Category: History - British
It was the task of General Headquarters to try to see the War as a whole, to obtain a knowledge not only of the strictly military situation but, to an extent, also of the moral and the political situation of the enemy and of our own forces. In the later stages of the campaign...
The disappointments of 1916 and 1917--The collapse of Russia--The Cambrai Battle--The German propaganda--Fears of irresolution at Home--Reassurances from Home--Effects of the Su...
4. CHAPTER IV.There was precious little play-time at G.H.Q. But there was some. It was spent very innocently; not to say stodgily. A walk on the Ramparts was the chief recreation of the great...
16. CHAPTER XVI.There are many claimants for the honour of being the War Winner. When I was in Italy in February, 1918, I found a very genuine belief there that the Italians were the genuine wa...
7. CHAPTER VII.A happy lot--The mud season in Flanders--The effects of mustard gas--The character of the mule--Forage difficulties--The French object to our horse ration--The Americans side wi...
6. CHAPTER VI.The magic-workers of the war--Fighting the Germans--Concerning the Victorian primness of conversation and the present popularity of "v.d." as a theme for small talk--The Army an...
17. CHAPTER XVII.Was G.H.Q. at fault?--Where we could best afford to lose ground--Refugees complicate the situation--Stark resolution of the French--All the Pas-de-Calais to be wrecked if necess...
3. CHAPTER III.To the very end of the war, no doubt, an occasional young regimental officer could be found who knew exactly what G.H.Q. did: "They swanked about in Red Tabs and cars: had a gor...
20. CHAPTER XX.By June, 1918, it was fairly evident that the German attack to drive the British to the sea had exhausted itself. The enemy had attempted to push through along the Somme line, s...
1. CHAPTER I.It was the task of General Headquarters to try to see the War as a whole, to obtain a knowledge not only of the strictly military situation but, to an extent, also of the moral...
11. CHAPTER XI.The Great War revived, to a degree that few dream of, methods of very old campaigns, when the hero had his attendant myrmidons and the Spartan foot soldier his helots. Study a "...
9. CHAPTER IX.There is a sort of grim pleasantry in the fact that the German submarine war, which was to bring Great Britain to her knees, only brought her to a school of economy where she le...
13. CHAPTER XIII.It was quite a little Parliament in its way, the Officers' Club at Montreuil, and one of its pet subjects of discussion was the Dominion soldier and the effect that the campaign...
12. CHAPTER XII.What G.H.Q. thought of the "Temporaries"--Old prejudices and their reason--The material of the "New Armies"--Some "New Army" Officers who did not play the game--The Regular Army...
5. CHAPTER V.As soon as any subject is involved in political discussion the facts about it are apt to be distorted in the interests of some particular view. The "Shell shortage" in the early...
8. CHAPTER VIII.The financial side of the B.E.F. was one of the triumphs of G.H.Q. "Yes, in spending money," someone may remark, thinking gloomily over his Income Tax assessment. But the triump...
2. CHAPTER II.How the Montreuillois once learned to hate the English--Early history of the famous town--Its link with the early Roman-British Empire--A border town in the Anglo-French Wars--W...
14. CHAPTER XIV.In the last phase of the war G.H.Q. saw a remarkable new development in Army organisation: the inclusion of civic education as part of the soldier's Army course. Before this war...
10. CHAPTER X."There has never been an army that had more chaplains, or that needed them less." That was the verdict of one American observer on the British Army--a sound one. The British Arm...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.How a motor lorry waited at the Ecole Militaire to take away the maps to the Coast--The Motor Lorry Reserve--An "appreciation" of the position--Germany lost the War in the first...
19. CHAPTER XIX.The "unity of command" achieved in the Spring of 1918 caused hardly a ripple of comment at G.H.Q. Some days after it had happened we learned that Lord Milner (then Secretary of...