life is +prized, of course, but its loss--either of one's own or of the other +fellow's--is not regarded with any superstitious horror. Certainly it is +not regarded as the greatest evil. To go out with a mate and to come +back without him and under the slightest suspicion of not having taken +the full share of risk and hardship would be counted greater. Living +close up to Nature (who can be very savage with tortures of fire and +thirst and flood), the back-country Anzac--who sets the national +type--must learn to be wary and enduring and sternly true to the duties +of mateship. The Bedouin of tradition suggests the Anzac in his ideals +of mateship and of stoicism. The Anzac follows the same desert school of +chivalry in his love for his horse and dog and his hospitality to the +stranger within his gates. He will share his last water with the animal +he is fond of; and in the back-country the lonely huts of the boundary +riders are left open to any chance caller, with a notice, perhaps, as to +where to find the food stores, and to "put the treacle back where the +ants cannot get to it." It is, of course, a point of honour not to take +except in case of need. + + * * * * * + +An English padre who put in two years in the "Back of Beyond" of +Australia as a "Bush Brother" confesses that his first impression was +that the Anzac of the Bush was cruel and pagan. His last impression was +that the Anzac was generally as fine a Christian as any heaven for human +beings would want. An incident of this parson's "conversion" (he +related) was the entry into a far-back town of a band of five men +carrying another on a stretcher. The six were opal miners with a little +claim far out in the desert. One had been very badly mauled in an +explosion. The others stopped their profitable work at once and set +themselves to carry him in to the nearest township with a hospital The +distance was forty-five miles. On the road some of the party almost +perished of thirst, but the wounded man had his drink always, and always +the bandages on his crushed leg were kept moist in the fierce heat of +the sun. One of the men was asked how they had managed to make this +sacrifice. + +"It was better to use the water that way than to hear the poor blighter +moan." + + * * * * * + +Many a night we speculated to what degree the different Dominion types +will approximate as a result of this war. Certainly when the Dominion +and British troops were in contact tidal currents of knowledge flowed to +and fro which left both the gainers. Points which had been particular +property became common: regarding economy in the use of the +water-bottle, the art of making a bed in a shell-hole, informal methods +of acquiring horses, the best tracks towards the soft side of Ordnance, +the true dignity of salutes, sniping as a sport, the unpatriotism of +recklessness, and other matters. Slang was pooled and trench language +much enriched. In all things the essential kinship of the British race +was disclosed. + +We agree that after the war, the British Empire will have more of a +general likeness. Colonial ideas will have penetrated more strongly into +the Mother Country. British ideas will have permeated the Colonial +restlessness and impatience. What an ideal race the British could be +with a constant coming and going from the Mother's home to the +children's houses; an exchange of good grey wisdom with eager +enthusiasm, the equable spirit of green and cloudy England mingling with +the ardency of the Dominions. + +Finally a Dominion officer sums up:-- + +"I do not think an Empire managed on the old British lines could survive +another great shock. It is charming to be so equable and good-tempered +and to love your enemy as yourself and to do good to those who hate you. +But it brings a nation too close to the fate which overcame the +Peruvians under the Incas (they were a charmingly equable and +good-tempered and confiding race). Yet those who hope for an Empire +managed on Canadian lines, or on Australian lines, leave me cold. I want +good wheat crops and cathedrals, the best of the new and of the old +spirit. And just as the sole real advantages of being rich are that one +can be honest and generous, there would be no use at all in being a +great Empire and yet not feeling strong enough to 'play the game' fairly +and chivalrously. I hate hearing the talk--which is the swing back from +the excess of British tolerance--of a cold-blooded and merciless +efficiency as the ideal of national life. Better to perish than to be a +German Empire trampling on the faces of women and babes to the throne of +power." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +EDUCATING THE ARMY. + +The beginning of an interesting movement--The work of a few +enthusiasts--The unexpected peace--Humours of lectures to the +Army--Books for the Army--The Army Printery. + + +In the last phase of the war G.H.Q. saw a remarkable new development in +Army organisation: the inclusion of civic education as part of the +soldier's Army course. Before this war, of course, there had been Army +schoolmasters, and these in peace time did valuable work in teaching +illiterate soldiers. Cobbett, we know, owed his education to the Army; +so did one of the famous Generals of this war, Sir William Robertson; +and once we had as a visitor and lecturer at G.H.Q. an American +University Professor whose first education had been won as a ranker in +the British Army. + +But the new Education Scheme had a much wider scope than the old Army +schools. The plan in brief was to make civic education a definite and +compulsory part of Army life, so that every man joining the Army should +have a course of humane and technical or professional education. The +plan is now in course of being carried on to successful fruition, and in +the future the Army will be a Continuation School as well as a defence +service. + +This may prove to be one of the most useful results of the war. It was +due to the enthusiasm of a little band of soldiers and civilians, the +leaders of which were Colonel Borden Turner, Major-General +Bonham-Carter, Colonel Lord Gorell and Sir Henry Hadow. + +The Army Educational movement had a small beginning with the +organisation of lectures. After the fighting of 1917 it was felt that +something more than the usual round of cinema shows and the performances +of Divisional theatrical troupes was necessary to help to recreate the +fighting value of the Army, and that what was required was something +more solid and intellectual, something that would raise an interest in +civic subjects quite apart from the war. It was therefore decided to get +as many scholars as possible to come out and give lectures to the men. +During the previous winter the Y.M.C.A. had arranged for a few lecturers +to come out and lecture in back areas, and they had machinery already +existing for looking after them in France. The Y.M.C.A. now again +undertook the work of housing, feeding, and transporting the lecturers +in France, and for all arrangements for getting them to the country. +Major-General Bonham-Carter persuaded some of the Government offices, +viz., Reconstruction, Food Control, Pensions, Labour, Education, to send +out men who could help the movement; and Lieutenant-Colonel (then +Captain) Borden Turner came to G.H.Q. to supervise the details. All +arrangements for lectures were made by the General Staff with the +Y.M.C.A. Lecturers were sent to units in the fighting areas rather than +to the Lines of Communication. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL C. BONHAM CARTER] + +Later on it was decided that we must have an organisation to carry out a +big scheme of general education directly an armistice was declared, so +that the time of the men might be profitably employed while waiting for +demobilisation after the fighting was over. This decision was made in +December, 1917. Major-General Bonham-Carter and Captain Borden Turner +worked out a scheme with this idea, and Sir Henry Hadow, an +educationalist of great renown, gave his assistance. + +Already efforts in this direction had been made in England and in the +Canadian Corps and elsewhere by individuals, to provide facilities for +education and hold classes, and a few voluntary classes were being held +by the Y.M.C.A. There was, however, no organised effort anywhere except +in the Canadian Corps. + +In January, 1918, it was decided to get the scheme started as early as +possible and not wait for the Armistice. But at that time there was a +great shortage of men, and naturally any scheme which demanded new +establishments met with objections. For this reason things moved slowly. +However, a scheme was got ready, waiting for the favourable moment to +arrive. It arrived sooner than was expected. At an historic dinner one +night at Lord Haig's château his personal enthusiasm was aroused, and he +gave orders for the preparation of a scheme for general education +throughout the Army in France with the object (1) of making men better +citizens of the Empire, by widening their outlook and knowledge, (2) of +helping them by preparing them for their return to civil life. + +Lord Haig approved of the scheme that had already been prepared, but it +was put into force slowly, because very few men could be spared from +fighting and Lines of Communication work to fill the establishments +required. But a start was made. The scheme arranged for the work to be +administered by General Staff officers and attached officers in all +Formations, but on the Lines of Communication the Y.M.C.A. carried out +all teaching work as agents of the General Staff. + +In April, 1918, it was realised that the efforts in France would be +greatly hampered if they were not co-ordinated with those in England and +elsewhere. The War Office was therefore urged to undertake this +co-ordinating work. Lord Gorell, who was at that time working under +Major-General Bonham-Carter in the Training Branch at G.H.Q., was +appointed to the War Office for the purpose. + +The Army Education movement had warm sympathy from those at the head of +affairs. The Commander-in-Chief when once it was put before him was +enthusiastic. So was Lord Milner, then Secretary of State for War; and +Sir Travers Clarke, Q.M.G. and Major-General Daunay (Staff Duties) gave +it every support. But it was a movement from below rather than from +above, a movement springing from a widely-spread feeling amongst the +soldiers that they should win some better outlook on life from their +term in the Army. + +If one man more than another should be singled out in this movement, +which really sprang from spontaneous generation, it would be Borden +Turner. He had the crusading spirit and preached Education to every +authority until what was a vague aspiration came to be a concrete fact. +Certainly Borden Turner was a scarcely tolerable friend to many of the +already over-busy officers at G.H.Q. He was always urging them to give +lectures, to take on classes. At this time there was practically no +"Establishment," and the only hope was to get officers to give spare +time to educational work. They had no spare time, but at the +remorseless urging of Borden Turner they stole hours from sleep or from +the Ramparts and gave lectures or took classes. + +Before the Armistice the Organisation of the Education Branch had +progressed to some extent. Lord Gorell had gone to London and found a +sympathetic leader in Major-General Lyndon Bell, the Director of Staff +Duties, War Office, and S.D. 8 was established, having as its chief +officers under Lord Gorell, Sir Henry Hadow, Colonel Sir Theo. Morrison, +Major Basil Williams (the writer of a famous Life of Chatham), and Major +Frank Fox. General Bonham-Carter and Lieutenant-Colonel Borden Turner +remained in France, and the work of the new branch was being established +and co-ordinated with that of the Y.M.C.A. and with the Canadian, +Australian, and New Zealand Army Education schemes when the German +unexpectedly threw in his hand. A feverish rush for demobilisation at +once set in. As a consequence of newspaper agitation the original +demobilisation plans were seriously upset, and one of the worst +sufferers was the Army Education movement. Still an amount of useful +work both on the humane and the technical side was effected. Best of +all, the principle was firmly established that if a nation takes away a +young citizen from civil life it owes it to him that when the time comes +to send him back to civil life it will not be into a blind alley; his +term in the army will be employed to make a sound citizen of him and to +give him training in some vocation. + +[Illustration: LIEUT-COLONEL D. BORDEN TURNER] + +The Army Education organisation set itself to search out teaching talent +in the Army before calling in outside assistance, and it made some +interesting finds. Many a University don was discovered in a very humble +position. A gentleman described as "one of the most learned men in +Europe" was a bombardier in a battery. N.C.O.s and rankers who were +Fellows of famous colleges were common enough. Most of them were drawn +into the Education organisation. + +One of the officers taken by Education from G.H.Q., where he was a staff +captain in the Adjutant General's Branch, was Captain Hansell, who had +been the Prince of Wales' tutor in his student days. Hansell, in +addition to his scholarship, is a sagacious urbane diplomat with a deep +and sympathetic knowledge of French life. He would have been best placed +on the Military Mission to the French Army. But that would have been a +serious loss if it had taken him away from G.H.Q., where his +after-dinner talk cheered the seniors and his artful unobtrusive +tutelage helped the juniors. Captain Hansell took charge of the +Lecturers' Headquarters for Education, and the task must have made a +very heavy demand on his tact. Lecturers of all kinds were being sent +out to France to address the troops, some of them with very vague +notions of what was required of them in the way of kit. One lecturer +vastly pleased his soldier audiences, but imposed a heavy strain on +transport by always appearing on the platform in full evening dress. +Another lecturer went out--in a Flanders winter--with a frock-coat as +his warmest garment, "and it was the thinnest frock-coat in +Christendom," observed a sympathiser. Of course a very great deal of +"roughing it" was the lot of the lecturer going from unit to unit to +troops living under active service conditions. + +Moreover organisation was not perfect at the time. At one period a +steady stream of lecturers was arriving at Lecturers' Headquarters but +none was going out to lecture, because all transport for the time was +absorbed in a particularly heavy phase of demobilisation. The lecturers, +on whose damask periods idleness was as a cankering worm in the bud, got +into a sad state of impatience and were threatening to lecture one +another, or do something else desperate, when the position was saved by +a timely visit to them of the Prince of Wales and his brother, Prince +Albert, who had tea with them, chatted over their work, and convinced +them that they were not out on a fool's errand. Shortly afterwards the +transport situation was relieved, and the lecturers rushed to their +audiences and peace reigned again. But it is dreadful to think of what +might have happened if there had not been the urbane and diplomatic +Captain Hansell smoothing over troubles. A mutiny of lecturers would +have afforded some puzzling problems to the Provost-Marshal. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN H. P. HANSELL] + +Before the Army Education organisation was born a great number of men in +the Army did some good solid reading. The Camps Libraries organisation +in England sent out to every unit parcels of books. Most of these were +of the opiate class, light magazines and light stories intended to +bemuse and not to educate the mind. But a proportion of good books +slipped in and were warmly appreciated by some. + + * * * * * + +The Army itself had a very fecund printing press, but it was devoted +almost solely to the production of books of orders and regulations and +text books. Regimental annuals of a humorous kind existed but were not +encouraged. As a rule they were printed in England, not in France, and +the conditions of censorship--more perhaps than the taste of writers and +readers--confined them as a rule to somewhat feeble japes. + +There were very often mooted proposals for a G.H.Q. Monthly. It might +have drawn on a very distinguished band of writers. But authority +contrived that these proposals should never come to maturity. The +expenditure of time and material was grudged, and G.H.Q. was naturally +very nervous on points of "Intelligence." There are a thousand and one +ways in which military secrets can be given away with quite harmless +intent. An Intelligence General's aphorism on this point ran: "We find +out far more from the stupidity of our enemies than from the cleverness +of our spies." + +It is clear that silence is the one sound policy. If a man says nothing, +nothing can be discovered from him. If he will speak, even if it is only +with the intention of deceiving, he may disclose something. British +diplomacy abroad (which was not such a foolish show as some critics say, +or else how comes it that the British Empire, from the tiny foundation +of these islands, has come to its present greatness?) was always the +despair of the inquisitive Foreign Correspondent, for it never said +anything. An Embassy or Ministry which would tell a lie, especially an +elaborate lie, was far preferable, for from something you may deduce +something; from nothing, nothing. G.H.Q. acted with a sound discretion +in smothering all proposals for a G.H.Q. Monthly. + +The Army did most of its own printing, of maps, orders, forms, and +training books. Maps were done by the R.E. mapping section, other +printing by the Army Printing and Stationery Services under Colonel +Partridge. This was a highly efficient department with printing presses +of the most modern type at Boulogne, Abbéville, and elsewhere. A.P. and +S.S. printed daily General Routine Orders and, as occasion demanded, +poured out in millions Army Forms, posters, pamphlets, and books. Both +the French and Americans used its services. It could print in Chinese +and Arabic as well as in European characters, and some of its +achievements in the way of quick and good printing would do credit to a +big London printing house. + +The Boulogne Printing Press, which was under the care of Major Bourne, +was a particularly up-to-date establishment much praised by the +Americans and the French as well as by our own Army. It put a strain +once, however, on the politeness of the French. The French Mission at +G.H.Q. wanted a book printed giving a record of its organisation. A.P. +and S.S., in the right spirit, did its best to make the book a handsome +one, and designed a special cover with _fleur-de-lys_ decorations. The +French Mission, with tact but with firmness, pointed out that France was +now a Republic and a monarchical symbol could hardly be permitted on an +official publication. It might give rise to a suspicion that the Army +contemplated a _coup d'état_. The printers regretted and tried again. +The second cover design bore the good old Roman Republican device of +the lictors' fasces. But they were shown reversed. The French were +desolated at being so exiguous, but could something else be tried, just +plain type? The printers were determined, however, to give the good +French something to show what an artistic people we English really are, +and made a third effort at a decorated cover. This showed a really +charming design in which the Gallic Cock strutted triumphantly along a +rose-point border. The French were enchanted, so enchanted that they +found reason to have another book, an annexe to the original book, +printed with the same cover. + +American Army publications were normally somewhat more solemn and staid +than our own. Occasionally, however, the American humour broke out, as +in the gas warning leaflet, which had not, perhaps, the sanction of +American G.H.Q. but was widely (and usefully) circulated in the +trenches. It began:-- + + In a Gas Attack + There are only Two Crowds + The Quick and the Dead + Be Quick and get that Gas Mask on! + +After the Armistice, the Printing Services, no longer so much pressed +with other Army work, were able to undertake some purely educational +printing. But by this time demobilisation was sweeping away the classes, +and the best of the opportunity had passed. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT. + +The disappointments of 1916 and 1917--The collapse of Russia--The +Cambrai Battle--The German propaganda--Fears of irresolution at +Home--Reassurances from Home--Effects of the Submarine war--An +economical reorganisation at G.H.Q.--A new Quartermaster General--Good +effects of cheerfulness at Home. + + +The Somme campaign, 1916, had been begun with very high hopes. The main +conception of it was a sound one, to attack the German line at the point +of junction between the French and British forces, the point where, +according to all the accepted principles, the Allied line should have +been weakest but actually was not. That was the only way to bring an +element of the unexpected into a grand attack in those days of long and +laborious artillery preparations. (The Tank did not appear on the scene +until the Battle of the Somme was two months old and did not develop its +usefulness as a substitute for artillery preparation until nearly a year +later). + +For the Somme battle an enormous artillery concentration was made, and +a special "Army of Pursuit" was trained in the rear of our lines to +follow through when the German line had been breached. Then there was a +preliminary bombardment of the German positions from the sea to beyond +the Somme, and, amidst many feint attacks, the British and the French +offensive north and south of the Somme was launched. + +The First Battle of the Somme made the walls of Jericho quake but just +failed to bring them down. The Army of Pursuit was given no chance of +pushing to the Rhine; its energies had to be diverted towards sustaining +the attack. The fighting season closed in 1916 with the Germans still +holding their main defences but convinced, so far as the reasonable +section of their leaders were concerned, that the game was up and that +the best thing to do was to work for a peace on the best terms possible. + +[Illustration: ON THE RAMPARTS] + +Thus 1916 was a somewhat disappointing year; 1917 was even more so. The +fighting season, that year, closed with the Allied cause in a worse +position than in 1916 and with Germany correspondingly encouraged. There +would have been some reasonable excuse if in the winter of 1917-18 tails +drooped at G.H.Q. The weather was particularly vile. Every day the winds +that howled over the bleak hill-top seemed to have come straight from +Russia and Germany, bringing with them a moral as well as a physical +cold. The casualty lists of the Autumn were not cheerful to ponder over; +and it was singularly depressing to hear from Home that in some +political circles those casualty lists were being conned over with the +idea of founding on them a case against the Army. + +Nobody was inclined to try to represent the late Autumn campaign as +altogether satisfactory. But it was felt by the soldiers that "they had +done their durn'dest, angels can do no more;" and that there was not +sufficient appreciation of the fact at Home that with Russia down and +out, France in a very bad way, Italy tottering, the British Army had had +to step into the breach, had had to take a gruelling without being able +to accomplish much more than defence. + +It had seemed in 1916 that the time had arrived for Germany to pay the +penalty. But a triumph not of a military kind came to her rescue. The +German methods of espionage and civil corruption were on the whole as +blundering and as disastrous as her other methods during the Great War. +They helped to alienate practically all the civilised neutral world. But +in Russia--mystic, generous, trusting Russia--they had an unhappy +success. In the Autumn of 1916 this first showed. Roumania at that time +joined in the war against Germany, and this new accession of strength +apparently marked the near end of the war. But Russia mysteriously +collapsed owing to the effects of German corruption. Roumania was left +"in the air," and a large part of her territory was over-run. From this +date, though many of the gallant soldiers of Russia made heroic efforts +to safeguard their country's honour, that great Ally was practically out +of the fight. By the winter of 1917-18 she was quite out. The French had +had grave troubles. The Italians had had to send out an S.O.S. signal. + +We should have been more cheerful if the Cambrai attack, 1917, had had +the full success it deserved. That really was in its conception and +execution a very fine affair. At the time Germany was drawing troops and +guns from the Russian Front and pouring them on to our Front in +wholesale fashion. Both France and Great Britain had had to send Armies +to the help of Italy. Our Battle of Passchendaele was not exactly +flourishing. To undertake a new battle was the last development the +enemy expected of us; and to do what is absolutely unexpected is to do +the big thing in war. The British command collected an Army ostensibly +for Italy, made a great secret assemblage of Tanks, and suddenly +attacked the Germans in the strongest part of their Hindenburg line. +Their line was particularly strong at that point. It comprised three +series of defences each one covered by triple barriers of wire from 50 +to 60 yards deep. A system of dug-outs (constructed with the labour of +Russian prisoners) at a depth of 50 feet below the surface made an +underground city with water and electric light installations, kitchens, +drying-rooms and the like. Above the surface the houses were closely +packed with the earth removed from the excavations, and thus became +great earthworks indestructible by any shell-fire. + +All this the British Third Army, in a surprise attack carried out by the +Tanks and the Infantry, over-ran and captured in a day's attack. So +fierce was the British advance and so feeble the German defence _when +taken by surprise_ that we almost got into Cambrai. If that centre had +been won the German Front in the West would have been deprived of its +central pillar. The German defence, however, rallied in time to avoid +absolute disaster. When the German military mind was given time to think +it could always make a good show, and the _riposte_ to our Cambrai +attack was a good one. We lost most of the fruits of a dramatic _coup_. +It was more than annoying to think that just when we had successfully +solved the problem of a break-through we had not the means, owing to +commitments elsewhere, to push the thrust home. + + * * * * * + +Cambrai was a good deal "boomed" in the English Press at the time on +"popular" lines. But I do not think that the skill of generalship and +organisation that it showed were quite appreciated. The favourite +British pose of being a complete ass, altogether inferior to the "other +fellow," used to be pushed to the extreme point in regard to military +matters. The British had a quaint humility in respect to their military +skill. In a shame-faced kind of way they admitted that their soldiers +were brave; but for examples of military genius they always referred to +the "other fellow." Yet one may be daring enough, perhaps, to say +something on the other side; and to suggest that in the Great War the +German was really surpassed in most points of military skill by the +British. The difference was not always great, but where the difference +was greatest was just in those points of invention, of new tactics and +new strategy, which show the better brain. Heresy it will seem; but the +truth is that from 1914 to 1918 the British military system showed +itself superior to the German in resource and sagacity. Perhaps it would +be better to say the British-French military system, for it is difficult +to separate the achievement of one from the other. + +Consider one by one the main features of the great campaign. The warfare +in the air was its most dramatic feature. Everything of air tactics and +strategy that the German used he copied from the British and French. It +was the British who originated aeroplane attack with incendiary bullets +on captive balloons, aeroplane escort of attacking infantry, aeroplane +sallies at low altitude on enemy trenches, and the various combinations +of observing machines with fighting machines. In the first battle of the +Somme, when the British and French first disclosed their sky tactics, +the German was absolutely driven out of the air. He had then to learn to +copy all our methods; and he originated none of his own. + +Another dramatic feature, the complicated and terribly effective +artillery curtain fire, was evolved by the British-French command. It +was copied by the Germans, who themselves contributed nothing new to +artillery science during the war. Yet another leading feature was the +Tank, the Tank which made its real value first felt at Cambrai. This was +a purely British invention, evolved during this war for the needs of +this war. + + * * * * * + +Our "Winter of discontent" was not made any sweeter by the suspicion +that existed of a possible yielding on the part of the political powers +at Home to German propaganda. This German propaganda took the form of +blazoning the preparations for a sensational Spring offensive in 1918; +it was trumpeted like a Fat Woman at a Fair, and supplemented by an +almost equally strident advertisement of a gigantic defensive. In +addition to preparing a great on-rush in which Calais, Paris, Rome, and +perhaps London were to be captured, the German High Command wished the +world to know that it was also preparing a mighty series of defensive +positions back to the Rhine. Wonderful showmen! They had not only the +most marvellous Fat Woman, but also a miraculous Skeleton Man. And the +prize they wished to win, by bluff if not by fighting, was agreement to +an inconclusive peace. + +The soldiers were not affected much by these tactics. They took solid +comfort from two facts. The first fact was expressed in the homely +proverb "Much cry, little wool." Had the Germans been confident that +they could smash through the steel wall which barred them on the West +from the sea, from the capitals of civilisation, and from the supplies +of raw material for which they were starving, there would have been no +preliminary advertisement. The effort would have been made, and +Germany's enemies would have had to abide by the result. There would not +have been any compunction at the consequent cost in blood. The mere +extravagance of the advertisement of the German plans was proof to the +soldiers at G.H.Q. that those plans were recognised not to have a solid +enough military foundation, and had to be reinforced by showy bluff. + +The second fact which gave solid comfort was that in any comparison at +all of forces the German group was inferior to the West +European-American group. There was not any doubt at G.H.Q. Indeed the +more the Germans protested of what they were going to do in the Spring +of 1918 the more firm was G.H.Q. in believing that the enemy was at last +coming to the end of his resources and was anxious to "bluff" a peace +rather than "show" a weak hand. + +But it was feared that the people at Home might take the other view, and +it had to be admitted that the German put up a very strong bluff. +Perhaps its cleverest form at the time was in the discussion of "peace +terms"--a discussion in which it was presumed that the German would +impose a victorious peace before the summer of 1918. A characteristic +discussion--G.H.Q. kept a close eye on the German press and minutely +examined every German paper published during the war--would begin with +some Prince pointing out the minimum indemnity that Germany should exact +from her foes, and explaining in what form it should be exacted. +Germany's need, it would be pointed out, would be for raw materials, +food, cotton, wool, rubber, tobacco, silk and the like. It was these +that must be supplied to Germany by way of indemnity. They would have to +be supplied not free, but at a price 20 per cent. lower than the current +market price, and the annual value of this discount would only reach +the modest sum of £50,000,000 a year. + +To have had to provide yearly a tribute of any kind to Germany would of +course have taken away the independence of the Allies completely. They +would have been put in the position of admitting a German suzerainty, +and would have become as the oppressed Christian provinces of the old +Turkish Empire. But to provide this tribute of raw material, the +discount on which at 20 per cent. would be £50,000,000 a year, would +have been to engage to send to Germany yearly raw materials of her +choice to the value of £250,000,000. This would have been the first call +on the farms, the mines, the shipping of the Allies, and only after that +call was met would the Allies have been able to begin to supply their +own larders and their own factories. + +That was one direction the German Peace Propaganda took. The idea of it +was, presumably, to strike terror into our hearts, to make us welcome +with something like relief the actual official terms of a peace +negotiation when they came to be promulgated. + +Then someone in Germany would take the other side. Assuming with +absolute cock-sureness that Germany must win the war in the Spring of +1918, this publicist would affect to regret the savage terms of peace +imposed upon Russia. These terms, it was argued, did not represent the +considered wishes of the German people. But in war the wisdom of the +statesmen was pushed aside by the eagerness of the soldiers. The German +politicians were overwhelmed in regard to the Russian peace because the +Russian had allowed things to go too far. But if only the Western Powers +would agree to negotiate for peace _now_, the "reasonable German +politicians" would be able to assert their authority. There would be no +ruthless military conditions such as were imposed upon Russia. Sweetly +and moderately the Germans would frame their terms; but the Powers of +the Entente must "put the war into liquidation at once." Delay would +mean that the "reasonable German politicians" would lose their power to +restrain the military party. + +G.H.Q. remembered the old fable about certain trustful animals being +invited to pay friendly visits to the cave of a beast of prey. One wise +animal noticed that whilst there were many tracks of visitors going into +the cave there were no tracks of visitors coming out. We had noticed +that a free Russia went into negotiation with Germany to conclude a +friendly and reasonable peace on terms of "no annexations and no +indemnities." No free Russia came out. + +But G.H.Q. was honestly alarmed for a time that resolution would be +shaken at Home, and welcomed with joy (as the Germans did with rage), +the firm declarations of the Versailles Council of the Allies and the +unshaken confidence and resolution shown in the speech from the Throne +at the prorogation of the British Parliament. + +As soon as the Home political situation was seen to be clear, G.H.Q. set +about preparing for the "wrath to come" with a good deal of cheerfulness +and with some amusement that the German propaganda should, as a final +kick, make a strong though forlorn effort to revive the old story that +Great Britain contemplated the seizure from France of Calais and the +department of Pas-de-Calais. "Even," said the German Wireless about this +time, "if it is not openly admitted that the English will never +voluntarily evacuate the French port of Calais, which they have +occupied--" etc., etc. + +This lie revived in our Mess between British and French _liaison_ +officers an old topic of humorous conversation. For when this particular +lie was burdening the German Wireless some time before, a British +General was showing to a French General the arrangements of the British +Base at Etaples. He exhibited with pride the great bath houses for the +men, built of concrete and "good for a hundred years." "Ah yes, very +solid--good for a hundred years," said the French General, laughing. +Then they both laughed. + + * * * * * + +Christmas, 1917, was celebrated with the usual British merriment at +G.H.Q., and on New Year's Day everybody's cheerful greeting was "That +this year may see the end of the war." But I think there were few +officers of standing who thought that a peace Christmas was possible in +1918. No one would contemplate the possibility of losing the war, of +stopping on any terms short of a German surrender; but few could see any +possibility of victory near ahead. There were thick clouds all round the +horizon. Russia was finished. Italy was not cheerful. France was +recovering but not yet showing sure signs of emergence from that fit of +depression out of which M. Clemenceau was to pull her--the soul of a +Richelieu in his frail body. + +The worst symptom of all from the point of view of the British Army was +the threat of a shortness of supplies. Just when the collapse of Russia +had allowed the enemy to concentrate his full strength on the Western +Front, the great reservoir of British wealth, which was the main +financial resource of the Alliance, showed signs of not being +inexhaustible. There was a call at the same time for greater preparation +and greater economy. From the beginning of 1918 there were two great +cross-currents of correspondence between G.H.Q. and the Home Government, +one demanding new weapons, new defences, new equipment, the other +demanding rigid economy in steel, in timber, in shipping space, in +food, in oil, in expenditure generally. This was partly due to actual +lack of money and of credit. But in the main it was the result of the +submarine war. + +It was at the end of 1915 that the German Admiralty prepared a +memorandum arguing that if unrestricted submarine war were adopted as a +policy (_i.e._, sinking everything, hostile or neutral, warship or +passenger ship), then Great Britain would be compelled to sue for peace +within six months. The memorandum gave various statistics regarding food +supplies, tonnage, etc., to prove this hypothesis. The memorandum was +forwarded to the Imperial Chancellor, and by him sent to Dr. Helfferich, +Secretary of State for Finance, for a report. Dr. Helfferich reported +adversely. He was not convinced that Great Britain would be brought to +her knees. He feared the effect upon neutral nations of such a policy. + +The German Admiralty persisted in its view. Thereupon the matter was +submitted for report to ten experts representing finance, commerce, +mining, and agriculture. These experts were asked to advise (1) as to +the probable effect upon Great Britain (2) as to the probable effect +upon Germany's relations with neutrals and (3) as to how far the +situation in Germany demanded the employment of such a weapon. + +All these experts agreed that the effect on Great Britain would be to +force her to sue for peace within six months or less. Indeed, Herr +Müller, President of the Dresden Bank, thought that Great Britain would +collapse within three months. All the experts also agreed as to the +third point of reference, arguing that Germany's position was so +difficult that the most desperate measures were necessary to end the +war. Herr Engelhardt, of Mannheim, Councillor of Commerce, thought the +economic position of Germany so bad that a few weeks' delay might render +even ruthless submarine war useless. On the second point, the effect on +relations with neutrals, the experts were divided. Some thought that the +United States would be driven to war, others thought not. In all cases +they did not see a reason against ruthless submarine war in their +possible relations with any neutral. + +But the fateful decision was not taken until February, 1917, when the +destruction of peaceful shipping, whether of enemy or of neutral +countries, was ordered. It did not end the war in six months, nor in +twelve months; but by the beginning of 1918 there were some very serious +difficulties of supply just when the strictly military position demanded +the most generous effort. + +I wonder if those experts who bandy to and fro explanations and +accusations in regard to the German break-through in the Spring of 1918 +ever have looked at the matter from the point of view of supply, of the +supply, say, of one sternly necessary item of defence, wire? At a +careful computation we wanted 12,000 tons of barbed wire in January, +1918, and 10,000 more tons in February, 1918, to give our men a +reasonable chance of holding the line which we knew to be threatened. Of +that total of 22,000 tons we actually got 7,700 tons, _i.e._, 35 per +cent. of what was needed. + +I do not quote this fact to start another quarrel, shuttle-cocking blame +from soldier to politician. I am more than ready to believe that the +people at Home were then doing their best (as, _pace_ all grousers, I +believe they did their best from August, 1914, to November, 1918). But +you cannot spin out wire like you spin out talk, especially barbed wire. +The British soldier can, with his mere flesh and blood, and that gay +courage of his, do wonders in the way of making up for want of material. +But he could not hold up the attacked sector in the Spring of 1918 +against overwhelming odds; and one of the reasons was that he had not +enough wire in front of him. He had not the wire in front of him because +it had not been, _could not be_, supplied. + +How anxious was the task of G.H.Q. at the dawn of 1918 may be +illustrated with these heads of correspondence, in and out. + +To G.H.Q. from Home. + + The greatest economy in steel is urged. + + The position in regard to shipping is serious; the strictest + economy in everything is necessary. + + Lubricants are hard to get. We urge the greatest economy. + + +From G.H.Q. to Home. + + More machine-guns are urgently needed. + + There is a shortage of blankets; there is a shortage of 8,000 + tons of barbed wire. New searchlights are needed; 300,000 box + respirators are needed for the American Forces. + +I could fill many pages with matter of the same sort. The poison of the +submarine war began to have its cumulative effect just when we were +getting the most peremptory reminders that Supply was going to be the +determining factor of the final struggle, that war had become more and +more a matter of striking at the enemy's life by striking at "the means +whereby he lives." Munitions, food, equipment, railways, roads, +ships--these had become the most important factors, and victory would +incline to the Force which could best concentrate the means to maintain +an overwhelming force at some particular point, which could best +develop, conserve, and transport its material. The field for the +strategist had moved more and more from the Front line towards the Base. + +Fortunately, the British Army in France had for its Q.M.G. at this +crisis a man with the courage and the knowledge to carry through a +drastic reorganisation of the Supply and Transport services. +Lieutenant-General Sir Travers Clarke, who took over as Q.M.G., France, +at the end of 1917, was a daring experiment on Lord Haig's part; for he +was a comparative youngster to be put into a post which was then the +most anxious and onerous in the Army, and his actual substantive rank +was that of a major; but he was an acting Major-General with a fine +record in a minor theatre of the war. Lord Haig knew his man well, +though, and, what was just as necessary, knew how to back his man. He +put Sir Travers Clarke in the saddle and kept him there in spite, I have +no doubt, of many thunderous protests from influential quarters, for Sir +Travers Clarke was a ruthless reformer and a stubborn upholder of any +course of action he thought necessary. A character sketch of him that +appeared in the _Morning Post_ in 1919 is worth quoting in part: + +[Illustration: LIEUT-GENERAL SIR TRAVERS CLARKE] + +"'That big young man,' was a leading American officer's term to describe +Sir Travers Clarke after he had met him in France in Conference, and had +not caught his name. British G.H.Q. perhaps only learned to appreciate +the Q.M.G. fully from the comments of foreign officers who came into +touch with him in 1918. The masterful man took his power so quietly, +came to big decisions with such an air of ease, such an absence of +anything dramatic or violent, that it was a little difficult to +understand his full strength. + +"'T.C.'--as often before remarked, the British Army must reduce +everything and everyone to initials--as a regimental officer in the +'Nineties never seemed to get an opening. Nor did his early Staff work +bring him much recognition. But an officer of his to-day, who was a +clerk under him when he was first a Staff Captain, insists that he +always gave the impression of great power in reserve. 'He believed in +the British Army, in hard work, and in himself.' That was the foundation +of the career of a man who, once an opening showed, forged ahead with +marvellous speed to his destiny. + +"It took 'T.C.' ten years to become a major; within the next ten years +he had become Lieutenant-General and Quartermaster-General to the +British Armies in France. One year in that post, a year in which were +crowded all the experiences that a great Army could have, marked him as +a great leader of men and a superb organiser. How much the Allied +victory owes to him a grateful country will not appreciate fully until +not only the British but also the French and American campaigns are +analysed. + +"'T.C.' had the ideal personality for a military leader. You were always +dreadfully afraid of him and sincerely fond of him. No general ever +made sterner demands on his officers and men. If you could not stand up +to a gruelling day's work and come up smiling for the next day's and the +next day's, until the need had passed, you were no use, and you moved on +to some less exacting sphere. But you were working under a worker, and +you found yourself part of a massive machine which was rolling flat all +obstacles. That made it easy. Further, there was the most generous +appreciation of good work and a keen personal sympathy. + +"Sir Travers Clarke has one rule to which he never permitted an +exception: that it is the fighting man who has to be considered first +and last. In France he was quite willing that the Staff should labour to +the extreme point of endurance to take any of the load off the man in +the trenches. He did not like about him men, however clever, who had not +seen fighting. It was the first duty of the Staff, he insisted, to enter +with the completest sympathy into the feelings and the difficulties of +the fighting man. 'Bad Staff work mostly arises from not knowing the +differences between an office and a trench,' was one of his aphorisms." + + * * * * * + +This is not a history of the war; nor a contribution to any of the +numerous war controversies; it is merely a sketch of life at G.H.Q. as +it appeared to a Staff Officer; but I cannot help obtruding a reply to +some current criticisms of Lord Haig: that he was too inclined to stand +by his officers, that he was reluctant to "butcher" a man, and that in +consequence he did not get the highest standard of efficiency. +Faithfulness to his friends and servants was certainly a marked +characteristic of Lord Haig as Commander-in-Chief. He chose his men +cautiously and, I believe, with brilliant insight. Having chosen them he +stood by them faithfully in spite of press or political or service +thunderings, unless he was convinced that they were not equal to their +work. + +It is a characteristic which, even allowing that there was an odd case +of over-indulgence, of giving a man a little too much benefit of the +doubt, worked on the whole for the good. Men do not do their best work +with ropes round their necks; and I believe that a great newspaper +magnate whose motto at first was "Sack, Sack, Sack," very soon found out +that it was a mistake. + +In this particular instance I suppose the Commander-in-Chief had +powerful urging often enough to "butcher" his Q.M.G., who did things of +so disturbing a character. He did not; and the event proved him right, +as it did in practically every one of his great trusts during the war. + + * * * * * + +Reorganisation of Supply and Transport filled the attention of G.H.Q. +during the early months of 1918. Over a curiously wide range of subjects +swept a wave of reform and retrenchment. As I have already told, there +was a definite organisation to collect the salvage of the battlefields, +an organisation which saved millions of money in rags, bottles, +waste-paper, swill, bones and grease as well as in the more obvious +matters of shell-cases and derelict arms and ammunition. An Agricultural +Directorate was set to work to grow potatoes and oats and vegetables and +other food stuffs behind the lines. Rations were judiciously reduced, a +substantial difference being left in favour of the man in the actual +fighting line as compared with the man at the Base. The supply of +certain luxuries at the E.F. canteens was stopped or limited, but it was +provided that the man in the fighting line should suffer less from this +than the man at the Base. Weekly conferences were instituted to discuss +the most economical use of labour, of material and of plant. Every +matter great and small had searching attention, and the British Army +began to be run like an up-to-date competitive business. Some of the +injudicious laughed. They christened the General in charge of Salvage +"O.C. Swills" and "Rags and Bones." They could not "see" a Colonel whose +mission in life was to cut down laundry costs and arrange for the +darning of the men's socks when they came out of the wash. + +But all these things had to do with the winning of the war. It is a fact +that if the lavishness of 1914-15-16-17 had been carried into 1918 we +could not have won the war, because we should have been bankrupt of +material. + +G.H.Q. at the dawn of the Spring of 1918 was very serious in mind, but +not so much so as to fail to get some amusement as well as interest out +of the various new ideas in military administration; and fully confident +now that the people at Home were going to stick it out. In this +connection there was often mentioned with cheerfulness a London +bye-election towards the end of 1917 for an area which had had special +attention from the German air-raids. Some rather expected to see a +candidate come forward from among the little group known as "Pacifists," +who would seek votes on the plea that the best way to stop air-raids +quickly and to get out of the discomforts of the war would be to meet +half-way the proposals of the Germans who were trying for an +inconclusive peace. + +What actually happened was quite different. A candidate came forward +under the banner of the Government, pledged to the Government's +programme of carrying on the war until German militarism was crushed and +Germany made reparation for the ruin she had wrought in Europe. This +candidate had the support of both the old political parties. Against him +there came out another candidate. Did this candidate seek to win votes +by pleading for a friendly consideration of Germany's hypocritical peace +proposals? He did not. From what one could gather of the feeling of the +electorate, if he had done so he would have been ducked in the nearest +pond. No, his appeal was based on the plea that the Government candidate +did not go far enough in hostility to Germany, and that that gentleman +was not fully in favour of carrying to German homes the dastardly +air-war which Germany waged on a civilian population. + +Then a third candidate appeared on the scene. He was not for any +half-hearted policy. His cry to the electors was that neither of the +other two candidates was sufficiently earnest in regard to the war +against Germany. His programme was of one clause only, the necessity of +bombing Germany out of her barbarism. He did not believe that any method +of sweet reasonableness was of any use. A thousand tons of bombs daily +on Berlin, and a ration in proportionate scale on other German towns, +was his idea. + +Women speakers came to take part in the contest. Did they advocate +making concessions to the German desire to sneak away from the +consequences of the crime of 1914? They did not. They were more vigorous +than any of the men speakers in demanding a full measure of reprisal on +Germany. No one throughout the whole contest whispered "peace." + +It was altogether inspiriting. Here was a chance to see what the people +of England, the people who stood behind the Army and the Navy and were +our ultimate supports, felt about the war. We could see that they were +utterly resolute, with not a sign of weariness, nor of fear, nor of +tolerance for a craven peace. Their message was "Fight on, Fight on. +Bring us home a real peace. We will put up with everything the Boche can +do; we will carry on. But no palter, no surrender. Finish the job you +are at." + +The English people terrorised? Not a bit of it. They were only getting +their blood up. And G.H.Q. saw that and was comforted. + +There was also a good deal of solid comfort in the way that London took +the bitter experience of "rations." We never had any food scarcity in +the Army and, going on leave, officer or soldier had a food card that +guaranteed him a good holiday supply. So we were in the best position to +appreciate the cheerful way in which Great Britain took the very thin +gruel of ration times. Every officer coming back from leave expressed +his glowing admiration of civilian patience. + +Those German agents in London who relieved the tedium of the war for the +Allies by reporting to Berlin such "happenings" as the Battle of Oxford +Street and the destruction of whole quarters of London by air attacks, +set out, for the fooling of the German public, some fine accounts of +dismay and discontent caused by food tickets. But as a matter of truth, +London on rations surprised and gratified the most cheerful optimists. +The old city "took her medicine" not only with patience but with an +actual gaiety. + +To sum up: between the close of the fighting season of 1917 and the +beginning of that of 1918, G.H.Q. was at first a little depressed at the +thought that political developments would prevent the Army from seeing +the job through in a satisfactory way; was subsequently reassured as to +the feeling of the civilian population; and thereafter faced the future +with complete confidence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +ENTER THE AMERICANS. + +How the Germans were misled about the Americans--Early American +fighters--The arrivals in May, 1918--American equipment--Our relations +with the Americans and what they thought of us--The Portuguese. + + +There are many claimants for the honour of being the War Winner. When I +was in Italy in February, 1918, I found a very genuine belief there that +the Italians were the genuine war winners; that they brought the +decisive weight to bear. Without denying the very useful effect that +Italian neutrality had in the first stages of the war, and Italian +participation at a later date, I think it would be hard to convince, +say, the French of the soundness of the Italian claim. The British might +be more inclined to agree; for they still keep up the curious pose of +being a poor feckless people who never do anything or know anything. +Another claimant for the pride of first place in the Grand Alliance is +Greece; and I believe that Portugal has some idea of putting in a claim. + +But on the whole, taking all the circumstances into account and +reckoning not war services only but war effect, the actual final blow to +the Germans' hopes was delivered when the United States of America +declared war. It was when Germany made that declaration necessary, in +spite of the sincere wish of the Americans to keep out of the war, that +all hope vanished of Germany securing an arranged peace. From that +moment it was clear that ultimately she would have to take exactly what +was handed out to her at the conclusion of the war. + +It is hard to believe that the German leaders ever seriously believed +the stuff and nonsense that they gave out to comfort their people on the +subject of American participation in the war. But having blundered by +bringing the United States in they had to try to cover up their +blunders. + +German diplomacy was not without successes of a kind in the preparation +and prosecution of the war. If it is the function of diplomacy to plot +murders and strikes and arsons in neutral countries, to bribe Oriental +despots such as those of Turkey and Bulgaria into betraying their +people, German diplomacy had a proud record. But concerning the +sentiments and opinions of honourable communities German diplomacy +showed always an abysmal ignorance. In no respect was this more clear +than in its dealings with the United States of America. + +At first German diplomacy adopted the idea which was embodied in the +German phrase "those idiotic Yankees"--the idea that the United States +was a kind of Wild West Show, whose simpleton rulers could be fooled +without trouble by the intelligent, the super-intelligent, Germans. When +that idea was exploded, the next to take its place was equally +foolish--that anyhow the antagonism of the United States did not matter, +for she would not make war, and if she made war the effort would be so +feeble as not to be worth considering. + +Then when the grim shadow of the great American preparation was already +over the German despotism, and the greatest single white nation of the +world was seen preparing its mighty strength to the full, the German +people were asked to take comfort from yet another delusion, that the +American nation would prove to be a "quitter," that it would be +frightened off the field by the German offensive of the Spring of 1918. +The _Hamburger Echo_ voiced that delusion when it announced: "It is +curious that at this critical moment American war experts are reported +to be planning an inspection trip of the Front. It looks as though +American capitalists were growing nervous. The dollar-republic has +stolen ships which ensure her a great Fleet, but American capital is not +unlimited, hence the liquidation of the war may be contemplated." + +How different the truth about that "inspection trip" which had the +effect, certainly, of impressing the American Staff with the extreme +seriousness of the campaign, but led to the result not of "quitting" but +of brigading the American troops temporarily with those of the Allies. +It was an instance of a sensible sacrifice of national vanity that has +probably no parallel in history--that decision of the Americans to allow +their soldiers to fight under British and French flags while they +learned their business. + +Unhappy German people to have been fed by their leaders with such +delusions! The United States a "quitter"! Had any German read the +history of the 18th and 19th centuries--heard of Washington, of +Hamilton, of Lincoln? If the German had searched back only so far as +1861 he would have found that the nation which he was told might throw +up the sponge at the first hint of hardship and danger, faced a war +which probably, for nerve strain and call for grim resolution, surpassed +even this great war. The United States had then to fight not a foreign +foe but domestic discord. It had to set its teeth through a series of +great military disasters. It had to hold firmly to a forlorn hope, +whilst it was faced by the ever-present prospect of foreign +interference. No nation in modern times has been put to a harsher test +of courage and resolution than the United States in 1861 and the +following year. No nation in history showed a more indomitable courage. +And this was the nation that the German leaders would fain persuade +their people was likely to prove a "quitter!" I ventured to say at the +time that before the German military despotism was through with the war +it would recognise that the reluctance of the United States to enter the +war would be matched by the reluctance of the United States to go out of +the war until its purpose was finally accomplished. + + * * * * * + +To tell the story of the American participation in the war does not come +within the province of this work, but some of the facts can be told of +that most dramatic feature of the last stages of the Great War. + +There was a very elaborate and very successful mystification of the +enemy over the time, the extent, and the equipment of American arrivals +on the Western Front. The American "Intelligence," in co-operation with +our own and the French Intelligence Branches, managed to surround these +matters with so much mystery that some of our own high Staff Officers +never knew the exact position, and strangely over-estimated the strength +of the American Force on the Western Front. There is good reason to +believe that the German High Command was completely deceived and found +its difficulties increased accordingly. + +From almost the first day of the war there were a few individual +Americans fighting for the Allies. In September, 1914, I encountered two +personally with the British Army, and I suppose the actual total number +was some hundreds. Later a great many came over with the Canadian +contingents; and there was also a flying unit, which made a fine +reputation for itself. This began with a small group of Americans in the +Foreign Legion of the French Army. In the spring of 1915 the formation +of an American squadrilla was decided upon. At first the French Minister +of War was not inclined to sanction the proposition, but afterwards +decided that no international law prevented Americans from enlisting +voluntarily, in spite of their country's neutrality. The squadrilla was +to be known as the "Escadrille Américaine," and to be commanded by a +French captain. On November 16th, 1916, Colonel Barès, Chief of the +French Aviation at General Headquarters, decided that the name +"Escadrille Américaine" must be dropped and the official military +number, N124, used in future. The reason given was that Bernstorff had +protested to Washington "that Americans were fighting on the French +Front, that the French _communiqués_ contained the name 'Escadrille +Américaine,' and that these volunteer Americans pushed their brazenness +to the point of having a red Sioux Indian in full war-paint depicted on +their machines." Captain Berthaud, at the Ministry of War, suggested the +adoption of the name "Escadrille de Volontaires," but the name finally +adopted was "Lafayette Escadrille." More than 200 American volunteers +entered the Lafayette Escadrille before America joined in the war. Some +remained in the squadrilla, others were transferred to various French +units, where they frequently distinguished themselves by the brilliance +of their exploits. + +All these troops, however, were strictly unofficial and of course +discountenanced by the American Government. After the American +declaration of war, American help was confined for a long time to labour +units, forestry and railway workers. It was not until May, 1918, that +there was any really considerable American fighting force in France, and +not until June, 1918, that it began to have any weight in the fighting +line, and then only as units brigaded with British and French troops. It +was the usual plan--a plan made possible by the admirable and +business-like lack of false pride among the Americans--to split up their +troops among other troops, allow them thus to be "blooded," and after +experience as platoons, companies, brigades, to retire to their own +training grounds and form "pukka" Divisions of their own. + +By April 25th, 1918, there were 12,700 American troops in our lines in +France, by May 25th 79,000, by June 25th 188,000. Then the Second Army +Corps was formed and absorbed 95,000 men. The May, 1918, programme +provided for the arrival of six American Divisions within the British +zone of operations, and there actually were 108,921 American troops +attached to the British Army at the end of that month. The British Army +took responsibility for the feeding and equipment of these troops. The +system was adopted of assigning to each American Division as it arrived +a British "mother" Division, to see it through its early troubles of +transport, equipment, food and accommodation. The system worked +admirably and there was very little friction in connection with the +settling down of the Americans. Yet the task of adjustment was not easy. +The American troops had to be equipped with almost everything except +uniforms, badges and caps. The things they had were almost as much a +cause of trouble as the things they had not. The American troops had to +be gently separated from huge kits of unnecessary articles at the same +time as they were provided with necessities. + +Judging from the mountainous kits of the American soldiers as they +arrived it was thought that each man carried a roll-top desk, a +typewriter, and a dictagraph in his roll. It was found impossible for +the men to march with their kits, though they were splendid physical +types and full of keenness. I saw one Division disentrain at a station +on Lines of Communication and begin a march to its camp, a distance of +about ten miles. Before half the distance had been covered a great +proportion of the men had had to give up their kits to be stored by the +road side. + +One American camp was formed at Samer near Montreuil; and the town's +name was pronounced near enough to "Sammie" to make it easy to persuade +some of the soldiers that it had been named in their honour. + +The Americans at first had a natural love for their own methods and +their own wonderful kit; but they were very soon convinced of what were +the practical needs of the campaign and came in time to a whole-hearted +admiration of British methods, which was perhaps the finest testimonial +that G.H.Q. could have had. These Americans coming from a great business +country confessed quite frankly that the "effete" Britisher had "got +them all beat" on questions of supply and transport; and they took over +our system in almost every detail. + +Perhaps some of the points that arose will be of interest. The great +underclothing controversy was one of the most amusing. The British Army +had evolved a very practical system of keeping the troops in clean +underclothing without adding to the weight of their kits. A soldier +went up to the trenches or to his unit wearing a clean suit of +underclothes. On the first opportunity, usually within a week, the +soldier went back (on relief if he were an infantry man, on roster if he +were a special unit man) to the Baths which were set up in every +Divisional area. Here he stripped for a hot bath, and whilst he was in +the bath his uniform was cleaned, deprived of any insect population, and +pressed, and his underclothing was taken away to the laundry. He never +saw that underclothing again but drew a new suit, or a clean suit, as he +went out of the baths; and so he marched off spruce and smart. The suit +of underclothing he had left behind was thoroughly disinfected, washed, +repaired if necessary, and went then into the general stock to be issued +again. + +At first the Americans could not see that such a system would work. +Their idea was for every man to carry three suits of underclothing, one +on his body two in his kit. Presumably he was expected to change in the +midst of the ghastly mud of a Flanders trench. Also presumably he was +expected to carry about his dirty suits with him, which showed a curious +degree of trust in human nature. It was objected to the British system +that "all men were not the same size," and in response it was pointed +out that neither were all the suits of underclothing kept in stock at +Divisional Baths, but that with a fair attention to the law of averages +and a reasonable surplus allowance no thin man had to go away with a fat +man's suit and no tall man with a short man's. The British system was +finally adopted and won full American approval. + +Boots caused another difficulty. The British issue was one pair per man; +the American, two, the spare pair being carried in the kit. The +Americans finally agreed that if they could get for their men boots of +British quality (which was conspicuously better than the American +quality) the one pair issue would suffice. + +It would be impossible to praise too highly the common-sense and +civility of the American _liaison_ officers who had to argue out these +points with our officers. They were never unreasonable, and were very +prompt in crediting our officers with politeness and good-will. That +Americans and British can get on very well together this campaign has +proved. I think that in every case where an American and a British +Division were thrown together they parted company with a marked increase +of mutual good-will and respect. + +Optimism was the prevailing fault in the American organisation. They +thought that the fighting was a much simpler matter than it actually +proved to be. They thought a man could and would carry an unduly heavy +pack. They were very optimistic in the matter of accoutrements and were +anxious to use their own accoutrements when they had a barely sufficient +supply for the strength of a unit, and no reserve. They were ultimately +convinced that accoutrements in warfare have a way of disappearing, and +without a strong reserve no item of accoutrement can be kept up. When +there was no reserve of some item, British accoutrements were +substituted. It is a testimony to the quality of British equipment that +the American troops showed a desire to be provided with British articles +in substitution for their own, even when the change was not necessary. +British puttees and British breeches were cases in point. + +The American troops got British rations, except that coffee took the +place of tea. One coffee-grinder per 250 men was provided. Perhaps +civilian England was puzzled over the fact that in 1918 it was +impossible to buy a coffee-grinder in this country. Now they know why. +They had all been bought up for the American troops. In all things +G.H.Q. did its very best for the Americans. They had a fancy for an +increased scale of Machine-Guns; the Machine-Guns were found for them, +though they were a precious and scarce commodity at the time and we +could not give our own Divisions the increased scale. To provide horse +transport for the Americans we stripped our Field Artillery of two +horses out of every ammunition team of six. The general principle was +that if the Americans wanted anything it had to be found somehow and +found in a hurry. Probably we won an undeserved reputation for slickness +in some matters (such as printing Army publications), for it was the +established rule to give American orders priority. + +American _liaison_ officers at G.H.Q. "made good" with the British Staff +very quickly. They had a downright earnestness of manner which was very +engaging. The American Staff seemed to have been chosen strictly for +efficiency reasons and, there being no obstacles of established custom +to overcome, the best men got to the top very quickly. The appointment +of Mr. Frederick Palmer, the famous war correspondent, to a high post on +General Pershing's Intelligence Staff was an example of their way of +doing things. Colonel Palmer as war correspondent had seen much of this +and of many other wars. For his particular post he was an ideal man. But +it would be difficult to imagine him stepping at once into so high a +position in a European Army. + +American rank marks were puzzling to British officers at first. An +American _liaison_ officer obliged me with a mnemonic aid to their +understanding. + +"You just reckon that you are out to rob a hen-roost. Right. You climb +up one bar; that's a lieutenant. You climb up two bars: that's a +captain. When you get up to the chickens, that's the colonel" (the +colonel's badge was an eagle on the shoulder-straps). "Above the chicken +there's the stars" (a star was the badge of a general). + +To the same officer I was indebted for a flattering summing up of +British character. + +"I don't say you British people are over-polite. But you are reliable. +Go into a pow-wow and a British officer may strike you as a bit surly. +But if he says he'll do a thing you can reckon that thing done and no +need to worry. Some other people are very polite; and they say awfully +nicely that they'll do anything and everything you ask; and six months +after you find nothing has been done." + + * * * * * + +The Americans, when they got into action, first as auxiliaries of +British and French Divisions, then in their own Army organisation, were +fine fighters. Their splendid physique made them very deadly in a close +tussle, and they had a business-like efficiency in battle that did not +appeal to the Boche. A favourite American weapon at close quarters was a +shot gun sawn off short at the barrel. It was of fearful effect. The +enemy had the sublime impudence to protest against this weapon as +"contrary to the usages of civilised warfare." This was cool indeed from +the folk who made us familiar with the murder of civil hostages, the +use of civilians as fire-screens, and the employment of poison-gas as +methods of warfare. The Americans answered the impudent protest with +peremptory firmness, and kept the shot gun in use. + +It was stated, too, and generally credited, though this matter did not +come within my personal observation, that the American Divisions in +their sector set up and maintained a law in regard to Machine-Gun fire. +They did not consider it fair war that a machine-gunner in an entrenched +position should keep on firing to the very last moment and then expect +to be allowed to surrender peaceably. + +The Americans played the game, but they did not play it on "soft" lines, +and the enemy soon got a very wholesome respect for them. There was, in +the early stages of the American participation, an evident attempt on +the part of the German Intelligence to encourage an "atrocity" campaign +against the Americans. German atrocities had a way of casting their +shadows before. A usual method was to accuse Germany's foes in advance +of doing what the Germans proposed to undertake themselves. That was the +way in which Germany ushered in her lawless use of prisoners of war in +the firing line, and her enslavement of the civil population of occupied +Belgium and France. When the German Press engaged in "propaganda" work +on the subject of the American forces coming into action, it took the +line of representing the Americans as altogether despicable and +murderous adventurers, who had come into the war to kill Germans without +any reason whatsoever and when taken prisoners wondered "that they were +not shot on the spot, as the French had told them they would be." As one +German paper put it: "To the question why America carries on the war +against Germany they knew no answer. One can feel for our soldiers who +become enraged against this alien hand which fights against us for no +reason. Our men believe the French fight for glory and to wipe out the +stain of 1870, that Britain struggles for mastery on the sea and to +prove which of the two giants is the stronger. But the American! Our +field-greys despise him and do not recognise him as a worthy opponent, +even though he may fight bravely." + +But that sort of talk was soon dropped--as was the suggestion that +American prisoners should get "special treatment" when captured. It was +rather amusing to watch from our Intelligence side the manoeuvres of the +well-drilled German Press on the subject of the Americans. Early in 1918 +there was a general disposition in the German papers to write of the +Americans as tomahawkers and "scalpers" and so on. Then we learned from +our tapping of German field reports that officers commanding German +units complained that this sort of propaganda was having such a bad +effect on their men, that they "got the wind up" as soon as they knew +that Americans were in front of them. As a result a great silence +suddenly fell upon the German papers on this point. + +After the Americans had formed their own Army system we did not hear so +much of them at Montreuil. But they were naturally always in close touch +with G.H.Q., and to the very end the British Administrative services +were able to give a helping hand to the American allies. + + * * * * * + +The Portuguese contingent remained with the British Army to the end, and +it did very well, as might have been expected; for as a race the +Portuguese have a proud record of heroism and knightly adventure. In the +Indies, the South Pacific, and the Americas, Portuguese valour has left +imperishable monuments. The British Empire in particular owes much to +such great sea captains as the Portuguese Vasco di Gama (who discovered +the sea route to India), Torres (who discovered and named Australia), +Magellan, Quiros, and Menezes. + +We heard much amusing gossip at G.H.Q. from the soldiers at the Front, +who, after a critical weighing of the facts, arrived at the conclusion +that the Portuguese were "good sports." That conclusion was not come to +all at once. The British soldier is very conservative, and he was +inclined to be, for some reason or other, critical of his new allies at +first. In time "Tommy" forgave the Portuguese for having names "that +sounded like blooming prayers," which was one of his early reasons for +doubt. Here is one incident that helped to determine a favourable +verdict: + +A forward post held by the Portuguese was subjected to a furious +bombardment late one afternoon by the Germans. After a while a polite +note came down from the Portuguese officer in charge of the sector +informing the British Commander that: "The enemy are heavily bombarding +our position. Accordingly we have evacuated it." + +There was some inclination to criticise; it was not the withdrawal; the +best soldiers on earth have to withdraw sometimes. But the polite little +note with its "accordingly" suggested what it was not intended to +suggest, and what was not the fact at all. However, plans were at once +put in hand for artillery action, preparatory to restoring the position +next morning. But some time after nightfall those plans were put aside +on receipt of another polite little note: + +"The enemy has ceased bombarding our position. Accordingly we have +re-occupied it." + +When the full facts of the incident came out there was a cheer for the +Portuguese. It seems that the officer in charge was a bit of a +tactician and knew his men well. The post he had to hold was very +advanced and poorly fortified. When the enemy began to flood it with +shells he withdrew his garrison to a safe spot that he had selected, and +waited until nightfall. Then, without any artillery preparation, he led +his men forward and, with the bayonet and those deadly little daggers +that the Portuguese soldiers carried, restored the position. + +An earlier incident of the Portuguese co-operation was humorous in +another way. "Tommy" had, of course, found a name for the new arrivals, +a name which was more humorous than respectful. Like all Tommy's +word-coinages it was a good one and spread into common use. High +Authority, fearful that offence would be given, issued an order, a very +portentous order, which noticed with reprobation "the habit which had +grown up" of referring to "our noble allies" as "the ---- ----." The +Order concluded with the usual warning of disciplinary action. It was to +be circulated secretly by word of mouth from officer to officer, but +some unfortunate adjutant circulated it in battalion orders so that all +could read--including the Portuguese. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE GERMAN SPRING OF 1918. + +Was G.H.Q. at fault?--Where we could best afford to lose +ground--Refugees complicate the situation--Stark resolution of the +French--All the Pas-de-Calais to be wrecked if necessary--How our +railways broke down--Amiens does not fall. + + +To affirm that a great German attack was expected in the Spring of 1918, +and that the site of the attack was not altogether unexpected, seems to +imply a very serious criticism of G.H.Q. That being so, why did the +Germans succeed in breaking through and winning such an extent of +territory and coming within a narrow margin of gaining a decisive +advantage? + +The question is natural, especially as one soldier in high command has +stated--or is reported to have stated--that he knew exactly the spot +where the Germans were going to attack. Some day there will be an +exhaustive inquiry into all the circumstances of the Spring of 1918. +Probably as a result it will be found that no serious blame can be +attached in any quarter, but that what happened was the result of a +series of events which were mostly unavoidable. + +For the first time Germany could concentrate her whole strength on this +Front. Yet our strength was at the lowest point it had reached for many +months and, since we had just taken over a new sector of the line, our +defence was thinner on the average than it had ever been since 1915. +Further, we were definitely short of some essential defence material. If +we had strengthened the sector where the chief attack came we should +have had to weaken another sector. Then the Germans would have attacked +that sector. They chose, and chose naturally, the point where our line +was thinnest. If it can be shown that the sector where our line was +thinnest was the sector in which we could best afford to lose ground, it +will have to be admitted that, in the main, G.H.Q. had made the best +dispositions possible with the means at hand. + +A glance at the map of France will show that pretty clearly. Put in a +phrase, the German plan was to push the British Army into the sea. In +the north our line was dangerously close to the sea. Our most northern +port, Dunkirk, was actually under shell-fire and in consequence could be +very little used. A very small gain of territory by the Germans in the +north would have brought Calais and Boulogne under shell-fire. Then our +existence as an Army north of the Somme would have become impossible. We +could not have kept an adequate force there in supplies. In the north +every yard of territory was of the greatest strategic value. As our line +ran south the French coast bulged out. We had more room to manoeuvre +there; loss of ground was not so vital. If the Germans had won on the +line Ypres-Armentières the same depth of territory that they won on the +line Arras-Péronne, we should have had to evacuate all France north of +the Somme. + +In short we took the biggest risk of loss of ground where the loss was +least dangerous to the vital plan of the campaign. In the light of the +man-power available it was probably the best course that could have been +pursued. We knew we had to lose ground, probably a good deal of ground, +and decided to lose it where it mattered least. We had very good ideas +as to where. + +For proof of this look up the representations as to civilian evacuations +which were made by G.H.Q. to the French authorities in February, 1918. +Those representations, by the way, were not given any attention at all +in some cases; at the best only perfunctory attention. The result was +that when the German attack came, civilian refugees added to our +difficulties and anxieties. If the prompt and complete evacuation of all +civilian refugees from threatened areas and from areas close behind the +front line, which were urgently needed for the accommodation of troops, +could have been effected, the Army's tasks would have been much +simplified. But that proved impracticable. Civilians were generally +unwilling to abandon their homes voluntarily. The French authorities +were reluctant to enforce evacuation. A civilian quitting his home +voluntarily was responsible for his own keep. A civilian forced to quit +became a charge on the French Civil Authorities. This naturally led to a +wish that civilians as far as possible should be compelled to quit their +homes by force of circumstances rather than by order of the authorities. + +As far back as February, 1918, pressure was brought to bear on the +French Authorities to agree to defined measures to meet the emergency of +a withdrawal of part of our line, which was then foreseen as a +probability. But it was not found possible to secure prompt assent to +the steps which were necessary. There were all sorts of complications. +For one thing it was feared that to set up the machinery of evacuation +would spread dismay among the French civilians. Another obstacle was the +financial one which I have already mentioned. Yet another was that +created by the status of the miners in threatened areas. These were +mobilised men under French Military Command; their wives and children +were civilians. If their wives and children were evacuated the miners +would not stay. + +Later, arrangements were agreed to between the British Force and the +French Authorities for the systematic evacuation, with their live stock +and supplies, of civilians in threatened areas. But the early +difficulties considerably hampered operations. I mention this not at all +by way of a tilt against the French Authorities, whose reluctance to +make provision for evacuations was natural enough, but to show that +G.H.Q. was not "caught napping," and to illustrate also the difficulties +which an Expeditionary Force operating in a friendly country has to +meet. + +There are, of course, many advantages springing from the fact that the +country in which you are quartered is friendly. But I am not sure that +the disadvantages are not almost as great. In an enemy country you know +at any rate where you are; military safety, military convenience are the +supreme law; and the civilian population have only to be considered to +the degree that the laws of war and the dictates of humanity decide. In +a friendly country, where the old civil government remains in operation, +an Army is hampered at many points. There are various actions which +military convenience prompts but which cannot be taken without the +assent of the civilian authorities; and perhaps cannot be urged with the +weight of the full facts on those civil authorities. This evacuation +difficulty is an instance in point. If G.H.Q. had had its way the +Germans would have won far less material in their advance; and perhaps +their advance would have been stopped at an earlier stage if our +operations had not been hampered to some extent by the crowding of the +road with civilian refugees. + +Still, on the big issues the French were splendid. What, for example, +could have been more heroic than the decision they came to a little +later: that, in case of the German advance continuing, the whole of the +Pas de Calais province was to be destroyed, the harbours of Dunkirk, +Calais and Boulogne wrecked, the dykes and locks destroyed so that the +country would have been generally inundated? + +To some degree defensive inundations were actually carried into effect, +but with fresh water only. The responsibility in the main rested with +the British Army which was holding the threatened territory. The only +saving stipulation made by the French, who thus offered in the cause of +the alliance to give up for half a century the use of one of their +fairest provinces, was that before the sea was let in to devastate the +land, Marshal Foch should give the word. It was on April 12th, 1918, +that the Allied Commander-in-Chief gave orders for defensive inundations +to stop the Germans from getting to the Dunkirk-Calais region; and on +April 13th the Governor of Dunkirk began to put these into effect. There +were two schemes of inundation, one for a modified flooding with fresh +water of certain limited areas; the other for a general flooding, with +sea-water as well as fresh water, of all low-lying areas around Calais +and Dunkirk. + +It is impossible to praise adequately the stark courage that agreed to +this step. It was courage after the antique model, and it showed that +France was willing to make any sacrifice rather than allow the wave of +German barbarism to sweep over civilisation. The effect of letting the +sea in on Pas de Calais and destroying the canal locks and the harbours +would have been to make this great province a desert for two +generations. The effect of allowing it to fall into German hands, with +all its canal and harbour facilities, would have been to give new life +to the submarine war, to make the bombardment and ultimately the +invasion of the English coast possible. + +At one time it seemed almost certain that an evacuation of at least part +of Pas de Calais would have to be carried out; and arrangements were +made in detail: that in any area which was evacuated, either +deliberately or in consequence of direct enemy pressure, the most +thorough destruction should be carried out to deny to the enemy any +stores of material or facilities of transport. The method of every +destruction and the unit responsible for it were arranged in advance. + +The main lines of a policy of destruction were laid down in the event +of:-- + + 1. A withdrawal to the Calais--St. Omer defensive line; + + 2. A withdrawal to the line of the Somme; + + 3. An enemy advance along the line of the Somme, cutting off + Flanders and Pas de Calais from the South. + +Provision was made for the using up or removal of all possible stores; +for the destruction of the remainder; for the destruction of all +railroads, water-ways, signalling systems, factories, etc. Where British +and French troops were operating together in a fighting zone, their +respective responsibilities were delimited. Arrangements were also made, +in case of withdrawal, to clear from certain water-ways all canal craft +which might serve the enemy as bridge material over inundations. + + * * * * * + +Certainly it was not "gay," as the French say, this preparation for +destroying the property of an Ally. But we took comfort from the fact +that after all the position was better than in 1914. Then a German +victory seemed possible. Now in 1918 the only question was what +sacrifices we should yet have to make before achieving victory. In 1914, +after 50 years of intensive preparation, the German had rushed upon an +unsuspecting Europe. He neglected nothing in preparing for victory. He +threw overboard every scruple in order to secure a rapid triumph, +violating the neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg merely because by so +doing he gained a better field of deployment. His objective was Paris, +and, according to authoritative accounts, his plan on reaching Paris was +to divide it up into twelve quarters and burn down a quarter every day +that the French Army delayed to surrender. The terms of surrender were +to include the giving up of the French Fleet and the French ports for +use in an invasion of England. + +The danger at that time was very real. Germany was the only country +adequately armed and organised. The British people had had to sacrifice +in great measure the Regular Army to stay the first German onset. France +was strained to a point which to any other country would have meant +exhaustion. We could recall the preparations that had to be made to meet +the imminent fear of an invasion of the British coast; the desperate +shifts and expedients which had to be adopted in the first stages of the +organisation of the New Armies; the peremptory demands for guns and +shells when there were no factories to make either in anything like the +quantity demanded. That was a time when it needed the highest of moral +courage to remain calm and confident. + +The Spring of 1918 is not a pleasant thing to think about; but it is +hardly endurable, even now in safe retrospection, to think on the +position of Great Britain at home or in the field from October, 1914, to +September, 1915. It was that of an unsuspecting man before whose feet +suddenly a pit of destruction opens. He falls scrambling, struggling +down, and at last reaches a little ledge which gives a momentary safety. +But it is still a desperate task merely to hang on. Far up, remote +almost as a star, shines safety. Below are his friends of civilised +Europe, all worse situated than himself, some at the point of complete +destruction. From above a fierce storm of missiles rains on his head. +From below come piteous appeals for help. To hold on to his little +ledge, to help the friends below, to climb up and throttle the foe +above--he has all these to do and little time to think before he acts. +Hardly endurable, yet necessary to think over, so that the greatness of +the danger into which the world was plunged by German militarism can be +gauged. + +In 1914 an occupation of the French Channel Ports with England almost +entirely unarmed might have been a very serious thing. The serious view +taken of it in Great Britain can be judged from the preparations which +were made to devastate a great area in the South and East of England so +as to give to the Germans only a desert as a foothold. In 1918 if the +Germans had got Pas de Calais they would not have got any ports with +it, and an invading force arriving in England would have met a force at +least equal to it in equipment and war experience. + +So we waited in some confidence for another Marne to follow another +Mons, and smiled a little grimly at the change of tone in Germany. The +Kaiser, cock-a-whoop again, was declaring now for a "strong German +Peace." In one office, side by side with the "situation map" which +showed from day to day the depth of the German advance, there were stuck +up in derision extracts from the most vituperative of the German press. +Here is one from the _Deutsche Zeitung_: + + "Away with all petty whining over an agreement and reconciliation + with the fetish of peace.... Away with the miserable whimpering of + those people who even now would prevent the righteous German hatred + of England and sound German vengeance. The cry of victory and + retaliation rages throughout Germany with renewed passion." + +This from _Germania_: + + "There can be no lasting peace and no long period of quiet in the + world until the presumptuous notion that the Anglo-Saxons are the + chosen people is victorious or defeated. We are determined to + force with the sword the peace which our adversaries did not see + fit to confide to our honest word. We Germans are an incomparably + strong nation." + +These horrible threats remained on the notice-board until long after the +tide of battle turned and the German was in full retreat back to his +lair. + +And we rather liked the story which the German press had to the effect +that a deputation of German business men had put before Hindenburg in +February the gloomy prospects of the country's food supplies, +concluding: "In May, Germany will be almost without food." Hindenburg +thereupon replied: "My reply is that I shall be in Paris on April 1st." + +The date chosen seemed so appropriate! + +Still, it would be foolish to say that we had no anxieties. Some of our +stoutest fellows were up at "advanced G.H.Q.," a temporary H.Q. near +Amiens, from which most of the really exciting work was done. At +Montreuil we had not the exhilarating feeling of being within the sound +of the guns, but had to face perhaps the hardest of the toil. It was +rare for an officer in some branches to leave his room before midnight, +and the usual hour for starting work was 8.30 a.m. Meals ceased for a +time to be convivial affairs. One rushed to the table, ate, and rushed +back to work. + +The work was so overwhelming because of a combination of circumstances. +The character of the War had changed from stationary to moving over +almost all the British Front, calling for a return to the mobile system +of supply and for new classes of material. British reinforcements were +arriving from other Fronts, sometimes without their full supply train +and without the full equipment for our Front, and not familiar with its +system of working. There were large movements of French troops into +British Areas, and in some cases these French troops relied upon British +sources for some of their supplies and transport, and in all cases their +line of supply had to be dove-tailed in with ours. American troops were +moved into British Areas and relied upon British sources for many items +of equipment, transport and supplies. British Administration was thus +being called upon for supplies to British, French, American and +Portuguese troops, at the same time as our lines of supply had to be +re-organised and co-ordinated with the new French lines of supply. +Further difficulties were created by the necessary frequent changes of +railheads and the great movements on the roads of civilian refugees. +Territory threatened by the enemy had to be evacuated as far as possible +of civilians, and of civilian goods and stock likely to be of use to the +enemy in case of capture. + +The extent of this accumulated difficulty from a transport point of +view can be gauged from the fact that a British Army needs on a day of +intense fighting 1,934 tons of supplies of all kinds _per mile of +front_. + + * * * * * + +The railways came as nearly as possible to a complete breakdown under +the strain. After the first Battle of the Somme, our military railway +system in France was thoroughly reorganised by civilian experts. It was +a reorganisation which followed, I believe, the best models of the great +railway companies of England, and it coped with the very heavy traffic +during the period of fixed or Trench War quite well. Unfortunately it +was not a system adapted for moving warfare. + +A civilian railway expert would doubtless find many reasons for amused +criticism in a military railway system in the running. It would appear +to be rather haphazard, to be run a good deal on the principle of a +train getting there if it could, and to be very faulty in the matter of +time-tables and so on. Well, the German advance in its brutal practical +way simply riddled with holes that admirable railway reorganisation +which the civilian experts had conferred on the B.E.F., France. + +Perhaps it was only to have been expected. Trench War in its railway +requirements was deceptively like peace. You had your railway termini, +and the requirements of a Division were fairly stable. You ran so many +trains a day and, except for an occasional rush on some sector when +fighting warmed up suddenly, there were no problems that differed +greatly from those say of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. + +In moving war it is different. Then a railway system must be elastic +enough to stand such a series of shocks as would be conveyed to the L.B. +and S.C. manager if at 9 p.m. he were told: "It is Bank Holiday +to-morrow. Provide for carrying 100,000 extra passengers, about 10,000 +horses and 4,000 carriages." Then at 10 p.m. he learned: "You can't +shunt any trains at Lewes; and you can only run trains through with +luck. It is under heavy shell-fire." Then every half-hour subsequently +he got a new order, diverting traffic from one point to another, +changing the destinations of his trains and so on. + +The transport situation for the moment was saved by the Motor Transport. +But the Commander-in-Chief had to act promptly and set up a "jury-mast" +arrangement for railway control to tide over the crisis. In effect he +took the supreme control of the railways out of the hands of the +Transportation Directorate and put it under a "Board of Directors" +meeting daily, at which the Q.M.G. presided. A later development made +the Chief of General Staff Chairman of this Board. Then, when things +settled down, the system that had been set up by the civilian experts +was largely scrapped. Military Railways were again put under the control +of the Quartermaster-General. The "stupid soldiery" did rather well with +them, not only in the period of pause that came between the German +advance and our great counter-attack, but in the gigantic task of +following up our advance. + +The task of pulling together the railways was not an easy one. The enemy +advance had caused a direct loss of some light railway systems, and on +the broad-gauge systems important engine depôts were lost, and our front +lateral line was brought at several points under the fire of the enemy's +artillery. Use of this front lateral line had thus become precarious. +The results of this were felt in every part of the railway system. Good +circulation is the essence of railway working; and a block at any point +has an effect similar to that of an aneurism on a human artery. Because +of the loss of engine depôts, and the hindrances to circulation on the +front lateral line, the back lateral line along the coast became +seriously congested. This congestion reduced the capacity of every +engine by an average of 15 per cent. + +Further, our rear lateral line had two particularly vulnerable points, +one at Etaples, where it crossed the Canche, and the other at Abbéville, +where it crossed the Somme. Upon these points enemy aircraft made +frequent attacks, imposing delays, occasionally causing minor +destruction, always adding to the effects of the existing congestion. +An excellent piece of work reduced very considerably the effect of +one successful enemy air-raid. Half an hour after midnight, one night +in May, the Canche railway-bridge at Etaples was damaged. At once +an avoiding line--constructed for such an emergency--was put into +operation, and trains were running through at 2 a.m. + +On one of the worst nights of the German advance, when we went up to the +situation-map without any enthusiasm, half afraid of what we should see, +young Captain Hannibal Napoleon deepened our gloom by declaring +oracularly: + +"If we hold on to Amiens we shall be all right. If Amiens falls to the +Germans it is goodbye to Montreuil, and no more Paris leave for a few +years." + +Hannibal Napoleon (that, of course, was not his name) was very junior +and very confident of his strategical genius. It was a favourite +amusement to "pull his leg" and draw from him an "appreciation" of the +situation, which he was always willing to give with the authority of a +Commander-in-Chief. + +This oracle was displeasing, because on the appearance of things that +night we had not an earthly chance of holding Amiens. But the +unexpected happened. Not very many hours afterwards the news came +through that a successful stand was being made in front of Amiens; and +young Hannibal Napoleon was able to crow like a Gallic cock over his +profound strategical judgment. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE MOTOR LORRY THAT WAITED. + +How a motor lorry waited at the Ecole Militaire to take away the maps to +the Coast--The Motor Lorry Reserve--An "appreciation" of the +position--Germany lost the War in the first three months--Some notes of +German blunders. + + +One night in the Spring of 1918 a mysterious motor lorry drew up in the +yard of the Ecole Militaire at Montreuil. Its driver reported and was +ordered to stand by. He stood by all that night; and in the morning was +relieved by another driver. But the empty lorry still waited. At night a +relief driver came on duty. But the empty lorry still waited. + +[Illustration: THE ECOLE MILITAIRE] + +Lorries in those days were precious. Because the German had seized many +of our light railways, had put under his shell-fire our main front +lateral line and had brought our whole railway system to a point +perilously close to collapse, the fate of the British Army was to a +great extent dependent on its motor lorries. By an intuitional stroke +of genius, or of luck, the new Quartermaster-General had just brought to +completion one of his "gyms"--the building up of a G.H.Q. reserve of +motor lorries. There had been all kinds of explanations of that +reserve--mostly of the humorous-malicious order. It had been said that +they were intended to carry about the baggage of the G.H.Q. Generals; +that the reserve had no other reason for being than to find a soft job +for some potentate near to the golf links of the coast. But whether it +was just a guess or a bit of far-seeing on the part of Sir Travers +Clarke, that G.H.Q. Motor Lorry Reserve had been built up; and it was +available to rush into the breach when the railways could not face the +task of supply. + +Very nobly the Motor Transport--including that reserve--did its duty. +There were drivers who held the wheel for thirty-six hours at a stretch, +and were lifted from their seats fainting or asleep; a few--who carried +on until no longer able to see through their bloodshot and torturing +eyes--ran their cars into trees or walls or ditches. There were many +casualties, but the situation was saved. + +It was just at this time, when a motor lorry was above rubies in value, +that an entirely healthy, well-preserved example, with driver attached, +was ordered to remain in the yard of the Ecole Militaire. + +Everyone wanted to know the reason why. The position was then at its +very worst, so the humourist who surmised that it was "waiting for the +wine orders of the ---- Mess," for once found his jape fall flat. The +truth was for a long time known only to a select few. That motor lorry +was told off to carry away the maps and important papers from Montreuil +to the coast, since the evacuation of the town and of all France north +of the Somme was possible at an hour's notice. + +So critical was the position for some days that that motor lorry was +never off duty night or day. + +But G.H.Q. went about its work unperturbed to all outward seeming, and +there was not a whisper of losing the war, not even from those who knew +what would be the full consequences of evacuating Pas de Calais. One +officer--he would not like his name to be published even now--spoke with +the most frank recognition of facts and yet with a robust confidence +that was distinctly comforting: + +"If we go behind the Somme it will give the Germans the Coast from the +Canche right up to the Scheldt for their submarines. That is the most +serious factor. We won't leave them much in the way of harbour works, of +course; but still they will be able in a year or two to restore things a +bit." + +"In a year or two? But will it last...?" + +"Oh yes, you can give the war another ten years at least in that event. +For there won't be any American Army to speak of; no port to land them +or supply them from. Our British Army will have to come down in strength +for the same reason. You can't keep a bigger army anywhere than you can +keep supplied with food and shells. Look at the ports and the railways. +There will be Havre, Brest, Cherbourg, Bordeaux as ports of supply and +the railways from them as the channels of supply to the front line. No +good talking of millions of Americans pouring in. They can't pour. +Funnel's too narrow." + +But there wasn't in that officer's mind a hint of the possibility of +failure. + +"It's only a question of organising to get at them. In time weight must +tell. The Germans and their friends are, say, 140,000,000 in population. +The allies who are in the war against them have 600,000,000 of +population and another 400,000,000 of reserve population if Japan came +in fully, and China, and Brazil. I count Russia on neither side, but she +is still a liability more than an asset to the Germans. In money and +resources the odds against them are even greater. I like to go back to +the simple basis of arithmetic sometimes. Of course weight doesn't tell +against skill. But now the skill is about even. The Germans had their +one and only chance at the beginning, the very beginning, of the war; +because they were ready and no one else was. They had to win by +Christmas, 1914, or not to win at all." + +He went on to sketch vividly the story of the war up to that date, the +very nadir of our depression. He argued that the enemy had obviously +committed some tremendous blunders. The Prussian military leaders had +been very clever in securing spectacular victories (generally after a +preliminary corruption of some weak section of their opponents) and thus +the military position was not easy to see in its true proportion. But +even a surface consideration must show that whilst Germany was always +announcing victories, she was never really within sight of victory. + +"In the first instance the Prussian Empire had made no sound reckoning +of the forces she had to meet. That was the first elementary duty of the +strategist. The man who goes out to fight ten thousand and finds he has +to fight twenty thousand has blundered irreparably. In 1914 Prussia +calculated that Great Britain would not participate in the war, and +would consent not only to the destruction of France but to the betrayal +of her obligations towards Belgium. The bewildered dismay with which +Germany learned that Great Britain would not look upon the treaty with +Belgium as a 'scrap of paper,' the wild hatred toward England which +found one expression in the 'Hymn of Hate,' were the screams of a +savage creature caught in a trap. + +"She had then one slender chance, a rush attack on Paris. But the Battle +of the Marne killed that chance. Then the only hope of saving Germany +was to make peace. But she had made the ghastly blunder of the Belgian +atrocities. + +"When a man goes out to fight ten thousand and finds himself confronted +by twenty thousand it is common prudence to strive to make the stakes as +low as possible, the penalty of failure as small as possible. There was +a chance that, if that policy had been followed, the war would have come +to an end soon after the Battle of the Marne, an end not favourable to +Prussian ideas of European domination, giving those ideas a severe +check, but still not wrecking them irrevocably nor exacting a very heavy +penalty. But the Prussian spirit added blunder to blunder. Having +launched a hopeless war it set itself to give that war an 'unlimited' +character. Instead of going through Belgium as a reluctant trespasser, +the Prussian army trampled through as a ravaging devastator in full +blast of frightfulness. By the time Prussia had fought and lost the +Battle of the Marne she had steeled her enemies to an inflexible +resolution against a compromise peace." + +Prussia, he argued, thus early by two blunders of the first magnitude +(1) entered into a campaign against an alliance which ultimately could +command vastly superior forces, and (2) embittered the conditions of the +campaign so that her withdrawal from it was made exceedingly difficult. +Several blunders of a lesser order marked the first stages of the +campaign. Belgium having been attacked and Liége taken, the Prussian +army showed a strange hesitancy and lack of enterprise when faced by the +little Belgian army on the line Haelen-Tirlemont-Namur. Precious days +were lost in pottering. Whether it was expected that the Belgian nation +would give way after one defeat, or it was thought that French and +British armies had been pushed up into Belgium, the German millions were +held up an unduly long time by the Belgian thousands. + +At Mons the German Army neither crushed the French-British force nor +pushed it back so quickly that the main deployment was harassed. Whether +this failure of the German Army was due to its bad handling or to the +excellent virtues of the French-British force, did not matter. But the +Battle of Mons frustrated the only hope that was left to Germany at that +time--a successful rush on Paris opening the way to a quick peace. It +proved that there was no military genius at the head of the German +invaders. Then the Army which had been delayed in Belgium was defeated +on the Marne and had to fall back on the Aisne. The explanation for +this given in some German quarters was that the Army had outstripped its +big guns and ammunition supplies. That was as good as any other. No +explanation would clear the Prussian Military Command from the stigma +that it failed when there was that one remaining desperate chance of +success. + +And having failed on the Marne and retreated to the Aisne the German +strategic plan lost all coherency. True, the war was lost so far as any +hope of winning European dominancy was concerned. But there was still as +a possible objective a peace which would secure Prussia something in +return for the territory which she had overrun. Such a peace had been +made difficult by the cold rage inspired by Prussian frightfulness. But +it was the only possible aim left and, from a military point of view, it +could only be pursued in one way, by a definite hammering at some vital +point to secure a decisive result, with a defensive stand in other +quarters. A defensive campaign in the East with a determined offensive +in the West, or a defensive on the West with a resolute offensive on the +East. + +The Prussian vacillated between the two; his effort was always +shuttlecocking East to West, West to East, getting a decisive result +nowhere. Like a baited bull in the arena Prussia was constantly making +sensational rushes here and there, gratified often by the sight of +fleeing foes, but never breaking out of the arena of doom, and always +losing blood. + +"The first three months of the war," he concluded dogmatically, "were +decisive. They do not redound to the military glory of Prussia. During +those three months the disciplined and trained devotion of the German +troops worked wonders in the battle line. But indecision at Headquarters +prevented the proper concentration of their efforts. Prussia had failed +to conquer Europe unprepared. She was afterwards face to face with the +task of conquering Europe prepared; and her indecision increased. She +was always looking for success in a new quarter and never finding it. +Recklessness and vacillation and impatience are not sound military +qualities, but they mark the whole military history of Germany since +November, 1914. Recklessness of ultimate consequences was shown in such +matters as the bringing of poison gas into use. Vacillation was shown by +the effort which was organised to take the French Channel ports at all +costs, and, failing, was diverted to the Eastern Front, and back again +to this Front, and then again to the Balkan Front, and back to this +Front and then to the Italian Front and finally back to this Front. +Impatience was shown in the general failure to push any effort to its +logical conclusion, and in details, such as the haste with which poison +gas was put into use on a small and ineffectual scale instead of being +kept in reserve for a great and possibly decisive effort." + +"Take it year by year," this officer concluded, "it has been always the +same. Germany has added always to the area of destruction. She has never +got nearer to victory. It will be the same with this Push. If that motor +lorry has to carry away the maps from Montreuil it may be another ten +years before we beat the Germans, but we will beat them." + +"But if France gives in?" + +"France won't give in. Look at her now, ready to smash up all Pas de +Calais--to blow up every harbour and canal and road. That does not look +like giving in. Even if she were forced to it we could go back to our +island and carry on the fight from there." + +Then we talked of lighter things. + +Going out from dinner my friend reverted to the war position. + +"Anyhow that lorry is not going to take the maps. I bet you a cigar to +nothing." + +He was right. Going up to the map room on the Intelligence side we heard +that our troops were holding in front of Amiens. We had actually passed +the lowest point of our fortunes, and within a week the motor lorry had +gone. + +I asked one of the drivers detailed to it, who either did not know or +wisely professed not to know what he had been kept in waiting for, what +he thought about it all. He replied with that sound philosophy of the +British soldier: + +"It was a splendid 'mike,' Sir." + +"Mike," it need hardly be explained, is a trade term in the Army for a +soft job. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE UNITY OF COMMAND. + +Was it necessary?--Was a French Generalissimo inevitable?--Our share in +the guiding of the last phase of the campaign--Points on which the +British had their way. + + +The "unity of command" achieved in the Spring of 1918 caused hardly a +ripple of comment at G.H.Q. Some days after it had happened we learned +that Lord Milner (then Secretary of State for War) had been over, and +that, with the approval of Lord Haig, Field Marshal Foch had become +Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies. + +I suppose that in their secret hearts many officers felt a little sad +that the honour of the united command had not fallen to a British +General. But there was no question as to the wisdom of the choice nor as +to the wisdom of the step itself. It was one of the early misfortunes of +the campaign that the British Government in 1914 had insisted very +strongly on keeping our Army as an absolutely independent unit in +France. The reasons, one may presume, were political rather than +strategical; and that there was still some remnant of the old prejudice +against "continental entanglements." I do not suppose that if the issue +had been left to the soldiers themselves there would have been any doubt +but that the small auxiliary British Force would have "reported to" the +main French Army and acted under its direction. That would have been the +natural military course. But the position became more difficult as the +importance of the British Army grew. At the time that the united Command +was achieved the British Army was in fighting force an equal unit to the +French. + +Two questions are often raised in connection with this decision of 1918: +Was it necessary? Was it inevitable that the united command should go to +Marshal Foch? Both questions may be answered with "yes;" though in each +case the "yes" needs to be qualified with some explanation. + +[Illustration: AT THE CHIEF'S CHATEAU] + +It is, for instance, hardly correct to say that the decision to unite +the command "won the war;" though it is probably correct that it +hastened the date of victory. Before it was achieved there was good +co-operation, though not perfect co-operation, between the Allied +Forces. After it was achieved there was maintained a certain +independence of outlook and of policy on the part of the British Command +which was a great factor in the speedy consummation of victory. If +that independence had not been maintained, the operations of 1918 would, +almost certainly, not have been so gloriously decisive. This aspect of +the final campaign has never been discussed to my knowledge, yet a +knowledge of it is important if the events of 1918 are to be viewed in +their proper perspective. + +I suppose the average "man in the street" takes the view that early in +1918, the British Army, which had been blundering along up till then, +was put under French Command and straightway the war was won. But it was +not at all like that. The British Army command, whilst giving the most +loyal support to the French Generalissimo and bowing to his decisions +when they were finally made, read it as its duty still to keep a share +in the conduct of the campaign; and in many most important conclusions +it upheld its own view as against the French view. The final result in +some matters showed that the British view was the right view, and that +if it had not been taken the victorious advance would not have been +possible. + +In an earlier chapter I have given the facts about the forage ration. It +was not exactly a matter of the first importance, some may say. But if +the French view had been accepted and the British and American horse +ration had come down to the French level our horse transport would not +have been able to carry on as wonderfully as it did from August to +November, 1918. As things were, it had nothing to spare during the last +week, as our pursuing troops can tell. The French with their logical +minds argued that if their horses could do with a certain ration, ours +could. In this case the apparently logical conclusion was not the sound +one; for it left out of consideration some factors--as to whether we did +not use our horses more, and as to whether our men could get, or would +try to get, the same work out of ill-fed horses. In this matter it was +well for the Allied cause that the British had their way. + +In another matter logic threatened to lead to a step which might have +proved disastrous. The French saw, as the logical corollary of the +united command, a union, a pooling of all the supply and transport +departments. Not only should the Armies fight under one strategical +direction but they should share and share alike all their resources. A +decision to this effect was actually come to, the Americans agreeing +with the French view. It was logical without a shadow of doubt. But +British common-sense recognised that if this radical reorganisation were +attempted in 1918 it would be 1920 before the Alliance would have been +ready for a great Push. The British Army--let it be confessed with +appropriate candour and shamefacedness--was much more exigent in its +demands than the French. It needed, or thought it needed, more food, +more clothing, more comforts, more ammunition, more transport. It had +evolved for itself during the campaign a system of "housekeeping" which +was over-liberal, perhaps, as compared with the French, but which was +mainly a result of the generosity of the Home people, and was so deeply +rooted in our Army organisation that to have torn it up in 1918 would +have caused all kinds of trouble. + +In June, 1918, the "Executive Inter-Allied Committee on Supply" was +formed by an agreement between the French and the American governments, +to which the British government at first (apparently) assented. It +was to take over control of all Supply, Storage, and Transport, and +to have executive functions, _i.e._, its decisions would be binding +on all the Armies. The British Command at once saw that this was +impracticable--that it was impossible in the very midst of the +preparations for the Great Push to throw into a common pool so much +of the actual equipment of the Army. The Allied Command was very +stubborn in supporting its plan. But in time British common-sense +proved stronger than abstract logic, and in July all was made happy +by a decision that the functions of the Board were to _advise_ on +matters of Supply and Storage and methods of utilising material, as far +as practicable, for the common benefit of the Allies. The Board, in +short, was to have its scope in assisting to maintain the excellent +understanding which already existed between the Armies of the Allies in +regard to Supplies and Services. + +The position was not at all that the British Army wanted to wallow in +luxury whilst its Allies went short, for it was always willing to help +in every possible way; but that its command knew that the essentially +national system of "housekeeping" which had been set up, could not be +thrown down at an hour's notice without grave danger. + +The same sort of problem was always cropping up on a smaller scale in +areas where French troops were fighting with the British. The French had +at first a logical aspiration for an identity of supply systems. Our +view was that when British and French troops were operating together, it +was not possible to serve both from a common stock, nor by a common +railway service. Ammunition and Supplies differed in almost every +respect, and the systems of Supply could not be identical. Except in +regard to a few items, one Army could not supply the other +satisfactorily. Therefore, each Army should have its own depôts, +railheads, and--for the sorting of supplies--its own regulating +stations, which would receive from Base full trains loaded with +particular items of supply and send out to Divisions full trains loaded +with the necessary assortments of different items. Something could be +done in the way of pooling bulk stores, such as forage, coal, and +petrol; but for most things there must be different channels of supply. + +British policy was that a British Force in a French area should provide +completely for its own maintenance, and organise its supply lines and +depôts accordingly. Ultimately it was recognised on both sides that this +was the only possible policy, and that the trouble of providing separate +regulating stations, separate railheads, and depôts must be faced. Any +half-way policy was seen to be fraught with too many possibilities of +dangerous failures. + +To cite yet one more instance of the British policy proving the sounder: +In July, 1918, there were very strong indications that the German power +of offensive had passed its zenith and that the enemy might be forced +shortly to a great withdrawal. There was set on foot in the British Army +at the earliest opportunity an examination of the measures of Transport +and Supply which would become necessary if the Germans were forced to +withdraw their line. In 1916-1917 the enemy had been able to avoid, to a +great extent, the consequences of his defeats on the Somme and the Ancre +by retiring his line; a promptly effective pursuit was hindered by lack +of the necessary material on our part. A foreseeing preparation would +enable a better harvest of victory to be reaped if the position of +1916-1917 were reproduced in 1918. We wanted to be sure of being able to +follow up with about 2,000 tons of supplies per day per mile of front to +carry our troops over the Hindenburg Line. + +There was found to be a divergence of view as to the best means of +following up. The French were inclined to put their faith chiefly in +light railways. The British idea was that light railways could be +overdone; that there was not a full appreciation of the modification in +the rôle of the light railway consequent on the change from trench to +moving warfare; that there was a tendency for light railways to attempt +to duplicate the work of broad-gauge railways; and a hint of a tendency +to look upon light railways as a substitute for, instead of a +reinforcement of, roads in the forward area. + +The British "pursuit policy," to put it briefly, was to concentrate all +available labour on pushing forward with the broad-gauge railways and +the roads forward from them, trusting to motor transport and to horse +transport to pick up the burden from broad-gauge railhead. This was +maintained to be a superior policy to concentrating on light railways, +which could not allow so much freedom in lines of advance. + +The British view prevailed in our sector, and in the Great Pursuit it +proved to be sound. The Germans were followed up on our sector of the +Front in really fine fashion. In the Somme sector of the Front between +August 8th and September 8th our broad-gauge railheads were pushed +forward an average of 30 miles. To these new railheads, all kinds of +traffic could go direct from the Base to meet there our Motor Transport +(and, of course, light railways; these were not neglected but given +secondary importance). + +It was at first the French idea to "sandwich" the various Divisions of +the two Armies, to have a British Division or Corps side by side with a +French wherever possible. This again would have been a beautifully +logical illustration of the complete identity and fraternity of the two +armies, but it was not business. It multiplied difficulties of +administration, and it was finally abandoned, much to the advantage of +the common cause. + +These matters I cite not with the idea of deprecating the French General +Staff--there were presumably as many instances in which their view was +right and ours was wrong--but to show that it is not fair to our G.H.Q. +to assume, as many do assume, that the British High Command had little +or nothing to do with the planning of the great victory. Marshal Foch is +prompt to resent that view when it is obtruded. He would, without a +doubt, agree that the British were most loyal in service, and also very +independent and stubborn (and often prevailing) in council. Probably +looking back upon the great victory which was won under his _bâton_ he +is profoundly grateful that the British were so forthright in helping to +keep the Allied operations on the best track. + +The other question, asked at the beginning of this chapter, needs to be +explained. Was it inevitable that Marshal Foch should be chosen as +Generalissimo? It is quite certain that no other choice was possible in +view of all the circumstances. There is no need to come to the question +of who was the more renowned soldier, or to argue that if Lord Haig had +been given the same chance he would probably have achieved the same +result. Personally I think that the British Army in 1918 was in respect +of Generalship as in other respects equal to any in the Field. But that +was not the issue. We were fighting on French soil and had to demand +great sacrifices from the French civilian population, which a French +Generalissimo could best get. It was quite certain that the British Army +would fight with exactly the same enthusiasm under a French +Generalissimo; it was not possible to be so certain that the French Army +would under a British Generalissimo. + +There was no contested election for the post. Lord Haig as well as +General Pershing supported Marshal Foch's claims. It was the work and +not the glory of the work which was the first consideration. + +[Illustration: "SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE"] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE COMING OF VICTORY. + +The June Position--German attempts to pinch out our lines of +supplies--The attacks on hospitals--The glorious last 14 weeks--G.H.Q.'s +share. + + +By June, 1918, it was fairly evident that the German attack to drive the +British to the sea had exhausted itself. The enemy had attempted to push +through along the Somme line, separating the British and the French +Armies. Foiled in that by the stubborn defence in front of Amiens, he +tried a push towards the Channel ports, which really gave more anxiety +at G.H.Q. than the earlier move, for there we were working on such a +very narrow margin of safety that every yard lost was a grave peril. + +The final effort of the enemy was to pinch us out of territory which he +could not push us out of, and this effort, though it led to no great +battles, was a very serious menace. During the month of June there was +not a day's respite from the pertinacious efforts of the enemy to +strangle our arteries of supply. Having arrived, at some places, within +range of our front lateral railway line, the enemy sought by continuous +bombardments to stop or at least hamper traffic, at the same time +constantly attacking with aircraft our rear lateral railway line at its +most sensitive points, the Somme and the Canche crossings. The ports of +entry and the supply depôts were also repeatedly attacked. +Inconvenience--serious at times--and loss followed from these attacks, +but there was never an actual stoppage of essential traffic. Provision +had been made to prevent any blows that the enemy was able to deliver +being really effective Alternative avoiding lines took up promptly the +task of broken channels of traffic, and strenuous work in repair and +good emergency organisation prevented congestion ever reaching the stage +of paralysis. At one time during this month it was necessary to stop for +a few days all but absolutely essential traffic from North to South. +That was the limit of the enemy's success, though he was aided in some +degree by an influenza epidemic (which sadly reduced the supply of +labour for railway and dock work). + +One line of German tactics at this time was rather "over the edge" as +Tommy put it. That was to attack the Base hospitals by aircraft. One at +Etaples was set on fire and destroyed. There is, I admit, some room for +a shadow of a doubt as to whether the German deliberately attacked the +hospitals or only accidentally. That shadow of a doubt must be granted, +because it was a fact that several of our hospitals were near to large +railway junctions and camps, though always clearly marked and separated +from other military installations. I am not prepared to question the +good faith of those who give the Germans the benefit of the doubt, +though I cannot agree with them. The attacks on the hospitals came in +June, just when the Germans concentrated their strategy on trying to +cripple our means of supply. They inflicted grave embarrassment on our +resources, for, at a time when material was very short and lines of +transport fearfully congested, we had to construct new hospitals and +move patients and staffs. A note made in July on the point reads: + +"Good progress is being made with the transfer to other areas of +hospitals which were rendered necessary by enemy aircraft attacks. +Though there is very little doubt possible that the enemy does not +intend to respect hospitals, wherever they may be sited, in his bombing +raids, the precaution is being taken of choosing new hospital sites well +away from any point of military importance. No hospital will be +established near military camps, important railway junctions, or +bridges." + +If it was by a series of accidents that the Germans succeeded in hitting +a number of hospitals in June, 1918, they were singularly fruitful +accidents for him. The difference, from a "results" point of view, in +bombing a camp and a hospital is this: if you bomb a camp you kill a few +men but the camp does not move; if you bomb a hospital you kill a few +patients, nurses, and doctors, and you force the hospital to move, if it +can move, to an apparently safer place. + + * * * * * + +In June there was cause for anxiety in the whole supply position. Seeing +that the existence of the armies depended on maintaining to the full the +huge rate of supply which modern war demands, and that the enemy was +obviously trying immediately behind our lines the policy (which was +exactly the same as the policy of his submarine campaign) of pinching +out lines of supply, it was judicious to try to extend the margin of +safety. One way of effecting this which was explored was to extend +"Lines of Communication" to England, and to keep in England at places +handy for shipment to France one half the reserve stores of the Army. In +most items the Army worked on a month's reserve margin. The storing of +this month's reserve in the comparatively narrow strip of France which +we held, subject to constant bombing, was becoming a matter of extreme +difficulty. The retreat of the Germans began, however, before any +definite steps in the direction of setting up reserve stores on the +coast of England were taken. + +There was no idea that the enemy was going to collapse so suddenly. +G.H.Q. expected to drive him back to the Hindenburg line in 1918 and to +finish him off in 1919. In the middle of July, 1918, the matter was +before the General Staff with the discussion of plans founded on the +postulate that the Germans might withdraw to the Hindenburg line, and +that a prompt following up in full force was intended. An instruction to +the Director General of Transportation asked for facts as to new railway +material that would be needed in such a contingency. The problem of +effective pursuit, it was recognised, would be largely one of Supplies +and Transport. If our Army could be brought up to the new German line +promptly, and maintained there with all the means of vigorous attack, +all kinds of pleasant results might be hoped for. But nobody really was +so optimistic as to think that the enemy would throw in his hand before +the winter. But we prepared for the best as well as for the worst. + +The task of getting ready to put Pas de Calais in ruins in case of a +German advance was pleasantly interrupted by the now more urgent task of +getting ready to follow up the enemy with horse, foot, artillery, and +with some scores of thousand of tons of supplies daily. The fruits of +this were reaped in August, when all agreed that the troops had been +well followed up. Cases of real hardships were very rare. Some admirably +prompt work was done in railway construction, road restoration, and +canal clearing. One great main road was opened to traffic two hours +after its capture. Traffic on the Albert line was restored to Corbie and +Heilly the day after capture. The water supply difficulty was great, and +in many cases water for both men and horses had to be sent up by motor +and pack transport. But on the territory won our old water bores were +found in most cases intact, and were promptly restored to usefulness by +the R.E. Baths and laundries followed in close contact with our +advancing troops, and with them in some cases harvesting machinery to +win from waste the crops. + +But that, whilst preparing for all possibilities, we were not such +optimists as to believe in an Autumn victory, is shown by the fact that +arrangements were well in hand to secure suitable training areas for the +British troops during the Winter, 1918-1919. For the previous two years, +circumstances had not allowed the British Forces adequate opportunities +for re-training. But, with the character of the war changing radically, +it was thought necessary that they should have opportunities to carry +out extensive training programmes in offensive operations of quick +movement during the Winter. Adequate manoeuvre areas for each Army +close behind its Front were sought. It is a coincidence that just after +this matter was put in hand military experts on the enemy side were +comforting their newspapers with arguments that the new style of Tank +attack evolved by the British required very special training of the +infantry, and that it could not be expected that any large proportion of +the British Army had, or could have, the necessary training. + +G.H.Q., when the critical history of the war comes to be written, will +surely win high praise for its 1918 work. It took a hard knock in the +early Spring and was faced simultaneously with the tasks of holding on, +of re-organising a shattered railway system, of training and equipping +reinforcements from America and from our own distant Fronts, of +preparing for the effective destruction of Pas de Calais, and of +organising new lines of supply in case a further retreat was inevitable. +From these tasks it had to switch off suddenly to prepare for a great +pursuit instead of a great retreat, and did so with such skill and care +as the result showed. + +How wonderfully, too, the successive blows of the British Army were +timed and driven home! As Marshal Foch recognised, it needed supremely +good staff work on the part of the British to control that deadly +rhythm. Beginning on August 8th, 1918, in four days the British Army +cleared the enemy from the Amiens Front. That restored our old lateral +line Boulogne-Amiens-Paris and added enormously to our transport +strength. We could now hit towards the north, and from the 21st to 31st +August we fought the last and most happy battle of the Somme, driving +the enemy to the east of the river. His position then was attacked +concurrently from the north, and by September 3rd he was back on the +Hindenburg line, and our Army, flushed with victory and its supply lines +working admirably, simply could not be stopped. The bustled enemy did +his best to make a stand on the Hindenburg line, and shortened his front +so as to allow of a stronger holding there, leaving to us without a +battle all of Belgium that he had won in the Spring offensive. But that +gave us a new railway advantage, and on September 18th, 1918, the Battle +of Epéhy carried the advanced posts of the Hindenburg line. + +Quickly the home thrust followed. Between September 27th and October +10th the German centre was shattered and the rest of the campaign on our +Front was merely a matter of "mopping up." From August 8th to November +11th the British Army took 188,700 prisoners and 2,840 guns. (The +French, American and Belgian armies combined took 196,800 prisoners and +3,775 guns during the same period). When the Armistice was signed on +November 11th, the British Army was still full of fight and it had still +the means for a further advance, though its horse transport was very +weary and the men were having a really hard time in regard to rations +and water. But it is safe to say that it was in better plight than any +of the other armies. + +How different November, 1918, from November, 1914! In 1914 so far as the +British nation at large was concerned it was a time of desperate shifts +and expedients. The lame and the halt and the blind who had fallen out +of the Regular ranks in olden days had come back to train recruits for +the New Armies. A great new industry of munition-making was being +founded. It had to make its machines and its tools before it could make +guns and shell. So far as the Army in the Field was concerned it held on +against heavy odds and with the scantiest supply of shell to answer the +well-supplied German Artillery. Whilst the Germans could send a deluge +of shells over we could reply with a bare sprinkle. And we had our cooks +and batmen fighting in the trenches whilst the Germans were confidently +calculating that the plan of training a new British Army had been +irretrievably compromised by the heavy losses which the British Regular +Army had suffered, and that a descent on the English coast with a very +small force would be sufficient to occupy London and end the war. + +There is a legend that the German military plan from the Battle of Mons +to the Battle of the Marne in 1914 was prejudiced by the "political" +consideration of a desire to crush the British Army out of existence; +that to the attack upon the British detachment were devoted forces and +energies out of proportion to its military importance. A part, though +not an essential part, of this legend is the story of the Kaiser's +reference to the "contemptible little army" of Britain. Perhaps the +truth or otherwise of this legend will be established when there is a +full disclosure of events from the German side. It is not unreasonable +in itself, for the presence of the Kaiser with the German Army, and the +presence of his sons, without a doubt interfered often with the military +dispositions of his generals. In an earlier campaign (that of Napoleon +against Russia in 1812) a condition precedent to the ultimate Russian +success was that the Czar Alexander should leave his army to its +commanders, because he could not act as General-in-Chief himself, and +whilst he was with the Army no one else could. The German Kaiser's +emotional hatred of the British might well have led to an unbalanced +effort against the British Force. + +In 1918 it was not the vanguard of a "contemptible little Army" that +heard the "cease fire" at Mons. It was an Army 64 Divisions strong, and +in all the fighting from August 8th, 1918, to November 11th, 1918, +those Divisions had been winning great battles from superior numbers of +German Divisions. At the Battle of Amiens we had 16 Divisions to the +German's 20 Divisions; at the Battle of Bapaume our 23 Divisions faced +35 German Divisions; at the decisive Battle of Cambrai-St. Quentin our +38 Divisions, with two American Divisions, drove 45 German Divisions out +of the Hindenburg line. + +November 11th, 1918, saw the culmination of a great military +achievement. Of the glory of this achievement the chief share must go to +the British soldier, whose cheerful and imperturbable courage and +individual intelligence made him a perfect instrument of warfare; but a +large share remains for the guiding brain of British generalship in the +Field, with its centre at G.H.Q. + +THE END. + + + + +Printed by WHITEHEAD BROS., WOLVERHAMPTON. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +M. Henri Potez, in a farewell article in _Le Journal de Montreuil_ (30th +March, 1919), paid the following eloquent tribute to G.H.Q.:-- + + "We know indeed that quite a host of painters, coming from beyond + the Channel, have sung the praises of our familiar surroundings, of + our clear and happy countryside, of our changing light. Montreuil, + little by little, was becoming a kind of English Barbizon. + + "Then the War broke out. The presence of the General Headquarters + of our Allies made of Montreuil, so to speak, the brain of the + British Army. What with telegraphic and telephonic lines, and + wireless telegraphy installations, a whole collection of nervous + threads radiated from Montreuil, carrying incessantly news and + orders. For some months we have been one of the mysterious centres + of the great epic. And the silhouette of the Supreme Chief has + often been marked on our vast horizons. Our heroes have appreciated + the loyalty and the bravery of our Allies on the fields of battle. + Side by side the two nations have withstood the most terrible + trials in defence of the same ideal. The two great liberal peoples + of the West have been the martyrs of Right and of Civilization. At + the time of the heavy offensives in Artois, we have seen the + splendid troops, who, having set out full of animation and + enthusiasm, returned to their camps reduced to mere handfuls of + men. These are the memories that can never be forgotten. + + "Behind the front, the civilian populations have, on many + occasions, praised the affability of our friends, their courtesy + and their liberality. War has its exigencies; but it must be + recognised that they have shown the best of goodwill to mitigate + them. Their kindness on several occasions towards the old people + and the children, who had flocked here before the tempest of war, + has often been manifested. + + "Let us not forget, either, in our farewell compliments, and our + wishes for a safe return, those of our Allies who have been + represented here by the Missions--Americans, Italians, and + Belgians. It is more than desirable, it is necessary, that the + great union of the West should outlast the war. It is necessary + that the differences and divergencies which may be brought about by + the settlement of this crisis should not be allowed to embitter or + envenom; but that they should be treated, governed, and regulated + with moderation, kindness, and a reciprocal generosity. In that + lies the future of humanity. + + "'You live at Montreuil,' a University man who was employed as an + Officer Interpreter at Lille, recently remarked to me; 'the English + speak of it as if it were a kind of magnificent country, a dream + city ... they like its peace, its originality, its memories.' Many + of those who have lived amongst us propose to pay us a return + visit. We shall receive them cordially. We also hope to see again, + in closed up ranks, the pacific Army of the olden days, that Army + which carried easels as its bucklers, and pencils and brushes as + its lances and halberds." + + HENRI POTEZ. + +[Illustration: MAP--VICTORY YEAR, THE SUCCESSIVE BRITISH FRONTS] + + + + +Philip Allan & Co., Publishers, + +_To be Published shortly._ + +AN INVALUABLE REFERENCE BOOK. + + A CONCISE CHRONICLE + OF EVENTS OF THE + GREAT WAR + + BY + R. P. P. ROWE, + M.A. (Oxon), Captain, late of the Royal West Kent Regt., and of + the Military Intelligence Directorate. + +This is a STANDARD WORK, which will find a place on every desk and every +shelf of reference books. The compiler has had access to official +records, both naval and military, and to sources not available to the +general public. A feature is the very complete INDEX, and the APPENDICES +contain the VERBATIM TEXTS of the most important documents of the War. + +Large Post 8vo. (8-1/4 × 5-1/2), 12s. 6d. net. + +Quality Court, Chancery Lane, W.C. 2. + + + +Philip Allan & Co., Publishers, + +A FINE NOVEL. + + The Barber of Putney + BY + J. B. MORTON. + +"A faithful image of certain enduring human characteristics, affection, +comradeship, simple endeavour.... Mr. Morton has written with a +refreshing simplicity."--_The Times._ + +"A direct tale, grim, humorous, shrewd by turns, instinct with right +feeling throughout ... art is also brought to it by Mr. Morton, whose +hand is almost unfailingly sure and sincere."--_The Morning Post._ + +"It is one of the best novels which has been written about the +war."--_The Globe._ + +"There is a simple directness of observation and description and a quiet +breath of feeling about this story ... that give it a distinction of its +own."--_The Westminster Gazette._ + +"I own that I began THE BARBER OF PUTNEY with much doubt and misgiving. +But before I had gone far I found myself held by a description ... as +good as anything of the kind I have ever seen. Curly, the 'old sweat,' +the Mons man, is an excellent portrait. Tim's adventure with the German +sniper, whom he bayonets, is admirably described.... The retreat is +given in a very vivid and credible way; and the scenes out of the line +and in billets are equally good.... Mr. Morton has written an excellent +and readable book."--_Land and Water._ + +"A fine piece of work."--_The Birmingham Post_. + +Quality Court, Chancery Lane, W.C. 2. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE + + +Apparent printer's errors have been retained, unless stated below. + +Punctuation, capitalization and accents have largely been made +consistent. + +Page 18, "Montrueil" changed to "Montreuil" for consistency. (In later +years of Anglo-French enmity Montreuil was Montreuil-sur-mer only in +name) + +Page 75, "gun" changed to "guns". (The 18-pounder field guns would shoot +100,000 rounds on a normal day, and on a heavy day would use 200,000 +rounds.) + +Page 83, "cilicifuge" changed to "cimicifuge". (they are on the track of +the perfect cimicifuge which will keep lice off the body) + +Page 205 "humourous" changed to "humorous" (annuals of a humorous kind) + +Page 218 "suzerainity" changed to "suzerainty" (of admitting a German +suzerainty) + +Page 240 "Barrés" changed to "Barès" ( Colonel Barès, Chief of the) + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of G. H. Q., by Frank Fox and G.S.O. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43644 *** |