The General
C. S. Forester
With an introduction by Max Hastings
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2014
Copyright © C. S. Forester 1936
Introduction © Max Hastings 2014
C. S. Forester asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
‘The General’ and ‘Base Details’ copyright Siegfried Sassoon, reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007580057
Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007580064 Version: 2017-09-08
Table of Contents
No warrior tribe in history has received such mockery and contempt from posterity as have been heaped upon Britain’s commanders of the First World War. They are deemed to have presided over unparalleled carnage with a callousness matched only by their incompetence. They are perceived as the high priests who dispatched a generation to death, their dreadful achievement memorialised for eternity by such bards as Siegfried Sassoon:
‘Good morning; good morning!’ the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead,
And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
‘He’s a cheery old card,’ grunted Harry to Jack,
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
Two generations later, Sir John French, C-in-C of the wartime British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, together with his successor