HAIG'S GENERALS

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16233, 31 March 1917, Page 14

HAIG'S GENERALS

LEADERS ON THE SOMME. BIRDWOOD'S REPUTATION GROWS. With the issue of General Haig's despatch, the first five; months of the battle of tohe Soniihe became matter for historical 6cru,tinyj and some things that have not been whispered can now b->. published, writes, the London correspondent of Sydney "Sun." General Haig monitions only : three names in his sixty thousand words—those of GeiiertJs Rawlinson, Gough, and Alienby. In this respect the despatch is unique. We all remember the astonishing tributes General Hamilton paid to all.his commanders at the Dardanelles except the luckless men at Suvla Bay, whom ho peremptorily ordered home. The contraslt serves to throw light on General Haig'a character, which is hard, rigid, devoted to duty, suspicious of all praise, and exacting in. discipline and effort. General Haig has sent generals home'from the Somme, he-'has broken men and made men, he has been ruthless in his demands upon all. And lie has no place in bis grealfc, massive army, machine for men who want recognition —who are not content to serve as members of a mighty unit, and to die or in live wjlth no other fame than that of being a British soldier. The men upon whom ho has come to lean are d£ a, similar type.: Sir Henrv Rawlinson, Commander of the Fourth. Army, Ms a profesional soldier to his finger tips, General "Haig in the despatch , refers to General Rawlinson's "knowledge of the profession," which' is in itself an excellent"description of this ■fjype of commander. "Rawly," as many friends call him x is tall, rather loud-voiced, - vigorous-loking, a bald heady with ai look of Ki'tcherier about the eyes, a heavy blackish moustache, and, like "General Plumer, Commander of the Second Army, a small and sloping chin. Most of Haig's men have come 'from cavalry regiments, but General Rawlinson is the exception/ He- is aJGuardsman, and commanded the Seventh Division when it landed at Zee-! Brugge and Ostend in a vain effort to save Antwerp. In his plunge into Flanders Rawlinson lost .5000 out of 11,000 men. He secured the Fourth 'Army Corps, comprising his_ old Seventh Division, and a new division he organised in England, and under Smith-Dorrieii had charge of the Neuve Chapelle offensive, which brought open condemnation upon him in Sir John French's despatch. It is said that this criticism nearly finished General Rawlinson's career. But Kitchener held out for him, and he was again chosen as the spearhead at Loos, where, though the offensive failed, his work was such ns t to bring him command of the Fourth Army then forming-. ft is hard 'to say whether he was deliberately chosen for the'Somme,-at-,, ta?k,_ or whether he commanded iis' opening days merely because bis Fourth' Army held the position. Our five armies are, of course, elastic. yThov are merely the ' shell or organisation, into which_ various army corps are fitted. In this shell they fight, and from ■this shell they are. withdrawn to other positions, whilst fresh army con>s come down to enter the battle. In this way :irmv corps may fighlD in one army for another, and in a third army for snothor. This was the Australinns' experience, for they entered the Somm«? •Battle as part of General Gough'sFifVh oi- Reserve Armv, went awav from it. and joined General 'Plumer's Second Army, and returned to it a* part of General Kawlinsnn's Fourth- Armv. Rawlinson's Fourith Army was in. a position opposite the German fortresses on the Sbmme lone before the offensive* beean in July, and it was natural that tine army corps then comDi-ising bis force should open the offensive under his direct command.

DIRECTING THE SOMME BATTLE

The Fourth Army had fitted into the southernmost section ' of die British line,-ending at the Somme, as soon as our fourth line of communications inwards from the French coast had been oiganised. It is necessary fco point out that each army group has its permanent line of communications, its own nase, and its own organisations for bre.ad T making;' transport, and general supply. General Rawlinson's vnfSn vethose of General Allenby, Commander of the Third Army Group, who moved north-wards to a section, ending about. Gommiecourt. This armv was used in the first da,v S of Iche offensive. Allenby commanded the attack upon the lines north and south of Gommiewhere our bravest efforts were unavailing, and our losses signally high. It is quite freely admitted now, of course, tha't those first three clays were a bitter disappointment, and that we made a breach in the German fin* lines only half the size expected. Th» Germans seem to have been expecting us m strength north of the Ancre, and they mowed our men down in bloody heaps. J

« The result was that, the Third Army contracted its, line. The Reserve Army which under General Sir Hubert Gough had been waiting behind as an army of pursuit, moved into the sector north of the Aneie. And General Tiawlinson's command was restricted to the southern section of tho battlefield, covering practically the whole breach in the German hues; while General Gough took command of that northern section which in a few weeks included Pozieres arid all the ground over which our First, Second, and Fourth Austral'iam Divisions fought so heroically and successfully.

The new figure which thus appeared amongst the Army Commanders proved a. clevor, resourceful, exaoting, .and somewhat fussy general, very fond of detailed work. The Goughs, John and Hubert, have been striking figures in the British Army. They have excellently represented that aristocratic type of skilled professional English soldier, who, though endowed with large patrimony, makes of the army for patriotic reasons a lifelong study. John Gough was killed, T think, in the Ypres salient. Hubert is a cavalryman, and has graduated to his great command from that of a, cavalry division. His biggest success on the Somme has been that of Beaumont-Hamel, the last dash we. made against the Germans during 1916. During the most off the year bo had as biis Third General Staff Officer a Melbourne soldier in Major Rupert Ryan, son of Colonel Charles Ryan, but we cannot claim even this remote connection with BeaumontHamel. for young Ryan left the Army Staff for the Cavalry Corps Staff some weeks before the battle. General Gough minks, fourth amongst the Army Commanders, his only junior in an Army command being General Sir Henrv Horo, who has got the First Army. But Gough would be a. s'trong favvourit" for the supreme command if, during 11)17, a change were made.