STARTLING WAR BOOK.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18168, 5 November 1930, Page 14

STARTLING WAR BOOK.

A GENERAL’S CHARGES. DISLIKE OF LORD FRENCH. Sensational ' charges that General Laurezac, commanding the Fifth or most northerly of the French line of Armies, abandoned the British at Mons, and that the British in turn abandoned him at Guise, are made by BrigadierGeneral E. L. Spears in his highly provocative and dramatic book “ Liaison,” just published. In the early days of the war General Spears, then lieutenant of Hussars, was the liason officer between the British Army and the Fifth French Army. At the heart of critical events he acquitted himself with great credit; Mr. Winston Churchill in an introduction quotes a notable tribute from Lord French’s “ Memoirs.”

In his preface Mr. Churchill declares that “ hideous and measureless miscalculation of almost every factor present at the outbreak of the war was made by General Joffre and his officers. In consequence the two armies of thfe Allied Left were placed in a position of inconceivable peril.''' Distrust and Suspicion. General Laurezac, who was relieved of his command on thq eve of the •Battle of the Marne, had a poor opinion of the British. “He viewed them, with a mixture of distrust and suspicion. • His profound indifference to what befell them save as it concerned his own command, and his disregard of that honourable understanding which makes soldiers stand by each other, could have but one result, a complete breakdown in co-operation, which profoundly' affected the early stages of the campaign.

The first meeting between General Laurezac and Field-Marshall French was marked by friction. The staffs of both armies were not slow to realise that the two men had not taken to each other. General,Laurezac did not disguise from his entourage his feelings towards Sir John, and I learned a few days later at Le Cateau that Sir John hod not liked Laurezac. Laurezac’s Mistake. The latter knew no English, and the British Commander-in--Chief very little French. Laurezac actually came away from the interview with the almost incredible misconception that French refused to use his cavalry except as mounted infantry. But if, as General Spears alleges General Laurezac endangered the existence of the British Army by failing to take the offensive, the tables were, turned when, on August 28, the'French commander fought with the utmost skill and coolness at Guise. FieldMarshall French’s famous decision to interrupt the campaign for ten days to refit now exposed the Fifth French Army to almost equal peril: General Laurezac’s anger was terrific. He said terrible unpardonable things conj cerning Sir John French and the British Army, but then I was careful not to hear; nor did I ever report what occurred that evening. ..... The great complaint of the British against General Laurezac had been that he could not be induced to attack. Now that he was about to do so nothing would persuade the British to cooperate. They were doing as they had been done by. General Spears gives a graphic picture of the confusion of the retreat: The disastrous state of aflairs whereby the Allied Armies withdrew by'uneven jerks, exposing each other to the enemy’s blows and uncovering each other’s flanks, was not yet ended, and in spite of the Generalissimo’s immense efforts risks were run which but for fabulous good, luck would have resulted in irremediable rout. French In Tears. The young liasion officer was brought into frequent contact with Marshall Joffre. His respect for him is immense. He contends that “ though Gallieni’s part in fighting the Battle of the Marne was an important one, the conception .and responsibility were Joffre’s alone.” But he insists that Joffre’s plan \vould have collapsed without British co-operation: the British Army crossed the Marne thirty hours before* any French infantry. On the eve of the battle Joffre v visited British G.H.Q. and made an earnest and eloquent appeal to Sir John French: “,We all looked at Sir John. He had- understood and was under the stress of strong emotion. Tears stood in his eyes, welled oyer and ran down his cheeks. He tried to say something in French. For a moment he struggled with his feelings and with the language, then, turning to an English officer, he exclaimed: “ Damn it, I can’t explain. Tell him that all that men can do our fellows will do."