(_December 19, 1916_)
. . . . . . . . . .
I should like to say one word about the lesson of the fighting on
the western front--not about the military strategy, but about the
significance of the whole of that great struggle, one of the greatest
struggles ever waged in the history of the world. It is full of
encouragement and of hope. Just look at it! An absolutely new Army!
The old had done its duty and spent itself in the achievement of that
great task. This is a new Army. But a year ago it was ore in the earth
of Britain, yea, and of Ireland. It became iron. It has passed through
a fiery furnace, and the enemy knows that it is now fine steel. An
absolutely new Army, new men, new officers taken from schools, from
colleges, from counting-houses, never trained to war, never thought
of war, many of them perhaps never handled a weapon of war, generals
never given the opportunity of handling great masses of men. Some of us
had seen the manoeuvres. A division which is now set to attack a small
village is more than our generals ever had the opportunity of handling
before the war. Compared with the great manoeuvres on the Continent,
they were toy manoeuvres. And yet this new Army, new men, new officers,
generals new to this kind of work, they have faced the greatest army
in the world, the greatest army the world has ever seen, the best
equipped and the best trained, and they have beaten them, beaten them,
beaten them! Battle after battle, day after day, week after week! From
the strongest entrenchments ever devised by human skill they have
driven them out by valour, by valour which is incredible when you read
the story of it.