Friends of France; . mited and omnipresent, there is observed,as I say, little or no heroics. That entire absence ofdrum and fife, which strikes and arrests all beholdersat the front, is significant and symbolic. These menmuster and move forward to the risk of death almostas other men take the subway and go downtown tobusiness. There are no fanfares at all, no grand ges-tures, no flourishes about the soul and la gloire. It is true, no doubt, that the ambulance-driver viewsthe scene from a somewhat specialized angle. Hisprincipal association is with the sequelae of war; hisview is too much the
Friends of France; . mited and omnipresent, there is observed,as I say, little or no heroics. That entire absence ofdrum and fife, which strikes and arrests all beholdersat the front, is significant and symbolic. These menmuster and move forward to the risk of death almostas other men take the subway and go downtown tobusiness. There are no fanfares at all, no grand ges-tures, no flourishes about the soul and la gloire. It is true, no doubt, that the ambulance-driver viewsthe scene from a somewhat specialized angle. Hisprincipal association is with the sequelae of war; hisview is too much the hospital view. Yet, it must beinsisted, he becomes quickly and strangely callous onthese points; and on the whole would be less likely tooverstress the mere horrors than someone who hadnot seen so much of them. On the other hand, as Ihave suggested, he has extraordinary opportunitiesfor viewing war as a thing at once of many parts andof a marvellously organized unity. Personally I think that my sharpest impression 12. m H PS O » O>—i PS 3 o DUNKIRK AND YPRES of war as a whole came to me, not along the postesde secours or under the guns at all, but at the stationplace in the once obscure little town of Poperinghe,on the 23d of April, 1915. That, it will be remembered, was a fateful day. Atfive oclock on the afternoon before (everybody wasperfectly specific about the hour), there had begunthe great movement now known as the SecondBattle of Ypres (or of the Yser). The assault had be-gun with the terrifying surprise of poison-gas; thegas was followed by artillery attacks of a ferocityhitherto unequalled; Ypres had been wiped out in afew hours; the Germans had crossed the Yser. Thusthe French and English lines, which were joined, hadbeen abruptly pushed back over a long front. Thatthese were anxious hours for the Allies, Sir JohnFrenchs report of June 15 (1915) indicates veryplainly, I think. But they were far from being idlehours. To-day the whole back country, which forweeks
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