From the drawing by Georges Scott.
Reproduced from “L’Illustration” by kind permission.
Silent Ypres.
WITH OUR ARMY IN FLANDERS
BY
G. VALENTINE WILLIAMS
LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
1915
All rights reserved
TO
THE BRITISH SOLDIER
[Pg vii]
PREFACE
In the words of the Chief of the Italian General Staff, the warcorrespondent is the link between that part of the nation that fightsand that part which is watching—“a noble and fertile mission, asgreat as any mission ever was, and as necessary, too, for no army canlong and resolutely march to victory if it has not the support andenthusiasm of the whole country behind it.”
As the accredited correspondent of the Daily Mail at the GeneralHeadquarters of Field-Marshal Sir John French, I have spent the greaterpart of the past six months with the British Army in Flanders. I haveseen for myself the life and work of our army in the field. I havevisited in person the trenches along practically our whole front. Ihave talked with our organizers of victory from the Commander-in-Chiefdownwards to the man in the saphead ten yards from the enemy.
This book is the result. It was written in the field, under theCensorship. That familiar phrase, “Passed by Censor,” stands at thefoot of every chapter in the manuscript, as it will stand at the footof this preface.[Pg viii] To that part of the nation which is watching at homeI could, in fulfilment of my mission, have offered a more detailednarrative of the life of that other part that is fighting in Flanders,did not considerations of military necessity stand in the way. But,apart altogether from the question of patriotism, the large measure oftrust which the army has, in most instances, extended to the writerhas made me the more anxious to respect a privileged position, and toeschew anything calculated to afford to the enemy the least informationof value. My endeavour has rather been to present a picture of the lifeof our army in Flanders built up out of a series of impressions, toreveal the soul of the army as it has been unbared to me in the actualconditions of warfare.
If I should not seem to paint war as terrible or our task in Flandersas stupendous as it is, you must set it down to the army’s contagioushabit of making the best of things. The army knows that, man for man,it is more than a match for the German. It knows that, given a lead,it can draw upon resources which, both physically and mentally, arebetter than anything the Germans have now remaining. With unconcealedimpatience it looks to the Government at home to increase our machineryof war until, in this respect as well, we can claim superiority overour redoubtable and unscrupulous foe.
I have praised freely—and God knows there is enough to praise outhere!—and if my criticism is[Pg ix] sparing, it is solely because militarycriticism in the mouth of an accredited war correspondent acquiresa weight in the eyes of the enemy that gives it the value of directinformation.
I am anxious to exp