THE FIFTH ARMY
[To the Editor of the SPecrAiron.] Sta,—Does not your reviewer of General Gough's The Fifth Army miss a very vital point of view strongly supported by him in writing of Passchendaele ? It is true that he (Gough) tells us that he had nothing to do with the initiation of the battle, and indeed that it seemed to him hopeless after the first effort was squelched in deep mud—but he adds that he now thinks his own view was too narrow and that Haig was right in going on ; he adds that, if we had not sacrificed our own men in absorbing the German effort, the Germans would have crushed the French army and won the war, while the German divisions destined for the Italian front but held back in France for use against us would probably have put Italy out of the
War altogether.—I am, Sir, &c., E. H. B.
Previous page
