The Dominion FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1916. "WE ALSO CAPTURED THIEPVAL"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2889, 29 September 1916, Page 4

The Dominion FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1916. "WE ALSO CAPTURED THIEPVAL"

The battle which resulted in the capturo of Combles and Thiepval must) have been the equivalent of half a dozen Waterloos rolled into one, yet the British Official report describes it in a few ma'ttei'-of-fact Sentences as . though . such events formed part of the daily routine of the Army. This war is being waged on such a gigantic scale that tho extraordinary has become ordinary. Superlatives have lost the power to thrill us. One writer declares that it hopeless to describe "ihe Push" as it would be to describe the world, or explain human life, on a postcard. Sik Douglas Haig makes no attempt to describe the indescribable. r He leaves much to the imagination, but there is a peculiar impressiveness'in the few soldierly words in which he records happenings of unparalleled greatness. "On our right," he reports, 'the French and British have jointly occupied Oombles. ... We also captured Thiejpval. , . . Our successes are of very-considerable importance." We cannot help feeling the grandness of this simplicity, nowever much we may desire fuller ' and further information. "The Boche thinks that no power on earth will ever take Thiepval from Kim because he's made a fortified arsenal of it." So said a wounded soldier soon after the. commencement of ™e_Pu£h. ,Referring to the .capture of Ovillers and Boiselle, this soldier remarked: "It is marvellous to think those lines could ever have been taken. I not a bit surprised that the Hun thought them impregnable. Even now, when they have been pounded out of all recognition by our heavies, you'd think such a network could be held against any possible advance., The Boche thinks the same about Thiepval." But Thiepval has fallen, and the British official report dismisses this tremendous feat in four words: "We also captured Thiepval.- The mind cannot form an adequate conception of the vastness of the ma,chiney which had to be set in motion in-order to achieve this result. The careful planning, the elaborate organisation, the artillery preparation, M;he dash and endurance of the soldiers, the pluck of - the aviators, the work of the army ' behind the Army, and scores of other factors essential to success. All \ theso elements must fit together aDd < co-operate with automatic precision.. 1 i&iluro in one detail might make * success impossible or oven convert probable victory into certain defeat 6 Everything must - dovetail. The ' fact that "the understanding - bo- t tween the artillery and the infantry ] was so perfect that the tfrcnch 1 'seventy-fives' wero sometimes hurl- } ing volleys only twenty-five yards in 1 front of tho assaulting line/* shows i that nothing was left to chance as r far as co-operative organisation was 1 concerned. ■' I

The army behind the' Array is a wonderful creation. Tho linos of communication are of a most elaborate character. They arc constructed and kept in working order by the Royal Engineers. Tho men in the army workshops,' where damaged war machines are repaired, and guns and aeroplanes and motor vehicles are overhauled, are fighting \tho Germans as really as if they were in the trenches. Thon there is the Salvage Corps and the clerical staff and other organisations* cach doing its appointed task, and making its contribution to that ultimate victory about which there is no 'doubt in tho Army. Tho dispatch riders and the men in charge of tho telephone and telegraph communications are doing splendid work in perilous places. The transport men, dashing through hurricanes of fire, the doctors, the stretcherbearers, and the chaplains—all heroes. "Our runners ought all to receiyo tEo Victoria Cross," is tho opinion expressed by a brigade commander. The same might be said of the men in every branch of our Army. Vast and marvellous as the machinery of battle is, the human element is still of supreme worth. | In spite of all that science and invention have done the man plays aa important a part' in war to-day as he did in previous wars. The value of the human qualities of courage, endurance, initiative, mental alertness, and cheerful confidence cannot be overestimated. No one can read the story of the Somme campaign without being impressed .with this I

I? 0 ?". , Times' correspondent at British Headquarters is one of those who feels that ho has reached tho of the resources of language his efforts to describo the work which is being done by our soldiers, and their manner of doing it. If anything new,is to lie told of our Array (he writes) it must b© done in other ways than proso speech. Ono ought to be_ able to interpret it ia colours, to .paint; the spirit of tlio Axmy on some vast oanvas spread -nrith tints* of fame and glory. One should, be able to sing measures as stately as the cadence of the million parching feet, rising to stanzas of triumph, such as Milton may' havedr o amed v but surely never moulded. It should be cast in bronzo—gigantic, piercing the clouds to clearer sunlight far in the upper, skies. It should be set to miusio more splendid and tumultuous than was ever written, with the irresistible'rushing of ten thousand strings, the organs peal rag praise, jand all the brasses of the world braying victory; One must have some other medium than prose.

French soldiers talk, and write freely and naturally •of the greatness of the glory of fighting, and, if needs bo, dying for France. British soldiers are more reserved. They are slow to talk about the things they feel most deeply. But they know the ' tremendousness of tho issues at stake in this war. As a wounded'lrish officer put it:' "It's all humanity we're fighting for." Whether life's to bo clean and descent, free and Worth having—or a Boche nightmare." He wanted to get back into tho fray, though "it's Hell and Heaven and the Devil and tho World." Another soldier tells us that "the Germans may write on their badges that God is with, them, but our lads—they' know." "