Copyright, 1919, by ihe McClure News paper Syndicate For many years after this war, | perhaps in every gegeration that Tol- | lows the men who £ht in it, there | will be critiefsm and controversy | about its generalship. Mud will be | thrown---not in handsful, but in bucket-loads--upou the French and, | British generals, perhaps also upon | American generals, by officers and | men who believe that battalions were | . needlessly sacrificed in certain acs | tions; that horrible blunders were | Jugde from time to time, and that | victory might havé beéen gained at | less cost if thé strategy and tactics | of the High Command had been more | sclentific, and quicker in understand- | ing the enemy's weitkness or strength | in certain Plates on certain days. | © There I§ no man at present who can give exact judicial decisions upon the particular comduet of the generals in the fields, whoever they may be, be- cause a mass of minute and technical | evidence is required Before there can! be a summing up of defence or blame | in even a small &ction, still more in| a series of battles like those fought on the British front, and that is hard- ly available. All that is possible at | the! present time is to analyze In a} broad and general way the leading | qualities of our fommand, and to | touch upon some of the weaknesses and failures of the system, character! and actions of the commanders n this article | propose to put down, not in any dogmatic spirit, some of the conclusions 1 havé reached about British generalship, as far as 1 was able to observe it during the war. The official war correspondent with the British armies in 'the fleld, of whom I had the honor to be one, had considerable opportunity of gaug the quality of the generals in col- mand, becayse we visited their head- quarters constantly during the pro- gress of battles, had a close know- ledge of their staffs, and enjoyed per- sonal friendship with many of them who came as guests to our own mess or Invited us to theirs. From the point of view of personal character, no body of men could be more admirable, as great gentlemen « of the old-fashioned English type--- which is ® very good type too, in its own way, They had the easy dig- nity of men who belonged to good English, Irish and Scottish families, and who, for the most part, had been dedicated from youth to the profes- sion of arms, like their fathers and grandlathers;- as a hereditary caste. Many of them had served in India, Egypt and South Africa, and had gained distinction first of all in their young days by personal gallantry, and then by administrative talent ory prestige in their own profession, p Bar of History By Philip Gibbs mand, He wags intensely shy and reserved, shrinking {rom publicity fn an almost morbid way, and holding himself aloof from the human side of war He was constitutionally unable to\umake a dramatic gesture before a multitude, or to say easy, stirring things to officers and men {whom he reviewed, His shyness and reserve prevented "him also, I Shmyk, from knowing as much as he ought to have known about the opin- ions of officers and men and getting direct information from them. Un- fortunately, too, he held the supreme command of the British armies on the Werforn front when, in the bat- tle-fields of the Somme apd Flanders, of Pleardy and Artois, there was not much chance for wring strategy, but only for hammer strokes by the flesh and blood of men againgt fortress positions---the German trench sys- tems, twenty-five miles deep in tus- nelled earth-works and machine-gun dugouts--when the immensity of casualties among British troops was mt of all proportion to their gains f ground, so that our men's spirits evolted against these massacres of heir youth and they became eémbit- tered against the. generalsiip and staff work which directed these sac- rifieial actions There were 'times when thé sense f bitterness became intense, to the point of fury, so that a young staff other subjects which enter' largely into modern warfare, provided he has the greater quality of generalship, in- cluding personal magnetism as an in- fluence over the imagination of his troops, rapidity and sureness of judg- ment, and the intuitive sense of ac- tion which belongs alone to genius. Physically many of our generals were curiously alike. They were men turned fifty, with square jaws, tan ruddy faces, searching and rather stern grey eyes, closely cropped hair growing ' white, with a little white moustache neatly trimmed on the up- per lip. General Horne, of the First Army; General Byng, of the Third Army; General Rawlineon, of the Fourth Army; General Haldane, of the Sixth Army; General Halken, of the Rlev- enth Corps; General Snow, of the Seventh Corps, with many divisional generals like De Lisle, Nogent, Braithwaite, Ferguson, Congreve and Pinnie, could all be described in that way; in spite of marked individual difference, as all mother's sons differ from one another Mentally they had similar qualf ties They had unfailing physical courage--though. courage is.not put to the test much in modern general ship, which, above the rank of briga. dier, works far froin the actiial line of battle, unless it "slips" in the wrong direction. They were stern disciplinarians, and testa the quality of troops by thelr smartness in salut- ing and on parade, which did not ae- count for the fighting merit of the Australians. Most of them were conservative by political tradition and hereditary instinct, and conser- vative also in military ideas and methods. They distrusted the *'bril- lant" fellow and were inclined to think him unsafe; and they were not quick to allow young men to gain high command at the expense of their grey hair and experience They were industrious, able, conscientious men, never sparing themselves long hours of work for a life of ease, and because they were willing to sacrifice their own lives, if need be, for their country's sake, they demanded equal willingness of sacrifice from every of- ficer and man under their authority, having no mercy whatever for the slacker or the weakling, manfier, was like a red rag to a bull among battalion officers and men, and they desired his death exceed- 'ngly, exalting his little personality, dressed in a well-cut tunic and fawn- colored riding breeches and highly polished top boots, into the supreme folly of "the Staff" which made men attack impossible positions, sent down conflicting orders, issued a litter. of documents--called by an ugly nae ~--containing impracticable instrue- tions, to the torment of the adjutants and to the scorn of the troops. Thig prejudice against the staff was stack- ed high by the fires of passion and despair. A good deal of it was ut terly unjust, and even the jaunty young staff officer, with red tabs and polished boots, was often not quite such a fool as he looked, but a gal- lant fellow who had proved his pluek in the early days of the war, and was now doing his duty --about equal to the work of a boy clerk--with real industry and #n exaggerated sense of its importance. Personally and with utter honesty, I can pay high [tribute to many of our staff officers at divisional, corps and army head- quarters, because of their industry, efficiency and devotion to duty. And during the progress of battle I have seen them, hundreds of times, work. No General with Magnetism. It is unfortunate that among these British generals there was not one whose personality had that myster- ous but - essential quality of great generalship--inspiring large bodies of men with exalted enthusiasm, de- yotion and 'faith. It did not seem to matter very much to the men whether an army commander, a gment | / : 12 and some of them due to sheer, simple, regrettable stupidity. Early Desire to Gain Worthless Ground. o In the early days the outstanding fault of our generals, it seems to me, was their desire to gain ground which was utterly worthless when gained. They organized small at- tacks against strong positions, dread- fully costly to take, and after the desperate valor of men had seized a few yards of mangled earth, found that they had made another small salient, jutting out from their front in a V-shaped wedge, so that ff was & death-trap fop the men who had to hold it . This was done again and again, and I remember one distin- guished officer saying, with bitter irony, remembering how many off his {men had died, "Our generals must Jaye their little V's at any price, to Justify themselves at G.HQ." . in fhe battles of the Somme they attacked isolated objectives on nar- row. fronts, so that the enemy swept our men with fire by artillery con- centrated from all points, instead &f having to disperse his fire during a general attack on a wide front. In the days of trench warfare, when the enemy artillery was much stronger than ours and when his infantry strength was enormously greater, our generals insisted upon the British officer, in his red tabs, with a jaunty!troops adopting an "aggressive" at- titude, with the result that they were shot to pleces, Instead of adopting, like the French, a quiet and waiting attitude until the time came for a sharp and terrible blow. The bat- tles of Neuve Chapelle and Loos, in 1915, cost us thousands of casual- ties, and gave us no gain of any ac- count; and both generalship and staff work, in the opinion of most officers who know anything of those battles, grievously at fault, Men Had to Die That They Might Le: arn, After all, our generals had to learn their lessons, like the private soldier and the young staff officer; in condi- tions of warfare which had never been seen before--and'it was bad for the private soldier and the young bat- talion officer, who died so they might learn. As time went on staff work improved, and British generalship was less rash In optimism and less rigid jn ideas. I am certain from what I know-of war that the general- ship 'and staff work of the Second ArDY commanded by. General "-Sir Herbert Blummer ,was. as near pers fection as any human organization may be, and all British officers who served in that army will agree. Sir F A best fighting divisions sent to the re- i} Hef of Italy, and the lack of defen- iii us when he iii dred and fourteen divisions to our lj forty-eight. ili staff work was strained and broken | of communications between the fight. sive lines strong enough to check the onrush of such overwhelming odds as the enemy launched against ttacked with one hun- Duridg these bad days for a time, owing to the break-down ing units and headquarters, and what orders were given were often late, contradictory and impossible of fulfilment swing to a situation which changed from hour to hour. But in due time---in the last nick of time-- the dnemy was checked, and British generalship redeemed «ts reputation by the wonderful sweep back, when, in August of last year, after Foch had struck his deadly blow on the Marne, with French, American and British troops, the whole British line moved forward and gained a series of victories by repeated hammer strokes which, as Marshal . Foch de- clared, "broke the enemy to bits, Those last battles, lasting from August 8th to November 11th, were fine in generalship, and for the first time Sir Douglas Haig and his army staff were able to get the enemy on the run by a series of strategical and technical operations well - devised, and carried out to success with the help of the valor of 300.000 young boys who had come out to fill up the gaps in the old ranks, and with the gallant aid of two American divi- slons--the Twenty-seventh and the Thirtieth. They Were Justified. . So, after ar, in spite of all eriti- cism, British generalship was justi- fled, and they gained the last vieto- ries over the German generals--those professional war chjefs, who made more blunders than ours, in spite of all their science and all their power. In spite of what I have said in eriti- clsm---rather sweeping in its scope-= I must not be thought to deny the solid ability of many corps and divi- sional generals, though in my opin- fon they did not possess great geé- nius. Sir Julian Byng, . formerly com- manding the Canadian corps and af- terward the Third Army, was a man of firm will and some audacity of Imagination, and many qualities of the great soldier, General Holdane, of the Sixth Corps, who formerly commanded the glorious old Third division, splendid in a score of bat- tles, is a man of keen intellect, vital enerby and ruthless purpose. Gen- eral Harper, of the Fourth Corps, known affectionately as "Uncle Har per," when he commanded the Fifty- first Highland Division, of deathless renown in this war, impressed me as a.soldier of strong character and de. cision, and had the trust of his men. General Nugent, of the Thirty-sixth (Ulster) Division, and __ General Hickey, of the Sixteenth (Irish) Di- Te PAGES 190 ----Se ig & ders. the Tank Corps, proved himself to be a man of extraordinary merit in or- ganization of those new fighting ma- chines, with a simple nobility of soul which endeared him to all his offi cers. . » There were many other able, con- scientious, gallant men commanding our. divisions What mainly was wrong with British generalship was thé system which put the high com- mand into 'the hands of a group of men belonging to the old school of war, unable, by reason of their age and traditions, to get away from rigid methods and to become elastic in face of new conditions. Our staff college had been hope- lessly inefficient ifi its system of training, if 1 am justified in forming such an opinion from some specimens produced by it, who had the brains of canaries and the manners of Pots- dam .* Thege was also a close corpo- ration amon the officers of the regular army, so that they took the lion's share of staff appointments, thus keeping out brilliant young men of the newer armies, whose brain- power; to say the least of it, was on a higher level than that of the Sand- hurst standard. Here and there, where the unprofessional soldier ob- tained a chance of high command or staff authority, he proved the value of the business mind applied to war, and this was seén very clearly-- blindingly--in the ablé generalship of the Australian corps, | which most of thé commanders, like Gen- erals Hobbs, Monash and others,were men jn civil life before the war. The same thing was observed in the Ca- nadian corps, General Clrrie, the corps commander, having been an: estate agent, and many of his high officers having had no military train- Ing of any scientific importance be- fore they handled their own men in France and Flanders This war, however, was nt won by great generalship, either among the British, French or American ar- mies. It was won. by the valor of the private soldiers and their young regimental officers. It was won by the faith and spirit of sacrifice of gallant youth, who, in spite of tragic blunde an frightful slaughter, fought-thei¥ way to victory. Notes from Bath, ° Bath, May 8-<Born on Sunday, May 4th, to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Osborne, a son. The schooner Mer- rill, which was on m shoal near Fair- haven, N.Y., will be here in a day or two with a cargo of coal for Overton, Ball, Mrs. Frederick Bicknell, of Boise, Idaho, visited her cousin, O. Ball, on Thursday. Robert Mott is laid up this week with an attack of sciatica. The devil bas a mortgage on some men who sing of "mansions in the skies." General Elles,s commanding SSED REGRET For the sinking of the Sussex, three years ago today, May 10, 1916. Find another German. YESTERDAY'S ANSWER Upside dawn nose at shoulder. News From Oatyraqui. Cataraqui, May §---A successful concert was held in the township hall here on Easter Monday under -the auspices of the Ladies' Ald, $90 was realized. J. 'Wise Is building a store house fér flour and feed. Born to Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Simpson, a daughter. Mrs. C. Horne, Brie, Pa.. is visiting her sister, Mrs. H., 0. Simpson. Captain A. K. Copnolly, M.D., an old Cataraqui boy, who has been doing hospital work oversess for over two years, wds calling on some old acquaintances here last week, He was on his way to his home in Sal- mon Arm, B.C. Evelyn Kiser, Tor- onto, is here with her mother who has been quite ill. Warden Edwards and Norman Kelly, at Queen's and E. Riley and H. Cooke at Guelph, passed their examinations. hi 'N. Bunker, Ottawa, is the guest of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Smythe, Sunnyside. Mrs. Wymdn Rowe is staying with Mrs. D. Smith, R. Cur: ran has returned from New Jersey, where he went to attend the funer- al of his cousin, Dr. H, Orser. 'There's a difference in making re- vision, _yere fine divisional comman- ligion a convenience or a virtue. hg Effective: sériiond ars every day 'without use of ' fvered ~ ing desperately for long hours, with- | Herbért Plumer did, I think, more out much rest or sleep, so that the | Bearly approach the position of a fighting men should get their food | leader of men by personality, than and munitions, so that the "artillery | 20y other commander I ean mention, should support their actions, and the | except perhaps General Birdwood-- Toops in reserve move Ap to their | Known to all his men as "Birdie," be- relief at the proper timé and. place. | cause of his dapper figure--who od down thelr ranks. 'bo "hon All the administrative side of our Commanded Fir astealinn PU cheers broke from them because We | WAT Was quite marvellous in its | Plumer"s ol on a was 'there, us when Wellington sat | method and organization, and the ar. | eyes or Penge 4 ai ih ro Bint on his white horse in the Peninsdlar | 0168 were worked lke clock-work | they 1 28 him on fous for war, or as when Napoleon, saluted his |achines. The transport was good | chiefly at ae ad a. gr them Old Guard, 'or even as.when Lord |be¥ond all words of praise, and there | their con on 2n¢ never rE Roberts, "Our Bobs," came perched | Was one thing which never failed to | down in 3 i ade oe x like a little old falcon on his big |*each Door old Tommy Atkins, un- | must be done (0 insure success in charger, Nine men out of ten in |les8 he was cut off by shell-fire ,and y s § . J ou th 1917 was the ranks did not even know the shat on his Jota. The moter sup- the ri porteotly Porganized battle > name of thelr army general or of the [DIE SOME and ammunition dumps "0 to") oa at vthing and was a owing corps commander. It meant noth-]| Were organized to the last item of ef- reat and complete ¥ietory, ing to them. They did not face | fcleney. ur 20 ap departinent wha entirely to preliminary preparations h | of all details; - Sir Herbert Plumer death with more passionate courage | Magnificent, the French, Oar intellizence branc ] trv apoval om lary 14 1h, rath, OU nebinnge Brac | SLM teil, uF Sri Cbs of. modern warfare, 'which make it | 20st uncanny in the accuracy of its | by a Chief of Staff bib bi hiv hoi difficult for generals of high rank to | information about the enemy's dis- | plus, and was, in ny ro gt 4 ul hi get into direct personal touch with | Position and plans. Sorthat the staff | the oné sustaining T8.0 or oH pl their troops,and to the masses of men | WaS not altogether hopeless in jts et-| sh armies ln the fa ds, 't as an engaged. But those difficulties | fect. as the young battalion officers, | known io Bopular Ame. Sad could have been overcome by a gen-| With sharp tongues. and a sense of | Sir John Harington, who Ae Pain eral of impressive personality, able | Injustice in their hearts, made odt, | like a sharp sword, Ppt hire t the imaginations of men by | With patdonable blasphemy, In thefr | 8rasp of detail, and a fine nobility of e. Slr 'Lhe lipagin y character which was ike a fame or Colone tch- dugouts. Jo ohn Tein Ww ot_the nam Nevertheless, there was a good | burning endeavor. . [deal to criticise justly enough, and | ell, directing the intelligence branch venture tory Selued by dar-|ihere is no doubt that British-gene- | of the Second Army, was also man sich man appea on the Western | 8iship and staff work made many |Of outstanding ability, and many oth- Front until Foch obtained the su-| mistakes, some of them no doubt un-| er staff officers in that army were The "social pull" had heen d ed during the South Africaw war, and certainly in this war there were no society favor nf o High Com- mand owing the! n \to_pett}- coat or aristoer: Influence in ex- alted places, ' I id, therp was a certain clannishness of . command, due to the influence of the cavalry as the premier bra of the army. This was not by the number of cavalry 'generals among the mili- tary chiefs, .Six John _ (afterward Lord) French a * Douglas Haig, both our inders-in-chief, being of the cavalry schaol of training and tradition. = In a wir which depend- ed less upon cav (as far as the 'Western Front was concerned) than any war in history, this perhaps was unfortunate, though no commander- {u.chief ness atemifechuient know, OUCH! CORNS! al LIFT CORNS OFF dorps eom der or a divisi I com- mander stood in the roadside to see them miargh past on their way to bat- tle, or on their way back. They Siw one of .thes sturdy men in his "brass hat," with his ruddy face and white moustache, but no thrill pgss- brilliant and able men. Doesn't hurt a bit to lift that sore, touchy com off with fingers : préme command. . On the British | 8Y0idable, because it is human to front there was no general with the gift -of speech---- a gift too much .de- spised by our British men of action ---or with a character ant prestige which could raise him to the service rank In popular imagination. Dur ing the retreat from Mons, Sir John | French had a touch of that personal power--his presence meant some- thing to the men because of his repu- tation in South Africa; but after ward, when trench w and the daily routine under tillery was weak, and when fantry was reduced t& attack out adequate support and not a dog's | words. chance of luck against such odds, |guntleman who moved here recently the prestige of the commander-in-| from Maidstone, makes the state- chief faded from men's minds and he | ment without hesitation. lost place in their adm rétion. It from was washed out in blood and mud. J 6 The effect of such staff work was ighout' the army, and ry little of that hostility between battalion officers and the staff which was 'violent In' expression men. rible mess of blood and mud on, the way from Ypres t to Passch ~ ~ Hap | Do Wish Vacation Were Here So I Could Get a Rest" ? ~~ * carry them th