B 0 0 K S.
SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S HISTORY OF THE WAR.. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE has the true heart of the military historian ; he is evidently fond of military history ; be will puzzle out the movements in an action till he makes all the parts fit con- vincingly; and he has a real sense of proportion which enables Win to reject the unessential and keep things clear. On the other side of the account it must be said that his writing is ordinary stuff ; be has none of that historian's wit which reveals a situation or a limners character with the flashlight of a happy phrase. He goes on pounding competently away, and by the cumulative results of good sense and a right instinct he makes himself a safe and sure guide ; but it is all a 'natter of honesty without grace. In no formal manner does be attempt criticism. He does not set himself enywhere to explain why a battle went wrong and who was to blame. Such criticism as there is is implicit in the narrative, and the reader must make Ins own deductions. In this the author is wise ; it is too soon, and the facto are still too open to dispute, to venture on blame. We may add that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle evidently feels himself unable to state the German numbers engaged in the various battles, and that the marginal summaries are 'mostly of little value—it is useless merely to repeat in a marginal summary the heading of the chapter.
In his first volume the author described the doings of the British Army in France and Flanders during 1914, and he is able to say in the preface to his second volume which is before us that no serious correction has been made of any of the facts in the first volume. That is a proud statement for any writer to ho able to make in the circumstances. We can premise that Sir A. Conan Doyle will be able to say the same thing of his second volume, and be able to say it in an even higher degree, because when an author has established his reputation for correctness, and for a safe and just handling of his material, information flows into him. That is his proper reward. We imagine that Sir A. Conan Doyle has been freely given official information, and certainly we have rend nothing about the second battle of Ypres and Loos which can compare for completeness with the narratives in the second volume. We are promised a third volume in the autumn, which will take the history up to the end of the battles on the Somme. Thus the author in throe comparatively short volumes—terseness is one of his virtues have described the year of defence, the year of equilibrium, and the year of attack. The second volume describes the year of equilibriuni The battle of Neuve Chapelle, which was the first serious attempt of the British to take the offensive, was a complete surprise to the Germans. Their boarded spy system was at fault, and, further, our airmen had already succeeded in keeping the air clear above our lines. The author stuns up the battle as follows
" So ended the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, a fierce and murderous encounter in which every weapon of modern warfare—the giant howitzer, the bomb, and the machine-gun—was used to the full, and where the coward of the victor was a slice of ground no larger than a moderete farm. And yet the moral prevails over the material, and the fact that a Prussian line, built up with four months of labour, could be rushed in is couple of hours, and that by no exertion could a German set foot upon it again, was a hopeful first lesson in the spring campaign."
Similarly, the author justifies the heavy losses we suffered in the fighting for Hill GO ; losses which would not have been justified by any geographical measure, but were justified because they proved to the Germans our extraordinary power of endurance, and indeed our invincibility. But more striking than the facts about Heave Chapelle and Hill GO are all the new details given hero about the second battle of Ypres and Loos. The second battle of Ypres opened with the first use of poison-gas by the enemy. Thin dia- bolical trick brought the Germans a considerable gain of ground. Both French and British were utterly taken by surprise. The French lost some thousands of stupefied prisoners, and those who fell back were not unnaturally disorganized. They lost also eight batteries of field-guns. The British lost four 4-7's, though the etrikers had been removed from the breech-blocks. The two young At finery Lieutenants, Sandernan and Hamilton Field, died beside their guns. For a time the Germans had a gap five miles broad in front of there, und for aorne Mum there seas 110 substantial force
between them and Ypre They wasted their time, however, in snaking good their ground, and au unparalleled opportunity passed for ever. " They had sold their souls as ooldiers, but the Devil's
• Toe Bratei Couspoion in mama cm{ Ftnotters, 1911 liy Sir Arthur Conan Palle. Madan: Balla and litnent,ton. ins. uct..)
price was spoor one. Had they had a corps of cavalry ready and plaited them through the gap, it would havebeen theMost dangerous moment of the war." How this catastrophe for us, so criminally procured, was redeemed by oddly assorted units is the immortal story of the second battle of Ypres. The Germans learned before the battle was over that raw British recruits are often at the top of their fighting form in their first battle, and that the "Colonial Militia" which had been disparaged in Bernhardi's writings was much more than a match for the German military product: Let us pick out a soldier's phrase from the narrative which deserves to be handed down with the most famous of sayings on the battle- field "On one occasion the enemy actually got round the left of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, who were the flank regiment, upon which Captain Neville, who was killed later upon the same day, gave the order, 'Even numbers deal with the enemy in the rear, odd numbers carry on I' which was calmly obeyed with complete success."
In the second battle of Ypres the Germans had a tremendous superiority of artillery, just as they had had a tremendous superiority in men at the fleet kettle in October, 1914; but in both cases the result was the same.
At the end of July, 1915, the Germans used burning petrol for the first time, and Sir A. Conan Doyle comments on the remarkable national temperament of the Germans, who, passing over the fact that this new device was forbidden by the laws of war, hailed it as a proof of the superior chemical inventiveness of the Fatherland ! On September 25th, 1915, began the battle of Looa, and Sir A. Conan Doyle well brings out how near it was to being a very important break-through. The failure to discover some uncut wire, and the absence of supports at the vital moment, prevented a great success. Even as it was, it was one more proof to the Germans that we were their masters in the field, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thinks that a too triumphant advance from a contracted base might have led us into serious trouble. Our long spear-head might have been snapped off. We have learnt much since then about the danger of creating sharp salients. The waves of our advance now have very flat heads.
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