Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1917 — Make a Record for Efficiency [ARTICLE]

Make a Record for Efficiency

New British Armies Perfectly Organized and Fitted Out for Business of War. ■ 1 - HI6H IDEALS ARE FOLLOWED StanrtaM.Set by G>H»nt Fx?rrr Wt-'-ife Went Out to Mons Closely Followed in Training Thousands of Recruits. London. —Great Britain’s new armies are now so perfectly organized and fitted out that one may be likely to lose sight of the greatness of their creation and the unexampled difficulties that had to be surmounted. Thepe was a sdrry tatterdemalion "stage, due to shortage of boots, uniforms and so forth. !" The tiny army that went put to Mons in August, 1914, was probably the besttrained body Of troops in Europe for its size. Its high standard was that which those training the new armies had before them as ah ideal. The first 17 months of the war was the difficult period. Nearly all the efficient instructors had gone with the men, who added another laurel to'England’s military record in the great retreat from Mons. At the outbreak of war the accommodation available for single men in barracks in the British isles was hardly 175,000 units. Hosts of recruits poured in. It was difficult to get timber, labor, inspectors; to all the camps water and gas or electric light had to be laid; old roads were repaired, new ones made, and special lines of railroad laid to all the largest camps. Civilian Clothing Used. In the clothing dilemma, while the dozen makers of khaki cloth were being expanded to two hundred, civilian overcoats were bought up and served out to soldiers. When war started the country had fewer than’Boo,ooo Rifles, of which, only the authorized reserve of 150,000 reinalned after the original force, mobilized on August 4, had been armed. And at that time the weekly output of rifles in the United Kingdom was under two thousand. Of guns there were at the outbreak of war only enough for eight divisions, with the authorized reserve for wastage. _ ,

The greatest difficulties arose from lack of officers to train the new armies. On the eve of starting an order came to the expeditionary force from the war office that every battalion should leave behind one captain and one subaltern Jisslwr in liuiuing, TliffU helped greatly. Some two hundred of the Indian army, home on leave, were retained for training purposes: retired < i ffic ’) we re. appQljJte4=4fe rtvHfsns weFTfiSF age of twenty-five received their first commissions as lieutenants or captains. The wisdom of providing a method of rapidly expanding the commissioned ran ks by -means of the Officer ST Training, corjis became apparent. Within the first year of the war Oxford university O. T. C. provided more than 2,500 officers sos the army; Cambridge University.O. T. C„ more than 2.000; three northern universities more than 1,000, and Inns of Court O. T. C. more than 2,500. New Army Off After Nine Months. Only nine months after embodiment the first new army was sent to the front, closely followed by the. second and third. Even some divisions of the fourth and fifth were fit to go - to the front barely a year after they had been raised. And none of them gave a bad account of themselves. The secret of the great triumph over difficulties lies chiefly in the magnificent spirit of all ranks. If any special rank is to be picked out. It is undoubtedly true that the backbone of these new armies was the junior subalterns. Mostly untrained, or half trained, "they came to learn their work with their men, and had no false shame in telling them so —without any prejudice of discipline* Not content with the exacting labors of the parade ground, they sat up late preparing their work for the next day. studying military textbooks, practicing problems of strategy and tactics; at mess hardly any junior subaltern talked anything but “shop.” They put posers to the majors and the colonels, which these as willingly tackled. They were, in fact, all keen and on their mettle, and as on the whole they had been well chosen for brain power and aptitude to command, they taught themselves und their men, too, as they went. The same tribute Is applicable in greater or less degree to all ranks. There was everywhere a determination to* overcome difficulties somehow and to gfet on with the work.