SOME FAMOUS WAR DESPATCHES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 207, 8 September 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOME FAMOUS WAR DESPATCHES.

One of the brief despatches of Joffre will for ever remain memorable. For over a month the German's had been ravaging Belgium ; they were pressing on France from the north and the east; after the capture of Liege and Namur they had .won bloody battles at Charleroi and near Metz; day lafter day the French armies and that comparatively small but grimly fighting British force which held off five t/inies its numbers of Huns, were falling back south and east of Paris to the valley of the Marne There the stand was made at a time when the world did not know that Joffre, the master strategist, was staking almost the issue of the war. Only paragraphs of news had been published officially, and the French and British l>eoplos could sustain themselves only in blind faith. How long would the retreat go on? Would the Germans win before the Allies could improve their resources? No. A ray of light suddenly illuminated the darkness. Joffr.e had issued an army order that the time for the offensive had arrived, the time for victory or death. And then came that brief but ever famous despatch in which Joffre stated that the Allies had won "incontestable victory* - ' Never was a despatch more pregnant with meaning. The Germans had been checked in their onward rush. In time to come, perhaps, this phrase, "incontestable victory, the prelude to final success in the greatest of all wars, will become a classic in the manner of Julius Caesar's " Veni vidi, viei," one of the shortest despatches on record, ait 4 one of the most significant. NOTABLE PHRASES. Short despatches app.ear to be the most famous, if we take the history or warfare throughout, but the present titanic conflict is too wide in scope for its operations to be dealt with in the laconic Caesarian "I came. 1 saw, f conquered"' manner, beloved of more than one great soldier. But certain phrases in recent long dspatches will assuredly find their n:ches in the temple of war literature. They will iw found less in the plain, blunt descriptions of Viscount French's operations than in those tales of wondrous gallantry told by Sir lan Hamilton, some of whose epigrams struck the people's imagination with remarkable force Who can ever forget that general's description of the landings on the Gallipoli peninsula, .when deeds were performed greater than those includeed in •'the sinsiter legends of Xerxes,'' as noble as, if not even more wonderful than, any recorded in the annals of warfare. Again, it is more than likely that Hamilton's despatch on the Suvla Bay landing will provide another classic phrase, not only because it came when the world was discussing the evacuation of Gallipoli, one of the greatest of military adventures, but because it showed that "inertia prevailed,"' and that the chance of victory which would profoundly have affected the course if the war had been narrowly lost. "Inertia prevailed-!" That will be a warn ing for ever to ail soldiers. Still another example provided by the Groat War—the despatch in which Viscount French deals with the first battle of Ypres, and tne transfer of irs army to Flanders from the A'isne. It for nothing else that despatch will ba foiever famous for its reference to the dramatic moment when the British commander was face to face with dreadful alternates. Should he strengthen his terribly weak line with the troops coming up' or should he use the troops to prolong that line n an equally tenuous manner? He decided to extend the line —and he barred the road to Calais. It was a momentous decision., and the right one. It will be the thenu of students of war, we fancy, for generations.

LACONICISMS

It has boon suggested already thai among famous despatches a largo proportion are on the laconic s'de. Julius Caesar's famous phrase has Keen quoted ; but it has to be remembered that the. groat Roman"s claim to note as a despatch-writer depends on more voluminous efforts than the one which appears to have set an example to many loaders in alter times. And there have been even shorter lespatcb.es. Lord Howard of Effingham, the Admiral of the British Fleet which inflicted so graet a defeat on the Spanish Armada, is said to have announced his victory on a one-word note to Queen Elizabeth "Canthar's," which, being interpreted, means ''the Spanish fly." That was quite clever, of course, but one may take leave to doubt whether it was true. Similarly with the legend which attributes another punning despatch to Sir Charles Napier who, after winning the battle which decided the fate of the provice of Sc'nde, is said to have announced his success in the word, "Pec-i-avi"—- "I have sinned." This is a story which would do little credit to the memory of a truly gallant soldier if it were true. It is not true. The despatch anonuncing Napier's triumph was the first in the history of British warfare in which th? non-commissioned officers and the privates who distinguished themselves in action were mentioned by name. It >s not possible that the commander, who. at Meeanec, as he gazed at midnight on the corpse-strewn field, passed through such anguish of soul that he cried, " I < all God to witness the blood is on the Ameers, not on me," would tell of his victory by moans of a play upon words. l,i t us therefore, knock another nail in ilie coffin of a cruel legend!

As a matter of fact the story has been based on a verselet in "Punch.'' years after the battle : "Peccavi! I've Scinde," Said Lord Ellen, so proud. Dnlhousie, more modest, Said, "Vorvi. I've Oud.e." But even that was not the earliest mention of the pun. for in a volume of light verse published in 1-552 George Daniel wrote : What .exclaimed the gallant Napier, Proudly rlourslnng Ins rapier, To the army and the navy, When lie conquered Scinde r— " Peccavi.'' So you see how a light verse has don _■ injustice to a soldier's reputation. PRAISE AND BLAME. Some Russian and Polish efforts in income despatches are worth recalling Sob'ieski was more modestly reverent than Caesar when, in sending to the Pope the Moslem standards captured before iVonna. ho wrote, "I came, I saw, God conquered," and there was a s : milar touch in Suvaroff's message to Catherine after his capture of Ismail—"Cory to Cod and the Empress Tsmail is ours." Suvaroff was indulged in this kind of announcement by the Empress. When he was major he d sobeyed orders so that, the opportunity having arisen, he inflicted a signal defeat on the foe. In his despatch he stated, "As a solder I deserve death for disobeying orders: as a Russian I have done my duty. The enemy is no more." To that Catherine replied, "As a soldier I leave you to the mercy of your Com-mander-in-Chief: as a Russian I con-

gratulate you as my lieutenantcolonel/' Not unlike the foregoing were the interchanges of courtesy between the two after the capture of Prague. The famous leader wrote, 'Hurrah! Prague! Suvaroff," to which the Empress replied, "Bravo! FieldMarshal ! Catherine." Turenne also indulged in laconicisms occasionally, the most famous instance being the despatch in which he announced his own condition and the victory at Dunkirk. "The enemy came was beaten. lam tired, good-night." He wrote with a brevity which indeed was the soul of good news, just as in the case of Sherman's Christmas card despatched to President Lincoln in December, 1864 —"I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 guns, plenty of ammuntion 825.000 bales of cotton." One famous despatch in very recent times has censured a general, by implication, at any rate. Other despatch, es have been famous for a similar reason. It will be remembered that covering despatches by Lord Roberts on the act : ons fought by Buller and Gatacre in South Africa were more than a trifle severe; and precedents may be found in other despatches from men who have commanded in Britain's many wars. Lord Lucan's blunder at Balaclava brought that commander under censure in Lord Raglan's despatch, with the result that the fiery Earl needlessly resigned his command of the Cavalry Division, conduct which did not enhance his reputation. Later, Sir Colin Campbell's comments on the tactics of Brigadier General Vialpole at"Rewa during the mutiny, and Sir Frederick Roberts's on those of Brigadier General Dunham Massey during the Afghan war, were brusque, to say the least, and rendered the despatches notable for some time.