Transcriber's note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and Black
Letter by =equals signs=. Tables of Content have been moved from the
back covers to the front of the Parts they reference.
GENERALS
OF THE
BRITISH ARMY
_Portraits in Colours by_
FRANCIS DODD
_With Introduction and Biographical Notes_
PUBLISHED FROM THE OFFICES OF "COUNTRY LIFE," LTD.,
20, TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON
MCMXVII
CONTENTS
_INTRODUCTION_
I.--HAIG, FIELD MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS, K.T., G.C.B., G.C.V.O.,
K.C.I.E., =A.D.C.=
II.--PLUMER, GENERAL SIR H. C. O., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., K.C.B.,
=A.D.C.=
III.--RAWLINSON, GENERAL SIR H. S., Bart., G.C.V.O., K.C.B.,
K.C.V.O.
IV.--GOUGH, SIR H. De La POER, K.C.B., K.C.V.O.
V.--ALLENBY, GENERAL SIR E. H., K.C.B.
VI.--HORNE, GENERAL SIR H. S., K.C.B.
VII.--BIRDWOOD, LIEUT.-GEN. SIR W. R., K.C.B., K.C.S.I., K.C.M.G.,
C.I.E., D.S.O.
VIII.--BYNG, GENERAL THE HON. SIR J. H. G., K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,
M.V.O.
IX.--CONGREVE, LIEUT.-GEN. SIR W. N., =V.C.=, K.C.B., M.V.O.
X.--HALDANE, LIEUT.-GEN. J. A. L., C.B., D.S.O.
XI.--WATTS, LIEUT.-GEN. H. E., C.B., C.M.G.
XII.--SMUTS, LIEUT.-GEN. THE RT. HON. JAN C., P.C., K.C., M.L.A.
INTRODUCTION.
This small portrait gallery of British generals represents, in fair
epitome, the drama of British history. Each of the officers who figure
here has behind him a varied story of fighting in strange places, under
all sorts of conditions, as well as in the tense atmosphere of modern
scientific war; each of them has first had to struggle against heavy
odds before arriving at the conditions which at present obtain on the
Western front. Infantrymen, cavalrymen, artillerists, they have come
through a fiery trial to command large bodies of troops in the most
terrible struggle of our history.
The part of their story that is concerned in this war is memorable, and
may we not say it, memorably fine? For these are not the leaders of that
vast host whose shadow has hung over Europe for so many years, whose
numbers and efficiency have been the evil dream of the international
situation; but of that small contingent that, for an ideal, took the
field light-heartedly, against the vast German horde. Even the Belgian
army was more numerous than the Expeditionary Force that struck its
first blow before Mons; and these leaders have memories of the days when
it was the equal in nothing, save undaunted courage and tactical
ability, of the army in whose path it stood.
They have seen every type of fighting. The war of movements with its
swift changes and long hazards was their first experience, an experience
that none of those who took part in it will ever forget. For some
terrible days the British army stood between the Allies and disaster;
but the experience it bought was handed on to the enemy in a series of
engagements, the lesson of which he softens by proclaiming the first
seven divisions to have been unique. The admission is sufficiently
revealing, for the handful of troops ought to have been crushed at Mons;
or, escaping thence, should have been penned into Maubeuge; or, evading
that trap, should have met annihilation at Le Cateau. But they fought
coolly, were manoeuvred skilfully, saving themselves by sheer fighting
ability from the tide which threatened to overwhelm them.
Only consummate leaders could have taken an army to the Marne. The army
ought to have been wiped out long before. The Germans had fully resolved
upon it, they had the men and guns to encompass it, their long-perfected
plans depended upon it. The British, wearied by the pressure of a
hurried retreat, fought almost without cover against a great
concentration of guns. But not only did they fight with superb spirit;
they fought also with that instinctive appreciation of tactics which
comes from perfectly assimilated experience. When the German blow had
over reached itself, the British Generals were able to advance, threaten
the left wing of Von Kluck's army when his right was dealing with
General Manoury's outflanking movement on the Ourcq, outmanoeuvre and
outfight the enemy on the Aisne and secure tactical advantages of the
first importance. In the victory of the Marne not the least wonderful of
many arresting features was this effective recoil of the army which the
Germans had announced to be "dispersed" ten days before.
After the battle of the Aisne, the army, moved _en bloc_ from the heart
of France, where the war of positions was beginning to develop, appeared
on the extreme left flank of the Allied forces, manoeuvring towards the
East in the effort to outflank the Germans. Here, out of a struggle of
cross-purposes, there emerged, little by little, the outlines of a
titanic battle for the possession of the Channel coast. The Belgian army
had fallen back from Antwerp upon the sea, covered by an army corps
pushed from the coast in a precarious venture towards Bruges and Ghent;
and the handful of British divisions stood between the picked troops of
the Germans and the goal they had failed to value before it was lost.
Many of these generals tasted the bitter savour of those days when it
seemed impossible that flesh and blood could withstand the unceasing
onslaught of ever fresh troops--of the Bavarians, the Guard, and
picked Prussian regiments--and of the pounding of an overwhelming
weight of metal. German critics have said that this army was one
of non-commissioned officers, and certainly not even the racial
stubbornness could have saved the situation if it had not been wedded
to high ability, if undaunted courage had not been equalled by the
resolute skill of the command. The first battle of Ypres was the first
in which the Germans and the British fought _à outrance_, and no one
to-day is ignorant of the result. The Germans broke off the engagement
and thereby acknowledged their defeat. The British had not turned the
line. That was impossible with their resources. But they had held the
Germans off from their goal and inflicted upon them one of the bloodiest
defeats in history.
Henceforward the war presented a different problem to the command. The
last battle of the war of movements on the Western front had been fought
for the time being and the war of positions held sway. In the months
that followed, Britain had to build up an army commensurate with the
task she had assumed. For every soldier of the pre-war army she had to
find about ten, and her generals had to teach the new armies their
business. The action of Neuve Chapelle showed the British army making
its _début_ in one of those carefully-planned limited attacks against
entrenched positions which have been developed, with growing experience,
out of all recognition. Loos was a more ambitious venture. In it there
appeared volunteer troops to astound seasoned veterans by their dash and
discipline. But the lessons of Neuve Chapelle had not been perfectly
digested and too much was attempted. The result, in its larger aspect,
was less achievement than the promise of overwhelming success in the
future. In these two battles the British commanders firmly grasped the
elements of the problem that confronted them, and proved the worth of
the new Armies. They were to apply this knowledge in the most mighty
battle the world has seen.
It was the battle of the Somme that first revealed the true
formidableness of the new British armies. The opening of this terrific
campaign was pitched for the fifth month of the Verdun struggle. The
offensive against modern entrenchments seemed to be in eclipse. Four
months' pounding by the seried masses of the German guns and carefully
arranged assaults by picked troops had failed to reach the enemy
objective. The deduction that seemed inevitable was that the offensive
was bound to be extremely costly and productive of little. It was in
this atmosphere the Somme battle opened against positions that had been
elaborated by two years of care and cunning. The course of that bitterly
contested campaign re-established the offensive as a paying proposition.
All manner of engagements were fought out in that area. Some positions
were carried at the point of the bayonet. Others were encircled so that
the garrisons had to evacuate them or choose between annihilation and
capture. But, by whatever means, one fell after another. The experience
gained was assimilated and the armies marched from strength to strength.
On at least one occasion the British were only cheated of a decisive and
overwhelming victory by an unkindly fate that brought bad weather when
the armies were straining to go forward. A flank was opened in the
German lines and through it the German army steadily bled away until an
unwonted prudence conquered Prussian pride and the great strategic
retreat was carried out. By that retreat, carried out under the
compulsion of the British army, the Germans admitted to the world the
strategic nature of the Somme campaign success.
By the retreat the Germans hoped to gain a respite. The victory of Vimy
Ridge was the unwelcome reality to which that dream materialized. This
position was one that was formidable from its natural conformation to
begin with, and it had been turned into an obstacle which almost
justified the German confidence in its impregnability. The assaulting
troops had the advantage of only a limited surprise. The Ridge
overlooked the British positions, and little could be done between Arras
and La Bassée that was not detected by the German observers. Yet in two
days the position was carried with 11,000 prisoners and 100 guns. And it
was but three weeks since the enemy had carried out the retreat that was
to cut the ground from under the British plans. The British losses were
comparatively light; everyone could see that if the battle were to
become a precedent, the decisive defeat of Germany was assured.
Just two months later, the capture of Messines Ridge proved conclusively
that the success could be repeated against another of the strongest
sectors of the line. But the victory on this occasion was even more
remarkable. The position was so advantageous to the Germans that the
enemy troops had been urged to fight to the last. The ridge overlooked
the whole of the Ypres salient which had been held so staunchly against
every handicap. The assault differed greatly from that on the Vimy
Ridge. The tactics were different in detail though the outlines were the
same; but the attack was equally kept under the control of the command
and swept forward to a similar success. These two battles of the 1917
Campaign made it clear that the British had solved the general problem
of the German defensive, and at the same time they revealed the intimate
dependence of victory upon the control of the commanders. In a war that
seemed to be given over to mechanics, engineering and physics, that was
frequently regarded as a mathematical problem, they showed that
leadership is still the paramount factor in the art of warfare.
Such then is the versatility of these leaders. The war has cast upon
them the burden of meeting every sort of warfare. They have come
triumphantly through the ordeal, winning a grudging praise from the
enemy, and the more unmistakeable approval of attempts at imitation.
They have shown themselves as resourceful in devising new machines and
methods of attack as they are experienced in the orthodox fighting of
other days. The war may have new experiences for them, but it cannot
daunt or check them. They have seen the worst. They have come through
dark places to the approaching light of day. Their record is our best
assurance for the future.
I
FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG, K.T., G.C.B., G.C.V.O., K.C.I.E.,
=A.D.C.=
SIR DOUGLAS HAIG was born in Fife on June 19th, 1861, of a family which
has played a great part in the annals of the Scottish Borders. He was
educated at Clifton and Brasenose College, Oxford, of which he is an
Honorary Fellow. He is almost the only great soldier of modern times who
has passed through the curriculum of an English University.
He joined the 7th Hussars in 1885, and, after passing through the Staff
College, served in the Soudan Campaign of 1898, being present at the
Battles of Atbara and Omdurman.
His great military talents were first proved in the South African War.
After acting as D.A.A.G. for the Cavalry in Natal, he became the Chief
Staff officer of General French during the Colesberg operations. In
1901-2 he commanded a group of columns which did brilliant work, chiefly
in northern Cape Colony, in pursuit of Kritzinger and Scheepers. His
South African record marked him out as an ideal Staff officer, and
thereafter his rise was rapid. From 1903-6 he was Inspector-General of
Cavalry in India with the rank of Major-General. He was Director of
Military Training at home from 1906-7, and Director of Staff Duties from
1907-9. From 1909-12 he was Chief-of-Staff in India. From 1912-14 he was
G.O.C. at Aldershot, and in 1914, on the outbreak of the European War,
he was given command of the I Corps.
[Illustration: FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG]
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 nobly 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.
[Illustration: 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 embarrassment 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 Smuts. 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.
[Illustration: GENERAL SIR HENRY RAWLINSON]
"After the deprivations and tensions of being pursued day and night by
an infinitely stronger force, the Division had to pass 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 shells 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 reconstituted 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.
In the spring of 1916 Sir Henry Rawlinson was appointed to the command
of the new Fourth Army, which took its place in the line on the right of
the old Third Army in the Somme area. He was in command of the whole
front when the Battle of the Somme opened on July 1st, 1916. On the
first two days of the battle he commanded the whole of the five Corps on
that front, but handed over the two northern Corps to Sir Hubert Gough's
reserve Fifth Army early in July. The Fourth Army line then ran
southward from Thiepval to the junction with the French at Maricourt.
Under his direction were fought the actions of July 14th and September
15th and 25th. Few British forces have had a harder task than to break
the mighty defences of Contalmaison, High Wood, Delville Wood, and
Guillemont.
When the German retreat began in the spring of 1917, Sir Henry Rawlinson
led the southern part of the British advance. It was his men who entered
Peronne and fought their way to the gates of St. Quentin.
The Commander of the Fourth Army is one of the most accomplished and
highly trained of modern British Generals. He has mastered the learning
of his profession, and has a perfect understanding of Staff work. But
his knowledge is only a small part of the endowment which he brings to
work in the field. He has that _flair_ for the decisive moment which no
training can give, and his high spirits, stout heart, and steady
confidence in himself and his men have made him an ideal Commander, both
for the tedious war of positions, and any future war of movement.
IV
GENERAL SIR HUBERT DE LA POER GOUGH, K.C.B., K.C.V.O.
SIR HUBERT GOUGH was born on August 12th, 1870; the eldest son of the
late Sir Charles John Stanley Gough. He was educated at Eton and
Sandhurst, and, in 1889, obtained a commission in the 16th Lancers. He
served in the Tirah Expedition and in the South African War. On the
outbreak of the European War he commanded the 3rd Cavalry Brigade during
the Retreat from Mons and the Battle of the Marne. His Brigade was one
of the first to arrive at the Aisne on September 12th, 1914, and, a few
weeks later, when the Cavalry Corps was formed under Sir Edmund Allenby,
he was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division. His Division was the
first part of the British force to leave on October 3rd for Flanders.
In the First Battle of Ypres, when the small British Army bolted the
door of the North against the German sweep, his Division played a
foremost part. In General Smith-Dorrien's advance towards La Bassée it
moved on the left flank, clearing out the Germans from the forest of
Nieppe, the Hill of Cassel, and Hazebrouck. Along with the 1st Cavalry
Division it reconnoitred the line of the Lys, and later held the front
between Zandvoorde and Messines on the left of Allenby's Corps. In the
great struggle of October 30th and 31st it had desperate fighting to
hold the line, and, on November 1st, before the French XVI Corps arrived
in support, it was forced back from Hollebeke and Messines.
[Illustration: GENERAL SIR HUBERT GOUGH]
Sir Hubert Gough's 2nd Cavalry Division was at the Battle of Neuve
Chapelle, but failed to get the expected chance of going into action.
Shortly after this he took command of the 7th Infantry Division and was
engaged in the operations at Festubert. About the middle of July,
1915, he was appointed to command the I Corps in succession to Sir C.
Monro, who went to the Mediterranean.
At Loos Sir Hubert Gough commanded this Corps, which contained at the
time the 2nd, 7th and 9th Divisions. It was his men who stormed Fosse 8
and the Hohenzollern Redoubt.
During the spring of 1916 he was put in command of a Reserve Army, which
at the time consisted chiefly of Cavalry and a Staff. After the first
day of the Battle of the Somme, when it was apparent that Sir Henry
Rawlinson's Fourth Army was engaged on too long a line, the part of the
front from la Boiselle northwards was handed over to the Reserve Army,
which now became known as the Fifth. There, for five months, Sir Hubert
Gough was hotly engaged. It was under his command that Pozières and
Mouquet Farm were taken by the Australians and Courcelette by the
Canadians, and the Thiepval Ridge cleared at the end of October. His
greatest success came in the Battle of the Ancre on November 13th, when,
in two days, he took more than 5,000 German prisoners.
When the German retreat began in the spring of 1917, Sir Hubert Gough's
Army operated in the Bapaume area and towards the country between
Cambrai and St. Quentin. It was engaged on the right of the Third Army
during the Battle of Arras.
Sir Hubert Gough belongs to one of the most famous of British fighting
families. His brother, Brigadier-General John Gough, V.C., was Sir
Douglas Haig's Chief-of-Staff during the first nine months of the war,
and died by a chance rifle bullet at Estaires on February 20th, 1917.
Sir Hubert, who is only 46, is by far the youngest of British soldiers
in high command--the youngest Army Commander, indeed, among all the
Allies. He first made his name as a dashing Cavalry leader, a man of
infinite courage and resource in an open campaign. In the long months of
trench fighting he has won a reputation second to no British General for
skill in our modern scientific and mechanical form of warfare. His
energy, his daring, and his boyish good-humour made him an ideal Cavalry
leader, and they have endeared him to every man who has had the honour
to serve under his command. He is not the least notable of the many
great soldiers whom Ireland has given to the British Army.
V
GENERAL SIR EDMUND HENRY ALLENBY, K.C.B.
SIR EDMUND ALLENBY was born on April 23rd, 1861, and was educated at
Haileybury. He entered the Inniskilling Dragoons, with whom he served in
the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884-5. He fought in Zululand in 1888,
and in the South African War was a dashing and successful Column
Commander. He was one of those who harried General Delarey in the
difficult Magaliesberg region.
In 1910 he was promoted to the command of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, was
subsequently Inspector of Cavalry, and, when the European War broke out,
he was given the Cavalry Division. He fought through the Retreat from
Mons and the Battle of the Marne, and after the Battle of the Aisne was
promoted to the command of the Cavalry Corps. During the First Battle of
Ypres he held the Messines ridge, filling the gap in the line between
Sir Henry Rawlinson's 7th Division and General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps.
In May, 1915, he succeeded Sir Herbert Plumer in command of the V
Infantry Corps. When General Monro went to India he followed him in
command of the new Third Army on the Somme.
In the spring of 1916, when Sir Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army was
formed, the Third Army was moved further north to take over the ground
around Arras vacated by the French Tenth Army under D'Urbal. Only a
small part of the right wing of Sir Edmund Allenby's Army was engaged
during the Battle of the Somme, and that only on the first day.
[Illustration: GENERAL SIR EDMUND ALLENBY]
During the winter of 1916-17, apart from many brilliant trench raids,
there was no action upon the Third Army front. Its chance came on
Easter Monday, 1917, when Sir Edmund Allenby commanded the right wing of
the British forces in the great Battle of Arras--one of the most
successful actions as yet fought by British troops. It was his men who
carried the intricate network of trenches east of Arras, fighting their
way along the valley of the Scarpe towards Douai.
In June Sir Edmund Allenby was transferred to the command of the British
forces in Egypt.
In the European War some of the most brilliant infantry leaders have
come from the Cavalry--Haig, Gough, Kavanagh, Allenby. Sir Edmund
is a personification of the traditional qualities of an English
soldier--patient, tenacious, resolute; and his record in many fields has
shown that he possesses admirable military judgment and wide military
knowledge.
VI
GENERAL SIR HENRY SINCLAIR HORNE, K.C.B.
SIR HENRY HORNE was born on February 19th, 1861; a son of the late Major
James Horne, of Stirkoke, Caithness. He was educated at Harrow and
Woolwich, and entered the Royal Artillery in 1880. He served in the
South African War with distinction, and during the early stages of the
European War was soon recognised as one of the most able of our gunner
Generals.
He went to France with Sir Douglas Haig as Brigadier-General of
Artillery of the I Corps, and took part in the Retreat from Mons, the
Battle of the Aisne and the First Battle of Ypres. He commanded the 2nd
Division during the attack at Givenchy in connection with the Battle of
Neuve Chapelle in March, 1915. This Division was also in action at the
Battle of Loos in September, 1915, when it had much desperate fighting
on both sides of the La Bassée Canal.
In November, 1915, General Horne accompanied Lord Kitchener to Gallipoli
and was afterwards sent on to Egypt to report on the defences of the
Suez Canal. In January, 1916, he was appointed to the command of the XV
Corps in Egypt, which, in April, was transferred to the Somme area.
In the first part of the battle his Corps was in action as the second
from the British right. It was his men who took Fricourt and Mametz,
assisted in the capture of Contalmaison and Bazentin le Petit, and on
September 15th triumphantly entered Flers.
[Illustration: GENERAL SIR HENRY HORNE]
In the autumn of 1916 Sir Henry Horne took over the command of the First
Army and during the winter held the section of the British line between
General Plumer and General Allenby.
In the Battle of Arras he commanded the British left. His troops carried
the Vimy ridge and fought their way to the southern and western suburbs
of Lens. Sir Henry Horne's Army had now a similar general objective to
that which his Division had had at the earlier Battle of Loos.
Sir Henry Horne is one of the most trusted of British soldiers. Like the
Commander-in-Chief, he is a man of few words but of many deeds. Scotland
has played a great part in the war and has contributed more than her
share of brilliant Generals. The one Scottish Army Commander in the West
has nobly sustained the traditions of his country.
VII
LIEUT-GEN. SIR WILLIAM RIDDELL BIRDWOOD, K.C.B., K.C.S.I, K.C.M.G.,
C.I.E., D.S.O.
SIR WILLIAM BIRDWOOD was born on September 13th, 1865, the son of a
distinguished Indian civilian. He was educated at Clifton and at
Sandhurst, and in 1883 entered the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Two years
later he went to the Cavalry--the 12th Lancers--and a year later to the
11th Bengal Lancers. In the South African War he rose to be Military
Secretary to Lord Kitchener, then Commander-in-Chief. In 1902 he was
Assistant Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief in India, and
three years later was again Lord Kitchener's Military Secretary. In 1909
he commanded a Brigade on the Indian Frontier. In 1912 he was
Quartermaster-General in India, and later Secretary to the Government of
India, Army Department, and Member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council.
He has seen many campaigns besides the present. Apart from South Africa
he served in the Hazara Expedition of 1891, the Isazai Expedition of
1892, and the Tirah Campaign of 1897-98. In South Africa he was severely
wounded, and five times mentioned in despatches. In 1908 he was the
Chief Staff officer of the Mohmand Expedition.
In the present war he has won an almost legendary fame as Commander of
the Anzac Corps. From that April day when they landed on the beaches
above Gaba Tepe he was the inspiration of one of the hardest fought
campaigns in all history. Wholly free from formality and red tape, and
willing to find in every soldier a man and a brother, he could yet
maintain a perfect battle discipline and keep the hearts of his men
steady under the most desperate conditions. To his cool brain, also,
were due many of the details of the brilliant withdrawal from the
Peninsula, which he carried out as Commander of the Dardanelles Army.
[Illustration: LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM BIRDWOOD]
The Anzac record on the Somme was equal to their record at Gallipoli.
The capture of Pozières and Mouquet Farm was an Australian achievement,
and Flers fell to the New Zealanders. Since then, both in the German
Retreat and in the later stages of the Battle of Arras (especially in
the Hindenburg line at Bullecourt), they have shown the same fury and
steadiness in attack. An observer with them on the Somme has thus
described their behaviour:
"Hour after hour, day and night, with increasing intensity as the time
went on, the enemy rained heavy shell into the area. Now he would send
them crashing in on a line south of the road--eight heavy shells at a
time, minute after minute, followed by a burst of shrapnel. Now he would
place a curtain straight across this valley or that till the sky and
landscape were blotted out, except for fleeting glimpses seen as through
a lift of fog.... Day and night the men worked through it, fighting the
horrid machinery far over the horizon as if they were fighting Germans
hand to hand; building up whatever it battered down; buried some of
them, not once, but again and again and again. What is a barrage against
such troops? They went through it as you would go through a summer
shower, too proud to bend their heads, many of them, because their mates
were looking. I am telling you of things I have seen. As one of the best
of their officers said to me: 'I have to walk about as if I liked it;
what else can you do when your own men teach you to?'"
VIII
GENERAL THE HON. SIR JULIAN HEDWORTH GEORGE BYNG, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,
M.V.O.
SIR JULIAN BYNG was born on September 11th, 1862, the seventh son of the
second Earl of Strafford. He joined the 10th Hussars in 1883, and served
in the Soudan Expedition of 1884, being present at the actions of El Teb
and Tamai. In South Africa he commanded a column with great distinction
in the pursuit of De Wet, and finished the campaign with the rank of
Colonel. One of his most successful actions was on the Vlei River, west
of Reitz, where he surprised a Boer Commando and took a 15-pounder, two
pom-poms, and many prisoners.
He landed in Belgium in October, 1914, in command of the 3rd Cavalry
Division. He accompanied Rawlinson's 7th Division in its retreat from
Antwerp to Ypres. The doings of the famous 3rd Cavalry Division are writ
large in history, and in all the great drama of Ypres there was no finer
incident than the charge of the Household Brigade at Klein Zillebeke on
November 6th, 1914.
In May, 1915, General Byng succeeded General Allenby in command of the
Cavalry Corps, and was responsible for the cavalry fighting in the later
part of the Second Battle of Ypres. In August of that year he went to
the Dardanelles to take over the command of the IX Corps, and was
present during the later stages of that campaign and the famous
withdrawal from the peninsula. In February, 1916, he returned to France
to command the XVII Corps, and was transferred to the Canadian Corps on
May 24th.
[Illustration: LIEUT.-GEN. THE HON. SIR JULIAN BYNG]
Since then he has been one of the most brilliant among Corps Commanders.
During the Battle of the Somme the Canadians fought on the right of
Sir Hubert Gough's 5th Army and did notable work, taking Courcelette,
and fighting many desperate actions on the Thiepval Ridge. During the
long stormy winter their raids on the enemy line were among the most
remarkable on the British front. More especially, they made the section
north of Arras an unquiet place for the enemy. Their culminating
achievement came at the Battle of Arras on April 9th, 1917, when they
stormed in one stride four positions on the Vimy Ridge, and wrested from
the enemy the key of the plain of Douai.
In June Sir Julian Byng succeeded General Allenby in command of the
Third Army.
Sir Julian Byng has the appearance and manner of the cavalier of
tradition. No more soldierly figure has appeared in the campaign. He has
had the good fortune always to have fine troops to lead, and he is a fit
leader for the best troops. He has become to the Canadians what General
Birdwood is to the Anzacs--at once a trusted Commander and a
well-beloved friend.
IX
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WALTER NORRIS CONGREVE, =V.C.=, K.C.B., M.V.O.
SIR WALTER CONGREVE, born in 1862, of Chartley and Congreve, County
Stafford, was educated at Harrow and entered the Rifle Brigade in 1885.
He became a Captain in 1893, and Brevet Lieut.-Colonel in 1901. During
the South African War he won the Victoria Cross for an heroic attempt to
save the guns at Colenso--the occasion on which Lord Roberts' only son
won the same honour and lost his life.
During the war he received a brevet Lieut.-Colonelcy. He was Private
Secretary and Assistant Military Secretary to Lord Kitchener when the
latter was Commander-in-Chief at Pretoria.
After his return to England he became Commandant of the School of
Musketry at Hythe, and, on the outbreak of the European War, went out in
command of the 18th Infantry Brigade. From this he proceeded to the
command of the 6th Division, with which he was present at the fighting
at Hooge and Ypres in August and September, 1915.
At the Battle of the Somme he commanded the XIII Corps on the extreme
British right in liaison with the French. He was responsible for the
taking of Montauban, Bazentin and Longueval, and the desperate fighting
around Guillemont. Ill-health compelled him to relinquish his command at
the end of August, 1916, and, on his return, the XIII Corps was moved
further to the left to Sir Hubert Gough's Army.
[Illustration: LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WALTER CONGREVE]
General Congreve has been in command of the XIII Corps since November
15th, 1915. His son, Brevet-Major William Congreve, The Rifle Brigade,
who fell at Longueval, July 22nd, 1916, at the age of 25, was
universally recognised as the most promising of the younger British
soldiers. In two years he had won a Brevet Majority, the D.S.O., the
Military Cross, and the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and, after his
death, he received the Victoria Cross. No family has a more splendid
fighting record.
X
LIEUT.-GENERAL JAMES AYLMER LOWTHORPE HALDANE, C.B., D.S.O.
GENERAL HALDANE was born on November 17th, 1862, of a well-known
Scottish family which has given many distinguished members to the
learned professions. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Sandhurst,
and, in 1882, joined the Gordon Highlanders. He served in the Waziristan
Campaign of 1894; the Chitral Campaign of 1895; the Tirah Campaign of
1897; and from 1896-99 he was A.D.C. to Sir William Lockhart. He
received the D.S.O. for his work on the Indian frontier.
During the South African War he fought with the 2nd Gordon Highlanders
at Elandslaagte, where he was severely wounded. He was in command of the
armoured train which was captured at Chieveley on November 15th, 1899.
The story of his escape from Pretoria after some months' imprisonment is
one of the romances of the South African Campaign. He rejoined his
battalion and was present at some of the later actions of the war,
receiving a brevet Lieut.-Colonelcy.
During the Russo-Japanese War he was Military Attaché with the Japanese
Army, and was present at the Battles of Liao-yang, Sha-Ho, and Mukden.
He went to France in August, 1914, in command of the 10th Infantry
Brigade, which was part of the 4th Division in the III Corps. The
Brigade arrived in time for the Battle of Le Cateau, and took part in
all the subsequent fighting, being heavily engaged in the Armentières
area during the First Battle of Ypres. General Haldane was one of the
first Brigadiers to receive a Division. He succeeded Major-General Sir
Hubert Hamilton in command of the 3rd Division in October, 1914, and
remained with this famous Division till the Battle of the Somme. Its
heaviest fighting took place in the summer of 1915 within the Ypres
salient, and, in the spring of 1916, it was again engaged in the
neighbourhood of St. Eloi and the Bluff at Ypres.
[Illustration: LIEUT.-GEN. J. A. L. HALDANE]
At the Battle of the Somme General Haldane took part in the great
advance of July 14th, when the 3rd Division was brilliantly successful,
carrying Bazentin le Grand, and sharing afterwards in the desperate
fighting around Longueval and Delville Wood. In August he was promoted
to the command of the VI Corps, and, during the winter, held a portion
of the Arras front. The opportunity of the Corps came in the Battle of
Arras on April 9th, 1917, when, advancing due east of the city, its
three divisions carried all their objectives, including such formidable
fortresses as the Harp and Railway Triangle, and made record captures of
prisoners and guns.
Few British soldiers have had a more varied experience of warfare. He is
a scholar in his profession, but his book knowledge is borne lightly,
and he has shown himself in every crisis a leader of shrewd judgment and
ample resource. He is still a young man, and, fine as his record has
been, he is universally regarded as only at the outset of his career.
XI
LIEUT.-GENERAL H. E. WATTS, C.B., C.M.G.
GENERAL WATTS was born on February 14th, 1858, and entered the Army
in 1880. He served in South Africa, where he received a brevet
Lieut.-Colonelcy. He became Colonel of his regiment in 1908, and retired
in 1914. On the outbreak of the European War he returned to service, and
went with General Rawlinson to Flanders in October, 1914, in command of
the 21st Brigade of the 7th Division.
With this Brigade, which has seen some of the most desperate fighting of
the war, he fought at the first battle of Ypres. For three critical days
the Brigade formed one of the three which checked the whole German
advance; and then for nearly a fortnight it was in the centre of all the
bitter fighting that was directed towards Ypres. When it was withdrawn
it was but a shadow of the Brigade that had crossed Belgium before
falling back on Ypres; but in the three weeks' battle it had won an
imperishable name. General Watts fought with the Brigade on the left of
the front at Neuve Chapelle and he also took part in the summer battles
of 1915 at Festubert and Givenchy. With it he was engaged at Loos, where
the Division saw some of the most severe fighting and where the
Commander, General Capper, fell. General Watts succeeded to General
Capper's command.
From the first day of the battle of the Somme the 7th Division, changed
considerably in composition since the Autumn of 1914, played a notable
part. It was they who took Mametz, and they fought through the whole of
the first phase of the battle, crowning their achievement by the capture
of Bazentin le Petit. The Division was present in most of the other
great actions of the battle. In the spring of 1917 their General
received the command of a corps.
[Illustration: LIEUT.-GEN. H. E. WATTS]
General Watts has a fighting reputation second to no one in the Army.
The Campaign for him has been one long Malplaquet--a hard-fought
soldiers' battle, and no man has known better how to elicit the inherent
steadfastness of British troops. To have led first a Brigade and then a
Division through some of the fiercest fights of all history is no small
record for a man on the verge of sixty years.
XII
LIEUT.-GENERAL THE RT. HON. JAN CHRISTIAAN SMUTS, P.C., K.C., M.L.A.
COMPANION OF HONOUR
GENERAL SMUTS was born on May 24th, 1870, at Bovenplaats in the
Malmesbury district of the Cape Colony, the residence of his father,
Jacobus Abraham Smuts, who was for some time a member of the Legislative
Assembly of the Cape. He was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch,
and graduating with high honours in arts and science, passed as Ebden
Scholar to Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1891.
He secured a double first in the Law Tripos, was called to the Bar and,
returning to South Africa in 1895, was duly admitted to the Supreme
Court at Cape Town, where he began to practice his profession. He was
admitted to the Transvaal Bar in the following year, soon after the
Jameson Raid. About this time he married Miss Sibylla Krige, of
Stellenbosch, and settled in Johannesburg. He had already been mentioned
as Dr. Leyds' successor to the post of State Secretary, when in 1898 he
was offered and accepted the post of State Attorney. President Kruger's
choice of so young a man was amply and speedily justified, and his
reforming zeal exercised a formidable influence in the State.
It was in his capacity as State Attorney that he accompanied President
Kruger, when the latter met Lord (then Sir Alfred) Milner at
Bloemfontein, and took part in the negotiation with Mr. Conyngham
Greene, the British Agent at Pretoria. The young advocate and statesman
suddenly found his country confronted with war, and shortly after the
Boer Commandos had taken the field he was attached to General Joubert as
a legal adviser and administrative officer for the territory in Natal
occupied by the Republican forces.
[Illustration: LIEUT.-GEN. THE RT. HON. JAN C. SMUTS]
Eventually, after the occupation of Pretoria by the British armies, he
received a command in the western Transvaal as Vecht-General under
General de la Rey. He proved himself a dashing and skilful commander,
and by the boldness of his movements in the Cape Colony, in the later
stages of the war, created a feeling of nervousness in Lord Kitchener's
main communications. He was in supreme command in the Cape and was
applying himself to the reduction of Ookiep when the news of the opening
of peace negotiations brought him back to the Transvaal. His was one of
the strongest voices at Vereeniging in favour of peace when terms would
still be obtainable, and when the Treaty was signed he returned to the
practice of his old profession.
In the interval between Vereeniging and the grant of responsible
government, he took a leading part with General Botha in restoring the
moral of the Boer people, which had suffered severely in the disastrous
war, and also in preparing them for self-government.