The Battle of Dorking

The Battle of Dorking

The warnings and prophecies addressed to one generation must prove very ineffective if they are equally applicable to the next. But in the eloquent appeal published forty-three years ago, by General Chesney, with its vivid description and harrowing pathos, few readers will not recognize parallel features to those of our own situation in September, 1914. True the handicaps of the invasion of August, 1871, are heavily piled upon the losing combatant. Not only the eternal Anglo-Irish trouble (so easily mistaken by the foreigner for such a difference as might be found separating two other countries) but complications with America, as well as the common form seduction of the British fleet to the Dardanelles, a general unreadiness of all administrative departments, and a deep distrust of the volunteer movement, involve the whole drama in an atmosphere of profound pessimism. But there are scores of other details, counsels, and reflections (of which we will not spoil the readers enjoyment by anticipation) which, as the common saying is of history when it repeats itself, might have been written yesterday. The[Pg vi] desperate condition of things is all the more remarkable as Englishmen had just witnessed the crushing defeat of their great allysupposed to be the first military power of Europeby the enemy they are supposed to despise. The story is otherwise simple enough. The secret annexation of Holland and Denmark is disclosed. People said we might have kept out of the trouble. But an impulsive nation egged on the Government who, confident that our old luck would pull us through, at once declare war. The fleet, trying to close with the enemy, is destroyed in a few minutes by the deadly engines left behind by the evasive enemy; our amateurish armies are defeated on our own soil, and voil tout. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 65882
Author: Chesney, George Tomkyns
Release Date: Jul 20, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English