THE WAR SURVEYED : THE BRITISH ARMY
By STRATEGICUS
THE tendency to depreciate force when it is not in violent application is almost universal, and it is inevitable. The German campaign in Poland made a much deeper impression than the " peaceful " victories that preceded it ; yet it is clear that these were equally victories of force and they were of greater moment. If this instinctive tribute to violence is prevalent with regard to land force, it characterises the attitude to sea force even more obviously. In the early days of the last war even Foch, one of the most brilliant military students of our time, tended to depreciate the value of the British navy. Even the people of this country, nursed in a naval tradition, follow the fashion and regard as inactivity that silent pressure of the British navy which is the governing condition of the war. If the navy fights and wins it is applauded. If it merely assures to us the fruits of victory, through unchallengeable strength and instant readiness for battle, it is ignored. But it remains true that without the supreme efficiency of the navy we could not enter, much less remain in and win, the war.
It is not, however, the navy that is most depreciated. It is so true that we are not a military nation, and it is admitted with so much unconcern that continental nations have tended to regard our army as an " amateur " body. It is hardly a generation since that tendency was equalled in this country only by the feeling that service in the army was not wholly creditable. The change in our attitude has even now not gone as far as the fact merits. In 1914 the army was, for its size, the equal of any army in the world. Inferior in equipment, particularly in machine-guns, to most of them, in training and personnel it was superior to all. German brigades, on the first appearance of the British troops in the line, beat in vain against a few companies of the Royal Fusiliers and the Middlesex in the indefensible loop of the Mons canal, and learned a new respect from the experience.
But the changes since that day almost amount to a revolution. Commanding officers after the war insisted on a new frugality, and Staff College dinner on an ordinary night became as simple as the simplest meal in a middle- class family. Side by side with the new simplicity went a new emphasis on work. The men at Camberley had not only to work : they had to work intelligently. They were made to face practical problems by men who had been flung into them in the course of the war. They played as hard as they worked ; and they were encouraged to examine with complete detachment the conditions of modern war. So it has come to pass that the Expeditionary Force is a unique unit, equipped for the first time in our history for the present and not for the last war.
If the German armoured and motorised divisions have shown themselves formidable, the British army can take some credit, since it provided the model. It was this army that saw in the internal combustion engine a means to increase the military force of its small number of effectives ; and, studying the problem from every angle, after its own fashion which is that of our race, it experimented first with a mechanised brigade. Then it created a division, and from that time its development has been set resolutely on the new lines. Germany's first armoured divisions were a direct imitation of ours. They may have elaborated the idea ; but the British army has also developed, and it is now probably the biggest and best motorised force in the world. The change has been quite ruthless. Cavalry regiments have surrendered ancient and treasured traditions and taken to wheels. It has meant the beginning of a new era.
It is a novelty even to the French ; and their critics have dwelt on the fact that there were two vehicles for every thirteen men of the first 158,000. Only 20 per cent. of them were infantry, as against 6o per cent. in 1914 ; and in place of the miserable two machine-guns, each battalion has now so Bren guns as well as 22 anti-tank guns. Up to the present the army has had no chance of showing its mettle except in the matter of transporting the whole mechanised force to France without a single hitch, without a single loss, and in perfect secrecy. This feat, accomplished in five weeks, is a triumph of organisation of which any body of men might be proud, and as a first glimpse into the calibre of the Chief of the General Staff it is encouraging.
The ideal of hard and intelligent work which began in the regular army naturally percolated to every branch. The Territorials, whose establishment had swollen to such an extent before the outbreak of the war, are as little amateurs as the regulars. No one can have studied them without becoming impressed with their tremendous keenness. The new Militia have never known any other tradition ; and the fact that all officers are being drawn from the ranks, with the exception of men having special technical qualifi- cations, has already had its effect. Two thousand of them have already become officers ; and the need of accumulating a great reserve behind the Expeditionary Force is being kept in view.
At the outbreak of the war there were in this country alone nearly a million men at the disposal of the army. Never had the nation contemplated such an army in time of peace. It had raised this army rather tardily for the major purposes of British policy ; but once the decision had been made the development came swiftly, and that the various units are thoroughly efficient we must thank the regular army. The Germans call them " mercenaries." In fact they are one of the lowest paid, least supported and most efficient departments of the Government service. For the greater part of their lives they are content to live abnormally, often in great discomfort. But the taxpayer may rest content that in no direction is his money laid out so economically.
The men upon whose decisions the army will be moved to action are as good as any commanders we have ever had. The Chief of the General Staff, General Ironside, is a man of almost perfect physique ; and much may depend on that in times of exceptional pressure. He has led a life which has the flavour of a Buchan spy-story ; and, a most experienced professional soldier, he is known for the slight- ness of his reverence for red tape. General Gort, who was formerly Chief of the General Staff, was, like his successor in that office, also a commandant of the Staff College. He had a distinguished record in the last war not only for personal bravery but also for rapid and bold decisions. One of his corps commanders, General Dill, who had for some time the command in Palestine, has a very high service reputation ; and this means a great deal.
When the curtain goes up this fine body of men, which is for a British army so uncharacteristically well equipped, will be able to justify the hopes that are placed in them. They have left nothing that can be foreseen to chance ; they are certain to give a good account of themselves.
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