New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-16
British Achievement

the Somme Is a striking evidence OF the
real achievement Of the new British army
IN finding itself in recent months. Inc
least careful scrutiny Of the official re-
ports discloses the fact that the British
stat has learned the lesson Of modern
war. that the British artillery has gained
the skill necessary to coordinate It's fire
with infantry advance; and the rapidly OF
the advance Of the infantry is proven by
the number Of prisoners that have fallen
10 the successful troops.
French and German reports IN recent
weeks have borne testimony to the same
fact. that the British army, the new army,
the force which has been created since
the war began, is beginning to give clear
proof Of having learned those hard lessons
that all armies have TO learn, when they
are created out Of the courage, the devo-
ton and patriotism Of unframed men and
commanded by officers who have still to
learn their own lessons.
We have been accustomed TO speak IN
America of the marvellous military genius
displayed by the French, Of the scientific
attainment OF the German staff. We have
necessarily viewed the war as an absolute
and not a relative thing. We have not
paid much attention to the physical condi-
tions of the nations which sent their armis'
into the field, but Of the achievement OF
the armies themselves.
The result Of this judgment has been
10 obscure the actual achievement OF the
British. The French and the Germans hau
universal service, general staffs-all the
machinery of modern war created by years
Of patient labor, administered by officers
who had made the organization life work
and given to it the devotion and the ability
that in Britain, as in the United States,
never finds its way into the army save In
hours Of national crisis.
When the Great War began the British
had a relatively small expeditionary army,
trained according to British standards, un-
excelled in material, but commanded by
officers whose training had been IN colo
NAL wars and who had never had the ex-
perience Of their brethren on the Cont
nent in the great maneuvres which are
the real school Of high command.
This little army was destroyed in the
first campaign from Mons to Ypres. It's
losses In men and in officers were tremen-
dous, and the latter loss was irreparable,
because behind them was no reservoir OF
other officers. When the struggles in Elan
ders were over the British military estab-
lshment. as it had existed IN August, was
almost destroyed; what remained was not
even the skeleton on which to build new
army, this time Of millions, not thousands.
The result was the result that is per
fectly familiar to Americans who know
their Civil War history. We who had Bull
Run, Charlottesville and all that lay be-
tween, We who had failures like Fredericks-
burg and narrow escapes like Shiloh, can
best understand what underlay the Brit
ish failures at Neuve Chapelle, at Loos,
I'm Gallpoli. These are costs Of UMPIRE
paredness and the inevitable concomitants
Of inexperience.
Like the North and the South in the
Civil War, the British people did not at
once learn the lesson; they had TO come,
ultimately, 10 conscription, as we came to
the draft; they had TO suffer from self
deception, from illusions, from hopes as
false as the Northern dream Of "On to
Richmond" Many that they trusted, much
that they hoped, failed them, inevitably
and completely.
Yet, as "The World" correspondent
pointed out the other day, in the face Of
all this the British marched on to the
thing that the Germans believed was i'm
possible: When they learned that conscrip-
ton was inevitable they accepted it as a
detail in the winning Of victory, and in do
Ing this, as Mr.. Swope says, they struck
the German hope blow almost more Sc
rious than the Marine.
The British failure that the world has
seen has covered British success which
the world has Just begun to see. And
nothing is more patent than the fact that
the British. who knew their own spirit
and their own determination, could as
little understand the verdict Of the world
on their day by day performance as the
North could understand or bear the COM
ments Of the British war correspondents
on the army that failed at Bull Run, the
comments Of "Bull Run Russell. for ex-
ample.
The thing the British believed was that
their failures were incidents; they did not
even see them as failures. because, as is
inevi bic, they saw not the failure, but
the success. the hcroism, the devotion, the
sacrifice Of the men who died in all the
struggles. she thing that outside critics