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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Visit to Three Fronts, by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Visit to Three Fronts
+
+Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+Posting Date: November 12, 2011 [EBook #9874]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: October 26, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VISIT TO THREE FRONTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tonya Allen and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders. This file was produced from images generously
+made available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France
+(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A VISIT TO THREE FRONTS
+
+June 1916
+
+BY
+
+ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+'THE GREAT BOER WAR'
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In the course of May 1916, the Italian authorities expressed a desire
+that some independent observer from Great Britain should visit their
+lines and report his impressions. It was at the time when our brave and
+capable allies had sustained a set-back in the Trentino owing to a
+sudden concentration of the Austrians, supported by very heavy
+artillery. I was asked to undertake this mission. In order to carry it
+out properly, I stipulated that I should be allowed to visit the
+British lines first, so that I might have some standard of comparison.
+The War Office kindly assented to my request. Later I obtained
+permission to pay a visit to the French front as well. Thus it was my
+great good fortune, at the very crisis of the war, to visit the battle
+line of each of the three great Western allies. I only wish that it had
+been within my power to complete my experiences in this seat of war by
+seeing the gallant little Belgian army which has done so remarkably
+well upon the extreme left wing of the hosts of freedom.
+
+My experiences and impressions are here set down, and may have some
+small effect in counteracting those mischievous misunderstandings and
+mutual belittlements which are eagerly fomented by our cunning enemy.
+
+Arthur Conan Doyle.
+
+Crowborough,
+
+July 1916.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE BRITISH ARMY.
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE ITALIAN ARMY.
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE FRENCH LINE.
+
+
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE BRITISH ARMY
+
+
+I
+
+It is not an easy matter to write from the front. You know that there
+are several courteous but inexorable gentlemen who may have a word in
+the matter, and their presence 'imparts but small ease to the style.'
+But above all you have the twin censors of your own conscience and
+common sense, which assure you that, if all other readers fail you, you
+will certainly find a most attentive one in the neighbourhood of the
+Haupt-Quartier. An instructive story is still told of how a certain
+well-meaning traveller recorded his satisfaction with the appearance of
+the big guns at the retiring and peaceful village of Jamais, and how
+three days later, by an interesting coincidence, the village of Jamais
+passed suddenly off the map and dematerialised into brickdust and
+splinters.
+
+I have been with soldiers on the warpath before, but never have I had a
+day so crammed with experiences and impressions as yesterday. Some of
+them at least I can faintly convey to the reader, and if they ever
+reach the eye of that gentleman at the Haupt-Quartier they will give
+him little joy. For the crowning impression of all is the enormous
+imperturbable confidence of the Army and its extraordinary efficiency
+in organisation, administration, material, and personnel. I met in one
+day a sample of many types, an Army commander, a corps commander, two
+divisional commanders, staff officers of many grades, and, above all, I
+met repeatedly the two very great men whom Britain has produced, the
+private soldier and the regimental officer. Everywhere and on every
+face one read the same spirit of cheerful bravery. Even the half-mad
+cranks whose absurd consciences prevent them from barring the way to
+the devil seemed to me to be turning into men under the prevailing
+influence. I saw a batch of them, neurotic and largely be-spectacled,
+but working with a will by the roadside. They will volunteer for the
+trenches yet.
+
+       *        *        *        *        *
+
+If there are pessimists among us they are not to be found among the men
+who are doing the work. There is no foolish bravado, no under-rating of
+a dour opponent, but there is a quick, alert, confident attention to
+the job in hand which is an inspiration to the observer. These brave
+lads are guarding Britain in the present. See to it that Britain guards
+them in the future! We have a bad record in this matter. It must be
+changed. They are the wards of the nation, both officers and men.
+Socialism has never had an attraction for me, but I should be a
+Socialist to-morrow if I thought that to ease a tax on wealth these men
+should ever suffer for the time or health that they gave to the public
+cause.
+
+'Get out of the car. Don't let it stay here. It may be hit.' These
+words from a staff officer give you the first idea that things are
+going to happen. Up to then you might have been driving through the
+black country in the Walsall district with the population of Aldershot
+let loose upon its dingy roads. 'Put on this shrapnel helmet. That hat
+of yours would infuriate the Boche'--this was an unkind allusion to the
+only uniform which I have a right to wear. 'Take this gas helmet. You
+won't need it, but it is a standing order. Now come on!'
+
+We cross a meadow and enter a trench. Here and there it comes to the
+surface again where there is dead ground. At one such point an old
+church stands, with an unexploded shell sticking out of the wall. A
+century hence folk will journey to see that shell. Then on again
+through an endless cutting. It is slippery clay below. I have no nails
+in my boots, an iron pot on my head, and the sun above me. I will
+remember that walk. Ten telephone wires run down the side. Here and
+there large thistles and other plants grow from the clay walls, so
+immobile have been our lines. Occasionally there are patches of
+untidiness. 'Shells,' says the officer laconically. There is a racket
+of guns before us and behind, especially behind, but danger seems
+remote with all these Bairnfather groups of cheerful Tommies at work
+around us. I pass one group of grimy, tattered boys. A glance at their
+shoulders shows me that they are of a public school battalion. 'I
+thought you fellows were all officers now,' I remarked. 'No, sir, we
+like it better so.' 'Well, it will be a great memory for you. We are
+all in your debt.'
+
+They salute, and we squeeze past them. They had the fresh, brown faces
+of boy cricketers. But their comrades were men of a different type,
+with hard, strong, rugged features, and the eyes of men who have seen
+strange sights. These are veterans, men of Mons, and their young pals
+of the public schools have something to live up to.
+
+       *        *        *        *        *
+
+Up to this we have only had two clay walls to look at. But now our
+interminable and tropical walk is lightened by the sight of a British
+aeroplane sailing overhead. Numerous shrapnel bursts are all round it,
+but she floats on serenely, a thing of delicate beauty against the blue
+background. Now another passes--and yet another. All morning we saw
+them circling and swooping, and never a sign of a Boche. They tell me
+it is nearly always so--that we hold the air, and that the Boche
+intruder, save at early morning, is a rare bird. A visit to the line
+would reassure Mr. Pemberton-Billing. 'We have never met a British
+aeroplane which was not ready to fight,' said a captured German aviator
+the other day. There is a fine stern courtesy between the airmen on
+either side, each dropping notes into the other's aerodromes to tell
+the fate of missing officers. Had the whole war been fought by the
+Germans as their airmen have conducted it (I do not speak of course of
+the Zeppelin murderers), a peace would eventually have been more easily
+arranged. As it is, if every frontier could be settled, it would be a
+hard thing to stop until all that is associated with the words Cavell,
+Zeppelin, Wittenberg, Lusitania, and Louvain has been brought to the
+bar of the world's Justice.
+
+And now we are there--in what is surely the most wonderful spot in the
+world, the front firing trench, the outer breakwater which holds back
+the German tide. How strange that this monstrous oscillation of giant
+forces, setting in from east to west, should find their equilibrium
+here across this particular meadow of Flanders. 'How far?' I ask. '180
+yards,' says my guide. 'Pop!' remarks a third person just in front. 'A
+sniper,' says my guide; 'take a look through the periscope.' I do so.
+There is some rusty wire before me, then a field sloping slightly
+upwards with knee-deep grass, then rusty wire again, and a red line of
+broken earth. There is not a sign of movement, but sharp eyes are
+always watching us, even as these crouching soldiers around me are
+watching them. There are dead Germans in the grass before us. You need
+not see them to know that they are there. A wounded soldier sits in a
+corner nursing his leg. Here and there men pop out like rabbits from
+dug-outs and mine-shafts. Others sit on the fire-step or lean smoking
+against the clay wall. Who would dream to look at their bold, careless
+faces that this is a front line, and that at any moment it is possible
+that a grey wave may submerge them? With all their careless bearing I
+notice that every man has his gas helmet and his rifle within easy
+reach.
+
+A mile of front trenches and then we are on our way back down that
+weary walk. Then I am whisked off upon a ten mile drive. There is a
+pause for lunch at Corps Headquarters, and after it we are taken to a
+medal presentation in a market square. Generals Munro, Haking and
+Landon, famous fighting soldiers all three, are the British
+representatives. Munro with a ruddy face, and brain above all bulldog
+below; Haking, pale, distinguished, intellectual; Landon a pleasant,
+genial country squire. An elderly French General stands beside them.
+
+British infantry keep the ground. In front are about fifty Frenchmen in
+civil dress of every grade of life, workmen and gentlemen, in a double
+rank. They are all so wounded that they are back in civil life, but
+to-day they are to have some solace for their wounds. They lean heavily
+on sticks, their bodies are twisted and maimed, but their faces are
+shining with pride and joy. The French General draws his sword and
+addresses them. One catches words like 'honneur' and 'patrie.' They
+lean forward on their crutches, hanging on every syllable which comes
+hissing and rasping from under that heavy white moustache. Then the
+medals are pinned on. One poor lad is terribly wounded and needs two
+sticks. A little girl runs out with some flowers. He leans forward and
+tries to kiss her, but the crutches slip and he nearly falls upon her.
+It was a pitiful but beautiful little scene.
+
+Now the British candidates march up one by one for their medals, hale,
+hearty men, brown and fit. There is a smart young officer of Scottish
+Rifles; and then a selection of Worcesters, Welsh Fusiliers and Scots
+Fusiliers, with one funny little Highlander, a tiny figure with a
+soup-bowl helmet, a grinning boy's face beneath it, and a bedraggled
+uniform. 'Many acts of great bravery'--such was the record for which he
+was decorated. Even the French wounded smiled at his quaint appearance,
+as they did at another Briton who had acquired the chewing-gum habit,
+and came up for his medal as if he had been called suddenly in the
+middle of his dinner, which he was still endeavouring to bolt. Then
+came the end, with the National Anthem. The British regiment formed
+fours and went past. To me that was the most impressive sight of any.
+They were the Queen's West Surreys, a veteran regiment of the great
+Ypres battle. What grand fellows! As the order came 'Eyes right,' and
+all those fierce, dark faces flashed round about us, I felt the might
+of the British infantry, the intense individuality which is not
+incompatible with the highest discipline. Much they had endured, but a
+great spirit shone from their faces. I confess that as I looked at
+those brave English lads, and thought of what we owe to them and to
+their like who have passed on, I felt more emotional than befits a
+Briton in foreign parts.
+
+       *        *        *        *        *
+
+Now the ceremony was ended, and once again we set out for the front. It
+was to an artillery observation post that we were bound, and once again
+my description must be bounded by discretion. Suffice it, that in an
+hour I found myself, together with a razor-keen young artillery
+observer and an excellent old sportsman of a Russian prince, jammed
+into a very small space, and staring through a slit at the German
+lines. In front of us lay a vast plain, scarred and slashed, with bare
+places at intervals, such as you see where gravel pits break a green
+common. Not a sign of life or movement, save some wheeling crows. And
+yet down there, within a mile or so, is the population of a city. Far
+away a single train is puffing at the back of the German lines. We are
+here on a definite errand. Away to the right, nearly three miles off,
+is a small red house, dim to the eye but clear in the glasses, which is
+suspected as a German post. It is to go up this afternoon. The gun is
+some distance away, but I hear the telephone directions. '"Mother" will
+soon do her in,' remarks the gunner boy cheerfully. 'Mother' is the
+name of the gun. 'Give her five six three four,' he cries through the
+'phone. 'Mother' utters a horrible bellow from somewhere on our right.
+An enormous spout of smoke rises ten seconds later from near the house.
+'A little short,' says our gunner. 'Two and a half minutes left,' adds
+a little small voice, which represents another observer at a different
+angle. 'Raise her seven five,' says our boy encouragingly. 'Mother'
+roars more angrily than ever. 'How will that do?' she seems to say.
+'One and a half right,' says our invisible gossip. I wonder how the
+folk in the house are feeling as the shells creep ever nearer. 'Gun
+laid, sir,' says the telephone. 'Fire!' I am looking through my glass.
+A flash of fire on the house, a huge pillar of dust and smoke--then it
+settles, and an unbroken field is there. The German post has gone up.
+'It's a dear little gun,' says the officer boy. 'And her shells are
+reliable,' remarked a senior behind us. 'They vary with different
+calibres, but "Mother" never goes wrong.' The German line was very
+quiet. 'Pourquoi ils ne repondent pas?' asked the Russian prince. 'Yes,
+they are quiet to-day,' answered the senior. 'But we get it in the neck
+sometimes.' We are all led off to be introduced to 'Mother,' who sits,
+squat and black, amid twenty of her grimy children who wait upon and
+feed her. She is an important person is 'Mother,' and her importance
+grows. It gets clearer with every month that it is she, and only she,
+who can lead us to the Rhine. She can and she will if the factories of
+Britain can beat those of the Hun. See to it, you working men and women
+of Britain. Work now if you rest for ever after, for the fate of Europe
+and of all that is dear to us is in your hands. For 'Mother' is a
+dainty eater, and needs good food and plenty. She is fond of strange
+lodgings, too, in which she prefers safety to dignity. But that is a
+dangerous subject.
+
+       *        *        *        *        *
+
+One more experience of this wonderful day--the most crowded with
+impressions of my whole life. At night we take a car and drive north,
+and ever north, until at a late hour we halt and climb a hill in the
+darkness. Below is a wonderful sight. Down on the flats, in a huge
+semi-circle, lights are rising and falling. They are very brilliant,
+going up for a few seconds and then dying down. Sometimes a dozen are
+in the air at one time. There are the dull thuds of explosions and an
+occasional rat-tat-tat. I have seen nothing like it, but the nearest
+comparison would be an enormous ten-mile railway station in full swing
+at night, with signals winking, lamps waving, engines hissing and
+carriages bumping. It is a terrible place down yonder, a place which
+will live as long as military history is written, for it is the Ypres
+Salient. What a salient it is, too! A huge curve, as outlined by the
+lights, needing only a little more to be an encirclement. Something
+caught the rope as it closed, and that something was the British
+soldier. But it is a perilous place still by day and by night. Never
+shall I forget the impression of ceaseless, malignant activity which
+was borne in upon me by the white, winking lights, the red sudden
+glares, and the horrible thudding noises in that place of death beneath
+me.
+
+
+II
+
+In old days we had a great name as organisers. Then came a long period
+when we deliberately adopted a policy of individuality and 'go as you
+please.' Now once again in our sore need we have called on all our
+power of administration and direction. But it has not deserted us. We
+still have it in a supreme degree. Even in peace time we have shown it
+in that vast, well-oiled, swift-running, noiseless machine called the
+British Navy. But now our powers have risen with the need of them. The
+expansion of the Navy has been a miracle, the management of the
+transport a greater one, the formation of the new Army the greatest of
+all time. To get the men was the least of the difficulties. To put them
+here, with everything down to the lid of the last field saucepan in its
+place, that is the marvel. The tools of the gunners, and of the
+sappers, to say nothing of the knowledge of how to use them, are in
+themselves a huge problem. But it has all been met and mastered, and
+will be to the end. But don't let us talk any more about the muddling
+of the War Office. It has become just a little ridiculous.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have told of my first day, when I visited the front trenches, saw the
+work of 'Mother,' and finally that marvellous spectacle, the Ypres
+Salient at night. I have passed the night at the headquarters of a
+divisional-general, Capper, who might truly be called one of the two
+fathers of the British flying force, for it was he, with Templer, who
+laid the first foundations from which so great an organisation has
+arisen. My morning was spent in visiting two fighting brigadiers,
+cheery weather-beaten soldiers, respectful, as all our soldiers are, of
+the prowess of the Hun, but serenely confident that we can beat him. In
+company with one of them I ascended a hill, the reverse slope of which
+was swarming with cheerful infantry in every stage of dishabille, for
+they were cleaning up after the trenches. Once over the slope we
+advanced with some care, and finally reached a certain spot from which
+we looked down upon the German line. It was the advanced observation
+post, about a thousand yards from the German trenches, with our own
+trenches between us. We could see the two lines, sometimes only a few
+yards, as it seemed, apart, extending for miles on either side. The
+sinister silence and solitude were strangely dramatic. Such vast crowds
+of men, such intensity of feeling, and yet only that open rolling
+countryside, with never a movement in its whole expanse.
+
+The afternoon saw us in the Square at Ypres. It is the city of a dream,
+this modern Pompeii, destroyed, deserted and desecrated, but with a
+sad, proud dignity which made you involuntarily lower your voice as you
+passed through the ruined streets. It is a more considerable place than
+I had imagined, with many traces of ancient grandeur. No words can
+describe the absolute splintered wreck that the Huns have made of it.
+The effect of some of the shells has been grotesque. One boiler-plated
+water-tower, a thing forty or fifty feet high, was actually standing on
+its head like a great metal top. There is not a living soul in the
+place save a few pickets of soldiers, and a number of cats which become
+fierce and dangerous. Now and then a shell still falls, but the Huns
+probably know that the devastation is already complete.
+
+We stood in the lonely grass-grown Square, once the busy centre of the
+town, and we marvelled at the beauty of the smashed cathedral and the
+tottering Cloth Hall beside it. Surely at their best they could not
+have looked more wonderful than now. If they were preserved even so,
+and if a heaven-inspired artist were to model a statue of Belgium in
+front, Belgium with one hand pointing to the treaty by which Prussia
+guaranteed her safety and the other to the sacrilege behind her, it
+would make the most impressive group in the world. It was an evil day
+for Belgium when her frontier was violated, but it was a worse one for
+Germany. I venture to prophesy that it will be regarded by history as
+the greatest military as well as political error that has ever been
+made. Had the great guns that destroyed Liege made their first breach
+at Verdun, what chance was there for Paris? Those few weeks of warning
+and preparation saved France, and left Germany as she now is, like a
+weary and furious bull, tethered fast in the place of trespass and
+waiting for the inevitable pole-axe.
+
+We were glad to get out of the place, for the gloom of it lay as heavy
+upon our hearts as the shrapnel helmets did upon our heads. Both were
+lightened as we sped back past empty and shattered villas to where,
+just behind the danger line, the normal life of rural Flanders was
+carrying on as usual. A merry sight helped to cheer us, for scudding
+down wind above our heads came a Boche aeroplane, with two British at
+her tail barking away with their machine guns, like two swift terriers
+after a cat. They shot rat-tat-tatting across the sky until we lost
+sight of them in the heat haze over the German line.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The afternoon saw us on the Sharpenburg, from which many a million will
+gaze in days to come, for from no other point can so much be seen. It
+is a spot forbid, but a special permit took us up, and the sentry on
+duty, having satisfied himself of our bona fides, proceeded to tell us
+tales of the war in a pure Hull dialect which might have been Chinese
+for all that I could understand. That he was a 'terrier' and had nine
+children were the only facts I could lay hold of. But I wished to be
+silent and to think--even, perhaps, to pray. Here, just below my feet,
+were the spots which our dear lads, three of them my own kith, have
+sanctified with their blood. Here, fighting for the freedom of the
+world, they cheerily gave their all. On that sloping meadow to the left
+of the row of houses on the opposite ridge the London Scottish fought
+to the death on that grim November morning when the Bavarians reeled
+back from their shot-torn line. That plain away on the other side of
+Ypres was the place where the three grand Canadian brigades, first of
+all men, stood up to the damnable cowardly gases of the Hun. Down
+yonder is Hill 60, that blood-soaked kopje. The ridge over the fields
+was held by the cavalry against two army corps, and there where the sun
+strikes the red roof among the trees I can just see Gheluveld, a name
+for ever to be associated with Haig and the most vital battle of the
+war. As I turn away I am faced by my Hull Territorial, who still says
+incomprehensible things. I look at him with other eyes. He has fought
+on yonder plain. He has slain Huns, and he has nine children. Could any
+one better epitomise the duties of a good citizen? I could have found
+it in my heart to salute him had I not known that it would have shocked
+him and made him unhappy.
+
+It has been a full day, and the next is even fuller, for it is my
+privilege to lunch at Headquarters, and to make the acquaintance of the
+Commander-in-chief and of his staff. It would be an invasion of private
+hospitality if I were to give the public the impressions which I
+carried from that charming chateau. I am the more sorry, since they
+were very vivid and strong. This much I will say--and any man who is a
+face reader will not need to have it said--that if the Army stands
+still it is not by the will of its commander. There will, I swear, be
+no happier man in Europe when the day has come and the hour. It is
+human to err, but never possibly can some types err by being backward.
+We have a superb army in France. It needs the right leader to handle
+it. I came away happier and more confident than ever as to the future.
+
+Extraordinary are the contrasts of war. Within three hours of leaving
+the quiet atmosphere of the Headquarters Chateau I was present at what
+in any other war would have been looked upon as a brisk engagement. As
+it was it would certainly figure in one of our desiccated reports as an
+activity of the artillery. The noise as we struck the line at this new
+point showed that the matter was serious, and, indeed, we had chosen
+the spot because it had been the storm centre of the last week. The
+method of approach chosen by our experienced guide was in itself a
+tribute to the gravity of the affair. As one comes from the settled
+order of Flanders into the actual scene of war, the first sign of it is
+one of the stationary, sausage-shaped balloons, a chain of which marks
+the ring in which the great wrestlers are locked. We pass under this,
+ascend a hill, and find ourselves in a garden where for a year no feet
+save those of wanderers like ourselves have stood. There is a wild,
+confused luxuriance of growth more beautiful to my eye than anything
+which the care of man can produce. One old shell-hole of vast diameter
+has filled itself with forget-me-nots, and appears as a graceful basin
+of light blue flowers, held up as an atonement to heaven for the
+brutalities of man. Through the tangled bushes we creep, then across a
+yard--'Please stoop and run as you pass this point'--and finally to a
+small opening in a wall, whence the battle lies not so much before as
+beside us. For a moment we have a front seat at the great world-drama,
+God's own problem play, working surely to its magnificent end. One
+feels a sort of shame to crouch here in comfort, a useless spectator,
+while brave men down yonder are facing that pelting shower of iron.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is a large field on our left rear, and the German gunners have
+the idea that there is a concealed battery therein. They are
+systematically searching for it. A great shell explodes in the top
+corner, but gets nothing more solid than a few tons of clay. You can
+read the mind of Gunner Fritz. 'Try the lower corner!' says he, and up
+goes the earth-cloud once again. 'Perhaps it's hid about the middle.
+I'll try.' Earth again, and nothing more. 'I believe I was right the
+first time after all,' says hopeful Fritz. So another shell comes into
+the top corner. The field is as full of pits as a Gruyere cheese, but
+Fritz gets nothing by his perseverance. Perhaps there never was a
+battery there at all. One effect he obviously did attain. He made
+several other British batteries exceedingly angry. 'Stop that tickling,
+Fritz!' was the burden of their cry. Where they were we could no more
+see than Fritz could, but their constant work was very clear along the
+German line. We appeared to be using more shrapnel and the Germans more
+high explosives, but that may have been just the chance of the day. The
+Vimy Ridge was on our right, and before us was the old French position,
+with the labyrinth of terrible memories and the long hill of Lorette.
+When, last year, the French, in a three weeks' battle, fought their way
+up that hill, it was an exhibition of sustained courage which even
+their military annals can seldom have beaten.
+
+And so I turn from the British line. Another and more distant task lies
+before me. I come away with the deep sense of the difficult task which
+lies before the Army, but with a deeper one of the ability of these men
+to do all that soldiers can ever be asked to perform. Let the guns
+clear the way for the infantry, and the rest will follow. It all lies
+with the guns. But the guns, in turn, depend upon our splendid workers
+at home, who, men and women, are doing so grandly. Let them not be
+judged by a tiny minority, who are given, perhaps, too much attention
+in our journals. We have all made sacrifices in the war, but when the
+full story comes to be told, perhaps the greatest sacrifice of all is
+that which Labour made when, with a sigh, she laid aside that which it
+had taken so many weary years to build.
+
+
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE ITALIAN ARMY
+
+
+One meets with such extreme kindness and consideration among the
+Italians that there is a real danger lest one's personal feeling of
+obligation should warp one's judgment or hamper one's expression.
+Making every possible allowance for this, I come away from them, after
+a very wide if superficial view of all that they are doing, with a deep
+feeling of admiration and a conviction that no army in the world could
+have made a braver attempt to advance under conditions of extraordinary
+difficulty.
+
+First a word as to the Italian soldier. He is a type by himself which
+differs from the earnest solidarity of the new French army, and from
+the businesslike alertness of the Briton, and yet has a very special
+dash and fire of its own, covered over by a very pleasing and
+unassuming manner. London has not yet forgotten Durando of Marathon
+fame. He was just such another easy smiling youth as I now see
+everywhere around me. Yet there came a day when a hundred thousand
+Londoners hung upon his every movement--when strong men gasped and
+women wept at his invincible but unavailing spirit. When he had fallen
+senseless in that historic race on the very threshold of his goal, so
+high was the determination within him, that while he floundered on the
+track like a broken-backed horse, with the senses gone out of him, his
+legs still continued to drum upon the cinder path. Then when by pure
+will power he staggered to his feet and drove his dazed body across the
+line, it was an exhibition of pluck which put the little sunburned
+baker straightway among London's heroes. Durando's spirit is alive
+to-day, I see thousands of him all around me. A thousand such, led by a
+few young gentlemen of the type who occasionally give us object lessons
+in how to ride at Olympia, make no mean battalion. It has been a war
+of most desperate ventures, but never once has there been a lack of
+volunteers. The Tyrolese are good men--too good to be fighting in so
+rotten a cause. But from first to last the Alpini have had the
+ascendency in the hill fighting, as the line regiments have against the
+Kaiserlics upon the plain. Caesar told how the big Germans used to
+laugh at his little men until they had been at handgrips with them. The
+Austrians could tell the same tale. The spirit in the ranks is
+something marvellous. There have been occasions when every officer has
+fallen and yet the men have pushed on, have taken a position and then
+waited for official directions.
+
+But if that is so, you will ask, why is it that they have not made more
+impression upon the enemy's position? The answer lies in the
+strategical position of Italy, and it can be discussed without any
+technicalities. A child could understand it. The Alps form such a bar
+across the north that there are only two points where serious
+operations are possible. One is the Trentino Salient where Austria can
+always threaten and invade Italy. She lies in the mountains with the
+plains beneath her. She can always invade the plain, but the Italians
+cannot seriously invade the mountains, since the passes would only lead
+to other mountains beyond. Therefore their only possible policy is to
+hold the Austrians back. This they have most successfully done, and
+though the Austrians with the aid of a shattering heavy artillery have
+recently made some advance, it is perfectly certain that they can never
+really carry out any serious invasion. The Italians then have done all
+that could be done in this quarter. There remains the other front, the
+opening by the sea. Here the Italians had a chance to advance over a
+front of plain bounded by a river with hills beyond. They cleared the
+plain, they crossed the river, they fought a battle very like our own
+battle of the Aisne upon the slopes of the hills, taking 20,000
+Austrian prisoners, and now they are faced by barbed wire, machine
+guns, cemented trenches, and every other device which has held them as
+it has held every one else. But remember what they have done for the
+common cause and be grateful for it. They have in a year occupied some
+forty Austrian divisions, and relieved our Russian allies to that very
+appreciable extent. They have killed or wounded a quarter of a million,
+taken 40,000, and drawn to themselves a large portion of the artillery.
+That is their record up to date. As to the future it is very easy to
+prophesy. They will continue to absorb large enemy armies. Neither side
+can advance far as matters stand. But if the Russians advance and
+Austria has to draw her men to the East, there will be a tiger spring
+for Trieste. If manhood can break the line, then I believe the Durandos
+will do it.
+
+'Trieste o morte!' I saw chalked upon the walls all over North Italy.
+That is the Italian objective.
+
+And they are excellently led. Cadorna is an old Roman, a man cast in
+the big simple mould of antiquity, frugal in his tastes, clear in his
+aims, with no thought outside his duty. Every one loves and trusts him.
+Porro, the Chief of the Staff, who was good enough to explain the
+strategical position to me, struck me as a man of great clearness of
+vision, middle-sized, straight as a dart, with an eagle face grained
+and coloured like an old walnut. The whole of the staff work is, as
+experts assure me, moot excellently done.
+
+So much for the general situation. Let me descend for a moment to my
+own trivial adventures since leaving the British front. Of France I
+hope to say more in the future, and so I will pass at a bound to Padua,
+where it appeared that the Austrian front had politely advanced to meet
+me, for I was wakened betimes in the morning by the dropping of bombs,
+the rattle of anti-aircraft guns, and the distant rat-tat-tat of a
+maxim high up in the air. I heard when I came down later that the
+intruder had been driven away and that little damage had been done. The
+work of the Austrian aeroplanes is, however, very aggressive behind the
+Italian lines, for they have the great advantage that a row of fine
+cities lies at their mercy, while the Italians can do nothing without
+injuring their own kith and kin across the border. This dropping of
+explosives on the chance of hitting one soldier among fifty victims
+seems to me the most monstrous development of the whole war, and the
+one which should be most sternly repressed in future international
+legislation--if such a thing as international law still exists. The
+Italian headquarter town, which I will call Nemini, was a particular
+victim of these murderous attacks. I speak with some feeling, as not
+only was the ceiling of my bedroom shattered some days before my
+arrival, but a greasy patch with some black shreds upon it was still
+visible above my window which represented part of the remains of an
+unfortunate workman, who had been blown to pieces immediately in front
+of the house. The air defence is very skilfully managed however, and
+the Italians have the matter well in hand.
+
+My first experience of the Italian line was at the portion which I have
+called the gap by the sea, otherwise the Isonzo front. From a mound
+behind the trenches an extraordinary fine view can be got of the
+Austrian position, the general curve of both lines being marked, as in
+Flanders, by the sausage balloons which float behind them. The Isonzo,
+which has been so bravely carried by the Italians, lay in front of me,
+a clear blue river, as broad as the Thames at Hampton Court. In a
+hollow to my left were the roofs of Gorizia, the town which the
+Italians are endeavouring to take. A long desolate ridge, the Carso,
+extends to the south of the town, and stretches down nearly to the sea.
+The crest is held by the Austrians and the Italian trenches have been
+pushed within fifty yards of them. A lively bombardment was going on
+from either side, but so far as the infantry goes there is none of that
+constant malignant petty warfare with which we are familiar in
+Flanders. I was anxious to see the Italian trenches, in order to
+compare them with our British methods, but save for the support and
+communication trenches I was courteously but firmly warned off.
+
+The story of trench attack and defence is no doubt very similar in all
+quarters, but I am convinced that close touch should be kept between
+the Allies on the matter of new inventions. The quick Latin brain may
+conceive and test an idea long before we do. At present there seems to
+be very imperfect sympathy. As an example, when I was on the British
+lines they were dealing with a method of clearing barbed wire. The
+experiments were new and were causing great interest. But on the
+Italian front I found that the same system had been tested for many
+months. In the use of bullet proof jackets for engineers and other men
+who have to do exposed work the Italians are also ahead of us. One of
+their engineers at our headquarters might give some valuable advice. At
+present the Italians have, as I understand, no military representative
+with our armies, while they receive a British General with a small
+staff. This seems very wrong not only from the point of view of
+courtesy and justice, but also because Italy has no direct means of
+knowing the truth about our great development. When Germans state that
+our new armies are made of paper, our Allies should have some official
+assurance of their own that this is false. I can understand our keeping
+neutrals from our headquarters, but surely our Allies should be on
+another footing.
+
+Having got this general view of the position I was anxious in the
+afternoon to visit Monfalcone, which is the small dockyard captured
+from the Austrians on the Adriatic. My kind Italian officer guides did
+not recommend the trip, as it was part of their great hospitality to
+shield their guest from any part of that danger which they were always
+ready to incur themselves. The only road to Monfalcone ran close to the
+Austrian position at the village of Ronchi, and afterwards kept
+parallel to it for some miles. I was told that it was only on odd days
+that the Austrian guns were active in this particular section, so
+determined to trust to luck that this might not be one of them. It
+proved, however, to be one of the worst on record, and we were not
+destined to see the dockyard to which we started.
+
+The civilian cuts a ridiculous figure when he enlarges upon small
+adventures which may come his way--adventures which the soldier endures
+in silence as part of his everyday life. On this occasion, however, the
+episode was all our own, and had a sporting flavour in it which made it
+dramatic. I know now the feeling of tense expectation with which the
+driven grouse whirrs onwards towards the butt. I have been behind the
+butt before now, and it is only poetic justice that I should see the
+matter from the other point of view. As we approached Ronchi we could
+see shrapnel breaking over the road in front of us, but we had not yet
+realised that it was precisely for vehicles that the Austrians were
+waiting, and that they had the range marked out to a yard. We went down
+the road all out at a steady fifty miles an hour. The village was near,
+and it seemed that we had got past the place of danger. We had in fact
+just reached it. At this moment there was a noise as if the whole four
+tyres had gone simultaneously, a most terrific bang in our very ears,
+merging into a second sound like a reverberating blow upon an enormous
+gong. As I glanced up I saw three clouds immediately above my head, two
+of them white and the other of a rusty red. The air was full of flying
+metal, and the road, as we were told afterwards by an observer, was all
+churned up by it. The metal base of one of the shells was found plumb
+in the middle of the road just where our motor had been. There is no
+use telling me Austrian gunners can't shoot. I know better.
+
+It was our pace that saved us. The motor was an open one, and the three
+shells burst, according to one of my Italian companions who was himself
+an artillery officer, about ten metres above our heads. They threw
+forward, however, and we travelling at so great a pace shot from under.
+Before they could get in another we had swung round the curve and under
+the lee of a house. The good Colonel B. wrung my hand in silence. They
+were both distressed, these good soldiers, under the impression that
+they had led me into danger. As a matter of fact it was I who owed them
+an apology, since they had enough risks in the way of business without
+taking others in order to gratify the whim of a joy-rider. Barbariche
+and Clericetti, this record will convey to you my remorse.
+
+Our difficulties were by no means over. We found an ambulance lorry and
+a little group of infantry huddled under the same shelter with the
+expression of people who had been caught in the rain. The road beyond
+was under heavy fire as well as that by which we had come. Had the
+Ostro-Boches dropped a high-explosive upon us they would have had a
+good mixed bag. But apparently they were only out for fancy shooting
+and disdained a sitter. Presently there came a lull and the lorry moved
+on, but we soon heard a burst of firing which showed that they were
+after it. My companions had decided that it was out of the question for
+us to finish our excursion. We waited for some time therefore and were
+able finally to make our retreat on foot, being joined later by the
+car. So ended my visit to Monfalcone, the place I did not reach. I hear
+that two 10,000-ton steamers were left on the stocks there by the
+Austrians, but were disabled before they retired. Their cabin basins
+and other fittings are now adorning the Italian dug-outs.
+
+My second day was devoted to a view of the Italian mountain warfare in
+the Carnic Alps. Besides the two great fronts, one of defence
+(Trentino) and one of offence (Isonzo), there are very many smaller
+valleys which have to be guarded. The total frontier line is over four
+hundred miles, and it has all to be held against raids if not
+invasions. It is a most picturesque business. Far up in the Roccolana
+Valley I found the Alpini outposts, backed by artillery which had been
+brought into the most wonderful positions. They have taken 8-inch guns
+where a tourist could hardly take his knapsack. Neither side can ever
+make serious progress, but there are continual duels, gun against gun,
+or Alpini against Jaeger. In a little wayside house was the brigade
+headquarters, and here I was entertained to lunch. It was a scene that
+I shall remember. They drank to England. I raised my glass to Italia
+irredenta--might it soon be redenta. They all sprang to their feet and
+the circle of dark faces flashed into flame. They keep their souls and
+emotions, these people. I trust that ours may not become atrophied by
+self-suppression.
+
+The Italians are a quick high-spirited race, and it is very necessary
+that we should consider their feelings, and that we should show our
+sympathy with what they have done, instead of making querulous and
+unreasonable demands of them. In some ways they are in a difficult
+position. The war is made by their splendid king--a man of whom every
+one speaks with extraordinary reverence and love--and by the people.
+The people, with the deep instinct of a very old civilisation,
+understand that the liberty of the world and their own national
+existence are really at stake. But there are several forces which
+divide the strength of the nation. There is the clerical, which
+represents the old Guelph or German spirit, looking upon Austria as the
+eldest daughter of the Church--a daughter who is little credit to her
+mother. Then there is the old nobility. Finally, there are the
+commercial people who through the great banks or other similar agencies
+have got into the influence and employ of the Germans. When you
+consider all this you will appreciate how necessary it is that Britain
+should in every possible way, moral and material, sustain the national
+party. Should by any evil chance the others gain the upper hand there
+might be a very sudden and sinister change in the international
+situation. Every man who does, says, or writes a thing which may in any
+way alienate the Italians is really, whether he knows it or not,
+working for the King of Prussia. They are a grand people, striving most
+efficiently for the common cause, with all the dreadful disabilities
+which an absence of coal and iron entails. It is for us to show that we
+appreciate it. Justice as well as policy demands it.
+
+The last day spent upon the Italian front was in the Trentino. From
+Verona a motor drive of about twenty-five miles takes one up the valley
+of the Adige, and past a place of evil augury for the Austrians, the
+field of Rivoli. As one passes up the valley one appreciates that on
+their left wing the Italians have position after position in the spurs
+of the mountains before they could be driven into the plain. If the
+Austrians could reach the plain it would be to their own ruin, for the
+Italians have large reserves. There is no need for any anxiety about
+the Trentino.
+
+The attitude of the people behind the firing line should give one
+confidence. I had heard that the Italians were a nervous people. It
+does not apply to this part of Italy. As I approached the danger spot I
+saw rows of large, fat gentlemen with long thin black cigars leaning
+against walls in the sunshine. The general atmosphere would have
+steadied an epileptic. Italy is perfectly sure of herself in this
+quarter. Finally, after a long drive of winding gradients, always
+beside the Adige, we reached Ala, where we interviewed the Commander of
+the Sector, a man who has done splendid work during the recent
+fighting. 'By all means you can see my front. But no motorcar, please.
+It draws fire and others may be hit beside you.' We proceeded on foot
+therefore along a valley which branched at the end into two passes. In
+both very active fighting had been going on, and as we came up the guns
+were baying merrily, waking up most extraordinary echoes in the hills.
+It was difficult to believe that it was not thunder. There was one
+terrible voice that broke out from time to time in the mountains--the
+angry voice of the Holy Roman Empire. When it came all other sounds
+died down into nothing. It was--so I was told--the master gun, the vast
+42 centimetre giant which brought down the pride of Liege and Namur.
+The Austrians have brought one or more from Innsbruck. The Italians
+assure me, however, as we have ourselves discovered, that in trench
+work beyond a certain point the size of the gun makes little matter.
+
+We passed a burst dug-out by the roadside where a tragedy had occurred
+recently, for eight medical officers were killed in it by a single
+shell. There was no particular danger in the valley however, and the
+aimed fire was all going across us to the fighting lines in the two
+passes above us. That to the right, the Valley of Buello, has seen some
+of the worst of the fighting. These two passes form the Italian left
+wing which has held firm all through. So has the right wing. It is only
+the centre which has been pushed in by the concentrated fire.
+
+When we arrived at the spot where the two valleys forked we were
+halted, and we were not permitted to advance to the advance trenches
+which lay upon the crests above us. There was about a thousand yards
+between the adversaries. I have seen types of some of the Bosnian and
+Croatian prisoners, men of poor physique and intelligence, but the
+Italians speak with chivalrous praise of the bravery of the Hungarians
+and of the Austrian Jaeger. Some of their proceedings disgust them
+however, and especially the fact that they use Russian prisoners to dig
+trenches under fire. There is no doubt of this, as some of the men were
+recaptured and were sent on to join their comrades in France. On the
+whole, however, it may be said that in the Austro-Italian war there is
+nothing which corresponds with the extreme bitterness of our western
+conflict. The presence or absence of the Hun makes all the difference.
+
+Nothing could be more cool or methodical than the Italian arrangements
+on the Trentino front. There are no troops who would not have been
+forced back by the Austrian fire. It corresponded with the French
+experience at Verdun, or ours at the second battle of Ypres. It may
+well occur again if the Austrians get their guns forward. But at such a
+rate it would take them a long time to make any real impression. One
+cannot look at the officers and men without seeing that their spirit
+and confidence are high. In answer to my inquiry they assure me that
+there is little difference between the troops of the northern provinces
+and those of the south. Even among the snows of the Alps they tell me
+that the Sicilians gave an excellent account of themselves.
+
+That night found me back at Verona, and next morning I was on my way to
+Paris, where I hope to be privileged to have some experiences at the
+front of our splendid Allies. I leave Italy with a deep feeling of
+gratitude for the kindness shown to me, and of admiration for the way
+in which they are playing their part in the world's fight for freedom.
+They have every possible disadvantage, economic and political. But in
+spite of it they have done splendidly. Three thousand square kilometres
+of the enemy's country are already in their possession. They relieve to
+a very great extent the pressure upon the Russians, who, in spite of
+all their bravery, might have been overwhelmed last summer during the
+'durchbruch' had it not been for the diversion of so many Austrian
+troops. The time has come now when Russia by her advance on the Pripet
+is repaying her debt. But the debt is common to all the Allies. Let
+them bear it in mind. There has been mischief done by slighting
+criticism and by inconsiderate words. A warm sympathetic hand-grasp of
+congratulation is what Italy has deserved, and it is both justice and
+policy to give it.
+
+
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE FRENCH LINE
+
+
+I
+
+The French soldiers are grand. They are grand. There is no other word
+to express it. It is not merely their bravery. All races have shown
+bravery in this war. But it is their solidity, their patience, their
+nobility. I could not conceive anything finer than the bearing of their
+officers. It is proud without being arrogant, stern without being
+fierce, serious without being depressed. Such, too, are the men whom
+they lead with such skill and devotion. Under the frightful
+hammer-blows of circumstance, the national characters seem to have been
+reversed. It is our British soldier who has become debonair,
+light-hearted and reckless, while the Frenchman has developed a solemn
+stolidity and dour patience which was once all our own. During a long
+day in the French trenches, I have never once heard the sound of music
+or laughter, nor have I once seen a face that was not full of the most
+grim determination.
+
+Germany set out to bleed France white. Well, she has done so. France is
+full of widows and orphans from end to end. Perhaps in proportion to
+her population she has suffered the most of all. But in carrying out
+her hellish mission Germany has bled herself white also. Her heavy
+sword has done its work, but the keen French rapier has not lost its
+skill. France will stand at last, weak and tottering, with her huge
+enemy dead at her feet. But it is a fearsome business to see--such a
+business as the world never looked upon before. It is fearful for the
+French. It is fearful for the Germans. May God's curse rest upon the
+arrogant men and the unholy ambitions which let loose this horror upon
+humanity! Seeing what they have done, and knowing that they have done
+it, one would think that mortal brain would grow crazy under the
+weight. Perhaps the central brain of all was crazy from the first. But
+what sort of government is it under which one crazy brain can wreck
+mankind!
+
+If ever one wanders into the high places of mankind, the places whence
+the guidance should come, it seems to me that one has to recall the
+dying words of the Swedish Chancellor who declared that the folly of
+those who governed was what had amazed him most in his experience of
+life. Yesterday I met one of these men of power--M. Clemenceau, once
+Prime Minister, now the destroyer of governments. He is by nature a
+destroyer, incapable of rebuilding what he has pulled down. With his
+personal force, his eloquence, his thundering voice, his bitter pen, he
+could wreck any policy, but would not even trouble to suggest an
+alternative. As he sat before me with his face of an old prizefighter
+(he is remarkably like Jim Mace as I can remember him in his later
+days), his angry grey eyes and his truculent, mischievous smile, he
+seemed to me a very dangerous man. His conversation, if a squirt on one
+side and Niagara on the other can be called conversation, was directed
+for the moment upon the iniquity of the English rate of exchange, which
+seemed to me very much like railing against the barometer. My
+companion, who has forgotten more economics than ever Clemenceau knew,
+was about to ask whether France was prepared to take the rouble at face
+value, but the roaring voice, like a strong gramophone with a blunt
+needle, submerged all argument. We have our dangerous men, but we have
+no one in the same class as Clemenceau. Such men enrage the people who
+know them, alarm the people who don't, set every one by the ears, act
+as a healthy irritant in days of peace, and are a public danger in days
+of war.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+But this is digression. I had set out to say something of a day's
+experience of the French front, though I shall write with a fuller pen
+when I return from the Argonne. It was for Soissons that we made,
+passing on the way a part of the scene of our own early operations,
+including the battlefield of Villers Cotteret--just such a wood as I
+had imagined. My companion's nephew was one of those Guards' officers
+whose bodies rest now in the village cemetery, with a little British
+Jack still flying above them. They lie together, and their grave is
+tended with pious care. Among the trees beside the road were other
+graves of soldiers, buried where they had fallen. 'So look around--and
+choose your ground--and take your rest.'
+
+Soissons is a considerable wreck, though it is very far from being an
+Ypres. But the cathedral would, and will, make many a patriotic
+Frenchman weep. These savages cannot keep their hands off a beautiful
+church. Here, absolutely unchanged through the ages, was the spot where
+St. Louis had dedicated himself to the Crusade. Every stone of it was
+holy. And now the lovely old stained glass strews the floor, and the
+roof lies in a huge heap across the central aisle. A dog was climbing
+over it as we entered. No wonder the French fight well. Such sights
+would drive the mildest man to desperation. The abbe, a good priest,
+with a large humorous face, took us over his shattered domain. He was
+full of reminiscences of the German occupation of the place. One of his
+personal anecdotes was indeed marvellous. It was that a lady in the
+local ambulance had vowed to kiss the first French soldier who
+re-entered the town. She did so, and it proved to be her husband. The
+abbe is a good, kind, truthful man--but he has a humorous face.
+
+A walk down a ruined street brings one to the opening of the trenches.
+There are marks upon the walls of the German occupation.
+'Berlin--Paris,' with an arrow of direction, adorns one corner. At
+another the 76th Regiment have commemorated the fact that they were
+there in 1870 and again in 1914. If the Soissons folk are wise they
+will keep these inscriptions as a reminder to the rising generation. I
+can imagine, however, that their inclination will be to whitewash,
+fumigate, and forget.
+
+A sudden turn among some broken walls takes one into the communication
+trench. Our guide is a Commandant of the Staff, a tall, thin man with
+hard, grey eyes and a severe face. It is the more severe towards us as
+I gather that he has been deluded into the belief that about one out of
+six of our soldiers goes to the trenches. For the moment he is not
+friends with the English. As we go along, however, we gradually get
+upon better terms, we discover a twinkle in the hard, grey eyes, and
+the day ends with an exchange of walking-sticks and a renewal of the
+Entente. May my cane grow into a marshal's baton.
+
+      *        *        *        *        *
+
+A charming young artillery subaltern is our guide in that maze of
+trenches, and we walk and walk and walk, with a brisk exchange of
+compliments between the '75's' of the French and the '77's' of the
+Germans going on high over our heads. The trenches are boarded at the
+sides, and have a more permanent look than those of Flanders. Presently
+we meet a fine, brown-faced, upstanding boy, as keen as a razor, who
+commands this particular section. A little further on a helmeted
+captain of infantry, who is an expert sniper, joins our little party.
+Now we are at the very front trench. I had expected to see primeval
+men, bearded and shaggy. But the 'Poilus' have disappeared. The men
+around me were clean and dapper to a remarkable degree. I gathered,
+however, that they had their internal difficulties. On one board I read
+an old inscription, 'He is a Boche, but he is the inseparable companion
+of a French soldier.' Above was a rude drawing of a louse.
+
+I am led to a cunning loop-hole, and have a glimpse through it of a
+little framed picture of French countryside. There are fields, a road,
+a sloping hill beyond with trees. Quite close, about thirty or forty
+yards away, was a low, red-tiled house. 'They are there,' said our
+guide. 'That is their outpost. We can hear them cough.' Only the guns
+were coughing that morning, so we heard nothing, but it was certainly
+wonderful to be so near to the enemy and yet in such peace. I suppose
+wondering visitors from Berlin are brought up also to hear the French
+cough. Modern warfare has certainly some extraordinary sides.
+
+Now we are shown all the devices which a year of experience has
+suggested to the quick brains of our Allies. It is ground upon which
+one cannot talk with freedom. Every form of bomb, catapult, and trench
+mortar was ready to hand. Every method of cross-fire had been thought
+out to an exact degree. There was something, however, about their
+disposition of a machine gun which disturbed the Commandant. He called
+for the officer of the gun. His thin lips got thinner and his grey eyes
+more austere as we waited. Presently there emerged an extraordinarily
+handsome youth, dark as a Spaniard, from some rabbit hole. He faced the
+Commandant bravely, and answered back with respect but firmness.
+'Pourquoi?' asked the Commandant, and yet again 'Pourquoi?' Adonis had
+an answer for everything. Both sides appealed to the big Captain of
+Snipers, who was clearly embarrassed. He stood on one leg and scratched
+his chin. Finally the Commandant turned away angrily in the midst of
+one of Adonis' voluble sentences. His face showed that the matter was
+not ended. War is taken very seriously in the French army, and any sort
+of professional mistake is very quickly punished. I have been told how
+many officers of high rank have been broken by the French during the
+war. The figure was a very high one. There is no more forgiveness for
+the beaten General than there was in the days of the Republic when the
+delegate of the National Convention, with a patent portable guillotine,
+used to drop in at headquarters to support a more vigorous offensive.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+As I write these lines there is a burst of bugles in the street, and I
+go to my open window to see the 41st of the line march down into what
+may develop into a considerable battle. How I wish they could march
+down the Strand even as they are. How London would rise to them! Laden
+like donkeys, with a pile upon their backs and very often both hands
+full as well, they still get a swing into their march which it is good
+to see. They march in column of platoons, and the procession is a long
+one, for a French regiment is, of course, equal to three battalions.
+The men are shortish, very thick, burned brown in the sun, with never a
+smile among them--have I not said that they are going down to a grim
+sector?--but with faces of granite. There was a time when we talked of
+stiffening the French army. I am prepared to believe that our first
+expeditionary force was capable of stiffening any conscript army, for I
+do not think that a finer force ever went down to battle. But to talk
+about stiffening these people now would be ludicrous. You might as well
+stiffen the old Guard. There may be weak regiments somewhere, but I
+have never seen them.
+
+I think that an injustice has been done to the French army by the
+insistence of artists and cinema operators upon the picturesque
+Colonial corps. One gets an idea that Arabs and negroes are pulling
+France out of the fire. It is absolutely false. Her own brave sons are
+doing the work. The Colonial element is really a very small one--so
+small that I have not seen a single unit during all my French
+wanderings. The Colonials are good men, but like our splendid
+Highlanders they catch the eye in a way which is sometimes a little
+hard upon their neighbours. When there is hard work to be done it is
+the good little French piou-piou who usually has to do it. There is no
+better man in Europe. If we are as good--and I believe we are--it is
+something to be proud of.
+
+      *        *        *        *        *
+
+But I have wandered far from the trenches of Soissons. It had come on
+to rain heavily, and we were forced to take refuge in the dugout of the
+sniper. Eight of us sat in the deep gloom huddled closely together. The
+Commandant was still harping upon that ill-placed machine gun. He could
+not get over it. My imperfect ear for French could not follow all his
+complaints, but some defence of the offender brought forth a 'Jamais!
+Jamais! Jamais!' which was rapped out as if it came from the gun
+itself. There were eight of us in an underground burrow, and some were
+smoking. Better a deluge than such an atmosphere as that. But if there
+is a thing upon earth which the French officer shies at it is rain and
+mud. The reason is that he is extraordinarily natty in his person. His
+charming blue uniform, his facings, his brown gaiters, boots and belts
+are always just as smart as paint. He is the Dandy of the European war.
+I noticed officers in the trenches with their trousers carefully
+pressed. It is all to the good, I think. Wellington said that the
+dandies made his best officers. It is difficult for the men to get
+rattled or despondent when they see the debonair appearance of their
+leaders.
+
+Among the many neat little marks upon the French uniforms which
+indicate with precision but without obtrusion the rank and arm of the
+wearer, there was one which puzzled me. It was to be found on the left
+sleeve of men of all ranks, from generals to privates, and it consisted
+of small gold chevrons, one, two, or more. No rule seemed to regulate
+them, for the general might have none, and I have heard of the private
+who wore ten. Then I solved the mystery. They are the record of wounds
+received. What an admirable idea! Surely we should hasten to introduce
+it among our own soldiers. It costs little and it means much. If you
+can allay the smart of a wound by the knowledge that it brings lasting
+honour to the man among his fellows, then surely it should be done.
+Medals, too, are more freely distributed and with more public parade
+than in our service. I am convinced that the effect is good.
+
+      *        *        *        *        *
+
+The rain has now stopped, and we climb from our burrow. Again we are
+led down that endless line of communication trench, again we stumble
+through the ruins, again we emerge into the street where our cars are
+awaiting us. Above our heads the sharp artillery duel is going merrily
+forward. The French are firing three or four to one, which has been my
+experience at every point I have touched upon the Allied front. Thanks
+to the extraordinary zeal of the French workers, especially of the
+French women, and to the clever adaptation of machinery by their
+engineers, their supplies are abundant. Even now they turn out more
+shells a day than we do. That, however, excludes our supply for the
+Fleet. But it is one of the miracles of the war that the French, with
+their coal and iron in the hands of the enemy, have been able to equal
+the production of our great industrial centres. The steel, of course,
+is supplied by us. To that extent we can claim credit for the result.
+
+And so, after the ceremony of the walking-sticks, we bid adieu to the
+lines of Soissons. To-morrow we start for a longer tour to the more
+formidable district of the Argonne, the neighbour of Verdun, and itself
+the scene of so much that is glorious and tragic.
+
+
+
+II.
+
+There is a couplet of Stevenson's which haunts me, 'There fell a war in
+a woody place--in a land beyond the sea.' I have just come back from
+spending three wonderful dream days in that woody place. It lies with
+the open, bosky country of Verdun on its immediate right, and the chalk
+downs of Champagne upon its left. If one could imagine the lines being
+taken right through our New Forest or the American Adirondacks it would
+give some idea of the terrain, save that it is a very undulating
+country of abrupt hills and dales. It is this peculiarity which has
+made the war on this front different to any other, more picturesque and
+more secret. In front the fighting lines are half in the clay soil,
+half behind the shelter of fallen trunks. Between the two the main bulk
+of the soldiers live like animals of the woodlands, burrowing on the
+hillsides and among the roots of the trees. It is a war by itself, and
+a very wonderful one to see. At three different points I have visited
+the front in this broad region, wandering from the lines of one army
+corps to that of another. In all three I found the same conditions, and
+in all three I found also the same pleasing fact which I had discovered
+at Soissons, that the fire of the French was at least five, and very
+often ten shots to one of the Boche. It used not to be so. The Germans
+used to scrupulously return shot for shot. But whether they have moved
+their guns to the neighbouring Verdun, or whether, as is more likely,
+all the munitions are going there, it is certain that they were very
+outclassed upon the three days (June 10, 11, 12) which I allude to.
+There were signs that for some reason their spirits were at a low ebb.
+On the evening before our arrival the French had massed all their bands
+at the front, and, in honour of the Russian victory, had played the
+Marseillaise and the Russian National hymn, winding up with general
+shoutings and objurgations calculated to annoy. Failing to stir up the
+Boche, they had ended by a salute from a hundred shotted guns. After
+trailing their coats up and down the line they had finally to give up
+the attempt to draw the enemy. Want of food may possibly have caused a
+decline in the German spirit. There is some reason to believe that they
+feed up their fighting men at the places like Verdun or Hooge, where
+they need all their energy, at the expense of the men who are on the
+defensive. If so, we may find it out when we attack. The French
+officers assured me that the prisoners and deserters made bitter
+complaints of their scale of rations. And yet it is hard to believe
+that the fine efforts of our enemy at Verdun are the work of
+half-starved men.
+
+      *        *        *        *        *
+
+To return to my personal impressions, it was at Chalons that we left
+the Paris train--a town which was just touched by the most forward
+ripple of the first great German floodtide. A drive of some twenty
+miles took us to St. Menehould, and another ten brought us to the front
+in the sector of Divisional-General H. A fine soldier this, and heaven
+help Germany if he and his division get within its borders, for he is,
+as one can see at a glance, a man of iron who has been goaded to
+fierceness by all that his beloved country has endured. He is a man of
+middle size, swarthy, hawk-like, very abrupt in his movements, with two
+steel grey eyes, which are the most searching that mine have ever met.
+His hospitality and courtesy to us were beyond all bounds, but there is
+another side to him, and it is one which it is wiser not to provoke. In
+person he took us to his lines, passing through the usual shot-torn
+villages behind them. Where the road dips down into the great forest
+there is one particular spot which is visible to the German artillery
+observers. The General mentioned it at the time, but his remark seemed
+to have no personal interest. We understood it better on our return in
+the evening.
+
+Now we found ourselves in the depths of the woods, primeval woods of
+oak and beech in the deep clay soil that the great oak loves. There had
+been rain and the forest paths were ankle deep in mire. Everywhere, to
+right and left, soldiers' faces, hard and rough from a year of open
+air, gazed up at us from their burrows in the ground. Presently an
+alert, blue-clad figure stood in the path to greet us. It was the
+Colonel of the sector. He was ridiculously like Cyrano de Bergerac as
+depicted by the late M. Coquelin, save that his nose was of more
+moderate proportion. The ruddy colouring, the bristling feline
+full-ended moustache, the solidity of pose, the backward tilt of the head,
+the general suggestion of the bantam cock, were all there facing us as
+he stood amid the leaves in the sunlight. Gauntlets and a long
+rapier--nothing else was wanting. Something had amused Cyrano. His
+moustache quivered with suppressed mirth, and his blue eyes were
+demurely gleaming. Then the joke came out. He had spotted a German
+working party, his guns had concentrated on it, and afterwards he had
+seen the stretchers go forward. A grim joke, it may seem. But the
+French see this war from a different angle to us. If we had the Boche
+sitting on our heads for two years, and were not yet quite sure whether
+we could ever get him off again, we should get Cyrano's point of view.
+Those of us who have had our folk murdered by Zeppelins or tortured in
+German prisons have probably got it already.
+
+     *       *       *       *       *
+
+We passed in a little procession among the French soldiers, and viewed
+their multifarious arrangements. For them we were a little break in a
+monotonous life, and they formed up in lines as we passed. My own
+British uniform and the civilian dresses of my two companions
+interested them. As the General passed these groups, who formed
+themselves up in perhaps a more familiar manner than would have been
+usual in the British service, he glanced kindly at them with those
+singular eyes of his, and once or twice addressed them as 'Mes
+enfants.' One might conceive that all was 'go as you please' among the
+French. So it is as long as you go in the right way. When you stray
+from it you know it. As we passed a group of men standing on a low
+ridge which overlooked us there was a sudden stop. I gazed round. The
+General's face was steel and cement. The eyes were cold and yet fiery,
+sunlight upon icicles. Something had happened. Cyrano had sprung to his
+side. His reddish moustache had shot forward beyond his nose, and it
+bristled out like that of an angry cat. Both were looking up at the
+group above us. One wretched man detached himself from his comrades and
+sidled down the slope. No skipper and mate of a Yankee blood boat could
+have looked more ferociously at a mutineer. And yet it was all over
+some minor breach of discipline which was summarily disposed of by two
+days of confinement. Then in an instant the faces relaxed, there was a
+general buzz of relief and we were back at 'Mes enfants' again. But
+don't make any mistake as to discipline in the French army.
+
+Trenches are trenches, and the main specialty of these in the Argonne
+is that they are nearer to the enemy. In fact there are places where
+they interlock, and where the advanced posts lie cheek by jowl with a
+good steel plate to cover both cheek and jowl. We were brought to a
+sap-head where the Germans were at the other side of a narrow forest
+road. Had I leaned forward with extended hand and a Boche done the same
+we could have touched. I looked across, but saw only a tangle of wire
+and sticks. Even whispering was not permitted in these forward posts.
+
+      *        *        *        *        *
+
+When we emerged from these hushed places of danger Cyrano took us all
+to his dug-out, which was a tasty little cottage carved from the side
+of a hill and faced with logs. He did the honours of the humble cabin
+with the air of a seigneur in his chateau. There was little furniture,
+but from some broken mansion he had extracted an iron fire-back, which
+adorned his grate. It was a fine, mediaeval bit of work, with Venus, in
+her traditional costume, in the centre of it. It seemed the last touch
+in the picture of the gallant, virile Cyrano. I only met him this once,
+nor shall I ever see him again, yet he stands a thing complete within
+my memory. Even now as I write these lines he walks the leafy paths of
+the Argonne, his fierce eyes ever searching for the Boche workers, his
+red moustache bristling over their annihilation. He seems a figure out
+of the past of France.
+
+That night we dined with yet another type of the French soldier,
+General A., who commands the corps of which my friend has one division.
+Each of these French generals has a striking individuality of his own
+which I wish I could fix upon paper. Their only common point is that
+each seems to be a rare good soldier. The corps general is Athos with a
+touch of d'Artagnan. He is well over six feet high, bluff, jovial, with
+huge, up-curling moustache, and a voice that would rally a regiment. It
+is a grand figure which should have been done by Van Dyck with lace
+collar, hand on sword, and arm akimbo. Jovial and laughing was he, but
+a stern and hard soldier was lurking behind the smiles. His name may
+appear in history, and so may Humbert's, who rules all the army of
+which the other's corps is a unit. Humbert is a Lord Robert's figure,
+small, wiry, quick-stepping, all steel and elastic, with a short,
+sharp upturned moustache, which one could imagine as crackling with
+electricity in moments of excitement like a cat's fur. What he does or
+says is quick, abrupt, and to the point. He fires his remarks like
+pistol shots at this man or that. Once to my horror he fixed me with
+his hard little eyes and demanded 'Sherlock Holmes, est ce qu'il est un
+soldat dans l'armee Anglaise?' The whole table waited in an awful hush.
+'Mais, mon general,' I stammered, 'il est trop vieux pour service.'
+There was general laughter, and I felt that I had scrambled out of an
+awkward place.
+
+And talking of awkward places, I had forgotten about that spot upon the
+road whence the Boche observer could see our motor-cars. He had
+actually laid a gun upon it, the rascal, and waited all the long day
+for our return. No sooner did we appear upon the slope than a shrapnel
+shell burst above us, but somewhat behind me, as well as to the left.
+Had it been straight the second car would have got it, and there might
+have been a vacancy in one of the chief editorial chairs in London. The
+General shouted to the driver to speed up, and we were soon safe from
+the German gunners. One gets perfectly immune to noises in these
+scenes, for the guns which surround you make louder crashes than any
+shell which bursts about you. It is only when you actually see the
+cloud over you that your thoughts come back to yourself, and that you
+realise that in this wonderful drama you may be a useless super, but
+none the less you are on the stage and not in the stalls.
+
+      *        *        *        *        *
+
+Next morning we were down in the front trenches again at another
+portion of the line. Far away on our right, from a spot named the
+Observatory, we could see the extreme left of the Verdun position and
+shells bursting on the Fille Morte. To the north of us was a broad
+expanse of sunny France, nestling villages, scattered chateaux, rustic
+churches, and all as inaccessible as if it were the moon. It is a
+terrible thing this German bar--a thing unthinkable to Britons. To
+stand on the edge of Yorkshire and look into Lancashire feeling that it
+is in other hands, that our fellow-countrymen are suffering there and
+waiting, waiting, for help, and that we cannot, after two years, come a
+yard nearer to them--would it not break our hearts? Can I wonder that
+there is no smile upon the grim faces of these Frenchmen! But when the
+bar is broken, when the line sweeps forward, as most surely it will,
+when French bayonets gleam on yonder uplands and French flags break
+from those village spires--ah, what a day that will be! Men will die
+that day from the pure, delirious joy of it. We cannot think what it
+means to France, and the less so because she stands so nobly patient
+waiting for her hour.
+
+Yet another type of French general takes us round this morning! He,
+too, is a man apart, an unforgettable man. Conceive a man with a large
+broad good-humoured face, and two placid, dark seal's eyes which gaze
+gently into yours. He is young and has pink cheeks and a soft voice.
+Such is one of the most redoubtable fighters of France, this General of
+Division D. His former staff officers told me something of the man. He
+is a philosopher, a fatalist, impervious to fear, a dreamer of distant
+dreams amid the most furious bombardment. The weight of the French
+assault upon the terrible labyrinth fell at one time upon the brigade
+which he then commanded. He led them day after day gathering up Germans
+with the detached air of the man of science who is hunting for
+specimens. In whatever shell-hole he might chance to lunch he had his
+cloth spread and decorated with wild flowers plucked from the edge. If
+fate be kind to him he will go far. Apart from his valour he is
+admitted to be one of the most scientific soldiers of France.
+
+From the Observatory we saw the destruction of a German trench. There
+had been signs of work upon it, so it was decided to close it down. It
+was a very visible brown streak a thousand yards away. The word was
+passed back to the '75's' in the rear. There was a 'tir rapide' over
+our heads. My word, the man who stands fast under a 'tir rapide,' be he
+Boche, French or British, is a man of mettle! The mere passage of the
+shells was awe-inspiring, at first like the screaming of a wintry wind,
+and then thickening into the howling of a pack of wolves. The trench
+was a line of terrific explosions. Then the dust settled down and all
+was still. Where were the ants who had made the nest? Were they buried
+beneath it? Or had they got from under? No one could say.
+
+There was one little gun which fascinated me, and I stood for some time
+watching it. Its three gunners, enormous helmeted men, evidently loved
+it, and touched it with a swift but tender touch in every movement.
+When it was fired it ran up an inclined plane to take off the recoil,
+rushing up and then turning and rattling down again upon the gunners
+who were used to its ways. The first time it did it, I was standing
+behind it, and I don't know which moved quickest--the gun or I.
+
+French officers above a certain rank develop and show their own
+individuality. In the lower grades the conditions of service enforce a
+certain uniformity. The British officer is a British gentleman first,
+and an officer afterwards. The Frenchman is an officer first, though
+none the less the gentleman stands behind it. One very strange type we
+met, however, in these Argonne Woods. He was a French-Canadian who had
+been a French soldier, had founded a homestead in far Alberta, and had
+now come back of his own will, though a naturalised Briton, to the old
+flag. He spoke English of a kind, the quality and quantity being
+equally extraordinary. It poured from him and was, so far as it was
+intelligible, of the woolly Western variety. His views on the Germans
+were the most emphatic we had met. 'These Godam sons of'--well, let us
+say 'Canines!' he would shriek, shaking his fist at the woods to the
+north of him. A good man was our compatriot, for he had a very recent
+Legion of Honour pinned upon his breast. He had been put with a few men
+on Hill 285, a sort of volcano stuffed with mines, and was told to
+telephone when he needed relief. He refused to telephone and remained
+there for three weeks. 'We sit like a rabbit in his hall,' he
+explained. He had only one grievance. There were many wild boars in the
+forest, but the infantry were too busy to get them. 'The Godam
+Artillaree he get the wild pig!' Out of his pocket he pulled a picture
+of a frame-house with snow round it, and a lady with two children on
+the stoop. It was his homestead at Trochu, seventy miles north of
+Calgary.
+
+       *        *        *        *        *
+
+It was the evening of the third day that we turned our faces to Paris
+once more. It was my last view of the French. The roar of their guns
+went far with me upon my way. Soldiers of France, farewell! In your own
+phrase I salute you! Many have seen you who had more knowledge by which
+to judge your manifold virtues, many also who had more skill to draw
+you as you are, but never one, I am sure, who admired you more than I.
+Great was the French soldier under Louis the Sun-King, great too under
+Napoleon, but never was he greater than to-day.
+
+And so it is back to England and to home. I feel sobered and solemn
+from all that I have seen. It is a blind vision which does not see more
+than the men and the guns, which does not catch something of the
+terrific spiritual conflict which is at the heart of it.
+
+  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
+  --He is trampling out the vineyard where the grapes of wrath are stored.
+
+We have found no inspired singer yet, like Julia Howe, to voice the
+divine meaning of it all--that meaning which is more than numbers or
+guns upon the day of battle. But who can see the adult manhood of
+Europe standing in a double line, waiting for a signal to throw
+themselves upon each other, without knowing that he has looked upon the
+most terrific of all the dealings between the creature below and that
+great force above, which works so strangely towards some distant but
+glorious end?
+
+ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Visit to Three Fronts, by Arthur Conan Doyle
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