A Visit to Three Fronts, June 1916

A Visit to Three Fronts, June
1916

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Title: A Visit to Three Fronts
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
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A VISIT TO THREE FRONTS
June 1916
BY
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
AUTHOR OF
'THE GREAT BOER WAR'

PREFACE
In the course of May 1916, the Italian authorities expressed a desire
that some independent observer from Great Britain should visit their
lines and report his impressions. It was at the time when our brave and
capable allies had sustained a set-back in the Trentino owing to a
sudden concentration of the Austrians, supported by very heavy

artillery. I was asked to undertake this mission. In order to carry it out
properly, I stipulated that I should be allowed to visit the British lines
first, so that I might have some standard of comparison. The War
Office kindly assented to my request. Later I obtained permission to
pay a visit to the French front as well. Thus it was my great good
fortune, at the very crisis of the war, to visit the battle line of each of
the three great Western allies. I only wish that it had been within my
power to complete my experiences in this seat of war by seeing the
gallant little Belgian army which has done so remarkably well upon the
extreme left wing of the hosts of freedom.
My experiences and impressions are here set down, and may have some
small effect in counteracting those mischievous misunderstandings and
mutual belittlements which are eagerly fomented by our cunning
enemy.
Arthur Conan Doyle.
Crowborough,
July 1916.

CONTENTS
A GLIMPSE OF THE BRITISH ARMY.
A GLIMPSE OF THE ITALIAN ARMY.
A GLIMPSE OF THE FRENCH LINE.

A GLIMPSE OF THE BRITISH ARMY
I
It is not an easy matter to write from the front. You know that there are
several courteous but inexorable gentlemen who may have a word in

the matter, and their presence 'imparts but small ease to the style.' But
above all you have the twin censors of your own conscience and
common sense, which assure you that, if all other readers fail you, you
will certainly find a most attentive one in the neighbourhood of the
Haupt-Quartier. An instructive story is still told of how a certain
well-meaning traveller recorded his satisfaction with the appearance of
the big guns at the retiring and peaceful village of Jamais, and how
three days later, by an interesting coincidence, the village of Jamais
passed suddenly off the map and dematerialised into brickdust and
splinters.
I have been with soldiers on the warpath before, but never have I had a
day so crammed with experiences and impressions as yesterday. Some
of them at least I can faintly convey to the reader, and if they ever reach
the eye of that gentleman at the Haupt-Quartier they will give him little
joy. For the crowning impression of all is the enormous imperturbable
confidence of the Army and its extraordinary efficiency in organisation,
administration, material, and personnel. I met in one day a sample of
many types, an Army commander, a corps commander, two divisional
commanders, staff officers of many grades, and, above all, I met
repeatedly the two very great men whom Britain has produced, the
private soldier and the regimental officer. Everywhere and on every
face one read the same spirit of cheerful bravery. Even the half-mad
cranks whose absurd consciences prevent them from barring the way to
the devil seemed to