GENERAL NIVELLE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3044, 3 April 1917, Page 3

GENERAL NIVELLE

A PROPHECY FULFILLED

The achievements of General-Nivolle, tho French Commander-in-Chief, should (writes a correspondent of tho London i'rcßs) .'appeal strongly, to people in this .country, for bis mother was an Englishwoman, belonging to tho wollknown Pennington Sparrow> family, of Deal,' 1 which has given a great inanj; officers to tho British Army and Navy. One of his uncles on his mothor's side was the Rev. Pennington Sparrow, who was a London vicar for a great many years. When he was a child he came frequently to this country, and when ho landed this time ho stated that it was a great pleasure foi 1 him to sco Dover again, for it reminded him of his young j days. Many members ' of his family are living in England now, and he frequently visited them before the war (spending a month or so nearly every year at St. Leonards-on-Sea. Tho Town Council, of Deal recently sent him a message, which mentioned the fact that not only General Nivelle) but Sir John French and Sir' Douglas Haig had also family connection with Deal. General Nivello's greatest achievements, as everyone knows, were connected with Verdun. Ho first took part in the' dofence of the town, and then, pushing back the; enemy by bold offensive actions, he gained the reccnt victories which thrilled the whole world. In conversation recently ,M. Briand told how tho General announced to him,- before it was achieved, his success of December 15. He saw the French Premier in Paris, and said to him:'"l am going to attack to-morrow. Here are the different points. I shall reach — this arid that, , and' that village, and so on; It will take me so many hours to do it. Ido not expect" to lose many men, and I will take at least 5000 prisoners. I hope to send you a telegram ahout this to-morrow abouttwo o'clock." He returned to Verdun tlie same night, and the day after at three o'clock M. Briand received from General Niv'ello at the Chamber of Deputies a telegram saying that ,the attack, had succeeded; that all the points he had mentioned .were how pc-! cupied by tho French infantry, that i his casualties were not : more than 1500 men, and that they had counted already 6000 German prisoners, and more than 100 guns. One or two days after it was Known that Nivello's Army nad taken 12,000 and 120 guns, and occupied . ground* four Siiles_ deep. With only four French Divisions he had practically destroyed five enemy divisions and captured nearly tha whole of their artillery. The Man and His Men. : Congratulated in London on that' - "great achievement' 1 ' and asked about, the weather:. 'conditions when-the battle took ; place,, General •Nivelle said that the ground, which was practically nothing but shell holes, was like a sea of ; mud, and that two of the Generals under him said the men would never be able •to walk through it. He said: "If I ask them to d<! it they will," and in a few hours' time they had moved forward four miles. When, he was asked how he does it the Commander-in-Chief answered that three things were necessary—■ first, ■ a thorough artillery preparation secondly, an "attack by infantry; and, thirdly, the moral of the troops, which.could he obtained: only ;by full confidence •in the officers aud in tho General-in-Command. General Nivello does not believe in out and dried doctrines about war. Somebody once compared, in his presence, the method of Verdun to the method on the Somme, he observed: "Don't bother about I .principles which do not correspond to realities. I know but one thing—facts —or, if you like, circumstances. What the General must be able to do is to understand circumstances and do what they aTe requiring. I fought in a certain way round Verdun ; probably I would have, done something quite different if I Jiad been on- the Somme. This is all~l know about Military Laws." General Nivelle speaks of Great Britain as "Ma terre maternolle," and feels and says'lie is as much. Britain's as he is France's soldier, and the French, it may be added, think the same about Sir Douglas Haig. .=- . \