Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-15

! ) s|g11s3s
!
Standing. left to risht-Clarence
Sitting, left to rfght-Beaver VIII
| ended all apprehension as to India.
| His warfare was the kind in which
Britain has always led the world, and.
apart from Kitchener. he can have no
rival.
| OF Allenby there is record in the
west as well as in the east. He com
manded a cavalry brigade in the Mons
| campaign. He held the Messines
ridge with thin facade of horsemen
in the critical days of Ypres, before
the French aid came. After that he
commanded the Sd British army. after
ward to go to Byng in the battle OF
Arras. in which he took Nimy ridge.
cleared Arras and pushed down into nj
Flanders plain. The success of the
spring. of 1917 was the greatest
achievement of the British in the war
up to that time.
| Allenhy Sent to East.
Later. when the British commander
| in Egypt failed at GAIA and the Pal
1 >.
| by went east He restored the situa
! ton and presently the world heard of
him in Jerusalem. This was ray. OF
Hight in a dark period. But Allenby'
| great triumph was to come. when last
| September he crushed two Turkish
(, armies i'm Samaria. captured the bulk
of their forces and made the surren-
| der of the Turk inevitable. This was
| one of the most complete victories in
! history. 1t resulted in the clearing of
| n fol 80 No
mascus. Aleppo and Beirut and the
elimination of Turkey from the war.
1t will stand side by side with DIES
! pereys success in Macedonia. won at
the same moment and resulting in the
surrender of Bulgaria.
! Such, in brief. is the roster of the
more conspicuous British generals
| who finished the war commanding
armies and still holding the conf
dence of their nation and the loyalty
of their troops. Their place in British
! and imperial history is assured. and /
| believe they will gain rather than lose
as time removes certain misapprehen-
sionS and gives more complete evil
dence of their achievements. 1t re-
mains to say word of the armies
which they commanded. In certain
| things the British army was easily
/ first. 1t surpassed it's allies and its
enemies in air service. British mas
| terry of the air was one of the essen
! tial and potent elements in ultimate
| victory
! Tank a British Invention.
| Again. without the tank. which was
| a British contribution. the campaign
! of 1918 might have finished at the
| Hindenburg line, if, indeed. it had not
closed even nearer to the positions
! held by the Germans in the summer.
! The French borrowed the idea and
| e.,
| the invention belongs to the British,
just as to Byng goes the very great
/ praise due to the man who first saw
| the possibilities of the new instru-
ment and turned them to account at
i first Cambria.
| 1t is unquestlonably true that the
British army suffered by comparison
with the French and German armies
throughout the war. 1t did not suffer
more than our young armies would
have suffered had they come on the
field while the German was still what
/, he was in 1916 and 1917. or in March.
| April and May of the present year.
| But all comparison between French
| and British armies is manifestly UNI
i fair. as comparison with the German
army is even more unfair. III there IS
j to be comparison it must be between
/ the French army and the British fleet.
i for as France put her reliance upon
her army and concentrated upon it her
best effort, Britain did likewise with
her fleet. And surely such comparison
will not be to the disadvantage of the
British.
AS to the British army the great
ythine we all have to remember is
that it was created after the war
began and after the best of the Off
GERS and men of the British regular
army had been. in the main, killed IN
the opening battles. 1t was thus de-
' no oil 0r11a ,fc 4 hat
! it most needed for its own training.
Had to Build an Army.
In the face of these handicaps. in
T, the face of the still further obstacle
due to the fact that the enemy was in
/ the field and that he had to be held.
task requiring all that was left of
British officers and regulars and de-
! man2ipg new troops before they were
| even partially trained, the British
| managed to build great army.
f, without which victory is ever inhpos-
| sible. Napoleon found. when the vet
Grams he had inherited from the wars
| of the revolution were gone. he could
not win victories of the sort which
he had won in the earlier campaigns.
| But he never had to improvise an
army or a system. The British had to
| do both.
1t was always impossible in four
wears to faSnlOn On INSTRUMENT as
| nerfect as that machine built by the
Germans as the result of a full cen
| turv of patient and uninterrupted eff
| fort. We also misunderstood the facts
| in the early period of the war, when
i the greatness of the danger inevi-
(. tably provoked impotence and in
| yited unjust comparisons. But it is
| not by comparison that we can fairly
! measure the British achievement in
| their army building. They started
| with next to nothing, when the struc-
lures of their allies and enemies were
| practically complete.
|. Finally Marched to Victory.
With all their handicaps. with all
| the limitations imposed by the situa-
| ton. they built great army, fire.
ouently victorious. sometimes de-
feated, suffering the same disappoint-
| ments which came to Grants army
in 1864. after it had at last become
convinced of its superiority. sharing
| this disappointment with nation
| equally blind to certain truths but
| gaining in power and efficiency up to
| the hour when it broke the strongest
lines of the enemy, manned by the
| best of the surviving troops of the
| foe, and began a march to victory
/ which was only halted by the white
flag Of the kaiser's generals.