DIRECTING A BATTLE FROM AN ARM-CHAIR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2675, 22 January 1916, Page 3

DIRECTING A BATTLE FROM AN ARM-CHAIR

HOW a FRENCH GENERAL WORKS,

. A glimpse of the way in which a distinguished French General commands his army in battle is given by Mr. H. Allen, the special correspondent of tho British Press with the French armies l'erbaps somo day a great artist will paint the picture, a long narrow gallery of a French' chateau, rather cold and draughty, lighted by long windows which look down from the lirst story oil a fine park, which lias already becomo unkempt with the neglect of war. In tho heavy rain the two little lakes wtiieh aro its main adornment look very cold and melancholy. In tho gallery tho officers of tho General Staff aro hard at work receiving reports from the firing line and transmitting orders, 'l'boro is a strange ; unnatural silenco in t'ho i'oom; tho ofliccrs talk to ono an»ud move to and

fro on toptoe, shamefacedly conscious of the creasing of their heavy riding-bootß. At the end of the room there is a stand against the wall, and oil it an enormous map of the district of Artois, covered with a complicated tracery of coloured lines marking the French and German trenches. _ In an armchair in front of the map is sitting the commander of Hie group of armies of the north, 'a man of slight and athletic build, with the true horseman's figure. When ho walks every movement is full of nervous energy and vigorous decision. The eyes are keen and piercing, and tho chin dogged and resolute., A born leader of men, he was made to obtain information rather than to give it, to ask questions rather thai} answer them, and having judged his man and summed up the situation, ho has tho faculty of commanding with unerring swiftness. Almost the whole day of the offensive in Artois he spent in the armchair beiore the great map. Sometimes thrown right back with booted legs stretched out, tugging fiercely at his brown moustache, he solved some knotty problem of the advance, sometimes looking iorwa-rd, his left hind playing with the eye-glasses that dangled from his neck, and in his right hand a long ruler, he would _measure the distance and estimate the results achieved. As the reports came in, and as the Genera] sent out his orders, his officers, fearful lest the smallest- sound should disturb his calculations, would throw anxious glances_ towards him, and judge from his attitude and expression how things were prospering in the trenches twenty miles away, where all their thoughts were turned.

There was far loss strain and anxiety ana far more gaiety in the deep muddy ditches where the men were mustering for the attack than in the silent room where a master mirid was directing all their movements. There were among them many young men just over twenty, recruits of tho 1915 contingent, madly eager to win their spurs. "With such men," ono of their colonels told me, "nothing can stop us. No losses have ahy effect on them. A man falls, they ihtftter, _'Tant pis,' and dasli on to avenge him. As for discipline, tliey aro splendid. With 3000 men, despite war_ seyerity, I do not give two trivial punishments a week,"