V
HOLIDAYS AND RUMORS
During these thrilling days the powers of administration had not by any means neglected us. They caused to descend upon the regiment on December 15th twenty-five officers from the Second Officers' Training Camps. The proportion of first lieutenants made at the second camps was greater than at the first. A number of our young second lieutenants had been recommended for promotion some time before, but when their commissions finally came through they were dated later than all the commissions given at the second camps. They, in other words, who had set their hands first to the tasks, had struggled with raw beginnings, had moulded regiments, were outranked by these youngsters fresh from three months at school, The amazing fact is mentioned in passing because it created a situation a trifle delicate and not without humor.
It is simple to say: Here are captains and first lieutenants. Give then the authority and responsibility that goes with their rank. It is quite another to project instantaneously into their brains the necessary practical experience our officers, junior to them, had acquired during four hard months.
The problem was solved by detailing temporarily these superiors as assistants to their veteran juniors.
"Please do this and that, Captain," a second lieutenant would have to say.
Or at retreat—to which the new ones, thirsty for things military, always turned out—a second lieutenant would
