New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-17
The New British Army

an interesting mtdS1iC VI "4Ao ~'''' ~
done in the way Of arming, cquippng
and training a civil population under the
pressure Of national danger One may
say Of the British army which, with its
Canadian comrades, Won the Battle Of
Arras that it represents the arrival Of
Great Britain on the firing line in France
IN a condition comparable with that Of
Germany in August, 1914. We are then
seeing the end Of the great experiment
which began when the British expedition
airy forces had been practically destroyed
in the opening months Of the war The
Battle Of Yprcs opened in October, 1914
When il had finished the British regular
army was largely a memory: more than
scventy-fvc thousand Of the one hundred
and liftv thousand who went TO France IN
the first two months we're permanently out
Of the firing line and almost a third were
dead.
Faced with the certainty of a long Con
t.nental war. Great Britain slowly woke to
The peril for her of German victory. Two
years and a half were to clapse before
British troops could be sent to the Cont
nent in numbers and in training equal to
the task which was before them. In that
,vo years and a half there were some Of the
lloodicst failures since the Civil War, fail
urcs like those Of the Northern armies in
general due to ignorance of the character
Of the conflict and to a misrepresentation Of
The magnitude of the task.
The new British army began its work
still in large measure an army Of IN
h trained. or partially trained, men in the
a great Battle Of Loos, which cost England
\ about seventy thousand in casualties and
gained less than ten square miles. Before
that there had been the tragedy of Festu-
bert. when men sought with bayonets to
seize a position defended by high explo-
sive artillery, and the failure Of Neuve
Chapelle, where the staff broke down after
common soldiers had won victory.
On July /, 1916, the British army had
reached the strength in numbers necessary
for its task. It had the artillery and the
ammunition, but It lacked the training, and
the bloody struggle from July TO January
on the Somme cost the British nearly
100000 in killed, wounded or captured. On
July Of last year fifty thousand fell.
New guns, new gunners, new officers, all
had yet TO be trained, and the training
was measured in the casualty list Of the
Somme. Here was the real training
school Of British armies. Here at last
England was TO have her lesson, paid for
in blood, and out Of tho furnace has come
the army which ten days ago won the
most considerable victory on the Western
front since the Battle Of the Marine
To-day we cannot measure the extent Of
the British victory. IL has already sur
passed any British or French achievement
in trench warfare. At Loos the British
captured some ten thousand prisoners in a
few days. twcnty-odd guns and six or eight
square miles Of French territory. In the
Champagne the French captured twenty
five thousand prisoners and upwards Of ono
hundred and twenty-five guns, but their OK
treme advance was barely two miles and
they were held at the second line Of the
Germans, before which they still stand. In
six months at the Somuro the British and
the French together took at least seventy
five thousand prisoners and upward Of one
hundred and fifty square miles Of territory,
but this was the harvest Of half year.
won at price that was staggering.
But in the Battle Of Arras. in the first
week, the British have advanced an average
Of four miles on a front Of twelve, and in
the centre at least six miles in six days, as
contrastcd with six miles in six months at
the Sommc. They have taken nearly two
hundred guns, many Of them heavy, which
is the real measure Of the German disaster.
They have taken not less than fifteen thou
sand prisoners, and they have inflicted
losses which will be found without doubt
TO be far in excess of their own. Above
all. they have shown complete superior
~ over the Germans, in artillery. in or