COMING OF THE BRITISH
We now come to the arrival of the British on the Continent. In
using the term British, it, is expressly intended to comprise the
united forces of the British Isles.
On August 3, 1914, the British Government practically gave up hope
that war with Germany could be avoided, though it would appear to
have lingered until the ultimatum to Germany to vacate Belgian
soil remained unanswered. On that day the army was mobilized at
Aldershot.
On August 5, 1914, Lord Kitchener was recalled at the outset from
a journey to Egypt, and appointed Minister of War. No more fortunate
selection than this could have been made. Above all else, Lord
Kitchener's reputation had been won as an able transport officer.
In the emergency, as Minister of War, the responsibility for the
transport of a British army oversea rested in his hands. On August
5, 1914, the House of Commons voted a credit of $100,000,000, and
an increase of 500,000 men to the regular forces. Upon the same
day preparations went forward for the dispatch of an expeditionary
army to France.
The decision to send the army to France, instead of direct to a
landing in Belgium, would seem to have been in response to an urgent
French entreaty that Great Britain mark visibly on French soil
her unity with that nation at the supreme crisis. For some days
previously British reluctance to enter the war while a gleam of hope
remained to confine, if not prevent, the European conflagration,
had created a feeling of disappointment in France.
The British expeditionary army consisted at first--that is previous
to the Battle of the Marne--of two and a half army corps, or five
divisions, thus distributed: First Corps, Sir Douglas Haig; Second
Corps, General Smith-Dorien; Fourth Division of the Third Corps,
General Pulteney. The Sixth Division of the Third Corps and the
Fourth Corps under General Rawlinson were not sent to France till
after the end of September, 1914. It contained besides about one
division and a half of cavalry under General Allenby. A British
division varies from 12,000 to 15,000 men (three infantry brigades
of four regiments each; three groups of artillery, each having
three batteries of six pieces; two companies of sappers, and one
regiment of cavalry). The force totaled some 75,000 men, with 259
guns. The whole was placed under the command of Field Marshal Sir
John French, with Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Murray, Chief
of Staff.
Field Marshal French was sixty-two and was two years younger than
Lord Kitchener. His responsibilities were great, how great no one at
the beginning of the war realized his capabilities for the developing
scope of the task untried, but as a serious and courageous officer
he fully merited the honors he had already won.
By August 7, 1914, Admiral Jellicoe was able to guarantee a safe
passage for the British army across the English Channel. A fortunate
mobilization of the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea for maneuvers
shut off the German Grand Fleet from raiding the Channel. There was
nothing to criticize in the manner in which the Expeditionary Army
was thrown into France. Its equipment was ready and in all details
fully worthy of German military organization. From arms to boots--the
latter not long since a scandal of shoddy workmanship--only the
best material and skill had been accepted. Its transport proved
the genius of Lord Kitchener in that brand of military service.
The railways leading to the ports of embarkation, together with
passenger steamships--some of them familiar in American ports--were
commandeered as early as the 4th of August.
During the night of August 7, 1914, train after train filled with
troops steamed toward Southampton, and some other south-coast ports.
Complements were also embarked at Dublin, Avonmouth, and the Bristol
Channel. In the middle of the night citizens of small towns along
the route were awakened by the unceasing rumble of trains. They
had no conception of its import. They did not even realize that
war had actually burst upon the serenity of their peaceful lives.
Each transport vessel was placed in command of a naval officer,
and guarded in its passage across the channel by light cruisers and
torpedo destroyers. The transport of the whole Expeditionary Army
was completed within ten days, without the loss of a man and with
a precision worthy of all military commendation. But such secrecy
was maintained that the British public remained in ignorance of its
passage until successfully accomplished. American correspondents,
however, were not yet strictly censored, so that their papers published
news of it on August 9.
On Sunday, August 9, 1914, two British transports were observed
making for the harbor of Boulogne. The weather was all that could
be wished, the crossing resembled a bank-holiday excursion. For
some days previously the French had taken a gloomy view of British
support. But French fishermen returning from Scotland and English
ports maintained confidence, for had not British fishermen told
them the French would never be abandoned to fall a prey to the
enemy.
When the two advance British transports steamed into view, "Les
Anglais," at last everyone cried. At once a hugely joyful reversion
of feeling. The landing of the British soldiers was made a popular
ovation. Their appearance, soldierly bearing, their gentleness
toward women and children, their care of the horses were showered
with heartfelt French compliments. Especially the Scotch Highlanders,
after their cautious fashion, wondered at the exuberance of their
welcome. For the brave Irish, was not Marshal MacMahon of near-Irish
descent and the first president of the Third Republic? The Irish
alone would save that republic. Women begged for the regimental
badges to pin on their breasts. In turn they offered delicacies of
all kinds to the soldiers. For the first time in a hundred years
the British uniform was seen on French soil. Then it represented
an enemy, now a comrade in arms. The bond of union was sealed at
a midnight military mass, celebrated by English-speaking priests,
for British and French Catholic soldiers at Camp Malbrouch round
the Colonne de la Grande Armée. The two names recalled the greatest
of British and French victories--Blenheim, Ramillies, and Oudenarde,
Ulm, Austerlitz, and Jena.
Meanwhile, officers of the French General Staff had journeyed to
London to confer with the British General Staff regarding the camping
and alignment of the British troops. Meanwhile, also, the British
reserves and territorials were called to the colors. The latter
comprised the militia, infantry and artillery, and the volunteer
yeomanry cavalry, infantry and artillery. The militia was the oldest
British military force, officered to a great extent by retired
regular army men, its permanent staffs of noncommissioned officers
were from the regular army, and it was under the direct control of
the Secretary of State for War. The volunteer infantry, artillery,
and yeomanry cavalry were on a somewhat different basis, more nearly
resembling the American militia, but the British militia were linked
with regular-line battalions. The reserves, militia and volunteers,
added approximately 350,000 well-trained men for immediate home
defense.
On Sunday, August 17, 1914, it was officially announced that the
whole of the British Expeditionary Army had landed in France.
Conferences between the British and French General Staffs resulted
in the British army being concentrated first at Amiens. From that
point it was to advance into position as the left wing of the united
French and British armies, though controlled by their separate
commanders.
The French Fifth Army had already moved to hold the line of the
River Sambre, with its right in touch with Namur. Cavalry patrols
had been thrown forward to Ligny and Gembloux, where they skirmished
with uhlans. Charleroi was made French headquarters. It was the
center of extensive coal-mining and steel industry. Pit shafts
and blast furnaces dominated the landscape. Historically it was
the ground over which Blücher's Fourth Army Corps marched to the
support of the British at Waterloo. Now the British were supporting
the French upon it against their former ally.
On Thursday, August 20, 1914, the British took up their position on
the French left. Their line ran from Binche to Mons, then within the
French frontier stretched westward to Condé. From Mons to Condé it
followed the line of the canal, thus occupying an already constructed
barrier. Formerly Condé was regarded as a fortress of formidable
strength, but its position was not held to be of value in modern
strategy. Its forts, therefore, had been dismantled of guns, and its
works permitted to fall into disuse. But the fortress of Maubeuge
lay immediately in rear of the British line. In rear again General
Sordet held a French cavalry corps for flank actions. In front,
across the Belgian frontier, General d'Amade lay with a French
brigade at Tournai as an outpost.
Before proceeding to British headquarters, General French held
a conference with General Joffre, Commander in Chief of all the
French armies. Until the outbreak of the war, General Joffre was
practically unknown to the French people. He was no popular military
idol, no boulevard dashing figure. But he had seen active service
with credit, and had climbed, step by step, with persevering study
of military science into the council of the French General Staff.
As a strategist his qualities came to be recognized as paramount
in that body. A few years previously he had been intrusted with
the reorganization of the French army, and his plans accepted.
Therefore, when war with Germany became a certainty, it was natural
the supreme command of the French army should fall to General Joffre.
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