From Private to Field-Marshal (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921. Excerpt: ... CHIEF OF THE IMPERIAL GENERAL STAFF, I917-18 Allied Conference at Rome--Method of conducting these conferences--Admiral Bacon--Dover Patrol--Relations with Admiralty Staff--Admirals Jellicoe and Wemyss--Reorganisation of Admiralty Staff--Lord Fisher--Visit to Italian Front--General Staff views on man-power--Difficulty of providing drafts--Question many times raised during 1917--Young soldier battalions--Events on Russian front--Palestine Campaign--Operations on West Front--Nivelle replaced by Petain--Foch becomes Chief of French General Staff--My relations with him--Messines--Passchendaele--Cambrai--Defeat of Italians--Alternative plans suggested during the year--Evils attending unnecessary changes of plan--Difficulty of keeping strategical direction of war on right lines--Consideration by General Staff of plans for 1918--Conclusions reached--Anxiety regarding man-power and shipping--Generals Pershing and Bliss--Question of unity of command--Various proposals made in 1915--Calais agreement of February 1917--Consideration by military authorities in summer of 1917--Rapallo Conference establishes a Supreme War Council--A political not a military body--The technical advisers of the Council become executive officers--Am unable to accept the Government arrangement for giving effect to this system--This leads to my removal from the War Office--Measures taken after the German offensive in March 1918--My indebtedness to many friends whilst C.LG.S. In the first week of January 1917 I went with certain ministers of the newly-formed War Cabinet to Rome, where an Allied Conference was to be held to consider future plans. We travelled from Paris in company with M. Briand, M. Thomas, General (now Marshal) Lyautey, and other French representatives. M. Briand, who had bee...