INTRODUCTION.
THIS small portrait gallery of British generals represents, in fair epitome, the drama of British history. Each of the officers who figure here has behind him a varied story of fighting in strange places, under all sorts of conditions, as well as in the tense atmosphere of modern scientific war; each of them has first had to struggle against heavy odds before arriving at the conditions which at present obtain on the Western front. Infantrymen, cavalrymen, artillerists, they have come through a fiery trial to command large bodies of troops in the most terrible struggle of our history.
The part of their story that is concerned in this war is memorable, and may we not say it, memorably fine? For these are not the leaders of that vast host whose shadow has hung over Europe for so many years, whose numbers and efficiency have been the evil dream of the international situation; but of that small contingent that, for an ideal, took the field light-heartedly, against the vast German horde. Even the Belgian army was more numerous than the Expeditionary Force that struck its first blow before Mons; and these leaders have memories of the days when it was the equal in nothing, save undaunted courage and tactical ability, of the army in whose path it stood.
They have seen every type of fighting. The war of movements with its swift changes and long hazards was their first experience, an experience that none of those who took part in it will ever forget. For some terrible days the British army stood between the Allies and disaster; but the experience it bought was handed on to the enemy in a series of engagements, the lesson of which he softens by proclaiming the first seven divisions to have been unique. The admission is sufficiently revealing, for the handful of troops ought to have been crushed at Mons; or, escaping thence, should have been penned into Maubeuge; or, evading that trap, should have met annihilation at Le Cateau. But they fought coolly, were manœuvred skilfully, saving themselves by sheer fighting ability from the tide which threatened to overwhelm them.
Only consummate leaders could have taken an army to the Marne. The army ought to have been wiped out long before. The Germans had fully resolved upon it, they had the men and guns to encompass it, their long-perfected plans depended upon it. The British, wearied by the pressure of a hurried retreat, fought almost without cover against a great concentration of guns. But not only did they fight with superb spirit; they fought also with that instinctive appreciation of tactics which comes from perfectly assimilated experience. When the German blow had over reached itself, the British Generals were able to advance, threaten the left wing of Von Kluck's army when his right was dealing with General Manoury's outflanking movement on the Ourcq, outmanœuvre and outfight the enemy on the Aisne and secure tactical advantages of the first importance. In the victory of the Marne not the least wonderful of many arresting features was this effective recoil of the army which the Germans had announced to be "dispersed" ten days before.
After the battle of the Aisne, the army, moved en bloc from the heart of France, where the war of positions was beginning to develop, appeared on the extreme left flank of the Allied forces, manœuvring towards the East in the effort to outflank the Germans. Here, out of a struggle of cross-purposes, there emerged, little by little, the outlines of a titanic battle for the possession of the Channel coast. The Belgian army had fallen back from Antwerp upon the sea, covered by an army corps pushed from the coast in a precarious venture towards Bruges and Ghent; and the handful of British divisions stood between the picked troops of the Germans and the goal they had failed to value before it was lost. Many of these generals tasted the bitter savour of those days when it seemed impossible that flesh and blood could withstand the unceasing onslaught of ever fresh troops—of the Bavarians, the Guard, and picked Prussian regiments—and of the pounding of an overwhelming weight of metal. German critics have said that this army was one of non-commissioned officers, and certainly not even the racial stubbornness could have saved the situation if it had not been wedded to high ability, if undaunted courage had not been equalled by the resolute skill of the command. The first battle of Ypres was the first in which the Germans and the British fought à outrance, and no one to-day is ignorant of the result. The Germans broke off the engagement and thereby acknowledged their defeat. The British had not turned the line. That was impossible with their resources. But they had held the Germans off from their goal and inflicted upon them one of the bloodiest defeats in history.
Henceforward the war presented a different problem to the command. The last battle of the war of movements on the Western front had been fought for the time being and the war of positions held sway. In the months that followed, Britain had to build up an army commensurate with the task she had assumed. For every soldier of the pre-war army she had to find about ten, and her generals had to teach the new armies their business. The action of Neuve Chapelle showed the British army making its début in one of those carefully-planned limited attacks against entrenched positions which have been developed, with growing experience, out of all recognition. Loos was a more ambitious venture. In it there appeared volunteer troops to astound seasoned veterans by their dash and discipline. But the lessons of Neuve Chapelle had not been perfectly digested and too much was attempted. The result, in its larger aspect, was less achievement than the promise of overwhelming success in the future. In these two battles the British commanders firmly grasped the elements of the problem that confronted them, and proved the worth of the new Armies. They were to apply this knowledge in the most mighty battle the world has seen.
It was the battle of the Somme that first revealed the true formidableness of the new British armies. The opening of this terrific campaign was pitched for the fifth month of the Verdun struggle. The offensive against modern entrenchments seemed to be in eclipse. Four months' pounding by the seried masses of the German guns and carefully arranged assaults by picked troops had failed to reach the enemy objective. The deduction that seemed inevitable was that the offensive was bound to be extremely costly and productive of little. It was in this atmosphere the Somme battle opened against positions that had been elaborated by two years of care and cunning. The course of that bitterly contested campaign re-established the offensive as a paying proposition. All manner of engagements were fought out in that area. Some positions were carried at the point of the bayonet. Others were encircled so that the garrisons had to evacuate them or choose between annihilation and capture. But, by whatever means, one fell after another. The experience gained was assimilated and the armies marched from strength to strength. On at least one occasion the British were only cheated of a decisive and overwhelming victory by an unkindly fate that brought bad weather when the armies were straining to go forward. A flank was opened in the German lines and through it the German army steadily bled away until an unwonted prudence conquered Prussian pride and the great strategic retreat was carried out. By that retreat, carried out under the compulsion of the British army, the Germans admitted to the world the strategic nature of the Somme campaign success.
By the retreat the Germans hoped to gain a respite. The victory of Vimy Ridge was the unwelcome reality to which that dream materialized. This position was one that was formidable from its natural conformation to begin with, and it had been turned into an obstacle which almost justified the German confidence in its impregnability. The assaulting troops had the advantage of only a limited surprise. The Ridge overlooked the British positions, and little could be done between Arras and La Bassée that was not detected by the German observers. Yet in two days the position was carried with 11,000 prisoners and 100 guns. And it was but three weeks since the enemy had carried out the retreat that was to cut the ground from under the British plans. The British losses were comparatively light; everyone could see that if the battle were to become a precedent, the decisive defeat of Germany was assured.
Just two months later, the capture of Messines Ridge proved conclusively that the success could be repeated against another of the strongest sectors of the line. But the victory on this occasion was even more remarkable. The position was so advantageous to the Germans that the enemy troops had been urged to fight to the last. The ridge overlooked the whole of the Ypres salient which had been held so staunchly against every handicap. The assault differed greatly from that on the Vimy Ridge. The tactics were different in detail though the outlines were the same; but the attack was equally kept under the control of the command and swept forward to a similar success. These two battles of the 1917 Campaign made it clear that the British had solved the general problem of the German defensive, and at the same time they revealed the intimate dependence of victory upon the control of the commanders. In a war that seemed to be given over to mechanics, engineering and physics, that was frequently regarded as a mathematical problem, they showed that leadership is still the paramount factor in the art of warfare.
Such then is the versatility of these leaders. The war has cast upon them the burden of meeting every sort of warfare. They have come triumphantly through the ordeal, winning a grudging praise from the enemy, and the more unmistakeable approval of attempts at imitation. They have shown themselves as resourceful in devising new machines and methods of attack as they are experienced in the orthodox fighting of other days. The war may have new experiences for them, but it cannot daunt or check them. They have seen the worst. They have come through dark places to the approaching light of day. Their record is our best assurance for the future.
I
FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG, K.T., G.C.B., G.C.V.O., K.C.I.E., A.D.C.
SIR DOUGLAS HAIG was born in Fife on June 19th, 1861, of a family which has played a great part in the annals of the Scottish Borders. He was educated at Clifton and Brasenose College, Oxford, of which he is an Honorary Fellow. He is almost the only great soldier of modern times who has passed through the curriculum of an English University.
He joined the 7th Hussars in 1885, and, after passing through the Staff College, served in the Soudan Campaign of 1898, being present at the Battles of Atbara and Omdurman.
His great military talents were first proved in the South African War. After acting as D.A.A.G. for the Cavalry in Natal, he became the Chief Staff officer of General French during the Colesberg operations. In 1901-2 he commanded a group of columns which did brilliant work, chiefly in northern Cape Colony, in pursuit of Kritzinger and Scheepers. His South African record marked him out as an ideal Staff officer, and thereafter his rise was rapid. From 1903-6 he was Inspector-General of Cavalry in India with the rank of Major-General. He was Director of Military Training at home from 1906-7, and Director of Staff Duties from 1907-9. From 1909-12 he was Chief-of-Staff in India. From 1912-14 he was G.O.C. at Aldershot, and in 1914, on the outbreak of the European War, he was given command of the I Corps.
FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG
His record during the European War has been one of incessant and arduous toil and heavy responsibility. He commanded the I Corps in the Retreat from Mons, at the Battles of the Marne and of the Aisne, and on him fell the chief brunt of the German attack in the first Battle of Ypres. With the First Army, when it was formed, he fought at Neuve Chapelle, Festubert, Givenchy and Loos. In December, 1915, he succeeded Field-Marshal Lord French as Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in the West. Thereafter the record of his doings is the history of his country. The Somme, the German retreat, the Battle of Arras, and the victory of the Messines Ridge are part of his achievements in Supreme Command.
The foremost living British General, and one fit to rank with any soldier in Europe, is, as Generals go to-day, a young man, only fifty-six. He is at once a scientific soldier after the most modern plan, and a true leader of men. Having been a brilliant Staff officer, he has a proper understanding of the functions of a Staff. Chary of speech, bold in design, resolute in execution, he raised first his Corps and then his Army to a foremost place among British forces, and now he has raised the British Army to a foremost place among the armies of the world. He has the complete confidence of his men, and has earned the admiration and affection of all who work with him.
Scotland has given an innumerable host of soldiers to British and foreign armies, but, with the possible exception of Montrose and Sir John Moore (if Moore can be counted a Scotsman), there has been none who stands in the very front rank of the profession of arms. To-day there is such an one. It has been truly said that the biggest soldiers of all have not the specific military mind, but have a brain indistinguishable from the brain which makes a great statesman or any other great man of action. Sir Douglas Haig, while possessing every technical quality of a soldier, has the mind as well of a statesman, and of a great captain of industry. The organisation of modern war, indeed, requires qualities of which the soldier of other years had no conception. The gigantic industrial activities behind the British front, on which our fighting line depend, the gigantic educational schemes necessary to train our new Armies, demand from the Commander-in-Chief an administrative talent not less high than that required from a Prime Minister or a Pro-Consul. In such tasks Sir Douglas Haig has shown himself pre-eminent, and to this capacity he adds the swiftness in design and precision in performance of the foremost captains of history. Britain has entrusted her manhood to one who has nobly justified her confidence.
II
GENERAL SIR HERBERT CHARLES ONSLOW PLUMER, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., K.C.B., A.D.C.
SIR HERBERT PLUMER was born in Devon on March 13th, 1857. In 1876 he entered the York and Lancaster Regiment and served with it in the Soudan War of 1884. In South Africa, in 1896, he raised and commanded a corps of mounted rifles for service in the Matabele rebellion, being mentioned in despatches and receiving the brevet of Lieut.-Colonel. In the South African War of 1899-1902 he won his first great reputation in the field. He commanded the Rhodesian Field Force and was the first British soldier to cross the enemy frontier.
For months he attempted to reach Mafeking from the north, and, after the happy relief of that historic town, he was one of the most active and resolute of column commanders in the Transvaal. This "small, quiet, resolute man," as a historian describes him, had the power of enforcing discipline and inspiring confidence in the diverse elements under him.
In 1902 he became Major-General, and 1908 Lieut.-General. In 1904-5 he was Q.M.G. to the Forces and Third Military Member of the Army Council. In 1911-14 he was G.O.C. Northern Command.
GENERAL SIR HERBERT PLUMER
Sir Herbert Plumer did not appear in the field in the European War till January, 1915, when he was given command of the new V Corps, holding the southern side of the Ypres Salient. When General Smith-Dorrien retired in April of that year from the command of the Second Army, Sir Herbert succeeded him. It was that Army which fought the Second Battle of Ypres, and has since remained on the left flank of the British front in the West. It has seen severe fighting, such as the Hooge battle of August, 1915, the advance at Hooge during the Battle of Loos in September, 1915, the struggle at the Bluff in the spring of 1916, and the action of the Canadians at Ypres in June of the same year. The Ypres Salient has become historic as the most critical part of the British line.
The Second Army was not engaged during the Battle of the Somme or the first stages of the Battle of Arras, but on Thursday, June 7th, 1917, attacking on the whole front from the Ypres salient to Ploegsteert Wood, it carried all its objectives, with the vital Wytschaete-Messines Ridge, put an end to the embarrassment of the Ypres salient, took over 7,000 prisoners, and accounted for at least 30,000 of the enemy,—the whole at a small expense of British lives. The action was probably the most perfectly planned and executed in the history of the campaign.
Sir Herbert Plumer is the best type of British regular officer, an enthusiast for the historic traditions of the army, a soldier with wide experience in many lands and many different forms of campaign. His patience and stamina and perfect judgment have made him for many months a brilliant Warden of the Flanders Marches.
III
GENERAL SIR HENRY SEYMOUR RAWLINSON, BART., G.C.V.O., K.C.B.
SIR HENRY RAWLINSON was born on February 20th, 1864; the eldest son of Major-General Sir H. C. Rawlinson, Bart. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, and in February, 1884, entered the 60th Rifles. After acting as A.D.C. for four years to Lord Roberts, then Commander-in-Chief in India, he served with the Mounted Infantry in the Burma campaign, 1888. He exchanged into the Coldstream Guards in 1891, was a Brigade Major at Aldershot from 1894 to 1896, and served in the Soudan Campaign of 1897-8 as D.A.A.G. to Lord Kitchener, being present at the Battles of Atbara and Omdurman. In the South African War he was through the siege of Ladysmith as A.A.G. to Sir George White, acted as A.A.G. to Lord Roberts' Army at Headquarters, and commanded with great distinction a Mobile Column during the last eighteen months of the war. As Column Commander he was more than once in action against the brilliant soldier who is now Lieut.-General Smuts. He was Commandant of the Staff College from 1903-6, commanded the 2nd Brigade at Aldershot 1907-10, and the 3rd Division at Salisbury Plain 1910-14.
On the outbreak of the European War he was given command of the 4th Division on the Aisne, and was then put in command of the new IV Corps which included the 7th Division and which landed in Flanders in the beginning of October, 1914. The exploits of the 7th Division form one of the most glorious pages in modern British military history. As all the world knows, it was compelled to fall back with the 3rd Cavalry Division towards Ypres, and on October 16th held the line east of Ypres running through Gheluvelt. On the 20th of the month Sir Douglas Haig's I Corps came into line on its left, and the First Battle of Ypres began. The story of its desperate fighting for Gheluvelt and then for the Klein Zillebeke ridge is familiar to all. The best account of the exploits of the 7th Division is to be found in an order issued by Major-General Capper who then commanded the Division and was later killed in action.
GENERAL SIR HENRY RAWLINSON
"After the deprivations and tensions of being pursued day and night by an infinitely stronger force, the Division had to pass through the worst ordeal of all. It was left to a little force of 30,000 to keep the German army at bay, while the other British Corps were being brought up from the Aisne. Here they clung like grim death with almost every man in the trench, holding a line which of necessity was a great deal too long—a thin exhausted line—against which the pride of the German first line troops were hurling themselves with fury. The odds against them were about eight to one, and, when once the enemy found the range of a trench, the shells dropped into it from one end to the other with terrible effect. Yet the men stood firm, and defended Ypres in such a manner that a German officer afterwards described their action as a brilliant feat of arms, and said that they were under the impression that there had been four British Army Corps against them at this point. When the Division was afterwards withdrawn from the fighting line to refit, it was found that out of 400 officers who set out from England only 44 were left, and out of 12,000 men only 2,336."
At the Battle of Neuve Chapelle the IV Corps, including the 7th and 8th Divisions, attacked on the afternoon of the first day on the left of the British front and incurred severe losses in that memorable action. The IV Corps was reconstituted after Neuve Chapelle under Sir Henry Rawlinson, and its three Divisions, the 1st, 15th, and 47th, played a conspicuous part in the Battle of Loos in September, 1915. It was the 15th Division which, it will be remembered, took the village of Loos and Hill 70, and advanced to the suburbs of Lens—one of the most heroic episodes in the whole campaign.
In the spring of 1916 Sir Henry Rawlinson was appointed to the command of the new Fourth Army, which took its place in the line on the right of the old Third Army in the Somme area. He was in command of the whole front when the Battle of the Somme opened on July 1st, 1916. On the first two days of the battle he commanded the whole of the five Corps on that front, but handed over the two northern Corps to Sir Hubert Gough's reserve Fifth Army early in July. The Fourth Army line then ran southward from Thiepval to the junction with the French at Maricourt. Under his direction were fought the actions of July 14th and September 15th and 25th. Few British forces have had a harder task than to break the mighty defences of Contalmaison, High Wood, Delville Wood, and Guillemont.
When the German retreat began in the spring of 1917, Sir Henry Rawlinson led the southern part of the British advance. It was his men who entered Peronne and fought their way to the gates of St. Quentin.
The Commander of the Fourth Army is one of the most accomplished and highly trained of modern British Generals. He has mastered the learning of his profession, and has a perfect understanding of Staff work. But his knowledge is only a small part of the endowment which he brings to work in the field. He has that flair for the decisive moment which no training can give, and his high spirits, stout heart, and steady confidence in himself and his men have made him an ideal Commander, both for the tedious war of positions, and any future war of movement.
IV
GENERAL SIR HUBERT DE LA POER GOUGH, K.C.B., K.C.V.O.
SIR HUBERT GOUGH was born on August 12th, 1870; the eldest son of the late Sir Charles John Stanley Gough. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, and, in 1889, obtained a commission in the 16th Lancers. He served in the Tirah Expedition and in the South African War. On the outbreak of the European War he commanded the 3rd Cavalry Brigade during the Retreat from Mons and the Battle of the Marne. His Brigade was one of the first to arrive at the Aisne on September 12th, 1914, and, a few weeks later, when the Cavalry Corps was formed under Sir Edmund Allenby, he was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division. His Division was the first part of the British force to leave on October 3rd for Flanders.
In the First Battle of Ypres, when the small British Army bolted the door of the North against the German sweep, his Division played a foremost part. In General Smith-Dorrien's advance towards La Bassée it moved on the left flank, clearing out the Germans from the forest of Nieppe, the Hill of Cassel, and Hazebrouck. Along with the 1st Cavalry Division it reconnoitred the line of the Lys, and later held the front between Zandvoorde and Messines on the left of Allenby's Corps. In the great struggle of October 30th and 31st it had desperate fighting to hold the line, and, on November 1st, before the French XVI Corps arrived in support, it was forced back from Hollebeke and Messines.
GENERAL SIR HUBERT GOUGH
Sir Hubert Gough's 2nd Cavalry Division was at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, but failed to get the expected chance of going into action. Shortly after this he took command of the 7th Infantry Division and was engaged in the operations at Festubert. About the middle of July, 1915, he was appointed to command the I Corps in succession to Sir C. Monro, who went to the Mediterranean.
At Loos Sir Hubert Gough commanded this Corps, which contained at the time the 2nd, 7th and 9th Divisions. It was his men who stormed Fosse 8 and the Hohenzollern Redoubt.
During the spring of 1916 he was put in command of a Reserve Army, which at the time consisted chiefly of Cavalry and a Staff. After the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when it was apparent that Sir Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army was engaged on too long a line, the part of the front from la Boiselle northwards was handed over to the Reserve Army, which now became known as the Fifth. There, for five months, Sir Hubert Gough was hotly engaged. It was under his command that Pozières and Mouquet Farm were taken by the Australians and Courcelette by the Canadians, and the Thiepval Ridge cleared at the end of October. His greatest success came in the Battle of the Ancre on November 13th, when, in two days, he took more than 5,000 German prisoners.
When the German retreat began in the spring of 1917, Sir Hubert Gough's Army operated in the Bapaume area and towards the country between Cambrai and St. Quentin. It was engaged on the right of the Third Army during the Battle of Arras.
Sir Hubert Gough belongs to one of the most famous of British fighting families. His brother, Brigadier-General John Gough, V.C., was Sir Douglas Haig's Chief-of-Staff during the first nine months of the war, and died by a chance rifle bullet at Estaires on February 20th, 1917. Sir Hubert, who is only 46, is by far the youngest of British soldiers in high command—the youngest Army Commander, indeed, among all the Allies. He first made his name as a dashing Cavalry leader, a man of infinite courage and resource in an open campaign. In the long months of trench fighting he has won a reputation second to no British General for skill in our modern scientific and mechanical form of warfare. His energy, his daring, and his boyish good-humour made him an ideal Cavalry leader, and they have endeared him to every man who has had the honour to serve under his command. He is not the least notable of the many great soldiers whom Ireland has given to the British Army.
V
GENERAL SIR EDMUND HENRY ALLENBY, K.C.B.
SIR EDMUND ALLENBY was born on April 23rd, 1861, and was educated at Haileybury. He entered the Inniskilling Dragoons, with whom he served in the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884-5. He fought in Zululand in 1888, and in the South African War was a dashing and successful Column Commander. He was one of those who harried General Delarey in the difficult Magaliesberg region.
In 1910 he was promoted to the command of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, was subsequently Inspector of Cavalry, and, when the European War broke out, he was given the Cavalry Division. He fought through the Retreat from Mons and the Battle of the Marne, and after the Battle of the Aisne was promoted to the command of the Cavalry Corps. During the First Battle of Ypres he held the Messines ridge, filling the gap in the line between Sir Henry Rawlinson's 7th Division and General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps.
In May, 1915, he succeeded Sir Herbert Plumer in command of the V Infantry Corps. When General Monro went to India he followed him in command of the new Third Army on the Somme.
In the spring of 1916, when Sir Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army was formed, the Third Army was moved further north to take over the ground around Arras vacated by the French Tenth Army under D'Urbal. Only a small part of the right wing of Sir Edmund Allenby's Army was engaged during the Battle of the Somme, and that only on the first day.
GENERAL SIR EDMUND ALLENBY
During the winter of 1916-17, apart from many brilliant trench raids, there was no action upon the Third Army front. Its chance came on Easter Monday, 1917, when Sir Edmund Allenby commanded the right wing of the British forces in the great Battle of Arras—one of the most successful actions as yet fought by British troops. It was his men who carried the intricate network of trenches east of Arras, fighting their way along the valley of the Scarpe towards Douai.
In June Sir Edmund Allenby was transferred to the command of the British forces in Egypt.
In the European War some of the most brilliant infantry leaders have come from the Cavalry—Haig, Gough, Kavanagh, Allenby. Sir Edmund is a personification of the traditional qualities of an English soldier—patient, tenacious, resolute; and his record in many fields has shown that he possesses admirable military judgment and wide military knowledge.
VI
GENERAL SIR HENRY SINCLAIR HORNE, K.C.B.
SIR HENRY HORNE was born on February 19th, 1861; a son of the late Major James Horne, of Stirkoke, Caithness. He was educated at Harrow and Woolwich, and entered the Royal Artillery in 1880. He served in the South African War with distinction, and during the early stages of the European War was soon recognised as one of the most able of our gunner Generals.
He went to France with Sir Douglas Haig as Brigadier-General of Artillery of the I Corps, and took part in the Retreat from Mons, the Battle of the Aisne and the First Battle of Ypres. He commanded the 2nd Division during the attack at Givenchy in connection with the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March, 1915. This Division was also in action at the Battle of Loos in September, 1915, when it had much desperate fighting on both sides of the La Bassée Canal.
In November, 1915, General Horne accompanied Lord Kitchener to Gallipoli and was afterwards sent on to Egypt to report on the defences of the Suez Canal. In January, 1916, he was appointed to the command of the XV Corps in Egypt, which, in April, was transferred to the Somme area.
In the first part of the battle his Corps was in action as the second from the British right. It was his men who took Fricourt and Mametz, assisted in the capture of Contalmaison and Bazentin le Petit, and on September 15th triumphantly entered Flers.
GENERAL SIR HENRY HORNE
In the autumn of 1916 Sir Henry Horne took over the command of the First Army and during the winter held the section of the British line between General Plumer and General Allenby.
In the Battle of Arras he commanded the British left. His troops carried the Vimy ridge and fought their way to the southern and western suburbs of Lens. Sir Henry Horne's Army had now a similar general objective to that which his Division had had at the earlier Battle of Loos.
Sir Henry Horne is one of the most trusted of British soldiers. Like the Commander-in-Chief, he is a man of few words but of many deeds. Scotland has played a great part in the war and has contributed more than her share of brilliant Generals. The one Scottish Army Commander in the West has nobly sustained the traditions of his country.
VII
LIEUT-GEN. SIR WILLIAM RIDDELL BIRDWOOD, K.C.B., K.C.S.I, K.C.M.G., C.I.E., D.S.O.
SIR WILLIAM BIRDWOOD was born on September 13th, 1865, the son of a distinguished Indian civilian. He was educated at Clifton and at Sandhurst, and in 1883 entered the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Two years later he went to the Cavalry—the 12th Lancers—and a year later to the 11th Bengal Lancers. In the South African War he rose to be Military Secretary to Lord Kitchener, then Commander-in-Chief. In 1902 he was Assistant Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief in India, and three years later was again Lord Kitchener's Military Secretary. In 1909 he commanded a Brigade on the Indian Frontier. In 1912 he was Quartermaster-General in India, and later Secretary to the Government of India, Army Department, and Member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council.
He has seen many campaigns besides the present. Apart from South Africa he served in the Hazara Expedition of 1891, the Isazai Expedition of 1892, and the Tirah Campaign of 1897-98. In South Africa he was severely wounded, and five times mentioned in despatches. In 1908 he was the Chief Staff officer of the Mohmand Expedition.
In the present war he has won an almost legendary fame as Commander of the Anzac Corps. From that April day when they landed on the beaches above Gaba Tepe he was the inspiration of one of the hardest fought campaigns in all history. Wholly free from formality and red tape, and willing to find in every soldier a man and a brother, he could yet maintain a perfect battle discipline and keep the hearts of his men steady under the most desperate conditions. To his cool brain, also, were due many of the details of the brilliant withdrawal from the Peninsula, which he carried out as Commander of the Dardanelles Army.
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM BIRDWOOD
The Anzac record on the Somme was equal to their record at Gallipoli. The capture of Pozières and Mouquet Farm was an Australian achievement, and Flers fell to the New Zealanders. Since then, both in the German Retreat and in the later stages of the Battle of Arras (especially in the Hindenburg line at Bullecourt), they have shown the same fury and steadiness in attack. An observer with them on the Somme has thus described their behaviour:
"Hour after hour, day and night, with increasing intensity as the time went on, the enemy rained heavy shell into the area. Now he would send them crashing in on a line south of the road—eight heavy shells at a time, minute after minute, followed by a burst of shrapnel. Now he would place a curtain straight across this valley or that till the sky and landscape were blotted out, except for fleeting glimpses seen as through a lift of fog.... Day and night the men worked through it, fighting the horrid machinery far over the horizon as if they were fighting Germans hand to hand; building up whatever it battered down; buried some of them, not once, but again and again and again. What is a barrage against such troops? They went through it as you would go through a summer shower, too proud to bend their heads, many of them, because their mates were looking. I am telling you of things I have seen. As one of the best of their officers said to me: 'I have to walk about as if I liked it; what else can you do when your own men teach you to?'"
VIII
GENERAL THE HON. SIR JULIAN HEDWORTH GEORGE BYNG, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., M.V.O.
SIR JULIAN BYNG was born on September 11th, 1862, the seventh son of the second Earl of Strafford. He joined the 10th Hussars in 1883, and served in the Soudan Expedition of 1884, being present at the actions of El Teb and Tamai. In South Africa he commanded a column with great distinction in the pursuit of De Wet, and finished the campaign with the rank of Colonel. One of his most successful actions was on the Vlei River, west of Reitz, where he surprised a Boer Commando and took a 15-pounder, two pom-poms, and many prisoners.
He landed in Belgium in October, 1914, in command of the 3rd Cavalry Division. He accompanied Rawlinson's 7th Division in its retreat from Antwerp to Ypres. The doings of the famous 3rd Cavalry Division are writ large in history, and in all the great drama of Ypres there was no finer incident than the charge of the Household Brigade at Klein Zillebeke on November 6th, 1914.
In May, 1915, General Byng succeeded General Allenby in command of the Cavalry Corps, and was responsible for the cavalry fighting in the later part of the Second Battle of Ypres. In August of that year he went to the Dardanelles to take over the command of the IX Corps, and was present during the later stages of that campaign and the famous withdrawal from the peninsula. In February, 1916, he returned to France to command the XVII Corps, and was transferred to the Canadian Corps on May 24th.
LIEUT.-GEN. THE HON. SIR JULIAN BYNG
Since then he has been one of the most brilliant among Corps Commanders. During the Battle of the Somme the Canadians fought on the right of Sir Hubert Gough's 5th Army and did notable work, taking Courcelette, and fighting many desperate actions on the Thiepval Ridge. During the long stormy winter their raids on the enemy line were among the most remarkable on the British front. More especially, they made the section north of Arras an unquiet place for the enemy. Their culminating achievement came at the Battle of Arras on April 9th, 1917, when they stormed in one stride four positions on the Vimy Ridge, and wrested from the enemy the key of the plain of Douai.
In June Sir Julian Byng succeeded General Allenby in command of the Third Army.
Sir Julian Byng has the appearance and manner of the cavalier of tradition. No more soldierly figure has appeared in the campaign. He has had the good fortune always to have fine troops to lead, and he is a fit leader for the best troops. He has become to the Canadians what General Birdwood is to the Anzacs—at once a trusted Commander and a well-beloved friend.
IX
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WALTER NORRIS CONGREVE, V.C., K.C.B., M.V.O.
SIR WALTER CONGREVE, born in 1862, of Chartley and Congreve, County Stafford, was educated at Harrow and entered the Rifle Brigade in 1885. He became a Captain in 1893, and Brevet Lieut.-Colonel in 1901. During the South African War he won the Victoria Cross for an heroic attempt to save the guns at Colenso—the occasion on which Lord Roberts' only son won the same honour and lost his life.
During the war he received a brevet Lieut.-Colonelcy. He was Private Secretary and Assistant Military Secretary to Lord Kitchener when the latter was Commander-in-Chief at Pretoria.
After his return to England he became Commandant of the School of Musketry at Hythe, and, on the outbreak of the European War, went out in command of the 18th Infantry Brigade. From this he proceeded to the command of the 6th Division, with which he was present at the fighting at Hooge and Ypres in August and September, 1915.
At the Battle of the Somme he commanded the XIII Corps on the extreme British right in liaison with the French. He was responsible for the taking of Montauban, Bazentin and Longueval, and the desperate fighting around Guillemont. Ill-health compelled him to relinquish his command at the end of August, 1916, and, on his return, the XIII Corps was moved further to the left to Sir Hubert Gough's Army.
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WALTER CONGREVE
General Congreve has been in command of the XIII Corps since November 15th, 1915. His son, Brevet-Major William Congreve, The Rifle Brigade, who fell at Longueval, July 22nd, 1916, at the age of 25, was universally recognised as the most promising of the younger British soldiers. In two years he had won a Brevet Majority, the D.S.O., the Military Cross, and the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and, after his death, he received the Victoria Cross. No family has a more splendid fighting record.
X
LIEUT.-GENERAL JAMES AYLMER LOWTHORPE HALDANE, C.B., D.S.O.
GENERAL HALDANE was born on November 17th, 1862, of a well-known Scottish family which has given many distinguished members to the learned professions. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Sandhurst, and, in 1882, joined the Gordon Highlanders. He served in the Waziristan Campaign of 1894; the Chitral Campaign of 1895; the Tirah Campaign of 1897; and from 1896-99 he was A.D.C. to Sir William Lockhart. He received the D.S.O. for his work on the Indian frontier.
During the South African War he fought with the 2nd Gordon Highlanders at Elandslaagte, where he was severely wounded. He was in command of the armoured train which was captured at Chieveley on November 15th, 1899. The story of his escape from Pretoria after some months' imprisonment is one of the romances of the South African Campaign. He rejoined his battalion and was present at some of the later actions of the war, receiving a brevet Lieut.-Colonelcy.
During the Russo-Japanese War he was Military Attaché with the Japanese Army, and was present at the Battles of Liao-yang, Sha-Ho, and Mukden.
He went to France in August, 1914, in command of the 10th Infantry Brigade, which was part of the 4th Division in the III Corps. The Brigade arrived in time for the Battle of Le Cateau, and took part in all the subsequent fighting, being heavily engaged in the Armentières area during the First Battle of Ypres. General Haldane was one of the first Brigadiers to receive a Division. He succeeded Major-General Sir Hubert Hamilton in command of the 3rd Division in October, 1914, and remained with this famous Division till the Battle of the Somme. Its heaviest fighting took place in the summer of 1915 within the Ypres salient, and, in the spring of 1916, it was again engaged in the neighbourhood of St. Eloi and the Bluff at Ypres.
LIEUT.-GEN. J. A. L. HALDANE
At the Battle of the Somme General Haldane took part in the great advance of July 14th, when the 3rd Division was brilliantly successful, carrying Bazentin le Grand, and sharing afterwards in the desperate fighting around Longueval and Delville Wood. In August he was promoted to the command of the VI Corps, and, during the winter, held a portion of the Arras front. The opportunity of the Corps came in the Battle of Arras on April 9th, 1917, when, advancing due east of the city, its three divisions carried all their objectives, including such formidable fortresses as the Harp and Railway Triangle, and made record captures of prisoners and guns.
Few British soldiers have had a more varied experience of warfare. He is a scholar in his profession, but his book knowledge is borne lightly, and he has shown himself in every crisis a leader of shrewd judgment and ample resource. He is still a young man, and, fine as his record has been, he is universally regarded as only at the outset of his career.
XI
LIEUT.-GENERAL H. E. WATTS, C.B., C.M.G.
GENERAL WATTS was born on February 14th, 1858, and entered the Army in 1880. He served in South Africa, where he received a brevet Lieut.-Colonelcy. He became Colonel of his regiment in 1908, and retired in 1914. On the outbreak of the European War he returned to service, and went with General Rawlinson to Flanders in October, 1914, in command of the 21st Brigade of the 7th Division.
With this Brigade, which has seen some of the most desperate fighting of the war, he fought at the first battle of Ypres. For three critical days the Brigade formed one of the three which checked the whole German advance; and then for nearly a fortnight it was in the centre of all the bitter fighting that was directed towards Ypres. When it was withdrawn it was but a shadow of the Brigade that had crossed Belgium before falling back on Ypres; but in the three weeks' battle it had won an imperishable name. General Watts fought with the Brigade on the left of the front at Neuve Chapelle and he also took part in the summer battles of 1915 at Festubert and Givenchy. With it he was engaged at Loos, where the Division saw some of the most severe fighting and where the Commander, General Capper, fell. General Watts succeeded to General Capper's command.
From the first day of the battle of the Somme the 7th Division, changed considerably in composition since the Autumn of 1914, played a notable part. It was they who took Mametz, and they fought through the whole of the first phase of the battle, crowning their achievement by the capture of Bazentin le Petit. The Division was present in most of the other great actions of the battle. In the spring of 1917 their General received the command of a corps.
LIEUT.-GEN. H. E. WATTS
General Watts has a fighting reputation second to no one in the Army. The Campaign for him has been one long Malplaquet—a hard-fought soldiers' battle, and no man has known better how to elicit the inherent steadfastness of British troops. To have led first a Brigade and then a Division through some of the fiercest fights of all history is no small record for a man on the verge of sixty years.
XII
LIEUT.-GENERAL THE RT. HON. JAN CHRISTIAAN SMUTS, P.C., K.C., M.L.A.
COMPANION OF HONOUR
GENERAL SMUTS was born on May 24th, 1870, at Bovenplaats in the Malmesbury district of the Cape Colony, the residence of his father, Jacobus Abraham Smuts, who was for some time a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Cape. He was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch, and graduating with high honours in arts and science, passed as Ebden Scholar to Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1891.
He secured a double first in the Law Tripos, was called to the Bar and, returning to South Africa in 1895, was duly admitted to the Supreme Court at Cape Town, where he began to practice his profession. He was admitted to the Transvaal Bar in the following year, soon after the Jameson Raid. About this time he married Miss Sibylla Krige, of Stellenbosch, and settled in Johannesburg. He had already been mentioned as Dr. Leyds' successor to the post of State Secretary, when in 1898 he was offered and accepted the post of State Attorney. President Kruger's choice of so young a man was amply and speedily justified, and his reforming zeal exercised a formidable influence in the State.
It was in his capacity as State Attorney that he accompanied President Kruger, when the latter met Lord (then Sir Alfred) Milner at Bloemfontein, and took part in the negotiation with Mr. Conyngham Greene, the British Agent at Pretoria. The young advocate and statesman suddenly found his country confronted with war, and shortly after the Boer Commandos had taken the field he was attached to General Joubert as a legal adviser and administrative officer for the territory in Natal occupied by the Republican forces.
LIEUT.-GEN. THE RT. HON. JAN C. SMUTS
Eventually, after the occupation of Pretoria by the British armies, he received a command in the western Transvaal as Vecht-General under General de la Rey. He proved himself a dashing and skilful commander, and by the boldness of his movements in the Cape Colony, in the later stages of the war, created a feeling of nervousness in Lord Kitchener's main communications. He was in supreme command in the Cape and was applying himself to the reduction of Ookiep when the news of the opening of peace negotiations brought him back to the Transvaal. His was one of the strongest voices at Vereeniging in favour of peace when terms would still be obtainable, and when the Treaty was signed he returned to the practice of his old profession.
In the interval between Vereeniging and the grant of responsible government, he took a leading part with General Botha in restoring the moral of the Boer people, which had suffered severely in the disastrous war, and also in preparing them for self-government.
When, in 1907, responsible government was granted to the Transvaal, General Smuts assumed the portfolio of Colonial Secretary in General Botha's Ministry, and continued the work of national reconstruction and reconciliation between the two races and was largely responsible for the holding of the conferences on closer union which eventually culminated in the National Convention at which the South Africa Act, the Constitution of the Union, was framed.
He held successively the portfolios of Defence, the Interior, Mines, and Finance in General Botha's First Union Cabinet, and amongst other legislative activities was responsible for the South African Defence Act, the machinery of which was severely tested in the Syndicalist strikes at Johannesburg of 1913 and 1914, and the unfortunate rebellion in the latter portion of that year and also the campaign in South West Africa.
In March, 1916, Lieut.-General Smuts arrived in British East Africa and assumed command of the East African Expeditionary Force upon the pressing request of the Imperial Government and in succession to General Smith-Dorrien, who had been compelled to relinquish the command owing to a severe illness. Within a year he had driven the German troops from British territory, reduced them by two-thirds, and penned them into the southern and south-western malarial area with its one healthy spot at Mahenge.
General Smuts is still a young man, though he has had exceptional experience. A scholar by taste, a lawyer by profession, and perforce a soldier, he represents a unique figure in the Empire. The boldness and energy of his leading as a General seem to suggest the born commander. As Statesman, his conceptions reveal an intuitive grasp of the fundamental ideals that must guide the present and inspire the future.
| In Monthly Parts, Price 2/- net. | Parts I.-V. in Volume form, with extra matter, 15/- net. |
The Western Front
Drawings by MUIRHEAD BONE
"They illustrate admirably the daily life of the troops under my command."
—F.M. Sir Douglas Haig, K.T.
SOME RECENT PRESS NOTICES:
"It is a matter for thankfulness that the authorities were able to secure the services of so distinguished an artist as Mr. Muirhead Bone to depict for us the conditions in the war zone of the Western Front. To give not only the thing seen but the spirit lying within it, that is the province of the imaginative and selective artist. And that is what Mr. Bone has done with a measure of success that almost defies exaggerated praise. He brings to his task the technique of a master and the vision of a true artist."—Daily Telegraph.
"Mr. Muirhead Bone has clearly justified the action of H.M. Government in employing him as an official artistic chronicler of the greatest of all wars."—Burlington Magazine.
"Mr. Muirhead Bone's vigorous drawings of the toil and moil of British warfare and all its circumstantial splendour and squalor stand in no further need of commendation.... It is a noble and enduring achievement.... These two drawings alone assure Lieutenant Bone's place among the immortals."—Morning Post.
"Mr. Bone's drawings convey an extraordinary idea of the abomination and desolation caused by shell fire."—Field.
"The drawings are of endless interest in their subjects and excite a natural wonder at the artist's remarkable fertility and versatility. It is impossible to overestimate the value of these drawings as a record of the actualities of the war."—Scotsman.
"The selection of Mr. Bone is triumphantly justified by his terrific Tank drawing, which no one's romantic exaggeration—not Doré's or Hugo's even—could have made more overwhelming in its onset or more deadly."—Daily Chronicle.
"Whether it be a speaking drawing of a road liable to be shelled, or a V.A.D. rest station, or German prisoners coming down from the front, or, again, the finished sketch of Amiens Cathedral with the aeroplanes round the spire, or a hospital ship scene at the quayside, all give a permanent impression of war scenes and war conditions which can hardly be too highly commended."—Bookseller.
"Among the little aristocracy of war pictures, destined to have permanent value both as history and as art, must certainly be placed the drawings of Mr. Muirhead Bone."—Coventry Herald.
"The Work grows on us."—Liverpool Post.
"In selecting Mr. Muirhead Bone for the task of depicting the varied scenes of activity on the British Front in France and Flanders, the Government have shown a very wise choice, which has been justified by the excellent series of drawings now being published."—Broad Arrow.
"It cannot be too strongly said that no mere photographic record can ever approach the great work Mr. Bone is doing in these sketches.—Montrose Standard."
"The Series will certainly be greatly prized."—Army and Navy Gazette.
"An eloquent pencil, a dashing stroke, guided by a discerning brain, and the art of perspective are the requisites for a successful portrayal of the varied scenes of every battlefield, and these qualities Mr. Bone possesses to admiration."—Aberdeen Journal.
"Of all the records of the war up to date this publication alone conveys something of the impressiveness that fighting on the present scale might be expected to give."—Manchester Weekly Times.
"Mr. Bone's work was needed. Now that I have seen his picture books I know more about the war. A poet with a line of verse, a cunning draughtsman with a few strokes of the pencil on paper, can tell you what you will never learn from Blue Books and histories. I begin to understand this tremendous war."—The Londoner in the Evening News.
"Among the drawings are some of extraordinary power and interest made by the artist in British munition factories."—Westminster Gazette.
"Dozens of Artists have drawn ships. Mr. Bone has interpreted them. He has done the Fleet a great service in bringing it thus intimately to the Landsmen. The drawings will rank for all time among the world's greatest treasures in nautical art."—Country Life.
"Will take a foremost place among the permanent records of the war."—Manchester Guardian.
"Mr. Bone has the eye to see, the imagination to realise, and the hand to present."—The Times.
Mr. Muirhead Bone's drawings are reproduced in the following form, apart from "The Western Front" publication:—
| WAR DRAWINGS | ||
| Size 20 by 15 inches. | Ten Plates in each part, 10/6 net. | |
| MUNITION DRAWINGS | ||
| Size 31½ by 22 inches. | Six Plates in portfolio, 20/- net. | |
| WITH THE GRAND FLEET | ||
| Size 31½ by 22 inches. | Six Plates in portfolio, 20/- net. | |
| "TANKS" | ||
| Size 28 by 20¼ inches. | Single Plate, 5/- net. | |
Further particulars of these publications will be sent on application to "Country Life," Ltd., 20, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2.
Uniform with this publication.
Admirals of the British Navy
Portraits by FRANCIS DODD
| INTRODUCTION | |
| I.— | JELLICOE, ADMIRAL SIR JOHN R., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O. |
| II.— | ADMIRAL SIR CECIL BURNEY, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. |
| III.— | MADDEN, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR C. E., K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O. |
| IV.— | STURDEE, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR F. C. D., K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O. |
| V.— | BACON, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR R. H. S., K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O. |
| VI.— | DE ROBECK, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR J. M., K.C.B. |
| VII.— | NAPIER, VICE-ADMIRAL T. D. W., C.B., M.V.O. |
| VIII.— | BROCK, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR OSMOND de B., K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G. |
| IX.— | HALSEY, REAR-ADMIRAL LIONEL, C.B., C.M.G. |
| X.— | PAKENHAM, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR W. C., K.C.B., K.C.V.O. |
| XI.— | PAINE, COMMODORE GODFREY M., C.B., M.V.O. |
| XII.— | TYRWHITT, COMMODORE SIR R. Y., K.C.B., D.S.O. |
Hudson & Kearns, Ltd., Printers, Hatfield Street, London, S.E. 1.
