, the Imperial General Staff can
only make recommendations and tender advice; it can order nothing.

Amongst the innumerable professional lessons taught by the experiences
of the Great War, there is one which professional soldiers had learnt
before it began, but which the public require to learn. This is that
newly organized troops or troops of the militia type such as our
Territorials of pre-war days, who necessarily have undergone little
training previous to the outbreak of hostilities, do not make really
effective instruments in the hands of a commander for a considerable
period after embodiment. The course of events proved, it is true, that
the individual soldier and officer can be adequately prepared for the
ordeal in a shorter space of time than had generally been believed
necessary by military men, and that they can be incorporated in drafts
for the front within a very few months of their joining the colours.
But that does not hold good with individual units. Still less does it
hold good with collections of individual units such as brigades and
divisions.

The records of the New Army, of the Territorials, of the improvised
formations sent to fight by the great Dominions oversea, all go to
show that such troops need to be broken in gradually after they take
the field before they can safely be regarded as fully equal to serious
operations. Our Allies' and our enemies' experiences were similar. We
know from enemy works that, although the German "Reserve Corps" fought
gallantly during the early months, they achieved less and suffered
more heavily in casualties than would have been the case had Regular
Corps been given corresponding tasks to carry out. It was the same
with the French Territorial Divisions. The American troops proved fine
fighters from the outset, but owing to lack of experience and of
cohesion they took a considerable time before they pulled their
weight; moreover, the larger the bodies in which they fought
independently of French and British command, the more noticeable this
was.

Certain regiments hastily got together on the spot from men who could
shoot and ride and who knew the Boers and their ways, performed most
distinguished service during the South African War, so much so,
indeed, that an idea got abroad amongst civilians at that time that
the need for the elaborate and prolonged training, which professional
soldiers always insisted upon, was merely a question of prejudice.
Happily those w