ALLENBY'S GENIUS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 141, 16 June 1936, Page 3

ALLENBY'S GENIUS

A SOLDIER'S TRIBUTE QUALITIES WHICH WON DEVOTION | TRIUMPHANT CAMPAIGN "A Great .Englishman has died." This may seem a banal phrase with which to start an article; the words have been used before, and will be used again of distinguished men, but to no one could they be applied with more truth than to Field-Marshal Lord Allenby, wrote Earl Winterton in the "Daily Telegraph" on May 15. With his tall, broad, commanding figure, and handsome rubicund face, he looked like a foreigner's conception of John Bull. Nor did his looks belie him. He was a very genial, kindly man at most times, but occasionally, often for almost trivial reasons, would fly into a temper, which, while it lasted (which was seldom for long) reminded one of a vanished, almost Shakespearean England. Hence came, I believe, his nickname of "The Bull." But honest temper, especially when followed, as it almost invariably was in his case, by apology for any wounding word, does no harm. In fact, I think it added to "The Bull's" popularity. TAKING COMMAND. I served during the war in the armies of several commanders-in-chief. No one approached his personal popularity with regimental officers and the rank and file. When he took •. over command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (I cannot speak with personal knowledge of his service in France) we were all suffering from the depression of "Gaza I" and "Gaza II," as the two battles of Gaza were called. The gravity of the rebuff with which the comparatively small British Army met on those occasions was very properly concealed at the time, and is perhaps scarcely realised today. It is, however, only fair to General Sir Archibald Murray, Allenby's predecessor, to say that the Field-Marshal, in his dispatches, as well as in private conversation during and after the war, always asserted, with obvious sincerity, that he could never have attained his object but for the careful preparation and admirable groundwork of Sir Archibald Murray. All through the scorching summer of 1917, the new Commander-in-Chief prepared for his blow in the autumn. Thanks to most careful arrangements for the feeding and welfare of the troops, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force suffered no ill effects from spendi ing a Palestinian summer with no more j shelter from the sun or dust storms than that afforded by a ground sheet made into a "bivvy," as the local jargon was, by being held upright by four sticks attached to the corners. HERO OF HIS TROOPS. Whei? the blow came, it was sudden, unexpected, and crushing,' like all Allenby's bounds towards his final goal, which was the total destruction of the Turkish forces opposed to him. The troops had liked and admired him before the-fall of Beersheba.' From then onwards he was their hero, in whom they had complete confidence. We were indeed indignant with our friends on other fronts if they appeared to be ignorant of the greatness of the qualities of our great Commander. The Imperial Camel Corps, of which I was a member, was especially proud of him, because! being a. complete entity, with artillery,and a field ambulance, the whole conveyed on camels, we were directly under the orders of G.H.Q., tad only temporarily attached to CoVps and Divisions. But this is not the time to talk of Allenby's military achievements.. Let me try to give a more intimate im-l pression of him. T. E. Lawrence himself, and all who have written of him, testified to" the remarkable understanding between the two men, though it would be hard to j find anywhere a greater contrast than that between them. The simple truth is that they were both great men, and as such each recognised the genius and special qualities of the other. Hence there was perfect collaboration between them. It was an immense asset to all of us in "Hedjaz operations" (the name given to the British officers with the Arab army) to know that we had the sympathy and good will of the Commander-in-Chief. WELDING THE UNITS. But it was not only "T.E." whom Allenby understood. Like Birdwood in Gallipoli, he realised to the full the value of the Australians and New Zealanders, who formed so considerable a portion of his force. They liked him, and would follow him anywhere, because they liked him. He understood, too, the Territorials and the Mounted Yeomanry Division—the very cream of age-old rural England—and got the best out of them, which a "starchy" paradeground general would have failed to do. ; Yet no officer or man, British or Australasian, in the whole army, would have dared to take liberties with "The Bull." Speaking as an amateur pre-war and wartime soldier, I am convinced that part of the success achieved by Alienby lay in his power of analysing and assessing the various arid particular qualities of the troops under his command. They were diverse enough— Indian Regular troops, with their; inherited traditions of almost mechanical disciplihe; British Territorials and Yeomanry, with far less rigid ideas of military obedience, especially since (in the case of the Yeomanry) many of them were farmers and farmers' sons, in private life accustomed to go their own way; Australians and New Zealanders coming from lands where independence of outlook and refusal to be ordered about is the very breath of life. Allenby's genius welded these separate and distinct elements into a whole. A small man, even when surrounded by the powers of reward and punishment of a Commander-in-Chief, could not have done it. It required something more than what a friend of mine once described as the "Poona Cantonment" mind to do what he did. In | the result he produced what I believe to have been the finest mobile army in the war. TWO INCIDENTS. I should like to give a few personal impressions of Lord Allenby. In a blazing June day in 1918 I was at the Residency in Alexandria, as the guest of Sir Reginald Wingate, having just returned from leave in England, on my way to join Lawrence., Suddenly the Commander-in-Chief strode into the room. I rose and stood at attention. He said, "Well, Winterton, what are your politician friends (I was an M.P. then, as now) and others saying about the war?" I replied, "Well, sir, everyone is very gloomy and says that it may last two more years." . "Good Heavens, man," said Lord Allenby, "you ought to be courtmartiailed for spreading alarm and despondency. I mean to finish the war here in four months." Then he smiled, and said he was glad I was going to join, and work under, Lawrence and Joyce. The incident was typical of the man —the sudden indignation at an unfortunate remark, then the kindly smile

and the personal interest in the military career of one*who was, after all. a very insignificant member of the great Army. Here is another impression. After the Arab Forces had taken Deraa, and Lawrence had hurried off to Damascus. f made a gruelling march, of several days' duration, on a camel's back, to G.H.Q. at Ramleh to report to the great man himself on certain matters of importance concerning the Arab campaign. Lawrence wanted the information conveyed through mc by word of mouth. AN ERROR. Having on an Arab head-dress, I wai mistaken, on the morning of my arrivav. by a British soldier (the very spit o* "Old Bill"), who was directing road traffic, for an inhabitant of the countrv, and told mc to "Get off the road you .. . nigger." To my indignant rebuke he could only gasp, "Gawd, it's ail orficer." Allenby, who ashed me to dine witn him —and never, may I say, did Clicquot 1906 taste better, for 1 had been weeks in the desert —was delighted with the story, and subsequently retailed it, with embellishments, to the effect that I had said, "Do you know, my man, that you are speaking to an Irish Peer and Member of Parliament?" That night I went with him on his special train to Cairo, his first visit there after his great victory of September 18. He was received with due ceremonial. He might have been excused for appearing somewhat exalte— the conquering hero of tradition —but he was his kindly, dignified self, th® embodiment of an English.gentleman. On a lovely May morning, just over a year ago, I stood at the graveside of my dear friend, T. E. Lawrence. I describe him thus, because, to his indignation. I always refused to address him as "Shaw." , Now, on another May day, his great chief, and mine, has followed him across the river. Men there are who say that the war brought them nothing but horror and detestation. To; others of us it meant glad service with, ana under, genius.