BY
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
AUTHOR OF
"THE GREAT BOER WAR," ETC.
SECOND EDITION
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
MCMXVI
TO
GENERAL SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON
THIS CHRONICLE OF THE GREAT WAR
IN WHICH HE RENDERED
SUCH INVALUABLE SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY
IS
DEDICATED
PREFACE
It is continually stated that it is impossible to bringout at the present time any accurate history of thewar. No doubt this is true so far as some points ofthe larger strategy are concerned, for the motives atthe back of them have not yet been cleared up. Itis true also as regards many incidents which haveexercised the minds of statesmen and of manypossibilities which have worried the soldiers. But so faras the actual early events of our own campaign uponthe Continent are concerned there is no reason whythe approximate truth should not now be collectedand set forth. I believe that the narrative in thisvolume will in the main stand the test of time, andthat the changes of the future will consist of additionsrather than of alterations or subtractions.
The present volume deals only with the events of1914 in the British fighting-line in France and Belgium.A second volume dealing with 1915 will be publishedwithin a few months. It is intended that a thirdvolume, covering the current year, shall carry on thiscontemporary narrative of a tremendous episode.
From the first days of the war I have devotedmuch of my time to the accumulation of evidence{viii}from first-hand sources as to the various happeningsof these great days. I have built up my narrativefrom letters, diaries, and interviews from the hand orlips of men who have been soldiers in our armies, thedeeds of which it was my ambition to understand andto chronicle. In many cases I have been privilegedto submit my descriptions of the principal incidentsto prominent actors in them, and to receive theircorrections or endorsement. I can say with certainty,therefore, that a great deal of this work is not onlyaccurate, but that it is very precisely correct in itsdetail. The necessary restrictions which forbade themention of numbered units have now been removed,a change made possible by the very generalrearrangements which have recently taken place. Iam able, therefore, to deal freely with my material.As that material is not always equally full, it mayhave occasionally led to a want of proportion, wherethe brigade occupies a line and the battalion aparagraph. In extenuation of such faults, and of theomissions which are unavoidable, I can only pleadthe difficulty of the task and throw myself upon thereader's good nature. Some compensation for suchshortcoming may be found in the fact that a narrativewritten at the time reflects the warm emotionswhich these events aroused amongst us more clearlythan the more measured story of the future historiancan do.
It may seem that the political chapters aresomewhat long for a military work, but the reader will{ix}find that in subsequent volumes there are no furtherpolitics, so that this survey of the European conditionsof 1914 is a lead up to the whole long narrativeof the actual contest.
I would thank my innumerable correspondents(whom I may not name