Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918Callwell, C. E. (Charles Edward), Sir
History
Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918
Callwell, C. E. (Charles Edward), Sir
World War, 1914-1918 -- Great Britain
A good many of us at the War Office also did not, I think, see quite
eye to eye with Lord K. in connection with his piling up of New Army
divisions without providing them with reserves. The tremendous drain
which modern war creates in respect to personnel came as a surprise to
all the belligerents; but the surprise came fairly early in the
proceedings, and the Adjutant-General's department had fully grasped
what this meant, and had realized the scale of the provision necessary
to meet it, by the end of 1914. If I remember aright, one whole "New
Army" (the Fourth, I think it was) had to be broken up in the summer
of 1915, and transformed into a reservoir of reserves, because the
First, Second, and Third New Armies practically had none. It had been
manifest long before these armies were gradually drawn into the fight
that they would suffer heavy wastage, and that they would speedily
become mere skeletons unless they had ample backing from home. Had the
branches of the War Office which were supposed to deal with these
questions been allowed their own way in regard to them, I imagine
that greater foresight would have been displayed and that some
confusion might have been avoided.
The preceding paragraphs read perhaps rather like a deliberate attempt
to belittle the achievements of the greatest of our War Ministers. But
they only touch upon one side, the dark side so to speak, of Lord
Kitchener's work as an organizer and administrator during the Great
War. Little has been said hitherto as to the other and much more
important side, the bright side, of that work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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