Page:Generals of the British Army.djvu/67

 INTRODUCTION.

PART II.

The central figure of this second portrait gallery of British Generals is that of Lord French, who gives a unity and atmosphere to the collection. The phase of the War he represents is quite distinct, indeed unique. The Army with which his name will ever be associated was an admittedly incomparable force, and many of the Generals whose portraits are to be found here went through the greatest ordeal of our history with him.

There have been many crises in the war. There will yet be others. But none can compare with that first four months in which the first issue was victory or defeat, and the second the coast or annihilation. Earlier wars have given a phraseology that endures till now of the processes by which campaigns are won. Armies are "decimated," and the term is taken to be synonymous with defeat. But this term is wholly inadequate to describe the price at which Sir John French and his troops redeemed the Channel coast. Little of the first Army was left when the first four months had passed, but the Kaiser's legions had not secured a decision; they had been cheated of the coast; and they had learned a lesson which will endure.

But at the end of this episode the great crisis had passed. The cloud which had overhung our Army had lifted. The light began to shine and anxious eyes could dimly see the promise of a fairer day. It is the first days of the war when the British troops went blithely to their awful tryst that must ever be the fire and inspiration of the generations to come. They are still more obscure than any other period of the war and they were more highly charged with emotion than perhaps any days can be expected to equal, unless it be those last days when the Allied troops shall drive the enemy from the field.