ho were responsible for our Army organization and for
its preparation for war knew better, and August 1914 proved that they
were right. It was not merely due to the stubborn grit of their
personnel that the "Old Contemptibles" carried out their retreat from
Mons in face of greatly superior hostile forces with what was in
reality comparatively small loss, and that they were ready to advance
and fight again as soon as they got the word. It was also due to rank
and file and regimental officers and staff knowing their business
thoroughly. Had those five divisions been, say, New Army divisions
just arrived at the front, or divisions such as landed under General
Birdwood's orders at Anzac on the 25th of April, they would have been
swept back in hopeless confusion. They would not have known enough
about the niceties of the game to play it successfully under such
adverse conditions. The framework would not have stood the strain.

The sedentary type of operations which for three years played so big a
part in most theatres was, it must be remembered, particularly
favourable to newly created formations. Mobile warfare imposes a much
more violent test. When really active work is being carried on in the
field by partially trained troops, the platoon may do capitally, the
company fairly well, the battalion not altogether badly; but the
brigade will be all over the place, and the division will be in a
state of chaos. Whatever conditions future campaigns may bring forth,
trench warfare is unlikely to supervene immediately, nor to be brought
about until something fairly important has happened; and it will not
continue to the end unless the result of the conflict is to be
indecisive. In 1918 there was nothing to choose between British
divisions which had had no existence in August 1914 and those which
had fought as the point of England's lance at Le Cateau, on the Marne
and on the Aisne. But wars will not always last four years. Nor will
the belligerent who has to create entirely new armies to carry on the
struggle always prove victorious in the end.

THE END

_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited, _Edinburgh_.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918, by
Charles Edward Callwell

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