I have been the witness of the happy effect made on a number of French officers of the collaboration of British troops on the actual battle front, states Richard Capell, "Sunday Times" war correspondent with the French Army.
The consideration was not so much the strengthening of the man-power of the forces facing the Germans. That power is already tremendous, and with it gives a feeling of proud confidence throughout all the French ranks. What was above all appreciated was the gesture, "the fraternal gesture" as I heard it called. The alliance is made visible; and this visibility will be talked of up and down the line, and, in course of time, all over France, as more and more men get leave.
The fact is that, try how they will, average landsman find it hard to picture to themselves the blockade and the grim and mysterious warfare of the northern seas. Informed Frenchmen are thoroughly aware of the burden and the strain it imposes; and again and again in officers' messes one has heard it acknowledged that the real brunt of the war in the west is so far falling on the men of the ships.
^A Cheering Effect But to the rank and file it is hardly imaginable; and-the welcome received by the news that British forces were coming to be -incorporated in the French Army was perhaps prompted in the first place by the cheering effect that would be made upon the rank and file. The French ranks are admirably self-confident, but in a world that has so extensively gone rotten it is naturally cheering to find on one's side brothers-in-arms of. the vigour and substance represented. by the new arrivals from the north.
English county regiments had already been holding a sector of the Maginot Line for some days before the King's visit to the French front last week-end, the occasion for the announcement' to the world. of- the new collaboration, In villages just behind the line the sight of the men, busy with their various jobs, or else off duty and lounging in cottage doorways and barnyards, seems familiar yet strange. It brings back the look of the rest-billets of the other war, but with a difference. The tin hat and the cast of countenance, a cast of countenance so often combining the expression of calm placidity and humour—these are familiar. The French remark on the big size of these men, and praise their precision on parade. But for the moment the French reserve judgment on the new British battle dress, which is- the factor making for strangeness in the new English-speaking sector.
The New Uniforms The anonymity of this uniform is one thing that gives the British troops of 1939 a look so different from those of the other war, when with our brass shoulder labels, our divisional and unit signs on the sleeve, we were the British battle dress are inevitably called, are the right thing for a muddy terrain.
The strangeness of the new uniform
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.