Twelve Years Ago

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1926, Page 26

Twelve Years Ago

LIfEAT HOME AND, IN THE TRENCHES.

' W« ar« becoming aware aa the years paw of much that happened in the mud .0* Flanders, twelve long years ago, as weH a* of the things that "happened" ■under the sullen skies of the North . Sea, which it was considered "bad for ■u» to know at the time. The course and conditions of the war, wo have discovered with surprise,' were not altogether clear to ua, and the future was hard, to descry in every dptail. • "We were not in the least despondent. Perhaps it i» onlj» what came after which makes us believe that even in 1914 wo were anxious, for .there is no doubt that on.that first Christmas of the war few of us had forced ourselves to believe how long the struggle would be, or what price would be paid for victory. Though the finest army which Great .Britain, ever sent overseas had already passed, through, the furnace of war, though battalions of Territorials had already been thrown into the'desperate "fight to maintain the last yards of free Belgian soil, though the Navy had borne losses of officers .and men greater than civilians expected, only a small part of the nation had felt the enduring pain of bereavement. The force which we had engaged were still modest in numbers, and though we honoured, as well we might,, their sacrifice, it was, not yet understood that what they had endured and the sorrows which their home folk had borne would bo mightily multiplied before time brought us peace. We had, indeed, learnt that the comfortable doctrine with which we began the war, ''business, as usual," was a delusion, says the ''Daily Telegraph.'.' ; We had found that nothing, not even the sacred routine of life, would ever be as usual till (as a song of the period had it) we "wound up the watch on the Bhine." What we heard from the "tired men who limped home from Prance, what we inferred from the lines of flags on our war maps, suggested that the "first, half-million" in our training, camps would be none too many to end the war. But wo did not seriously doubt that they and perhaps another hundred thousand or so would do the business, quickly. Aa soon as they were, ready,, to quote a record of ideas of the time, we should'"break through our fbeman's line at a point hitherto uuassailed . . .and proceed to roll up. the German Empire as if it were a carpet into somo obscure corner of the •Continent of Europe." In 1915, probably early in 1915, the back of the business would be broken. The next Christmas would see the flags flying, and everybody home again. Except, indeed, those who were not fated to come back at all. Even the swift, crushing, victory, which was certain would not be. won without blood. But the regulars had broken tho best of the German army. The new battalions would come down upon a weary hqst which had lost its virtue, fighting power, and the will to conquer. So we fan.- . cied. . ' ' ' ' , ' THE FIRST CAMPAION. Now1 we have learnt what a conflict of nations means. There were excuses for the illusions of that first Christmas of war. We could, indeed, remember • something of the vicissitudes -of warfare. The Squth African War, though it was no more than training for Armageddon, give us one black December. But it was a hundred years since England had fought for her life, and though the duration of the struggjo whicluended at Waterloo was not altogether forgotten, there were very few who believed that fighting on .the modern scale could be prolonged through many campaigns. .Lord Kitchener's warning to expect three years of war at the least was commonly taken as a demand for the most prudent preparation rather than aa estimate of probabilities. Even now, we can see that there was. reason, if not for the hopes, at least for the confidence of that Christmas. . We were right' to believe that the grand design of Germany had been shattered. The victory of the Marne was one of the decisive battles of the world. It was already certain in Christmas, 1914, so far as anything which depends on human effort is certain, that the Hohenzollcrn Empire would fail to crush France. We had a, right to believe that if we were steadfast Germany had lost for ever the rttoe to the sea.

We were not indulging ourselves in thoughtless optimism. It was too obvitrae that everything had not gone "according to plan." The tremendous change of fortune at the Marne had not yielded the instant harvest which we expected. In those glorious (September days we had.never thought that the end of the year would see the German legions—out-fought and. outmanoeuvred—still holding the northern province of France. When the Russia* horsemen were far into East Prussia, when the Austrian armies crumpled' iv the Russian grip, we had not guessed that, the next months would see the "Bvssian steamroller.^' running backwards and the Germans fighting for Warsaw. To be sure, there was no cause for alarm. Bussian armies went back as far as Moscow in their most glorious campaign. , Still, we had hoped to see them well on the road to Berlin by Christmas. It was a disappointment

In our ignorai.co many of us had expected something more spectacular from the might of the Grand Fleet. We had no doubt that, hidden in the Northern mists, it was imposing the will of British sea power ' upon the enemy; we believed that, even if things wont amisa on land, the command of . the sea must asisuro us victory. The .dismay with which -we read of the sinking oJ! the Good Hope and theMonroouth had been banished by that crushing counter-stroke which Admiral Sturdee's battle-cruisers dealt. The day of the submarine menace was not yet. But we had uncomfortable reason to suspect, that even the strongest ilaet would not in modern war maintain our ancient insular immunity. By Christmas Day the death roll at the bombarded Hartlcpools numbered 103. ■The horrors of.the;great air raids were still in the future. We mocked at Zeppelins, and thought fifty miles of sea enough to hold off anyl aeroplane. But' on Christmas Eve a Germa,n aviator dropped a bomb on Dover. It was meant:for the Castle; it fell into a gar- . den and destroyed nothing more valuable than a summer house. Another German aeroplane was seen over Sheerifess. Some of our machines had it under fire, hit it, and drove it off before it could do any harm. But people began to ask themselves what would happen noxt ,time and the next. TRENCHES AND CAMPS. Towards the end of the war men used to argue whether winter in the trenches on the Soirmie battlefield or in the trenches of Passchendaele was more horrible. The horrors of that first winter of trench warfare there were few who remembered. Most of the men. who held the line on Christina?, 19M, lacking reliefs, lacking maiesrial, lacking the knowledge at what tranch warfare needs which they were to buy with cruel experience, did not Jlre 2o*g j» jell ul what thejr had

TRAGIC CHRISTMAS OF. 1914,

done. Since they were, compared to the armies of the future, but few, what they endured was never common knowledge. The. hardships of the winter of 1914, were behind a.veil. Censored information which newspapers might publish was scanty and jejune. Yet enough became known to suggeat something of what winter waff arc meant and of our debt to tho men who endured it. .. -

Even in December, 1914, no small part of the nation was already in arms. The men who mustered whea war broke out, Territorials and New Army, seemed to fill England with khaki that Christmastide. Some of ther. had only just got their uniforms, and by no means- all their equipment. What were they thinking? It seemed to many that life was rather dull after four long months of nono too comfortable training. As one of them wrote, '' The glorious splash o£ patriotic fervour which launched us on our way has subsided; we have reached mid-chan-nel; and the haven where .we would be is still afar off." That is how they, were feeling at Christmautide in 1014, and-, as another of them, wrote, they were growing peevish at the delay in getting out to France. "We really came to fear the war would be over before we had an opportunity of seeing any operations and taking part in its wind-up." They were to, see enough.

It is possible that the future historian of England will not spend so much space on the details of military events in that first campaign, as upon the unison of thought and effort in the nation. The change from the fierce antagonisms of the summer of 1914 to the co-opera-tion of the autumn is one of the most striking proofs of the political aense of our race and its capacity for effective national action. On Christmas Day in 1914 Dean Inge in his, sermon, at St. Paul's was expressing the hope that the united people who had heard the call of their country in war might not cease to'hear it when peace should cojne. The irony of events has teen sharp. Yet we may think that the manner in which the nation, often surprised, often disappointed in the turn of things,! has dealt with each, changing difficulty, is not without encouragelment. • THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE. It will be remembered that in 1914 strange things happened at points along the front; British and Germans kept Christmas together. According to an account written by a London Territorial, Germans started singing and lighting candles on Christmas Eve, and one of them challenged the Britishers to go across for a bottle of ivi'e. One |of the Territorial* accepted th •> challonge, and took with him in exchange j for the' wine a big cake. Then there ' was hand-shaking and an exchange of greetings. The truce lasted the whole of Christmas Day, which was spent in collecting souvenirs. Letters printed at the time .related how cigars and cigarettes, as^ well as names and addresses, irere exchanged between the, enemies. A quotation from one of these letters may be made: — "We were just wondering (on Christmas Eve) whether the Germans would agree to a couple of days' peace, when we were surprised to see trees stuck on the top of their trenches, lit up with candles, and all the men sitting on top. of the trenches. So, of course, we got out of ours, and there were invitations to have a drink and a smoke. After a time three of our officers started out to meet three German officers who were approaching our trenches. They came on in the rays of a searchlight playing from the German lines, and it made a fino- picture to see the six officers meet between the lines, shake hands, and smoke each other'a cigarettes. All the boys on both sides gave a tremendous cheer, and we became quite excited. After a time the officers camo back, and then it was the turn of the troops. We swarmed out of our trenches to meet each other, shook hands, and exchanged kniekknacks. We agreed not to do any shooting till midnight on Christmas Day. . . . Just after midnight of, Christmas Day you could hear, away on the left, the plonk-plonk of the bullets, and we knew the game had started again."