A I.F. IN FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 150, 28 June 1933, Page 6

A I.F. IN FRANCE.

THE HINDENBURG LINE. e '• CITIZEN SOLDIERS' TRIUMPH. t d (By E.V.D.) It is unlikely that the operations of any other national army in the Great War have been so thoroughly chronicled as those of the Australian *{ Imperial Force arc being recorded by Dr. C. E. W. •, Bean, the odicial historian. It_ would, in fact, :- bo almost impossible to chronicle in similai n fashion the operations of the Largest national g armies, and for many reasons it is improbable tl' that anvonc would attempt the task. The A.1.1'., like the forces of the other Dominions, was a citizen army. It had no nucleus of professional soldiers, no "officer class,' no fighting expeiicncc, no traditions. It was, above all, democratic, and J'f as the war went on it came to lie commanded almost entirely by promoted men who had proved '' their worth in the front-lino trenches. In writing the history of the A.1.F., Dr. Bean aspires not only to show the importance, or uuimportance, of each of its operations in relation to ® those oE the whole vast force under Haig's supreme command, to explain, with the aid of maps and photographs, how success was achieved, but to assess the part played by each brigade, each battalion and each company. More than f that, he records the individual feats of many d thousands of individual officers and men, and the ° manner of their death or survival; ana in foot--11 notes on each page he gives a thumbnail sketch of each man mentioned in the text—his rank, d civilian occupation, home town, place and date 1 of birth and ultimate fate. In consequence, this history is unique, inasmuch as the reader sees " the conflict Jiot only, as is usual in war histories, through the eyes of the men who are planning and directing it. but in company with those who c are doing the fighting. He sees, among other I. things, that many orders issued during a battle ! are "useless, because the circumstances which , occasioned them have altered before they aie f given, and that it is possible for commanding t officers to be quite unaware, even after the con--1 diet is over, of what their own men have achieved. d ~A Priceless Record. ' l In this time of post-war disillusionment it is probable that the value of Dr. Bean's_ work will not be fully appreciated in Australia, but it icquires no effort to imagine the value which t will bo placed on it in years to come. It has e been remarked that the A.I.F. entered the war ' with no traditions; but here in the volumes of ' Dr. Bean's history is enshrined a tradition truly s splendid. In these pages thousands of young 1 Australians in years to come will look (as even s now many must surely be looking) to learn what ', their forbears did in 'the Great War. Here, they t will find recorded, in no spirit of boasting or t vainglorv, the achievements of men who wcic f universally acknowledged to have been amongst e the most formidable fighters of the war. They will learn, besides the grim account of suffering and sacrifice, of the splendid spirit ot comradeship among the soldiers, of their tenacity, which c was no less than their enterprise, of the. mistakes I made by officers and men and of tile lessons , learned from the mistakes. g The young Australians of the future will read , also of such deathless deeds as one recorded in this latest volume.* In the second attack on t Buliecourt, on May 3, 1017, the oth Brigade of i the Australian Second Division, having stormed 1 and occupied the lliiidenbiirg line, were notified £ of an order to retire. r J he man who brought the news was a young captain from a neighbouring 0 battalion. He said that "the trenches on their right and the road behind them were unguarded and open to the enemy. He himself had come to stay with them." "A council of war wns instantly held, ami these young spirits decided that, desperate_ though Hie B position was, there would lie un prccnutionary retirement. The enemy must surround them bef.>re they would withdraw; then they would cut their way '• through. So the Olli Brigade hold on, alone, in 1 lie e Himk-tihiirg line, faring the enemy in front, and on 1 both flanks, throughout the night. The order In retire had reached its ranks also, hut none ot its R men had acted upon it—they refused to retire unless b ordered bv their own officers to do so." There they 1 slaved until, twentv-four hours after they had 1 •lunched their attack, they were relieved, hut as : they were leaving tlie Germans counter-attacked for the fourth time. The nth Brigade stood fast and 2 helped the fresh battalions to beat off the attack. i "Then, tired, unkempt, reduced in numbers, but bin .sting with pride, the oth Brigade came out. its 5 men looked for no recognition of their victory, and 3 none awaited them. . . ." Hut a British airman. I living vory low over llio headquarters of tlie brigade some hours earlier, dropped a message, "Well done, Australia "Among the Great Deeds." This achievement, says Dr. Bean, had few c parallels, and it was never surpassed, in the e historv of the A.I.F. Although the Hindenburg 1 line had been attacked on May 3 along a length of s : .\t,ceu miles, "the only troops who on the morning of the fourth still held any substantial part of the ground won were tile Ist and part or the oth Canadian Brigades at Fresnoy, on the extreme left flank of the offensive, and the Gt.li Australian Brigade on the extreme right." The foothold gained by the Otli Brigade was on the following days retained and enlarged by their successors. The Commander-in-Chief. Field - 3 Marshal Haig, declared the brigade's feat to "rank ? high among the great deeds of the war"; and lie subsequently praised the Ist Anzae Corps (of wh en'the oth Brigade formed a unit) as "among the best disciplined troops in the British Expedii t : onary Force." If any impression is created that this history - is a glorification of the Australians, to the exelu- > sion °of other armies, an injustice is done the historian. Dr. Bean writes with enthusiasm of i the New Zealand Division s ("possibly the most > formidable opponent met by German infantry - during the war") and of the satisfaction of Ausi tralian battalions on. learning that New Zeal landers were to fight alongside them. He _is r sharply critical of the quality of the British ; command in the earlier battles of the year, but 1 notes that, after .the ;Australians . found themselves directed by higher leadership - "or a strikingly different order." He. pays full 2 tribute to the achievements of.the British foices r as a whole -in 1017, when the French, after the ghastly slaughter at Verdun, were gravely .weakened. ' "True to tradition, the' British, in a time of confusion, quietly picked up the burden from the flagging Allies,"arid steadily carried it'until others were again able to assist." , * "Official Historv of Australia in the War of ' 3914-18. Vol. IV. The A.I.F. in Prance. 1917." By !C. E. W. Bean. (Angus and, Robertson.) 1 THE EXECUTIVE MOOD. ' Professor Einstein, who is at the moment 3 living in a tiny villa on the Belgian, coast, has 1 been° visited by a French reporter, who. seems V to have inquired whether his new setting inter- " fered with the philosopher's work (says the j "Manchester Guardian"). "Work?" replied Pro- ' fessor Einstein. "I could work anywhere, even ' at the North Pole, if I were left alone." That ' declaration seems to embody a broad truth (as L well as a plain hint), and it is one with which 1 most .real workers with the human head are already well acquainted. It is the mark of the amateur, or of the fussy dilettante, to be ever demanding some special environment before the : r o-rev matter will begin to function. The real worker at the arts or sciences has acquainted himself by. experience with something that is ; rather like the moral that was ultimately apprehended by-Goldsmith's "Traveller": Vain, very vain, my weary search to find 1 That bliss which only centres in the mind. £ He has learnt that, given the right books and j enough paper, a mind of the right sort will work ■ as well in a summer house as in a library, in a ■' tiny villa as in a vast mansion. Some writers i and thinkers have been able to work perfectly - well in a bus or a railway train; minds innocent s and quiet have known how to turn even a boards' inghouse into a hermitage. It is true that most - workers find themselves most .at'case in the sur- , roundings to which they are accustomed, but it 1 is the mark of the good worker with the t disciplined mind to adapt himself swiftly to the .environment in which lie finds himself.