PREFACE

I am told that it has been thoughtadvisable to publish short accountsin pamphlet form of prominentand important operations whichhave been carried on during thecourse of the war which is still raging.

Such war stories may undoubtedlybe beneficial, and in thebelief that such "propaganda" isproductive of more good thanharm I have consented to inditethis very brief preface to TheRetreat from Mons.

Any hesitation I may have feltarises from my profound convictionthat no history of a war or anypart of a war can be worthanything until some period after peacehas been made and the full factsare known and understood.

This pamphlet however, is notso much a "history" as aninteresting summary or a chronologyof leading events, and the writercarefully avoids according praiseor blame in connection with anyevent or group of events which canever become the subject of controversy.

In a Preface to so brief and sounpretentious a military work asthis, it is impossible to put beforethe reader more than a glimpse ofthe situation in regard to whichplans had to be conceived and putinto execution as suddenly andspeedily as the demand for themwas unexpected.

That it is the "unexpected"which generally happens in war,and that it is the "unexpected" forwhich we must be ever ready, hasof late years been deeply instilledin the mind of the British officer.A cardinal axiom in his militarycreed is that he must never betaken by surprise.

When, therefore, the Germans,on the same principle as theysubsequently used poison-gas, sankhospital ships, and disregardedevery known rule of civilized war,suddenly and quite unexpectedlyoverran a neutral country in sucha drastic manner as to nullify allpreconceived plans and possibilities,and the British Army founditself on the outer flank of thethreatened line exposed to the fullweight of the German menace, itwas this previous careful trainingwhich formed the sure foundationupon which to plan and conductthe inevitable retreat and carry itto a successful conclusion.

When men are told to retirewithout fighting, when they see noreason for it, when they remainfull of ardour and longing to getat the enemy, and are not allowedto, demoralization is very apt tobe the result. Why was such afeature of the Retreat conspicuousby its complete non-existence?Because of another

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!