HOW THE CRISIS WAS MET
General Joffre is a great man. So much is known now to all the world.
But this war was not a month old before every military man was aware
that the head of the French Staff, a galaxy of brilliant men, was a
star of the first magnitude.
The greatness of Joffre as a general lies not so much in his
simplicity, about which many stories are told, nor yet in his strength
of character, his incorruptible honesty, or his unshakable fortitude.
It lies in the force of his intellect which, joined to his character,
makes his judgment unerring. He is marked off because he foresees, and
foresees truly. It has been stated that his plans for the Battle of
the Marne were drawn up and completed on August 27. Quite possibly
they were. The movement which then substituted the Sixth French Army,
that of General D'Armade, for the British on the extreme left of the
Allied line, argues a clearly settled purpose and plan.
All the movements just stated in the briefest outline were parts of a
settled purpose and plan. Is it likely that, the situation being what
it was at the beginning of October, General Joffre was at a loss to
meet it? He was not at a loss. At least he was not at a loss for
ideas. The difficulty was the means.
Three French armies were already fastened on the flank of the German
position. To fill the gap between Bethune and the coast it was
essential to find three others, and at once. He had only one.
Time here was everything. Ever since the Germans had grasped the
necessity of re-seizing the initiative at all costs, it had been a
race against time. Their military railways and their organisation,
carefully elaborated through years to meet just such a contingency as
this, was pitted against the resources of a great military genius. It
was the brain of one man against a system.
And the man won and the system lost.
To any ordinary mind it might have appeared that the situation of the
Allies in that first week of October was well-nigh hopeless. To a
great mind, however, difficulty is the measure of opportunity. General
Joffre visited Sir John French at the British head-quarters. The
result of that interview is stated by Sir John French in his dispatch
of November 20:
Early in October a study of the general situation strongly
impressed me with the necessity of bringing the greatest possible
force to bear in support of the northern flank of the Allies, in
order effectively to outflank the enemy and compel him to evacuate
his positions.
At the same time the position on the Aisne, as described in the
concluding paragraphs of my last despatch, appeared to me to
warrant a withdrawal of the British Forces from the positions they
then held.
The enemy had been weakened by continual abortive and futile
attacks, while the fortification of the position had been much
improved.
I represented these views to General Joffre, who fully agreed.
Arrangements for withdrawal and relief having been made by the
French General Staff, the operation commenced on October 3, and
the 2nd Cavalry Division, under General Gough, marched for
Compiègne en route for the new theatre.
The Army Corps followed in succession at intervals of a few days,
and the move was completed on October 19, when the First Corps,
under Sir Douglas Haig, completed its detrainment at St. Omer.
That this delicate operation was carried out so successfully is in
great measure due to the excellent feeling which exists between
the French and British Armies; and I am deeply indebted to the
Commander-in-Chief and the French General Staff for their cordial
and most effective co-operation.
In a word, the British Commander-in-Chief, seizing the nature of the
difficulty, knowing its causes, and realising how much turned upon it,
stepped forthwith into the breach. With Sir John French, as with
General Joffre, to decide was to act. "Early in October" the decision
was taken. On October 3 began the carrying of it out. What difference
in time is there between "early in October" and October 3? No
difference.
Thus while the Germans still imagined themselves opposed on the Aisne
ridge to those British troops who, dug into their almost invisible
entrenchments, had for nearly a month successfully withstood the
repeated and furious attacks of the flower of the Prussian Army twice
or more than twice as numerous as themselves, the British had silently
ebbed away. Their places were taken by French troops of the reserve,
and the Germans remained no wiser for the change. And the British
travelled through Paris, and by roundabout routes, as it seemed to
them, through north-west France, and very few remained wiser for their
journey. Nor after long successive hours in crowded railway carriages
followed by detrainment at a place altogether strange did any but a
very few of the British even know where they were going to or for what
purpose. All they knew was that they were going somewhere to meet the
Germans.
No move in the campaign was more unexpected or more daring than this.
It affords but one more proof of how false is the assumption that the
element of surprise has been banished from modern war.
The secrecy of it was only less remarkable than its boldness. With an
Intelligence Service supposed to be second to none, the German Staff
were left without even a suspicion of it until it had been
accomplished.
The importance of the move was that it made General Joffre's scheme
for the military envelopment of the Germans immediately feasible.
There was now but one more thing to do, and that was to withdraw the
Belgian army from Antwerp in order that they should complete the
Allied line.
That it is true involved the evacuation of Antwerp. Quite apart from
the fact that the Belgian Army, reduced by the casualties and the
hardships of their heroic campaign, were no longer sufficient in
numbers properly to garrison that great fortress, their withdrawal
served a purpose more valuable even than its defence. Many no doubt
are much more readily impressed by the evacuation for the time of a
great fortified city than by what they consider a mere military
scheme, the value of which is a matter of opinion. In this instance,
however, the carrying out of the scheme meant the assurance of victory
in the war. The evacuation of Antwerp was advisable on the principle
that the greater comprehends the less.
After the transfer of the British forces from the Aisne, and the
removal on October 8 and 9 of the Belgian troops from Antwerp to the
Yser, there were on the German flank from Noyon to the sea six Allied
armies. Taking them in the order of position from south to north they
were: the army of General Castleneau; the army of General D'Armade;
the army of General D'Urbal; the army of Sir J. French; the army of
General Maudhuy; and the army of King Albert.
Let it be remembered that in addition to the twenty-eight army corps
of the German Expeditionary force as at first constituted, there were
at this time either in or on their way to France twenty-one Reserve
and Volunteer Corps, making the enormous total of forty-nine. That,
independently of casualties and wastage, gives, on the German war
footing, an aggregate of 2,940,000 of all arms. Undoubtedly the
casualties and wastage had even up to this time been very heavy. It is
reasonable and moderate to put it roundly at nearly 900,000 men,
two-thirds of those losses being casualties in battle. Even that,
however, left approximately 2,000,000 combatants. Besides, the
casualties and wastages had been largely made good by fresh drafts.
When we bear in mind the vital consequence to Germany of the plan for
re-seizing the initiative which the German Staff were endeavouring to
carry out, there is nothing in the least surprising in their hurrying
into France reinforcements and drafts of such magnitude.
The position in brief was that the total German force in France had
been brought up to at least a million men above the immense, and as it
was supposed crushing, strength of the initial Expeditionary Force,
and that, too, despite the losses incurred.
Many of the facts relating to this war are so wholly without parallel
that not a few people, unaware of the true vastness and menace of the
military system of modern Germany, find it hard to give them credence.
As nearly as possible, however, the figures of the forces sent from
Germany into Belgium and France will be found to be these:
Original Expeditionary Force
(25 Active and 3 Reserve Corps) 1,680,000
Fresh drafts to supply losses (approximately) 450,000
Additional Reserve Corps 1,260,000
---------
Total 3,390,000
The problem of dealing with such a force, and of dealing with it when
the total strength that could on the side of the Allies then be put
into the field against it was in round figures a million less, is a
problem quite unlike anything in war since in 1814 Napoleon fought the
memorable campaign which preceded his abdication and exile to Elba.[1]
[1] This statement is based on the following facts which at
this date (the beginning of October) summarises the then
immediately prospective situation as regards numbers:--
Total German forces sent into or about to
be sent into France and Belgium 3,390,000
Less casualties and wastage approximately 900,000
---------
Net German forces 2,490,000
Allies:--
Nine French armies, reinforced to
full strength 1,080,000
10th French army (in formation) 120,000
British (including forces at Ghent) 145,000
Belgians 40,000
---------
1,385,000
---------
1,105,000
The disparity of course was afterwards redressed. It took,
as it proved, some twenty days before all the additional
German forces could be sent West, and on the other hand the
embodiment of French Reservists was proceeding at the same
time, but the possibility, not to say the probability, that
the Germans would get in first, constituted the crisis.
Nobody will venture to say that, having such a superiority in numbers
at their command, and occupying besides a strongly fortified line of
front, enabling them further to economise their strength in one
direction while they threw it with greater weight in another, the
Germans were not fully warranted in thinking that the success of their
scheme was assured, and that if it was assured, the French having shot
their bolt in the Battle of the Marne, and shot it in vain, there was
an end to all intents of the struggle on the West.
How was General Joffre to grapple with this vast enigma? By meeting
the Germans on traditional lines of tactics? It was impossible.
Besides, in the face of modern arms traditional tactics are out of
date. They survive only in popular tradition, and in the criticism
based upon it.
The only way on the Allied side at once to secure and eventually and
fully to reap the advantages won at the Battle of the Marne was to
complete and to solidify the military envelopment which would render
the whole of this gigantic force of invaders for all the purposes of
the invasion impotent. It was plain, too, that the immediate purpose
of the Germans was now to straighten out their front across France. If
the reader looks at a map he will see that the fortified line held by
the enemy from the Argonne to the Aisne, would, if continued to the
north-west, touch the French coast near to Havre. With such a
straightened front not only would the Germans have the Channel ports
in their possession, but they would be free either to advance, if they
had the power, or to retreat if they chose. What is more, they would
then be able to advance or to retreat as a whole. In such a position
it is clear their advance would have enormously greater momentum, and
their retreat be an operation of far greater safety. Moreover, their
front would be shorter, and in consequence stronger.
When, therefore, I speak of General Joffre's scheme of military
envelopment, I mean by it the difference, and it is a vast difference,
between the position of the Germans were their front straightened out
and their position in an angle. Placed in an angle their armies were
for all the purposes of their campaign paralysed, and except to
counter-attack, which after all is no more than a defensive tactic,
they could do nothing. Besides, in such a situation counter-attack is
a necessity. It is an axiom confirmed by all experience that troops in
such a situation cannot maintain their position merely by a passive
defence.
If from this situation there was for the Germans but one outlet, that
of wheeling round their flank until it came into line with the rest of
their front, it followed that their pressure would inevitably be
greatest on the extremity of the radius, that is on the part of it
nearest the coast, and it was manifest that no effort possible would
be spared by them to apply that pressure before the line of the Allies
here could be formed, or at all events before it could be made firm.
To the British army therefore in this scheme was assigned a post which
was at once a post of honour and of danger. Strangely enough some of
the greatest and most striking facts in this war appear to have been
overlooked. Among them is the fact that this military envelopment, or
outflankment, meant to the Germans, if they could not prevent it, both
the ruin of their hopes of victory in France, and the certain loss of
the war. Clearly then it was to be expected that every ounce of
strength and of energy they could command would be put into the
struggle.
We can well understand, though the public, perhaps happily, remained
in ignorance for the time, the anxiety that prevailed, except it would
seem at the head-quarters of the French Staff. There the
characteristic calm does not appear to have been disturbed. Following
his custom, the French commander-in-chief went usually to bed at nine
o'clock, and rose at 5.30, save when duty took him, as it did take him
at times, to places in the fighting line. He gave his instructions,
knowing that if carried out, as they would be if possible, the result
would be right. A mighty worker and the very personification of the
commanding quality of decision, he never swerved by a hair's breath
from his plan, foreseeing all its consequences and judging justly of
its effects.
He judged justly of its effects because he relied upon essentials. On
the one hand the Germans had a huge superiority in numbers. They had
also at this time a superiority in heavy guns. On the other hand the
Allies held the superior position. Further, they had a decisive
superiority in field guns; not a numerical superiority, but one based
on the greater power and accuracy of the "75" gun as compared with the
German converted "77" gun. In 1899 just after the German Government
had completed rearmament of its artillery with the "77," the French
brought out the "75," the first really practicable quick-firing field
gun until then known. This invention revolutionised modern gunnery. To
meet it the Germans were forced to "convert" their "77" into a
quick-firer. Their gun, however, remained distinctly inferior and
out-classed. Neither in muzzle energy, muzzle velocity, nor
consequently in range was it any match for the French weapon. Leading
the way as they always have done in artillery improvements, the French
had evolved, besides, a novel system of "fire discipline," for using
this gun scientifically and with the maximum of effect. That system
had already justified itself by striking results. In no small degree
it was the "75" gun which had crushed the German resistance on the
Marne. In no small degree, too, it was the "75" which had ruined the
German attack upon Rheims. The "75" had withered the attempted turning
movements from Noyon, and north of the Somme with the breath of death.
Clearly, apart altogether from its strategical conception, sound and
great at once as that conception was, General Joffre's plan of
military envelopment was inspired by the aim of giving the widest
effect to this superiority in gun-power. Here again is one of the
facts of the war which has not been estimated at its right value, and
has misled many critics of the Western "deadlock."
Now the German Higher Command well knew that in field artillery they
were out-classed. The "75" has a muzzle energy of 333 foot-tons as
compared with the 241·7 foot-tons of the German "77." The French
artillerists also had solved the problem of the "universal shell,"
that is of a projectile combining the effects of a high explosive
shell with those of a shrapnel shell. With the Germans this problem
was still in the stage of experiment. In order to off-set such marked
disadvantages the German Government had gone in largely for heavy
howitzers. When the war broke out they had undoubtedly a superiority
in that class of weapon. The French scheme of rearmament with
howitzers had only begun. This was perhaps one reason for the German
precipitancy. Upon their superiority in heavy howitzers they now
largely relied for their second contemplated "drive."
Artillery, however, is not the final word. Nor was this placing of the
British Force on the northern wing of the German armies in any sense
an accidental choice of location. It was certain that the German
attack, initiated with their heavy cannon, would be driven home, if it
could be driven home, by assaults in mass formation from their
infantry. The necessity then was for a force which could be relied
upon in any event to stop such rushes. That force was pre-eminently
the British army. The British army were a body of expert riflemen.
They were more. They, and they alone, were armed with a rifle capable
of firing 15 rounds "rapid." Delivered by troops who can keep cool
under the experience, 15 rounds "rapid" will stop the densest rush
ever organised. The British army had shown themselves able to do it.
They formed the element of the Allied forces which in a case like this
could, if it were humanly possible, save the situation.
It will be seen, therefore, that the scheme of the Allied generals
though it seemed to lack spectacular magnificence, was business, and
was in every sense and emphatically _war_.