Philip Gibbs
Philip Gibbs
Sir Philip Armand Hamilton Gibbswas an English journalist and prolific author of books who served as one of five official British reporters during the First World War. Two of his siblings were also writers, A. Hamilton Gibbs and Cosmo Hamilton, as was his own son, Anthony. Gibbs was a Roman Catholic...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth1 May 1877
behind continuing depended driving fighting people power spirit support
The spirit of the fighting men, and the driving power behind the armies, depended upon the support of the whole people and their continuing loyalties.
spiritual cost worship
At all costs we must re-establish faith in spiritual values. We must worship something beyond ourselves, lest we destroy ourselves.
bursts cracks hall lay outside sharp soldiers town
When we got down from the ambulances there were sharp cracks about us as bursts of shrapnel splashed down upon the Town Hall square. Dead soldiers lay outside and I glanced at them coldly. We were in search of the living.
appeared arrest friend given next office orders time war warned
A friend in the War Office warned me that I was in Kitchener's black books, and that orders had been given for my arrest next time I appeared in France.
It's better to give than to lend and it costs about the same.
costs
It is better to give then to lend, and it costs about the same
afterwards came demanded knew officers papers port rank reached took until whom yard
All was well, until I reached the port of Havre. Three officers with the rank of lieutenant, whom afterwards I knew to be Scotland Yard men, came aboard and demanded to see my papers which they took away from me.
chance defended fortress front line masses miles thousands twenty wide
In front of us was not a line but a fortress position, twenty miles deep, entrenched and fortified, defended by masses of machine-gun posts and thousands of guns in a wide arc. No chance for cavalry!
burst came columns flashes front german line meeting separate shells shocks smoke
From each one of them rose separate columns of smoke, meeting in a pall overhead, and through the smoke came stabbing flashes of fire as German shells burst with thudding shocks of sound. This was the front line of battle.
front germans held john man shoot stood threatened wood
John Wood stood in front of them, and held his revolver, and threatened to shoot the first man who bayoneted these Germans who had surrendered.
generals optimism ourselves therefore worth
The cheery optimism of our generals always thought we were going forward, and therefore it was not worth while making ourselves comfortable and safe.
fighting done prohibition
But the worst handicap we had the prohibition of naming individual units who had done the fighting.
helping-others giving cost
It is better to give than to lend, and it costs about the same.
running years car
In less than twenty-five years . . . the motor-car will be obsolete, because the aeroplane will run along the ground as well as fly over it.