Show > BAD GENERALSHIP An Officer Writes of the Battle of V Spionkop Correspondence Associated Press I London March 2tAn officer present at Splonkop writes In Today such a scathing description of the tactics cm I ploy < S lu this tight that the editorial coui 11901 that paper saysV f Nn V pol mabltCer commeufiiry Comet to mind Lions led by asses and it Is not the asses who pay the toll The officer writing the account says In part I repeat that It is Impossible to hope for the first glimmer of success suc-cess until a man of ability Is placed In command and until the minor leaders I are men of at least ordinary intelligence intelli-gence and vigor V I do not prpfess to know for what special qualities the leaders l havo hitherto hith-erto been chosen but nearly all are men well known throughout the army for Incapacity whose very names excite ex-cite derision among all who have served under them I refer not to regimental officers of whom I wish to speak with much respect re-spect who have little opportunity of influencing tho minor actions of a battle bat-tle but to those elected officers who are either advisors or commanders Some of these have proved themselves them-selves to be equal to their repulallons some of them have astonished even those who know them best for their utter lack of common sense for weakness weak-ness in difficulties and even for Inability in-ability to put In practice the elementary element-ary rules of war that all soldiers have learned In the lower grades of the service ser-vice This last failure strikes one the more when we consider that they havo all or nearly all received a high military mili-tary education at the staff college many of them have even been lecturers and professors 1 am far from condemning military science I believe It to be almost impossible Im-possible to find a General or a staff officer capable performing his duty who has not given years of study and thought to his profession Talkers and writers however arc rarely men of action ac-tion and men who arc admirable in office or aa teachers fall utterly when confronted with the harsh realities of the battlefield The dead shot who can put out a candle at twenty yards takes a wild aim when confronted with an antagonist at fifteen paces There la I only one remedy for this slalc of affairs All Generals who have proved their Jnctllclency and they areas are-as plentiful as the ant heaps which cover the South African plains should bo at onco recalled the necessities the country demand It There Is no dlfllculty In discovering them they are I known to every one from the General InChief to the drummer boy Of the preliminaries to the attack on I Spionkop he says Just before dark the officer commanding the late Gen Woodgate was Informed that he had been selected to lead a night attack on Spionkop He had never even seen the hill he was to attack or heard its I name and no correct maps were at hand During the few available minutes min-utes he made every effort to view tho Around But time did not allow and I he had to grope his way back to his own camp after dark So pitch black was the night and so new uas he to the place that In that half mile he I had lost himself completely and had great difficulty In getting home But Igreat he had received he was a bravo man his orders and he allowed no doubt of success to cross his mind I To those who knew the ground It 1 presented a gloomy prospect and threatened i threat-ened a terrible disaster worse own which overwhelmed Gen I i than the one I Gatacre The cry was alyays for more men more men till the hill was so overcrowded that every bullet and produced destruction At every shell no time should more than 200 men at I tho outside have been allowed on the I i exposed ground on top of the hill Prob BUt have sufficed number would r f ably a srnallcr ficed The remainder should have been the slope A J liKlden bfhlmj Kkcpt Well been > uld not have hay groUtf Dlondfr private in na7 by th < ulout J Ignorant but throuslKut fM ir V Il rm f 1nV M Till TT I 11 VT rM fiT f V 1Ud t srdcd t4 cth jhou rujmnr SlliO cb1nr of SUCCOCS |