Добавил:
ivanov666
Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз:
Предмет:
Файл:The Great War. Part I
.pdf
THE GREAT WAR
failed, after an epic of heroism which will surely live for ever in
our history and in that of our brave Australian and New Zealand
brothers. We had advanced in Mesopotamia to within sight of the
minarets of Bagdad, and yet again we had been compelled to leave
our task unfi nished and our little force was besieged at Kut. The
one new gleam of light in the whole year had been the adhesion of
Italy to the cause of Freedom. And yet, though nearly every detail
had been adverse to us, our deepest instincts told us that the stream
did in truth move with us, however great and confusing might be
the surface current. Here on the long western line, motionless, but
not passive, locked in a vast strain which grew ever more tense, was
the real war. All others were subsidiary. And here in this real war,
the one theatre where decisive results could be looked for, our position was very different in the opening of 1916 to that which 1915
had shown us. In the year our actual Army in France had grown
three-and fourfold. The munitions had increased in far greater proportions. The days had gone for ever when a serious action meant
three months of shell economy before the fi ght and three months
of recuperation after it. To the gunners it was like an evil dream
to look back to the days when three shots per day was the allowance, and never save on a defi nite target. Now, thanks to the driving
power of Lloyd George and his admirable band of assistants, there
would never again be a dearth, and no attack should ever languish
for want of the means to follow it up. Our guns, too, were clustering ever more thickly and looming ever larger. Machine-guns were
pouring forth, though there, perhaps, we had not yet overtaken our
enemy. Above all, our Fleet still held the seas, cries of distress or at
least of discomfort from within Germany rose ever more clearly, and
it was certain that the sufferings which she had so wantonly and
wickedly infl icted upon others were beginning to be repaid to her.
“Gott” does indeed “strafe,” and needs no invocation, but now, as
491
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
always, it is on the guilty that the rod falls. The close of 1915 found
the Empire somewhat disappointed at the past, but full of grim resolution for the future.
One event had occurred in the latter end of the year which cannot be allowed to pass without comment. This was the retirement
of Sir John French, and his return as Lord French to take command
of the home forces. It is a diffi cult matter to get the true proportion,
either of events or of characters, in so great an epoch as this. It will
be years before the true scale will gradually be found. At the same
time it can be said now with absolute certainty that the name of
John French will go down to history for the sterling work that he
has done during sixteen months of extreme military pressure. Nothing which the future could bring, however terrifi c our task, could
be charged with the same possibilities of absolute disaster as those
operations of the past through which he and his brilliant subordinates had successfully brought the Army. His was the preparation
of the troops before the campaign, his the responsibilities of mobilisation, and his the primary credit that they were in the fi ghting
line by August 22, 1914 – they who, upon August 4, had been scattered without their reserves or full equipment over a dozen garrison
towns. This alone was a great feat. Then came the long, desperate
fi ght to make head against a superior foe, the rally, the return, the
fi ne change of position, the long struggle for the coast, the victory
saddened by the practical annihilation of the old Regular Army, the
absorption and organisation of the new elements, the resumption of
the offensive, and that series of spirited actions which, if they never
attained full success, were each more formidable than the last, and
were all preparatory exercises for the great Somme battles of 1916.
This was the record which Lord French took back with him to the
Horse Guards, and it is one which can never be forgotten by his
fellow-countrymen.
492
THE GREAT WAR
Sir Douglas Haig, who succeeded to the chief command, was the
leader who would undoubtedly have been called to the vacant post
by both Army and public had leaders been chosen in the old Pretorian fashion. From the beginning he and Smith-Dorrien had been
the right and left hands of the Chief, and now that ill-health had
unhappily eliminated the latter, Haig’s claim was paramount. Again
and again he had borne the heaviest part in the fi ghting, and had
saved the situation when it seemed desperate. He was a man of the
type which the British love, who shines the brighter against a dark
background. Youthful for so high a command, and with a frame and
spirit which were even younger than his years, with the caution of
a Scotchman and the calculated dash of a leader of cavalry, he was
indeed the ideal man for a great military crisis. No task might seem
impossible to the man who had held back the German tide at Ypres.
With Haig in command and with an Army which was ever growing
in numbers, in quality, and in equipment, the British waited with
quiet confi dence for the campaign of 1916.
THE END
Литературно-художественное издание
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Great War
Part I
Выпускающий редактор: И. Краснова
Редактор: П. Воронин
Корректор: И. Иванова
Компьютерная верстка: Т. Серёгина
Художественное оформление: М. Кылосова
В оформлении обложки использованы материалы
по лицензии агентства © shutterstock.com
Проект осуществлён с помощью технологий
print on demand
16+
Знак информационной продукции согласно
Федеральному закону от 29.12.2010 г. № 436-ФЗ.
Подписано в печать 10.01.2018
Формат 60х90/16
Усл. печ. л. 30,88
Отпечатано: АО «Т8 Издательские Технологии»
109548, г. Москва, Волгоградский проспект, дом 42, корпус 5
www.t8print.ru; info@t8print.ru
Тел.: +7 (499) 322-38-30
Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]