|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 53
But though it was a grand, it was an anxious moment for those who had
trained and shaped the New Armies of Britain. How would they bear
themselves, these hundreds of thousands of British and Imperial
volunteers, men, some of them, with the shortest possible training
compatible with efficiency--against the famous troops of Germany--beside
the veteran, the illustrious army of France?
Four hours after the fighting began, Sir Douglas Haig telegraphed: "Attack
launched north of River Somme this morning at 7.30 A.M. In conjunction
with French, British troops have broken into German forward system of
defences, on front of sixteen miles. Fighting is continuing. French attack
on our immediate right proceeding equally satisfactorily." Twelve hours
later, on the same day, when the summer night had fallen on the terrible
battle-field, the British Commander-in-Chief added:--"Heavy fighting has
continued all day between the rivers Somme and Ancre. On the right of our
attack we have captured the German labyrinth of trenches on a front of
seven miles to a depth of 1,000 yards, and have stormed and occupied the
strongly fortified villages of Montauban and Mametz. In the centre on a
front of four miles we have gained many strong points. North of the Ancre
Valley the battle has been equally violent, and in this area we have been
unable to retain portions of the ground gained in our first attacks, while
other portions remain in our possession.... Up to date, 2,000 German
prisoners have passed through our collecting stations. The large number of
the enemy dead on the battle-field indicate that the German losses have
been very severe."
So much for the first day's news. On the following day Fricourt was
captured; and the prisoners went up to 3,500, together with a quantity of
war material. Meanwhile the French on the right had done brilliantly,
capturing five villages, and 6,000 prisoners. The attack was well begun.
And the New Armies?--"Kitchener's Men"? "Whatever we have imagined of our
New Armies," says an eye-witness of the first day's battle, "they are
better than we can have ever dared to hope. Nothing has in any case
stopped them, except being killed." And a neutral who saw the attack on
Mametz told the same eye-witness that he had seen most of the fighting in
the world in recent years, and that he "did not believe a more gallant
feat was ever performed in war." The story of the British advance was
written "in the dead upon the ground, and in the positions as they stand."
"Nothing which the Japanese did in the Russian War" was more entirely
heroic.
But let me carry on the story.
On Tuesday, July 11th, Sir Douglas Haig reported: "After ten days and
nights of continuous fighting our troops have completed the methodical
capture of the whole of the enemy's first system of defence on a front of
14,000 yards.
"This system of defence consisted of numerous and continuous lines of
foretrenches, support trenches and reserve trenches, extending to various
depths of from 2,000 to 4,000 yards, and included five strongly fortified
villages, numerous heavily wired and intrenched woods, and a large number
of immensely strong redoubts."
The villages captured were Fricourt, Mametz, Montauban, La Boiselle, and
Contalmaison--the latter captured on July 10th, after particularly fierce
fighting. Every observer dwells on "the immense strength of the German
defences." "All the little villages and woods, each eminence and hollow,
have been converted into a fortress as formidable as the character of the
ground makes possible." The German has omitted nothing "that could protect
him against such a day as this."
Yet steadily, methodically, with many a pause for consolidation of the
ground gained, and for the bringing up of the heavy guns, the British
advance goes forward--toward Bapaume and Lille; while the French press
brilliantly on toward P�ronne--both movements aimed at the vital German
communications through France and Belgium. Every step of ground, as the
Allies gain it, "is wrecked with mines, torn with shell, and watered with
the blood of brave men." The wood-fighting, amid the stripped and gaunt
trunks rising from labyrinths of wire, is specially terrible; and below
the ground everywhere are the deep pits and dugouts, which have not only
sheltered the enemy from our fire, but concealed the machine-guns, which
often when our men have passed over, emerge and take them in the rear. The
German machine-guns seem to be endless; they are skilfully concealed, and
worked with the utmost ability and courage.
But nothing daunts the troops attacking day and night, in the name of
patriotism, of liberty, of civilisation. Men from Yorkshire and
Lancashire, from Northumberland, Westmoreland and Cumberland, the heart of
England's sturdy north; men from Sussex and Kent, from Somerset and Devon;
the Scotch regiments; the Ulster Division, once the Ulster Volunteers;
the men of Munster and Connaught; the town-lads of Manchester; the youths
of Cockney London:--all their names are in the great story. "There were no
stragglers--none!" says an officer, describing in a kind of wonder one of
the fierce wood-attacks. And these are not the seasoned troops of a
Continental Army. They belong to regiments and corps which did not exist,
except in name, eighteen months ago; they are units from the four-million
army that Great Britain raised for this struggle, before she passed her
Military Service Law. The "Old Army," the Expeditionary Force, which the
nation owed to the organising genius of Lord Haldane and his General
Staff, has passed away, passed into history, with the retreat from Mons,
the first victory of Ypres, the saving of the Channel ports; but its
spirit remains, and its traditions are firmly planted in the new
attackers. I think of the men I saw in March, during that long and weary
wait; of the desire--and the patience--in their eyes.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|