Tales of the Great War by Henry John Newbolt

Author:Henry John Newbolt [Newbolt, Henry John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Military, World War I, Germany, British
ISBN: 9781789121902
Google: C2Fnk21qTdoC
Publisher: Eschenburg Press
Published: 2018-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

THE STORY OF A GENERAL

1. THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

IN the ‘Story of a Subaltern’ I have tried to show you what it is like to be a boy going straight from school and Oxford into an army which is suddenly called out for active service. You have seen the Subaltern waiting eagerly for the moment of going to the front, and in the meantime finding some romance in scouting along our own shores. Then you have seen him enjoying a rough life in the trenches, and finally doing his bit when thrown on his own resources in a great battle.

The details in that story are all small details—personal experiences of very little importance in comparison with the general outline of the battle itself. I set them out minutely in order to give you a picture of war from the bottom end of the scale—that is, from the point of view of the individual, just one of many thousands of officers, with duties and difficulties all alike. It is well that we should know how these subalterns have faced their job at its hardest, because, though the greater number of them have been swept away without success or distinction, they have not really been insignificant or unsuccessful. Like the small links in a fine piece of chain-mail, they have all held good because each held good. Their names may be forgotten, but not their work. This war has been called ‘The Subalterns’ War.’

And now what shall I tell you of war from the higher end of the scale? What is it like to be a General, a man who, though he too is an individual, yet stands for a huge force, an army of many thousands? In him their strength is all concentrated, and upon him their success depends; he has to prepare and direct the whole machine. Not only that, but if a moment of strain comes and the machine is in danger of breaking, he must be able to forget his own fatigue, his own anxiety, and his own danger, and by putting his own strength into those under him he must carry his army safely past the breaking point. Not easy, you will think, to find a man like that. No, but we must have such men if we are to remain a great nation; and when we find them, we must study them and remember them. The Great War began for us with a time of extreme peril. One of our armies suddenly found itself, through no failure of its own, in a position where it was outnumbered, outgunned, outflanked, and in danger of destruction. Great skill was needed to manoeuvre it out of that position; but to save it from demoralisation —which for an army is one kind of destruction—something more than skill was needed. Happily the man was there, ready to hand, the man who had the double gift required, the gift of military skill and the much rarer gift of character. He is the

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