A Visit to Three Fronts: June 1916

MP3 Audio CD. A Visit to Three Fronts: June 1916

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