About The New Army in Training by Rudyard Kipling In the early days of World War I, patriotic feeling ran high—as did confidence in what was largely a newly created British fighting force. In autumn of 1914, Britain's most popular writer, Rudyard Kipling, wrote six articles for the Daily Telegraph about the training of the newly mobilized British troops, all of whom had signed up as volunteers almost the moment Britain declared war. The articles described the men in their full glow of youth and enthusiasm, and waxed poetic about their strength, courage, and dashing appearance.