VIII. Summary
In addition to the continuous fighting in France and Flanders many tremendous and stirring events of world importance took place during the latter portion of 1915, to a few of which it may be advisable to refer briefly.
On the 3rd June a Bill was introduced in Parliament for the formation of a Ministry of Munitions, and after this event our people at war were much better fitted to compete with the enemy in weight and number of projectiles, in the number of aeroplanes, observation balloons and in other important items.
South-West Africa was finally conquered by Botha in July, and a great German offensive against Russia commenced.
There was fierce fighting in Gallipoli early in August and, on the 15th September, Kitchener was able to make the statement that eleven divisions of the new armies had now proceeded to the wars.
On the 28th a British victory was scored at Kut in Mesopotamia.
The 11th October saw Lord Derby’s new scheme of recruiting.
On the 15th of the same month Great Britain and Bulgaria were at war.
On the 11th November Lord Derby warned unmarried men of the likelihood of conscription becoming the law of the land should further recruiting prove unsatisfactory.
The Battle of Ctesiphon, twenty-five miles south-west of Baghdad, was fought on the 22nd. This was another victory for us, but our loss equalled one-third of our force. It resulted in the German Marshal, Von der Goltz, being placed in command in Mesopotamia.
The British retired to Kut on the 25th November, and the same day Salonica was selected as a base for a new theatre of war, some troops and much war material being landed at that port on the 4th December.
On the 5th the siege of Kut began, and on the 8th our troops were obliged to commence the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
On the 15th December, 1915, General Sir John French, the Commander-in-Chief of our armies in France and Flanders, resigned his appointment and returned to England to receive the plaudits of his fellow-countrymen and the well-earned promotion to the rank of Viscount. He took over the duties of Commander-in-Chief of the troops at home, and was succeeded abroad by the most illustrious of his glorious lieutenants, Sir Douglas Haig, a man in whom the whole army believed.
The 20th December saw the successful and skilfully arranged evacuation of Anzac and Suvla, the details for which were worked out by an old officer of the Buffs, Major-General Sir A. L. Lynden-Bell. Our Gallipoli army had fought most nobly. Whether the Peninsula ought ever to have been invaded at all or, being invaded, should have been abandoned, is not a question which can be discussed in this place. We all know, however, that the final collapse of the Turks was very greatly due to the preliminary handling they had experienced here before they finally met their masters in Palestine and Mesopotamia.
On the 27th January, 1916, conscription was introduced in England, and with the exception of brave lads who between the 4th August, 1914, and this date had sufficiently grown to be capable of bearing arms, and of other young men who, still in England, had had no opportunity yet of reaching a seat of war, the future drafts were to be composed of men who originally shirked the bloody work their brothers were engaged in and who now had no longer any option in the matter.
Roughly, very roughly, speaking, the bronze star marks the volunteer. Anyhow, a man with that decoration must have been one, though it does not follow that a soldier without it was necessarily a conscript. It is not fair to hint, nor is it a fact that the pressed man proved inferior in fighting value to the volunteer, notwithstanding the old proverb anent the matter, but the possession of the star carries with it and must carry in the minds of all, the admiration due to the civilian who, being untrained to the fighting trade, offered to face all dangers and a dreadful life, or probably painful death, for the safety and honour of Old England, as well as to the regular or Territorial soldier who was always prepared to do so when called upon.