Part 1 (2/2)

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 n.o.bly 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 embarra.s.sment 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 s.m.u.ts. 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL SIR HENRY RAWLINSON]

”After the deprivations and tensions of being pursued day and night by an infinitely stronger force, the Division had to pa.s.s 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 sh.e.l.ls 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 reconst.i.tuted 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.

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