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 VICTORIOUS GENERALS 
 General Foch, Commander-in-Chief oi all Allied forces. General Pershing, Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the American armies. Field Marshal Haig. head of the British 
 armies. General d'Esperey (French) to whom Bulgaria surrendered. General Diaz, 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Italian armies. General Marshall (British), head of the 
 Mesopotamian expedition. General Allenby (British), who redeemed Palestine from 
 the 'Turks .
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 WORLD WAR 
 
 An Authentic Narrative of 
 The World's Greatest War 
 
 By FRANCIS A. MARCH, Ph.D. 
 
 In Collaboration with 
 RICHARD J. BEAMISH 
 
 Special War Correspondent 
 and Military Analyst 
 
 With an Introduction 
 
 By GENERAL PEYTON C. MARCH 
 
 Chief of Staff of the United States Army 
 
 Illustrated with Reproductions from 
 the Official Photographs of the United 
 States, British and French Governments 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR 
 
 THE UNITED PUBLISHERS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
 PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
 1919
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1918 
 FRANCIS A. MARCH 
 
 This history is an original work and is fully 
 protected by the copyright laws, including the 
 right of translation. AH persons are warned 
 against reproducing the text in whole or in 
 part without the permission of the publishers.
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, 
 OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF, 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 NOVEMBER 14, 1918. 
 
 With the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the 
 World War has been practically brought to an end. The events of 
 the past four years have been of such magnitude that the various 
 steps, the numberless battles, and the growth of Allied power which 
 led up to the final victory are not clearly defined even in the minds 
 of many military men. A history of this great period which will 
 state in an orderly fashion this series of events will be of the greatest 
 value to the future students of the war, and to everyone of the 
 present day who desires to refer in exact terms to matters which led 
 up to the final conclusion. 
 
 The war will be discussed and re-discussed from every angle and 
 the sooner such a compilation of facts is available, the more valuable 
 it will be. I understand that this History of the World War intends 
 to put at the disposal of all who are interested, such a compendium of 
 facts of the past period of over four years; and that the system 
 employed in safeguarding the accuracy of statements contained in it 
 will produce a document of great historical value without entering 
 upon any speculative conclusions as to cause and effect of the various 
 phases of the war or attempting to project into an historical document 
 individual opinions. With these ends in view, this History will be of 
 the greatest value. 
 
 General, 
 
 Chief of Staff, 
 
 United States Army. 
 
 2223231
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM PAOT 
 
 A Conflict that was Inevitable The Flower of Manhood on the Fields of 
 France Germany's Defiance to the World Heroic Belgium Four Auto- 
 cratic Nations against Twenty-four Committed to the Principles of Liberty 
 America's Titanic Effort Four Million Men Under Arms, Two Million 
 Overseas France the Martyr Nation The British Empire's Tremendous 
 Share in the Victory A River of Blood Watering the Desert of Autocracy 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. THE WORLD SUDDENLY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 
 
 The War Storm Breaks Trade and Commerce Paralyzed Homeward Rush 
 f Travelers Harrowing Scenes as Ships Sail for America Stock Markets 
 Closed The Tide of Desolation Following in the Wake of War 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 
 
 The Balkan Ferment Russia, the Dying Giant Among Autocracies Turkey 
 the "Sick Man" of Europe Scars Left by the Balkan War Germany's 
 Determination to Seize a Place in the Sun 44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 
 
 The Assassination at Sarajevo The Slavic Ferment Austria's Domineering 
 Note The Plotters of Potsdam The Mailed Fist of Militarism Beneath the 
 Velvet Glove of Diplomacy Mobilization and Declarations of War ... 54 
 
 CHAPTER V. THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 
 
 Germany Invades Belgium and Luxemburg French Invade Alsace England's 
 "Contemptible Little Army" Lands in France and Belgium The Murderous 
 Gray-Green Tide Heroic Retreat of the British from Mons Belgium Over- 
 run Northern France Invaded Marshal Joffre Makes Ready to Strike . . 75 
 
 CHAPTER VI. THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 
 
 Barbarities that Shocked Humanity Planned as Part of the Teutonic Policy 
 of SchrecJdichkeit How the German and the Hun Became Synonymous 
 Terms The Unmatchable Crimes of a War-Mad Army A Record of Infamy 
 Written in Blood and Tears Official Reports 88 
 
 CHAPTER VII. THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 
 
 Joffre's Masterly Plan The Enemy Trapped Between Verdun and Paris 
 Gallieni's "Army in Taxicabs" Foch, the "Savior of Civilization," Appears 
 His Mighty Thrust Routs the Army of Hausen Joffre Salutes Foch as 
 "First Strategist in Europe" Battle that Won the Baton of a Marshal 110 
 
 9
 
 10 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. JAPAN IN THE WAR PA OB 
 
 Tsing Tau Seized by the Mikado German "Gibraltar" of the Far East 
 Surrendered After Short Siege Japan's Aid to the Allies in Money, Ships, 
 Men and Nurses German Propaganda in the Far East Fails 120 
 
 CHAPTER IX. CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 
 
 Invasion of East Prussia Von Hindenburg and Masurian Lakes Battle of 
 Tannenberg Augustovo Russians Capture Lemberg The Offer to Poland 126 
 
 CHAPTER X. STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY ON THE SEA 
 
 The British Blockade German Raiders and Their Fate Story of the 
 Emden's Remarkable Voyage Appearance of the Submarine British Naval 
 Victory off Helgoland U-9 Sinks Three British Cruisers 143 
 
 CHAPTER XI. THE SUBLIME PORTE 
 
 Turkish Intrigues The Holy War Mesopotamia and Transcaucasia The 
 Suez Canal Turkey the Catspaw of Germany 164 
 
 CHAPTER XII. RESCUE OF THE STARVING 
 
 Famine in Belgium Belgium Relief Commission Organized in London 
 Herbert C. Hoover American Aid The Great Cardinal's Famous Challenge 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 
 
 German and British Squadrons Grapple off the Chilean Coast Germany 
 Wins the First Round England Comes Back with Terrific Force Graphic 
 Picture of the Destruction of the German Squadron off Falkland Islands 
 English Coast Towns Bombarded for the First Time in Many Years . . . 201 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. NEW METHODS AND HORRORS OF WARFARE 
 
 Tanks Poison Gas Flame Projectors Airplane Bombs Trench Mortars 
 Machine Guns Modern Uses of Airplanes for Liaison and Attacks on Infantry 
 Radio Rifle and Hand Grenades A War of Intensive Artillery Prepara- 
 tion A Debacle of Insanities, Terrible Wounds and Horrible Deaths . . . 217 
 
 CHAPTER XV. GERMAN PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA 
 
 Trailing the German Plotters Destruction of Ships Pressure on Congress 
 Attacks in Canada Zimmerman's Foolish Effort to Embroil America with 
 Mexico and Japan Lies of the Propagandists After America Entered the 
 War Dumba, Von Bernstorff, Von Papen and Boy-Ed, a quartet of Unscru- 
 pulous Destructionists 231 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 
 
 The Submarine Murderers at Work Germany's Blackhand Warning No 
 Chance for Life The Ship Unarmed and Without Munitions The Presi- 
 dent's Note Germany's Lying Denials Coroner's Inquest Charges Kaiser 
 with Wilful Murder "Remember the Lusitania" One of America's Big 
 Reasons for Declaring War 247
 
 CONTENTS 11 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR IN BLOOD- PAQII 
 SOAKED TRENCHES 
 
 War Amid Barbed-Wire Entanglements and the Desolation of No Man's 
 Land Subterranean Tactics Continuing Over Four Years Attacks that 
 Cost Thousands of Lives for Every Foot of Gain 265 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. STEADFAST SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 Botha and Smuts, Rocks of Loyalty Amid a Sea of Treachery Civil War 
 that Ended with the Drowning of General Beyers and the Arrest of General 
 De Wet Conquest of German Colonies Trail of the Hun in the Jungle . 280 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 
 
 Her Great Decision D'Annunzio, Poet and Patriot Italia Irredenta 
 German Indignation The Campaigns on the Isonzo and in the Tyrol . . . 287 
 
 CHAPTER XX. GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI 
 
 A Titanic Enterprise Its Objects Disasters and Deeds of Deathless Glory 
 The Heroic Anzacs Bloody Dashes up Impregnable Slopes Silently they 
 Stole Away A Successful Failure 302 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 
 
 The Battle of Jutland Every Factor on Sea and in Sky Favorable to the 
 Germans Low Visibility a Great Factor A Modern Sea Battle Light 
 Cruisers Screening Battleship Squadron Germans Run Away when British 
 Fleet Marshals Its Full Strength Death of Lord Kitchener 311 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 
 
 The Advance on Cracow Von Hindenburg Strikes at Warsaw German 
 Barbarism The War in Galicia The Fall of Przemysl Russia's Ammuni- 
 tion Fails The Russian Retreat The Fall of Warsaw Czernowitz . . 327 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. How THE BALKANS DECIDED 
 
 Ferdinand of Bulgaria Insists Upon Joining Germany Dramatic Scene in 
 the King's Palace The Die is Cast Bulgaria Succumbs to Seductions of 
 Potsdam Gang Greece Mobilizes French and British Troops at Saloniki 
 Serbia Over-run Roumania's Disastrous Venture hi the Arena of Mars . . 347 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 
 
 British Army Threatening Bagdad Besieged in Kut-el-Amara After Heroic 
 Defense General Townshend Surrenders After 143 Days of Siege New British 
 Expedition Recaptures Kut Troops Push on up the Tigris Fall of Bagdad, 
 the Magnificent 370
 
 12 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR PJLQB 
 
 BY COL. GEORGE G. NASMITH, C. M. G. 
 
 Enthusiastic Response to the Call to Action Valcartier Camp a Splendid 
 Example of the Driving Power of Sir Sam Hughes Thirty-three Liners Cross 
 the Atlantic with First Contingent of Men and Equipment Largest Convoy 
 Ever Gathered Together At the Front with the Princess Pat's Red Cross 
 Financial Aid Half a Million Soldiers Overseas Mons, the Last Stronghold 
 of the Enemy, Won by the Men from Canada A Record of Glory .... 381 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. IMMORTAL VERDUN 
 
 Grave of the Military Reputations of Von Falkenhayn and the Crown Prince 
 Hindenburg's Warning Why the Germans Made the Disastrous Attempt 
 to Capture the Great Fortress Heroic France Reveals Itself to the World 
 "They Shall Not Pass" Nivelle's Glorious Stand on Dead Man Hill Lord 
 Northcliffe's Description A Defense Unsurpassed in the History of France 398 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. MURDERS AND MARTYRS 
 
 The Case of Edith Cavell Nurse Who Befriended the Helpless, Dies at the 
 Hands of the Germans Captain Fryatt's Martyrdom How Germany Sowed 
 the Seeds of Disaster 409 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 
 
 The Canadians in Action Undismayed by the New Weapon of the Enemy 
 Holding the Line Against Terrific Odds Men from the Dominion Fight Like 
 Veterans . 412 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. ZEPPELIN RAIDS ON FRANCE AND ENGLAND 
 
 First Zeppelin Attack Kills Twenty-eight and Injures Forty-four Part of 
 Germany's Policy of Frightfulness Raids by German Airplanes on Unforti- 
 fied Towns Killing of Non-Combatants The British Lion Awakes Anti- 
 Aircraft Precautions and Protections Policy of Terrorism Fails .... 417 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 
 
 Rasputin, the Mystic The Cry for Bread Rise of the Council of Workmen's 
 and Soldiers' Delegates Rioting hi Petrograd The Threatening Cloud of 
 Disaster Moderate Policy of the Duma Fails The Fatal Easter Week of 
 1917 Abdication of the Czar Last Tragic Moments of the Autocrat of All 
 the Russias Grand Duke Issues Declaration Ending Power of Romanovs in 
 Russia Release of Siberian Revolutionists Free Russia 425 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 
 
 Russia Intoxicated with Freedom Elihu Root and His Mission Last 
 Brilliant Offensive in Galicia The Great Mutiny in the Army The Battalion 
 of Death Kerensky's Skyrocket Career Kornilov's Revolt Loss of Riga 
 Lenine, the Dictator The Impossible "Peace" of Brest-Litovsk . 438
 
 CONTENTS 13 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. GERMANY'S OBJECT LESSON TO THE PAQII 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 Two Voyages of the Deutschland U-53 German Submarine Reaches Newport 
 and Sinks Five British and Neutral Steamers off Nantucket Rescue of 
 Survivors by United States Warships Anti-German Feeling in America 
 Reaching a Climax 459 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 
 
 The United States Enters the Conflict The Efficiency of Democracy Six 
 Months in an American Training Camp Equal to Six Years of German Com- 
 pulsory Service American Soldiers and Their Resourcefulness on the Battle- 
 fieldMethods of Training and Their Results The S. A. T. C 464 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. How FOOD WON THE WAR 
 
 The American Farmer a Potent Factor in Civilization's Victory Scientific 
 Studies of Food Production, Distribution and Consumption Hoover Lays 
 Down the Law Regulating Wholesalers and Grocers Getting the Food Across 
 Feeding Armies in the Field 478 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 
 
 Increase from 58,000 Men to Approximately 500,000 Destroyer Fleet Arrives 
 in British Waters "We Are Ready Now" The Hunt of the U-Boats 
 Gunnery that is Unrivalled Depth Charges and Other New Inventions 
 The U-Boat Menace Removed Surrender of German Under-Sea Navy . . 483 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. CHINA JOINS THE FIGHTING DEMOCRACIES 
 
 How the Germans Behaved in China Seventeen Years Before The Whirligig 
 of Time Brings Its Own Revenge The Far Eastern Republic Joins Hands 
 with the Allies German Propaganda at Work Futile Attempt to Restore the 
 Monarchy Fear of Japan War Thousands of Chinese Toil Behind the 
 Battle Lines hi France Siam with Its Eight Millions Defies the Germans 
 End of Teuton Influence in the Orient . ... 498 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE DEFEAT AND RECOVERY OF ITALY 
 
 Subtle Socialist Gospel Preached by Enemy Plays Havoc with Guileless 
 Italians Sudden Onslaught of Germans Drives Cadorna's Men from Heights 
 The Spectacular Retreat that Dismayed the World Glorious Stand of the 
 Italians on the Piave Rise of Diaz . 502 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. REDEMPTION OF THE HOLY LAND 
 
 A Long Campaign Progressing Through Hardships to Glory General Allenby 
 Enters Jerusalem on Foot Turkish Army Crushed in Palestine Battle of 
 Armageddon 506
 
 14 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. AMERICA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS PAQH 
 
 Government Ownership of Railroads, Telegraphs, Telephones Getting the 
 Men from Training Camps to the Battle Fronts From Texas to Toul A 
 Gigantic System Working Without a Hitch 513 
 
 CHAPTER XL. SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM 
 
 The Emergency Fleet Corporation Charles M. Schwab as Master Shipbuilder 
 Hog Island the Wonder Shipyard of the World An Unbeatable Record 
 Concrete Ships Wooden Ships Standardizing the Steel Ship Attitude of 
 Labor in the War Samuel Gompers an Unofficial Member of the Cabinet 
 Great Task of the United States Employment Service 520 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 
 
 The High Tide of German Success An Army of Six Million Men Flung Reck- 
 lessly on the Allies Most Terrific Battles hi all History The Red Ruin of 
 War from Arras to St. Quentin Amiens Within Arms' Reach of the Invaders 
 Paris Bombarded by Long-Range Guns from Distance of Seventy-six Miles 
 A Generalissimo at Last Marshal Foch in Supreme Command . . . .531 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 
 
 German Wave Stops with the Americans Prussian Guard Flung Back The 
 Beginning of Autocracy's End America's Record of Valor and Victory 
 Cantigny Belleau Wood Thierry St. Mihiel Shock Troops of the Enemy 
 Annihilated Soldier's Remarkable Letter 545 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. ENGLAND AND FRANCE STRIKE IN THE NORTH 
 
 Second Terrific Blow of General Foch Lens, the Storehouse of Minerals, 
 Captured Bapaume Retaken British Snap the Famous Hindenburg Line 
 The Great Thrust Through Cambrai Tanks to the Front Cavalry in Action 563 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. BELGIUM'S GALLANT EFFORT 
 
 The Little Army Under King Albert Thrusts Savagely at the Germans 
 Ostend and Zeebrugge Freed from the Submarine Pirates Pathetic Scenes as 
 Belgians are Restored to Their Homes 573 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. ITALY'S TERRIFIC DRIVE 
 
 Enemy Offensive Opens on Front of Ninety-Seven Miles Repulse of the 
 Austrians Italy Turns the Tables Terrific Counter-Thrusts from the Piave 
 to Trente Forcing the Alpine Passages Battles High in the Air English, 
 French and Americans Back up the Italians in Humbling the Might of Austria 
 D'Annunzio's Romantic Bombardment of Vienna Diaz Leads his Men to 
 Victory 582 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. BULGARIA DESERTS GERMANY 
 
 Greece in the Throes of Revolution Fall of Constantino Serbians Begin 
 Advance on Bulgars Thousands of Prisoners Taken Surrender of Bulgaria
 
 CONTENTS 15 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Panic in Berlin Passage Through the Country Granted for Armies of the 
 Allies Ferdinand Abdicates Germany's Imagined Mittel-Europa Dream 
 Forever Destroyed 591 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. THE CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE 
 
 Austria-Hungary Makes the First Plea President Wilson's Abrupt Answer 
 Prince Max, Camouflaged as an Apostle of Peace, made Chancellor and Opens 
 Germany's Pathetic Plea for a Peace by Negotiation The President Replies 
 on Behalf of all the Allied Powers Foch Pushes on Regardless of Peace Notes . 603 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. BATTLES IN THE AIR 
 
 Conquering the Fear of Death From Individual Fights to Battles Between 
 Squadrons Heroes of the Warring Nations America's Wonderful Record 
 From Nowhere to First Place in Eighteen Months The Liberty Motor . .611 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF THE AMERICAN 
 FORCES 
 
 Record of the Red Cross on all Fronts A Gigantic Work Well Executed 
 Y. M. C. A. Y. W. C. A. Knights of Columbus Jewish Welfare Associa- 
 tion Salvation Army American Library Association Other Organizations 
 Surgery and Sanitation 622 
 
 CHAPTER L. THE PIRATES OF THE UNDER-SEAS 
 
 Germany's Ruthless Submarine Policy A Boomerang Destroying the Hand 
 that Cast It Terrorism that FailedOne Hundred and Fifty U-Boats Sunk 
 or Captured Shameless Surrender of the German Submarines and of the 
 Fleet They Protected 631 
 
 CHAPTER LI. APPROACHING THE FINAL STAGE 
 
 Cutting the Railroads to Cambrai Americans Co-operate with British in 
 Furious Attack Douai and St. Quentin Taken The Battle Line Straightened 
 for the Last Mighty Assault All Hope Abandoned by the Kaiser. . . . 640 
 
 CHAPTER LII. LAST DAYS OF THE WAR 
 
 American Troops Join with the Allies in Colossal Drive on 71-mile Front- 
 Historic Sedan Taken by the Yanks Stenay, the Last Battle of the War 
 How the Opposing Forces Greeted the News of the Armistice 643 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER 
 
 Handcuffs for Four Nations Bulgaria First to Fly the White Flag AUenby's 
 Great Victory Forces Turkey Out Austria Signs Quickly Germany's 
 Capitulation Complete and Humiliating 648 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. PEACE AT LAST 
 
 An Unfounded Rumor Starts Enormous Jubilation Armistice Signed Four 
 Days Later Kaiser Abdicates and Flees to Holland Cowardly Ruler Seeks
 
 16 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Protection of Small Neutral Nation Looking Into the Future Cost of War 
 to the Nations Liberty Loans Reconstruction Problems McAdoo Resigns 
 American Ideals in the Old World 660 
 
 CHAPTER LV. AMERICA'S POSITION IN PEACE AND WAR 
 
 President Wilson's Stirring Speech in Congress Which Brought the United 
 States into the War His Great Speech Before Congress Ending the War 
 The Fourteen Points Outlining America's Demands Before Peace Could be 
 Concluded Later Peace Principles Enunciated by the President. . . . 669 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. THE WAR BY YEARS 
 
 Condensed Word-Picture of the Happenings of the Most Momentous Fifty- 
 two Months in All History Leading Up to the Eleventh Hour of the 
 Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month of 1918 684 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE 
 
 General March's Story of the Work of the Military Intelligence Division 
 Of the War Plans Division Of the Purchase and Traffic Divisions How Men, 
 Munitions and Supplies Reached the Western Front 689 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces Tells the 
 Story of the Magnificent Combat Operations of his Troops that Defeated 
 Prussia's Legions Official Account Discloses Full Details of the Fighting . . 701 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR 
 
 A Year in the Life of the United States Crowded with Great Events Tribute 
 to the Soldiers and Sailors, the Workers at Home Who Supplied the Sinews 
 of the Great Undertaking, the Women of the Land Who Contributed to the 
 Great Result The Future Safe in the Hands of American Businessmen. . 720 
 
 SUMMARIZED CHRONOLOGY OP THE WAR . . 729
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 THIS is a popular narrative history of the world's greatest 
 war. Written frankly from the viewpoint of the United 
 States and the Allies, it visualizes the bloodiest and most 
 destructive conflict of all the ages from its remote causes 
 to its glorious conclusion and beneficent results. The world- 
 shaking rise of new democracies is set forth, and the enormous 
 national and individual sacrifices producing that resurrection of 
 human equality are detailed. 
 
 Two ideals have been before us in the preparation of this 
 necessary work. These are simplicity and thoroughness. It is 
 of no avail to describe the greatest of human events if the descrip- 
 tion is so confused that the reader loses interest. Thoroughness 
 is an historical essential beyond price. So it is that official 
 documents prepared hi many instances upon the field of battle, 
 and others taken from the files of the governments at war, are 
 the basis of this work. Maps and photographs of unusual clear- 
 ness and high authenticity illummate the text. All that has 
 gone into war making, into the regeneration of the world, are 
 herein set forth with historical particularity. The stark horrors 
 of Belgium, the blighting terrors of chemical warfare, the 
 governmental restrictions placed upon hundreds of millions of 
 civilians, the war sacrifices falling upon all the civilized peoples 
 of earth, are in these pages. 
 
 It is a book that mankind can well read and treasure.
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 Y FELLOW COUNTRYMEN: The armistice was 
 signed this morning. Everything for which America 
 fought has been accomplished. The war thus comes 
 to an end." 
 
 Speaking to the Congress and the people of the United 
 States, President Wilson made this declaration on November 
 11, 1918. A few hours before he made this statement, Germany, 
 the empire of blood and iron, had agreed to an armistice, 
 terms of which were the hardest and most humiliating ever 
 imposed upon a nation of the first class. It was the end of 
 a war for which Germany had prepared for generations, a war 
 bred of a philosophy that Might can take its toll of earth's 
 possessions, of human lives and liberties, when and where it 
 will. That philosophy involved the cession to imperial Germany 
 of the best years of young German manhood, the training of 
 German youths to be killers of men. It involved the creation 
 of a military caste, arrogant beyond all precedent, a caste that 
 set its strength and pride against the righteousness of democracy, 
 against the possession of wealth and bodily comforts, a caste that 
 visualized itself as part of a power-mad Kaiser's assumption that 
 he and God were to shape the destinies of earth. 
 
 When Marshal Foch, the foremost strategist in the world, 
 representing the governments of the Allies and the United States, 
 delivered to the emissaries of Germany terms upon which they 
 might surrender, he brought to an end the bloodiest, the most 
 destructive and the most beneficent war the world has known. 
 It is worthy of note in this connection that the three great wars 
 in which the United States of America engaged have been wars for 
 freedom. The Revolutionary War was for the liberty of the 
 colonies; the Civil War was waged for the freedom of manhood 
 and for the principle of the indissolubility of the Union; the World 
 War, beginning 1914, was fought for the right of small nations to 
 
 2 19
 
 20 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 self-government and for the right of every country to the free 
 use of the high seas. 
 
 More than four million American men were under arms when 
 the conflict ended. Of these, more than two million were upon 
 the fields of France and Italy. These were thoroughly trained 
 in the military art. They had proved their right to be considered 
 among the most formidable soldiers the world has known. 
 Against the brown rock of that host in khaki, the flower of 
 German savagery and courage had broken at Chateau-Thierry. 
 There the high tide of Prussian militarism, after what had seemed 
 to be an irresistible dash for the destruction of France, spent 
 itself in the bloody froth and spume of bitter defeat. There the 
 Prussian Guard encountered the Marines, the Iron Division and 
 the other heroic organizations of America's new army. There 
 German soldiers who had been hardened and trained under 
 German conscription before the war, and who had learned new 
 arts in their bloody trade, through their service in the World War, 
 met their masters in young Americans taken from the shop, 
 the field, and the forge, youths who had been sent into battle 
 with a scant six months' intensive training in the art of war. 
 Not only did these American soldiers hold the German onslaught 
 where it was but, in a sudden, fierce, resistless counter-thrust 
 they drove back in defeat and confusion the Prussian Guard, the 
 Pommeranian Reserves, and smashed the morale of that German 
 division beyond hope of resurrection. 
 
 The news of that exploit sped from the Alps to the North 
 Sea Coast, through all the camps of the Allies, with incredible 
 rapidity. "The Americans have held the Germans. They can 
 fight," ran the message. New life came into the war-weary 
 ranks of heroic poilus and into the steel-hard armies of Great 
 Britain. "The Americans are as good as the best. There are 
 millions of them, and millions more are coming," was heard on 
 every side. The transfusion of American blood came as magic 
 tonic, and from that glorious day there was never a doubt as to 
 the speedy defeat of Germany. From that day the German 
 retreat dated. The armistice signed on November 11, 1918, was 
 merely the period finishing the death sentence of German mili- 
 tarism, the first word of which was uttered at Chateau-Thierry. 
 
 Germany's defiance to the world, her determination to
 
 A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 force her will and her "kultur" upon the democracies of earth, 
 produced the conflict. She called to her aid three sister autoc- 
 racies: Turkey, a land ruled by the whims of a long line of 
 moody misanthropic monarchs; Bulgaria, the traitor nation cast 
 by its Teutonic king into a war in which its people had no choice 
 and little sympathy; Austria-Hungary, a congeries of races in 
 which a Teutonic minority ruled with an iron scepter. 
 
 Against this phalanx of autocracy, twenty-four nations 
 arrayed themselves. Populations of these twenty-eight warring 
 nations far exceeded the total population of all the remainder 
 of humanity. The conflagration of war literally belted the earth. 
 It consumed the most civilized of capitals. It raged in the swamps 
 and forests of Africa. To its call came alien peoples speaking 
 words that none but themselves could translate, wearing gar- 
 ments of exotic cut and hue amid the smart garbs and sober hues 
 of modern civilization. A twentieth century Babel came to the 
 fields of France for freedom's sake, and there was born an 
 internationalism making for the future understanding and peace 
 of the world. The list of the twenty-eight nations entering the 
 World War and their populations follow: 
 
 Countries. Population. 
 
 United States 110,000,000 
 
 Austria-Hungary 50,000,000 
 
 Belgium 8,000,000 
 
 Bulgaria 5,000,000 
 
 Brazil 23,000,000 
 
 China 420,000,000 
 
 Costa Rica 425,000 
 
 Cuba 2,500,000 
 
 France* 90,000,000 
 
 Gautemala 2,000,000 
 
 Germany 67,000,000 
 
 Great Britain* 440,000,000 
 
 Greece 5,000,000 
 
 Haiti 2,000,000 
 
 Honduras 600,000 
 
 * Including colonies. 
 
 Countries. Population, 
 
 Italy 37,000,000 
 
 Japan 54,000,000 
 
 Liberia 2,000,000 
 
 Montenegro 500,000 
 
 Nicaragua 700,000 
 
 Panama 400,000 
 
 Portugal* 15,000,000 
 
 Roumania 7,500,000 
 
 Russia 180,000,000 
 
 San Marino 10,000 
 
 Serbia 4,500,000 
 
 Siam 6,000,000 
 
 Turkey 42,000,000 
 
 Total 1,575,135,000 
 
 The following nations, with their populations, took no part 
 in the World War: 
 
 Countries. Population. Countries. Population. 
 
 Abyssinia 8,000,000 Argentina 8,000,000 
 
 Afghanistan 6,000,000 Bhutan 250,000 
 
 Andorra 6,000 Chile 5,000,000
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Countries. Population. 
 
 Paraguay 800,000 
 
 Persia 9,000,000 
 
 Salvador 1,250,000 
 
 Spain 20,000,000 
 
 Switzerland 3,750,000 
 
 Venezuela 2,800,000 
 
 Total 135,876,000 
 
 Countries. Population. 
 
 Colombia 5,000,000 
 
 Denmark 3,000,000 
 
 Ecuador 1,500,000 
 
 Mexico 15,000,000 
 
 Monaco 20,000 
 
 Nepal 4,000,000 
 
 Holland* 40,000,000 
 
 Norway 2,500,000 
 
 * Including colonies. 
 
 Never before in the history of the world were so many races 
 and peoples mingled in a military effort as those that came together 
 under the command of Marshal Foch. If we divide the human 
 races into white, yellow, red and black, all four were largely 
 represented. Among the white races there were Frenchmen, 
 Italians, Portuguese, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, 
 Australians, South Africans (of both British and Dutch descent) 
 New Zealanders; hi the American army, probably every other 
 European nation was represented, with additional contingents from 
 those already named, so that every branch of the white race figured 
 hi the ethnological total. 
 
 There were representatives of many Asiatic races, including 
 not only the volunteers from the native states of India, but elements 
 from the French colony in Cochin China, with Annam, Cambodia, 
 Tonkin, Laos, and Kwang Chau Wan. England and France both 
 contributed many African tribes, including Arabs from Algeria 
 and Tunis, Senegalese, Saharans, and many of the South African 
 races. The red races of North America were represented in the 
 armies of both Canada and the United States, while the Maoris, 
 Samoans, and other Polynesian races were likewise represented. 
 And as, in the American Army, there were men of German, Austrian, 
 and Hungarian descent, and, in all probability, contingents also of 
 Bulgarian and Turkish blood, it may be said that Foch commanded 
 an army representing the whole human race, united in defense of 
 the ideals of the Allies. 
 
 It will be seen that more than ten tunes the number of neutral 
 persons were engulfed in the maelstrom of war. Millions of these 
 suffered from it during the entire period of the conflict, four years 
 three months and fifteen days, a total of 1,567 days. For almost 
 four years Germany rolled up a record of victories on land and of 
 piracies on and under the seas.
 
 TERRITORY OCCUPIED BY THE ALLIES UNDER THE ARMISTICE 
 OF NOVEMBER 11, 1918 
 
 Dotted area, invaded territory of Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Alsace- 
 Lorraine to be evacuated in fourteen days; area in small squares, part of Germany 
 west of the Rhine to be evacuated in twenty-five days and occupied by Allied and 
 U. S. troops; lightly shaded area to east of Rhine, neutral zone; black semi-circles, 
 bridge-heads of thirty kilometers radius in the neutral zone to be occupied by Allied 
 Armies. 
 
 (23)
 
 24 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Little by little, day after day, piracies dwindled as the murder- 
 ous submarine was mastered and its menace strangled. On the 
 land, the Allies, under the matchless leadership of Marshal Ferdi- 
 nand Foch and the generous co-operation of Americans, British, 
 French and Italians, under the great Generals Pershing, Haig, 
 Petain and Diaz, wrested the initiative from von Hindenburg and 
 Ludendorf, late hi July, 1918. Then, in one hundred and fifteen 
 days of wonderful strategy and the fiercest fighting the world 
 has ever witnessed, Foch and the Allies closed upon the Germanic 
 armies the jaws of a steel trap. A series of brilliant maneuvers 
 dating from the battle of Chateau-Thierry hi which the Americans 
 checked the Teutonic rush, resulted in the defeat and rout on all 
 the fronts of the Teutonic commands. 
 
 In that titanic effort, America's share was that of the final 
 deciding factor. A nation unjustly titled the "Dollar Nation," 
 believed by Germany and by other countries to be soft, selfish 
 and wasteful, became over night hard as tempered steel, self- 
 sacrificing with an altruism that inspired the world and thrifty 
 beyond all precedent in order that not only its own armies but the 
 armies of the Allies might be fed and munitioned. 
 
 Leading American thought and American action, President 
 Wilson stood out as the prophet of the democracies of the world. 
 Not only did he inspire America and the Allies to a military and 
 naval effort beyond precedent, but he inspired the civilian popula- 
 tions of the world to extraordinary effort, efforts that eventually 
 won the war. For the decision was gained quite as certainly on the 
 wheat fields of Western America, hi the shops and the mines and 
 the homes of America as it was upon the battle-field. 
 
 This effort came hi response to the following appeal by the 
 President: 
 
 These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, besides fighting 
 the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless: 
 
 We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armiea 
 and our seamen not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom 
 we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides 
 we shall be fighting; 
 
 We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry 
 to the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will every- 
 day be needed there; and 
 
 Abundant materials out of our fields and our mines and our factories
 
 A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 25 
 
 with which not only to clothe and equip our own forces on land and sea 
 but also to clothe and support our people for whom the gallant fellows under 
 arms can no longer work, to help clothe and equip the armies with which 
 we are co-operating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories 
 there in raw material; 
 
 Coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces of 
 hundreds of factories across the sea; 
 
 Steel out of which to make arms and ammunition both here and 
 there; 
 
 Rails for worn-out railways back of the fighting fronts; 
 
 Locomotives and rolling stock to take the place of those every day 
 going to pieces; 
 
 Everything with which the people of England and France and Italy 
 and Russia have usually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the 
 men, the materials, or the machinery to make. 
 
 I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant 
 foodstuffs as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no better 
 or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation of the 
 present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a large scale, to feed the 
 nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting for their liberties and 
 for our own. The variety of their crops will be the visible measure of 
 their comprehension of their national duty. 
 
 The response was amazing in its enthusiastic and general 
 compliance. No autocracy issuing a ukase could have been obeyed 
 so explicitly. Not only did the various classes of workers and 
 individuals observe the President's suggestions to the letter, but 
 they yielded up individual right after right in order that the war 
 work of the government might be expedited. Extraordinary 
 powers and functions were granted by the -people through Congress, 
 and it was not until peace was declared that these rights and powers 
 returned to the people. 
 
 These governmental activities ceased functioning after the war: 
 
 Food administration; 
 
 Fuel administration; 
 
 Espionage act; 
 
 War trade board; 
 
 Alien property custodian (with extension of time for cer- 
 tain duties); 
 
 Agricultural stimulation; 
 
 Housing construction (except for shipbuilders) ; 
 
 Control of telegraphs and telephones; 
 
 Export control.
 
 26 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 These^ functions were extended: 
 
 Control over railroads: to cease within twenty-one months 
 
 after the proclamation of peace. 
 
 The War Finance Corporation: to cease to function six 
 
 months after the war, with further time for liquidation. 
 
 The Capital Issues Committee: to terminate in six months 
 
 after the peace proclamation. 
 
 The Aircraft Board: to end hi six months after peace was 
 proclaimed; and the government operation of ships, 
 within five years after the war was officially ended. 
 President Wilson, generally acclaimed as the leader of the 
 world's democracies, phrased for civilization the arguments against 
 autocracy in the great peace conferenceafter the war. ThePresident 
 headed the American delegation to that conclave of world re-con- 
 struction. With him as delegates to the conference were Robert 
 Lansing, Secretary of State; Henry White, former Ambassador to 
 France and Italy; Edward M. House and General Tasker H. 
 Bliss. 
 
 Representing American Labor at the International Labor 
 conference held in Paris simultaneously with the Peace Confer- 
 ence were Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation 
 of Labor; William Green, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine 
 Workers of America; John R. Alpine, president of the Plumbers' 
 Union; James Duncan, president of the International Association 
 of Granite Cutters; Frank Duffy, president of the United Broth- 
 erhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and Frank Morrison, secretary 
 of the American Federation of Labor. 
 
 Estimating the share of each Allied nation in the great victory, 
 mankind will conclude that the heaviest cost in proportion to pre- 
 war population and treasure was paid by the nations that first 
 felt the shock of war, Belgium, Serbia, Poland and France. All 
 four were the battle-grounds of huge armies, oscillating in a bloody 
 frenzy over once fertile fields and once prosperous towns. 
 
 Belgium, with a population of 8,000,000, had a casualty list 
 of more than 350,000; France, with its casualties of 4,000,000 out 
 of a population (including its colonies) of 90,000,000, is really the 
 martyr nation of the world. Her gallant poilus showed the world 
 how cheerfully men may die in defense of home and liberty. Huge 
 Russia, including hapless Poland, had a casualty list of 7,000,000
 
 KINGS AND CHIEF EXECUTIVES OF THE PRINCIPAL 
 POWERS ASSOCIATED AGAINST THE GERMAN ALLIANCE
 
 International Film Service. 
 
 THE "TIGER" OF FRANCE 
 
 Georges Benjamin Eugene Clemenceau, world-famous Premier of France, who by 
 his inspiring leadership maintained the magnificent morale of his countrymen in the 
 face of terrific assaults of the enemy.
 
 THE RIGHT HONORABLE DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 
 
 British Premier, who headed the coalition cabinet which carried 
 
 England through the war to victory.
 
 KING GEORGE V 
 
 King of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, who struggled 
 earnestly to prevent the war. but when Germany attacked Belgium sent the 
 mighty forces of the British Empire to stop the Hun.
 
 A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM 31 
 
 out of its entire population of 180,000,000. The United States 
 out of a population of 110,000,000 had a casualty list of 236,117 for 
 nineteen months of war; of these 53,169 were killed or died of 
 disease; 179,625 were wounded; and 3,323 prisoners or missing. 
 
 To the glory of Great Britain must be recorded the enormous 
 effort made by its people, showing through operations of its army 
 and navy. The British Empire, including the Colonies, had a 
 casualty list of 3,049,992 men out of a total population of 440,- 
 000,000. Of these 658,665 were killed; 2,032,122 were wounded, 
 and 359,204 were reported missing. It raised an army of 7,000,000, 
 and fought seven separate foreign campaigns, in France, Italy, 
 Dardanelles, Mesopotamia, Macedonia, East Africa and Egypt. 
 It raised its navy personnel from 115,000 to 450,000 men. Co-oper- 
 ating with its allies on the sea, it destroyed approximately one 
 hundred and fifty German and Austrian submarines. It aided 
 materially the American navy and transport service hi sending 
 overseas the great American army whose coming decided the war. 
 The British navy and transport service during the war made the 
 following record of transportation and convoy: 
 
 Twenty million men, 2,000,000 horses, 130,000,000 tons of 
 food, 25,000,000 tons of explosives and supplies, 51,000,000 tons 
 of oil and fuels, 500,000 vehicles. In 1917 alone 7,000,000 men, 
 500,000 animals, 200,000 vehicles and 9,5000,00 tons of stores were 
 conveyed to the several war fronts. 
 
 The German losses were estimated at 1,588,000 killed or died 
 of disease; 4,000,000 wounded; and 750,000 prisoners and missing. 
 
 A tabulation of the estimates of casualties and the money cost 
 of the war reveals the enormous price paid by humanity to con- 
 vince a military-mad Germanic caste that Right and not Might 
 must hereafter rule the world. These figures do not include Serbian 
 losses, which are unavailable. Following is the tabulation: 
 
 THE ENTENTE ALLIES THE CENTRAL POWERS 
 
 Russia 7,000,000 Germany 6,338,000 
 
 France 4,000,000 Austria-Hungary 4,500,000 
 
 British Empire (official) 3,049,992 Turkey 750,000 
 
 Italy 1,000,000 Bulgaria 200,000 
 
 Belgium 350,000 
 
 Roumania 200,000 Total 11,788,000 
 
 United States (official) 236,117 
 
 Total 15,836,109
 
 32 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Grand total of estimated casualties, 27,624,109, of which the 
 dead alone number perhaps 7,000,000. 
 
 ESTIMATED COST IN MONEY 
 
 THE ENTENTE ALLIES THE CENTRAL POWERS 
 
 Russia $30,000,000,000 Germany $45,000,000,000 
 
 Britain 52,000,000,000 Austria-Hungary 25,000,000,000 
 
 France 32,000,000,000 Turkey 5,000,000,000 
 
 United States 40,000,000,000 Bulgaria 2,000,000,000 
 
 Italy 12,000,000,000 
 
 Roumania 3,000,000,000 Total $77,000,000,000 
 
 Serbia 3,000,000,000 
 
 Total $172,000,000,000 
 
 Grand total of estimated cost in money, $249,000,000,000. 
 
 Was the cost too heavy? Was the price of international 
 liberty paid in human lives and in sacrifices untold too great for 
 the peace that followed? 
 
 Even the most practical of money changers, the most senti- 
 mental pacifist, viewing the cost in connection with the liberation 
 of whole nations, with the spread of enlightened liberty through 
 oppressed and benighted lands, with the destruction of autocracy, 
 of the military caste, and of Teutonic kultur in its materialistic 
 aspect, must agree that the blood was well shed, the treasure well 
 spent. 
 
 Millions of gallant, eager youths learned how to die fearlessly 
 and gloriously. They died to teach vandal nations that never- 
 more will humanity permit the exploitation of peoples for mili- 
 taristic purposes. 
 
 As Milton, the great philosopher poet, phrased the lesson 
 taught to Germany on the fields of France: 
 
 They err who count it glorious to subdue 
 By conquest far and wide, to overrun 
 Large countries, and in field great battles win, 
 Great cities by assault; what do these worthies 
 But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave 
 Peaceable nations, neighboring or remote 
 Made captive, yet deserving freedom more 
 Than those their conquerors, who leave behind 
 Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove 
 , And all the nourishing works of peace destroy.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE WOELD SUDDENLY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 
 
 DEMORALIZATION, like the black plague of the middle 
 ages, spread in every direction immediately following the 
 first overt acts of war. Men who were millionaires at 
 nightfall awoke the next morning to find themselves 
 bankrupt through depreciation of their stock-holdings. Prosperous 
 firms of importers were put out of business. International com- 
 merce was dislocated to an extent unprecedented in history. 
 
 The greatest of hardships immediately following the war, 
 however, were visited upon those who unhappily were caught on 
 then* vacations or on their business trips within the area affected 
 by the war. Not only men, but women and children, were subjected 
 to privations of the severest character. Notes which had been 
 negotiable, paper money of every description, and even silver 
 currency suddenly became of little value. Americans living in 
 hotels and pensions facing this sudden shrinkage in then* money, 
 were compelled to leave the roofs that had sheltered them. That 
 which was true of Americans was true of all other nationalities, so 
 that every embassy and the office of every consul became a miniature 
 Babel of excited, distressed humanity. 
 
 The sudden seizure of railroads for war purposes in Germany, 
 France, Austria and Russia, cut off thousands of travelers in 
 villages that were almost inaccessible. Europeans being com- 
 paratively close to their homes, were not in straits as severe as the 
 Americans whose only hope for aid lay in the speedy arrival of 
 American gold. Prices of food soared beyond all precedent and 
 many of these hapless strangers went under. Paris, the brightest 
 and gayest city hi Europe, suddenly became the most somber of 
 dwelling places. No traffic was permitted on the highways at 
 night. No lights were permitted and all the cafe's were closed at 
 eight o'clock. The gay capital was placed under iron military rule. 
 
 Seaports, and especially the pleasure resorts in France, Belgium 
 and England, were placed under a military supervision. Visitors 
 
 33
 
 34 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 were ordered to return to their homes and every resort was shrouded 
 with darkness at night. The records of those early days are filled 
 with stories of dramatic happenings. 
 
 On the night of July 31st Jean Leon Jaurs, the famous leader 
 of French Socialists, was assassinated while dining in a small 
 restaurant near the Paris Bourse. His assassin was Raoul Villein. 
 Jaures had been endeavoring to accomplish a union of French and 
 German Socialists with the ami of preventing the war. The object 
 of the assassination appeared to have been wholly political. 
 
 On the same day stock exchanges throughout the United 
 States were closed, following the example of European stock 
 exchanges. Ship insurance soared to prohibitive figures. Reservists 
 of the French and German armies living outside of then* native 
 land were called to the colors and their homeward rush still further 
 complicated transportation for civilians. All the countries of 
 Europe clamored for gold. North and South America complied 
 with the demand by sending cargoes of the precious metal overseas. 
 The German ship Kron Prinzessin with a cargo of gold, attempted 
 to make the voyage to Hamburg, but a wireless warning that 
 Allied cruisers were waiting for it off the Grand Banks of Newfound- 
 land, compelled the big ship to turn back to safety in America. 
 
 Channel boats bearing American refugees from the Continent 
 to London were described as floating hells. London was excited 
 over the war and holiday spirit, and overrun with five thousand 
 citizens of the United States tearfully pleading with the American 
 Ambassador for money for transportation home or assurances of 
 personal safety. 
 
 The condition of the terror-stricken tourists fleeing to the 
 friendly shores of England from Continental countries crowded 
 with soldiers dragging in their wake heavy guns, resulted in an 
 extraordinary gathering of two thousand Americans at a hotel one 
 afternoon and the formation of a preliminary organization to 
 afford relief. Some people who attended the meeting were already 
 beginning to feel the pinch of want with little prospects of imme- 
 diate succor. One man and wife, with four children, had six cents 
 when he appealed to Ambassador Page after an exciting escape from 
 German territory. 
 
 Oscar Straus, worth ten millions, struck London with nine 
 dollars. Although he had letters of credit for five thousand, he
 
 THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 35 
 
 k -. * / *B U L A * 
 
 H ** \ ! ^- 
 ; -A^N i 
 
 WHERE THE WORLD WAR BEGAN.
 
 36 .HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 was unable to cash them in Vienna. Women hugging newspaper 
 bundles containing expensive Paris frocks and millinery were herded 
 in third-class carriages and compelled to stand many hours. They 
 reached London utterly fatigued and unkempt, but mainly cheer- 
 ful, only to find the hotels choked with fellow countrymen fortunate 
 to reach there sooner. 
 
 The Ambassador was harassed by anxious women and children 
 who asked many absurd questions which he could not answer. 
 He said: 
 
 "The appeals of these people are most distressing. They 
 are very much excited, and no small wonder. I regret I have no 
 definite news of the prospects or plans of the government for 
 relief. I have communicated their condition to the Department of 
 State and expect a response and assurances of coming aid as soon 
 as possible. That the government will act I have not the slightest 
 doubt. I am confident that Washington will do everything in her 
 power for relief. How soon, I cannot tell. I have heard many 
 distressing tales during the last forty-eight hours." 
 
 A crowd filled the Ambassador's office on the first floor of the 
 flat building, in Victoria Street, which was mainly composed of 
 women, school teachers, art students, and other persons doing 
 Europe on a shoestring. Many were entirely out of money and 
 with limited securities, which were not negotiable. 
 
 The action of the British Government extending the bank 
 holiday till Thursday of that week was discouraging news for the 
 new arrivals from the Continent, as it was uncertain whether the 
 express and steamship companies would open in the morning for the 
 cashing of checks and the delivery of mail, as was announced the 
 previous Saturday. 
 
 Doctors J. Riddle Goffe, of New York; Frank F. Simpson, of 
 Pittsburgh; Arthur D. Ballon of Vistaburg, Mich., and B. F. 
 Martin, of Chicago, formed themselves into a committee, and 
 asked the co-operation of the press in America to bring about 
 adequate assistance for the marooned Americans, and to urge the 
 bankers of the United States to insist on their letters of credit 
 and travelers' checks being honored so far as possible by the agents 
 in Europe upon whom they were drawn. 
 
 Dr. Martin and Dr. Simpson, who left London on Saturday 
 for Switzerland to fetch back a young American girl, were unable
 
 THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS 
 
 In the first weeks of the war the Germans occupied Rheims, but were driven 
 out after von Kluck's retreat. On September 20, 1914, they were reported as 
 first shelling the Cathedral of Rheims and the civilized world stood aghast, for the 
 edifice, begun in 1212, is one of the chief glories of Gothic architecture in all Europe.
 
 THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 39 
 
 to get beyond Paris, and they returned to London. Everywhere 
 they found trains packed with refugees whose only object in life 
 apparently was to reach the channel boats, accepting cheerfully the 
 discomforts of those vessels if only able to get out of the war. 
 
 Rev. J. P. Garfield, of Claremore, N. H., gave the following 
 account of his experiences in Holland: 
 
 "On sailing from the Hook of Holland near midnight we pulled 
 out just as the boat train from The Hague arrived. The steamer 
 paused, but as she was filled to her capacity she later continued on 
 her voyage, leaving fully two hundred persons marooned on the 
 wharf. 
 
 "Our discomforts while crossing the North Sea were great. 
 Every seat was filled with sleepers, the cabins were given to women 
 and children. The crowd, as a rule, was helpful and kindly, the 
 single men carrying the babies and people lending money to those 
 without funds. Despite the refugee conditions prevailing it was 
 noticeable that many women on the Hook wharf clung tenaciously 
 to bandboxes containing Parisian hats." 
 
 Travelers from Cologne said that searchlights were operated 
 from the tops of the hotels all night searching for airplanes, and 
 machine guns were mounted on the famous Cologne Cathedral. 
 They also reported that tourists were refused hotel accommodations 
 at Frankfort because they were without cash. 
 
 Men, women and children sat in the streets all night. The 
 trains were stopped several miles from the German frontier and the 
 passengers, especially the women and children, suffered great 
 hardship being forced to continue their journey on foot. 
 
 Passengers arriving at London from Montreal on the Cunard 
 Line steamer Andania, bound for Southampton, reported the vessel 
 was met at sea by a British torpedo boat and ordered by wireless 
 to stop. The liner then was led into Plymouth as a matter of pre- 
 caution against mines. Plymouth was filled with soldiers, and 
 searchlights were seen constantly flashing about the harbor. 
 
 Otis B. Kent, an attorney for the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission, of Washington, arrived in London after an exciting journey 
 from Petrograd. Unable to find accommodations at a hotel he slept 
 on the railway station floor. He said: 
 
 "I had been on a trip to Sweden to see the midnight sun. I 
 did not realize the gravity of the situation until I saw the Russian
 
 40 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 fleet cleared for action. This was only July 26th, at Kronstadt, 
 where the shipyards were working overtime. 
 
 "I arrived at the Russian capital on the following day. Enor- 
 mous demonstrations were taking place. I was warned to get out 
 and left on the night of the 28th for Berlin. I saw Russian soldiers 
 drilling at the stations and artillery constantly on the move. 
 
 "At Berlin I was warned to keep off the street* for fear ot 
 being mistaken for an Englishmen. At Hamburg the number of 
 warnings was increased. Two Russians who refused to rise in a 
 cafe* when the German anthem was played were attacked and badly 
 beaten. I also saw two Englishmen attacked in the street, but they 
 finally were rescued by the police. 
 
 "There was a harrowing scene when the Hamburg- American 
 Line steamer Imperator canceled its sailing. She left stranded 
 three thousand passengers, most of them short of money, and the 
 women wailing. About one hundred and fifty of us were given 
 passage hi the second class of the American Line steamship Phila- 
 delphia, for which I was offered $400 by a speculator. 
 
 "The journey to Flushing was made in a packed train, its 
 occupants lacking sleep and food. No trouble was encountered 
 on the frontier." 
 
 Theodore Hetzler, of the Fifth Avenue Bank, was appointed 
 chairman of the meeting for preliminary relief of the stranded 
 tourists, and committees were named to interview officials of the 
 steamship companies and of the hotels, to search for lost baggage, 
 to make arrangements for the honoring of all proper checks and 
 notes, and to confer with the members of the American embassy. 
 
 Oscar Straus, who arrived from Paris, said that the United 
 States embassy there was working hard to get Americans out of 
 France. Great enthusiasm prevailed at the French capital, he 
 said, owing to the announcement that the United States Government 
 was considering a plan to send transports to take Americans home. 
 
 The folio whig committees were appointed at the meeting: 
 
 Finance Theodore Hetzler, Fred I. Kent and James G. 
 Cannon; Transportation Joseph F. Day, Francis M. Weld and 
 George D. Smith, all of New York; Diplomatic Oscar S. Straus, 
 Walter L. Fisher and James Byrne; Hotels L. H. Armour, of 
 Chicago, and Thomas J. Shanley, New York. 
 
 The committee established headquarters where Americans
 
 THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 41 
 
 might register and obtain assistance. Chandler Anderson, a mem- 
 ber of the International Claims Commission, arrived in London 
 from Paris. He said he had been engaged with the work of the 
 commission at Versailles, when he was warned by the American 
 embassy that he had better leave France. He acted promptly 
 on this advice and the commission was adjourned until after the 
 war. Mr. Anderson had to leave his baggage behind him because 
 the railway company would not register it. He said the city of 
 Paris presented a strange contrast to the ordinary animation pre- 
 vailing there. Most of the shops were closed. There were 
 no taxis in the streets, and only a few vehicles drawn by 
 horses. 
 
 The armored cruiser Tennessee, converted for the tune being 
 into a treasure ship, left New York on the night of August 6th, 
 1914, to carry $7,500,000 in gold to the many thousand Americans 
 who were in want in European countries. Included hi the 
 $7,500,000 was $2,500,000 appropriated by the government. 
 Private consignments in gold in sums from $1,000 to $5,000 were 
 accepted by Colonel Smith, of the army quartermaster's depart- 
 ment, who undertook their delivery to Americans in Paris and other 
 European ports. 
 
 The cruiser carried as passengers Ambassador Willard, who 
 returned to his post at Madrid, and army and naval officers assigned 
 as military observers in Europe. On the return trip accommoda- 
 tions for 200 Americans were available. 
 
 The dreadnaught Florida, after being hastily coaled and 
 provisioned, left the Brooklyn Navy Yard under sealed orders at 
 9.30 o'clock the morning of August 6th and proceeded to Tompkins- 
 ville, where she dropped anchor near the Tennessee. 
 
 The Florida was sent to protect the neutrality of American 
 ports and prohibit supplies to belligerent ships. Secretary 
 Daniels ordered her to watch the port of New York and sent the 
 Mayflower to Hampton Roads. Destroyers guarded ports along 
 the New England coast and those at Lewes, Del., to prevent viola- 
 tions of neutrality at Philadelphia and hi that territory. Any 
 vessel that attempted to sail for a belligerent port without clear- 
 ance papers was boarded by American officials. 
 
 The Texas and Louisiana, at Vera Cruz, and the Minnesota, 
 at Tampico, were ordered to New York, and Secretary Daniels
 
 42 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 announced that other American vessels would be ordered north 
 as fast as room could be found for them in navy yard docks. 
 
 At wireless stations, under the censorship ordered by the 
 President, no code messages were allowed in any circumstances. 
 Messages which might help any of the belligerents in any way 
 were barred. 
 
 The torpedo-boat destroyer Warrington and the revenue 
 cutter Androscoggin arrived at Bar Harbor on August 6th, to 
 enforce neutrality regulations and allowed no foreign ships to leave 
 Frenchman's Bay without clearance papers. The United States 
 cruiser Milwaukee sailed the same day from the Puget Sound Navy 
 Yard to form part of the coast patrol to enforce neutrality 
 regulations. 
 
 Arrangements were made hi Paris by Myron T. Herrick, the 
 American Ambassador, acting under instructions from Washington, 
 to take over the affairs of the German embassy, while Alexander 
 H. Thackara, the American Consul General, looked after the affairs 
 of the German consulate. 
 
 President Poincare" and the members of the French cabinet 
 later issued a joint proclamation to the French nation hi which 
 was the phrase "mobilization is not war." 
 
 The marching of the soldiers hi the streets with the English, 
 Russian and French flags flying, the singing of patriotic songs and 
 the shouting of "On to Berlin!" were much less remarkable than 
 the general demeanor and cold resolution of most of the people. 
 
 The response to the order of mobilization was instant, and the 
 stations of all the railways, particularly those leading to the east- 
 ward, were crowded with reservists. Many women accompanied 
 the men until close to the stations, where, softly crying, farewells 
 were said. The troop trains left at frequent intervals. All the 
 automobile busses disappeared, having been requisitioned by the 
 army to carry meat, the coachwork of the vehicles being removed 
 and replaced with specially designed bodies. A large number of 
 taxicabs, private automobiles and horses and carts also were taken 
 over by the military for transport purposes. 
 
 The wildest enthusiasm was manifested on the boulevards 
 when the news of the ordering of the mobilization became known. 
 Bodies of men formed into regular companies in ranks ten deep, 
 paraded the streets waving the tricolor and other national emblems
 
 THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 43 
 
 and cheering and singing the "Marseillaise" and the " Interna- 
 tionale," at the same time throwing their hats hi the ah*. On the 
 sidewalks were many weeping women and children. All the 
 stores and cafes were deserted. 
 
 All foreigners were compelled to leave Paris or France before 
 the end of the first day of mobilization by tram but not by auto- 
 mobile. Tune tables were posted on the walls of Paris giving the 
 times of certain trains on which these people might leave the city. 
 
 American citizens or British subjects were allowed to remain 
 hi France, except in the regions on the eastern frontier and near 
 certain fortresses, provided they made declaration to the police 
 and obtained a special permit. 
 
 As to Italy's situation, Rome was quite calm and the normal 
 aspect made tourists decide that Italy was the safest place. Aus- 
 tria's note to Serbia was issued without consulting Italy. One 
 point of the Triple Alliance provided that no member should take 
 action in the Balkans before an agreement with the other allies. 
 Such an agreement did not take place. The alliance was of defen- 
 sive, not aggressive, character and could not force an ally to follow 
 any enterprise taken on the sole account and without a notice, as 
 such action taken by Austria against Serbia. It was felt even then 
 that Italy would eventually cast its lot with the Entente Allies. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo; John Skelton 
 Williams, Comptroller of the Currency; Charles S. Harnblin and 
 William P. G. Harding, members of the Federal Reserve Board, 
 went to New York early in August, 1914, where they discussed 
 relief measures with a group of leading bankers at what was 
 regarded as the most momentous conference of the kind held in 
 the country in recent years. 
 
 The New York Clearing House Committee, on August 2d, 
 called a meeting of the Clearing House Association, to arrange for 
 the immediate issuance of clearing house certificates. Among 
 those at the conference were J. P. Morgan and his partner, Henry 
 P. Davison; Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City 
 Bank, and A. Barton Hepburn, chairman of the Chase National 
 Bank.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 
 
 WHILE it is true that the war was conceived in Berlin, 
 it is none the less true that it was born in the Balkans. 
 It is necessary in order that we may view with correct 
 perspective the background of the World War, that 
 we gain some notion of the Balkan States and the complications 
 entering into their relations. These countries have been the 
 adopted children of the great European powers during generations 
 of rulers. Russia assumed guardianship of the nations having a pre- 
 ponderance of Slavic blood; Roumania with its Latin consan- 
 guinities was close to France and Italy; Bulgaria, Greece, and 
 Balkan Turkey were debatable regions wherein the diplomats of the 
 rival nations secured temporary victories by devious methods. 
 
 The Balkans have fierce hatreds and have been the site of 
 sudden historic wars. At the tune of the declaration of the World 
 War, the Balkan nations were living under the provisions of the 
 Treaty of Bucharest, dated August 10, 1913. Greece, Roumania, 
 Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro were signers, and Turkey 
 acquiesced in its provisions. 
 
 The assassination at Sarajevo had sent a convulsive shudder 
 throughout the Balkans. The reason lay in the century-old 
 antagonism between the Slav and the Teuton. Serbia, Montenegro 
 and Russia had never forgiven Austria for seizing Bosnia and 
 Herzegovina and making these Slavic people subjects of the 
 Austrian crown. Bulgaria, Roumania and Turkey remained cold 
 at the news of the assassination. German diplomacy was in the 
 ascendant at these courts and the prospect of war with Germany as 
 their greal; ally presented no terrors for them. The sympathies of 
 the people of Greece were with Serbia, but the Grecian Court, 
 because the Queen of Greece was the only sister of the German 
 Kaiser, was whole heartedly with Austria. Perhaps at the first 
 the Roumanians were most nearly neutral. They believed strongly 
 that each of the small nations of the Balkan region as well as all 
 
 44
 
 WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 
 
 45 
 
 of the small nations that had been absorbed but had not been 
 digested by Austria, should cut itself from the leading strings held 
 by the large European powers. There was a distinct undercurrent 
 for a federation resembling that of the United States of America 
 
 (RUSSIA 
 
 ?^_ 
 
 \Cededby Turkey to Serbia. v> 
 
 T 
 
 ja<> * Montenegro. 
 
 ] o Greece. 
 
 ] > .. . Bulgaria. 
 
 ^ n Bulgaria to Roumania. 
 
 PROVISIONS OP THE TREATY OP BUCHAREST, 1913 
 
 between these peoples. This was expressed most clearly by M. 
 
 Jonesco, leader of the Liberal party of Roumania and generally 
 
 recognized as the ablest statesman of middle Europe. He declared : 
 
 "I always believed, and still believe, that the Balkan States
 
 46 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 cannot secure their future otherwise than by a close understanding 
 among themselves, whether this understanding shall or shall not 
 take the form of a federation. No one of the Balkan States is 
 strong enough to resist the pressure from one or another of the 
 European powers. 
 
 "For this reason I am deeply grieved to see in the Balkan 
 coalition of 1912 Roumania not invited. If Roumania had taken 
 part in the first one, we should not have had the second. I did all 
 that was in my power and succeeded in preventing the war between 
 Roumania and the Balkan League in the winter of 1912-13. 
 
 "I risked my popularity, and I do not feel sorry for it. I 
 employed all my efforts to prevent the second Balkan war, which, as 
 is well known, was profitable to us. I repeatedly told the Bul- 
 garians that they ought not to enter it because in that case we 
 would enter it too. But I was not successful in my efforts. 
 
 "During the second Balkan war I did all in my power to end 
 it as quickly as possible. At the conference at Bucharest I made 
 efforts, as Mr. Pashich and Mr. Venizelos know very well, to secure 
 for beaten Bulgaria the best terms. My object was to obtain a new 
 coalition of all the Balkan States, including Roumania. Had I 
 succeeded in this the situation would be much better. No rea- 
 sonable man will deny that the Balkan States are neutralizing each 
 other at the present time, which in itself makes the whole situation 
 all the more miserable. 
 
 "In October, 1913, when I succeeded in facilitating the con- 
 clusion of peace between Greece and Turkey, I was pursuing the 
 same object of the Balkan coalition. On my return from Athens 
 I endeavored, though without success, to put the Greco-Turkish 
 relations on a basis of friendship, being convinced that the well- 
 understood interest of both countries lies not only in friendly 
 relations, but even in an alliance between them. 
 
 "The dissensions that exist between the Balkan States can 
 be settled in a friendly way without war. The best moment for 
 this would be after the general war, when the map of Europe will 
 be remade. The Balkan country which would start war against 
 another Balkan country would commit, not only a crime against 
 her own future, but an act of folly as well. 
 
 "The destiny and future of the Balkan States, and of all the 
 small European peoples as well, will not be regulated by fratricidal
 
 WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 47 
 
 wars, but, with this great European struggle, the real object of 
 which is to settle the question whether Europe shall enter an era 
 of justice, and therefore happiness for the small peoples, or whether 
 we will face a period of oppression more or less gilt-edged. And 
 as I always believed that wisdom and truth will triumph in the 
 end, I want to believe, too, that, in spite of the pessimistic news 
 reaching me from the different sides of the Balkan countries, there 
 will be no war among them in order to justify those who do not 
 believe in the vitality of the small peoples." 
 
 The conference at Rome, April 10, 1918, to settle outstanding 
 questions between the Italians and the Slavs of the Adriatic, drew 
 attention to those Slavonic peoples in Europe who were under non- 
 Slavonic rule. At the beginning of the war there were three great 
 Slavonic groups hi Europe: First, the Russians with the Little 
 Russians, speaking languages not more different than the dialect 
 of Yorkshire is from the dialect of Devonshire; second, a central 
 group, including the Poles, the Czechs or Bohemians, the Mora- 
 vians, and Slovaks, this group thus being separated under the four 
 crowns of Russia, Germany, Austria and Hungary; the third, the 
 southern group, included the Sclavonians, the Croatians, the 
 Dalmatians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, the Slavs, generally called 
 Slovenes, in the western part of Austria, down to Goritzia, and also 
 the two independent kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia. 
 
 Like the central group, this southern group of Slavs was 
 divided under four crowns, Hungary, Austria, Montenegro, and 
 Serbia; but, hi spite of the fact that hah" belong to the Western 
 and half to the Eastern Church, they are all essentially the same 
 people, though with considerable infusion of non-Slavonic blood, 
 there being a good deal of Turkish blood in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
 The languages, however, are practically identical, formed largely 
 of pure Slavonic materials, and, curiously, much more closely con- 
 nected with the eastern Slav group Russia and Little Russia 
 than with the central group, Polish and Bohemian. A Russian 
 of Moscow will find it much easier to understand a Slovene from 
 Goritzia than a Pole from Warsaw. The Ruthenians, in southern 
 Galicia and Bukowina, are identical in race and speech with the 
 Little Russians of Ukrainia. 
 
 Of the central group, the Poles have generally inclined to 
 Austria, which has always supported the Polish landlords of Galicia
 
 48 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 against the Ruthenian peasantry; while the Czechs have been not 
 so much anti-Austrian as anti-German. Indeed, the Hapsburg 
 rulers have again and again played these Slavs off against their 
 German subjects. It was the Southern Slav question as affecting 
 Serbia and Austria, that gave the pretext for the present war. 
 The central Slav question affecting the destiny of the Poles was a 
 bone of contention between Austria and Germany. It is the custom 
 to call the Southern Slavs " Jugoslavs" from the Slav word Yugo, 
 "south," but as this is a concession to German transliteration, 
 
 
 <I : "79 v ^-^IrAM^::2r* AvjR 
 
 
 Boundary of Austrian Cnpin in 1315. 
 
 Conftdtration 
 Other Boundaries. 
 
 Norlhern Stars (Mr* JCzecte. 
 
 5owAer^ SfavsfSerbst Croats 
 inhabited by 
 
 THE MIXTURE OF RACES IN SOUTH CENTRAL EUROPE 
 
 many prefer to write the word " Yugoslav," which represents 
 its pronunciation. The South Slav question was created by 
 the incursions of three Asiatic peoples Huns, Magyars, Turks 
 who broke up the originally continuous Slav territory that 
 ran from the White Sea to the confines of Greece and the 
 Adriatic. 
 
 This was the complex of nationalities, the ferment of races 
 existing in 1914. Out of the hatreds engendered by the domination 
 over the liberty-loving Slavic peoples by an arrogant Teutonic 
 minority grew the assassinations at Sarajevo. These crimes were
 
 "
 
 WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 51 
 
 the expression of hatred not for the heir apparent of Austria but 
 for the Hapsburg and their Germanic associates. 
 
 By a twist of the wheel of fate, the same Slavic peoples whose 
 determination to rid themselves of the Teutonic yoke, started 
 the war, also bore rather more than their share hi the swift-moving 
 events that decided and closed the war. 
 
 Russia, the dying giant among the great nations, championed 
 the Slavic peoples at the beginning of the war. It entered the 
 conflict in aid of little Serbia, but at the end Russia bowed to 
 Germany in the infamous peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk. There- 
 after during the last months of the war Russia was virtually an 
 ally of its ancient enemy, Turkey, the "Sick Man of Europe," and 
 the central German empires. With these allies the Bolshevik 
 government of Russia attempted to head off the Czecho-Slovak 
 regiments that had been captured by Russia during its drive into 
 Austria and had been imprisoned in Siberia. After the peace con- 
 summated at Brest-Litovsk, these regiments determined to fight 
 on the side of the Allies and endeavored to make their way to the 
 western front. 
 
 No war problems were more difficult than those of the Czecho- 
 slovaks. Few have been handled so masterfully. Surrounded by 
 powerful enemies which for centuries have been bent on destroying 
 every trace of Slavic culture, they had learned how to defend them- 
 selves against every trick or scheme of the brutal Germans. 
 
 The Czecho-Slovak plan in Russia was of great value to the 
 Allies all over the world, and was put at their service by Professor 
 Thomas G. Masaryk. He went to Russia when everything was 
 adrift and got hold of Bohemian prisoners here and there and 
 organized them into a compact little army of 50,000 to 60,000 men. 
 Equipped and fed, he moved them to whatever point had most 
 power to thoroughly disrupt the German plans. They did much to 
 check the German army for months. They resolutely refused to 
 take any part hi Russian political affairs, and when it seemed no 
 longer possible to work effectively in Russia, this remarkable little 
 band started on a journey all round the world to get to the western 
 front. They loyally gave up most of their arms under agreement 
 with Lenine and Trotzky that they might peacefully proceed out 
 of Russia via Vladivostok. 
 
 While they were carrying out their part of the agreement, and
 
 52 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 well on the way, they were surprised by telegrams from Lenine 
 and Trotzky to the Soviets in Siberia ordering them to take away 
 their arms and intern them. 
 
 The story of what occurred then was told by two American 
 engineers, Emerson and Hawkins, who, on the way to Ambassador 
 Francis, and not being able to reach Vologda, joined a band of 
 four or five thousand. The engineers were with them three months, 
 while they were making it safe along the lines of the railroad for the 
 rest of the Czecho-Slovaks to get out, and incidentally for Siberians 
 to resume peaceful occupations. They were also supported by old 
 railway organizations which had stuck bravely to them with- 
 out wages and which every little while were "shot up" by the 
 Bolsheviki. 
 
 Distress in Russia would have been much more intense had 
 it not been for the loyalty of the railway men in sticking to their 
 tasks. Some American engineers at Irkutsk, on a peaceful journey 
 out of Russia, on descending from the cars were met with a demand 
 to surrender, and shots from machine guns. Some, fortunately, 
 had kept hand grenades, and with these and a few rifles went 
 straight at the machine guns. Although outnumbered, the attackers 
 took the guns and soon afterward took the town. The Czecho- 
 slovaks, hi the beginning almost unarmed, went against great odds 
 and won for themselves the right to be considered a nation. 
 
 Seeing the treachery of Lenine and Trotzky, they went back 
 toward the west and made things secure for then- men left behind. 
 They took town after town with the arms they first took away from 
 the Bolsheviki and Germans; but hi every town they immediately 
 set up a government, with all the elements of normal life. They 
 established police and sanitary systems, opened hospitals, and had 
 roads repaired, leaving a handful of men in the midst of enemies 
 to carry on the plans of then- leaders. American engineers speaking 
 of the cleanliness of the Czecho-Slovak army, said that they 
 lived like Spartans. 
 
 The whole story is a remarkable evidence of the struggle of 
 these little people for self-government. 
 
 The emergence of the Czecho-Slovak nation has been one of the 
 most remarkable and noteworthy features of the war. Out of the 
 confusion of the situation, with the possibility of the resurrection 
 of oppressed peoples, something of the dignity of old Bohemia 
 
 was
 
 WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR 53 
 
 comprehended, and it was recognized that the Czechs were to be 
 rescued from Austria and the Slovaks from Hungary, and united in 
 one country with entire independence. This was undoubtedly due, 
 in large measure, to the activities of Professor Masaryk, the presi- 
 dent of the National Executive Council of the Czecho-Slovaks. 
 His four-year exile hi the United States had the establishment of 
 the new nation as its fruit. 
 
 Professor Masaryk called attention to the fact that there is a 
 peculiar discrepancy between the number of states in Europe and 
 the number of nationalities twenty-seven states to seventy 
 nationalities. He explained, also, that almost all the states are 
 mixed, from the point of nationality. From the west of Europe to 
 the east, this is found to be true, and the farther east one goes the 
 more mixed do the states become. Austria is the most mixed of all 
 the states. There is no Austrian language, but there are nine 
 languages, and six smaller nations or remnants of nations. In all 
 of Germany there are eight nationalities besides the Germans, who 
 have been independent, and who have their own literature. Turkey 
 is an anomaly, a combination of various nations overthrown and 
 kept down. 
 
 Since the eighteenth century there has been a continuing 
 strong movement from each nation to have its own state. Because 
 of the mixed peoples, there is much confusion. There are Rouma- 
 nians in Austria, but there is a kingdom of Roumania. There are 
 Southern Slavs, but there are also Serbia and Montenegro. It is 
 natural that the Southern Slavs should want to be united as one 
 state. So it is with Italy. 
 
 There was no justice hi Poland being separated hi three parts 
 to serve the dynasties of Prussia, Russia and Austria. The Czecho- 
 slovaks of Austria and Hungary claimed a union The national 
 union consists hi an endeavor to make the suppressed nations free, 
 to unite them in their own states, and to readjust the states that 
 exist; to force Austria and Prussia to give up the states that should 
 be free. 
 
 In the future, said Doctor Masaryk, there are to be sharp 
 ethnological boundaries. The Czecho-Slovaks will guarantee the 
 minorities absolute equality, but they will keep the German part 
 of then* country, because there are many Bohemians in it, and 
 they do not trust the Germans.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 
 
 ONE factor alone caused the great war. It was not the 
 assassination at Sarajevo, not the Slavic ferment of 
 anti-Teutonism in Austria and the Balkans. The only 
 cause of the world's greatest war was the determination 
 of the German High Command and the powerful circle surrounding 
 it that "Der Tag" had arrived. The assassination at Sarajevo 
 was only the peg for the pendant of war. Another peg would 
 have been found inevitably had not the projection of that assas- 
 sination presented itself as the excuse. 
 
 Germany's military machine was ready. A gray-green uniform 
 that at a distance would fade into misty obscurity had been devised 
 after exhaustive experiments by optical, dye and cloth experts 
 co-operating with the military high command. These uniforms 
 had been standardized and fitted for the millions of men enrolled 
 in Germany's regular and reserve armies. Rifles, great pyramids 
 of munitions, field kitchens, traveling post-offices, motor lorries, a 
 network of military railways leading to the French and Belgian 
 border, all these and more had been made ready. German soldiers 
 had received instructions which enabled each man at a signal to go 
 to an appointed place where he found everything in readiness for 
 his long forced marches into the territory of Germany's neighbors. 
 More than all this, Germany's spy system, the most elaborate 
 and unscrupulous in the history of mankind, had enabled the Ger- 
 man High Command to construct hi advance of the declaration of 
 war concrete gun emplacements in Belgium and other invaded 
 territory. The cellars of dwellings and shops rented or owned by 
 German spies were camouflaged concrete foundations for the great 
 guns of 1'istria and Germany. These emplacements were in 
 exactly the right position for use against the fortresses of Ger- 
 many's foes. Advertisements and shop-signs were used by spies 
 as guides for the marching German armies of invasion. 
 
 In brief, Germany had planned for war. She was approxi- 
 
 54
 
 KAISER WILLIAM II OF GERMANY 
 
 Posterity will regard him as more responsible than any other human being 
 for the sacrifice of millions of lives in the great war, as a ruler who might have 
 been beneficent and wise, but attempted to destroy the liberties of mankind 
 and to raise on their ruins an odious despotism. To forgive him and to forget his 
 terrible transgressions would be to condone them.
 
 [ 1 il - 
 
 .. : e
 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 57 
 
 mately ready for it. Under the shelter of such high-sounding 
 phrases as "We demand our place in the sun," and "The seas 
 must be free," the German people were educated into the belief 
 that the hour of Germany's destiny was at hand. 
 
 GERMANY'S POSSESSIONS IN AFRICA PRIOR TO 1914 
 
 German psychologists, like other German scientists, had 
 co-operated with the imperial militaristic government for many 
 years to bring the Germanic mind into a condition of docility. 
 So well did they understand the mentality and the trends of 
 character of the German people that it was comparatively easy to 
 impose upon them a militaristic system and philosophy by which 
 the individual yielded countless personal liberties for the alleged 
 good of the state. Rigorous and compulsory military service, 
 unquestioning adherence to the doctrine that might makes right
 
 58 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 and a cession to "the All-Highest," as the Emperor was styled, of 
 supreme powers in the state, are some of the sufferances to which 
 the German people submitted. 
 
 German propaganda abroad was quite as vigorous as at home, 
 but infinitely less successful. The German High Command did 
 not expect England to enter the war. It counted upon America's 
 neutrality with a leaning toward Germany. It believed that 
 German colonization in South Africa and South America would 
 incline these vast domains toward friendship for the Central 
 empires. How mistaken the propagandists and psychologists were 
 events have demonstrated. 
 
 It was this dream of world-domination by Teutonic kultur 
 that supplied the motive leading to the world's greatest war. 
 Bosnia, an unwilling province of Austria-Hungary, at one tune a 
 province of Serbia and overwhelmingly Slavic in its population, 
 had been seething for years with an anti-Teutonic ferment. The 
 Teutonic court at Vienna, leading the minority Germanic party 
 in Austria-Hungary, had been endeavoring to allay the agitation 
 among the Bosnian Slavs. In pursuance of that policy, Archduke 
 Francis Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the thrones of Austria and 
 Hungary, and his morganatic wife, Sophia Chotek, Duchess of 
 Hohenberg, on June 28, 1914, visited Sarajevo, the capital of 
 Bosnia. On the morning of that day, while they were being 
 driven through the narrow streets of the ancient town, a bomb 
 was thrown at them, but they were uninjured. They were 
 driven through the streets again hi the afternoon, for purpose of 
 public display. A student, just out of his 'teens, one Gavrilo 
 Prinzep, attacked the royal party with a magazine pistol and 
 killed both the Archduke and his wife. 
 
 Here was the excuse for which Germany had waited. Here 
 was the dawn of "The Day." The Germanic court of Austria 
 asserted that the crime was the result of a conspiracy, leading 
 directly to the Slavic court of Serbia. The Serbians in their turn 
 declared that they knew nothing of the assassination. They 
 pointed out the fact that Sophia Chotek was a Slav, and that 
 Francis Ferdinand was more liberal than any other member of the 
 Austrian royal household, and finally, that he, more than any 
 other member of the Austrian court, understood and respected 
 the Slavic character and aspirations.
 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 59 
 
 At six o'clock on the evening of July 23d, Austria sent an 
 ultimatum to Serbia, presenting eleven demands and stipulating 
 that categorical replies must be delivered before six o'clock on the 
 evening of July 25th. Although the language in which the ulti- 
 matum was couched was humiliating to Serbia, the answer was 
 duly delivered within the stipulated time. 
 
 The demands of the Austrian note in brief were as follows: 
 
 1. The Serbian Government to give formal assurance of its con- 
 demnation of Serb propaganda against Austria. 
 
 2. The next issue of the Serbian "Official Journal" was to contain 
 a declaration to that effect. 
 
 3. This declaration to express regret that Serbian officers had taken 
 part in the propaganda. 
 
 4. The Serbian Government to promise that it would proceed rigor- 
 ously against all guilty of such activity. 
 
 5. This declaration to be at once communicated by the King of 
 Serbia to his army, and to be published in the official bulletin as an order 
 of the day. 
 
 6. All anti-Austrian publications in Serbia to be suppressed. 
 
 7. The Serbian political party known as the "National Union" to 
 be suppressed, and its means of propaganda to be confiscated. 
 
 8. All anti- Austrian teaching in the schools of Serbia to be suppressed. 
 
 9. All officers, civil and military, who might be designated by Austria 
 as guilty of anti-Austrian propaganda to be dismissed by the Serbian 
 Government. 
 
 10. Austrian agents to co-operate with the Serbian Government in 
 suppressing all anti- Austrian propaganda, and to take part in the judicial 
 proceedings conducted in Serbia against those charged with complicity 
 in the crime at Sarajevo. 
 
 11. Serbia to explain to Austria the meaning of anti- Austrian utter- 
 ances of Serbian officials at home and abroad, since the assassination. 
 
 To the first and second demands Serbia unhesitatingly assented. 
 
 To the third demand, Serbia assented, although no evidence 
 was given to show that Serbian officers had taken part in the 
 propaganda. 
 
 The Serbian Government assented to the fourth, fifth, sixth, 
 seventh and eighth demands also. 
 
 Extraordinary as was the ninth demand, which would allow 
 the Austrian Gcyvernment to proscribe Serbian officials, so eager 
 for peace and friendship was the Serbian Government that it
 
 60 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 assented to it, with the stipulation that the Austrian Government 
 should offer some proof of the guilt of the proscribed officers. 
 
 The tenth demand, which in effect allowed Austrian agents to 
 control the police and courts of Serbia, it was not possible for 
 Serbia to accept without abrogating her sovereignty. However, 
 it was not unconditionally rejected, but the Serbian Government 
 asked that it be made the subject of further discussion, or be 
 referred to arbitration. 
 
 The Serbian Government assented to the eleventh demand, 
 on the condition that if the explanations which would be given 
 concerning the alleged anti-Austrian utterances of Serbian officials 
 would not prove satisfactory to the Austrian Government, the 
 matter should be submitted to mediation or arbitration. 
 
 Behind the threat conveyed hi the Austrian ultimatum was 
 the menacing figure of militant Germany. The veil that had 
 hitherto concealed the hands that worked the string, was removed 
 when Germany, under the pretense of localizing the quarrel to 
 Serbian and Austrian soil, interrogated France and England, 
 asking them to prevent Russia from defending Serbia in the event 
 of an attack by Austria upon the Serbs. England and France 
 promptly refused to participate hi a tragedy which would deliver 
 Serbia to Austria as Bosnia had been delivered. Russia, bound by 
 race and creed to Serbia, read into the ultimatum of Teutonic 
 kultur a determination for warfare. Mobilization of the Russian 
 forces along the Austrian frontier was arranged, when it was seen 
 that Serbia's pacific reply to Austria's demands would be con- 
 temptuously disregarded by Germany and Austria. 
 
 During the days that intervened between the issuance of the 
 ultimatum and the actual declaration of war by Germany against 
 Russia on Saturday, August 1st, various sincere efforts were made 
 to stave off the world-shaking catastrophe. Arranged chronologic- 
 ally, these events may thus be summarized: Russia, on July 24th, 
 formally asked Austria if she intended to annex Serbian territory by 
 way of reprisal for the assassination at Sarajevo. On the same day 
 Austria replied that it had no present intention to make such 
 annexation. Russia then requested an extension of the forty- 
 e ght-hour time-limit named in the ultimatum. 
 
 Austria, on the morning of Saturday, July 25th, refused Russia's 
 request for an extension of the period named hi the ultimatum.
 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 61 
 
 On the same day, the newspapers published hi Petrograd printed 
 an official note issued by the Russian Government warning Europe 
 generally that Russia would not remain indifferent to the fate of 
 Serbia. These newspapers also printed the appeal of the Serbian 
 Crown Prince to the Czar dated on the preceding day, urging that 
 Russia come to the rescue of the menaced Serbs. Serbia's peaceful 
 reply surrendering on all points except one, and agreeing to submit 
 that to arbitration, was sent late hi the afternoon of the same day, 
 and that night Austria declared the reply to be unsatisfactory and 
 withdrew its minister from Belgrade. 
 
 England commenced its attempts at pacification on the follow- 
 ing day, Sunday, July 26th. Sir Edward Grey spent the entire 
 Sabbath hi the Foreign Office and personally conducted the corre- 
 spondence that was calculated to bring the dispute to a peaceful 
 conclusion. He did not reckon, however, with a Germany deter- 
 mined upon war, a Germany whose manufacturers, ship-owners 
 and Junkers had combined with its militarists to achieve 
 "Germany's place in the sun" even though the world would be 
 stained hi the blood of the most frightful war this earth has ever 
 known. Realization of this fact did not come to Sir Edward Grey 
 until his negotiations with Germany and with Austria-Hungary 
 had proceeded for some time. His first suggestion was that the 
 dispute between Russia and Austria be committed to the arbitration 
 of Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany. Russia accepted 
 this but Germany and Austria rejected it. Russia had previously 
 suggested that the dispute be settled by a conference between the 
 diplomatic heads at Vienna and Petrograd. This also was refused 
 by Austria. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey renewed his efforts on Monday, July 27th, 
 with an invitation to Germany to present suggestions of its own, 
 looking toward a settlement. This note was never answered. 
 Germany took the position that its proposition to compel Russia 
 to stand aside while Austria punished Serbia had been rejected 
 by England and France and it had nothing further to propose. 
 
 During all this period of negotiation the German Foreign 
 Office, to all outward appearances at least, had been acting inde- 
 pendently of the Kaiser, who was in Norway on a vacation trip. 
 He returned to Potsdam on the night of Sunday, July 26th. On 
 Monday morning the Czar of Russia received a personal message
 
 62 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 IB /*" U. V-l ' ! 
 
 yfe /fcK 
 
 V/MMfT^J 
 
 ^* IC -C N /*JC o 
 
 < ^BOHEMIA 
 
 ERATI OH/ 
 
 ( -^ 
 
 \j/K,t>V~ ~ 
 
 THE GERMAN CONFEDERATION IN 1815 
 
 28th, when Austria declared war on Serbia, having speedily mobilized 
 troops at strategic points on the Serbian border. Russian mobiliza- 
 tion, which had been proceeding only in a tentative way, on the 
 Austrian border, now became general, and on July 30th, mobilization 
 of the entire Russian army was proclaimed. 
 
 Germany's effort to exclude England from the war began on 
 Thursday, July 29th. A note, sounding Sir Edward Grey on the
 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 63 
 
 question of British neutrality in the event of war was received, 
 and a curt refusal to commit the British Empire to such a proposal 
 was the reply. Sir Edward Grey, in a last determined effort to 
 avoid a world-war, suggested to Germany, Austria, Serbia and 
 Russia that the .military operations commenced by Austria should 
 be recognized as merely a punitive expedition. He further sug- 
 gested that when a point hi Serbian territory previously fixed upon 
 should have been reached, Austria w^ould halt and would submit 
 her further action to arbitration in the conference of the Powers. 
 Russia and Serbia agreed unreservedly to this proposition. Austria 
 gave a half-hearted assent to the principle involved. Germany 
 made no reply. 
 
 The die was cast for war on the following day, July 31st, when 
 Germany made a dictatorial and arrogant demand upon Russia 
 that mobilization of that nation's military forces be stopped within 
 twelve hours. Russia made no reply, and on Saturday, August 1st, 
 Germany set the world aflame with the dread of war's horror by 
 her declaration of war upon Russia. 
 
 Germany's responsibility for this monumental crime against 
 the peace of the world is eternally fixed upon her, not only by these 
 outward and visible acts and negotiations, not only by her years of 
 patient preparation for the war into which she plunged the world. 
 The responsibility is fastened upon her forever by the revelations 
 of her own ambassador to England during this fateful period. 
 Prince Lichnowsky, in a remarkable communication which was 
 given to the world, laid bare the machinations of the German 
 High Command and its advisers. He was a guest of the Kaiser 
 at Kiel on board the Imperial yacht Meteor when the message 
 was received informing the Kaiser of the assassination at Sarajevo. 
 His story continues: 
 
 Being unacquainted with the Vienna viewpoint and what was going 
 'on there, I attached no very far-reaching significance to the event; but, 
 looking back, I could feel sure that in the Austrian aristocracy a feeling 
 of relief outweighed all others. His Majesty regretted that his efforts 
 to win over the Archduke to his ideas had thus been frustrated by the 
 Archduke's assassination. . . . 
 
 I went on to Berlin and saw the Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg. 
 I told him that I regarded our foreign situation as very satisfactory as it 
 was a long time indeed since we had stood so well with England. And in 
 France there was a pacifist cabinet. Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg did
 
 64 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 ^^ 
 
 *. intent to attack us, and that such an attack would never have 
 
 sh or French support, as both countries wanted peace. 
 I went from him to Dr. Zimmermann (the under Secretary) who was 
 in * for Herr von Jagow (the Foreign Secretary), and learned from him 
 n* was abou? to call up nine hundred thousand new troops. 
 His words unmistakably denoted ill-humor against Russia, who, he s id, 
 etood everywhere in our way. In addition there were questions ; of com- 
 mercial policy that had to be settled. That General von Moltke was 
 urging war was, of course, not told to me. I learned however, that Herr 
 Tschirechky (the German Ambassador in Vienna) had been reproved 
 
 i i * ITT* _ J. V. nn* w\ s\*Jf\v*n 4"if\Y\ T/~\TI7Q TTl 
 
 von 
 
 VUIl O.BdlilO'^mvj' yv"*' ^^* . 
 
 because he said that he had advised Vienna to show moderation toward 
 Serbia. 
 
 Prince Lichnowsky went to his summer home in bilesia, qui 
 
 unaware of the impending crisis. He continues: 
 
 When I returned from Silesia on my way to London, I stopped only 
 a few hours in Berlin, where I heard that Austria intended to proceed 
 against Serbia so as to bring to an end an unbearable state of affairs. 
 Unfortunately, I failed at the moment to gauge the significance of the 
 news. I thought that once more it would come to nothing; that even if 
 Russia acted threateningly, the matter could soon be settled. I now 
 regret that I did not stay in Berlin and declare there and then that I 
 would have no hand in such a policy. 
 
 There was a meeting in Potsdam, as early as July 5th, between 
 the German and Austrian authorities, at which meeting war was 
 decided on. Prince Lichnowsky says: 
 
 I learned afterwards that at the decisive discussion at Potsdam on 
 July 5th the Austrian demand had met with the unconditional approval 
 of all the personages in authority; it was even added that no harm would 
 be done if war with Russia did come out of it. It was so stated at least 
 in the Austrian report received at London by Count Mensdorff (the 
 Austrian Ambassador to England). 
 
 At this point I received instructions to endeavor to bring the English 
 press to a friendly attitude in case Austria should deal the death-blow to 
 "Greater-Serbian" hopes. I was to use all my influence to prevent 
 public opinion in England from taking a stand against Austria. I remem- 
 bered England's attitude during the Bosnian annexation crisis, when 
 public opinion showed itself in sympathy with the Serbian claims to Bos- 
 nia; I recalled also the benevolent promotion of nationalist hopes that 
 went on in the days of Lord Byron and Garibaldi; and on these and other 
 grounds I thought it extremely unlikely that English public opinion would 
 support a punitive expedition against the Archduke's murderers. I thus 
 felt it my duty to enter an urgent warning against the whole project,
 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 67 
 
 which I characterized as venturesome and dangerous, I recommended 
 that counsels of moderation be given Austria, as 1 did not believe that the 
 conflict could be localized (that is to say, it could not be limited to a war 
 between Austria and Serbia). 
 
 Herr von Jagow answered me that Russia was not prepared; that 
 there would be more or less of a rumpus; but that the more firmly we 
 stood by Austria, the more surely would Russia give way. Austria was 
 already blaming us for flabbiness and we could not flinch. On the other 
 hand, Russian sentiment was growing more unfriendly all the time, and 
 we must simply take the risk. I subsequently learned that this attitude 
 was based on advices from Count Pourtales (the German Ambassador in 
 Petrograd), that Russia would not stir under any circumstances; informa- 
 tion which prompted us to spur Count Berchtold on in his course. On 
 learning the attitude of the German Government I looked for salvation 
 through English mediation, knowing that Sir Edward Grey's influence in 
 Petrograd could be used in the cause of peace. I, therefore, availed my- 
 self of my friendly relations with the Minister to ask him confidentially to 
 advise moderation in Russia in case Austria demanded satisfaction from 
 the Serbians, as it seemed likely she would. 
 
 The English press was quiet at first, and friendly to Austria, the 
 assassination being generally condemned. By degrees, however, more and 
 more voices made themselves heard, in the sense that, however necessary 
 it might be to take cognizance of the crime, any exploitation of it for 
 political ends was unjustifiable. Moderation was enjoined upon Austria. 
 When the ultimatum came out, all the papers, with the exception of the 
 Standard, were unanimous in condemning it. The whole world, outside 
 of Berlin and Vienna, realized that it meant war, and a world war too. 
 The English fleet, which happened to have been holding a naval review, 
 was not demobilized. 
 
 The British Government labored to make the Serbian reply 
 conciliatory, and <>: the Serbian answer was hi keeping with the 
 British efforts." Sir Edward Grey then proposed his plan of 
 mediation upon the two points which Serbia had not wholly con- 
 ceded. Prince Lichnowsky writes: 
 
 M. Cambon (for France), Marquis Imperial! (for Italy), and I 
 were to meet, with Sir Edward in the chair, and it would have been easy 
 to work out a formula for the debated points, which had to do with the 
 co-operation of imperial and royal officials in the inquiries to be con- 
 ducted at Belgrade. By the exercise of good will everything could have 
 been settled in one or two sittings, and the mere acceptance of the British 
 proposal would have relieved the strain and further improved our rela- 
 tions with England. I seconded this plan with all my energies. In vain. 
 I was told (by Berlin) that it would be against the dignity of Austria. 
 Of course, all that was needed was one hint from Berlin to Count Berch-
 
 68 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 told (the Austrian Foreign Minister); he would have satisfied himself 
 with a diplomatic triumph and rested on the Serbian answer. That hint 
 was never given. On the contrary, pressure was brought in favor of 
 
 war. 
 
 'After' our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come forward with our 
 proposal. We insisted on war. No other answer could I get (from Berlin) 
 than that it was a colossal condescension on the part of Austria not to> 
 contemplate any acquisition of territory. Sir Edward justly pointed 
 out that one could reduce a country to vassalage without acquiring terri- 
 tory; that Russia would see this, and regard it as a humiliation not to 
 be put up with. The impression grew stronger and stronger that we were- 
 bent on war. Otherwise our attitude toward a question in which we 
 were not directly concerned was incomprehensible. The insistent requests 
 and well-defined declarations of M. Sasanof, the Czar's positively humble 
 telegrams, Sir Edward's repeated proposals, the warnings of Marquis 
 San Guiliano and of Bollati, my own pressing admonitions were all of no 
 avail. Berlin remained inflexible Serbia must be slaughtered. 
 
 Then, on the 29th, Sir Edward decided upon his well-known warn- 
 ing. I told him I had always reported (to Berlin) that we should have to 
 reckon with English opposition if it came to a war with France. Time 
 and again the Minister said to me, "If war breaks out it will be the great- 
 est catastrophe the world has ever seen." And now events moved rapidly. 
 Count Berchtold at last decided to come around, having up to that point 
 played the r61e of "Strong man" under guidance of Berlin. Thereupon 
 we (in answer to Russia's mobilization) sent our ultimatum and declara- 
 tion of war after Russia had spent a whole week in fruitless negotiation 
 and waiting. 
 
 Thus ended my mission in London. It had suffered shipwreck, not 
 on the wiles of the Briton but on the wiles of our own policy. Were not 
 those right who saw that the German people was pervaded with the 
 spirit of Treitschke and Bernhardi, which glorifies war as an end instead 
 of holding it in abhorrence as an evil thing? Properly speaking militarism 
 is a school for the people and an instrument to further political ends. But 
 in the patriarchal absolutism of a military monarchy, militarism exploits 
 politics to further its own ends, and can create a situation which a democ- 
 racy freed from junkerdom would not tolerate. 
 
 That is what our enemies think; that is what they are bound to 
 think when they see that hi spite of capitalistic industrialism, and in spite 
 socialistic organizations, the living, as Nietzsche said, are still ruled 
 by the dead. The democratization of Germany, the first war aim pro- 
 posed by our enemies, will become a reality. 
 
 This is the frank statement of a great German statesman made 
 
 ong before Germany received its knock-out blow. It was written 
 
 when Germany was sweeping all before it on land, and when the 
 
 -boat was at the height of its murderous powers on the high seas.
 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 69 
 
 No one in nor out of Germany has controverted any of its statements 
 and it will forever remain as one of the counts in the indictment 
 against Germany and the sole cause of the world's greatest misery, 
 the war. 
 
 America's outstanding authority on matters of international 
 conduct, former Secretary of State Elihu Root declared that the 
 World War was a mighty and all-embracing struggle between two 
 conflicting principles of human right and human duty; it was a 
 conflict between the divine right of kings to govern mankind through 
 armies and nobles, and the right of the peoples of the earth who toil 
 and endure and aspire to govern themselves by law under justice, 
 and in the freedom of individual manhood. 
 
 After the declaration of war against Russia by Germany, 
 events marched rapidly and inevitably toward the general con- 
 flagration. Germany's most strenuous efforts were directed 
 toward keeping England out of the conflict. We have seen in the 
 revelations of Prince Lichnowsky how eager was England to divert 
 Germany's murderous purpose. There are some details, however, 
 required to fill in the diplomatic picture. 
 
 President Poincare, of the French Republic, on July 30th, 
 asked the British Ambassador in Paris for an assurance of British 
 support. On the folio whig day he addressed a similar letter to 
 King George of England. Both requests were qualifiedly refused 
 on the ground that England wished to be free to continue negotia- 
 tions with Germany for the purpose of averting the war. In the 
 meantime, the German Government addressed a note to England 
 offering guarantees for Belgian integrity, providing Belgium did 
 not side with France, offering to respect the neutrality of Holland 
 and giving assurance that no French territory hi Europe would be 
 annexed if Germay won the war. Sir Edward Grey described this 
 as a "shameful proposal, " and rejected it on July 30th. 
 
 On July 31st England sent a note to France and Germany 
 asking for a statement of purpose concerning Belgian neutrality. 
 France immediately announced that it would respect the treaty 
 of 1839 and its reaffirmation in 1870, guaranteeing Belgium's 
 neutrality. This treaty was entered into by Germany, England, 
 France, Austria and Russia. Germany's reply on August 1st was 
 a proposal that she would respect the neutrality of Belgium if 
 England would stay out of the war. This was promptly declined.
 
 70 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 On August 2d the British cabinet agreed that if the German fleet 
 attempted to attack the coast of France the British fleet would 
 intervene. Germany, the next day, sent a note agreeing to refrain 
 from naval attacks on France provided England would remain 
 neutral, but declined to commit herself as to the neutrality of 
 Belgium. Before this, however, on August 2d, Germany had 
 announced to Belgium its intention to enter Belgium for the purpose 
 of attacking France. The Belgian Minister hi London made an 
 appeal to the British Foreign Office and was informed that invasion 
 of Belgium by Germany would be followed by England's declaration 
 of war. Monday, August 3d, was signalized by Belgium's dec- 
 laration of its neutrality and its firm purpose to defend its soil 
 against invasion by France, England, Germany or any other nation. 
 
 The actual invasion of Belgium commenced on the morning of 
 August 4th, when twelve regiments of Uhlans crossed the frontier 
 near Vise, and came hi contact with a Belgian force driving it back 
 upon Lie"ge. King Albert of Belgium promptly appealed to England, 
 Russia and France for aid in repelling the invader. England sent 
 an ultimatum to Germany fixing midnight of August 4th as the 
 time for expiration of the ultimatum. This demanded that satis- 
 factory assurances be furnished immediately that Germany would 
 respect the neutrality of Belgium. No reply was made by Germany 
 and England's declaration of war followed. 
 
 Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, of the German Empire, 
 wrote Germany's infamy into history when, in a formal statement, 
 he acknowledged that the invasion* of Belgium was "a wrong that 
 we will try to make good again as soon as our military ends have 
 been reached." To Sir Edward Vochen, British Ambassador to 
 Germany, he addressed the inquiry: "Is it the purpose of your 
 country to make war upon Germany for the sake of a scrap 
 of paper?" The treaty of 1839-1870 guaranteeing Belgium's 
 neutrality was the scrap of paper. 
 
 With the entrance of England into the war, the issue between 
 autocracy and democracy was made plain before the people of the 
 world. Austria, and later Turkey, joined with Germany; France, 
 and Japan, by reason of their respective treaty obligations joined 
 England and Russia. Italy for the time preferred to remain neu- 
 tral, ignoring her implied alliance with the Teutonic empires. 
 How other nations lined up on the one side and the other is indicated
 
 THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENES 73 
 
 by the State Department's list of war declarations, and diplomatic 
 severances, which follows: 
 
 Austria against Belgium, Aug. 28, 1914. 
 
 Austria against Japan, Aug. 27, 1914. 
 
 Austria against Montenegro, Aug. 9, 1914. 
 
 Austria against Russia, Aug. 6, 1914. 
 
 Austria against Serbia, July 28, 1914. 
 
 Belgium against Germany, Aug. 4, 1914. 
 
 Brazil against Germany, Oct. 26, 1917. 
 
 Bulgaria against Serbia, Oct. 14, 1915. 
 
 China against Austria, Aug. 14, 1917. 
 
 China against Germany, Aug. 14, 1917. 
 
 Costa Rica against Germany, May 23, 1918. 
 
 Cuba against Germany, April 7, 1917. 
 
 Cuba against Austria-Hungary, Dec. 16, 1917. 
 
 France against Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. 
 
 France against Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915. 
 
 France against Germany, Aug. 3, 1914. 
 
 France against Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914. 
 
 Germany against Belgium, Aug. 4, 1914. 
 
 Germany against France, Aug. 3, 1914. 
 
 Germany against Portugal, March 9, 1916. 
 
 Germany against Roumania, Sept. 14, 1916. 
 
 Germany against Russia, Aug. 1, 1914. 
 
 Great Britain against Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. 
 
 Great Britain against Bulgaria, Oct. 15, 1915. 
 
 Great Britain against Germany, Aug. 4, 1914. 
 
 Great Britain against Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914. 
 
 Greece against Bulgaria, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.) 
 
 Greece against Bulgaria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) 
 
 Greece against Germany, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.) 
 
 Greece against Germany, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) 
 
 Guatemala against Germany and Austria-Hungary, April 22, 1918. 
 
 Haiti against Germany, July 15, 1918. 
 
 Honduras against Germany, July 19, 1918. 
 
 Italy against Austria, May 24, 1915. 
 
 Italy against Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915. 
 
 Italy against Germany, Aug. 28, 1916. 
 
 Italy against Turkey, Aug. 21, 1915. 
 
 Japan against Germany, Aug. 23, 1914. 
 
 Liberia against Germany, Aug. 4, 1917. 
 
 Montenegro against Austria, Aug. 8, 1914. 
 
 Montenegro against Germany, Aug. 9, 1914. 
 
 Nicaragua against Germany, May 24, 1918. 
 
 Panama against Germany, April 7, 1917.
 
 74 HISTORY OF^THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Panama against Austria, Dec. 10, 1917. 
 
 Portugal against Germany, Nov. 23, 1914. (Resolution passed 
 authorizing military intervention as ally of England.) 
 
 Portugal against Germany, May 19, 1915. (Military aid granted.) 
 
 Roumania against Austria, Aug. 27, 1916. (Allies of Austria also 
 consider it a declaration.) 
 
 Russia against Germany, Aug. 7, 1914. 
 
 Russia against Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915. 
 
 Russia against Turkey, Nov. 3, 1914. 
 
 San Marino against Austria, May 24, 1915. 
 
 Serbia against Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915. 
 
 Serbia against Germany, Aug. 6, 1914. 
 
 Serbia against Turkey, Dec. 2, 1914. 
 
 Siam against Austria, July 22, 1917. 
 
 Siam against Germany, July 22, 1917. 
 
 Turkey against Allies, Nov. 23, 1914. 
 
 Turkey against Roumania, Aug. 29, 1916. 
 
 United States against Germany, April 6, 1917. 
 
 United States against Austria-Hungary, Dec. 7, 1917. 
 
 SEVERANCE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 
 
 The Nations that formally severed relations whether afterward 
 declaring war or not, are as follows: 
 Austria against Japan, Aug. 26, 1914. 
 Austria against Portugal, March 16, 1916. 
 Austria against Serbia, July 26, 1914. 
 Austria against United States, April 8, 1917. 
 Bolivia against Germany, April 14, 1917. 
 Brazil against Germany, April 11, 1917. 
 China against Germany, March 14, 1917. 
 Costa Rica against Germany, Sept. 21, 1917. 
 Ecuador against Germany, Dec. 7, 1917. 
 Egypt against Germany, Aug. 13, 1914. 
 France against Austria, Aug. 10, 1914. 
 
 Greece against Turkey, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) 
 Greece against Austria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander ) 
 
 -uatemala against Germany, April 27, 1917. 
 Haiti against Germany, June 17, 1917. 
 Honduras against Germany, May 17, 1917. 
 Nicaragua against Germany, May 18, 1917. 
 Peru against Germany, Oct. 6, 1917. 
 Santo Domingo against Germany, June 8 1917 
 Turkey against United States, April 20, 1917. 
 united States against Germany, Feb. 3, 1917 
 Uruguay against Germany, Oct. 7, 1917.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 
 
 YEARS before 1914, when Germany declared war against 
 civilization, it was decided by the German General Staff 
 to strike at France through Belgium. The records of the 
 German Foreign Office prove that fact. The reason for 
 this lay in the long line of powerful fortresses along the line that 
 divides France from Germany and the sparsely spaced and com- 
 paratively out-of-date forts on the border between Germany and 
 Belgium. True, there was a treaty guaranteeing the inviolability 
 of Belgian territory to which Germany was a signatory party. 
 Some of the clauses of that treaty were: 
 
 Article 9. Belgium, within the limits traced in conformity with the 
 principles laid down in the present preliminaries, shall form a perpetually 
 neutral state. The five powers (England, France, Austria, Prussia and 
 Russia), without wishing to intervene in the internal affairs of Belgium, 
 guarantee her that perpetual neutrality as well as the integrity and 
 inviolability of her territory in the limits mentioned in the present article. 
 
 Article 10. By just reciprocity Belgium shall be held to observe this 
 same neutrality toward all the other states and to make no attack on their 
 internal or external tranquillity while always preserving the right to 
 defend herself against any foreign aggression. 
 
 This agreement was followed on January 23, 1839, by a defini- 
 tive treaty, accepted by Belgium and by the Netherlands, which 
 treaty regulates Belgium's neutrality as follows: 
 
 Article 7. Belgium, within the limits defined in Articles 1, 2 and 4, 
 shall form an independent and perpetually neutral state. She is obligated 
 to preserve this neutrality against all the other states. 
 
 To convert this solemn covenant into a "scrap of paper" it 
 was necessary that Germany should find an excuse for tearing it 
 to pieces. There was absolutely no provocation in sight, but that 
 did not deter the German High Command. That august body with 
 no information whatever to afford an excuse, alleged in a formal 
 note to the Belgian Government that the French army intended 
 
 75
 
 76 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 to invade Germany through Belgian territory. This hypocritical 
 and mendacious note and Belgium's vigorous reply follow: 
 
 Note handed in on August 2, 1914, at 7 o'clock p. M., by Herr von 
 Below-Saleske, German Minister, to M. Davignon, Belgian Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs. 
 
 BRUSSELS, 2d August, 1914. 
 
 IMPERIAL GERMAN LEGATION IN BELGIUM 
 
 (Highly confidential) 
 
 The German Government has received reliable information according 
 to which the French forces intend to march on the Meuse, by way of 
 Givet and Namur. This information leaves no doubt as to the intention 
 of France of marching on Germany through Belgian territory. The Impe- 
 rial Government cannot avoid the fear that Belgium, in spite of its best 
 will, will be in no position to repulse such a largely developed French 
 march without aid. In this fact there is sufficient certainty of a threat 
 directed against Germany. 
 
 It is an imperative duty for the preservation of Germany to forestall 
 this attack of the enemy. 
 
 The German Government would feel keen regret if Belgium should 
 regard as an act of hostility against herself the fact that the measures of 
 the enemies of Germany oblige her on her part to violate Belgian territory. 
 
 In order to dissipate any misunderstanding the German Government 
 declares as follows: 
 
 1. Germany does not contemplate any act of hostility against Bel- 
 gium. If Belgium consents in the war about to commence to take up an 
 attitude of friendly neutrality toward Germany, the German Government 
 on its part undertakes, on the declaration of peace, to guarantee the 
 kingdom and its possessions in their whole extent. 
 
 2. Germany undertakes under the conditions laid down to evacuate 
 Belgian territory as soon as peace is concluded. 
 
 3. If Belgium preserves a friendly attitude, Germany is prepared, in 
 agreement with the authorities of the Belgian Government, to buy against 
 cash all that is required by her troops, and to give indemnity for the 
 damages caused in Belgium. 
 
 4. If Belgium behaves in a hostile manner toward the German troops, 
 and m particular raises difficulties against their advance by the opposi- 
 tion of the fortifications of the Meuse, or by destroying roads, railways, 
 tunnels or other engineering works, Germany will be compelled to con- 
 sider Belgium as an enemy. 
 
 In this case Germany will take no engagements toward Belgium, but 
 
 c will leave the later settlement of relations of the two states toward 
 
 le another to the decision of arms. The German Government has a 
 
 I hope that this contingency will not arise and that the Belgian
 
 THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 77 
 
 Government will know how to take suitable measures to hinder its taking 
 place. In this case the friendly relations which unite the two neighbor- 
 ing states will become closer and more lasting. 
 
 THE REPLY BY BELGIUM 
 
 Note handed in by M. Davignon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to 
 Herr von Below-Saleske, German Minister. 
 
 BRUSSELS, 3d August, 1914. 
 (7 o'clock in the morning.) 
 
 By the note of the 2d August, 1914, the German Government has 
 made known that according to certain intelligence the French forces 
 intend to march on the Meuse via Givet and Namur and that Belgium, 
 in spite of her good-will, would not be able without help to beat off an 
 advance of the French troops. 
 
 The German Government felt it to be its duty to forestall this 
 attack and to violate Belgian territory. Under these conditions Germany 
 proposes to the King's Government to take up a friendly attitude, and 
 undertakes at the moment of peace to guarantee the integrity of the king- 
 dom and of her possessions in their whole extent. The note adds that if 
 Belgium raises difficulties to the forward march of the German troops 
 Germany will be compelled to consider her as an enemy and to leave the 
 later settlement of the two states toward one another to the decision of 
 arms. 
 
 This note caused profound and painful surprise to the King's 
 Government. 
 
 The intentions which it attributed to France are in contradiction 
 with the express declarations which were made to us on the 1st of August, 
 in the name of the government of the republic. 
 
 Moreover, if, contrary to our expectation, a violation of Belgian 
 neutrality were to be committed by France, Belgium would fulfil all her 
 international duties and her army would offer the most vigorous opposition 
 to the invader. 
 
 The treaties of 1839, confirmed by the treaties of 1870, establish 
 the independence and the neutrality of Belgium under the guarantee of 
 the powers, and particularly of the Government of his Majesty the King 
 of Prussia. 
 
 Belgium has always been faithful to her international obligations; 
 she has fulfilled her duties in a spirit of loyal impartiality; she has neglected 
 no effort to maintain her neutrality or to make it respected. 
 
 The attempt against her independence with which the German 
 Government threatens her would constitute a flagrant violation of 
 international law. No strategic interest justifies the violation of that law. 
 
 The Belgian Government would, by accepting the propositions 
 which are notified to her, sacrifice the honor of the nation while at the 
 same time betraying her duties toward Europe.
 
 78 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Conscious of the part Belgium has played for more than eighty years 
 in the civilization of the world, she refuses to believe that the independence 
 of Belgium can be preserved only at the expense of the violation of her 
 
 neutrality. 
 
 If this hope were disappointed the Belgian Government has firmly 
 resolved to repulse by every means in her power any attack upon her 
 rights. 
 
 The German attack upon Belgium and France came with 
 terrible force and suddenness. Twenty-four army corps, divided 
 into three armies clad in a specially designed and colored gray- 
 green uniform, swept in three mighty streams over the German 
 borders with their objective the heart of France. The Army of 
 the Meuse was given the route through Liege, Namur and Mau- 
 beuge. The Army of the Moselle violated the Duchy of Luxem- 
 burg, which, under a treaty guaranteeing its independence and 
 neutrality, was not permitted to maintain an army. Germany 
 was a signatory party to this treaty also. The Army of the Rhine 
 cut through the Vosges Mountains and its route lay between the 
 French cities of Nancy and Toul. 
 
 The heroic defense of the Belgian army at Lie*ge against the 
 Army of the Meuse delayed the operation of Germany's plans and 
 in all probability saved Paris. It was the first of many similar 
 disappointments and checks that Germany encountered during 
 the war. 
 
 The defense of Lie*ge continued for ten heroic days. Within 
 that interval the first British Expeditionary Forces were landed in 
 France and Belgium, the French army was mobilized to full 
 strength. The little Belgian army falling back northward on 
 Antwerp, Louvain and Brussels, threatened the German flank and 
 approximately 200,000 German soldiers were compelled to remain 
 in the conquered section of Belgium to garrison it effectively. 
 
 Lie*ge fortifications were the design of the celebrated strategist 
 Brialmont. They consisted of twelve isolated fortresses which had 
 been permitted to become out of repair. No field works of any 
 kind connected them and they were without provision for defense 
 against encircling tactics and against modern artillery. 
 
 The huge 42-centimeter guns, the first of Germany's terrible 
 surprises, were brought into action against these forts, and their 
 concrete and armored steel turrets were cracked as walnuts are
 
 THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 79 
 
 cracked between the jaws of a nut-cracker. The Army of the 
 Meuse then made its way like a gray-green cloud of poison gas 
 through Belgium. A cavalry screen of crack Uhlan regiments 
 preceded it, and it made no halt worthy of note until it confronted 
 the Belgian army on the line running from Louvain to Namur. 
 The Belgians were forced back before Louvain on August 20th, 
 the Belgian Government removed the capital from Brussels to 
 Antwerp, and the German hosts entered evacuated Brussels. 
 
 During this advance of the Army of the Meuse, strong French 
 detachments invaded German soil, pouring into Alsace through 
 the Belfort Gap. Brief successes attended the bold stroke. Mul- 
 hausen was captured and the Metz-Strassburg Railroad was cut 
 in several places. The French suffered a defeat almost immediately 
 following this first flush of victory, both in Alsace and in Lorraine, 
 where a French detachment had engaged with the Army of the 
 Moselle. The French army thereupon retreated to the strong line 
 of forts and earthworks defending the border between France and 
 Germany. 
 
 England's first expeditionary force landed at Ostend, Calais 
 and Dunkirk on August 7th. It was dubbed England's " con- 
 temptible little army" by the German General Staff. That name 
 was seized upon gladly by England as a spur to volunteering. It 
 brought to the surface national pride and a fierce determination 
 to compel Germany to recognize and to reckon with the "con- 
 temptible little army." 
 
 The contact between the French, Belgian and British forces 
 was speedily established and something like concerted resistance 
 to the advance of the enemy was made possible. The German 
 army, however, followed by a huge equipment of motor kitchens, 
 munition trains, and other motor transport evidencing great care 
 in preparation for the movement, swept resistlessly forward until it 
 encountered the French and British on a line running from Mons 
 to Charleroi. 
 
 The British army was assigned to a position between two 
 French armies. By some miscalculation, the French army that 
 was to have taken its position on the British left, never appeared. 
 The French army on the right was attacked and defeated at 
 Charleroi, falling back in some confuson. The German Army of 
 the Moselle co-operating with the Army of the Meuse then attacked
 
 80 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the British and French, and a great flanking movement by the 
 German joint commands developed. 
 
 This was directed mainly at the British under command of 
 Sir John French. There followed a retreat that for sheer heroism 
 and dogged determination has become one of the great battles of 
 all tune. The British, outflanked and outnumbered three to one, 
 fought and marched without cessation for six days and nights. 
 Time after tune envelopment and disaster threatened them, but 
 with a determination that would not be beaten they fought off 
 the best that Germany could send against them, maintained 
 contact with the French army on their right, and delayed the 
 German advance so effectively that a complete disarrangement of 
 all the German plans ensued. This was the second great disap- 
 pointment to Germany. It made possible the victory of the 
 Marne and the victorious peace of 1918. The story of that 
 immortal retreat is best told in the words of Sir John French, 
 transmitting the report of this encounter to the British War Office: 
 
 "The transport of the troops from England both by sea and 
 by rail was effected in the best order and without a check. Each 
 unit arrived at its destination well within the scheduled time. 
 
 "The concentration was practically complete on the evening 
 of Friday, the 21st ultimo, and I was able to make dispositions to 
 move the force during Saturday, the 22d, to positions I considered 
 most favorable from which to commence operations which the 
 French commander-in-chief, General Joffre, requested me to under- 
 take in pursuance of his plans in prosecution of the campaign. 
 
 "The line taken up extended along the line of the canal from 
 Conde* on the west, through Mons and Binche on the east. This 
 line was taken up as follows: 
 
 "From Cond6 to Mons, inclusive, was assigned to the Second 
 Corps, and to the right of the Second Corps from Mons the First 
 Corps was posted. The Fifth Cavalry Brigade was placed at 
 Binche. 
 
 "In the absence of my Third Army Corps I desired to keep the 
 cavalry divisions as much as possible as a reserve to act on my 
 outer flank, or move hi support of any threatened part of the line. 
 The forward reconnoissance was intrusted to Brig.-Gen. Sir Philip 
 Chetwode, with the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, but I directed General 
 Allenby to send forward a few squadrons to assist hi this work.
 
 THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 81 
 
 "During the 22d and 23d these advanced squadrons did 
 some excellent work, some of them penetrating as far as Soignies, 
 and several encounters took place in which our troops showed to 
 great advantage. 
 
 "2. At 6 A. M., on August 23d, I assembled the commanders of 
 the First and Second Corps and cavalry division at a point close 
 to the position and explained the general situation of the Allies, 
 and what I understood to be General Joffre's plan. I discussed 
 with them at some length the immediate situation in front of us. 
 
 "From information I received from French headquarters I 
 understood that little more than one, or at most two, of the enemy's 
 army corps, with perhaps one cavalry division, were in front of 
 my position; and I was aware of no attempted outflanking move- 
 ment by the enemy. I was confirmed in this opinion by the fact 
 that my patrols encountered no undue opposition hi then* recon- 
 noitering operations. The observations of my airplanes seemed 
 to bear out this estimate. 
 
 "About 3 P. M. on Sunday, the 23d, reports began coming hi 
 to the effect that the enemy was commencing an attack on the 
 Mons line, apparently in some strength, but that the right of the 
 position from Mons and Bray was being particularly threatened. 
 
 "The commander of the First Corps had pushed his flank 
 back to some high ground south of Bray, and the Fifth Cavalry 
 Brigade evacuated Binche, moving slightly south; the enemy 
 thereupon occupied Binche. 
 
 "The right of the Third Division, under General Hamilton, was 
 at Mons, which formed a somewhat dangerous salient; and I 
 directed the commander of the Second Corps to be careful not to 
 keep the troops on this salient too long, but, if threatened seriously, 
 to draw back the center behind Mons. This was done before dark. 
 In the meantime, about 5 p. M., I received a most unexpected 
 message from General Joffre by telegraph, telling me that at least 
 three German corps, viz., a reserve corps, the Fourth Corps and 
 the Ninth Corps, were moving on my position in front, and that 
 the Second Corps was engaged hi a turning movement from the 
 direction of Tournay. He also informed me that the two reserve 
 French divisions and the Fifth French army on my right were 
 retiring, the Germans having on the previous day gained possession 
 of the passages of the Sambre, between Charleroi and Namur. 
 a
 
 82 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "3. In view of the possibility of my being driven from the 
 Mons position, I had previously ordered a position in rear to be 
 reconnoitered. This position rested on the fortress of Maubeuge 
 on the right and extended west to Jenlain, southest to Valenciennes, 
 on the left. The position was reported difficult to hold, because 
 standing crops and buildings made the placing of trenches very 
 difficult and limited the field of fire in many important localities. 
 It nevertheless afforded a few good artillery positions. 
 
 "When the news of the retirement of the French and the 
 heavy German threatening on my front reached me, I endeavored 
 to confirm it by airplane reconnoissance; and as a result of this I 
 determined to effect a retirement to the Maubeuge position at 
 daybreak on the 24th. 
 
 "A certain amount of fighting continued along the whole 
 line throughout the night and at daybreak on the 24th the Second 
 Division from the neighborhood of Harmignies made a powerful 
 demonstration as if to retake Binche. This was supported by the 
 artillery of both the First and" Second Divisions, while the First 
 Division took up a supporting position in the neighborhood of 
 Peissant. Under cover of this demonstration the Second Corps 
 retired on the line Dour-Quarouble-Frame"ries. The Third Division 
 on the right of the corps suffered considerable loss in this operation 
 from the enemy, who had retaken Mons. 
 
 "The Second Corps halted on this line, where they partially 
 intrenched themselves, enabling Sir Douglas Haig with the First 
 Corps gradually to withdraw to the new position; and he effected 
 this without much further loss, reaching the line Bavai-Maubeuge 
 about 7 P. M. Toward midday the enemy appeared to be directing 
 his principal effort against our left. 
 
 "I had previously ordered General Allenby with the cavalry to 
 act vigorously hi advance of my left front and endeavor to take 
 the pressure off. 
 
 "About 7.30 A. M. General Allenby received a message from Sir 
 Charles Ferguson, commanding the Fifth Division, saying that he 
 was very hard pressed and in urgent need of support. On receipt 
 of this message General Allenby drew in the cavalry and endeav- 
 ored to bring direct support to the Fifth Division. 
 
 "During the course of this operation General De Lisle, of the 
 Second Cavalry Brigade, thought he saw a good opportunity to
 
 THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 83 
 
 paralyze the further advance of the enemy's infantry by making a 
 mounted attack on his flank. He formed up and advanced for 
 this purpose, but was held up by wire about five hundred yards 
 from his objective, and the Ninth Lancers and the Eighteenth 
 Hussars suffered severely in the retirement of the brigade. 
 
 "The Nineteenth Infantry Brigade, which had been guarding 
 the line of communications, was brought up by rail to Valenciennes 
 on the 22d and 23d. On the morning of the 24th they were 
 moved out to a position south of Quarouble to support the left 
 flank of the Second Corps. 
 
 "With the assistance of the cavalry Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien 
 was enabled to effect his retreat to a new position; although, 
 having two corps of the enemy on his front and one threatening 
 his flank, he suffered great losses hi doing so. 
 
 "At nightfall the position was occupied by the Second Corps 
 to the west of Bavai, the First Corps to the right. The right was 
 protected by the Fortress of Maubeuge, the left by the Nineteenth 
 Brigade in position between Jenlain and Bry, and the cavalry on 
 the outer flank. 
 
 "4. The French were still retiring, and I had no support 
 except such as was afforded by the Fortress of Maubeuge; and the 
 determined attempts of the enemy to get round my left flank 
 assured me that it was his intention to hem me against that place 
 and surround me. I felt that not a moment must be lost in retiring 
 to another position. 
 
 "I had every reason to believe that the enemy's forces were 
 somewhat exhausted and I knew that they had suffered heavy 
 losses. I hoped, therefore, that his pursuit would not be too 
 vigorous to prevent me effecting my object. 
 
 "The operation, however, was full of danger and difficulty, 
 not only owing to the very superior force in my front, but also to 
 the exhaustion of the troops. 
 
 "The retirement was recommenced in the early morning of 
 the 25th to a position in the neighborhood of Le Cateau, and 
 rearguards were ordered to be clear of the Maubeuge-Bavai-Eih 
 Road by 5.30 A. M. 
 
 "Two cavalry brigades, with the divisional cavalry of the 
 Second Corps, covered the movement of the Second Corps. The 
 remainder of the cavalry division with the Nineteenth Brigade*
 
 84 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the whole under the command of General Allenby, covered the 
 west flank. 
 
 "The Fourth Division commenced its detrainment at Le Cateau 
 on Sunday, the 23d, and by the morning of the 25th eleven bat- 
 talions and a brigade of artillery with divisional staff were available 
 for service. 
 
 "I ordered General Snow to move out to take up a position 
 with his right south of Solesmes, his left resting on the Cambrai- 
 LeCateau Road south of La Chaprie. In this position the division 
 rendered great help to the effective retirement of the Second and 
 First Corps to the new position. 
 
 " Although the troops had been ordered to occupy the Cambrai- 
 Le Cateau-Landrecies position, and the ground had, during the 
 25th, been partially prepared and intrenched, I had grave doubts, 
 owing to the information I had received as to the accumulating 
 strength of the enemy against me as to the wisdom of standing 
 there to fight. 
 
 "Having regard to the continued retirement of the French on 
 my right, my exposed left flank, the tendency of the enemy's 
 western corps (II) to envelop me, and, more than all, the exhausted 
 condition of the troops, I determined to make a great effort to 
 continue the retreat until I could put some substantial obstacle, 
 such as the Somme or the Oise, between my troops and the enemy, 
 and afford the former some opportunitj" of rest and reorganization. 
 Orders were, therefore, sent to the corps commanders to continue 
 then 1 retreat as soon as they possibly could toward the general 
 line Vermand-St. Quentin-Ribemont. 
 
 "The cavalry under General Allenby, were ordered to cover 
 the retirement. 
 
 "Throughout the 25th and far into the evening, the First 
 Corps continued its march on Landrecies, following the road 
 along the eastern border of the Foret de Mormal, and arrived at 
 Landrecies about 10 o'clock. I had intended that the corps should 
 come further west so as to fill up the gap between Le Cateau and 
 Landrecies, but the men were exhausted and could not get further 
 in without rest. 
 
 u The enemy, however, would not allow them this rest, and 
 about 9.30 p. M. a report was received that the Fourth Guards 
 Brigade in Landrecies was heavily attacked by troops of the Ninth
 
 THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 85 
 
 German Army Corps, who were coming through the forest on the 
 north of the town. This brigade fought most gallantly, and 
 caused the enemy to suffer tremendous loss in issuing from the 
 forest into the narrow streets of the town. This loss has been 
 estimated from reliable sources at from 700 to 1,000. At the same 
 time information reached me from Sir Douglas Haig that his 
 First Division was also heavily engaged south and east of Maroilles. 
 I sent urgent messages to the commander of the two French reserve 
 divisions on my right to come up to the assistance of the First 
 Corps, which they eventually did. Partly owing to this assistance, 
 but mainly to the skilful manner in which Sir Douglas Haig extri- 
 cated his corps from an exceptionally difficult position in the 
 darkness of the night, they were able at dawn to resume their 
 march south toward Wassigny on Guise. 
 
 "By about 6 P. M. the Second Corps had got into position with 
 their right on Le Cateau, their left in the neighborhood of Caudry, 
 and the line of defense was continued thence by the Fourth Division 
 toward Seranvillers, the left being thrown back. 
 
 "During the fighting on the 24th and 25th the cavalry became 
 a good deal scattered, but by the early morning of the 26th, General 
 Allenby had succeeded in concentrating two brigades to the south 
 of Cambrai. 
 
 "The Fourth Division was placed under the orders of the 
 general officer commanding the Second Army Corps. 
 
 "On the 24th the French Cavalry Corps, consisting of three 
 divisions under General Sordet, had been in billets north of Avesnes. 
 On my way back from Bavai, which was my 'Poste de Commande- 
 ment' during the fighting of the 23d and 24th, I visited General 
 Sordet, and earnestly requested his co-operation and support. 
 He promised to obtain sanction from his army commander to act 
 on my left flank, but said that his horses were too tired to move 
 before the next day. Although he rendered me valuable assistance 
 later on in the course of the retirement, he was unable, for the reasons 
 given, to afford me any support on the most critical day of all, 
 viz., the 26th. 
 
 "At daybreak it became apparent that the enemy was throw- 
 ing the bulk of his strength against the left of the position occupied 
 by the Second Corps and the Fourth Division. 
 
 "At this time the guns of four German army corps were in
 
 86 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 position against them, and Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien reported to 
 me that he judged it impossible to continue his retirement at day- 
 break (as ordered) in face of such an attack. 
 
 "I sent him orders to use his utmost endeavors to break off 
 the action and retire at the earliest possible moment, as it was 
 impossible for me to send him any support, the First Corps being 
 at the moment incapable of movement. 
 
 "The French Cavalry Corps, under General Sordet, was coming 
 up on our left rear early in the morning, and I sent an urgent mes- 
 sage to him to do his utmost to come up and support the retire- 
 ment of my left flank; but owing to the fatigue of his horses he 
 found himself unable to intervene in any way. 
 
 "There had been no time to intrench the position properly, 
 but the troops showed a magnificent front to the terrible fire which 
 confronted them. 
 
 "The artillery, although outmatched by at least four to one, 
 made a splendid fight, and inflicted heavy losses on their opponents. 
 
 "At length it became apparent that, if complete annihilation 
 was to be avoided, a retirement must be attempted; and the order 
 was given to commence it about 3.30 P. M. The movement was 
 covered with the most devoted intrepidity and determination by the 
 artillery, which had itself suffered heavily, and the fine work done 
 by the cavalry hi the further retreat from the position assisted 
 materially in the final completion of this most difficult and dan- 
 gerous operation. 
 
 "Fortunately the enemy had himself suffered too heavily to 
 engage in an energetic pursuit. 
 
 "I cannot close the brief account of this glorious stand of the 
 British troops without putting on record my deep appreciation of 
 the valuable services rendered by Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. 
 
 "I say without hesitation that the saving of the left wing 
 of the army under my command on the morning of the 26th of 
 August, could never have been accomplished unless a commander 
 of rare and unusual coolness, intrepidity, and determination had 
 been present to personally conduct the operation. 
 
 "The retreat was continued far into the night of the 26th and 
 through the 27th and 28th, on which date the troops halted on the 
 line Noyon-Chauny-LaFSre, having then thrown off the weight of 
 the enemy's pursuit.
 
 THE GREAT WAR BEGINS 87 
 
 "On the 27th and 28th I was much indebted to General Sordet 
 and the French Cavalry Division which he commands for materially 
 assisting my retirement and successfully driving back some of the 
 enemy on Cambrai. 
 
 "This closes the period covering the heavy fighting which 
 commenced at Mons on Sunday afternoon, 23d August, and which 
 really constituted a four days' battle. 
 
 "It is impossible for me to speak too highly of the skill 
 evinced by the two general officers commanding army corps; the 
 self-sacrificing and devoted exertions of then* staffs; the direction 
 of the troops by divisional, brigade, and regimental leaders; the 
 command of the smaller units by their officers; and the magnifi- 
 cent fighting spirit displayed by non-commissioned officers and men. 
 
 "I wish particularly to bring to your Lordship's notice the 
 admirable work done by the Royal Flying Corps under Sir David 
 Henderson. Their skill, energy, and perseverence have been 
 beyond all praise. They have furnished me with the most com- 
 plete and accurate information, which has been of incalculable 
 value in the conduct of the operations. Fired at constantly both 
 by friend and foe, and not hesitating to fly in every kind of weather, 
 they have remained undaunted throughout. 
 
 "Further, by actually fighting in the air, they have suc- 
 ceeded in destroying five of the enemy's machines." 
 
 The combined French and British armies, including the 
 forces that had retreated from Alsace and Lorraine, gave way 
 with increasing stubborness before von Kluck. That German 
 general disregarding the fortresses surrounding Paris, swung 
 southward to make a junction with the Army of the Crown Prince 
 of Germany advancing through the Vosges Mountains. General 
 Manoury's army opposed the German advance on the entrenched 
 line of Paris. General Gallieni commanding the garrison of Paris, 
 was ready with a novel mobile transport consisting of taxicabs 
 and fast trucks. The total number of soldiers in the French and 
 British armies now outnumbered those in the German armies 
 opposed to them. 
 
 General Joffre, hi supreme command of the French, had 
 chosen the battleground. He had set the trap with consummate 
 skill. The word was given; the trap was sprung; and the first 
 battle of the Marne came as a crashing surprise to Germany.
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 
 
 GERMANY'S onrush into heroic Belgium speedily re- 
 solved itself into a saturnalia that drenched the land 
 with blood and roused the civilized world into resentful 
 horror. As the tide of barbarity swept forward into 
 Northern France, stories of the horrors filtered through the close 
 web of German censorship. There were denials at first by German 
 propagandists. In the face of truth furnished by thousands of 
 witnesses, the denials faded away. 
 
 What caused these atrocities? Were they the spontaneous 
 expression of dormant brutishness hi German soldiers? Were 
 they a sudden reversion of an entire nation to bestiality? 
 
 The answer is that the private soldier as an individual was 
 not responsible. The carnage, the rapine, the wholesale desola- 
 tion was an integral part of the German policy of schrecklichkeit 
 or frightfulness. This policy was laid down by Germany as part 
 of its imperial war code. In 1902 Germany issued a new war 
 manual entitled "Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege." In it is written 
 this cold-blooded declaration : 
 
 All measures which conduce to the attainment of the object of war 
 are permissible and these may be summarized in the two ideas of violence 
 and cunning. What is permissible includes every means of war without 
 which the object of the war cannot be attained. All means which 
 modern invention affords, including the fullest, most dangerous, and most 
 massive means of destruction, may be utilized. 
 
 Brand Whitlock, United States Minister to Belgium, hi a 
 formal report to the State Department, made this statement 
 concerning Germany's policy hi permitting these outrages: 
 
 "All these deliberate organized massacres of civilians, all 
 these murders and outrages, the violation of women, the killing of 
 children, wanton destruction, burning, looting and pillage, and 
 whole towns destroyed, were acts for which no possible military 
 
 88
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 91 
 
 necessity can be pleaded. They were wilfully committed as part 
 of a deliberately prepared and scientifically organized policy of 
 terrorism." 
 
 And now, having considered these outrages as part of the Ger- 
 man policy of terrorism, let us turn to the facts presented by those 
 who made investigations at first hand in devastated Belgium and 
 Northern France. 
 
 Let us first turn to the tragic story of the destruction of 
 Louvain. The first document comes in the form of a cable sent 
 from the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs under date of 
 Augusts, 1914: 
 
 " On Tuesday evening a body of German troops who had 
 been driven back retired in disorder upon the town of Louvain. 
 Germans who were guarding the town thought that the retiring 
 troops were Belgians and fired upon them. In order to excuse 
 this mistake the Germans, in spite of the most energetic denials 
 on the part of the authorities, pretended that Belgians had fired on 
 the Germans, although all the inhabitants, including policemen, 
 had been disarmed for more than a week. Without any examina- 
 tion and without listening to any protest the commanding officer 
 announced that the town would be immediately destroyed. All 
 inhabitants had to leave their homes at once; some were made 
 prisoners; women and children were put into a train of which the 
 destination was unknown; soldiers with fire bombs set fire to the 
 different quarters of the town; the splendid Church of St. Pierre, 
 the markets, the university and its scientific establishments, were 
 given to the flames, and it is probable that the Hotel de Ville, 
 this celebrated jewel of Gothic art, will also have disappeared in 
 the disaster. Several notabilities were shot at sight. Thus a 
 town of 40,000 inhabitants, which, since the fifteenth century, has 
 been the intellectual and scientific capital of the Low Countries 
 is a heap of ashes. Americans, many of whom have followed the 
 course at this illustrious alma mater and have there received such 
 cordial hospitality, cannot remain insensible to this outrage on 
 the rights of humanity and civilization which is unprecedented 
 in history." 
 
 Minister Whitlock made the following report on the same 
 outrage : 
 
 "A violent fusillade broke out simultaneously at various
 
 92 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 points in the city (Louvain), notably at the Porte de Bruxelles, 
 Porte de Tirlemont, Rue Leopold, Rue Marie-Therese, Rue des 
 Joyeuses Entrees. German soldiers were firing at random in 
 every street and in every direction. Later fires broke out every- 
 where, notably in the University building, the Library, in the old 
 Church of St. Peter, in the Place du Peuple, in the Rue de la Station, 
 hi the Boulevard de Thiemont, and in the Chaussee de Tirlemont. 
 On the orders of their chiefs, the German soldiers would break 
 open the houses and set fire to them, shooting on the inhabitants 
 who tried to leave their dwellings. Many persons who took refuge 
 in their cellars were burned to death. The German soldiers were 
 equipped with apparatus for the purpose of firing dwellings, incen- 
 diary pastils, machines for spraying petroleum, etc. . . . 
 
 "Major von Manteuffel (of the German forces) sent for 
 Alderman Schmidt. Upon the latter's arrival, the major declared 
 that hostages were to be held, as sedition had just broken out. 
 He asked Father Parijs, Mr. Schmidt, and Mgr. Coenraedts, 
 First Vice-Rector of the University, who was being held as a 
 hostage, to make proclamations to the inhabitants exhorting them 
 to be calm and menacing them with a fine of twenty million francs, 
 the destruction of the city and the hanging of the hostages, if 
 they created disturbance. Surrounded by about thirty soldiers 
 and a few officers, Major Manteuffel, Father Parijs, Mr. Schmidt 
 and Mgr. Coenraedts left in the direction of the station, and the 
 alderman, hi French, and the priest, in Flemish, made proclama- 
 tions at the street corners. . . . 
 
 "Near the statue of Juste-Lipse, a Dr. Berghausen, a German 
 surgeon, in a highly excited condition, ran to meet the delegation. 
 He shouted that a German soldier had just been killed by a shot 
 fired from the house of Mr. David Fishbach. Addressing the 
 soldiers, Dr. Berghausen said: 'The blood of the entire population 
 of Louvain is not worth a drop of the blood of a German soldier!' 
 Then one of the soldiers threw into the interior of the house of 
 Mr. Fishbach one of the pastils which the German soldiers car- 
 ried and immediately the house flared up. It contained paintings 
 of a high value. The old coachman, Joseph Vandermosten, who 
 had re-entered the house to try to save the life of his master, 
 did not return. His body was found the next day amidst the 
 ruins.
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 93 
 
 "The Germans made the usual claim that the civil popula- 
 tion had fired upon them and that it was necessary to take these 
 measures, i. e., burn the churches, the library and other public 
 monuments, burn and pillage houses, driving out and murdering 
 the inhabitants, sacking the city in order to punish and to spread 
 terror among the people, and General von Luttwitz had told me 
 that it was reported that the son of the burgomaster had shot 
 one of their generals. But the burgomaster of Lou vain had no 
 son, and no officer was shot at Lou vain. The story of a general 
 shot by the son of a burgomaster was a repetition of a tragedy that 
 had occurred at Aerschot, on the 19th, where the fifteen-year-old 
 son of the burgomaster had been killed by a firing squad, not 
 because he had shot a general, but because an officer had been 
 shot, probably by Belgian soldiers retreating through the town. 
 The story of this tragedy is told by the boy's mother, under oath, 
 before the Belgian Commission, and is so simple, so touching, so 
 convincing in its verisimilitude, that I attach a copy of it in 
 extenso to this report. It seems to afford an altogether typical 
 example of what went on all over the stricken land during those 
 days of terror. (In other places it was the daughter of the burgo- 
 master who was said to have shot a general.) 
 
 "The following facts may be noted: From the avowal of 
 Prussian officers themselves, there was not one single victim, 
 among their men at the barracks of St. Martin, Lou vain, where 
 it was claimed that the first shot had been fired from a house 
 situated in front of the Caserne. This would appear to be impossi- 
 ble had the civilians fired upon them point blank from across the 
 street. It was said that when certain houses near the barracks 
 were burning, numerous explosions occurred, revealing the presence 
 of cartridges; but these houses were drinking houses much fre- 
 quented by German soldiers. It was said that Spanish students 
 shot from the schools in the Rue de la Station, but Father Catala, 
 rector of the school, affirms that the schools were empty. . . . 
 
 "If it was necessary, for whatever reason, to do what was 
 done at Vise, at Dinant, at Aerschot, at Louvain, and in a hundred 
 other towns that were sacked, pillaged and burned, where masses 
 were shot down because civilians had fired on German troops, 
 and if it was necessary to do this on a scale never before witnessed 
 in history, one might not unreasonably assume that the alleged
 
 94 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 firing by civilians was done on a scale, if not so thoroughly organized, 
 at least somewhat in proportion to the rage of destruction that 
 punished it. And hence it would seem to be a simple matter to 
 produce at least convincing evidence that civilians had fired on 
 the soldiers; but there is no testimony to that effect beyond that 
 of the soldiers who merely assert it: Man hat geschossen. If 
 there were no more firing on soldiers by civilians in Belgium than 
 is proved by the German testimony, it was not enough to justify 
 the burning of the smallest of the towns that was overtaken by 
 that fate. And there is not a scintilla of evidence of organized 
 bands of francs-tireurs, such as were found in the war of 1870." 
 
 Under date of September 12, 1917, Minister Whitlock, in a 
 report to the State Department of the United States, made the 
 following summary: "As one studies the evidence at hand, one is 
 struck at the outset by the fact so general that it must exclude the 
 hypothesis of coincidence, and that is that these wholesale massacres 
 followed immediately upon some check, some reverse, that the 
 German army had sustained. The German army was checked 
 by the guns of the forts to the east of Liege, and the horrors of 
 Vise, Venders, Bligny, Battice, Hervy and twenty villages follow. 
 When they entered Liege, they burned the houses along two streets 
 and killed many persons, five or six Spaniards among them. 
 Checked before Namur they sacked Andenne, Bouvignies, and 
 Champignon, and when they took Namur they burned one hundred 
 and fifty houses. Compelled to give battle to the French army 
 in the Belgian Ardennes they ravaged the beautiful valley of the 
 Semois; the complete destruction of the village of Rossignlo and 
 the extermination of its entire male population took place there. 
 Checked again by the French on the Meuse, the awful carnage of 
 Dinant results. Held on the Sambre by the French, they burn 
 one hundred houses at Charleroi and enact the appalling tragedy 
 of Tamines. . At Mons, the English hold them, and after that all 
 over the Borinage there is a systematic destruction, pillage and 
 murder. The Belgian army drive them back from Malines and 
 Louvain is doomed. The Belgian army falling back and fighting 
 in retreat took refuge hi the forts of Antwerp, and the burning 
 and sack of Hougaerde, Wavre, Ottignies, Grimde, Neerlinter, 
 Weert, St. George, Shaffen.and Aerschot follow. 
 
 "The Belgian troops inflicted serious losses on the Germans
 
 AN OBSERVATION POST 
 Watching the effect of gun fire from a sand-bagged ruin near the German lines. 
 
 I'hoto liy Tians-Atlanl-i: News .Se/Ttce Co. 
 
 KING ALBERT AT THE HEAD OF THE HEROIC SOLDIERS 
 OP BELGIUM 
 
 It is universally agreed that the Belgian monarch was no figurehead general 
 
 but a real leader of his troops. It was these men, facing annihilation, who 
 
 tomsned the world by opposing the German military machine successfully 
 
 enough to allow France to get her armies into shape and prevent the immediate 
 
 taking of Pans that was planned by Germany.
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 97 
 
 in the South of the Province of Limbourg, and the towns of Lummen, 
 Bilsen, and Lanaeken are partially destroyed. Antwerp held out 
 for two months, and all about its outer line of fortifications there 
 was blood and fire, numerous villages were sacked and burned and 
 the whole town of Termonde was destroyed. During the battles 
 of September the village of Boortmeerbeek near Malines, occupied 
 by the Germans, was retaken by the Belgians, and when the Ger- 
 mans entered it again they burned forty houses. Three times 
 occupied by the Belgians and retaken by the Germans Boortmeer- 
 beek was three times punished in the same way. That is to say, 
 everywhere the German army met with a defeat it took it out, 
 as we say in America, on the civil population. And that is the 
 explanation of the German atrocities in Belgium." 
 
 A committee of the highest honor and responsibility was 
 appointed by the British Government to investigate the whole 
 subject of atrocities in Belgium and Northern France. Its chair- 
 man was the Rt. Hon. Viscount James Bryce, formerly British 
 Ambassador to the United States. Its other members were the 
 Rt. Hon. Sir Frederick Pollock, the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Clark, 
 Sir Alfred Hopkinson, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, Vice-Chancellor of the 
 University of Sheffield, Mr. Harold Cox and Sir Kenelm E. Digby. 
 
 The report of the commission bears upon its face the stamp 
 of painstaking search for truth, substantiates every statement 
 made by Minister Whitlock and makes known many horrible 
 instances of cruelty and barbarity. It makes the following deduc- 
 tions as having been proved beyond question: 
 
 1. That there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and 
 systematically organized massacres of the civil population, accom- 
 panied by many isolated murders and other outrages. 
 
 2. That in the conduct of the war generally innocent civilians, 
 both men and women, were murdered in large numbers, women 
 violated, and children murdered. 
 
 3. That looting, house burning, and the wanton destruction 
 of property were ordered and countenanced by the officers of the 
 German army, that elaborate provision had been made for system- 
 atic incendiarism at the very outbreak of the war, and that the 
 burnings and destruction were frequent where no military necessity 
 could be alleged, being, indeed, part of a system of general terrori- 
 Bfttion.
 
 98 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 4. That the rules and usages of war were frequently broken, 
 particularly by the using of civilians, including women and children, 
 as a shield for advancing forces exposed to fire, to a less degree by 
 killing the wounded and prisoners and in the frequent abuse of the 
 Red Cross and the white flag. 
 
 The Bryce Commission's report on the destruction of Dinant 
 is an example of testimony laid before them. It follows : 
 
 "A clear statement of the outrages at Dinant, which many 
 travelers will recall as a singularly picturesque town on the Meuse, 
 is given by one witness, who says that the Germans began burning 
 houses in the Rue St. Jacques on the 21st of August, and that 
 every house in the street was burned. On the following day an 
 engagement took place between the French and the Germans, 
 and the witness spent the whole day hi the cellar of a bank with 
 his wife and children. On the morning of the 23d, about 5 o'clock, 
 firing ceased, and almost immediately afterward a party of Germans 
 came to the house. They rang the bell and began to batter at 
 the door and windows. The witness' wife went to the door and 
 two or three Germans came in. The family were ordered out into 
 the street. There they found another family, and the two families 
 were driven with their hands above their heads along the Rue 
 Grande. All the houses hi the street were burning. 
 
 "The party was eventually put into a forge where there were 
 a number of other prisoners, about a hundred in all, and were 
 kept there from 11 A. M. till 2 p. M. They were then taken to the 
 prison. There they were assembled in a courtyard and searched. 
 No arms were found. They were then passed through into the 
 prison itself and put into cells. The witness and his wife were 
 separated from each other. During the next hour the witness 
 heard rifle shots continually and noticed in the corner of a court- 
 yard leading off the row of cells the body of a young man with a 
 mantle thrown over it. He recognized the mantle as having 
 belonged to his wife. The witness' daughter was allowed to go 
 out to see what had happened to her mother, and the witness him- 
 self was allowed to go across the courtyard half an hour afterward 
 for the same purpose. He found his wife lying on the floor in a 
 room. She had bullet wounds in four places but was alive and 
 told her husband to return to the children and he did so. 
 
 "About 5 o'clock in the evening, he saw the Germans bringing
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 99 
 
 out all the young and middle-aged men from the cells, and ranging 
 their prisoners, to the number of forty, in three rows in the middle 
 of the courtyard. About twenty Germans were drawn up opposite, 
 but before anything was done there was a tremendous fusillade 
 from some point near the prison and the civilians were hurried 
 back to then* cells. Half an hour later the same forty men were 
 brought back into the courtyard. Almost immediately there was 
 a second fusillade and they were driven back to the cells again. 
 
 "About 7 o'clock the witness and other prisoners were brought 
 out of then- cells and marched out of the prison. They went between 
 two lines of troops to Roche Bayard, about a kilometer away. 
 An hour later the women and children were separated and the 
 prisoners were brought back to Dinant passing the prison on their 
 way. Just outside the prison, the witness saw three lines of bodies 
 which he recognized as being those of his neighbors. They were 
 nearly all dead, but he noticed movement in some of tnem. There 
 were about one hundred and twenty bodies. The prisoners were 
 then taken up to the top of a hill outside Dinant and compelled to 
 stay there till 8 o'clock in the morning. On the following day they 
 were put into cattle trucks and taken thence to Coblenz. For 
 three months they remained prisoners in Germany. 
 
 " Unarmed civilians were killed in masses at other places near 
 the prison. About ninety bodies were seen lying on the top of one 
 another hi a grass square opposite the convent. A witness asked 
 a German officer why her husband had been shot, and he told her 
 that it was because two of her sons had been in the civil guard and 
 had shot at the Germans. As a matter of fact, one of her sons 
 was at that time in Lie"ge and the other in Brussels. It is stated 
 that besides the ninety corpses referred to above, sixty corpses of 
 civilians were recovered from a hole in the brewery yard and that 
 forty-eight bodies of women and children were found in a garden. 
 The town was systematically set on fire by hand grenades. Another 
 witness saw a little girl of seven, one of whose legs was broken 
 and the other injured by a bayonet. We have no reason to believe 
 that the civilian population of Dinant gave any provocation, or 
 that any other defense can be put forward to justify the treatment 
 inflicted upon its citizens." 
 
 The Bryce Commission reports the outrages in a number of 
 Belgian villages in this terse fashion:
 
 100 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "In Hofstade a number of houses had been set on fire and 
 many corpses were seen, some in houses, some in back yards, and 
 some in the streets. Two witnesses speak of having seen the body 
 of a young man pierced by bayonet thrusts with the wrists cut 
 also. On a side road the corpse of a civilian was seen on his door- 
 step with a "bayonet wound in his stomach and by his side the 
 dead body of a boy of five or six with his hands nearly severed. 
 The corpses of a woman and boy were seen at the blacksmith's. 
 They had been killed with the bayonet. In a cafe, a young man, 
 also killed with the bayonet, was holding his hands together as if 
 hi the attitude of supplication. 
 
 "In the garden of a house hi the main street, bodies of two 
 women were observed, and in another house, the body of a boy 
 of sixteen with two bayonet wounds in the chest. In Sempst a 
 similar condition of affairs existed. Houses were burning and in 
 some of them were the charred remains of civilians. In a bicycle 
 shop a witness saw the burned corpse of a man. Other witnesses 
 speak of this incident. Another civilian, unarmed, was shot as 
 he was running away. As will be remembered, all the arms had 
 been given up some tune before by the order of the burgomaster. 
 
 "At Weerde four corpses of civilians were lying in the road. 
 It was said that these men had fired upon the German soldiers; 
 but this is denied. The arms had been given up long before. 
 Two children were killed in the village of Weerde, quite wantonly 
 as they were standing in the road with their mother. They were 
 three or four years old and were killed with the bayonet. A small 
 barn burning close by formed a convenient means of getting rid 
 of bodies. They were thrown into the flames from the bayonets. 
 It is right to add that no commissioned officer was present at the 
 time. At Eppeghem, on August 25th, a pregnant woman who had 
 been wounded with a bayonet was discovered in the convent. 
 She was dying. On the road six dead bodies of laborers were seen. 
 
 "At Boortmeerbeek a German soldier was seen to fire three 
 tunes at a little girl five years old. Having failed to hit her, he 
 subsequently bayoneted her. He was killed with the butt end 
 of a rifle by a Belgian soldier who had seen him commit this murder 
 from a distance. At Herent the charred body of a civilian was 
 found hi a butcher's shop, and hi a handcart twenty yards away 
 was the dead body of a laborer. Two eye witnesses relate that a
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 101 
 
 German soldier shot a civilian and stabbed him with a bayonet 
 as he lay. He then made one of these witnesses, a civilian prisoner, 
 smell the blood on the bayonet. At Haecht the bodies of ten 
 civilians were seen lying in a row by a brewery wall. In a laborer's 
 house, which had been broken up, the mutilated corpse of a woman 
 of thirty to thirty-five was discovered." 
 
 Concerning the treatment of women and children in general, 
 the report continues: "The evidence shows that the German 
 authorities, when carrying out a policy of systematic arson and 
 plunder in selected districts, usually drew some distinction between 
 the adult male population on the one hand and the women and 
 children on the other. It was a frequent practice to set apart the 
 adult males of the condemned district with a view to the execution 
 of a suitable number preferably of the younger and more vigorous 
 and to reserve the women and children for milder treatment. 
 The depositions, however, present many instances of calculated 
 cruelty, often going the length of murder, toward the women and 
 children of the condemned area. 
 
 "At Dinant sixty women and children were confined in the 
 cellar of a convent from Sunday morning till the following Friday, 
 August 28th, sleeping on the ground, for there were no beds, with 
 nothing to drink during the whole period, and given no food until 
 Wednesday, when somebody threw into the cellar two sticks of 
 macaroni and a carrot for each prisoner. In other cases the women 
 and children were marched for long distances along roads, as, for 
 instance, the march of the women from Louvain to Tirlemont, 
 August 28th, the laggards pricked on by the attendant Uhlans. 
 A lady complains of having been brutally kicked by privates. 
 Others were struck at with the butt end of rifles. At Louvain, 
 at Liege, at Aerschot, at Malines, at Montigny, at Andenne, and 
 elsewhere, there is evidence that the troops were not restrained 
 from drunkenness, and drunken soldiers cannot be trusted to 
 observe the rules or decencies of war, least of all when they are 
 called upon to execute a preordained plan of arson and pillage. 
 From the very first women were not safe. At Liege women and 
 children w^ere chased about the streets by soldiers. 
 
 "Witnesses recount how a great crowd of men, women and 
 children from Aerschot were marched to Louvain, and then sud- 
 denly exposed to a fire from a mitrailleuse and rifles. 'We were
 
 102 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 all placed/ recounts a sufferer, 'in Station Street, Louvain, and 
 the German soldiers fired on us. I saw the corpses of some women 
 in the street. I fell down, and a woman who had been shot fell 
 on top of me/ Women and children suddenly turned out into 
 the streets, and, compelled to witness the destruction of their 
 homes by fire, provided a sad spectacle to such as were sober enough 
 to see. 
 
 "A humane German officer, witnessing the ruin of Aerschot, 
 exclaimed hi disgust: 'I am a father myself, and I cannot bear this. 
 It is not war but butchery.' Officers as well as men succumbed 
 to the temptation of drink, with results which may be illustrated 
 by an incident which occurred at Campenhout. In this village 
 there was a certain well-to-do merchant (name given) who had a 
 cellar of good champagne. On the afternoon of the 14th or 15th 
 of August three German cavalry officers entered the house and 
 demanded champagne. Having drunk ten bottles and invited 
 five or six officers and three or four private soldiers to join them, 
 they continued their carouse, and then called for the master and 
 mistress of the house. 
 
 ' 'Immediately my mistress came in/ says the valet de cham- 
 bre, 'one of the officers who was sitting on the floor got up, and, put- 
 ting a revolver to my mistress' temple, shot her dead. The officer 
 was obviously drunk. The other officers continued to drink and 
 sing, and they did not pay any great attention to the killing of my 
 mistress. The officer who shot my mistress then told my master 
 to dig a grave and bury my mistress. My master and the officer 
 went into the garden, the officer threatening my master with a 
 pistol. My master was then forced to dig the grave and to bury 
 my mistress hi it. I cannot say for what reason they killed my 
 mistress. The officer who did it was singing all the tune.' 
 
 "In the evidence before us there are cases tending to show 
 that aggravated crimes against women were sometimes severely 
 punished. One witness reports that a young girl who was being 
 pursued by a drunken soldier at Louvain appealed to a German 
 officer, and that the offender was then and there shot. Another 
 describes how an officer of the Thirty-second Regiment of the Line 
 was led out to execution for the violation of two young girls, but 
 reprieved at the request or with the consent of the girls' mother. 
 These instances are sufficient to show that the maltreatment of
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 103 
 
 women was no part of the military scheme of the invaders, however 
 much it may appear to have been the inevitable result of the 
 system of terror deliberately adopted in certain regions. Indeed, 
 so much is avowed. 'I asked the commander why we had been 
 spared,' says a lady in Louvain, who deposes to having suffered 
 much brutal treatment during the sack. He said: 'We will not 
 hurt you any more. Stay in Louvain. All is finished.' It was 
 Saturday, August 29th, and the reign of terror was over. 
 
 "The Germans used men, women and children of Belgium as 
 screens for advancing infantry, as is shown in the following: Out- 
 side Fort Fleron, near Liege, men and children were marched in 
 front of the Germans to prevent the Belgian soldiers from firing. 
 The progress of the Germans through Mons was marked by many 
 incidents of this character. Thus, on August 22d, half a dozen 
 Belgian colliers returning from work were marching in front of 
 some German troops who were pursuing the English, and hi the 
 opinion of the witnesses, they must have been placed there inten- 
 tionally. An English officer describes how he caused a barricade 
 to be erected in a main thoroughfare leading out of Mons, when 
 the Germans, in order to reach a crossroad in the rear, fetched 
 civilians out of the houses on each side of the main road and com- 
 pelled them to hold up white flags and act as cover. 
 
 " Another British officer who saw this incident is convinced 
 that the Germans were acting deliberately for the purpose of 
 protecting themselves from the fire of the British troops. Apart 
 from this protection, the Germans could not have advanced, as 
 the street was straight and commanded by the British rifle fire 
 at a range of 700 or 800 yards. Several British soldiers also speak 
 of this incident, and their story is confirmed by a Flemish witness 
 in a side street." 
 
 The French Government also appointed a commission, headed 
 by M. Georges Payelle. This body made an investigation of 
 outrages committed by German officers and soldiers in Northern 
 France. Its report showed conditions that outstripped in horror 
 the war tactics of savages. It makes the following accusations: 
 
 "In Rebais, two English cavalrymen who were surprised and 
 wounded in this commune were finished off with gunshots by the 
 Germans when they were dismounted and when one of them had 
 thrown up his hands, showing thus that he was unarmed.
 
 104 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "In the department of the Marne, as everywhere else, the 
 German troops gave themselves up to general pillage, which was 
 carried out always under similar conditions and with the complicity 
 of then- leaders. The Communes of Heiltz-le-Maurupt, Suippes, 
 Marfaux, Fromentieres and Esternay suffered especially in this 
 way. Everything which the invader could carry off from the 
 houses was placed on motor lorries and vehicles. At Suippes, in 
 particular, they carried off in this way a quantity of different 
 objects, among these sewing machines and toys. A great many 
 villages, as well as important country towns, were burned without 
 any reason whatever. Without doubt, these crimes were com- 
 mitted by order, as German detachments arrived in the neighborhood 
 with then* torches, then* grenades, and their usual outfit for arson. 
 
 "At Marfaux nineteen private houses were burned. Of the 
 Commune of Glannes practically nothing remains. At Somme- 
 Tourbe the entire village has been destroyed, with the exception 
 of the Maine, the church and two private buildings. At Auve 
 nearly the whole town has been destroyed. At Etrepy sixty- 
 three families out of seventy are homeless. At Huiron all of the 
 houses, with the exception of five have been burned. At Sermaize- 
 les-Bains only about forty houses out of 900 remain. At Bignicourt- 
 sur-Saultz thirty houses out of thirty-three are hi rums. 
 
 "At Suippes, the big market town which has been practically 
 burned out, German soldiers carrying straw and cans of petrol 
 have been seen in the streets. While the mayor's house was burn- 
 ing, six sentinels with fixed bayonets were under orders to forbid 
 anyone to approach and to prevent any help being given. 
 
 "All this destruction by arson, which only represents a small 
 proportion of the acts of the same kind in the Department of 
 Seine-et-Marne, was accomplished without the least tendency to 
 rebellion or the smallest act of resistance being recorded against 
 the inhabitants of the localities which are today more or less com- 
 pletely destroyed. In some villages the Germans, before setting 
 fire to them made one of then- soldiers fire a shot from his rifle so 
 as to be able to pretend afterward that the civilian population had 
 attacked them, an allegation which is all the more absurd since 
 at the tune when the enemy arrived, the only inhabitants left 
 were old men, sick persons, or people absolutely without any means 
 of aggression,
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 107 
 
 "Numerous crimes against the person have also been com- 
 mitted. In the majority of the communes hostages have been 
 taken away; many of them have not returned. At Sermaize- 
 les-Bains, the Germans carried off about one hundred and fifty 
 people, some of whom were decked out with helmets and coats and 
 compelled, thus equipped, to mount guard over the bridges. 
 
 "At Bignicourt-sur-Saultz thirty men and forty-five women 
 and children were obliged to leave with a detachment. One of 
 the men a certain Emile Pierre has not returned nor sent any 
 news of himself. At Corfelix, M. Jacqet, who was carried off on 
 the 7th of September with eleven of his fellow-citizens, was found 
 five hundred meters from the village with a bullet in his head. 
 
 "At Champuis, the cure, his maid-servant, and four other 
 inhabitants who were taken away on the same day as the hostages 
 of Corfelix had not returned at the time of our visit to the place. 
 
 "At the same place an old man of seventy, named Jacquemin, 
 was tied down in his bed by an officer and left in this state without 
 food for three days. He died a little time after. At Vert-la- 
 Gravelle a farm hand was killed. He was struck on the head with 
 a bottle and his chest was run through with a lance. The garde 
 champetre Brulefer of le Gault-la-Foret was murdered at Maclau- 
 nay, where he had been taken by the Germans. His body was 
 found with his head shattered and a wound on his chest. 
 
 "At Champguyon, a commune which has been fired, a certain 
 Verdier was killed in his father-in-law's house. The latter was 
 not present at the execution, but he heard a shot and next day 
 an officer said to him, 'Son shot. He is under the ruins.' In 
 spite of the search made the body has not been found among them. 
 It must have been consumed in the fire. 
 
 "At Sermaize, the roadmaker, Brocard, was placed among a 
 number of hostages. Just at the moment when he was being 
 arrested with his son, his wife and his daughter-in-law in a state 
 of panic rushed to throw themselves into the Saulx. The old man 
 was able to free himself for a moment and ran in all haste after 
 them and made several attempts to save them, but the Germans 
 dragged him away pitilessly, leaving the two wretched women 
 struggling in the river. When Brocard and his son were restored to 
 liberty, four days afterward, and found the bodies, they discovered 
 that their wives had both received bullet wounds in the head.
 
 108 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "At Triaucourt the Germans gave themselves up to the worst 
 excesses. Angered doubtless by the remark which an officer had 
 addressed to a soldier, against whom a young girl of nineteen, Mile. 
 Helene Proces, had made complaint of on account of the indecent 
 treatment to which she had been subjected, they burned the village 
 and made a systematic massacre of the inhabitants. They began 
 by setting fire to the house of an inoffensive householder, M. 
 Jules Gand, and by shooting this unfortunate man as he was leaving 
 his house to escape the flames. Then they dispersed among the 
 houses hi the streets, firing off their rifles on every side. A young 
 man, seventeen years, Georges Lecourtier, who tried to escape, was 
 shot. M. Alfred Lallemand suffered the same fate. He was pursued 
 into the kitchen of his fellow-citizen Tautelier, and murdered 
 there, while Tautelier received three bullets in his hand. 
 
 "Fearing, not without reason, for their lives, Mile. Proces, 
 her mother and her grandmother of seventy-one and her old aunt 
 of eighty-one, tried to cross the trellis which separates their garden 
 from a neighboring property with the help of a ladder. The young 
 girl alone was able to reach the other side and to avoid death by 
 hiding in the cabbages. As for the other women, they were struck 
 down by rifle shots. The village cure* collected the brains of the 
 aunt on the ground on which they were strewn and had the bodies 
 carried into Proces' house. During the following night, the 
 Germans played the piano near the bodies. 
 
 "While the carnage raged, the fire rapidly spread and devoured 
 thirty-five houses. An old man of seventy and a child of two 
 months perished in the flames. M. Igier, who was trying to save 
 his cattle, was pursued for 300 meters by soldiers, who fired at him 
 ceaselessly. By a miracle this man had the good fortune not to 
 be wounded, but five bullets went through his clothing." 
 
 This summary merely hints at the atrocities that were per- 
 petrated. And these are the crimes that France and Belgium will 
 remember after indemnities have been paid, after borders have been 
 re-established and after generations shall have past. The horrors 
 of blazing villages, of violated womanhood, of mutilated childhood, 
 of stark and senseless butcheries, will flash before the minds of 
 French and Belgian men and women when Germany's name shall 
 be mentioned long after the declaration of peace. 
 
 Schrecklichkeit had its day. It took its bloody toll of the
 
 THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM 109 
 
 fairest and bravest of two gallant nations. It ravaged Poland 
 as well and wreaked its fiendish will on wounded soldiers on the 
 battle-fields. 
 
 But Schrecklichkeit is dead. Belgium and France have 
 shown that murder and rape and arson can not destroy liberty 
 nor check the indomitable ambitions of the free peoples of earth. 
 
 The lesson to Germany was taught at a terrible cost to 
 humanity, but it was taught in a fashion that nations hereafter 
 who shall dream of emulating the Hun will know in advance that 
 frightfulness serves no end except to feed the lust for destruction 
 that exists only in the most debased and brutish of men.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 
 
 FRANCE and civilization were saved by Joffre and Foch 
 at the first battle of the Marne, in September, 1914. 
 Autocracy was destroyed by Foch at the second battle 
 of the Marne, in July, 1918. 
 
 This hi a nutshell embraces the dramatic opening and closing 
 episodes of the World War on the soil of France. Bracketed 
 between these two glorious victories were the agonies of martyred 
 France, the deaths and life-long cripplings of millions of men, the 
 up-rooting of arrogant militarism, the liberation of captive nations. 
 
 The first battle of the Marne was wholly a French operation. 
 The British were close at hand, but had no share in the victory. 
 Generals Gallieni and Manoury, acting under instructions from 
 Marshal Joffre, were driven by automobile to the headquarters 
 of the British commander, Sir John French, in the village of 
 Melun. They explained in detail General Joffre's plan of attack 
 upon the advancing German army. An urgent request was made 
 that the British army halt its retreat, face about, and attack the 
 two corps of von Kluck's army then confronting the British. 
 Simultaneously with this attack General Manoury 's forces were 
 to fall upon the flank and the rear guard of von Kluck along the 
 River Ourcq. This operation was planned for the next day, Sep- 
 tember 5th. Sir John French replied that he could not get his tired 
 army in readiness for battle within forty-eight hours. This would 
 delay the British attack hi all probability until September 7th. 
 
 Joffre's plan of battle, however, would admit of no delay. 
 The case was urgent; there was grave danger of a union between 
 the great forces headed by the Crown Prince and those under 
 von Kluck. He resolved to go ahead without the British, and 
 ordered Manoury to strike as had been planned. 
 
 He fixed as an extreme limit for the movement of retreat, which 
 was still going on, the line of Bray-sur-Seine, Nogent-sur-Seine, 
 Arcis-sur-Aube, Vitry-le-Frangois, and the region to the north of 
 
 110
 
 Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 
 
 GENERAL PERSHING AND MARSHAL JOFFRE 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces chatting with the 
 veteran Marshal of France, the hero of the first battle of the Marne.
 
 MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH, GENERALISSIMO OF THE ALLIED 
 ARMIES IN THE WEST 
 
 No leader could command greater confidence than the brilliant strategist to 
 whom was mainly due the great victory of the Marne in the first autumn of the war. 
 He also directed the French offensive on the Somme in 1916 and in November, 1917, 
 he was chosen as the French representative and subsequently chairman of the 
 Central Military Committee appointed to assist the Supreme Allied War Council. 
 Marshal Foch was formerly for five years lecturer on strategy and tactics at the 
 Ecole de Guerre. At the close of the war he said to the Allied armies: "You have 
 won the greatest battle in history and saved the most sacred cause the liberty of 
 the world"
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 113 
 
 Bar-le-Duc. This line might be reached if the troops were compelled 
 to go back so far. They would attack before reaching it, as soon 
 as there was a possibility of bringing about an offensive disposition, 
 permitting the co-operation of the whole of the French forces. 
 
 On September 5 it appeared that this desired situation existed. 
 
 The First German army, carrying audacity to temerity, had 
 continued its endeavor to envelop the French left, had crossed the 
 
 THE FIKST GERMAN DASH FOR PARIS 
 
 Grand Morin, and reached the region of Chauffry, to the south 
 of Rebais and of Esternay. It aimed then at cutting Joffre 
 off from Paris, in order to begin the investment of the capital. 
 
 The Second army had its head on the line Champaubert, 
 Etoges, Bergeres, and Vertus. 
 
 The Third and Fourth armies reached to Chalons-sur-Marne 
 and Bussy-le-Repos. The Fifth army was advancing on one side 
 and the other from the Argonne as far as Triacourt-les-Islettes and 
 Juivecourt. The Sixth and Seventh armies were attacking more 
 to the east.
 
 114 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The French left army had been able to occupy the line Sezanne, 
 Villers-St. Georges and Courchamps. This was precisely the dis- 
 position which the General-in-Chief had wished to see achieved. 
 On the 4th he decided to take advantage of it, and ordered all the 
 armies to hold themselves ready. He had taken from his right 
 two new army corps, two divisions of infantry, and two divisions 
 of cavalry, which were distributed between his left and his center, 
 
 On the evening of the 5th he addressed to all the commanders 
 of armies a message ordering them to attack. 
 
 "The hour has come," he wrote, "to advance at all costs, 
 and to die where you stand rather than give way." 
 
 If one examines the map, it will be seen that by his inflection 
 toward Meaux and Coulommiers General von Kluck was exposing 
 his right to the offensive action of the French left. This is the 
 starting point of the victory of the Marne. 
 
 On the evening of September 5th the French left army had 
 reached the front Penchard-Saint-Souflet-Ver. On the 6th and 
 7th it continued its attacks vigorously with the Ourcq as objective. 
 On the evening of the 7th it was some kilometers from the Ourcq, 
 on the front Chambry-Marcilly-Lisieux-Acy-en-Multien. On the 
 8th, the Germans, who had in great haste reinforced their right 
 by bringing then* Second and Fourth army corps back to the 
 north, obtained some successes by attacks of extreme violence. 
 But in spite of this pressure the French held then* ground. In a 
 brilliant action they took three standards, and being reinforced 
 prepared a new attack for the 10th. At the moment that this 
 attack was about to begin the enemy was already in retreat toward 
 the north. The attack became a pursuit, and on the 12th the 
 French established themselves on the Aisne. 
 
 Why did the German forces which were confronting the French, 
 and on the evening before attacking so furiously, retreat on the 
 morning of the 10th? Because in bringing back on the 6th several 
 army corps from the south to the north to face the French left, 
 the enemy had exposed his left to the attacks of the now rested 
 British, who had immediately faced around toward the north, 
 and to those of the French armies which were prolonging the English 
 lines to the right. This is what the French command had sought 
 to bring about. This is what happened on September 8th and 
 allowed the development and rehabilitation which it was to effect.
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 115 
 
 On the 6th the British army set out from the line Rozcy-Lagny 
 and that evening reached the southward bank of the Grand Morin. 
 On the 7th and 8th it continued its march, and on the 9th had 
 debouched to the north of the Marne below Chateau-Thierry 
 the town that was to become famous for the American stand in 1918 
 taking in flank the German forces which on that day were oppos- 
 ing, on the Ourcq, the French left army. Then it was that these 
 forces began to retreat, while the British army, going in pursuit 
 and capturing seven guns and many prisoners, reached the Aisne 
 between Soissons and Longueval. 
 
 The role of the French army, which was operating to the right 
 of the British army, was threefold. It had to support the British 
 attacking on its left. It had on its right to support the center, 
 which, from September 7th, had been subjected to a German attack 
 of great violence. Finally, its mission was to throw back the 
 three active army corps and the reserve corps which faced it. 
 
 On the 7th, it made a leap forward, and on the following days 
 reached and crossed the Marne, seizing, after desperate fighting, 
 guns, howitzers, mitrailleuses, and a million cartridges. On the 
 12th it established itself on the north edge of the Montagne-de- 
 Reime in contact with the French center, which for its part had 
 just forced the enemy to retreat in haste. 
 
 The French center consisted of a new army created on 
 August 29th and of one of those which at the beginning of the cam- 
 paign had been engaged in Belgian Luxemburg. The first had 
 retreated, on August 29th to September 5th, from the Aisne to the 
 north of the Marne and occupied the general front Sezanne-Mailly. 
 The second, more to the east, had drawn back to the south 
 of the line Humbauville-Chateau-Beauchamp-Bignicourt-Blesmes- 
 Maurupt-le-Montoy. 
 
 The enemy, in view of his right being arrested and the defeat 
 of his enveloping movement, made a desperate effort from the 7th 
 to the 19th to pierce the French center to the west and to the east 
 of Fere-Champenoise. On the 8th he succeeded in forcing back 
 the right of the new French army, which retired as far as Gouragan- 
 on. On the 9th, at 6 o'clock in the morning, there was a further 
 retreat to the south of that village, while on the left the other 
 army corps also had to go back to the line Allemant-Connantre. 
 
 Despite this retreat General Foch, commanding the army of
 
 116 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the center, ordered a general offensive for the same day. With the 
 Morocco division, whose behavior was heroic, he met a furious 
 assault of the Germans on his left toward the marshes of Saint 
 Gond. Then, with the divisions which had just victoriously over- 
 come the attacks of the enemy to the north of Sezanne, and with 
 the whole of his left army corps, he made a flanking attack in the 
 evening of the 9th upon the German forces, and notably the guard, 
 which had thrown back his right army corps. The enemy, taken 
 by surprise by this bold maneuver, did not resist, and beat a hasty 
 retreat. This marked Foch as the most daring and brilliant 
 strategist of the war. 
 
 On the llth the French crossed the Marne between Tours-sur- 
 Marne and Sarry, driving the Germans in front of them in dis- 
 order. On the 12th they were in contact with the enemy to the 
 north of the Camp de Chalons. The reserve army of the center, 
 acting on the right of the one just referred to, had been intrusted 
 with the mission during the 7th, 8th, and 9th of disengaging its 
 neighbor, and it was only on the 10th that being reinforced by an 
 army corps from the east, it was able to make its action effectively 
 felt. On the llth the Germans retired. But, perceiving then: 
 danger, they fought desperately, with enormous expenditure of 
 projectiles, behind strong intrenchments. On the 12th the result 
 had none the less been attained, and the two French center armies 
 were solidly established on the ground gamed. 
 
 To the right of these two armies were three others. They 
 had orders to cover themselves to the north and to debouch toward 
 the west on the flank of the enemy, which was operating to the 
 west of the Argonne. But a wide interval hi which the Germans 
 were hi force separated them from the French center. The attack 
 took place, nevertheless, with very brilliant success for the French 
 artillery, which destroyed eleven batteries of the Sixteenth German 
 army corps. 
 
 On the 10th hist., the Eighth and Fifteenth German army 
 corps counter-attacked, but were repulsed. On the llth French 
 progress continued with new successes, and on the 12th the French 
 were able to face round toward the north in expectation of the 
 near and inevitable retreat of the enemy, which, in fact, took 
 place from the 13th. 
 
 The withdrawal of the mass of the German force involved
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 117 
 
 also that of the left. From the 12th onward the forces of the 
 enemy operating between Nancy and the Vosges retreated in a 
 hurry before the two French armies of the East, which immediately 
 occupied the positions that the enemy had evacuated. The 
 offensive of the French right had thus prepared and consolidated 
 in the most useful way the result secured by the left and center. 
 
 Such was this seven days' battle, hi which more than two 
 millions of men were engaged. Each army gained ground step by 
 step, opening the road to its neighbor, supported at once by it, 
 taking in flank the adversary which the day before it had attacked 
 in front, the efforts of one articulating closely with those of the 
 other, a perfect unity of intention and method animating the 
 supreme command. 
 
 To give this victory all its meaning it is necessary to add that 
 it was gained by troops which for two weeks had been retreating, 
 and which, when the order for the offensive was given, were found 
 to be as ardent as on the first day. It has also to be said that these 
 troops had to meet the whole Germany army. Under their pres- 
 sure the German retreat at certain times had the appearance of a 
 rout. 
 
 In spite of the fatigue of the poilus, in spite of the power of 
 the German heavy artillery, the French took colors, guns, mitrail- 
 leuses, shells, and thousands of prisoners. One German corps 
 lost almost the whole of its artillery. 
 
 In that great battle the spectacular rush of General Gallieni's 
 army defending Paris, was one of the dramatic surprises that decided 
 the issue. In that stroke Gallieni sent his entire force forty miles 
 to attack the right wing of the German army. In this gigantic 
 maneuver every motor car in Paris was utilized, and the flying 
 force of Gallieni became the "Army hi Taxicabs," a name that will 
 live as long as France exists. 
 
 General Clergerie, Chief of Staff to Gallieni told the story for 
 posterity. He said: 
 
 "From August 26, 1914, the German armies had been descend- 
 ing upon Paris by forced marches. On September 1st they were 
 only three days' march from the advanced line of the intrenched 
 camp, which the garrison were laboring desperately to put into 
 condition for defense. It was necessary to cover with trenches a 
 circuit of 110 miles, install siege guns, assure the coming of sup-
 
 118 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 plies for them over narrow-gauge railways, assemble the food and 
 provisions of all kinds necessary for a city of 4,000,000 inhabitants. 
 
 "But on September 3d, the intelligence service, which was 
 working perfectly, stated, about the middle of the day, that the 
 German columns, after heading straight for Paris, were swerving 
 toward the southeast and seemed to wish to avoid the fortified 
 camp. 
 
 "General Gallieni and I then had one of those long conferences 
 which denoted grave events; they usually lasted from two to five 
 minutes at most. The fact is that the military government of 
 Paris did little talking it acted. The conference reached this 
 conclusion: 'If they do not come to us, we will go to them with all 
 the force we can muster.' Nothing remained but to make the 
 necessary preparations. The first thing to do was not to give the 
 alarm to the enemy. General Manoury's army immediately 
 received orders to lie low and avoid any engagement that was not 
 absolutely necessary." Then care was taken to reinforce it by 
 every means. All was ready at the designated time. 
 
 In the night of September 3d, knowing that the enemy would 
 have to leave only a rear guard on one bank of the Ourcq, General 
 Gallieni and General Clergerie decided to march against that 
 rear guard, to drive it back with all the weight of the Manoury 
 army, to cut the enemy's communications, and take full advantage 
 of his hazardous situation. Immediately the following order was 
 addressed to General Manoury: 
 
 Because of the movement of the German armies, which seem to be 
 slipping in before our front to the southeast, I intend to send your army 
 to attack them in the flank, that is to say, in an easterly direction. I will 
 indicate your line of march as soon as I learn that of the British army. 
 But make your arrangements now so that your troops shall be ready to 
 march this afternoon and to begin a general movement east of the 
 intrenched camp tomorrow. 
 
 At ten in the morning a consultation was held by Generals 
 Gallieni, Clergerie, and Manoury, and the details of the plan of 
 operations were immediately decided. General Joffre gave per- 
 mission to attack and announced that he would himself take the 
 offensive on the 6th. On the 5th, at noon, the army from Paris 
 fired the first shot; the battle of the Ourcq, a preface to the Marne, 
 had begun.
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 119 
 
 General Clergerie then told what a precious purveyor of infor- 
 mation he had found in General von der Marwitz, cavalry com- 
 mander of the German first army, who made intemperate use 
 of the wireless telegraph and did not even take the trouble to put 
 into cipher his dispatches, of which the Eiffel Tower made a careful 
 collection. "In the evening of September 9th," he said, "an 
 officer of the intelligence corps brought me a dispatch from thin 
 same Marwitz couched hi something like these terms: 'Tell me 
 exactly where you are and what you are doing. Hurry up, because 
 XXX.' The officer was greatly embarrassed to interpret those 
 three X's. Adopting the language of the poilu, I said to him, 
 'Translate it, "I am going to bolt." True enough, next day we 
 found on the site of the German batteries, which had been pre- 
 cipitately evacuated, stacks of munitions; while by the roadside 
 we came upon motors abandoned for the slightest breakdown, and 
 near Betz almost the entire outfit of a field bakery, with a great 
 store of flour and dough half-kneaded. Paris and France were 
 saved. 
 
 "Von Kluck could not get over his astonishment. He has 
 tried to explain it by saying he was unlucky, for out of a hundred 
 governors not one would have acted as Gallieni did, throwing his 
 whole available force nearly forty miles from his stronghold. It 
 was downright imprudence."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 JAPAN IN THE WAR 
 
 ON AUGUST 15, 1914, the Empire of Japan issued an 
 ultimatum to Germany. She demanded the evacuation 
 of Tsing-tau, the disarming of the warships there and 
 the handing over of the territory to Japan for ultimate 
 reversion to China. The time limit for her reply was set at 
 12 o'clock, August 24th. To this ultimatum Germany made no 
 reply, and at 2.30 P. M., August 23d, the German Ambassador 
 was handed his passports and war was declared. 
 
 The reason for the action of Japan was simple. She was bound 
 by treaty to Great Britain to come to her aid hi any war hi which 
 Great Britain might be involved. On August 4th a note was 
 received from Great Britain requesting Japan to safeguard British 
 shipping hi the Far East. Japan replied that she could not guarantee 
 the safety of British shipping so long as Germany was in occupation 
 of the Chinese province of Tsing-tau. She suggested in turn that 
 England agree to allow her to remove this German menace. The 
 British Government agreed, on the condition that Tsing-tau be 
 subsequently returned to China. 
 
 The Japanese Government in taking this stand was acting 
 with courage and with loyalty. Toward individual Germans she 
 entertained no animosity. She had the highest respect for German 
 scholarship and German military science. She had been sending 
 her young men to German seats of learning, and had based the 
 reorganization of her army upon the German military system. But 
 she did not believe that a treaty was a inere " scrap of paper," 
 and was determined to fulfil her obligations in the treaty with 
 England. 
 
 It seems to have been the opinion of the highest Japanese 
 military authorities that Germany would win the war. Japan's 
 statesmen, however, believed that Germany was a menace to both 
 China and Japan and had lively recollections of her unfriendly 
 attitude in connection with the Chino-Japanese war and in the period 
 
 190
 
 JAPAN IN THE WAR 121 
 
 that followed. Germany had been playing the same game in China 
 that she had played in the Mediterranean and which had ultimately 
 brought about the war. 
 
 The Chino- Japanese war had been a great Japanese triumph. 
 One of Japan's greatest victories had been the capture of Port 
 Arthur, but the joy caused in Japan had not ended before it was 
 turned into mourning because of German interference. Germany 
 had then compelled Japan to quit Port Arthur, and to hand over 
 that great fort to Russia so that she herself might take Kiao-chau 
 without Russia's objection. 
 
 Japan had never forgotten or forgiven. The German seizure 
 of Kiao-chau had led to the Russian occupation of Port Arthur, 
 the British occupation of Wei-hai-wei and French occupation of 
 Kwan-chow Bay. The vultures were swooping down on defenseless 
 China. This had led to the Boxer disturbance of 1910, where 
 again the Kaiser had interfered. 
 
 Japan, who recognized that her interests and safety were 
 closely allied with the preservation of the territorial integrity of 
 China, had proposed to the powers that she be permitted to send 
 her troops to the rescue of the beleaguered foreigners, but this 
 proposition was refused on account of German suspicion of Japan's 
 motives. Later on, during the Russo-Japanese war, Russia was 
 assisted in many ways by the German Government. 
 
 Furthermore, the popular sympathy with the Japanese was 
 strongly with the Allies. It was the Kaiser who started the cry 
 of the " yellow peril," which had deeply hurt Japanese pride. Yet, 
 even with this strong feeling, it was remarkable that Japan was 
 willing to ally herself with Russia. She knew very well that after 
 all the greatest danger to her liberties lay across the Japan Sea. 
 Russian autocracy, with its militarism, its religious intolerance, its 
 discriminating policy against foreign interests in commerce and 
 trade, was the natural opponent of liberal Japan. 
 
 The immediate object of Japan in joining hands with England 
 was to destroy the German menace in the Pacific. Before she 
 delivered her ultimatum the Germans had been active; ignoring 
 the rights of Japan while she was still neutral they had captured 
 a Russian steamer within Japanese jurisdiction, as well as a number 
 of British merchant vessels, and even a few Japanese ships had 
 been intercepted by German cruisers. This was the disturbance
 
 122 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 to general peace in the Far East, which had prompted England to 
 request Japan's assistance. 
 
 Japan, when she entered the war, was at least twice as strong 
 as when she began the war with Russia. She had an army of one 
 million men, and a navy double the size of that which she had 
 possessed when the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed. As soon as 
 war was declared she proceeded to act. A portion of her fleet was 
 directed against the German forces hi the Pacific, one squadron 
 occupying Jaluit, the seat of government of the Marshall Islands, 
 on October 3d, but her main forces were directed against the fortress 
 of Tsing-tau. 
 
 The Germans had taken great pride in Tsing-tau, and had 
 made every effort to make it a model colony as well as an impregna- 
 ble fortress. They had built costly water works, fine streets and 
 fine public buildings. They had been making great preparations 
 for a state of siege, although it was not expected that they would be 
 able to hold out for a long tune. There were hardly more than 
 five thousand soldiers in the fortress, and in the harbor but four 
 small gunboats and an Austrian cruiser, the Kaiserin Elizabeth. 
 As Austria was not at war with Japan the authorization of Japan 
 was asked for the removal of the Kaiserin Elizabeth to Shanghai, 
 where she could be interned. The Japanese were favorable to this 
 proposition, but at the last moment instructions arrived from Vienna 
 directing the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to ask for his pass- 
 ports at Tokio and the commander of the Kaiserin Elizabeth to 
 assist the Germans in the defense of Tsing-tau. The Germans also 
 received orders to defend their fortress to the very last. A portion of 
 the German squadron, under Admiral von Spec, had sailed away 
 before the Japanese attack, one of these being the famous commerce 
 raider, the Emden. 
 
 On the 27th of August the Japanese made their first move by 
 taking possession of some of the small islands at the mouth of the 
 harbor of Kiao-chau. From these points as bases they swept the 
 surrounding waters for mines, with such success that during the 
 whole siege but one vessel of their fleet was injured by a mine. 
 On the 2d of September they landed troops at the northern base of 
 the peninsula upon which Tsing-tau was situated, with the object 
 of cutting off the fortress from the mainland. 
 
 The heavy rains which were customary at that season prevented
 
 JAPAN IN THE WAR 
 
 123 
 
 much action, but airplanes were sent which dropped bombs upon 
 the wireless station, electric power station and railway station of 
 Kiao-chau, and upon the ships in the harbor. On September 13th 
 General Kamio captured the railway station of Kiao-chau which 
 stands at the head of the bay. This placed him twenty-two miles 
 from Tsing-tau itself. On September 27th he captured Prince 
 Heinrich Hill giving him a gun position from which he could attack 
 the inner forts. On the 23d a small British force arrived from 
 Wei-hai-wei to co-operate with the Japanese. 
 
 tu-lumg ttuu. \ ^ 
 rtD BY JAPS FOR V 
 
 NAVAL BASE V {, * 
 
 \ ,. ; V 
 
 >v 
 
 THE GERMAN GIBRALTAR IN THE FAR EAST WHICH FELL TO THE JAPANESE 
 
 The combined forces then advanced until they were only five 
 miles from Tsing-tau. The German warships were bombarding 
 the Japanese troops fiercely, and were being replied to by the 
 Japanese squadron in the mouth of the harbor. The great waste 
 of German ammunition led General Kamio to the opinion that the
 
 124 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Germans did not contemplate a long siege. He then determined 
 on a vigorous assault. 
 
 Before the attack was made he gave the non-combatants an 
 opportunity of leaving, and on the 15th of October a number of 
 women and children and Chinese were allowed to pass through the 
 Japanese lines. On October 31st the bombardment began, and the 
 German forts were gradually silenced. On November 2d the 
 Kaiserin Elizabeth was sunk hi the harbor. 
 
 The Allied armies were pushing their way steadily down, until, 
 on November 6th, their trenches were along the edge of the last 
 German redoubts. At 6 o'clock on that day white flags were 
 floating over the central forts and by 7.30 Admiral Waldeck, the 
 German Governor, had signed the terms of capitulation. 
 
 Germany's prize colony on the continent of Asia had dis- 
 appeared. The survivors, numbering about three thousand, were 
 sent to Japan as prisoners of war. Japanese losses were but two 
 hundred and thirty-six men killed. They had, however, lost one 
 third-class cruiser, the Takachiho, and several smaller crafts. 
 The whole expedition was a notable success. It had occupied much 
 less tune than either Japan or Germany had expected, and the news 
 was received hi Germany with a universal feeling of bitterness and 
 chagrin. 
 
 After the Japanese capture of Kiao-chau Japan's assistance to 
 the Allies, while not spectacular, was extremely important, and its 
 importance increased during the last two years of the war. Her 
 cruiser squadrons did continuous patrol duty in the Pacific and in 
 the China Sea and even in the Indian Ocean. She occupied three 
 groups of German Islands in the South Sea, assisted in driving 
 German raiders from the Pacific, and by her efficiency permitted 
 a withdrawal of British warships to points where they could be 
 useful nearer home. She patrolled the Pacific coast of North and 
 South America, landed marines to quell riots at Singapore, 
 and finally entered into active service hi European waters by send- 
 ing a destroyer squadron to the assistance of the Allies hi the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 But while the aid of Japan's navy was important to the Allies, 
 her greatest assistance to the Allied cause was what she did in 
 supplying Russia with military supplies. The tremendous struggle 
 carried on by Russia's forces during the first years prevented an
 
 JAPAN IN THE WAR 125 
 
 easy German victory, and was only made possible through the 
 assistance of Japan. Enormous quantities of guns, ammunition, 
 military stores, hospital and Red Cross supplies, were sent into 
 Russia, with skilled officers and experts to accompany them. 
 In the last year of the war Japan once more came prominently 
 in the public eye in connection with the effort made by the Allies 
 to protect from the Russian Bolsheviki vast stores of ammunition 
 which had been landed in ports of Eastern Siberia. She was com- 
 pelled to land troops to do this and to preserve order in localities 
 where her citizens were in danger. Upon the development of the 
 Czecho-Slovak movement in Eastern Siberia a Japanese force, in 
 association with troops from the United States and Great Britain, 
 was landed to protect the Czecho-Slovaks from Bolsheviki treachery. 
 These troops succeeded in their object, and throughout the latter 
 period of the war kept Eastern Siberia friendly to the Allied cause. 
 In this campaign there w r as but little blood shed. The expedition 
 was followed by the strong sympathy of the allied world which was 
 full of admiration for the loyalty and courage of the Czecho- 
 slovaks and their heroic leaders.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 
 
 CIG before the declaration of war the German military experts 
 had made their plans. They recognized that in case of 
 war with Russia, France would come to the rescue of its 
 ally. They hoped that Italy, and felt sure that England, 
 would remain neutral, but, no doubt, had provided for the possi- 
 bility that these two nations would join the ranks of their foes. 
 They recognized that they would be compelled to fight against 
 greatly superior numbers, but they had this advantage, that they 
 were prepared to move at once, while England was unprepared, 
 and Russia, with enormous numbers, was so unprovided with rail- 
 road facilities that it would take weeks before her armies would be 
 dangerous. 
 
 Their plan of campaign, then, was obvious. Leaving in the 
 east only such forces as were necessary for a strong defense, they 
 would throw the bulk of their strength against the French. They 
 anticipated an easy march to Paris, and then with France at their 
 mercy they would gather together all then* powers and deal with 
 Russia. But they had underestimated both the French power of 
 resistance, and the Russian weakness, and in particular they had 
 not counted upon the check that they were to meet with in gallant 
 Belgium. 
 
 The Russian mobilization was quicker by far than had been 
 anticipated. Her armies were soon engaged with the compara- 
 tively small German forces, and met with great success. 
 
 To understand the Russian campaign one must have some 
 knowledge of the geography of western Russia. Russian Poland 
 projects as a great quadrilateral into eastern Germany. It is 
 bounded on the north by East Prussia, on the south by Galicia, 
 and the western part reaches deep into Germany itself. The 
 land is a broad, level plain, through which from south to north 
 runs the River Vistula. In the center lies the capital, Warsaw, 
 protected by a group of fortresses. The Russian army, therefore, 
 
 126
 
 CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 
 
 could not make a direct western advance until it had protected 
 its flanks by the conquest of East Prussia on the north, and Galicia 
 on the south. 
 
 By the beginning of the third week in August the first Russian 
 armies were ready. Her forces were arranged as follows: Facing 
 East Prussia was the Army of the Niemen, four corps strong; the 
 Army of Poland, consisting of fifteen army corps, occupied a wide 
 front from Narev on the north to the Bug Valley; a third army, 
 the Army of Galicia, directed its line of advance southward into 
 the country between Lemberg and the River Sareth. The fortresses 
 protecting Warsaw, still further to the east, were well garrisoned, 
 and in front of them to the west were troops intended to delay any 
 German advance from Posen. The Russian commander-in-chief 
 was the Grand Duke Nicholas, uncle of the late Czar, and one of 
 the most admirable representatives of the Russian at his best; 
 a splendid soldier, honest, straightforward, and patriotic, he was 
 the idol of his men. He had with him a brilliant staff, but the 
 strength of his army lay hi its experience. They had learned war 
 in the bitter school of the Manchurian campaign. 
 
 The German force on the frontier was not less than five hundred 
 thousand men, and they were arranged for defense. Austria, in 
 Galicia, had gathered nearly one million men under the auspices of 
 Frederick. The first movement of these armies took place in East 
 Prussia. The Army of the Niemen had completed its mobilization 
 early in August, and was under the command of General Rennen- 
 kampf, one of the Russian leaders in Manchuria. In command of 
 the German forces was General von Francois, an officer of Huguenot 
 descent. 
 
 The first clash of these armies took place on the German 
 frontier near Libau, on August 3d. Two days later, the Russians 
 crossed the frontier, drove in the German advance posts, and seized 
 the railway which runs south and east of the Masurian Lakes. 
 The German force fell back, burning villages and destroying roads, 
 according to then* usual plan. On the 7th of August the main 
 army of Rennenkampf crossed the border at Suwalki, advancing 
 in two main bodies : the Army of the Niemen moving north from 
 Suwalki, the Army of the Narev marching through the region of the 
 Masurian Lakes. In the lake district they advanced toward Boyen, 
 and then directed their march toward Insterburg.
 
 128 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 To protect Insterburg, General von Frangois made his first 
 stand at Gumbinnen, where, on the 16th of August, the first impor- 
 tant battle of this campaign took place. The result was the defeat 
 and retirement of the Germans, and von Francois was forced to 
 fall back on Koenigsberg. 
 
 Meantime, the Army of the Narev, under General Samsonov, 
 was advancing through the country west of the Masurian Lakes. 
 On the 20th his vanguard came upon a German army corps, strongly 
 entrenched at the northwest end of the lakes. The Germans were 
 defeated, and fled in great disorder toward Koenigsberg, abandoning 
 their guns and wagons. Many prisoners were taken, and the 
 Russians found themselves masters of all of East Prussia except 
 that inside the Koenigsberg line. They then marched on Koenigs- 
 berg, and East Prussia was for a moment at the mercy of the 
 conqueror. 
 
 Troops were left to invest Koenigsberg, and East Prussia was 
 overrun with the enemy. The report as to the behavior of these 
 troops met with great indignation in Germany; but better informa- 
 tion insists that they behaved with decorum and discretion. The 
 peasantry of East Prussia, remembering wild tales of the Cossacks 
 of a hundred years before, fled in confusion with stories of burning 
 and slaughter and outrage. 
 
 Germany became aroused. To thoroughly understand the 
 effect of the Russian invasion of East Prussia, one must know some- 
 thing of the relations of that district with the German Empire. 
 Historically, this was the cradle of the Prussian aristocracy, whose 
 dangerous policies had alarmed Europe for so many decades. 
 The Prussian aristocracy originated in a mixture of certain west 
 German and Christian knights, with a pagan population of the 
 eastern Baltic plain. The district was separate from Poland and 
 never fell under the Polish influence. It was held by the Teutonic 
 knights who conquered it in a sort of savage independence. The 
 Christian faith, which the Teutonic knights professed to inculcate, 
 took little root, but such civilization as Germany itself had absorbed 
 did filter in. The chief noble of Borussia, the governing Duke, 
 acquired in time the title of King, and it was here, not in Berlin, 
 nor in Brandenburg, that the Hohenzollern power originated. 
 
 East Prussia, therefore, had a sentimental importance in 
 the eyes of the Prussian nobility. The Prussian Royal House,
 
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 132 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 in particular, had toward this country an especial regard. More- 
 over, it was regarded by the Germans as a whole as their rampart 
 against the Slav, a proof of the German power to withstand the 
 dreaded Russian. That this sacred soil should now be in the hands 
 of a Cossack army was not to be borne. The Kaiser acted at once. 
 
 Large forces were detached from the west and sent to the aid 
 of the eastern army. A new commander was appointed. He was 
 General von Hindenburg, a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War 
 who had been for some years retired. After his retirement he 
 devoted his time to the study of East Prussia, especially the ground 
 around the Masurian Lakes. He became more familiar with its 
 roads, its fields, its marshes, its bogs than any of the peasants who 
 spent their lives in the neighborhood of the lakes. Before his 
 retirement, hi the annual maneuvers, he had often rehearsed his 
 defense against Russian invaders. Indeed report, perhaps 
 unfounded, described his retirement to the displeasure of the 
 Emperor William at being badly worsted in one of these mimic 
 combats. He had prevented the country from being cleared and 
 the swamps from being drained, arguing that they were worth 
 more to Germany than a dozen fortresses. A man of rugged 
 strength, his face suggesting power and tenacity, he was to become 
 the idol of the German people. 
 
 His chance had come. His army consisted of remnants of the 
 forces of von Fra^ois and large reinforcements sent him from the 
 west. In all, perhaps, he had with him 150,000 men, and he had 
 behind him an admirable system of strategic railways. 
 
 The Russian High Command was full of confidence. Rennen- 
 kampf had advanced with the Army of the Niemen toward 
 Koenigsberg, whose fall was reported from time to time, without 
 foundation. Koenigsberg was in fact impregnable to armies no 
 stronger than those under Rennenkampf's command. Samsonov 
 with the Army of the Narev, had pushed on to the northeastern 
 point of the lakes, and defeated the German army corps at 
 Frankenau. Misled by his success, he decided to continue his 
 advance through the lake region toward Allenstein. He marched 
 first toward Osterode, in the wilderness of forest, lake and marsh, 
 between Allenstein and the Lower Vistula. His force numbered 
 200,000 men, but the swamps made it impossible to proceed in mass. 
 His column had to be temporarily divided, nor was he well informed
 
 CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 133 
 
 as to the strength of his enemy. On Wednesday, the 26th of 
 August, his advance guards were everywhere driven in. As he 
 pushed on he discovered the enemy in great numbers, and late 
 in the day realized that he was facing a great army. 
 
 Von Hindenburg had taken a position astride the railway from 
 Allenstein to Soldau, and all access to his front was barred by 
 lakes and swamps. He was safe from frontal attack, and could 
 reinforce each wing at pleasure. From his right ran the only two 
 good roads in the region, and at his left was the Osterode railway. 
 On the first day he stood on the defensive, while the Russians, 
 confident of victory, attacked again and again. Some ground was 
 won and prisoners captured, and the news of a second victory was 
 sent to western Europe. 
 
 The battle continued, however, until the last day of August 
 and is known as the battle of Tannenberg, from a village of that 
 name near the marshes. Having worn down his enemy, von 
 Hindenburg counter-attacked. His first movement was on his 
 right. This not only deceived Samsonov and led him to reinforce 
 his left, but also enabled von Hindenburg to seize the only good 
 road that would give the Russian army a chance of retreat. Mean- 
 while the German general was hurrying masses of troops north- 
 eastward to outflank the Russian right. While the Russians were 
 reinforcing one flank, he was concentrating every man he could 
 upon the other. Then his left swept southward, driving in and 
 enveloping the Russian right, and Samsonov was driven into a 
 country full of swamps and almost without roads. 
 
 To thoroughly understand the plight of the Russian army 
 one must have some idea of the character of the Masurian Lake 
 district. It was probably molded by the work of ice in the past. 
 Great glaciers, in their progress toward the sea, have ground out 
 hundreds of hollows, where are found small pools and consider- 
 able lakes. From these glaciers have been dropped patches of 
 clay which hold the waters in wide extents of marsh and bog. 
 The country presents a monotonous picture of low, rounded swells 
 and flats, interspersed with stunted pine and birch woods. The 
 marshes and the lakes form a labyrinth, difficult to pass even to 
 those familiar with the country. The Masurian region is a great 
 trap for any commander who has not had unlimited acquaintance 
 with the place. Causeways, filled with great care, and railroads
 
 134 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 permit an orderly advance, but in a confused retreat disaster at 
 once threatens. 
 
 This was the ground that von Hindenburg knew so well. 
 The Russians resisted desperately, but their position could not 
 be held. Disaster awaited them. They found their guns sinking 
 to the axle-trees hi mire. Whole regiments were driven into the 
 lakes and drowned. On the last day of battle, August 31st, Sam- 
 sonov himself was killed, and his army completely destroyed. 
 Fifty thousand prisoners were taken with hundreds of guns and 
 quantities of supplies. Von Hindenburg had attained the triumph 
 of which he had so long dreamed. 
 
 It was an immensely successful example of that enveloping 
 movement characteristic of German warfare, a victory recalling 
 the battle of Sedan, and it was upon a scale not inferior to that 
 battle. 
 
 The news of this great triumph reached Berlin upon the anniver- 
 sary of the battle of Sedan, and on the same day that the news came 
 from the west that von Kluck had reached the gates of Paris and it 
 had a profound effect upon the German mind. They had grown to 
 believe that the Germans were a sort of superman; these wonderful 
 successes confirmed them in this belief. 
 
 No longer did they talk of a mere defense in the east; an 
 advance on Warsaw was demanded and von Hindenburg was 
 acclaimed the greatest soldier of his day. The Emperor made him 
 Field Marshal, and placed him hi command of the Teutonic armies 
 hi the east. 
 
 But von Hindenburg was not satisfied. The remnant of the 
 defeated army had fled toward Narev, and without losing a moment 
 von Hindenburg set off hi pursuit. Rennenkampf, all this time, 
 strange to say, had made no move, and at the news of Samsonov's 
 disaster he abandoned the siege of Koenigsberg and retreated toward 
 the Niemen. At Gumbinnen he fought a rear-guard action with 
 the German left, but had made up his mind that the Niemen must 
 be the Russian line of defense. Von Hindenburg, following, crossed 
 the Russian frontier and in the wide forests near Augustovo there 
 was much fighting. 
 
 This action, described as the first battle of Augustovo, was only 
 a rear-guard action, the Russians desiring merely to delay the 
 enemy for a day or two. German reports, however, described it as
 
 'LEADING GERMAN GENERALS 
 
 Von Hindenburg, Chief of the German General Staff; von Ludendorff, 
 Strategist of the General Staff; von Moltke, dismissed by the Kaiser for incom- 
 petency ; von Mackensen, Commander in the East; Crown Prince Rupprecht of 
 Bavaria, Army Commander in the West.
 
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 CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 137 
 
 a victory only second in importance to Tannenberg. Von Hinden- 
 burg then occupied Suwalki. He apparently had become over 
 confident, and hardly realized that Rennenkampf was continually 
 being reinforced by the Russian mobilization. 
 
 The Russian High Command understood the situation very 
 well. Their aim was to keep von Hindenburg busy on the Niemen, 
 while their armies in the south were overwhelming the fleeing 
 Austrians. Von Hindenburg was deceived, and continued his 
 advance until he got into serious trouble. His movement had begun 
 on September 7th; his army consisted of the four corps with which 
 he had won Tannenberg, and large reinforcements from Germany, 
 including at least one guards battalion, and a number of Saxons 
 and Bavarians. The country is one vast mixture of marsh and lake 
 and bog. The roads are few, and advance must therefore be slow 
 and difficult. Rennenkampf made no attempt to delay him beyond 
 a little rear-guard fighting. The German army reached the Niemen 
 on September 21st, and found behind it the Russian army in pre- 
 pared positions, with large reinforcements from Vilna. 
 
 The river at this point was wide and deep, and hard to cross. 
 The battle of the Niemen Crossings was an artillery duel. The 
 Russians quietly waited in their trenches to watch the Germans 
 build then- pontoon bridges. Then their guns blew the bridges to 
 pieces. Thereupon von Hindenburg bombarded the Russian lines 
 hoping to destroy the,iRussian guns. On Friday, the 26th, his guns 
 boomed all day; the Russians made no reply. So on the morning 
 of the 27th he built bridges again, and again the Russians blew them 
 to pieces. On the 28th he gave the order for retreat. 
 
 He realized that the game wasn't worth the candle; he might 
 easily be kept fighting on the Niemen for months, while the main 
 armies of the Russians were crossing Austria. Von Hindenburg 
 conducted the retreat with a skill which came to him naturally 
 from his knowledge of the marshes. 
 
 Rennenkampf followed him closely, keeping up persistent 
 attacks through the woods and marshes. The path of the retreating 
 army lay through the forest of Augustovo, a country much like that 
 around the Masurian Lakes, and there the Germans suffered heavy 
 losses. Von Hindenburg managed, however, to get the bulk of his 
 forces back across the frontier and continued his retreat to the 
 intrenchments on the Masurian Lakes.
 
 138 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The Germans lost 60,000 men in killed, wounded and prisoners, 
 and von Hindenburg handed over the command of the German 
 armies hi East Prussia to General von Schubert, and hastened 
 south to direct the movement to relieve the Austrians at Cracow. 
 
 But quite as important as the campaign hi East Prussia was 
 the struggle hi Galicia. When the war began the Germans con- 
 templated merely defense in their own domain; such offense as 
 was planned was left to the Austrians farther south. 
 
 Galicia is a long, level country lying north of the Carpathian 
 Mountains, and in this country Austria-Hungary had gathered 
 together a force of hardly less than one million men. A quarter of 
 these lay in reserve near the mountains; the remaining three- 
 quarters was divided into two armies; the first, the northern army, 
 being under the command of General Dankl, the second was that 
 of von Offenberg. The base of the first army was Przemysl; that 
 of the second was Lemberg. 
 
 The first army, it was planned, was to advance into Russian 
 territory in the direction of Lublin. The second army, stationed 
 southeast of the first army, was to protect it from any Russians 
 who might strike hi upon the south. The first army, therefore, 
 contained more picked material than the second, which included 
 many troops from the southern parts of the empire, including certain 
 disaffected contingents. The first army made its advance as soon 
 as possible, and entered Russian territory on the llth of August. 
 It went forward with very little loss and against very little resist- 
 ance. The Russian forces which were against it were inferior hi 
 number, and fell back towards the Bug. The Austrians followed, 
 turning somewhat toward the east, when their advance was checked 
 by news of catastrophe hi their rear. On the 14th of August the 
 Russian army under General Ruzsky crossed the frontier, and 
 advanced toward the Austrian second army. 
 
 The Russian army was in far greater strength than had been 
 expected, and when its advance was followed by the appearance 
 upon the right flank of von Offenberg's command, of yet another 
 Russian army, under Brussilov, the Austrian seond army found 
 itself in great danger. Ruzsky advanced steadily from August 14th 
 uniil, on the 21st, it was not more than one day's advance from 
 the outer works of Lemberg, and the third Russian army under 
 Brussilov was threatening von Offenberg's right flank.
 
 CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 139 
 
 Von Offenberg, underestimating the strength of the enemy, 
 undertook to give battle. The first outpost actions were successful 
 for the Austrians, and helped them in their blunder. On the 24th 
 of August the two Russian armies effected a junction, and their 
 Austrian opponents found themselves threatened with disaster. 
 An endeavor was made to retreat, but the retreat turned into a 
 rout. On the 28th Tarnopol was captured by the Russians, and 
 the Austrian army found itself compelled to fall back upon defense 
 positions to the south and east of Lemberg itself. 
 
 The attack of the Russian armies was completely successful. 
 The Austrian army was driven from its positions, and on September 
 4th the Austrians evacuated Lemberg and the Russian forces took 
 possession of the town. The Austrians fled. The population wel- 
 comed the conquerors with the greatest enthusiasm. An immense 
 quantity of stores of every kind were captured by the Russians 
 together with at least 100,000 prisoners. There was no looting, 
 nor any kind of outrage. The Russian policy was to make friends 
 of the inhabitants of Galicia. 
 
 But there was no halt after Lemberg. Brussilov divided his 
 army, and sent his left wing into the Carpathian passes; his center 
 and right moved west toward Przemysl; while Ruzsky moved 
 northwest to reinforce the Russian army on the Bug. Meanwhile 
 the position of Dankl's army was perilous in the extreme. There 
 were two possible courses, one to fall back and join the remnants of 
 von Offenberg's army, the other to attack at once, before the first 
 Russian army could be reinforced, and if victorious to turn on 
 Ruzsky. 
 
 Dankl's army was now very strong. He had received rein- 
 forcements, not only from Austria but from Germany. On the 
 4th of September he attacked the Russian center; his attack was a 
 failure, although he outnumbered the Russians. The battle con- 
 tinued until the tenth. 
 
 Everywhere the Austrians were beaten, and driven off in 
 ignominious retreat. The whole Austrian force fled southward in 
 great disorder; a part directed its flight toward Przemysl, others 
 still farther west toward Cracow. Austria had been completely 
 defeated. Poland was clear of the enemy. The Russian flag flew 
 over Lemberg, while the Russian army was marching toward Cra- 
 cow. The Russian star was in the ascendant.
 
 140 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 But the Austrian armies had not been annihilated. An army 
 of nearly a Trillion men cannot be destroyed in so short a time. 
 The Austrian failure was due hi part to the disaffection of some of 
 the elements of the army, and in part to the poor Austrian general- 
 ship. They had underestimated their foe, and ventured on a most 
 perilous plan of campaign. 
 
 Russian generalship had been most admirable, and the Russian 
 generals were men of ability and experience. Brussilov had seen 
 service in the Turkish War of 1877. Ruzsky was a professor in the 
 Russian War Academy. In the Japanese war he had been chief 
 of staff to General Kaulbars, the commander of the Second Man- 
 churian army. Associated with him was General Radko Dmitrieff, 
 an able officer with a most interesting career. General Dmitrieff 
 was born in Bulgaria, when it was a Turkish province. He grad- 
 uated at the Military School at Sofia, and afterwards at the War 
 Academy at Petrograd. On his return to Bulgaria he commanded 
 a regiment hi the Serbian-Bulgarian war. Later he became mixed 
 up in the conspiracy against Prince Alexander, and was forced to 
 leave Bulgaria. For ten years he served in the Russian army, 
 returning to Bulgaria on the accession of Prince Ferdinand. Later 
 on he became Chief of the General Staff, and when the Balkan 
 war broke out he commanded one of the Bulgarian armies, won 
 several important victories, and became a popular hero of the war. 
 Disgusted with the political squabbles which followed the war, 
 he returned to Russia as a general in the Russian army. With men 
 like these in command, the Russian Empire was well served. 
 
 After the decisive defeat of the Austrian army under General 
 Dankl, certain changes were made in the Russian High Command. 
 General Ruzsky was made commander of the center, which was 
 largely reinforced. General Ivanov was put in command of the 
 armies operating in Galicia with Dmitrieff and Brussilov as his 
 chief lieutenants. Brussilov's business was to seize the deep passes 
 in the Carpathians and to threaten Hungary. Dmitrieff 's duty was 
 to press the Austrian retreat, and capture the main fortresses of 
 central Galicia. 
 
 There are two great fortresses on the River San, Jaroslav and 
 Przemysl, both of them controlling important railroad routes. 
 Jaroslav on the mam line from Lemberg to Cracow, Przemysl with 
 a line which skirts the Carpathians, and connects with lines going
 
 CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST 141 
 
 south to Hungary. Jaroslav was fortified by a strong circle of 
 intrenchments and was looked to by Austria for stout resistance. 
 The Austrians were disappointed, for Ivanov captured it in three 
 days, on the 23d of September. Dmitrieff found Przemysl a harder 
 nut to crack. It held out for many months, while operations of 
 greater importance were being carried on by the Russian armies. 
 The plans of the Russian generals in some respects were not unlike 
 the plan previously suggested as that of the German High Command. 
 At the beginning of the war they had no desire to carry on a power- 
 ful offensive against Germany. The expedition into East Prussia 
 was conducted more for political than for military purposes. The 
 real offensive at the start was to be against Austria. The Russian 
 movements were cautious at first, but the easy capture of Lem- 
 berg, the fall of Jaroslav, and the demoralization of the Austrian 
 armies, encouraged more daring strategy. With the Germans 
 stopped on the north, little aid to the Austrians could come from 
 that source. The Grand Duke Nicholas was eager to strike a great 
 blow before the winter struck in, so his armies swept to the great 
 Polish city of Cracow. The campaign against Austria also had a 
 political side. 
 
 Russia had determined upon a new attitude toward Poland. 
 On August 15th the Grand Duke Nicholas, on behalf of the Czar, 
 had issued a proclamation offering self-government to Russian 
 Poland. Home rule for Poland had long been a favorite plan with 
 the Czar. Now he promised, not only to give Russian Poland 
 home rule, but to add to it the Polish peoples in Austria and Ger- 
 many. This meant that Austria and Germany would have to 
 give up Galicia on the one hand, and Prussian Poland on the 
 other, if they should lose the war. In the old days Poland had 
 been one of the greatest kingdoms in Europe, with a proud nobility 
 and high civilization. She was one of the first of the great Slav 
 peoples to penetrate the west. Later she had protected Europe 
 against Tartar invasion, but internal differences had weakened 
 her, and, surrounded by enemies, she had first been plundered, and 
 later on divided between Austria, Russia and Prussia. Never had 
 the Poles consented to this destruction of their independence. 
 Galicia had constantly struggled against Austria; Prussian Poland 
 was equally disturbing to the Prussian peace, and Russia was only 
 able to maintain the control of her Polish province by the sword.
 
 142 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Of the three the Pole was probably more inclined to keep on friendly 
 terms with Russia, also a Slav people. The policy of the Czar 
 encouraged this inclination and produced disaffection among the 
 Poles in Galicia and in Posen. Moreover, it gave Russia the 
 sympathy of the world which had long regarded the partition of 
 Poland as a political crime. It encouraged the Czecho-Slavs and 
 other dissatisfied portions of the Austrian Empire. 
 
 The results were seen immediately in the demoralization of 
 the Austrian armies where considerable numbers of Czecho-Slovak 
 troops deserted to the Russian army, and later in the loyalty to 
 Russia of the Poles, and then* refusal, even under the greatest 
 German pressure, to give the German Empire aid.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY ON THE SEA 
 
 CAPTAIN MAHAN'S thesis that in any great war the 
 nation possessing the greater sea power is likely to win, 
 was splendidly illustrated during the World War. 
 
 The great English fleets proved the insuperable 
 obstacle to the ambitious German plans of world dominion. The 
 millions of soldiers landed in France from Great Britain, and its 
 provinces, the millions of Americans transported in safety across 
 the water, and the enormous quantities of supplies put at the dis- 
 posal of the Allies depended, absolutely, upon the Allied control 
 of the sea routes of the world. With a superior navy a German 
 blockade of England would have brought her to terms in a short 
 period, and France, left to fight alone, would have been an easy 
 victim. The British navy saved the world. 
 
 Germany had for many years well understood the necessity 
 of power upon the sea. When the war broke out it was the second 
 greatest of the sea powers. Its ships were mostly modern, for its 
 navy was a creation of the past fifteen years, and its development 
 was obviously for the purpose of attacking the British supremacy. 
 The father of this new navy was a naval officer by the name of 
 von Tirpitz, who, in 1897, had become the German Naval Minister. 
 With the aid of the Emperor he had aroused among the Germans a 
 great enthusiasm for maritime power, and had built up a navy in 
 fifteen years, which was second only to the English navy. 
 
 Von Tirpitz was an interesting character. In appearance 
 he looked like an old sea-wolf who had passed his life on the wave, 
 but such a thought would be a mistake. The great admiral's work 
 was done on land; he was an organizer, a diplomatist, and a poli- 
 tician. He created nothing new; in all its details he merely 
 copied the English fleet. He is tall, heavily built, with a great 
 white beard, forked in the middle. He is a man of much dignity, 
 with a smile which has won him renown. He might have been 
 Chancellor of the Empire but he preferred to devote himself to
 
 144 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the navy, to prove that the future of Germany is on the seas. 
 His glories are the Lusitania, the fleet safely anchored at Kiel, 
 and the long rows of innocent victims of the submarine. 
 
 He was born in 1850 at Kustrion on the Ildor, when the German 
 navy was only a little group of worthless boats. In 1865 he entered 
 the School of Cadets, in 1869 he was gazetted lieutenant, in 1875 
 he was lieutenant-commander with a reputation as an able 
 organizer. In 1891 he was appointed Chief of Staff at Kiel. This 
 was his opportunity, and he set himself at the task of creating 
 and protecting the submarine division of the navy. As time went 
 on he grew in importance. In 1898 he became Assistant Secretary 
 of State at the Admiralty in Berlin. Two years later he became 
 vice-admiral. His admirers recognized his powers, and he was 
 called the master. In 1899 a patent of nobility was conferred 
 upon him. In 1902 he gained permission to build 13,000-ton war 
 ships, and the following year he was made admiral. In 1907 
 enormous appropriations were made at his desire for the enlarge- 
 ment of the fleet. In 1908 Emperor William conferred on him the 
 Order of the Black Eagle. In 1914 the Kiel Canal was com- 
 pleted under his direction, and he informed the Emperor that the 
 fleet was ready. It is only fair to add that in all his plans he had 
 the active support of his Imperial Master. The Kaiser, too, had 
 dreamed a dream. Von Tirpitz admired the English. His 
 children had been brought up in England, as was also his wife. 
 He imitated the English, but on the day of the declaration of 
 war he absolutely forbade his family to talk English, and he made a 
 bonfire of his fine scientific library of English books. The Kaiser 
 treated Von Tirpitz as his friend, asked his advice, and followed 
 his counsel. His son, Sub-Lieutenant Wolf Von Tirpitz, studied 
 at Oxford, and is on the most friendly terms with many English 
 gentlemen of importance. He was on board the Mainz, which 
 was sunk off Helgoland in August, 1916. In full uniform he swam 
 for twenty minutes, before being picked up by one of the boats of 
 the cruiser Liverpool. He was a lucky prisoner of war. The 
 German battleships and cruisers which represent the toil of von 
 Tirpitz for more than half a century, lay hidden away in the shelter 
 of the Kiel Canal during the war to be ingloriously surrendered 
 at its end. His name will remain linked with that of the Lusitania. 
 
 The German High Sea Fleet, at the beginning of the war,
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 147 
 
 consisted of forty-one battleships, seven battle cruisers, nine 
 armored cruisers, forty-nine light cruisers, one hundred and forty- 
 five destroyers, eighty torpedo boats, and thirty-eight submarines. 
 Under the direction of Von Tirpitz the navy had become demo- 
 cratic and had drawn to it many able men of the middle class. 
 Its training was highly specialized and the officers were enthusi- 
 asts in their profession. The navy of Austria-Hungary had also 
 expanded in recent years under the inspiration of Admiral 
 Montecuculi. At the outbreak of the war the fleet comprised 
 sixteen battleships, two armored and twelve light cruisers, eighteen 
 destroyers, eighty-five torpedo boats and eleven submarines. 
 The Allies were much more powerful. The French navy had in 
 the matter of invention given the lead to the world, but its size 
 had not kept pace with its quality. At the beginning of the war 
 France had thirty-one battleships, twenty-four armored cruisers, 
 eight light cruisers, eighty-seven destroyers, one hundred and 
 fifty-three torpedo boats and seventy-six submarines. Russia, 
 after the war with Japan, had begun the creation of a powerful 
 battle fleet, which had not been completed when war was declared. 
 At that time she had on the Baltic four dreadnaughts, ten armored 
 cruisers, two light cruisers, eighty destroyers and twenty-four sub- 
 marines, and a fleet of about half the strength in the Black Sea. 
 
 The English fleet had reached a point of efficiency which 
 was unprecedented in its history. The progress of the German sea 
 power had stimulated the spirit of the fleet, and led to a steady 
 advance in training and equipment. The development of arma- 
 ment, and of battleship designing, the improvement in gunnery 
 practice, the revision of the rate of pay, the opening up of careers 
 from the lower deck, and the provision of a naval air service are 
 landmarks in the advance. In the navy estimates of March, 1914, 
 Parliament sanctioned over 51,000,000 for a naval defense, the 
 largest appropriation for the purpose ever made. The home fleet 
 was arranged in three units, the first fleet was divided into four 
 battle squadrons, together with the flagship of the commander-in- 
 chief. The first squadron was made up of eight battleships, the 
 second squadron contained eight, the third eight and the fourth 
 four. Attached to each fleet was a battle cruiser squadron, con- 
 sisting of four ships in the first fleet, four in the second, four in the 
 third and five in the fourth. The fourth also contained a light
 
 148 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 cruiser squadron, a squadron of six gunboats for mine sweeping, 
 and four flotillas of destroyers, each with a flotilla cruiser attached. 
 The second fleet was composed of two battle squadrons, the first 
 containing eight pre-dreadnaughts, and the second six. Attached 
 to this fleet were also two cruiser squadrons, a mine layer squadron of 
 seven vessels, four patrol flotillas, consisting of destroyers and 
 torpedo boats, and seven flotillas of submarines. A third fleet 
 contained two battle squadrons, mainly composed of old ships, 
 with six cruiser squadrons. The English strength, outside home 
 waters, consisted of the Mediterranean fleet, containing three 
 battle cruisers, four armored cruisers, four ordinary cruisers and 
 a flotilla of seventeen destroyers, together with submarines and 
 torpedo boats. In eastern waters there were a battleship, two 
 cruisers, and four sloops. In the China squadron there were one 
 battleship, two armored cruisers, two ordinary cruisers, and a 
 number of gunboats, destroyers, submarines, and torpedo boats. 
 In New Zealand there were four cruisers. The Australian fleet 
 contained a battle cruiser, three ordinary cruisers, three destroyers 
 and two submarines. Other cruisers and gunboats were stationed 
 at the Cape, the west coast of Africa, and along the western Atlan- 
 tic. At the outbreak of the war two destroyers were purchased 
 from Chile, and two Turkish battleships, building in England, 
 were commandeered by the government. 
 
 It is evident that the union of France and Britain made the 
 Allies easily superior hi the Mediterranean Sea, so that France 
 was able to transport her African troops in safety, and the British 
 commerce with India and the East could safely continue. The 
 main field of the naval war, therefore, was the North Sea and the 
 Baltic, where Germany had all her fleet, except a few naval 
 raiders. The entrance to the Baltic was closed to the enemy by 
 Denmark, which, as a neutral, was bound to prevent an enemy 
 fleet from passing. Germany, however, by means of the Kiel 
 Canal, could permit the largest battle fleet to pass from the Baltic 
 to the North Sea. The German High Sea Fleet was weaker than 
 the British home fleet by more than forty per cent, and the German 
 policy, therefore, was to avoid a battle, until, through mine layers 
 and submarines, the British power should have been sufficiently 
 weakened. The form of the German coast made this plan easily 
 possible. The various bays and river mouths provided safe retreat
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 149 
 
 for the German ships, and the German fleet were made secure by 
 the fortifications along the coast. On July the 29th, 1914, at 
 the conclusion of the annual maneuvers, instead of being demo- 
 bilized as would have been usual, the Grand Fleet of Great Britain 
 sailed from Portland along the coast into the mists, and from 
 that moment dominated the whole course of the war. 
 
 From the 4th of August, the date of the declaration of war, 
 the oceans of the world were practically rid of enemy war ships, 
 and were closed to enemy mercantile marine. Although diplo- 
 macy had not yet failed, the masters of the English navy were not 
 caught napping. The credit for this readiness has been given to 
 Mr. Winston Churchill, one of the first Lords of the Admiralty, 
 who had divined the coming danger. When the grand fleet sailed 
 it seemed to disappear from English view. Occasionally some 
 dweller along the coast might see an occasional cruiser or destroyer 
 sweeping by in the distance, but the great battleships had gone. 
 Somewhere, in some hidden harbor, lay the vigilant fleets of 
 England. 
 
 Sea fighting had changed since the days of Admiral Nelson. 
 The old wooden ship belonged to a past generation. The guns 
 of a battleship would have sunk the Spanish Armada with one 
 broadside. In this modern day the battleship was protected by 
 aircraft, which dropped bombs from the clouds. Unseen sub- 
 marines circled about her. Beneath her might be mines, which 
 could destroy her at the slightest touch. Everything had changed 
 but the daring of the English sailor. 
 
 In command of the Home fleet was Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. 
 He had had a distinguished career. Beginning as a lieutenant 
 in the Egyptian War of 1882, he had become a commander in 
 1891. In 1897 he became a captain, and served in China, com- 
 manding the Naval Brigade in the Pekin Expedition of 1900, 
 where he was severely wounded. Later he became naval assistant 
 to the Controller of the Navy, Director of Naval Ordnance and 
 Torpedoes, Rear-Admiral in the United Fleet, Lord Commissioner 
 of the Admiralty and Controller of the Navy, Vice-Admiral com- 
 manding the Atlantic fleet, Vice-Admiral commanding the second 
 division of the Home fleet, and second Sea Lord of the Admiralty. 
 He had distinguished himself in the naval maneuvers of 1913, 
 and was one of the officers mainly responsible for the development
 
 150 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 of the modern English navy. He had the confidence of his col- 
 leagues, and a peculiar popularity among the British seamen. 
 
 On the day after the declaration of war, the first shots were 
 fired. German mine layers, it is now believed, in disguise, had 
 been dropping mines during the preceding week over a wide area 
 of the North Sea. On the 5th of August the mine layer, Koenigen 
 Luise, was sunk by the destroyer Lance, and on August 6th the 
 British light cruiser Amphion struck one of the mines laid by the 
 Koenigen Luise and was sunk with great loss of life. On August 
 9th, German submarines attacked a cruiser squadron without 
 causing any damage, and one submarine was sunk. 
 
 It was in the Mediterranean, however, that the greatest 
 interest was felt during the first week of the war. Two German 
 war ships, the Goeben and the Breslau, were off the Algerian coast 
 when war broke out. It is probable that when these ships received 
 their sailing orders, Germany depended on the assistance of Italy, 
 and had sent these ships to its assistance. They were admirably 
 suited for commerce destroyers. They began by bombarding 
 the Algerian coast towns of Bona and Phillipe, doing little damage. 
 They then turned toward the coast of Gibraltar, but found before 
 them the British fleet. Eluding the British they next appeared 
 at Messina. There the captains and officers made their wills and 
 deposited then* valuables, including signed portraits of the Kaiser, 
 with the German consul. The decks were cleared for action, 
 and with the bands playing they sailed out under a blood-red 
 sunset. 
 
 However, they seem to have been intent only on escape, and 
 they went at full speed eastward toward the Dardanelles, meeting 
 in their way only with the British cruiser Gloucester, which, 
 though much inferior in size, attacked them boldly but was unable 
 to prevent their escape. On entering Constantinople they were 
 reported as being sold to the Turkish Government, the Turks 
 thus beginning the line of conduct which was ultimately to bring 
 them into the war. 
 
 Picturesque as this incident was it was of no importance as 
 compared with the great British blockade of Germany which began 
 on the 4th of August. German merchantmen in every country 
 of the empire were seized, and hundreds of ships were captured 
 on the high seas. Those who escaped to neutral ports were at
 
 TORPEDOING OF THE BRITISH BATTLESHIP, "ABOUKIR" 
 
 In the first few weeks of the war, when the navies of the world were 
 still at open warfare, during a sharp engagement off the Hook of Holland 
 in the North Sea the British warships "Aboukir", "Cressy" and "Hogue" 
 fell victims to the enemy. This sketch shows the "Aboukir " after a German 
 torpedo had found its mark in her hull.
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 153 
 
 once interned. In a week German commerce had ceased to exist. 
 A few German cruisers were still at large but it was not long before 
 they had been captured, or driven into neutral ports. Among the 
 most picturesque of these raiders were the Emden and the Koenigs- 
 berg. The Emden, in particular, interested the world with her 
 romantic adventures. Her story is best told in the words of Lieu- 
 tenant-Captain von Miicke, and Lieutenant Gyssing, whose return 
 to Germany with forty-four men, four officers and one surgeon, 
 after the destruction of the ship, was a veritable Odyssey. 
 
 "We on the Emden had no idea where we were going, as, on 
 August 11, 1914, we separated from the cruiser squadron, escorted 
 only by the coaler Markomannia. Under way the Emden picked 
 up three officers from German steamers. That was a piece of 
 luck, for afterward we needed many officers for the capturing and 
 smking of steamers, or manning them when we took them with 
 us. On September 10th, the first boat came in sight. We stopped 
 her; she proved to be a Greek tramp returning from England. 
 On the next day we met the Indus, bound for Bombay, all fitted 
 up as a troop transport, but still without troops. That was the 
 first one we sunk. The crew we took aboard the Markomannia. 
 Then we sank the Lovat, a troop transport ship, and took the 
 Kambinga along with us. One gets used quickly to new forms of 
 activity. After a few days, capturing ships became a habit. Of 
 the twenty-three which we captured most of them stopped after 
 our first signal; when they didn't, we fired a blank shot. Then 
 they all stopped. Only one, the Clan Matteson, waited for a 
 real shot across the bow before giving up its many automobiles 
 and locomotives to the seas. 
 
 "The officers were mostly very polite, and let down rope ladders 
 for us. After a few hours they would be on board with us. We 
 ourselves never set foot hi their cabins, nor took charge of them. 
 The officers often acted on their own initiative, and signaled to 
 us the nature of their cargo. Then the commandant decided as 
 to whether to sink the ship or take it with us. Of the cargo we 
 always took every thing we could use, particularly provisions. 
 Many of the English officers and sailors made good use of the 
 hours of transfer to drink up the supply of whisky instead of sacri- 
 ficing it to the waves. I heard that one captain was lying in tears 
 at the enforced separation from his beloved ship, but on investiga-
 
 154 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 tion found that he was merely dead drunk. The captain on one 
 ship once called out cheerily 'Thank God, I've been captured.' 
 He had received expense money for the trip to Australia, and was 
 now saved half the journey." 
 
 Parenthetically it may be remarked, that the Emden's cap- 
 tain, Karl von Mueller, conducted himself at all tunes with 
 chivalrous bravery, according to the accounts of the English them- 
 selves, who in then* reports say of him, admiringly, "He played 
 the game." Captain von Miicke's account continues: 
 
 "We had mostly quiet weather, so that communication with 
 captured ships was easy. They were mostly dynamited, or else 
 shot close to the water line. At Calcutta we made one of our 
 richest hauls, the Diplomat, chock full of tea, we sunk $2,500,000 
 worth. On the same day the Trabbotch, too, which steered right 
 straight towards us, was captured. By now we wanted to beat 
 it out of the Bay of Bengal, because we had learned from the papers 
 that the Emden was being keenly searched for. By Rangoon we 
 encountered a Norwegian tramp, which, for a cash consideration, 
 took over all the rest of our prisoners of war. 
 
 "On September 23d we reached Madras, and steered straight 
 for the harbor. We stopped still 3,000 yards before the city. 
 Then we shot up the oil tanks; three or four of them burned up 
 and illuminated the city. Two days later we navigated around 
 Ceylon, and could see the lights of Colombo. On the same evening 
 we gathered in two more steamers, the King Lund, and Tywerse. 
 The next evening we got the Burresk, a nice steamer with 500 tons 
 of nice Cardiff coal. Then followed hi order, the Ryberia, Foyle, 
 Grand Ponrabbel, Benmore, Troiens, Exfort, Graycefale, Sankt 
 Eckbert, Chilkana. Most of them were sunk. The coal ships 
 were kept. All this happened before October 20th. Then we 
 sailed southward to Deogazia, southwest of Colombo." 
 
 The captain then tells with much gusto a story of a visit paid 
 to the Emden by some English farmers, at Deogazia, who were 
 entertained royally by the Emden officers. They knew nothing 
 about the war, and the Emden officers told them nothing. His 
 narrative continues: 
 
 'Now we went toward Miniko, where we sank two ships more. 
 On the next day we found three steamers to the north, one of them 
 with much desired Cardiff coal. From English papers on the
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 155 
 
 captured ships we learned that we were being hotly pursued. 
 One night we started for Penang. On October 28th we raised a 
 very practicable fourth smokestack (for disguise). The harbor of 
 Penang lies in a channel difficult of access. There was nothing 
 doing by night. We had to do it at daybreak. At high speed, 
 without smoke, with lights out, we steered into the mouth of the 
 channel. A torpedo boat on guard slept well. We steamed past 
 its small light. Inside lay a dark silhouette. That must be a 
 warship. We recognized the silhouette dead sure. That was the 
 Russian cruiser Jemtchud. There it lay, there it slept like a rat, 
 no watch to be seen. They made it easy for us. Because of the 
 narrowness of the harbor we had to keep close; we fired the first 
 torpedo at four hundred yards. 
 
 "Then, to be sure, things livened up a bit on the sleeping 
 warship. At the same time we took the crew quarters under fire 
 five shells at a time. There was a flash of flame on board, then 
 a kind of burning aureole. After the fourth shell the flame burned 
 high. The first torpedo had struck the ship too deep, because we 
 were too close to it. A second torpedo which we fired off from the 
 other side didn't make the same mistake. After twenty seconds 
 there was absolutely not a trace of the ship to be seen. 
 
 "But now another ship which we couldn't see was firing. That 
 was the French D'lvrebreville, toward which we now turned at 
 once. A few minutes later an incoming torpedo destroyer was 
 reported. It proved to be the French torpedo boat Mousquet. 
 It came straight toward us. That's always remained a mystery 
 to me, for it must have heard the shooting. An officer whom we 
 fished up afterward explained to me that they had only recognized 
 we were a German warship when they were quite close to us. 
 The Frenchman behaved well, accepted battle and fought on, 
 but was polished off by us with three broadsides. The whole 
 fight with those ships lasted half an hour. The commander of the 
 torpedo boat lost both legs by the first broadside. When he saw 
 that part of his crew were leaping overboard he cried out 'Tie 
 me fast. I will not survive after seeing Frenchmen desert their 
 ship.' As a matter of fact he went down with his ship, as a brave 
 captain, lashed fast to the mast. That was my only sea-fight. 
 
 "On November 9th I left the Emden in order to destroy the 
 wireless plant on the Cocos Island. I had fifty men, four machine
 
 156 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 guns and about thirty rifles. Just as we were about to destroy 
 the apparatus it reported 'Careful. Emden near/ The work of 
 destruction went smoothly. Presently the Emden signaled to us 
 'Hurry up.' I pack up, but simultaneously wails the Emden's 
 siren. I hurry up to the bridge, see the flag 'Anna' go up. That 
 means weigh anchor. We ran like mad into our boat, but already 
 the Emden's pennant goes up, the battle flag is raised, they fire 
 from starboard. The enemy is concealed by the island, and there- 
 fore not to be seen, but I see the shell strike the water. To follow 
 and catch the Emden is out of question. She is going twenty 
 knots, I only four with my steam pinnace. Therefore I turn back 
 to land, raise the flag, declare German laws of war in force, seize 
 all arms, set out my machine guns on shore in order to guard against 
 a hostile landing. Then I run again in order to observe the fight." 
 
 The cable operator at Cocos Island gives the following account 
 of what happened from this point. After describing the sudden 
 flight of the Emden, he goes on: 
 
 "Looking to the eastward we could see the reason for this 
 sudden departure, for a warship, which we afterwards learned was 
 the Australian cruiser Sydney, was coming up at full speed hi 
 pursuit. The Emden did not wait to discuss matters, but, firing 
 her first shot at a range of about 3,700 yards, steamed north as 
 hard as she could go. At first the firing of the Emden seemed 
 excellent, while that of the Sydney was somewhat erratic. This, 
 as I afterward learned, was due to the fact that the Australian 
 cruiser's range finder was put out of action by one of the only 
 two shots the Germans got home. However, the British gunners 
 soon overcame any difficulties that this may have caused, and 
 settled down to their work, so that before long two of the Emden's 
 funnels had been shot away. She also lost one of her masts quite 
 early in the fight. Both blazing away with their big guns the two 
 cruisers disappeared below the horizon, the Emden being on fire. 
 
 "Early the next morning, Tuesday, November 10th, we 
 saw the Sydney returning, and at 8.45 A. M. she anchored off the 
 island. From various members of the crew I gathered some details 
 of the running fight with the Emden. The Sydney, having an 
 advantage in speed, was able to keep out of range of the Emden's 
 guns, and to bombard with her own heavier metal. The engage- 
 ment lasted eighty minutes, the Emden finally running ashore
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 157 
 
 on North Keeling Island, and becoming an utter wreck. Only 
 two German shots proved effective, one of these failed to explode, 
 but smashed the main range finder and killed one man, the other 
 killed three men and wounded fourteen. 
 
 "Each of the cruisers attempted to torpedo the other, but 
 both were unsuccessful, and the duel proved a contest hi hard 
 pounding at long range. The Sydney's speed during the fighting 
 was twenty-six knots, and the Emden's twenty-four knots. The 
 British ship's superiority of two knots enabled her to choose the 
 range at which the battle should be fought and to make the most 
 of her superior guns. Finally, with a number of wounded prisoners 
 on board, the Sydney left here yesterday, and our few hours of 
 war excitement were over." 
 
 Captain Miicke's return home from the Cocos Island was 
 filled with the most extraordinary adventures, and when he finally 
 arrived in country controlled by his Allies he was greeted as a hero. 
 
 While the story of the Emden especially interested the world, 
 the Koenigsberg also caused much trouble to English commerce. 
 Her chief exploit occurred on the 20th of September, when she 
 caught the British cruiser Pegasus in Zanzibar harbor undergoing 
 repairs. The Pegasus had no chance, and was destroyed by the 
 Koenigsberg's long-range fire. Nothing much was heard later 
 of the Koenigsberg, which was finally destroyed by an English 
 cruiser, July 11, 1915. 
 
 The exploits of these two German commerce raiders attracted 
 general attention, because they were the exceptions to the rule. 
 The British, on the other hand, were able to capture such German 
 merchantmen as ventured on the sea without great difficulty, and 
 as they did not destroy their capture, but brought them before 
 prize courts, the incidents attracted no great attention. The 
 Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which had been fitted up as a com- 
 merce destroyer by the Germans at the beginning of the war, as 
 was the Spreewald of the Hamburg-American Line, and the Cap 
 Trafalgar, were caught and sunk during the month of September. 
 On the whole, English foreign trade was iiiiimpaired. 
 
 But though the German fleet had been bottled up in her 
 harbors, Germany was not yet impotent. There remained the 
 submarine. 
 
 Up to 1905 Germany had not a single submarine. The
 
 158 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 first German submarine was launched on August 30, 1905. Even 
 then it was considered merely an experiment. In February, 1907, 
 it was added to the register of the fleet. On January 1, 1901, there 
 were only four nations that possessed submarines, France, with 
 fourteen; the United States, with eight ; England, with six, of which 
 not one was completed, and finally Italy, with two. In 1910, 
 Germany appropriated 18,750,000 marks for submarines, and 
 in 1913, 25,000,000 marks. On January 1, 1914, the total number 
 of submarines of all nations was approximately four hundred. 
 
 Early in the war the submarine became a grave menace to 
 the English navy and to English commerce. On the 5th of Septem- 
 ber the Pathfinder, a light cruiser, was torpedoed and sunk with 
 great loss of life. On September 22d, three cruisers, the Cressy, 
 Hogue, and Aboukir were engaged in patrolling the coast of Holland. 
 A great storm had been raging and the cruisers were not protected 
 by the usual screen of destroyers. At half -past six in the morning 
 the seas had fallen and the cruisers proceeded to then* posts. The 
 report of Commander Nicholson, of the Cressy, of what followed 
 gives a good idea of the effectiveness of the submarine. 
 
 "The Aboukir," says this report, "was struck at about 6.25 
 A. M. on the starboard beam. The Hogue and Cressy closed, and 
 took up a position, the Hogue ahead of the Aboukir, and the Cressy 
 about four hundred yards on her port beam. As soon as it was seen 
 that the Aboukir was in danger of sinking, all the boats were sent 
 away from the Cressy, and a picket boat was hoisted out without 
 steam up. When cutters full of the Aboukir's men were returning 
 to the Cressy, the Hogue was struck, apparently under the aft 9.2 
 magazine, as a very heavy explosion took place immediately. 
 Almost directly after the Hogue was hit we observed a periscope 
 on our port bow about three hundred yards off. Fire was immedi- 
 ately opened, and the engines were put full speed ahead with the 
 intention of running her down. . . . 
 
 "Captain Johnson then maneuvered the ship so as to render 
 assistance to the crews of the Hogue and Aboukir. About five 
 minutes later another periscope was seen on our starboard quarter, 
 and fire was opened. The track of the torpedo she fired at a range 
 of from 500 to 600 yards was plainly visible, and it struck us on 
 the starboard side just before the after bridge. The ship listed 
 about ten degrees to the starboard and remained steady.
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 159 
 
 time was 7.15 A. M. All the water-tight doors, dead lights and 
 scuttles had been securely closed before the torpedoes left the ship. 
 All mess stools and table shores and all available timber below and 
 on deck had been previously got up and thrown overside for the 
 saving of life. A second torpedo fired by the same submarine 
 missed and passed about ten feet astern. 
 
 "About a quarter of an hour after the first torpedo had hit, 
 a third torpedo fired from the submarine just before the star- 
 board beam, hit us under the No. 5 boiler room. The time was 
 7.30 A. M. The ship then began to heel rapidly, and finally turned 
 keel up remaining so for about twenty minutes before she finally 
 sank. It is possible that the same submarine fired all three tor- 
 pedoes at the Cressy." i 
 
 Of the total crews of 1,459 officers and men only 779 were 
 saved. The survivors believed that they had seen at least three 
 submarines, but the German official account mentions only one, 
 the U-9, under Captain-Lieutenant Otto Weddigen whose account 
 of this battle confirms the report of Commander Nicholson. Refer- 
 ring to the reports that a flotilla of German submarines had attacked 
 the cruisers, he says: 
 
 "These reports were absolutely untrue. U-9 was the only 
 submarine on deck." He adds: "I reached the home port on the 
 afternoon of the 23d and on the 24th went to Wilhelmshaven to 
 find that news of my effort had become public. My wife, dry- 
 eyed when I went away, met me with tears. Then I learned that 
 my little vessel and her brave crew had won the plaudit of the 
 Kaiser who conferred upon each of my co-workers the Iron Cross 
 of the second class and upon me the Iron Crosses of the first and 
 second classes." 
 
 Weddigen was the hero of the hour in Germany. He had with 
 him twenty-five men. He seems to have acted with courage and 
 skill, but it is also evident that the English staff work was to blame. 
 Three such vessels should never have been sent out without a 
 screen of destroyers, nor should the Hogue and the Cressy have 
 gone to the rescue of the Aboukir. A few days after the disaster 
 the English Admiralty issued the following statement: 
 
 The sinking of the Aboukir was of course an ordinary hazard of 
 patrolling duty. The Hogne and Cressy, however, were sunk because 
 they proceeded to the assistance of their consort, and remained with
 
 160 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 engines stopped, endeavoring to save life, thus presenting an easy target 
 to further submarine attacks. The natural promptings of humanity have 
 in this case led to heavy losses, which would have been avoided by a 
 strict adhesion to military consideration. Modern naval war is pre- 
 senting us with so many new and strange situations that an error of 
 judgment of this character is pardonable. But it has become necessary 
 to point out for the future guidance of His Majesty's ships that the con- 
 ditions which prevail when one vessel of a squadron is injured in the mine 
 field, or is exposed to submarine attack, are analogous to those which 
 occur in action, and that the rule of leaving ships to their own resources 
 is applicable, so far, at any rate, as large vessels are concerned. 
 
 On the 28th of August occurred the first important naval 
 action of the war, the battle of Helgoland. From the 9th of August 
 German cruisers had shown activity in the seas around Helgoland 
 and had sunk a number of British trawlers. The English sub- 
 marines, E-6 and E-8, and the light cruiser Fearless, had patrolled 
 the seas, and on the 21st of August the Fearless had come under 
 the enemy's shell fire. On August 26th the submarine flotilla, 
 under Commodore Keyes, sailed from Harwich for the Bight of 
 Helgoland, and all the next day the Lurcher and the Firedrake, 
 destroyers, scouted for submarines. On that same day sailed the 
 first and third destroyer flotillas, the battle cruiser squadron, 
 first light cruiser squadron, and the seventh cruiser squadron, 
 having a rendezvous at this point on the morning of the 28th. 
 
 The morning was beautiful and clear, so that the submarines 
 could be easily seen. Close to Helgoland were Commodore Keyes' 
 eight submarines, and his two small destroyers. Approaching 
 rapidly from the northwest were Commodore Tyrwhitt's two 
 destroyer flotillas, a little to the east was Commodore Goodenough's 
 first light cruiser squadron. Behind this squadron were Sir David 
 Beatty's battle cruisers with four destroyers. To the south and 
 west of Helgoland lay Admiral Christian's seventh cruiser squadron. 
 
 Presently from behind Helgoland came a number of German 
 destroyers, followed by two cruisers; and the English submarines, 
 with the two small destroyers, fled westwards, acting as a decoy. 
 As the Germans followed, the British destroyer flotillas on the 
 northwest came rapidly down. At the sight of these destroyers 
 the German destroyers fled, and the British attempted to head 
 them off. 
 
 According to the official report the principle of the movement
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 161 
 
 was to cut the German light craft from home, and engage it at 
 leisure on the open sea. 
 
 But between the two German cruisers and the English cruisers 
 a fierce battle took place. The Arethusa was engaged with the 
 German Ariadne, and the Fearless with the Strasburg. A shot 
 from the Arethusa shattered the fore bridge of the Ariadne and 
 killed the captain, and both German cruisers drew off toward 
 Helgoland. 
 
 Meanwhile the destroyers were engaged in a hot fight. They 
 sunk the leading boat of the German flotilla and damaged a dozen 
 more. Between nine and ten o'clock there was a lull hi the fight; 
 the submarines, with some of the destroyers, remained in the 
 neighborhood of Helgoland, and the Germans, believing that these 
 boats were the only hostile vessels in the neighborhood, determined 
 to attack them. 
 
 The Mainz, the Koln, and the Strasburg came again on the 
 scene, and opened a heavy fire on some of the boats of the first 
 flotilla which were busy saving life. The small destroyers were 
 driven away, but the seamen hi the boats were rescued by an 
 English submarine. The Arethusa and the Fearless, with the 
 destroyers hi then: company, engaged with three enemy cruisers. 
 The Strasburg, seriously injured, was compelled to flee. The 
 boilers of the Mainz blew up, and she became a wreck. The Koln 
 only remaining and carrying on the fight. 
 
 The English destroyers were much crippled, and as the battle 
 had now lasted for five hours any moment the German great battle- 
 ships might come on the scene. A wireless signal had been sent to 
 Sir David Beatty, asking for help, and about twelve o'clock the 
 Falmouth and the Nottingham arrived on the scene of action. By 
 this time the first destroyer flotilla was out of action and the third 
 flotilla and the Arethusa had their hands full with the Koln. The 
 light cruisers were followed at 12.15 by the English battle cruisers, 
 the Lion came first, and she alone among the battle cruisers seems 
 to have used her guns. Her gun power beat down all opposition. 
 The Koln made for home, but the Lion's guns set her on fire. 
 The luckless Ariadne hove in sight, but the terrible 13.5-inch guns 
 sufficed for her. The battle cruisers circled around, and in ten 
 minutes the Koln went to the bottom. 
 
 At twenty minutes to two. Admiral Beatty turned home-
 
 162 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 ward. The German cruisers Mainz, Koln, and the Ariadne had 
 been sunk; the Strasburg was seriously damaged. One destroyer 
 was sunk, and at least seven seriously injured. About seven hundred 
 of the German crew perished and there were three hundred prisoners. 
 The British force returned without the loss of a single ship. The 
 Arethusa had been badly damaged, but was easily repaired. The 
 casualty list was thirty-two killed and fifty-two wounded. The 
 battle was fought on both sides with great gallantry, the chief 
 glory belonging to the Arethusa and the Fearless who bore the brunt 
 of the battle. The strategy and tactical skill employed were ad- 
 mirable, and the German admiral, von Ingenohl from that time 
 on, with one exception, kept his battleships in harbor, and confined 
 his activities to mine laying and the use of submarines. 
 
 In the first days of the war the German mine layers had been 
 busy. By means of trawlers disguised as neutrals, mines were 
 dropped off the north coast of Ireland, and a large mine field was 
 laid off the eastern coast of England. One of the most important 
 duties of the Royal Naval Reserve was the task of mine sweeping. 
 Over seven hundred mine-sweeping vessels were constantly em- 
 ployed in keeping an area of 7,200 square miles clear for shipping. 
 These ships swept 15,000 square miles monthly, and steamed over 
 1,100,000 miles in carrying out their duties. 
 
 It would be hard to overestimate the effect of the British 
 blockade of the German ports upon the fortunes of the war. The 
 Germans for a long tune attempted, by the use of neutral ships, 
 to obtain the necessary supplies through Holland, Sweden, Norway 
 and Switzerland. Millions of dollars' worth of food and munitions 
 ultimately reached German hands. The imports of all these 
 nations were multiplied many times, but as the time went on the 
 blockade grew stricter and stricter until the Germans felt the 
 pinch. To conduct efficiently this blockade meant the use of over 
 3,600 vessels which were added to the auxiliary patrol service. 
 Over 13,000 vessels were intercepted and examined by units of 
 the British navy employed on blockade channels. 
 
 The Germans protested with great vigor against this blockade, 
 and ultimately endeavored to counteract it by declaring unre- 
 stricted submarine warfare. In fact, Great Britain had gone too 
 far, and vigorous protests from America followed her attempt to 
 seize contraband goods in American vessels.
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 163 
 
 The code of maritime law, adopted in the Declaration at Paris 
 of 1856, as well as the Declaration in London of 1909, had been 
 framed in the interests of unmaritime nations. The British 
 plenipotentiaries had agreed to these laws on the theory that in 
 any war of the future Britain would be neutral. The rights of 
 neutrals had been greatly increased. A blockade was difficult to 
 enforce, for the right of a blockading power to capture a blockade 
 runner did not cover the whole period of her voyage, and was 
 confined to ships of the blockading force. A ship carrying contra- 
 band could only be condemned if the contraband formed more 
 than half its cargo. A belligerent warship could destroy a neutral 
 vessel without taking it into a port for a judgment. The transfer 
 of an enemy vessel to a neutral flag was presumed to be valid, if 
 effected more than thirty days before the outbreak of war. Bel- 
 ligerents in neutral vessels on the high seas were exempt from 
 capture. The Emden could justify its sinking of British ships, 
 but the English were handicapped hi their endeavor to prevent 
 neutral ships from carrying supplies to Germany. 
 
 But Germany had become a law unto itself. And England 
 found it necessary in retaliation to issue orders in council which 
 made nugatory many of the provisions of the maritime code. The 
 protests of the American Government and those of other neutrals 
 were treated with the greatest consideration, and every endeavor 
 was made that no real injustice should be done. When America 
 itself later entered the war these differences of opinion disappeared 
 from public view.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 
 
 A SOON as the diplomatic relations between Austria and 
 Serbia had been broken, the Turkish Grand Vizier 
 informed the diplomatic corps hi Constantinople that 
 Turkey would remain neutral in the conflict. The declara- 
 tion was not formal, for war had not yet been declared. The 
 policy of Turkey, as represented in the ministerial paper, Tasfiri- 
 Efkiar, was as follows: 
 
 "Turkey has never asked for war, as she always has worked 
 toward avoiding it, but neutrality does not mean indifference. 
 The present Austro-Serbian conflict is to a supreme degree inter- 
 esting to us. In the first place, one of our erstwhile opponents is 
 fighting against a much stronger enemy. In the natural course 
 of things Serbia, which till lately was expressing, in a rather open 
 way, her solidarity as a nation, still provoking us, and Greece, 
 will be materially weakened. In the second place, the results of 
 this war may surpass the limits of the conflict between two coun- 
 tries, and in that case our interests will be just as materially 
 affected. We must, therefore, keep our eyes open, as the circum- 
 stances are momentarily changing, and do not permit us to let 
 escape certain advantages which we can secure by active, and 
 rightly acting, diplomacy. The policy of neutrality will impose 
 on us the obligation of avoiding to side with either of the bellig- 
 erents. But the same policy will force us to take all the necessary 
 measures for safeguarding our interests and our frontiers." 
 
 Whereupon a Turkish mobilization was at once ordered. The 
 war had hardly begun when Turkey received the news that her 
 two battleships, building in British yards, had been taken over 
 by England. A bitter feeling against England was at once aroused, 
 Turkish mobs proceeded to attack the British stores and British 
 subjects, and attempts were even made against the British embassy 
 in Constantinople, and the British consulate at Smyrna. 
 
 At this tune Turkey was in a peculiar position. For a cen- 
 
 164
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 
 
 165 
 
 tury she had been on the best of terms with France and Great 
 Britain. On the other hand Russia had been her hereditary enemy. 
 She was still suffering from her defeat by the Balkan powers, and 
 her statesmen saw in this war great possibilities. She desired to 
 recover her lost provinces in Europe, and saw at once that she 
 could hope for little from the Allies in this direction. 
 
 For some years, too, German intrigues, and, according to 
 report, German money, had enabled the German Government to 
 control the leading Turkish statesmen. German generals, under 
 
 SKETCH OF TERRITORY CONTROLLED BY TURKEY IN 1914 
 
 General Liman von Sanders, were practically in control of the 
 Turkish army. The commander-in-chief was Enver Bey, who had 
 been educated in Germany and was more German than the Germans. 
 A new system of organization for the Turkish army had been 
 established by the Germans, which had substituted the mechanical 
 German system for the rough and inefficient Turkish methods. 
 Universal conscription provided men, and the Turkish soldier has 
 always been known as a good soldier. Yet as it turned out the 
 German training did little for him. Under his own officers he 
 could fight well, but under German officers, fighting for a cause 
 which he neither liked nor understood, he was bound to fail.
 
 166 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 At first the Turkish mobilization was conducted in such a 
 way as to be ready to act in common with Bulgaria in an attack 
 against Greek and Serbian Macedonia, as soon as the Austrians 
 had obtained a decisive victory over the Serbians. The entry 
 of Great Britain into the war interfered with this scheme. Mean- 
 tune, though not at war, the Turks were suffering almost as much 
 as if war had been declared. Greedy speculators took advantage 
 of the situation, and the government itself requisitioned every- 
 thing it could lay its hands on. 
 
 A Constantinople correspondent, writing on the 6th of August, 
 says as follows : 
 
 "Policemen and sheriffs followed by military officers are 
 taking by force everything in the way of foodstuffs, entering the 
 bakeries and other shops selling victuals, boarding ships with 
 cargoes of flour, potatoes, wheat and rice, and taking over vir- 
 tually everything, giving hi lieu of payment a receipt which is 
 not worth even the paper on which it is written. In this way 
 many shops are forced to close, bread has entirely disappeared 
 from the bakeries, and Constantinople, the capital of a neutral 
 country, is already feeling all the troubles and privations of a 
 besieged city. Prices for foodstuffs have soared to inaccessible 
 heights, as provisions are becoming scarce. Actual hand-to-hand 
 combats are taking place in the streets outside the bakeries for 
 the possession of a loaf of bread, and hungry women with children 
 in their arms are seen crying and weeping with despair. Many 
 merchants, afraid lest the government requisition their goods, 
 hasten to have then* orders canceled, the result being that no 
 merchandise of any kind is coming to Constantinople either from 
 Europe or from Anatolia. Both on account of the recruiting of 
 then* employees, and of shortage of coal, the companies operating 
 electric tramways of the city have reduced their service to the 
 minimum, as no power is available for the running of the cars. 
 Heartrending scenes are witnessed in front of the closed doors 
 of the various banking establishments, where large posters are to 
 be seen bearing the inscription 'Closed temporarily by order of 
 the government.' " 
 
 Immediately after war was declared between Germany and 
 Russia the Porte ordered the Bosporus and Dardanelles closed to 
 every kind of shipping, at the same time barring the entrances of
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 167 
 
 lese channels with rows of mines. The first boat to suffer from 
 lis measure was a British merchantman which was sunk outside 
 le Bosporus, while another had a narrow escape in the Darda- 
 nelles. A large number of steamers of every nationality waited 
 outside the straits for the special pilot boats of the Turkish Govern- 
 ment, in order to pass in safety through the dangerous mine field. 
 This measure of closing the straits was suggested to Turkey by 
 Austria and Germany, and was primarily intended against Russia, 
 as it was feared that her Black Sea fleet might force its way into 
 the Sea of Marmora and the JEgean.. 
 
 On August 2d the Turkish Parliament was prorogued, so 
 that all political power might center around the Imperial throne. 
 A vigorous endeavor was made to strengthen the Turkish navy. 
 Djemal Pasha was placed at its head with Arif Bey as chief of the 
 naval staff. Talaat Bey and Halil Bey were sent to Bucharest to 
 exchange views with Roumanian statesmen, and representatives 
 of the Greek Government, in regard to the outstanding Greco- 
 Turkish difficulties. 
 
 On September 10th an official announcement from the Sublime 
 Porte was issued defining in the first place many constitutional 
 reforms, and in particular abolishing the capitulation, that is, 
 the concessions made by law to foreigners, allowing them partici- 
 pation in the administration of justice, exemption from taxation, 
 and special protection in their business transactions. In abolish- 
 ing these capitulations the Ottoman Government declared that it 
 would treat foreign countries in accordance with the rules of 
 international law, and that it was acting without any hostile 
 feeling against any of the foreign states. 
 
 The Allied governments formally protested against this 
 action of the Turkish Government. Meantime Constantinople 
 was the center of most elaborate intrigues. The Turkish Govern- 
 ment grew more and more warlike, and began to threaten, not 
 only Greece, but Russia and the Triple Entente as well. During 
 this period the Turkish press maintained an active campaign 
 against England and the Allies. Every endeavor was made by 
 the Sublime Porte to secure Roumanian or Bulgarian co-operation 
 in a militant policy. The Allies, seeing the situation, made many 
 promises to Bulgaria, Greece and Roumania. Bulgaria was 
 offered Adrianople and Thrace; Greece was to have Smyrna, and
 
 168 
 
 Roumania the Roumanian provinces in Austria. The jealousy of 
 these powers of each other prevented an agreement. The influ- 
 ence of Germany became more and more preponderant with the 
 Ottoman Empire; indeed, it is probable that an understanding 
 had existed between the two powers from the beginning. The 
 action of the Turkish Government in regard to the Goeben and 
 Breslau could hardly have been possible unless with a previous 
 understanding. At last the rupture came. The following was the 
 official Turkish version of the events which led to the Turkish 
 declaration of war: 
 
 " While on the 27th of October a small part of the Turkish 
 fleet was maneuvering on the Black Sea, the Russian fleet, which 
 at first confined its activities to following and hindering every 
 one of our movements, finally, on the 29th, unexpectedly began 
 hostilities by attacking the Ottoman fleet. During the naval 
 battle which ensued the Turkish fleet, with the help of the 
 Almighty, sank the mine layer Pruth, inflicted severe damage on 
 one of the Russian torpedo boats, and captured a collier. A 
 torpedo from the Turkish torpedo boat Gairet-i-Millet sank the 
 Russian destroyer Koubanietz, and another from the Turkish 
 torpedo boat Mouavenet-i-Millet inflicted serious damage on a 
 Russian coast guard ship. Three officers and seventy-two sailors 
 rescued by our men and belonging to the crews of the damaged 
 and sunken vessels of the Russian fleet have been made prisoners. 
 The Ottoman Imperial fleet, glory be given to the Almighty, 
 escaped injury, and the battle is progressing favorably for us. 
 Information received from our fleet, now in the Black Sea, is as 
 follows: 
 
 "From accounts of Russian sailors taken prisoners, and from 
 the presence of a mine layer among the Russian fleet, evidence 
 is gathered that the Russian fleet intended closing the entrance to 
 the Bosporus with mines, and destroying entirely the Imperial 
 Ottoman fleet, after having split it in two. Our fleet, believin; 
 that it had to face an unexpected attack, and supposing that tho 
 Russians had begun hostilities without a formal declaration of war, 
 pursued the scattered Russian fleet, bombarded the port of Sebas- 
 topol, destroyed hi the city of Novorossisk fifty petroleum depots, 
 fourteen military transports, some granaries, and the wireless 
 telegraph station. In addition to the above our fleet has sunk in
 
 FAMOUS BRITISH GENERALS 
 
 General Smith-Dorrien, British Corps Commander in the famous retreat 
 from Mons; Generals Plumer, Rawlinson and Byng, Commanders on the Western 
 Front- General Birdwood, Commander of the Australian- New Zealand troops 
 at Gallipoli.
 
 FAMOUS FRENCH GENERALS 
 
 Marshal P6tain, Commander-in-Chief of the French armies in the West; 
 Generals Mangin, Gouraud and Humbert, Army Commanders in the West; 
 General Gallieni, Commander of Paris, who sent forward an army in taxicabs to 
 save the day at the First Battle of the Marne.
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 171 
 
 Odessa a Russian cruiser, and damaged severely another. It is 
 believed that this second boat was likewise sunk. Five other 
 steamers full of cargoes lying in the same port were seriously 
 damaged. A steamship belonging to the Russian volunteer fleet 
 was also sunk, and five petroleum depots were destroyed. In 
 Odessa and Sebastopol the Russians from the shore opened fire 
 against our fleet." 
 
 The Sultan at once declared war against Russia, England and 
 France, and issued a proclamation to his troops, declaring that he 
 had called them to arms to resist aggression and that "the very 
 existence of our Empire and of three hundred million Moslems 
 whom I have summoned by sacred Fetwa to a supreme struggle, 
 depend on your victory. Do not forget that you are brothers 
 hi arms of the strongest and bravest armies of the world, with 
 whom we are now fighting shoulder to shoulder." 
 
 The Fetwa, or proclamation announcing a holy war, called 
 upon all Mussulmans capable of carrying arms, aad even upon 
 Mussulman women to fight against the powers with whom the 
 Sultan was at war. In this manner the holy war became a duty, 
 not only for all Ottoman subjects, but for the three hundred million 
 Moslems of the earth. On November 5th Great Britain declared 
 war against Turkey, ordered the seizure hi British ports of Turkish 
 vessels, and, by an order hi Council, annexed the Island of Cyprus. 
 On the 17th of December, the Khedive Abbas II, having thrown 
 in his lot with Turkey and fled to Constantinople, Egypt was form- 
 ally proclaimed a British Protectorate. The title of Khedive was 
 abolished, and the throne of Egypt, with the title of Sultan, was 
 offered to Prince Hussein Kamel Pasha, the eldest living prince of 
 the house of Mahomet Ali, an able and enlightened man. This 
 meant that Britain was now wholly responsible for the defense of 
 Egypt. The new Sultan of Egypt made his state entry on Decem- 
 ber 20th into the Abdin Palace in Cairo. The progress of the 
 new ruler was received with great enthusiasm by thousands of 
 spectators. 
 
 The King of England sent a telegram of congratulation with 
 his promise of support: --., 
 
 On the occasion* when your Highness enters upon your high office I 
 desire to convey to your Highness the expression of my most sincere 
 friendship, and the assurance of my unfailing support in safeguarding the
 
 172 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 integrity of Egypt, and in securing her future well being and prosperity. 
 Your Highness has been called upon to undertake the responsibilities of 
 your high office at a grave crisis in the national life of Egypt, and I feel 
 convinced that you will be able, with the co-operation of your Ministers, 
 and the Protectorate of Great Britain, successfully to overcome all the 
 influences which are seeking to destroy the independence of Egypt and 
 the wealth, liberty and happiness of its people. 
 
 This was Britain's answer to the Turkish proclamation of 
 war. The Turks had not taken this warlike course with entire 
 unanimity. The Sultan, the Grand Vizier, and Djavid Bey were 
 in favor of peace, but Enver Pasha and his colleagues overruled 
 them. The Odessa incident was unjustified aggression, deliberately 
 planned to provoke hostilities. The tricky and corrupt German 
 diplomacy had won its point. 
 
 It is interesting to observe that the proclamation of the holy 
 war, a favorite German scheme, fell flat. The Kaiser, and his 
 advisers, had counted much upon this raising of the sacred flag. 
 The Kaiser had visited Constantinople and permitted himself 
 to be exploited as a sympathizer with Mohammedanism. Photo- 
 graphs of him had been taken representing him hi Mohammedan 
 garb, accompanied by Moslem priests, and a report had been 
 deliberately circulated throughout Turkey that he had become a 
 Moslem. The object of this camouflage was to stir up the 
 Mohammedans in the countries controlled by England, risings 
 were hoped for hi Egypt and India, and German spies had been 
 distributed through those countries to encourage religious revolts. 
 But there was almost no response. The Sultan, it is true, was the 
 head of the Church, but who was the Sultan? The old Sultan, 
 now dethroned, and imprisoned, or this new and insignificant 
 creature placed on the throne by the young Turk party? The 
 Mohammedan did not feel himself greatly moved. 
 
 At the beginning of the war Turkey found herself unable to 
 make any move to recover her provinces in Thrace. Greece and 
 Bulgaria were neutral, and could not be attacked. Placing herself, 
 therefore, in the hands of her German advisers, she moved her new 
 army to those frontiers where it could meet the powers with whom 
 she was at war. In particular Germany and Austria desired her 
 aid hi Transcaucasia against the Russian armies. An attack 
 upon Russia from that quarter would mean that many troops which
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 173 
 
 otherwise would have been used against the Central Powers must 
 be sent to the Caucasus. The Suez Canal, too, must be attacked. 
 An expedition there would compel Great Britain to send out troops, 
 and perhaps would encourage the hoped-for rebellion in Egypt 
 and give an opportunity for religious insurrection hi India, where 
 the D jehad was being preached among the Mohammedan tribes 
 in the northwest. The Dardanelles, to be sure, might be threat- 
 ened, but the Germans had sent there many heavy guns and forti- 
 fications had been built which, in expert opinion, made Constanti- 
 nople safe. 
 
 The Turkish offensive along her eastern frontier hi Trans- 
 caucasia and in Persia was first undertaken. The Persian Gulf 
 had long been controlled by Great Britain; even in the days of 
 Elizabeth the East India Company had fought with Dutch and 
 Portuguese rivals for control of its commerce. The English had 
 protected Persia, suppressed piracy and slavery, and introduced 
 sanitary measures in the marshes along the coast. They regarded 
 a control of the Persian Gulf as necessary for the prosperity of 
 India and the Empire. The Turkish Government had never had 
 great power along the Persian Gulf. Bagdad, indeed, had been 
 captured by Suleiman the Magnificent hi the sixteenth century, 
 but in eastern Arabia lived many independent Arabian chieftains 
 who had no idea of subjecting themselves to Turkish rule. 
 
 For years Germany had been looking with jealous eyes in this 
 direction. Her elaborate intrigues with Turkey were mainly 
 designed to open up the way to the Persian Gulf. She had planned 
 a great railway to open up trade, and her endeavor to build the 
 Bagdad Railway is a story in itself. Her efforts had lasted for 
 many years, but she found herself constantly blocked by the agents 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 Before the Ottoman troops were ready, the British in the 
 Gulf had made a start. On November 7th a British force under 
 Brigadier-General Delamain bombarded the Turkish fort at Falon, 
 landed troops and occupied the village. Sailing north from this 
 point they disembarked at Sanijah, where they intrenched them- 
 selves and waited for reinforcements. On November 13th rein- 
 forcements arrived, and on November 17th the British army 
 advanced toward Sahain. From there they moved on Sahil, where 
 they encountered a Turkish force. Some lively fighting ensued and
 
 174 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the Turks broke and fled. Turkish casualties were about one 
 thousand five hundred men, the English killed numbered thirty-eight. 
 
 The British then moved on Basra, moving by steamer along the 
 Shat-el-Arab River. On November 22d Basra was reached and 
 it was found that the Turks had evacuated the place. A base 
 camp was then prepared, for it was certain that there would be 
 further fighting. Bagdad was only about three hundred miles 
 distant; and fifty miles above Basra, at the junction of the Tigris 
 and the Euphrates, lies the town of Kurna where the Turks were 
 gathering an army. On December 4th an attack was made on 
 Kurna but. without success. The British obtained reinforcements, 
 but on December 9th the Turkish garrison surrendered uncondi- 
 tionally. The British troops then intrenched themselves, having 
 established a barricade against a hostile advance upon India. 
 
 Farther north the war was between Turkey and Russia. Since 
 Persia had no military power, each combatant was able to occupy 
 that country whenever they desired. The Turks advanced into 
 Persia south of Lake Urmia, and, meeting with no resistance from 
 Persia, moved northward toward the Russian frontier. On the 
 30th of January, 1915, Russian troops heavily defeated the invaders 
 and followed ftiem south as far as Tabriz, which they occupied and 
 held. The Russian armies had also undertaken movements hi 
 this section. In the extreme northwest of Persia a Russian column 
 had crossed the frontier, and occupied, on the 3d of November, the 
 town of Bayazid close to Mt. Ararat. Other columns entered 
 Kurdestan, and an expedition against Van was begun. Further 
 north another Russian column crossed the frontier and captured 
 the town of Karakilissa, but was held there by the Turks. 
 
 These were minor expeditions. The real struggle was hi Trans- 
 caucasia, where the main body of the Turkish army under Enver 
 Pasha himself was in action. At this point the boundaries of 
 Turkey touch upon the Russian Empire. To the north is the 
 Great Russian fortress of Kars, to the south and west the Turkish 
 stronghold of Erzerum. The whole district is a great mountain 
 tangle, the towns standing at an altitude of 5,000 and 6,000 feet, 
 surrounded by lofty hills. None of the roads are good, and hi 
 winter the passes are almost impassable. In all the wars between 
 Russia and Turkey, these mountain regions have been the scenes 
 of desperate battles.
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 175 
 
 The Turkish plan of battle was to entice the Russians from 
 Sarakamish across the frontier, leading them on to some distance 
 from their base, then, while holding their front, a second force was 
 to swing around and attack them on the left flank. The plan was 
 simple, the difficulty was the swing of the left flank, which had to 
 be made through mountain paths, deeply covered with snow. The 
 Turkish army was composed of about 150,000 men under the 
 command of Hassan Izzet Pasha, but Enver, with a large German 
 staff, was the true commander. The Russian army, under General 
 Woronzov was about 100,000 men. 
 
 Early hi November the Russians crossed the frontier and 
 reached Koprikeui, which they occupied on the 20th of November. 
 The Turkish Eleventh corps was entrusted with the duty of holding 
 the Russian forces; the remainder of the army was to advance 
 over the passes and take their stations behind the Russian right. 
 On December 25th the Turkish attack began. The Eleventh corps 
 forced back the Russians from Koprikeui to Khorasan, while the 
 extreme Turkish left was endeavoring to outflank them. But the 
 weather was desperate. A blizzard was sweeping down the steeps. 
 The Turkish forces were indeed able to carry out the plan, for they 
 obtained the position desired. But by this time they were worn out, 
 and half starved, and then- attack on New Year's Day resulted in 
 their defeat and retreat. The Ninth corps was utterly wiped out, 
 and the remainder of the Turkish forces driven off in confusion. 
 Only the strenuous efforts of the Turkish Eleventh corps prevented 
 a debacle. After a three days' battle it, too, was broken, and with 
 heavy losses it retreated toward Erzerum. The snowdrifts and 
 blizzards must have accounted for not less than 50,000 of the 
 Turkish troops. The result of the battle made Russia safe in the 
 Caucasus. 
 
 But the Germans had another use for the Turkish forces. 
 England was in control of Egypt and the Suez Canal. The German 
 view of England's position has been well stated by Dr. Paul 
 Rohrbach: 
 
 "As soon as England acquired Egypt it was incumbent upon her 
 to guard against any menace from Asia. Such a danger apparently 
 arose when Turkey, weakened by her last war with Russia and by 
 difficult conditions at home, began to turn to Germany for support. 
 And now war has come, and England is reaping the crops which she
 
 176 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 has sown. England, not we, desired this war. She knows this, 
 despite all her hypocritical talk, and she fears that, as soon 
 as connection is established along the Berlin-Vienna-Budapest- 
 Sofia-Constantinople Line, the fate of Egypt may be decided. 
 Through the Suez Canal goes the route to all the lands surround- 
 ing the Indian Ocean, and by way of Singapore to the western 
 shores of the Pacific. These two worlds together have about 
 nine hundred million inhabitants, more than half the popu- 
 lation of the universe, and India lies in a controlling position in 
 their midst. Should England lose the Suez Canal she will be 
 obliged, unlike the powers hi control of that waterway, to use the 
 long route around the Cape of Good Hope, and depend on the 
 good will of the South African Boers. The majority among the 
 latter have not the same views as Botha. However, it is too early 
 to prophesy, and it is not according to German ideas to imitate 
 our opponents by singing premature paeans of victory. But any- 
 how we are well aware why anxious England already sees us on 
 the road to India." 
 
 Following out this view a Turkish force was directed toward 
 the Suez Canal, while the German intriguers did their best to stir 
 up revolt hi Egypt itself. The story of Egypt is one of the most 
 interesting parts of the world's history. In the early days of the 
 world it led mankind. Its peculiar geographical position at first 
 gave it strength, and afterward made it the prize for which all 
 nations were ready to contend. In 1517 the Sultan Selim con- 
 quered Egypt and made it part of the Turkish realm, and in spite 
 of many changes the sovereignty of Constantinople had continued. 
 In recent years the misgovernment of the Khedive Ismael had 
 brought into its control France and Britain; then came the deposi- 
 tion of Ismael, the revolt under Arabi, the bombardment of 
 Alexandria and the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. Since then Egypt has 
 been occupied by Great Britain, who restored order, defeated the 
 inmes of the Mahdi, and turned Egyptian bankruptcy into 
 ospenty. Lord Kitchener was the English hero of the wars with 
 
 Mahdi, and Lord Cromer the administrator who gave the 
 
 l^gyptian peasant a comfort unknown since the days of the Pharaohs. 
 
 * prosperity came political agitation, and Germany, as has been 
 
 en, looked upon Egypt as fertile territory for German propaganda. 
 
 intrigue having failed in Egypt, a Turkish force was directed
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 177 
 
 against the Suez Canal. If that could be captured Great Britain 
 could be cut off from India. An expeditionary army of about 
 65,000 men was gathered under the command of Djemal Pasha, 
 the former Turkish Minister of Marine. He had been bitterly 
 indignant at the seizure of the two Turkish dreadnaughts building 
 in England, and was burning for revenge. But he found great 
 difficulties before him. To reach the Canal it was necessary to 
 cross a trackless desert, varying from 120 to 150 miles hi width. 
 Over this desert there were three routes. The first touched the 
 Mediterranean coast at El-Arish and then went across the desert 
 to El-Kantara on the Canal, twenty-five miles south of Port Said. 
 On this route there were only a few wells, quite insufficient for an 
 army. A second route ran from Akaba, on the Red Sea, across 
 the Peninsula of Sinai to a point a little north of Suez. This was 
 also badly supplied with wells. Between the two was the central 
 route. Leaving the Mediterranean at El-Arish it ran up the valley 
 called the Wady El-Arish to where that valley touched the second 
 road. There was no railway, nor were these roads suitable for 
 motor transports; for an army to move it would be necessary 
 either to build a railway or to improve the roads. The best route 
 for railway was the Wady El-Arish. The Suez Canal, moreover, can 
 be easily defended. It is over two hundred feet wide, with banks 
 rising to a height of forty feet. A railway runs along the whole 
 Canal, and most of the ground to the east is flat, offering a good 
 field of fire either to troops on the banks or to ships on the Canal. 
 A considerable force of British troops, under the command 
 of Major-General Sir John Maxwell, were assigned for the pro- 
 tection of the Canal. About the end of October it was reported 
 that 2,000 Bedouins were marching on the Canal, and on November 
 21st a skirmish took place between this force and some of the 
 English troops in which the Bedouins were repelled. Nothing 
 more was heard for more than two months, but on January 28, 1915, 
 a small advance party from the Turkish army was beaten back 
 east of El-Kantara. British airmen watched the desert well, and 
 kept the British army well informed of the Turkish movements. 
 The Turks had found it impossible to convey then' full force across 
 the desert, and the forces which finally arrived seemed to have 
 numbered only about twelve thousand men. The main attack 
 was not developed until February 2d.
 
 178 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 According to an account in the London Times, on that date, 
 the enemy began to move toward the Ismailia Ferry. They met 
 a reconnoitering party of Indian troops of all arms, and a desultory 
 engagement ensued to which a violent sandstorm put a sudden end 
 about three o'clock in the afternoon. The main attacking force 
 pushed forward toward its destination after nightfall. From 
 twenty-five to thirty galvanized iron pontoon boats, seven and a 
 half meters in length, which had been dragged hi carts across the 
 desert, were hauled by hand toward the water. With one or two 
 rafts made of kerosene tins in a wooden frame, all was ready for 
 the attack. The first warning of the enemy's approach was given 
 by a sentry of a mountain battery who heard, to him, an unknown 
 tongue across the water. The noise soon increased. It would seem 
 that Mudjah Ideem "Holy Warriors" said to be mostly old 
 Tripoli fighters, accompanied the pontoon section, and regulars 
 of the Seventy-fifth regiment, for loud exultations, often in 
 Arabic, of "Brothers, die for the faith; we can die but once," 
 betrayed the enthusiastic irregular. 
 
 The Egyptians waited until the Turks were pushing their 
 boats into the water, then the Maxims attached to the battery 
 suddenly spoke, and the guns opened at point-blank range at the 
 men and boats crowded under the steep bank opposite them. 
 Immediately a violent fire broke out on both sides of the Canal. 
 
 A little torpedo boat with a crew of thirteen, patrolling the 
 Canal, dashed up and landed a party of four ofiicers and men to the 
 south of Tussum, who climbed up the eastern bank and found 
 themselves in a Turkish trench, and escaped by a miracle with the 
 news. Promptly the midget dashed in between the fires and 
 enfiladed the eastern bank amid a hail of bullets, and destroyed 
 several pontoon boats lying unlaunched on the bank. It continued 
 to harass the enemy, though two ofiicers and two men were 
 wounded. 
 
 As the dark, cloudy night lightened toward dawn fresh forces 
 
 .into action. The Turks, who occupied the outer, or day, line 
 
 Tussum post, advanced, covered by artillery, against the 
 
 ian troops, holding the inner or night position, while an Arab 
 
 regiment advanced against the Indian troop at the Serapeum post. 
 
 The warships on the Canal and lake joined in the fray. The enemy 
 
 brought some six batteries of field guns into action from the slopes
 
 THE SUBLIME PORTE 179 
 
 west of Kataiba-el-kaeli. Shells admirably fused made fine practice 
 at all the visible targets, but failed to find the battery above men- 
 tioned, which, with some help from a detachment of inf antry, beat 
 down the fire of the riflemen on the opposite bank and inflicted 
 heavy losses on the hostile supports advancing toward the Canal. 
 
 Supported by land and naval artillery the Indian troops took 1 * 
 the offensive, the Serapeum garrison, which had stopped the enemy 
 three-quarters of a mile from the position, cleared its front, and the 
 Tussum garrison, by a brilliant counter-attack, drove the enemy 
 back. Two battalions of Anatolians of the Twenty-eighth regi- 
 ment were thrown into the fight, but the artillery gave them no 
 chance, and by 3.30 in the afternoon a third of the enemy, with the 
 exception of a force that lay hid in bushy hollows on the east bank 
 between the two posts, were in full retreat, leaving many dead, a 
 large proportion of whom had been killed by shrapnel. Meanwhile 
 the warships on the lake had been in action, a salvo from a battleship 
 woke up Ismailia early, and crowds of soldiers and some civilians 
 climbed every available sand hill to see what was doing, till the 
 Turkish guns sent shells sufficiently near to convince them that it 
 was safer to watch from cover. 
 
 At about eleven hi the morning two six-inch shells hit the 
 Hardinge near the southern entrance of the lake. They first damaged 
 the funnel, and the second burst inboard. Pilot Carew, a gallant 
 old merchant seaman, refused to go below when the firing opened 
 and lost a leg. Nine others were wounded, one or two merchant- 
 men were hit but no lives were lost. A British gunboat was 
 struck. Then came a dramatic duel between the Turkish big 
 gun, or guns, and a warship. The Turks fired just over, and then 
 just short, at 9,000 yards. The warship sent in a salvo of more 
 six-inch shells than had been fired that day. 
 
 Late in the afternoon of the 3d there was sniping from the 
 east bank between Tussum and Serapeum, and a man was killed 
 on the tops of a British battleship. Next morning the sniping was 
 renewed and the Indian troops, moving out to search the ground, 
 found several hundred of the enemy in the hollow previously men- 
 tioned. During the fighting some of the enemy, either by accident 
 or design, held up their hands, while others fired on the Punjabis, 
 who were advancing to take the surrender, and killed a British 
 officer. A sharp fight with the cold steel followed, and a British
 
 180 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 officer killed a Turkish officer with a sword thrust in single combat. 
 A body of a German officer with a white flag was afterward found 
 here, but there is no proof that the white flag was used. Finally all 
 the enemy were killed, captured or put to flight. With this the 
 fighting ended, and the subsequent operations were confined to the 
 rounding up of prisoners, and the capture of a considerable amount 
 of military material left behind. The Turks, who departed with 
 their guns and baggage during the night of the 3d, still seemed 
 to be moving eastward. 
 
 So ended the battle of the Suez Canal. 
 
 Two more incidents in the Turkish campaign remain to be 
 noticed. Report having come that the town of Akaba on the 
 Red Sea was being used as a mine-laying station, H. M. S. Minerva 
 visited the place, and found it occupied by soldiers under a German 
 officer. The Minerva destroyed the fort and the barracks and the 
 government buildings. Another British cruiser, with a detachment 
 of Indian troops, captured the Turkish fort at Sheik Said, at the 
 southern end of the Red Sea. And so for the time ended all Turkish 
 movements against Great Britain. That such movements should 
 have been possible seems hard to believe. For a century the 
 British had been the friends and allies of the Turkish Government. 
 In the Crimean War their armies had fought side by side with the 
 Turkish troops against Russia. In the Russo-Turkish War Lord 
 Beaconsfield, hi the negotiations which preceded the treaty of 
 Berlin, had saved for Turkey much of its territory. It was only the 
 British influence and the fear of the British power which had pre- 
 vented Russia from taking possession of Constantinople a half a 
 century before. The English had always been popular in Turkey 
 and there was every reason at the beginning of the war to believe 
 that their popularity had not waned. There is reason to believe 
 that the average Turk had little sympathy with the course of his 
 government, and if a free expression of the popular will had been 
 possible the Turkish army would never have been sent against 
 either the Englishmen or the Frenchmen. But long years of 
 German propaganda had done their work. The power of Enver 
 Pasha was greater than that of the weakling Sultan and the war 
 was forced upon the Turkish people by German tools and German 
 bribes.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 RESCUE OF THE STAEVINQ 
 
 TTTR sufferings of Belgium during the German occupation 
 were terrible, and attracted the attention and the sym- 
 pathy of the whole world. To understand conditions it is 
 necessary to know something of the economic situation. 
 Since it had come under the protection of the Great Powers, Bel- 
 gium had developed into one of the greatest manufacturing coun- 
 tries in the world. Nearly two million of her citizens were employed 
 in the great industries, and one million two hundred thousand on 
 the farms. She was peaceful, industrious and happy. But on 
 account of the fact that more than one-half of her citizenship 
 earned their living by daily labor she found it impossible to pro- 
 duce foodstuff enough for her own needs. Seventy-eight per 
 cent of her breadstuffs had to be imported. From her own fields 
 she could hardly supply her population for more than four months. 
 The war, and the German occupation, almost destroyed busi- 
 ness. Mines, workshops^ factories and mills were closed. Labor 
 found itself without employment and consequently without wages. 
 The banks would extend no credit. But even if there had been 
 money enough it soon became apparent that the food supply was 
 rapidly going. The German invasion had come when the crops 
 were standing ripe upon the field. Those crops had not been 
 reaped, but had been trampled under foot by the hated German. 
 
 One feature of Belgian industrial life should be understood. 
 Hundreds of thousands of her workmen were employed each day 
 in workshops at considerable distances from their own homes. 
 In times of peace the morning and evening trains were always 
 crowded with laborers going to and returning from their daily 
 toil. One of the first things seized upon by the German officials 
 was the railroads, and it was with great difficulty that anyone, 
 not belonging to the German army, could obtain an opportunity 
 to travel at all, and it was with still greater difficulty that supplies 
 of food of any land could be transported from place to place.
 
 182 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Every village was cut off from its neighbor, every town from the 
 next town. People were unable even to obtain news of the great 
 political events which were occurring from day to day, and the 
 food supply was automatically cut off. 
 
 But this was not the worst. One of the first moves of the Ger- 
 man occupation was to quarter hundreds of thousands of troops 
 upon then* Belgian victims, and these troops must be fed even 
 though the Belgian and his family were near starvation. Then 
 followed the German seizure of what they called materials for war. 
 General von Beseler in a despatch to the Kaiser, after the fall of 
 Antwerp, speaks very plainly: 
 
 The war booty taken at Antwerp is enormous at least five hundred 
 cannon and huge quantities of ammunition, sanitation materials, high- 
 power motor cars, locomotives, wagons, four million kilograms of wheat, 
 large quantities of flour, coal and flax wool, the value of which is estimated 
 at ten million marks, copper, silver, one armored train, several hospital 
 trains, and quantities of fish. 
 
 The Germans proceeded to commandeer foodstuffs and raw 
 materials of industry. Linseed oil, oil cakes, nitrates, animal and 
 vegetable oils, petroleum and mineral oils, wool, copper, rubber, 
 ivory, cocoa, rice, wine, beer, all were seized and sent home to the 
 Fatherland. Moreover, cities and provinces were burdened with 
 formidable war contributions. Brussels was obliged to pay ten 
 million dollars, Antwerp ten million dollars, the province of Bra- 
 bant, ninety millions of dollars, Namur and seventeen surrounding 
 communes six million four hundred thousand dollars. Finally 
 Governor von Bissing, on the 10th of December, 1914, issued the 
 following decree: 
 
 A war contribution of the amount of eight million dollars to be paid 
 
 monthly for one year is imposed upon the population of Belgium. The 
 
 payment of these amounts is imposed upon the nine provinces which 
 
 are regarded as joint debtors. The two first monthly payments are to 
 
 KJ made by the 15th of January, 1915, at latest, and the following monthly 
 
 payments by the tenth of each following month to the military chest of 
 
 Field Army of the General Imperial Government in Brussels. If the 
 
 rovinces are obliged to resort to the issue of stock with a view to pro- 
 
 the necessary funds, the form and terme of these shares will be 
 
 mned by the Commissary Genera* for the banks in Belgi 
 
 um. 
 
 a * eeting of the Provincial Councils the vice-president 
 rhe Germans demand these $96,000,000 of the
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 183 
 
 country without right and without reason. Are we to sanction 
 this enormous war tax? If we listened only to our hearts, we 
 should reply 'No! ninety-six million times no!' because our hearts 
 would tell us we were a small, honest nation living happily by its 
 free labor; we were a small, honest nation having faith in treaties 
 and believing in honor; we were a nation unarmed, but full of 
 confidence, when Germany suddenly hurled two million men 
 upon our frontiers, the most brutal army that the world has ever 
 seen, and said to us, 'Betray the promise you have given. Let my 
 armies go by, that I may crush France, and I will give you gold.' 
 Belgium replied, 'Keep your gold. I prefer to die, rather than 
 live without honor.' The German army has, therefore, crushed 
 our country in contempt of solemn treaties. 'It is an injustice,' 
 said the Chancellor of the German Empire. 'The position of 
 Germany has forced us to commit it, but we will repair the wrong 
 we have done to Belgium by the passage of our armies.' They 
 want to repair the injustice as follows: Belgium will pay Germany 
 $96,000,000! Give this proposal your vote. When Galileo had 
 discovered the fact that the earth moved around the sun, he was 
 forced at the foot of the stake to abjure his error, but he murmured, 
 'Nevertheless it moves.' Well, gentlemen, as I fear a still greater 
 misfortune for my country I consent to the payment of the 
 $96,000,000 and I cry 'Nevertheless it moves.' Long live our 
 country hi spite of all." 
 
 At the end of a year von Bissing renewed this assessment, 
 inserting in his decree the statement that the decree was based 
 upon article forty-nine of The Hague Convention, relating to the 
 laws and usages of war on land. This article reads as follows: 
 "If in addition to the taxes mentioned hi the above article the 
 occupant levies other moneyed contributions hi the occupied terri- 
 tory, they shall only be applied to the needs of the army, or of the 
 administration, of the territory in question." In the preceding 
 article it says: "If hi the territory occupied the occupant collects 
 the taxes, dues and tolls payable to the state, he shall do so as 
 far as possible in accordance with the legal basis and assessment 
 hi force at the time, and shall hi consequence be bound to defray 
 the expenses of the administration of the occupied territories to 
 the same extent as the National Government had been so 
 bound."
 
 184 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The $96,000,000 per annum was more than six tunes the amount 
 of the direct taxes formerly collected by the Belgian state, taxes 
 which the German administration, moreover, collected in addition 
 to the war assessment. It was five times as great as the ordinary 
 expenditure of the Belgian War Department. 
 
 SCHLBSWIG-HOLSTEIN AND AlACE-LORRAINE ACQUISITIONS 
 
 But this was not all. In addition to the more or less legitimate 
 German methods of plunder the whole country had been pillaged. 
 In many towns systematic pillage began as soon as the Germans 
 took possession. At Louvain the pillage began on the 27th of 
 August, 1914, and lasted a week. In small bands the soldiers 
 went from house to house, ransacked drawers and cupboards, 
 broke open safes, and stole money, pictures, curios, silver, linen, 
 clothing, wines, and food. Great loads of such plunder were
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 185 
 
 packed on military baggage wagons and sent to Germany. The 
 same conditions were reported from town after town. In many 
 cases the houses were burnt to destroy the proof of extensive thefts. 
 
 Nor were these offenses committed only by the common sol- 
 diers. In many cases the officers themselves sent home great 
 collections of plunder. Even the Royal Family were concerned in 
 this disgraceful performance. After staying for a week in a 
 chateau in the Liege District, His Imperial Highness, Prince Eitel 
 Fritz, and the Duke of Brunswick, had all the dresses which were 
 found in a wardrobe sent back to Germany. This is said to be 
 susceptible of absolute proof. 
 
 In addition to this form of plunder special pretexts were made 
 use of to obtain money. At Arlon a telephone wire was broken, 
 whereupon the town was given four hours to pay a fine of $20,000 
 in gold, in default of which one hundred houses would be sacked. 
 When the payment was made forty-seven houses had already 
 been plundered. Instance after instance could be given of similar 
 unjustifiable and exorbitant fines. 
 
 Under treatment like this Belgium was brought in a short 
 tune into immediate sight of starvation. They made frantic 
 appeals for help. First they appealed to the Germans, but the 
 German authorities did nothing, though in individual cases German 
 soldiers shared their army rations with the people. Then an 
 appeal was made to Holland, but Holland was a nation much like 
 Belgium. It did not raise food enough for itself, and was not sure 
 that it could import enough for its own needs. 
 
 From all over Belgium appeals were sent from the various 
 towns and villages to Brussels. But Brussels, too, was face to 
 face with famine. To cope with famine there were many relief 
 organizations in Belgium. Every little town had its relief com- 
 mittee, and in the larger cities strong branches of the Red Cross 
 did what they could. Besides such secular organizations, there 
 were many religious organizations, generally under the direction 
 of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 In Brussels a strong volunteer relief organization was formed 
 on September 5th under the patronage of the American and 
 Spanish Ministers, Mr. Brand Whitlock and the Marquis of Villa- 
 lobar. This committee, known as the Central Relief Committee, 
 or more exactly La Comite* Central de Secours et d'Alimentation
 
 186 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 pour 1' Agglomeration bruxelloise, did wonderful work until the 
 end of the war. But though there was plenty of organization 
 there were great difficulties ahead. 
 
 In order to import food, credit had to be established abroad, 
 permission had to be obtained to transport food stuffs into Belgium 
 through the British blockade. Permission to use the railroads 
 and canals of Belgium had to be obtained from Germany, and, 
 most important of all, it had to be made certain that no food thus 
 imported should be seized by the German troops. 
 
 Through the American and Spanish ministers permission was 
 obtained from Governor-General Kolmar von der Goltz to import 
 food, and the Governor-General also gave assurance that, "Food- 
 stuffs of all sorts imported by the committee to assist the civil 
 population shall be reserved exclusively for the nourishment of the 
 civil population of Belgium, and that consequently these foodstuffs 
 shall be exempt from requisition on the part of the military author- 
 ities, and shall rest exclusively at the disposition of the committee." 
 
 With this assurance the Central Relief Committee sent Emil 
 Francqui and Baron Lambert, members of then* committee, together 
 with Mr. Hugh Gibson, secretary of the American Legation, whose 
 activities hi behalf of Belgium attracted much favorable notice, 
 to the city of London, to explain to the British Government the 
 suffering that existed hi Belgium, and to obtain permission to 
 transport food through the British blockade. In the course of this 
 work they appealed to the American Ambassador in England, Mr. 
 Walter Hines Page, and were introduced by him to an American 
 mining engineer named Herbert Clark Hoover, who had just become 
 prominent as the chairman of a committee to assist Americans 
 who had found themselves in Europe when the war broke out, and 
 had been unable to secure funds. 
 
 Mr. Hoover took up the matter with great vigor, and organized 
 an American committee under the patronage of the ministers of 
 the United States and of Spain in London, Berlin, The Hague and 
 Brussels, which committee obtained permission from the British 
 Government to purchase and transport through the British blockade, 
 to Rotterdam, Holland, cargoes of foodstuffs, to be ultimately 
 transferred into Belgium and distributed by the Belgian Central 
 Relief Committee under the direction of American citizens headed 
 by Mr. Brand Whitlock.
 
 AN AIRPLANE CONVOY 
 
 Food ships successfully convoyed by seaplanes in clear weather when submarines 
 
 were easier to detect.
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 189 
 
 The following brief notices, in connection with this committee 
 appeared in the London Times: 
 
 October ,24 1914. A commission has been set up in London, under 
 the title of The American Commission for Relief in Belgium. The 
 Brussels committee reports feeding 300,000 daily. 
 
 November 4. The Commission for Relief in Belgium yesterday 
 issued their first weekly report, 3 London Wall Buildings. A cargo was 
 received yesterday at Brussels just in time. Estimated monthly require- 
 ments, 60,000 tons grain, 15,000 tons maize, 3,000 tons rice and peas. 
 Approved by the Spanish and American ministers, Brussels. 
 
 The personality of the various gentlemen who devoted them- 
 selves to Belgian relief is interesting, not only because of what 
 they did, but because they are unusual men. The Spanish Minister, 
 who bore the peculiar name of Marquis of Villalobar y O'Neill, 
 had the appearance of an Irishman, as he was on the maternal side, 
 and was a trained diplomat, with delightful manners and extraor- 
 dinary strength of character. Another important aid in the 
 Belgian relief work was the Mexican Charge d'Affaires Sefior 
 don German Bulle. Hugh Gibson, secretary of the American 
 Legation, wittily described this gentleman as the "representative of 
 a country without a government to a government without a coun- 
 try." The businessman in the American Legation was this secre- 
 tary. Mr. Gibson had the appearance of a typical Yankee, though 
 he came from Indiana. He was about thirty years old, with dark 
 eyes, crisp hair, and a keen face. He was noted for his wit as well 
 as his courage. Many interesting stories are told of him. He had 
 been often under fire, and he was full of stories of his exploits 
 told in a witty and modest way. 
 
 The following incident shows something of his humor. Like 
 most of the Americans in Belgium he was followed by spies. With 
 one of these Gibson became on the most familiar terms, much to 
 the spy's disgust. One very rainy day, when Gibson was at the 
 Legation, he discovered his pet spy standing under the dripping 
 eaves of a neighboring house. Gibson picked up a raincoat and 
 hurried over to the man. 
 
 "Look here, old fellow," said he, "I'm going to be in the 
 Legation for three hours. You put on this coat and go home. 
 Come back in three hours and I'll let you watch me for the rest of 
 the dav."
 
 190 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Mr. Brand Whitlock, the American Minister, was a remarkable 
 man. Before coming to Belgium he had become a distinguished man 
 of letters. Beginning as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, he had 
 studied law and been admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1894, and to 
 the Bar of the State of Ohio hi 1897. He had entered into politics, 
 and been elected mayor of Toledo, Ohio, in 1905, again hi 1907, 
 1909 and 1911. Meanwhile he had been writing novels, "The 
 Thirteenth District," "The Turn of the Balance," "The Fall Guy," 
 and "Forty Years of It." He had accepted the appointment of 
 American Minister to Belgium with the idea that he would find 
 leisure for other literary work, but the outbreak of the war affected 
 him deeply. A man of a sympathetic character who had lived all 
 his life hi an amiable atmosphere, had been a member of prison 
 reform associations and charitable societies, he now found him- 
 self surrounded by a storm of horrors. Day by day he had to see 
 the distress and suffering of thousands of people. He threw him- 
 self at once into the work of relief. His health was not strong and 
 he always looked tired and worn. He was the scholarly type of 
 man, the kind who would be happy in a library, or in the atmosphere 
 of a college, but he rose to the emergency. 
 
 The American Legation became the one staple point around 
 which the starving and suffering population could rally. Belgians 
 will never forget what he did hi those days. On Washington's 
 Birthday they filed before the door of the American Legation at 
 Number 74 Rue de Treves, men, women and children of all classes; 
 some in furs, some hi the garments of the poor; noblemen, scholars, 
 workmen, artists, shopkeepers and peasants to leave their visiting 
 cards, some engraved, some printed and some written on pieces of 
 paper, hi tribute to Mr. Whitlock and the nation which he 
 represented. 
 
 But the man whose name stands out above all others as one 
 of the biggest figures in connection with the work of relief was 
 Mr. Herbert C. Hoover. Mr. Hoover came of Quaker stock. 
 He was born at West Branch, Iowa, hi 1874, graduated from 
 Leland Stanford University hi 1895, specialized in mining engineer- 
 ing, and spent several years hi mining in the United States and 
 in Australia. He married Miss Lou Henry, of Monterey, California, 
 )9, and with his bride went to China as chief engineer of 
 the Chinese Imperial Bureau of Mines. He aided in the defense
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 191 
 
 of Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. After that he continued 
 engineering work in China until 1902, when he became a partner 
 of the firm of Bewick, Moreing & Co., mine operators, of London, 
 and was consulting engineer for more than fifty mining companies. 
 He looked extremely youthful; smooth shaven, with a straight 
 nose, and a strong mouth and chin. To him, more than any one 
 else, was due the creation and the success of the Commission for 
 Relief hi Belgium. The splendid organization which saved from 
 so much suffering more than seven million non-combatants in 
 Belgium and two million in Northern France, was his achievement. 
 
 A good story is told in the Outlook of September 8, 1915, which 
 illustrates his methods. It seems that before the commission was 
 fairly on its feet, there came a day when it was a case of snarling 
 things hi red tape and letting Belgium starve, or getting food shipped 
 and letting governments howl. Hoover naturally chose the latter. 
 
 When the last bag had been stowed and the hatches were 
 battened down (writes Mr. Lewis R. Freeman, who tells the story), 
 Hoover went hi person to the one Cabinet Minister able to arrange 
 for the only things he could not provide for himself clearance 
 papers. 
 
 "If I do not get four cargoes of food to Belgium by the end 
 of the week," he said bluntly, "thousands are going to die from 
 starvation, and many more may be shot in food riots." 
 
 "Out of the question," said the distinguished Minister; "there 
 is no tune, in the first place, and if there was, there are no good 
 wagons to be spared by the railways, no dock hands, and no 
 steamers. Moreover, the Channel is closed for a week to merchant 
 vessels, while troops are being transferred to the Continent." 
 
 "I have managed to get all these things," Hoover replied 
 quietly, "and am now through with them all, except the steamers. 
 This wire tells me that these are now loaded and ready to sail, 
 and I have come to have you arrange for then: clearance." 
 
 The great man gasped. "There have been there are even 
 now men in the Tower for less than you have done!" he ejaculated. 
 "If it was for anything but Belgium Relief if it was anybody 
 but you, young man I should hate to think of what might happen. 
 As it is er I suppose there is nothing to do but congratulate 
 you on a jolly clever coup. I'll see about the clearance at once." 
 
 Mr. Lloyd George tells the following story: It seems that the
 
 192 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Commission on Belgian Relief was attempting to 'simplify its work 
 by arranging for an extension of exchange facilities on Brussels. 
 Mr. Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent for 
 Hoover. What happened is told in Mr. George's words: 
 
 '"Mr. Hoover,' I said, 'I find I am quite unable to grant your 
 request in the matter of Belgian exchange, and I have asked you 
 to come here that I might explain why.' 
 
 "Without waiting for me to go on, my boyish-looking caller 
 began speaking. For fifteen minutes he spoke without a break- 
 just about the clearest expository utterance I have ever heard 
 on any subject. He used not a word too much, nor yet a word 
 too few. By the tune he had finished I had come to realize, not 
 only the importance of his contentions, but, what was more to the 
 point, the practicability of granting his request. So I did the only 
 thing possible under the circumstance, told him I had never under- 
 stood the question before, thanked him for helping me to under- 
 stand, and saw to it that things were arranged as he wanted them." 
 
 On April 10, 1915, a submarine torpedoed one of the food 
 ships chartered by the commission. A week later a German hydro- 
 airplane tried to drop bombs on the deck of another commission 
 ship. So Hoover paid a flying visit to Berlin. He was at once 
 assured that no more incidents of the sort would occur. 
 
 "Thanks," said Hoover. "Your Excellency, have you heard 
 the story of the man who was nipped by a bad-tempered dog? 
 He went to the owner to have the dog muzzled. 'But the dog 
 won't bite you/ insisted the owner. 'You know he won't bite 
 me, and I know he won't bite me,' said the injured party doubt- 
 fully, 'but the question is, does the dog know?' " 
 
 "Herr Hoover," said the high official, "pardon me if I leave 
 you for a moment. I am going at once to 'let the dog know.' " 
 
 This story, which is told by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt in his 
 delightful book about Belgium, "War Bread," may be apocryphal, 
 but it illustrates well Hoover's habit of getting exactly what he 
 wants. 
 
 When Mr. Hoover accepted the chairmanship of the Commis- 
 sion for Relief in Belgium he established his headquarters at 3 
 London Wall Buildings, London. England, and marshaled a small 
 legion of fellow Americans, business men, sanitary experts, doctors 
 and social workers, who, as unpaid volunteers, set about the great
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 193 
 
 task of feeding the people of Belgium and Northern France. The 
 commission soon became a great institution, recognized by all 
 governments, receiving contributions from all parts of the earth, 
 with its own ships in every big port, and in the eyes of the Belgians 
 and French, who received their daily bread through its agency, 
 a monument of what Americans could do in social organization 
 and business efficiency, for Americans furnished the entire per- 
 sonnel of the commission from the beginning. 
 
 The commission was a distinct organization from the Belgian 
 National Committee, through and with which it worked in Belgium 
 itself. Its functions were those of direction, and supervision of all 
 matters that had to be dealt with outside Belgium. In the occupied 
 territories it had the help of thousands of Belgian and French 
 workers, many of them women. 
 
 The commission did not depend, according to Mr. Hoover, 
 on any one of its American members for leadership. Any one of 
 them could at any time take charge and carry on the work. 
 "Honold, Poland, Gregory, Brown, Kellogg, Lucey, White, Hun- 
 siker, Connet, and many others who, at various periods, have given 
 of their great ability and experience in administration could do it." 
 At the same time it was admitted that the commission would 
 never have been so successful if Belgium had not already had in 
 existence a well-developed communal system. The base of the 
 commission's organization was a committee in every commune 
 or municipality. 
 
 "You can have no idea what a great blessing it was in Belgium 
 and Northern France to have the small and intimate divisions 
 which exist under the communal system," said Mr. Hoover. "It 
 is the whole unit of life, and a political entity much more developed 
 than in America. It has been not only the basis of our relief 
 organization, but the salvation of the people." 
 
 Altogether there were four thousand communal committees, 
 linked up hi larger groups under district and provincial committees, 
 which in turn came under the Belgian National Committee. Con- 
 tributions were received from all over the world, but the greater 
 part from the British and French governments. 
 
 When Mr. Hoover began his work he appealed to the people 
 of the United States, but the American response to the appeal 
 was sadly disappointing. During his stay in America, in the early
 
 194 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 part of 1917, Mr. Hoover expressed himself on the subject of his 
 own country's niggardliness, pointing out at the same tune that 
 the chief profits made out of providing food for Belgium had gone 
 into American pockets. Out of the two hundred and fifty millions 
 of dollars spent by the commission at that tune, one hundred and 
 fifty millions had been used hi the United States to purchase supplies 
 and on these orders America had made a war profit of at least 
 thirty million dollars. Yet hi those two years the American people 
 had contributed only nine million dollars! 
 
 Mr. Hoover declared: "Thousands of contributions have 
 come to us from devoted people all over the United States, but 
 the truth is that, with the exception of a few large gifts, American 
 contributions have been little rills of charity of the poor toward 
 the poor. Everywhere abroad America has been getting the 
 credit for keeping alight the lamp of humanity, but what are the 
 facts? America's contributions have been pitifully inadequate 
 and, do not forget it, other peoples have begun to take stock of 
 us. We have been getting all the credit. Have we deserved it? 
 We lay claim to idealism, to devotion to duty and to great benevo- 
 lence, but now the acid test is being applied to us. This has a 
 wider import than mere figures. Tune and tune again, when the 
 door to Belgium threatened to close, we have defended its portals 
 by the assertion that this was an American enterprise; that the 
 sensibilities of the American people would be wounded beyond 
 measure, would be outraged, if this work were interfered with. 
 Our moral strength has been based upon this assertion. I believe 
 it is true, but it is difficult in the face of the figures to carry con- 
 viction. And in the last six or eight months time and again we 
 have felt our influence slip from under us." ( 
 
 The statement that Germans had taken food intended for 
 the Belgians was disposed of by Mr. Hoover in a speech in New 
 York City. "We are satisfied," he said, "that the German army 
 has never eaten one-tenth of one per cent of the food provided. 
 The Allied governments never would have supplied us with two 
 hundred million dollars if we were supplying the German army. 
 If the Germans had absorbed any considerable quantity of this 
 food the population of Belgium would not be alive today." 
 
 The plan of operation of the Belgian Commission needs some 
 description. Besides the headquarters in London there was an
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 195 
 
 office in Brussels, and, as Rotterdam was the port of entry for all 
 Belgian supplies, a transshipping office for commission goods 
 was opened in that city. The office building was at 98 Haring- 
 vliet, formerly the residence of a Dutch merchant prince. 
 
 Captain J. F. Lucey, the first Rotterdam director, sat in a 
 roomy office on the second floor overlooking the Meuse. From 
 his windows he could see the commission barges as they left for 
 Belgium, then* huge canvas flags bearing the inscription "Belgian 
 Relief Committee." He was a nervous, big, beardless American, 
 a volunteer who had left his business to organize and direct a 
 great transshipping office in an alien land for an alien people. 
 
 Out of nothing he created a large staff of clerks, wrung from 
 the Dutch Government special permits, loaded the immense cargoes 
 received from England into canal boats, obtained passports for 
 cargoes and crews, and shipped the foodstuffs consigned personally 
 to Mr. Brand Whitlock. 
 
 Something of what was done at this point may be understood 
 from a reference hi the first annual report of the commission pub- 
 lished October 31, 1915: 
 
 The chartering and management of an entire fleet of vessels, together 
 with agency control practically throughout the world, has been carried 
 out for the commission quite free of the usual charges by large trans- 
 portation firms who offered these concessions in the cause of humanity. 
 Banks generally have given their exchange services and have paid the 
 full rate of interest on deposits. Insurance has been facilitated by the 
 British Government Insurance Commissioners, and the firms who fixed 
 the insurance have subscribed the equivalent of their fees. Harbor dues 
 and port charges have been remitted at many points and stevedoring 
 firms have made important concessions hi rates and have afforded other 
 generous services. In Holland, exemption from harbor dues and tele- 
 graph tolls has been granted and rail transport into Belgium provided 
 free of charge. The total value of these Dutch concessions is estimated 
 at 147,824 guilders. The German military authorities in Belgium have 
 abolished custom and canal dues on all commission imports, have reduced 
 railway rates one-half and on canals and railways they give right of way 
 to commission foodstuffs wherever there is need. 
 
 By mid-November gift ships from the United States were 
 on their way to Rotterdam, but the Canadian province of Nova 
 Scotia was first hi the transatlantic race. 
 
 One of the most thrilling experiences of the first year's work 
 was the coming of the Christmas ship, a steamer full of Christmas
 
 196 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 gifts presented by the children of America to the children of war- 
 ridden Belgium. The children knew all about It long before the 
 ship arrived in Rotterdam. St. Nicholas' day had brought them 
 few presents. They were hungry for friendliness, and the thought 
 of getting gifts from children across the sea filled them with joy. 
 
 Many difficulties arose, which delayed the distribution of 
 these gifts. The Germans insisted that every package should be 
 opened and every scrap of writing taken out before the gifts were 
 sent into Belgium. This was a tremendous task, for notes written 
 by American children were tucked away into all sorts of impos- 
 sible places. 
 
 Three motor boats made an attempt to carry these gifts into 
 Belgium by Christmas day. They carried boxes of clothing, out- 
 fits for babies, blankets, caps, bonnets, cloaks, shoes of every 
 description, babies' boots, candy, fish, striped candy canes, choco- 
 lates and mountains of nuts, nuts such as the Belgians had never 
 Been in their lives before: pecans, hickory nuts, American walnuts, 
 and peanuts galore. There were scores of dolls, French bisques, 
 smiling pleasantly, pop-eyed rag dolls, old darky mammy dolls, 
 and Santa Clauses, teddy bears, picture books, fairy books and 
 story books. 
 
 One child had written on the cover of her book: "Father 
 says I ought to send you my best picture book, but I think that 
 this one will do." 
 
 These gifts made the American aid to Belgium a thousand 
 times more intimate and real, and never after that was American 
 help thought of in other terms than those of burning gratitude. 
 Among these gifts were hundreds of American flags, which soon 
 became familiar to all Belgium. 
 
 The commission automobiles bore the flag, and the children 
 would recognize the Stars and Stripes and wave and cheer as it 
 went by. Thousands upon thousands of gifts to the Belgian people 
 followed the Christmas ship. All, or a great part, of the cargoes 
 of one hundred and two ships consisted of gift goods from America 
 and indeed from all parts of the world, and the Belgians sent back 
 a flood of acknowledgments and thousands of beautiful souvenirs. 
 Some of the most touching remembrances came from the children. 
 Every child in the town of Tamise, for example, wrote a letter to 
 America.
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 197 
 
 One addressed to the President of the United States reads as 
 follows: 
 
 Highly Honored Mr. President: Although I am still very young I 
 feel already that feeling of thankfulness which we, as Belgians, owe to 
 you, Highly Honored Mr. President, because you have come to our help 
 in these dreary times. Without your help there would certainly have 
 been thousands of war victims, and so, Noble Sir, I pray that God will 
 bless you and all the noble American people. That is the wish of all the 
 Belgian folk. 
 
 On New Year's day Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines, 
 issued his famous pastoral: 
 
 Belgium gave her word of honor to defend her independence. She 
 has kept her word. The other powers had agreed to protect and to 
 respect Belgium's neutrality. Germany has broken her word, England 
 has been faithful to it. These are the facts. I consider it an obligation 
 of my pastoral charge to define to you your conscientious duties toward 
 the power which has invaded our soil, and which for the moment occupies 
 the greater part- of it. This power has no authority, and, therefore, in the 
 depth of your heart, you should render it neither esteem, nor attachment, 
 nor respect. The only legitimate power in Belgium is that which belongs 
 to our King, to his government, to the representatives of the nation; 
 that alone is authority for us; that alone has a right to our heart's 
 affection and to our submission. 
 
 Cardinal Mercier was called the bravest man in Belgium. 
 Six feet five in height, a thin, scholarly face, with grayish white 
 hair, and a forehead so white that one feels one looks on the naked 
 bone, he presented the appearance of some medieval ascetic. But 
 there was a humorous look about his mouth, and an expression of 
 sympathy and comprehension which gave the effect of a keenly 
 intelligent, as well as gentle, leader of the nation. 
 
 At the beginning of the war the Roman Catholic party was 
 divided. Some of its leaders were opposed to resistance to the 
 invaders. Many priests fled before the German armies. But the 
 pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier restored to the Church its old 
 leadership. In him conquered Belgium had found a voice. 
 
 On New Year's Sunday, 1915, every priest at the Mass read 
 out the Cardinal's ringing challenge. There were German soldiers 
 in the churches, but no word of the letter had been allowed to 
 reach the ears of the authorities, and the Germans were taken com- 
 pletely by surprise. Immediately orders came from headquarters
 
 198 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 prohibiting further circulation of the letter, and ordering that 
 every copy should be surrendered to the authorities. Soldiers 
 at the bayonet's point extorted the letter from the priests, and 
 those who had read it were put under arrest. Yet, somehow, copies 
 of the letter were circulated throughout Belgium, and every Belgian 
 took new heart. 
 
 As far as the Cardinal was concerned German action was a 
 very delicate matter. They could not arrest and imprison so great 
 a dignitary of the Church for fear of the effect, not only upon the 
 Catholics of the outer world, but on the Catholics in their own 
 empire. An officer was sent to the Cardinal to demand that the 
 letter be recalled. The Cardinal refused. He was then notified 
 that it was desired that he remain in his palace for the present. 
 His confinement lasted only for a day. 
 
 The Americans who were in Belgium as representatives of the 
 Relief Commission had two duties. First, to see that the Germans 
 did not seize any of the food supplies, and second, to see that every 
 Belgian who was in need should receive his daily bread. The 
 ration assigned to each Belgian was 250 grams of bread per day. 
 This seems rather small, but the figure was established by Horace 
 Fletcher, the American food expert, who was one of the members; 
 of the commission. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher also prepared a pamphlet on food values, which: 
 gave recipes for American dishes which were up to that time un- 
 known to the Belgians. He soon got not only the American but the 
 Blegian committeemen talking of calories with great familiarity. 
 
 Some of the foods sent from America were at first almost 
 useless to the Belgians. They did not know how to cook corn- 
 meal and oatmeal, and some of the famished peasants used them 
 as feed for chickens. Teachers had to be sent out through the 
 villages to give instructions. 
 
 A great deal of difficulty developed in connection with the 
 bread. The supply of white flour was limited; wheat had to be 
 imported, and milled hi Belgium. It was milled so as to contain all 
 the bran except ten per cent, but in some places ten or fifteen per 
 cent of cornmeal was added to the flour, not only to enable the 
 commission to provide the necessary ration, but also to keep down 
 the price. As a result the price of bread was always lower in 
 Belgium than in London, Paris or New York.
 
 RESCUE OF THE STARVING 199 
 
 Much less trouble occurred in connection with the distribu- 
 tion of bread and soup from the soup kitchens. In Antwerp 
 thirty-five thousand men were fed daily at these places. At first 
 it often occurred that soup could be had, but no bread. The 
 ration of soup and bread given in the kitchens cost about ten cents 
 a day. There were four varieties of soup, pea, bean, vegetable 
 and bouillon, and it was of excellent quality. Every person carried 
 a card with blank spaces for the date of the deliveries of soup. 
 There were several milk kitchens maintained for the children, 
 and several restaurants where persons with money might obtain 
 their food. 
 
 It was necessary not only to fight starvation in Belgium but also 
 disease. There were epidemics of typhoid and black measles. 
 The Rockefeller Foundation established a station in Rotterdam 
 called the Rockefeller Foundation War Relief Commission, and 
 some of the women among its workers acted as volunteer health 
 officers. People were inoculated against typhoid, and the sources 
 of infection traced and destroyed. Another form of relief work 
 was providing labor for the unemployed. A plan of relief was 
 drawn up and it was arranged that a large portion of them should 
 be employed by the communal organizations, hi public works, 
 such as draining, ditching, constructing embankments and build- 
 ing sewers. The National Committee paid nine-tenths of the 
 wages, the commune paying the other teoth. The first enrol- 
 ment of unemployed amounted to more than 760,000 names, and 
 nearly as many persons were dependent upon these workers. 
 
 Providing employment for these led to certain complications. 
 The Germans had been able up to this tune to secure a certain 
 amount of labor from the Belgians. Now the Belgian could refuse 
 to work for the German, and a great deal of tact was necessary 
 to prevent trouble. As time went on the relief work of the com- 
 mission was extended into the north of France, where a population 
 of more than 2,000,000 was within the German zone. The work 
 was handled in the same way, with the same guarantees from 
 Germany. 
 
 In conclusion a word may be said of the effect of all this suffer- 
 ing upon the Belgian people, and let a Belgian speak, who knew 
 his country well and had traveled it over, going on foot, as he 
 says, or by tram, from town to town, from village to village:
 
 200 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "I have seen and spoken with hundreds of men of all classes 
 and all parts of the country, and all these people, taken singly or 
 united in groups, display a very definite frame of mind. To 
 describe this new psychology we must record the incontestably 
 closer union which has been formed between the political sections 
 of the country. There are no longer any political parties, there 
 are Belgians hi Belgium, and that is all; Belgians better acquainted 
 with their country, feeling for it an impulse of passionate tender- 
 ness such as a child might feel who saw his mother suffering for 
 the first tune, and on his account. Walloons and Flemings, 
 Catholics and Liberals or Socialists, all are more and more frankly 
 united in all that concerns the national life and decisions for the 
 future. 
 
 "By uniting the whole nation and its army, by shedding the 
 blood of all our Belgians in every corner of the country, by forcing 
 all hearts, all families, to follow with anguish the movement of 
 those soldiers who fought from Lie*ge to Namur, from Wavre to 
 Antwerp or the Oise, the war has suddenly imposed wider horizons 
 upon all, has inspired all minds with noble and ardent passions, 
 has compelled the good will of all to combine and act in concert 
 in order to defend the common interests. 
 
 "Of these profoundly tried minds, of these wonderful energies 
 now employed for the first tune, of these atrocious sufferings which 
 have brought all hearts into closer contact, a new Belgium is born, 
 a greater, more generous, more ideal Belgium."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 
 
 THE month of October, 1914, contained no important naval 
 contests. On the 15th, the old British cruiser Hawke was 
 torpedoed in the North Sea and nearly five hundred men 
 were lost. On the other hand, on the 17th of October, the 
 light cruiser Undaunted, accompanied by the destroyers, Lance, 
 Legion and Loyal, sank four German destroyers off the Dutch coast. 
 But the opening of November turned the interest of the navy to 
 the Southern Pacific. When the war began Admiral von Spee, 
 with the German Pacific squadron, was at Kiaochau in command of 
 seven vessels. Among these was the Emden, whose adventurous 
 career has been already described. Another, the Karlsruhe, be- 
 came a privateer in the South Atlantic. 
 
 Early in August von Spee set sail from Kiaochau with two 
 armored cruisers, the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst and three 
 light cruisers, the Dresden, Leipzig and Nurmberg. These ships 
 were comparatively new, well armed, and of considerable speed. 
 They set off for the great trade highways to destroy, as far as 
 possible, British commerce. Their route led them to the western 
 coast of South America, and arrangements were made so that they 
 were coaled and provisioned from bases in some of the South 
 American states which permitted a slack observance of the laws 
 respecting the duties of neutrals. 
 
 A small British squadron had been detailed to protect British 
 commerce in this part of the world. It was commanded by Rear- 
 Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, a distinguished and popular 
 sailor, who had under his command one twelve-year-old battleship, 
 the Canopus, two armored cruisers, the Good Hope and the 
 Monmouth, the light cruiser Glasgow, and an armed liner, the 
 Otranto. None of these vessels had either great speed or heavy 
 armament. The equipment of the Canopus, indeed, was obsolete. 
 Admiral Cradock's squadron arrived at Halifax on August 14th, 
 thence sailed to Bermuda, then on past Venezuela and Brazil 
 
 201
 
 202 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 around the Horn. It visited the Falkland Islands, and by the 
 third week of October was on the coast of Chile. The Canopua had 
 dropped behind for repairs, and though reinforcements were 
 expected, they had not yet arrived. 
 
 One officer wrote, on the 12th of October, "From now till the 
 end of the month is the critical tune, as it will decide whether we 
 shall have to fight a superior German force from the Pacific before 
 we can get reinforcements from home or the Mediterranean. We 
 feel that the admiralty ought to have a better force here, but we 
 shall fight cheerfully whatever odds we have to face." 
 
 Admiral Cradock knew well that his enemy was superior in 
 force. From Coronel, where he sent off some cables, he went 
 north on the first of November, and about four o'clock in the 
 afternoon the Glasgow sighted the enemy. The two big German 
 armored cruisers were leading the way, and two light cruisers were 
 following close. The German cruiser Leipzig does not seem to 
 have been in company. The British squadron was led by the 
 Good Hope, with the Monmouth, Glasgow and Otranto following 
 in order. It was a beautiful spectacle. The sun was setting in the 
 wonderful glory which one sees in the Pacific, and the British ships, 
 west of the German, must have appeared to them in brilliant colors. 
 On the east were the snowy peaks of the Andes. Half a gale was 
 blowing and the two squadrons moved south at great speed. About 
 seven o'clock they were about seven miles apart and the Scharnhorst r 
 which was leading the German fleet, opened fire. At this time the 
 Germans were shaded by the inshore twilight, but the British ships 
 must have showed up plainly in the afterglow. The enemy fired 
 with great accuracy. Shell after shell hit the Good Hope and the 
 Monmouth, but the bad light and inferior guns saved the German 
 ships from much damage. The Good Hope was set on fire and at 
 7.50 exploded and sank. The Monmouth was also on fire, 
 and turned away to the western sea. The Glasgow had escaped so* 
 far, but the whole German squadron bore down upon her. She; 
 turned and fled and by nine o'clock was out of sight of the enemy.. 
 The Otranto, only an armed liner, had disappeared early in the 
 fight. On the following day the Glasgow worked around to the 
 south, and joined the Canopus, and the two proceeded to the 
 traits of the Magellan. The account of this battle by the German 
 Admiral von Spec is of especial interest:
 
 BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 203 
 
 "Wind and swell were head on, and the vessels had heavy 
 .going, especially the small cruisers on both sides. Observation and 
 -distance estimation were under a severe handicap because of the 
 ;seas which washed over the bridges. The swell was so great that 
 it obscured the aim of the gunners at the six-inch guns on the 
 middle deck, who could not see the sterns of the enemy ships at all, 
 and the bows but seldom. At 6.20 p. M., at a distance of 13,400 
 yards, I turned one point toward the enemy, and at 6.34 opened 
 fire at a distance of 11,260 yards. The guns of both our armored 
 cruisers were effective, and at 6.39 already we could note the first hit 
 on the Good Hope. I at once resumed a parallel course, instead 
 of bearing slightly toward the enemy. The English opened their 
 fire at this time. I assume that the heavy sea made more trouble 
 for them than it did for us. Their two armored cruisers remained 
 covered by our fire, while they, so far as could be determined, hit 
 the Scharnhorst but twice, and the Gneisenau only four tunes. 
 At 6.53, when 6,500 yards apart, I ordered a course one point away 
 from the enemy. They were firing more slowly at this time, while 
 we were able to count numerous hits. We could see, among other 
 things, that the top of the Monmouth's forward turret had been 
 shot away, and that a violent fire was burning hi the turret. The 
 Scharnhorst, it is thought, hit the Good Hope about thirty-five 
 tunes. In spite of our altered course the English changed theirs 
 sufficiently so that the distance between us shrunk to 5,300 yards. 
 There was reason to suspect that the enemy despaired of using his 
 .artillery effectively, and was maneuvering for a torpedo attack. 
 
 "The position of the moon, which had risen at six o'clock, was 
 favorable to this move. Accordingly I gradually opened up further 
 distances between the squadrons by another deflection of the 
 leading ship, at 7.45. In the meantime it had grown dark. The 
 range finders on the Scharnhorst used the fire on the Monmouth as 
 a guide for a time, though eventually all range finding, aiming and 
 observations became so inexact that fire was stopped at 7.26. At 
 7.23 a column of fire from an explosion was noticed between the 
 stacks of the Good Hope. The Monmouth apparently stopped 
 firing at 7.20. The small cruisers, including the Nuremburg, 
 received by wireless at 7.30 the order to follow the enemy and to 
 attack his ships with torpedoes. Vision was somewhat obscured 
 at this time by a rain squall. The light cruisers were not able to
 
 204 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 find the Good Hope, but the Nuremburg encountered the Monmouth 
 and at 8.58 was able, by shots at closest range, to capsize her, 
 without a single shot being fired in return. Rescue work in the 
 heavy sea was not to be thought of, especially as the Nuremburg 
 immediately afterward believed she had sighted the smoke of 
 another ship and had to prepare for another attack. The small 
 cruisers had neither losses nor damage in the battle. On the 
 Gneisenau there were two men slightly wounded. The crews of 
 the ships went into the fight with enthusiasm, every one did his 
 duty, and played his part in the victory." 
 
 Little criticism can be made of the tactics used by Vice- 
 Admiral Spec. He appears to have maneuvered so as to secure the 
 advantage of light, wind and sea. He also seems to have suited 
 himself as regards the range. 
 
 Admiral Cradock was much criticised for joining battle with 
 his little fleet against such odds, but he followed the glorious tradi- 
 tions of the English navy. He, and 1 ,650 officers and men, were lost, 
 and the news was hailed as a great German victory. But the 
 British admiralty were thoroughly roused. Rear-Admiral Sir 
 Frederick Doveton Sturdee, chief of the war staff, proceeded at 
 once with a squadron to the South Atlantic. With him were two 
 battle cruisers, the Invincible and the Inflexible, three armored 
 cruisers, the Carnovan, the Kent and the Cornwall. His fleet was 
 joined by the light cruiser Bristol and the armed liner Macedonia. 
 The Glasgow, fresh from her rough experience, was found in the 
 South Atlantic. Admiral Sturdee then laid his plans to come in 
 touch with the victorious German squadron. A wireless message 
 was sent to the Canopus, bidding her proceed to Port Stanley in 
 the Falkland Islands. This message was intercepted by the 
 Germans, as was intended. 
 
 Admiral von Spec, fearing the Japanese fleet, was already 
 headed for Cape Horn. He thought that the Canopus could be 
 easily captured at Port Stanley, and he started at once to that 
 port. Admiral Sturdee's expedition had been kept profoundly 
 secret. On December 7th the British squadron arrived at Port 
 Stanley, and spent the day coaling. The Canopus, the Glasgow 
 and the Bristol were hi the inner harbor, while the remaining 
 vessels lay outside. On December 8th, Admiral von Spee arrived 
 from the direction of Cape Horn. The battle that followed is
 
 GERMANY BRINGS THE WAR TO EAST COAST TOWNS OF ENGLAND 
 By raids with light cruisers on the coast towns, and Zeppelins and airplanes 
 further inland, Germany sought to frighten the British populace. At Hartle- 
 popl. where this scene was enacted, several civilians, some of them women and 
 children, were killed by bursting shells pf the raiders.
 
 BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 207 
 
 thoroughly described in the report of Vice-Admiral Sturdee from 
 which the following extracts have been made: 
 
 "At 8 A. M., Tuesday, December 8th, a signal was received 
 from the signal station on shore. 'A four-funnel and two-funnel 
 man-of-war in sight from Sapper Hill steering north.' The Kent 
 was at once ordered to weigh anchor, and a general signal was 
 made to raise steam for full speed. At 8.20 the signal service 
 station reported another column of smoke in sight, and at 8.47 the 
 Canopus reported that the first two ships were eight miles off, 
 and that the smoke reported at 8.20 appeared to be the smoke 
 of two ships about twenty miles off. At 9.20 A. M. the two leading 
 ships of the enemy, the Gneisenau and Nuremburg, with guns trained 
 on the wireless station, came within range of the Canopus, which 
 opened fire at them across the lowland at a range of 11,000 yards. 
 The enemy at once hoisted their colors, and turned away. A few 
 minutes later the two cruisers altered course to port, as though 
 to close the Kent at the entrance to the harbor. But at about 
 this time it seems that the Invincible and Inflexible were seen over 
 the land, and the enemy at once altered course, and increased speed 
 to join their consorts. At 9.45 A. M. the squadron weighed anchor 
 and proceeded out of the harbor, the Carnovan leading. On 
 passing Cape Pembroke light, the five ships of the enemy appeared 
 clearly in sight to the southeast, hull down. The visibility was 
 at its maximum, the sea was calm, with a bright sun, a clear sky, 
 and a light breeze from the northwest. At 10.20 the signal for a 
 general chase was made. At this time the enemy's funnels and 
 bridges showed just above the horizon. Information was received 
 from the Bristol at 11.27 that three enemy ships had appeared 
 off Port Pleasant, probably colliers or transports. The Bristol 
 was therefore directed to take the Macedonia under orders, and 
 destroy transports. 
 
 "The enemy were still maintaining their distance, and I 
 decided at 12.20 P. M. to attack, with the two battle cruisers and 
 the Glasgow. At 12.47 P. M. the signal to 'Open fire and engage 
 the enemy' was made. The Inflexible opened fire at 12.55 P. M. 
 at the right-hand ship of the enemy, and a few minutes later the 
 Invincible opened fire at the same ship. The deliberate fire became 
 too threatening, and when a shell fell close alongside her at 1.20 P. M. 
 she, the Leipsig, turned away, with the Nuremburg and Dresden,
 
 208 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 to the southwest. These light crusiers were at once followed by 
 the Kent, Glasgow and Cornwall. 
 
 "The action finally developed into three separate encounters. 
 First, the action with the armored cruisers. The fire of the battle 
 cruisers was directed on the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The 
 effect of this was quickly seen, when, with the Scharnhorst leading, 
 they turned about seven points to port, and opened fire. Shortly 
 afterwards the battle cruisers were ordered to turn together with 
 the Invincible leading. The enemy then turned about ten points 
 to starboard, and a second chase ensued until, at 2.45, the battle 
 cruisers again opened fire. This caused the enemy to turn into 
 line ahead to port and open fire. The Scharnhorst caught fire 
 forward, but not seriously, and her fire slackened perceptibly. The 
 Gneisenau was badly hit by the Inflexible. 
 
 "At 3.30 P. M. the Scharnhorst turned about ten points to 
 starboard, her fire had slackened perceptibly, and one shell had 
 shot away her third funnel. Some guns were not firing, and it 
 would appear that the turn was dictated by a desire to bring her 
 starboard guns into action. The effect of the fire on the Scharn- 
 horst became more and more apparent in consequence of smoke 
 from fires and also escaping steam. At times a shell would cause a 
 large hole to appear in her side, through which could be seen a dull, 
 red glow of flame. 
 
 "At 4.04 p. M. the Scharnhorst, whose flag remained flying to 
 the last, suddenly listed heavily to port, and within a minute it 
 became clear that she was a doomed ship, for the list increased 
 very rapidly until she lay on her beam ends. At 4.17 P. M. she 
 disappeared. The Gneisenau passed on the far side of her late 
 flagship, and continued a determined, but ineffectual, effort to 
 fight the two battle cruisers. At 5.08 P. M. the forward funnel 
 was knocked over, and remained resting against the second funnel. 
 She was evidently in serious straits, and her fire slackened very 
 much. 
 
 At 5 15 P. M. one of the Gneisenau's shells struck the Invinci- 
 
 This was her last effective effort. At 5.30 p. M. she turned 
 
 toward the flagship with a heavy list to starboard, and appeared to 
 
 top, the steam pouring from her escape pipes, and smoke from shell 
 
 and fires rising everywhere. About this time I ordered the signal 
 
 Cease fire,' but before it was hoisted, the Gneisenau opened fire
 
 BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 209 
 
 again, and continued to fire from time to time with a single gun. 
 At 5.40 P. M. the three ships closed hi on the Gneisenau, and at 
 this time the flag flying at her fore truck, was apparently hauled 
 down, but the flag at the peak continued flying. At 5.50 'Cease 
 fire' was made. At 6 P. M. the Gneisenau keeled over very sud- 
 denly, showing the men gathered on her decks, and then walking 
 on her side as she lay for a mhiute on her beam ends before sinking. 
 
 "The prisoners of war from the Gneisenau report that by the 
 tune the ammunition was expended some six hundred men had 
 been killed and wounded. When the ship capsized and sank there 
 were probably some two hundred unwounded survivors in the 
 water, but, owing to the shock of the cold water, many were drowned 
 within sight of the boats and ships. Every effort was made to 
 save life as quickly as possible, both by boats and from the ships. 
 Life buoys were thrown and ropes lowered, but only a portion 
 could be rescued. The Invincible alone rescued a hundred and 
 eight men, fourteen of whom were found to be dead after being 
 brought on board. These men were buried at sea the following 
 day, with full military honors. 
 
 " Second, action with the light cruisers. About one P. M. 
 when the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau turned to port to engage 
 the Invincible and the Inflexible, the enemy's light cruisers turned 
 to starboard to escape. The Dresden was leading, and the Nurem- 
 burg and Leipzig followed on each quarter. In accordance with 
 my instructions, the Glasgow, Kent and Cornwall at once went in 
 chase of these ships. The Glasgow drew well ahead of the Corn- 
 wall and Kent, and at 3 P. M. shots were exchanged with the 
 Leipzig at 12,000 yards. The Glasgow's object was to endeavor 
 to outrange the Leipzig, and thus cause her to alter course and give 
 the Cornwall and Kent a chance of coming into action. At 
 4.17 P. M. the Cornwall opened fire also on the Leipzig; at 7.17 P. M. 
 the Leipzig was on fire fore and aft, and the Cornwall and Glasgow 
 ceased fire. The Leipzig turned over on her port side and dis- 
 appeared at 9 P. M. Seven officers and eleven men were saved. At 
 3.36 P. M. the Cornwall ordered the Kent to engage the Nurem- 
 burg, the nearest cruiser to her. At 6.35 P. M. the Nuremburg was 
 on fire forward, and ceased firing. The Kent also ceased firing, 
 then, as the colors were still observed to be flying on the Nurem- 
 burg, the Kent opened fire again. Fire was finally stopped five
 
 210 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 minutes later, on the colors being hauled down, and every prepara- 
 tion was made to save life. The Nuremburg sank at 7.27, and as 
 she sank a group of men were waving the German ensign attached 
 
 to a staff. 
 
 "Twelve men were rescued, but only seven survived. The 
 Kent had four killed and twelve wounded, mostly caused by one 
 shell. During the time the three cruisers were engaged with the 
 Nuremburg and Leipzig, the Dresden, which was beyond her con- 
 sorts, effected her escape, owing to her superior speed. The Glas- 
 gow was the only cruiser with sufficient speed to have had any 
 chance of success, however she was fully employed in engaging the 
 Leipzig for over an hour before either the Cornwall or Kent could 
 come up and get within range. During this tune the Dresden was 
 able to increase her distance and get out of sight. Three, Action 
 with the enemy's transports. H.M.S. Macedonia reports that only 
 two ships, the steamships Baden and Santa Isabel, were present. 
 Both ships were sunk after removal of the crews." 
 
 Thus was annihilated the last squadron belonging to Germany 
 outside the North Sea. The defeat of Cradock had been avenged. 
 The British losses were very small, considering the length of the 
 fight and the desperate efforts of the German fleet. Only one ship 
 of the German squadron was able to escape, and this on account of 
 her great speed. The German sailors went down with colors 
 flying. They died as Cradock's men had died. 
 
 The naval war now entered upon a new phase. The shores of 
 Great Britain had for many years been so thoroughly protected 
 by the British navy that few coast fortifications had been built, 
 except at important naval stations. Invasion on a grand scale 
 was plainly impossible, so long as the British fleets held control 
 of the sea. With German guns across the Channel almost within 
 hearing it was evident that a raiding party might easily reach the 
 English shore on some foggy night. The English people were 
 much disturbed. They had read the accounts of the horrible 
 brutalities of the German troops in Belgium and eastern France, 
 and they imagined then- feelings if a band of such ferocious brutes 
 were to land in England and pillage their peaceful homes. There 
 was a humorous side to the way in which the yeomanry and 
 territorials entrenched themselves along the eastern coast line, 
 but the Germans, angry at the failure of their fleets, determined
 
 BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 
 
 to disturb the British peace by raids, slight as the military advan- 
 tage of such raids might be. 
 
 On November 2d a fleet of German warships sailed from the 
 Elbe. They were three battle cruisers, the Seydlitz, the Moltke, 
 and the Von Der Tann; two armored cruisers, the Bliicher and 
 the York, and three light cruisers, the Kolberg, the Graudenz, 
 and the Strasburg. They were mainly fast vessels and the battle 
 cruisers carried eleven-inch guns. Early in the morning they ran 
 through the nets of a British fishing fleet. Later an old coast 
 police boat, the Halcyon, was shot at a few times. About eight 
 o'clock they were opposite Yarmouth, and proceeded to bombard 
 
 . _ ,- j - - 
 
 ~^~. - ' -- ~.F 
 
 ENGLISH COAST TOWNS THAT WERE RAIDED 
 
 that naval station from a distance of about ten miles. Their 
 range was poor and their shells did no damage. They then turned 
 swiftly for home, but on the road back the York struck a mine, and 
 was sunk. 
 
 On the 16th of December they came again, full of revenge 
 because of the destruction of von Spee and his squadron. Early 
 in the morning early risers in Scarborough saw in the north four 
 strange ships. Scarborough was absolutely without defense. It 
 had once been an artillery depot but in recent years had been a 
 cavalry station, and some few troops of this service were quartered 
 there. Otherwise it was an open seaside resort. The German 
 ships poured shells into the defenseless town, aiming at every 
 large object they could see, the Grand Hotel, the gas works, the
 
 21* HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 water works and the wireless station. Churches, public buildings, 
 and hospitals were hit, as well as private houses. Over five hundred 
 shells were fired. Then the ships turned around and moved away. 
 The streets were crowded with puzzled and scared inhabitants, 
 many of whom, as is customary in watering places, were women, 
 children and invalids. 
 
 At nine o'clock Whitby, a coast town near Scarborough, saw 
 two great ships steaming up from the south. Ten minutes later 
 the ships were firing. The old Abbey of Hilda and Cedman was 
 struck, but on the whole little damage was done. Another division 
 of the invaders visited the Hartlepools. There there was a small 
 fort, with a battery of old-fashioned guns, and off the shore was a 
 small British flotilla, a gunboat and two destroyers. The three 
 battle cruisers among the German raiders opened fire. The little 
 British fleet did what they could but were quickly driven off. 
 The German ships then approached the shore and fired on the Eng- 
 lish battery, the first fight with a foreign foe in England since 1690. 
 The British battery consisted of some territorials who stood with- 
 out wavering to then* guns and kept up for half an hour a furious 
 cannonading. A great deal of damage was done; churches, hos- 
 pitals, workhouses and schools were all hit. The total death roll 
 was 119, and the wounded over 300. Six hundred houses were 
 damaged or destroyed, but there was a great deal of heroism, not 
 only among the territorials, but among the inhabitants of the 
 town, and when the last shots were fired all turned to the work of 
 relief. 
 
 Somewhere between nine and ten o'clock the bold German 
 fleet started for home. The British Grand Fleet had been notified 
 of the raid and two battle cruiser squadrons were hurrying to 
 intercept them. But the weather had thickened and the waters 
 of the North Sea were covered with fog belts stretching for hun- 
 dreds of miles. And so the raiders returned safe to receive their 
 Iron Crosses. The German aim in such raids was probably to 
 create a panic, and so interfere with the English military plans, 
 f the English had not looked at the matter with common sense 
 they might easily have been tempted to spend millions of pounds 
 on seaboard fortifications, and keep millions of men at home who 
 were more necessary in the armies in France. But the English 
 people kept then* heads.
 
 BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 213 
 
 Germany, perceiving the indignation of the world at these 
 bombardments of defenseless watering places, endeavored to 
 appease criticism by describing them as fortified towns. But the 
 well-known excellence of the German system of espionage makes it 
 plain that they knew the true condition of affairs. These towns 
 were not selected as fortified towns, but because they were not, and 
 destruction hi unfortified towns it was thought would have a 
 greater effect than in a fortified town where it would be regarded 
 as among the natural risks of war. 
 
 During the rest of the year of 1914 no further sea fight took 
 place in the North Sea nor was there any serious loss to the navy 
 from torpedo or submarine. But on the first of January, 1915, the 
 British ship Formidable, 15,000 tons, was struck by two torpedoes 
 and sunk. The previous day she had left Sheerness with eight 
 vessels of the Channel fleet and with no protection from destroyers. 
 The night was a bright moonlight and for such vessels to be moving 
 in line on such a night without destroyers shows gross carelessness. 
 Out of a crew of 800 men only 201 were saved, and the rescue of 
 this part of the crew was due to the seamanship of Captain Pillar 
 of the trawler Providence, who managed to. take most of those 
 rescued on board his vessel. 
 
 On January 24th the German battle cruiser squadron under 
 Rear-Admiral Hipper set sail from Wilhelmshaven. What his 
 object was is not known. He had enlarged the mine field north of 
 Helgoland and north of the mine field had stationed a submarine 
 flotilla. It is likely that he was planning to induce the British 
 fleet to follow him into the mine field, or within reach of his sub- 
 marines. That same morning the British battle cruiser squadron 
 under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty put to sea. 
 
 According to the official report of the English Admiral he was 
 in command of the following vessels: battle cruisers, the Lion, 
 Princess Royal, the Tiger, the New Zealand, and the Indomitable; 
 light cruisers, the Southampton, the Nottingham, the Birming- 
 ham, the Lowestoft, the Arethusa, the Aurora and the Undaunted, 
 with destroyer flotillas under Commodore Tyrwhitt. The German 
 Admiral had with him the Seydlitz, the Moltke, the Derfflinger, the 
 Bliicher, six light cruisers and a destroyer flotilla. The English 
 Admiral apparently had some hint of the plans of the German 
 squadron. The night of the 23d had been foggy; in the morning,
 
 214 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 however the wind came from the northeast and cleared off the 
 mists. An abridgment of the official report gives a good account 
 of the battle, sometimes called the battle of Dogger Bank: 
 
 "At 7.25 A. M. the flash of guns was observed south-south- 
 east; shortly afterwards the report reached me from the Aurora 
 that she was engaged with enemy ships. I immediately altered 
 course to south-southeast, increased speed, and ordered the light 
 cruisers and flotillas to get hi touch and report movements of enemy. 
 This order was acted upon with great promptitude, indeed my 
 wishes had already been forestalled by the respective senior officers, 
 and reports almost immediately followed from the Southampton, 
 Arethusa, and Aurora as to the position and composition of the 
 enemy. The enemy had altered their course to southeast; from 
 now onward the light cruisers maintained touch with the enemy 
 and kept me fully informed as to their movements. The battle 
 cruisers worked up to full speed, steering to the southward; the 
 wind at the tune was northeast, light, with extreme visibility. 
 
 "At 7.30 A. M. the enemy were sighted on the port bow, steam- 
 ing fast, steering approximately southeast, distance fourteen miles. 
 Owing to the prompt reports received we had attained our posi- 
 tion on the quarter of the enemy, and altered course to run parallel 
 to them. We then settled down to a long stern chase, gradually 
 increasing our speed until we reached 28.5 knots. 
 
 "Great credit is due to the engineer staffs of the New Zealand 
 and Indomitable. These ships greatly exceeded their speed. At 
 8.52 A. M., as we had closed within 20,000 yards of the rear ship, 
 the battle cruisers maneuvered so that guns would bear and the 
 Lion fired a single shot which fell short. The enemy at this time 
 were in single line ahead, with light cruisers ahead and a large 
 number of destroyers on their starboard beam. Single shots 
 were fired at intervals to test the range, and at 9.09 the Lion made 
 her first hit on the Blucher, the rear ship of the German line. 
 At 9.20 the Tiger opened fire on the Blucher, and the Lion shifted 
 to the third hi the line, this ship being hit by several salvos. The 
 enemy returned our fire at 9.14 A. M., the Princess Royal, on coming 
 into range, opened fire on the Blucher. The New Zealand was 
 ilso within range of the Blucher which had dropped somewhat 
 astern, and opened fire on her. The Princess Royal then shifted 
 to the third ship in the line (Derfflinger) inflicting considerable
 
 BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES 215 
 
 damage on her. Our flotilla cruisers and destroyers had gradually 
 dropped from a position, broad on our beam, to our port quarter, 
 so as not to foul our range with their smoke. But the enemy's 
 destroyers threatening attack, the Meteor and M division passed 
 ahead of us. 
 
 "About 9.45 the situation was about as follows: The Bliicher, 
 the fourth in their line, showed signs of having suffered severely 
 from gun fire, their leading ship and number three were also on fire. 
 The enemy's destroyers emitted vast columns of smoke to screen 
 their battle cruisers, and under cover of this the latter now 
 appeared to have altered course to the northward to increase then- 
 distance. The battle cruisers therefore were ordered to form a 
 line of bearing north-northwest, and proceeded at the utmost 
 speed. Their destroyers then showed evident signs of an attempt 
 to attack. The Lion and the Tiger opened fire upon them, and 
 caused them to retire and resume their original course. 
 
 "At 10.48 A. M. the Bliicher, which had dropped considerably 
 astern of the enemy's line, hauled out to port, steering north with 
 a heavy list, on fire, and apparently hi a defeated condition. I 
 consequently ordered the Indomitable to attack the enemy break- 
 ing northward. At 10.54 submarines were reported on the star- 
 board bow, and I personally observed the wash of a periscope. I 
 immediately turned to port. At 10.03 an injury to the Lion being 
 reported as being incapable of immedate repair, I directed the Lion 
 to shape course northwest. 
 
 "At 11.20 I called the Attack alongside, shifting my flag to 
 her, and proceeded at utmost speed to rejoin the squadron. I met 
 them at noon, retiring north-northwest. I boarded and hoisted 
 my flag on the Princess Royal, when Captain Brock acquainted 
 me with what had occurred since the Lion fell out of line, namely, 
 that the Blticher had been sunk and that the enemy battle cruisers 
 had continued their course to the eastward hi a considerably dam- 
 aged condition. He also informed me that a Zeppelin and a sea- 
 plane had endeavored to drop bombs on the vessels which went to 
 the rescue of the survivors of the Bliicher." 
 
 It appears from this report that as soon as the Germans sighted 
 the British fleet they promptly turned around and fled to the 
 southeast. This flight, before they could have known the full 
 British strength, suggests that the German Admiral was hoping
 
 216 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 to lure the British vessels into the Helgoland trap. The British 
 gunnery was remarkably good, shot after shot taking effect at a 
 distance of ten miles, and that too when moving at over thirty 
 miles an hour. Over 120 of the crew of the Blucher were rescued 
 and more would have been rescued if it had not been for the attack 
 upon the rescue parties by the German aircraft. The injury to 
 the Lion was very unfortunate. Admiral Beatty handed over 
 charge of the battle cruisers to Rear-Admiral Moore, and when he 
 was able to overtake the squadron he found that under Admiral 
 Moore's orders the British fleet were retiring. The British squad- 
 ron at the moment of turning was seventy miles from Helgoland, 
 and in no danger from its mine fields. What might have been a 
 crushing victory became therefore only a partial one: the Germans 
 lost the Blucher; the Derfflinger and the Seydlitz were badly 
 injured, but it seems that with a little more persistence the whole 
 German squadron might have been destroyed. 
 
 The result was a serious blow to Germany. This engagement 
 was the first between modern big-gun ships. Particular interest 
 is also attached to it because each squadron was accompanied by 
 scouting and screening light cruisers and destroyers. It was fear 
 of submarines and mines, moreover, that influenced the British 
 to break off the engagement. A Zeppelin airship and a seaplane 
 also took part, and perhaps assisted hi the fire control of the 
 Germans. The conditions surrounding this battle were ideal for 
 illustrating the functions of battle cruisers. The German warship 
 raid on the British coast of the previous month was still fresh in 
 mind, and when this situation off the Dogger Bank arose the 
 timely interposing of Admiral Beatty's superior force, the fast 
 chase, the long-range fighting, the loss of the Blucher and the 
 hasty retreat of the enemy, were all particularly pleasing to the 
 British people. As a result the battle cruiser type of ship attained 
 great popularity.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 NEW METHODS AND HORRORS OF WARFARE 
 
 WHEN Germany embarked upon its policy of fright- 
 fulness, it held in reserve murderous inventions that 
 had been contributed to the German General Staff by 
 chemists and other scientists working in conjunction 
 with the war. Never since the dawn of tune had there been such 
 a perversion of knowledge to criminal purposes; never had science 
 contributed such a deadly toll to the fanatic and criminal inten- 
 tions of a war-crazed class. 
 
 As the war uncoiled its weary length, and month after month 
 of embargo and privation saw the morale of the German nation 
 growing steadily lower, these murderous inventions were suc- 
 cessively called into play against the Allies, but as each horror 
 was put into play on the battle-field, its principles were solved by 
 the scientists of the Allied nations, and the deadly engine of 
 destruction was turned with trebled force against the Huns. 
 
 This happened with the various varieties of poison gas, with 
 liquid fire, with trench knives, with nail-studded clubs, with 
 armor used by shock troops, with airplane bombs, with cannon 
 throwing projectiles weighing thousands of pounds great dis- 
 tances behind the battle lines. Not only did America and the 
 Allies improve upon Germany's pattern in these respects, but 
 they added a few inventions that went far toward turning the 
 scale against Germany. An example of these is the "tank." 
 Originally this was a caterpillar tractor invented in America and 
 adopted in England. At first these were of two varieties, the 
 male, carrying heavy guns only, and the females, equipped with 
 machine guns. To these was later added the whippet tank, 
 named after the racing dog developed in England. These whippet 
 tanks averaged eighteen miles an hour, carrying death and terror 
 into the ranks of the enemy. All the tanks were heavily armored 
 and had as their motto the significant words "Treat 'Em Rough." 
 The Germans designed a heavy anti-tank rifle about three feet 
 
 217
 
 218 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 longer than the ordinary rifle and carrying a charge calculated to 
 pierce tank armor. These were issued to the German first line 
 trenches at the rate of three to a company. That they were not 
 particularly effective was proved by the ease with which the tanks 
 of all varieties tore through the barbed wire entanglements and 
 passed over the Hindenburg and Kriemhild lines, supposed by 
 the Germans to be impregnable. 
 
 The tanks in effect were mobile artillery and were used as 
 such by all the Allied troops. Germany frantically endeavored to 
 manufacture tanks to meet the Allied monsters, but their efforts 
 were feeble when compared with the great output opposed to them. 
 
 Before considering other inventions used for the first time in 
 this war, it is well to understand the tremendous changes in 
 methods and tactics made necessary by these discoveries. 
 
 Put into a sentence, the changed warfare amounts to this: 
 it is a mobilization of material, of railroads, great guns, machine 
 guns, food, airplanes and other engines of destruction quite as 
 much as it is a mobilization of men. 
 
 The Germans won battle after battle at the beginning of the 
 war because of their system of strategic railways that made it 
 possible to transport huge armies to selected points in the shortest 
 possible tune both on the eastern and the western fronts. Lacking 
 a system of transportation to match this, Russia lost the great 
 battles that decided her fate, Belgium was over-run, and France, 
 once the border was passed, became a battle-field upon which the 
 Germans might extend their trench systems over the face of the 
 land. 
 
 Lacking strategic railways to match those of Germany, 
 France evolved an effective substitute in the modern system of 
 automobile transportation. When von Kluck swung aside from 
 Paris in his first great rush, Gallieni sent out from Paris an army 
 in taxicabs that struck the exposed flank and went far toward 
 winning the first battle of the Marne. It was the truck trans- 
 portation system of the French along the famous "Sacred Road" 
 back of the battle line at Verdun that kept inviolate the motto 
 of the heroic town, "They Shall Not Pass." Motor trucks that 
 brought American reserves in a khaki flood won the second battle 
 f the Marne. It was automobile transportation that enabled 
 tlaig to send the British Canadians and Australians in full cry
 
 NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 219 
 
 after the retreating Germans when the backbone of the German 
 resistance was broken before Lens, Cambrai, and Ostend. 
 
 America's railway transportation system in France was one 
 of the marvels of the war. Stretching from the sector of sea- 
 coast set apart for America by the French Government, it radiated 
 far into the interior, delivering men, munitions and food hi a 
 steady stream. American engineers worked with their brothers- 
 in-arms with the Allies to construct an inter-weaving system of 
 wide-gauge and narrow-gauge roads that served to victual and muni- 
 tion the entire front and further serve to deliver at top speed 
 whole army corps. It was this network of strategic railways 
 that enabled the French to send an avalanche clad hi horizon- 
 blue to the relief of Amiens when Hindenburg made his final 
 tremendous effort of 1918. 
 
 In its essentials, military effort in the great conflict may be 
 roughly divided into 
 
 Open warfare, 
 
 Trench warfare, 
 
 Crater warfare. 
 
 The first battle of the Marne was almost wholly open war- 
 fare; so also were the battles of the Masurian Lakes, Allenstein, 
 and Dunajec in the eastern theater of war, and most of the war- 
 fare on the Italian front between the Piave River and Gorizia. 
 
 In this variety of battle, airplanes and observation balloons 
 play a prominent part. Once the enemy is driven out of its 
 trenches, the message is flashed by wireless to the artillery and 
 slaughter at long range begins. If there have been no intrench- 
 ments, as was the case hi the first battle of the Marne, massed 
 artillery send a plunging fire into the columns moving in open 
 order and prepare the way for machine gunners and infantry to 
 finish the rout. 
 
 In previous wars, cavalry played a heroic r61e in open warfare; 
 only rarely has it been possible to use cavalry in the Great War. 
 The Germans sent a screen of Uhlans before its advancing hordes 
 into Belguim and Northern France in 1914. The Uhlans also 
 were in the van hi the Russian invasion, but with these exceptions, 
 German cavalry was a negligible factor. 
 
 British and French cavalry were active in pursuit of the 
 fleeing Teutons when the Hindenburg line was smashed in
 
 220 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 September of 1918. Outside of that brief episode, the cavalry 
 did comparatively nothing so far as the Allies were concerned. 
 It was the practice on both sides to dismount cavalry and convert 
 it into some form of trench service. Trench mortar companies, 
 bombing squads, and other specialty groups were organized from 
 among the cavalrymen. Of course the fighting in the open 
 stretches of Mesopotamia, South Africa and Russia involved the 
 use of great bodies of cavalry. The trend of modern warfare, 
 however, is to equip the cavalryman with grenades and bayonets, 
 in addition to his ordinary gear, and to make of him practically a 
 mounted infantryman. 
 
 Trench warfare occupied most of the time and made nine- 
 tenths of the discomforts of the soldiers of both armies. If proof 
 of the adaptive capacity of the human animal were needed, it is 
 afforded by the manner hi which the men burrowed in vermin- 
 infested earth and lived there under conditions of Arctic cold, 
 frequently enduring long deprivations of food, fuel, and suitable 
 clothing. During the early stages of the war, before men became 
 accustomed to the rigors of the trenches, many thousands died as 
 a direct result of the exposure. Many thousand of others were 
 incapacitated for life by "trench feet," a group of maladies cover- 
 ing the consequences of exposure to cold and water which in those 
 early days flowed in rivulets through most of the trenches. The 
 trenches at Gallipoli had then- own special brand of maladies. 
 Heatstroke and a malarial infection were among these disabling 
 agencies. Trench fever, a malady beginning with a headache and 
 sometimes ending hi partial paralysis and death, was another 
 common factor in the mortality records. 
 
 But in spite of all these and other discomforts, in spite of the 
 disgusting vermin that crawled upon the men both in winter and 
 hi summer, both sides mastered the trenches and in the end learned 
 to live in them with some degree of comfort. 
 
 At first the trenches were comparatively straight, shallow 
 affairs; then as the artillery searched them out, as the machine 
 gunners learned the art of looping their fire so that the bullets 
 would drop into the hiding places of the enemy, the trench systems 
 gradually became more scientifically involved. After the Germans 
 had been beaten at the Marne and had retired to then- prepared 
 positions along the Aisne, there commenced a series of flanking
 
 NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 
 
 221 
 
 FORTS, FLYING AND NAVAL BASES ON THE NORTH SEA
 
 222 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 attempts by one side and the other which speedily resolved itself 
 into the famous "race to the sea." This was a competition between 
 the opposing armies in rapid trench digging. The effort on either 
 side was made to prevent the enemy from executing a flank move- 
 ment. In an amazingly short time the opposing trenches extended 
 from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border, making further out- 
 flanking attempts impossible of achievement. 
 
 This was not the first tune in history that intrenched armies 
 opposed each other. The Civil War in this country set the 
 fashion in that respect. The contending sides in the Great War, 
 however, improved vastly upon the American example. Com- 
 municating trenches were constructed, leading back to the com- 
 pany kitchens, and finally to the open road leading back to the 
 rest billets of the armies. 
 
 When night raiding commenced, it was speedily seen that 
 straight trenches exposed whole companies of men to enfilading 
 fire. Thereupon bastions were made and new defenses presented 
 by zig-zagging the front-line trenches and the communicating 
 ditches as well. 
 
 To the formidable obstacles presented by the trenches, 
 equipped as they were with sand-bag parapets; -and firing steps, 
 were added barbed-wire entanglements and pitfalls of various 
 sorts. The greatest improvement was made by the Germans, 
 and they added "pill boxes." These were really miniature fortresses 
 of concrete and armor plate with a dome-shaped roof and loop- 
 holes for machine gunners. Only a direct hit by a projectile from a 
 big gun served to demolish a "pill box." The Allies learned after 
 many costly experiments that the best method to overcome these 
 obstacles was to pass over and beyond them, leaving them isolated 
 in Allied territory, where they were captured at the leisure of the 
 attackers. 
 
 Trench warfare brings with it new instruments. There are 
 the flame projectors, which throw fire to a distance of approximately 
 a hundred feet. The Germans were the first to use these, but 
 they were excelled in this respect by the inventive genius of the 
 nations opposing them. 
 
 The use of poison gas, the word being used in its broad sense, 
 now general. It was first used by the Germans, but as in the 
 name throwers, the Allies soon gained the ascendency.
 
 SJ
 
 NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 225 
 
 The first use of asphyxiating gas was by the Germans during 
 the first battle of Ypres. There the deadly compound was mixed 
 in huge reservoirs back of the German lines. From these extended 
 a system of pipes with vents pointed toward the British and 
 Canadian lines. Waiting until air currents were moving steadily 
 westward, the Germans opened the stop-cocks shortly after mid- 
 night and the poisonous fumes swept slowly, relentlessly forward in a 
 greenish cloud that moved close to the earth. The result of that 
 fiendish and cowardly act was that thousands of men died hi 
 horrible agony without a chance for their lives. 
 
 Besides that first asphyxiating gas, there soon developed 
 others even more deadly. The base of most of these was chlorine. 
 Then came the lachrymatory or "tear-compelling" gases, cal- 
 culated to produce temporary or permanent blindness. Another 
 German "triumph" was mustard gas. This is spread in gas shells, 
 as are all the modern gases. The Germans abandoned the cumber- 
 some gas-distributing system after the invention of the gas shell. 
 These make a peculiar gobbling sound as they rush overhead. 
 They explode with a very slight noise and scatter their contents 
 broadcast. The liquids carried by them are usually of the sort 
 that decompose rapidly when exposed to the air and give off the 
 acrid gases dreaded by the soldiers. They are directed against 
 the artillery as well as against intrenched troops. Every command, 
 no matter how small, has its warning signal in the shape of a gong 
 or a siren warning of approaching gas. 
 
 Gas masks were speedily discovered to offset the dangers 
 of poison gases of all kinds. These were worn not only by troops 
 in the field, but by artillery horses, pack mules, liaison dogs, and 
 by the civilian inhabitants in back of the battle lines. Where 
 used quickly and in accordance with instructions, these masks 
 were a complete protection against attacks by gas. 
 
 The perfected gas masks used by both sides contained a 
 chamber filled with a specially prepared charcoal. Peach pits 
 were collected by the millions in all the belligerent countries to make 
 this charcoal, and other vegetable substances of similar density 
 were also used. Anti-gas chemicals were mixed with the charcoal. 
 The wearer of the mask breathed entirely through the mouth, 
 gripping a rubber mouthpiece while his nose was pinched shut 
 by a clamp attached to the mask.
 
 226 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 In training, soldiers were required to hold their breath for 
 six seconds while the mask was being adjusted. It was explained 
 to them that four breaths of the deadly chlorine gas was sufficient 
 to kill; the first breath produced a spasm of the glottis; the second 
 brought mental confusion and delirium; the third produced uncon- 
 sciousness; and the fourth, death. The bag containing the gas 
 mask and respirator was carried always by the soldier. 
 
 The soldier during the winter season in the front line trenches 
 was a grotesque figure. TTis head was crowned with a helmet 
 covered with khaki because the glint of steel would advertise his 
 whereabouts. Beneath the helmet he wore a close fitting woolen 
 cap pulled down tightly around his ears and sometimes tied or 
 buttoned beneath his chin. Suspended upon his chest was the 
 khaki bag containing gas mask and respirator. Over his outer 
 garments were his belt, brace straps, bayonet and ammunition 
 pouches. His rifle was slung upon his shoulder with the foot of a 
 woolen sock covering the muzzle and the leg of the same sock 
 wrapped around the breech. A large jerkin made of leather, 
 without sleeves, was worn over the short coat. Long rubber boots 
 reaching to the hips and strapped at ankle and hip completely 
 covered his legs. When anticipating trench raids, or on a raiding 
 party, a handy trench knife and carefully slung grenades were 
 added to his equipment. 
 
 Airplane bombing ultimately changed the whole character of 
 the war. It extended the fighting lines miles behind the battle 
 front. It brought the horrors of night attacks upon troops resting 
 in billets. It visited destruction and death upon the civilian popu- 
 lation of cities scores of miles back of the actual front. 
 
 Germany transgressed repeatedly the laws of humanity by 
 bombing hospitals far behind the battle front. Describing one of 
 these atrocious attacks, which took place May 29, 1918, Colonel 
 G. H. Andrews, chaplain of a Canadian regiment, said: 
 
 "The building bombed was one of three large Red Cross 
 hospitals ^ at Bpulenes and was filled with Allied wounded. A 
 hospital in which were a number of wounded German prisoners 
 stood not very far away. 
 
 "The Germans could not possibly have mistaken the building 
 they bombed for anything else but a hospital. There were flags 
 *ith a red cross flying, and lights were turned on them so that
 
 NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 
 
 they would show prominently. And the windows were brilliantly 
 lighted. Those inside heard the buzz of the advancing airplanes, 
 but did not give them a thought, 
 
 "The machines came right on, ignoring the hospital with the 
 German wounded, indicating they had full knowledge of their 
 objective, until they were over a wing of the Red Cross hospital 
 that contained the operating room on the ground floor. In the 
 operating room a man was on the table for a most difficult surgical 
 feat. Around him were gathered the staff of the hospital and its 
 brilliant surgeons. Lieutenant Sage of New York had just given 
 him the anesthetic when one of the airplanes let the bomb drop. 
 It was a big fellow. It must have been all of 250 pounds of high 
 explosive. 
 
 "It hurtled downward, carrying the two floors before it. 
 Through the gap thus made wounded men, the beds hi which they 
 lay, convalescents, and all on the floors came crashing down to the 
 ground. The bomb's force extended itself to wreck the operating 
 room, where the ma,n on the table, Lieutenant Sage, and all in the 
 room were killed. In all there were thirty-seven lives lost, includ- 
 ing three Red Cross nurses. 
 
 "The building caught fire. The concussion had blown the 
 stairs down, so that escape from the upper floors seemed impossi- 
 ble. But the convalescents and the soldiers, who had run to the 
 scene of the bombing, let the very ill ones out of the windows, and 
 escape was made hi that way. 
 
 "And then, to cap the climax,' the German airplanes returned 
 over the spot of their ghastly triumph and fired on the rescuers 
 with machine guns. God will never forgive the Huns for that act 
 alone. Nor will our comrades ever forget it." 
 
 The statement of Colonel Andrews was corroborated by a 
 number of other officers. 
 
 To protect artillery against counter-fire of all kinds, both sides 
 from the begmning used the art of camouflage. This was resorted 
 to particularly against scouting airplanes. At first the branches 
 of trees and similar natural cover were used to deceive the airmen. 
 Later the guns themselves were painted with protective colora- 
 tions, and screens of burlap were used instead of branches. The 
 camoufleur, as the camouflage artist was called, speedily extended 
 his activities to screens over highways, preventing airmen from
 
 228 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 seeing troops in motion, to the protective coloration of lookout 
 posts, and of other necessary factors along the fighting front. 
 Camouflage also found great usefulness hi the protective colora- 
 tion of battleships and merchant vessels. Scientific study went 
 hand hi hand with the art, the object being to confuse the enemy 
 and to offer targets as small as possible to the enemy gunners. 
 
 Crater warfare came as a development of intensified artillery 
 attacks upon trench systems. It was at Dunajec on the eastern 
 front that for the first tune in modern war the wheels of artillery 
 were placed hub to hub in intensified hurricane fire upon enemy 
 positions. The result there under von Mackensen's direction was 
 the rout of the Russians. When later the same tactics were 
 employed on the western front, the result was to destroy whole 
 trench systems with the exception of deep dugouts, and to send 
 the occupants of the trenches into the craters, made by shell 
 explosions, for protection. 
 
 It was observed that these craters made excellent cover and 
 when linked by vigorous use of the intrenching tools carried by 
 every soldier, they made a fair substitute for the trenches. This 
 observation gave root to an idea which was followed by both 
 armies; this was the deliberate creation of crater systems by the 
 artillery of the attacking force. Into these lines of craters the 
 attacking inf antry threw itself hi wave after wave as it rushed toward 
 the enemy trenches. The ground is so riddled by this intensive 
 artillery fire that there is created what is known as "moon terrain", 
 fields resembling the surface of the moon as seen through a powerful 
 telescope. Troops on both sides were trained to utilize these 
 shell holes to the utmost, each little group occupying a crater, 
 keeping hi touch with its nearest group and moving steadily hi 
 unison toward the enemy. 
 
 One detail hi which this war surpassed all others was in the 
 use of machine guns and grenades. The Germans were first to 
 make extensive use of the machine gun as a weapon with which 
 to produce an effective barrage. They established machine-gun 
 nests at frequent intervals commanding the zone over which 
 infantry was to advance and by skilful crossfire kept that terrain 
 free from every living thing. The Germans preferred a machine 
 gun, water cooled and of the barrel-recoil type. The English 
 used a Vickers-Maxim and a Lewis gun, the latter the invention of
 
 NEW METHODS OF WARFARE 229 
 
 an officer in the American army. The French preferred the 
 Hotchkiss and the Saint-Etienne. The Americans standardized 
 the Browning light and heavy machine guns, and these did effective 
 service. It was asserted by American gunnery experts that the 
 Browning excels all other weapons of its type. 
 
 Two general types of grenades were used on both sides. One 
 a defensive bomb about the size of an orange, containing a bursting 
 charge weighing twenty-two ounces. Then there was a grenade 
 used for offensive work carrying about thirty-two ounces of high 
 explosives. The defensive grenades were of cast iron and so made 
 that they burst into more than a hundred jagged pieces when they 
 exploded. These wounded or killed within a radius of one hundred 
 and fifty yards. In exceptional instances, the range was higher. 
 
 The function of artillery hi a modern battle is constantly 
 extending. Both the big guns and the howitzers were the deciding 
 factors in most of the military decisions reached during the war. 
 Artillery is divided first between the big guns having a compara- 
 tively flat trajectory and the howitzers whose trajectory is curved. 
 Then there is a further division into these four classes: 
 
 Field artillery, 
 
 Heavy artillery, 
 
 Railroad artillery, 
 
 Trench artillery. 
 
 The type of field artillery is the famous 75-millimeter gun 
 used interchangeably by the French and Americans. It is a quick- 
 firing weapon and is used against attacking masses and for the 
 various kind of barrages, including an anti-aircraft barrage. 
 
 Included hi the heavy artillery are guns and howitzers of 
 larger caliber than the 75-millimeter. Three distinct and terrify- 
 ing noises accompany explosions of these guns. First, there is the 
 explosion when the shell leaves the gun; then there is the peculiar 
 rattling noise like the passing of a railway train when the shells 
 pass overhead; then there is the explosion at point of contact, a 
 terrific concussion which produces the human condition called 
 "shell-shock," a derangement of body and brain, paralyzing nerve 
 and muscle centers and frequently producing insanity. 
 
 The railroad artillery comprises huge guns pulled on railways 
 by locomotives, each gun having a number of cars as part of its 
 equipment. These are slow-firing guns of great power and hurling
 
 230 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the largest projectiles known to warfare. The largest guns of 
 this class were produced by American inventive genius as a reply 
 to the German gun of St. Gobain Forest. This was a weapon which 
 hurled a nine-inch shell from a distance of sixty-two miles into the 
 heart of Paris. The damage done by it was comparatively slight 
 and it had no appreciable effect upon the morale of the Parisians. 
 
 Its greatest damage was when it struck the Roman Catholic 
 Church of St. Gervais on Good Friday, March 29, 1918, killing 
 seventy-five persons and wounding ninety. Fifty-four of those 
 killed were women, five being Americans. The total effect of the 
 bombardment by this big gun was to arouse France, England and 
 America to a fiercer fighting pitch. The late Cardinal Farley, 
 Archbishop of New York, expressed this sentiment, when he sent 
 the following message to the Archbishop of Paris: 
 
 Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at religious 
 services to commemorate the passing of our blessed Saviour on Good 
 Friday, the Catholics of New York join your noble protest against this 
 outrage of the sanctuary on such a day and at such an hour and, express- 
 ing their sympathy to the bereaved relatives of the dead and injured, 
 pledge their unfaltering allegiance in support of the common cause that 
 unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave officers and men 
 of the Allied armies in their splendid defense of liberty and justice! 
 
 Trench artillery are Stokes guns and other mortars hurling 
 aerial torpedoes containing great quantities of high explosives. 
 These have curved trajectories and are effective not only against 
 trenches but also against deep dugouts, wire entanglements and 
 listening posts. 
 
 One of the most important details of modern warfare is that of 
 communication or liaison on the battlefield. This is accomplished 
 by runners recruited from the trenches, by dogs, pigeons, telephone, 
 radio. 
 
 As has been heretofore stated, the airplane considered in all 
 its developments, is the newest and most important of factors in 
 modern warfare. It photographs the enemy positions, it detects 
 concentrations and other movements of the enemy, it makes 
 surprise impossible, it is a deadly engine of destruction when 
 used in spraying machine-gun fire upon troops in the open. As 
 a bombing device, it surpasses the best and most accurate 
 artillery.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 GERMAN PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA 
 
 THE pages of Germany's militaristic history are black with 
 many shameful deeds and plots. Those pages upon which 
 are written the intrigues against the peace of America and 
 against the lives and properties of American citizens 
 luring the period between the declaration of war hi 1914 and the 
 irmistice ending the war, while not so bloody as those relating to 
 :he atrocities in Belgium and Northern France are still revolting 
 :o civilized mankind. 
 
 Germany not only paid for the murder of passengers on ships 
 tvhere its infernal machines were placed, not only conspired for 
 :he destruction of munition plants and factories of many kinds, 
 lot only sought to embroil the United States, then neutral, hi a 
 tfar with Mexico and Japan, but it committed also the crime of 
 nurderous hypocrisy by conspiring to do these wrongs under the 
 jloak of friendship for this country. 
 
 It was in December of 1915 that the German Government 
 sent to the United States for general publication hi American news- 
 papers this statement: 
 
 The German Government nas naturally never knowingly accepted 
 ;he support of any person, group of persons, society or organization seek- 
 ng to promote the cause of Germany in the United States by illegal acts, 
 >y counsel of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means what- 
 jver that could offend the American people hi the pride of their own 
 tuthority. 
 
 The answer to this imperial lie came from the President of 
 the United States, when, in his address to Congress, April 2, 1917, 
 irging a declaration of war on Germany, he characterized the Ger- 
 nan spy system and its frightful fruits in the following language: 
 
 "One of the things that has served to convince us that the 
 Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that 
 from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsus- 
 
 231
 
 232 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 pecting communities, and even our offices of government, with 
 spies, and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our 
 national unity of counsel, our peace within and without, our 
 industries and our commerce. Indeed it is now evident that its 
 spies were here even before the war began; and it is unhappily 
 not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proved in our courts of 
 justice, that the intrigues which have more than once come 
 perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the indus- 
 tries of the country have been carried on at the instigation, with 
 the support, and even under the personal direction of official 
 agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the Government 
 of the United States." 
 
 Austria co-operated with Germany in a feeble way in these 
 plots and propaganda, but the master plotter was Count Johann 
 von Bernstorff, Germany's Ambassador. The Austro-Hungarian 
 Ambassador, Constantin Theodor Dumba, Captain Franz von 
 Papen, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, Dr. Heinrich F. Albert, and Wolf 
 von Igel, all of whom were attached to the German Embassy, 
 were associates in the intrigues. Franz von Rintelen operated 
 independently and received his funds and instructions directly 
 from Berlin. 
 
 One of the earliest methods of creating disorder in American 
 munition plants and other industrial establishments engaged in 
 war work was through labor disturbances. With that end in 
 view a general German employment bureau was established in 
 August, 1915, in New York City. It had branches in Philadelphia, 
 Bridgeport, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and Cincinnati. These 
 cities at that tune were the centers of industries engaged in furnish- 
 ing munitions and war supplies to the Entente allies. Concerning 
 this enterprise Ambassador Dumba, writing to Baron Burian, 
 Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary, said: 
 
 A private German employment office has been established which 
 provides employment for persons who have voluntarily given up their 
 places, and it is already working well. We shall also join in and the 
 widest support is assured us. 
 
 The duties of men sent from the German employment offices 
 into munition plants may be gathered from the following frank 
 circular issued on November 2, 1914, by the German General 
 Headquarters and reprinted in the Freie Zeitung, of Berne.
 
 PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 233 
 
 GENERAL HEADQUARTERS TO THE MILITARY REPRESENTATIVE 
 
 ON THE RUSSIAN AND FRENCH FRONTS, AS WELL AS IN 
 
 ITALY AND NORWAY. 
 
 In all branch establishments of German banking houses in Sweden, 
 Norway, Switzerland, China and the United States, special military 
 accounts have been opened for special war necessities. Main headquarters 
 authorizes you to use these credits to an unlimited extent for the purpose 
 of destroying factories, workshops, camps, and the most important centers 
 of military and civil supply belonging to the enemy. In addition to the 
 incitement of labor troubles, measures must bo. taken for the damaging 
 of engines and machinery plants, the destruction of vessels carrying war 
 material to enemy countries, the burning of stocks of raw materials and 
 finished goods, and the depriving of large industrial centers of electric 
 power, fuel and food. Special agents, who will be placed at your disposal, 
 will supply you with the necessary means for effecting explosions and fires, 
 as well as with a list of people in the country under your supervision who 
 are willing to undertake the task of destruction. 
 
 (Signed) DR. E. FISCHER. 
 
 Shortly after the establishment of the German employment 
 bureau, Ambassador Dumba sent the following communication to 
 the Austrian Foreign Office: 
 
 It is my impression that we can disorganize and hold up for months, 
 if not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Bethlehem and 
 the Middle West, which, in the opinion of the German military attache 1 , 
 is of importance and amply outweighs the comparatively small expenditure 
 of money involved. 
 
 Concerning the operations of the arson and murder squad 
 organized by von Bernstorff, Dumba and their associates, it is 
 only necessary to turn to the records of the criminal courts of the 
 United States and Canada. Take for example the case against 
 Albert Kaltschmidt, living in Detroit, Michigan. The United 
 States grand jury sitting in Detroit indicted Kaltschmidt and his 
 fellow conspirators upon the following counts : 
 
 "To blow up the factory of the Peabody's Company, Limited, 
 at Walkerville, Ontario, . . . engaged in manufacturing uniforms, 
 clothing and military supplies. . . . 
 
 "To blow up the building known as the Windsor Armories 
 of the City of Windsor. . . . 
 
 "To blow up and destroy other plants and buildings in said 
 Dominion of Canada, which were used for the manufacture of 
 munitions of war, clothing and uniforms. 
 
 18
 
 88* HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "To blow up and destroy the great railroad bridges of the 
 Canadian Pacific Railroad at Nipigon. . . . 
 
 "To employ and send into said Dominion of Canada spies to 
 obtain military information." 
 
 Besides the acts enumerated in the indictment it was proved 
 upon trial that Kaltschmidt and his gang planned to blow up 
 the Detroit Screw Works where shrapnel was being manufactured, 
 and to destroy the St. Clair tunnel, connecting Canada with the 
 United States. Both of these plans failed. Associated with 
 Kaltschmidt in these plots were Captain von Papen, Baron Kurt 
 von Reiswitz, German consul-general hi Chicago; Charles F. 
 Respa, Richard Herman, and William M. Jarasch, the latter 
 two German reservists. Testifying hi the case Jarasch, a bartender, 
 said: "Jacobsen (an aide) told me that munition factories in 
 Canada were to be blown up. Before I left for Detroit, Jacobsen 
 and I went to the consulate. We saw the consul and he shook 
 hands with me and wished me success," 
 
 Charles F. Respa, in his testimony made the following revela- 
 tions in response to questions by the government's representatives: 
 
 Q. How long had you been employed before he (Kaltschmidt) 
 told you that he wanted you to blow up some of these factories? 
 A. About three weeks. 
 
 Q. Did Kaltschmidt at the time speak of any particular 
 place that he wanted you to blow up? A, The particular place 
 was the Armory. 
 
 Q. Did he mention the Peabody Building at that time? 
 A. Not particularly he was more after the bridges and the 
 armories and wanted those places blown up that made ammuni- 
 tion and military clothing. 
 
 Q. The explosion at the armories was to be timed so that it 
 would occur when the soldiers were asleep there? A. Yes he 
 did not mention that he wanted to kill soldiers. 
 
 Q. Did he say that if the dynamite in the suitcase exploded 
 it would kill the soldiers? A. I do not remember that he said so, 
 but he must have known it. 
 
 Q. Did you take both grips? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Where did you set the first grip? A. By the Peabody 
 plant (blown up on June 20, 1915). 
 
 Q. Where did you put the other suitcase? A. Then I
 
 PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 235 
 
 walked down the Walkerville road to the Armories at Windsor, 
 and carried the suitcase. 
 
 Q. When you got to the Armories did you know where to 
 place it? A. I had my instructions. 
 
 Q. From Kaltschmidt? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Did you place this suitcase containing the dynamite 
 bomb at the armory in a proper place to explode and do any 
 damage? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Was it properly connected so that the cap would explode 
 and strike the dynamite? A. I fixed it so that it would not. 
 
 Q. Did you deliberately fix this bomb that you took to the 
 Armories so that it would not explode? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Why did you do that? A. I knew that the suitcase 
 contained thirty sticks of dynamite and if exploded would blow 
 up the Armories and all the ammunition and kill every man in it. 
 
 It is interesting to note in this connection that Kaltschmidt 
 was sentenced to four years in the federal prison at Leavenworth, 
 Kansas, and to pay a fine of $20,000. Horn's sentence was eighteen 
 months in the Atlanta penitentiary and a fine of $1,000. 
 
 Attempts were also made to close by explosions the tunnels 
 through which the Canadian Pacific Railroad passes under the 
 Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia. The German General 
 Staff in this instance operated through Franz Bopp, the German 
 consul-general in San Francisco, and Lieutenant von Brincken. 
 J. H. van Koolbergen was hired to do this work. Concerning the 
 negotiations, van Koolbergen made this statement: 
 
 "Not knowing what he wanted I went to see him. He was 
 very pleasant and told me that he was an officer in the German 
 army and at present working in the secret service of the German 
 Empire under Mr. Franz Bopp, the Imperial German consul. 
 
 "I went to the consulate and met Franz Bopp and then saw 
 von Brincken in another room. He asked me if I would do some- 
 thing for him in Canada and I answered him, ' Sure, I will do some- 
 thing, even blow up bridges, if there is money in it.' And he said, 
 'You are the man; if that is so, you can make good money.' 
 
 "Von Brincken told me that they were willing to send me up 
 to Canada to blow up one of the bridges on the Canadian Pacific 
 Railroad or one of the tunnels. I asked him what was in it and he 
 said he would talk it over with the German consul, Bopp.
 
 236 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "I had accepted von Brincken's proposition to go to Canada 
 and he offered me $500 to defray my expenses. On different 
 occasions, in his room, von Brincken showed me maps and informa- 
 tion about Canada, and pointed out to me where he wanted the 
 act to be done. This was to be between Revelstake and Vancouver 
 on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and I was to get $3,000 in case 
 of a successful blowing up of a military bridge or tunnel." 
 
 Van Koolbergen only made a pretended effort to blow up the 
 tunnel. He did furnish the evidence, however, which served to 
 send Bopp and his associates to the penitentiary. 
 
 Even more sensational was the plot against the international 
 bridge upon which the Grand Trunk Railway crosses the border 
 between the United States and Canada at Vanceboro, Me. 
 
 Werner Horn was a German reserve lieutenant. Von Papen 
 delivered to him a flat order to blow up the bridge and he gave 
 hun $700 for the purpose of perpetrating the outrage. Horn was 
 partially successful. At his trial in Boston in June, 1917, he made 
 the folio whig confession: 
 
 "I admit and state that the facts set forth hi the indictments 
 as to the conveyance of explosives on certain passenger trams 
 from New York to Boston and from Boston to Vanceboro, in the 
 State of Maine, are true. I did, as therein alleged, receive an explo- 
 sive and conveyed the same from the city of New York to Boston, 
 thence by common carrier from Boston to Vanceboro, Maine. 
 On or about the night of February 1, 1915, I took said explosive 
 in a suitcase hi which I was conveying it and carried the same 
 across the bridge at Vanceboro to the Canadian side, and there, 
 about 1.10 hi the morning of February 2, 1915, I caused said explo- 
 sive to be exploded near or against the abutments of the bridge 
 on the Canadian side, with intent to destroy the abutment and 
 cripple the bridge so that the same could not be used for the passage 
 of trains." 
 
 Bribery of Congressmen was intended by Franz von Rintelen, 
 operating directly hi touch with the German Foreign Office in 
 Berlin. Count von Bernstorff sent the following telegram to 
 Berlin in connection with his plan: 
 
 I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 in order, as on former 
 
 isions, to influence Congress through the organization you know of, 
 
 which can perhaps prevent war. I am beginning in the meantime to act
 
 PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 237 
 
 accordingly. In the above circumstances, a public official German 
 declaration in favor of Ireland is highly desirable, in order to gain the 
 support of the Irish influence here 
 
 That it was Rintelen's purpose to use large sums of money 
 for the purpose of bribing Congressmen was stated positively by 
 George Plochman, treasurer of the Transatlantic Trust Company, 
 where Rintelen kept his deposits. 
 
 Rintelen was the main figure on this side of the water in the 
 fantastic plot to have Mexico and Japan declare war upon the 
 United States. During the trial of Rintelen in New York City 
 in May, 1917, it was testified "that he came to the United States 
 in order to embroil it with Mexico and Japan if necessary; that 
 he was doing all he could and was going to do all he could to embroil 
 this country with Mexico; that he believed that if the United 
 States had a war with Mexico it would stop the shipment of ammu- 
 nition to Europe; that he believed it would be only a matter of 
 tune until we were involved with Japan." 
 
 Rintelen also said that "General Huerta was going to return 
 to Mexico and start a revolution there which would cause the 
 United States to intervene and so make it impossible to ship muni- 
 tions to Europe. Intervention," he said, "was one of his trump 
 cards." 
 
 Mexico was the happy hunting-ground for pro-German plotters, 
 and the German Ambassador hi Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhardt, 
 was the leader in all the intrigues. The culmination of Germany's 
 effort against America on this continent came on January 19, 
 1917, when Dr. Alfred Zimmerman, head of the German Foreign 
 Office, sent the following cable to Ambassador von Eckhardt: 
 
 On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare 
 unrestricted. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to keep 
 neutral the United States of America. 
 
 If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the follow- 
 ing basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together 
 make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is under- 
 stood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas 
 and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. You are 
 instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above in the greatest 
 confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war 
 with the United States, and suggest that the President of Mexico, on his
 
 238 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 own initiative, should communicate with Japan suggesting adherence 
 at once to this plan; at the same time, offer to mediate between Germany 
 
 and Japan. 
 
 Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the 
 employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel 
 England to make peace in a few months. 
 
 ZIMMERMAN. 
 
 This was almost three months before the United States entered 
 the war. As an example of German blindness and diplomatic 
 folly it stands unrivaled in the annals of the German Foreign 
 Office. 
 
 Plots against shipping were the deadliest in which the German 
 conspirators engaged. Death and destruction followed hi then- 
 wake. In direct connection of von Bernstorff and his tools with 
 these outrages the following testimony by an American secret 
 service man employed by Wolf von Igel is interesting. It refers 
 to an appointment with Captain von Kleist, superintendent of 
 Scheele's bomb factory in Hoboken, N. J. 
 
 "We sat down and we spoke for about three hours. I asked 
 him the different things that he did, and said if he wanted an inter- 
 view with Mr. von Igel, my boss, he would have to tell everything. 
 So he told me that von Papen gave Dr. Scheele, the partner of 
 von Kleist in this factory, a check for $10,000 to start this bomb 
 factory. He told me that he, Mr. von Kleist, and Dr. Scheele 
 and a man by the name of Becker on the Friedrich der Grosse were 
 making the bombs, and that Captain Wolpert, Captain Bode and 
 Captain Steinberg, had charge of putting these bombs on the ships; 
 they put these bombs in cases and shipped them as merchandise 
 on these steamers, and they would go away on the trip and the 
 bombs would go off after the ship was out four or five days, causing 
 a fire and causing the cargo to go up in flames. He also told me 
 that they have made quite a number of these bombs; that thirty 
 of them were given to a party by the name of O'Leary, and that 
 he took them down to New Orleans where he had charge of putting 
 them on ships down there, this fellow O'Leary." 
 
 About four hundred bombs were made under von IgePs direc- 
 tion; explosions and fires were caused by them on thirty-three 
 ships sailing from New York harbor alone. 
 
 Four of the bombs were found at Marseilles on a vessel which
 
 PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 239 
 
 sailed from Brooklyn in May, 1915. The evidence collected in 
 the case led to the indictment of the following men for feloniously 
 transporting on the steamship Kirk Oswald a bomb or bombs 
 filled with chemicals designed to cause incendiary fires: Rintelen, 
 Wolpert, Bode, Schmidt, Becker, Garbade, Praedel, Paradies, 
 von Kleist, Schimmel, Scheele, Steinberg and others. The last 
 three named fled from justice, Scheele being supplied with $1,000 
 for that purpose by Wolf von Igel. He eluded the Federal author- 
 ities until April, 1918, when he was found hiding in Cuba under 
 the protection of German secret service agents. All the others 
 except Schmidt were found guilty and sentenced, on February 5, 
 1918, to imprisonment for eighteen months and payment of a fine 
 of $2,000 each. It was proved during the trial that Rintelen had 
 hired Schimmel, a German lawyer, to see that bombs were placed 
 on ships. 
 
 Schmidt, von Kleist, Becker, Garbade, Praedel and Paradies 
 had already been tried for conspiracy to make bombs for conceal- 
 ment on ocean-going vessels, with the purpose of setting the same 
 on fire. All were found guilty, and on April 6, 1917, von Kleist 
 and Schmidt were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a 
 fine of $500 each. 
 
 Robert Fay, a former officer in the German army, who came to 
 the United States in April, 1915, endeavored to prevent the traffic 
 in munitions by smking the laden ships at sea. In recounting the 
 circumstances of his arrival here to the chief of the United States 
 secret service, Fay said: 
 
 "... I had in the neighborhood of $4,000. . . . This 
 money came from a man who sent me over . . . (named) 
 Jonnersen. The understanding was that it might be worth while 
 to stop the shipment of artillery munitions from this country. 
 . . . I imagined Jonnersen to be hi the (German) secret service." 
 
 After stating that he saw von Papen and Boy-Ed, and that 
 neither would have anything to do with him, apparently because 
 suspicious of his identity, Fay continued: 
 
 "I did not want to return (to Germany) without having 
 carried out my intention, that is, the destruction of ships carrying 
 munitions. I proceeded with my experiments and tried to get hold 
 of as much explosive matter as in any way possible. . . ." 
 
 Fay and two confederates were arrested in a lonely spot near
 
 240 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Grantwood, New Jersey, while testing an explosive. During his 
 examination at police headquarters in Weehawken immediately 
 after the arrest he was questioned as follows: 
 
 Q. That large machine you have downstairs, what is that? 
 
 A. That is a patent of mine. It is a new way of getting a 
 
 tune fuse. . . . 
 
 Q. Did you know where Scholz (Fay's brother-in-law) had 
 
 this machine made? 
 
 A. In different machine shops. . . . 
 
 Q. What material is it you wanted (from Daeche, an accom- 
 plice)? 
 
 A. Trinitrotoluol (T. N. T.). . . . 
 
 Q. How much did the machinery cost? 
 
 A. Roughly speaking, $150 or $200. . . . 
 
 Q. What would be the cost of making one and filling it with 
 explosives? 
 
 A. About $250 each. ... If they had given me money 
 enough I should simply have been able to block the shipping entirely. 
 
 Q. Do you mean you could have destroyed every ship that 
 left the harbor by means of those bombs? 
 
 A. I would have been able to stop so many that the authorities 
 would not have dared (to send out any ships). 
 
 It was proved during Fay's trial that his bomb was a practical 
 device, and that its forty pounds of explosive would sink any ship 
 to which it was attached. 
 
 Fay and his accomplices, Scholz and Daeche, were convicted 
 of conspiracy to attach explosive bombs to the rudders of vessels, 
 with the intention of wrecking the same when at sea, and were 
 sentenced, on May 9, 1916, to terms of eight, four and two years 
 respectively, hi the federal penitentiary at Atlanta. Dr. Herbert 
 Kienzle and Max Breitung, who assisted Fay in procuring explo- 
 sives, were indicted on the same charge. Both were interned. 
 
 Another plan for disabling ships was suggested by a man who 
 remained for some tune unknown. He called one day at the German 
 Military Information Bureau, maintained at 60 Wall Street by 
 Captain von Papen, of the German embassy, and there gave the 
 following outline of his plan: 
 
 "I intend to cause serious damage to vessels of the Allies 
 leaving ports of the United States by placing bombs, which I am
 
 '
 
 PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 243 
 
 making myself, on board. These bombs resemble ordinary lumps 
 of coal and I am planning to have them concealed in the coal to be 
 laden on steamers of the Allies. I have already discussed this 
 plan with ... at ... and he thinks favorably of my 
 idea. I have been engaged on similar work in ... after the 
 outbreak of the war, together with Mr. von . . . ." 
 
 The German secret service report from which the above 
 excerpt is taken states that the maker of the bomb was paid by 
 check No. 146 for $150 drawn on the Riggs National Bank of 
 Washington. A photographic copy of this check shows that it 
 was payable to Paul Koenig, of the Hamburg- American Line, and 
 was signed by Captain von Papen. On the counterfoil is written 
 this memorandum, "For F. J. Busse." Busse confessed later 
 that he had discussed with Captain von Papen at the German 
 Club in New York City the plan of damaging the boilers of munition 
 ships with bombs which resembled lumps of coal. 
 
 Free access to Allied ships laden with supplies for Vladivostok 
 would have been invaluable to the conspirators, and in order to 
 obtain it Charles C. Crowley, a detective employed by Consul- 
 General Bopp, resorted to the extraordinary scheme revealed in the 
 following letter to Madam Bakhmeteff, wife of the Russian 
 Ambassador to the United States : 
 
 MME J. BAKHMETEFF, care Imperial Russian Embassy, Newport, R. L: 
 
 DEAR MADAM : By direction of the Imperial Russian Consul-General 
 of San Francisco, I beg to submit the following on behalf of several fruit- 
 growers of the State of California. As it is the wish of certain growers 
 to contribute several tons of dried fruit to the Russian Red Cross they 
 desire to have arrangements made to facilitate the transportation of this 
 fruit from Tacoma, Washington, to Vladivostok, and as we are advised 
 that steamships are regularly plying between Tacoma and Vladivostok 
 upon which government supplies are shipped we would like to have 
 arrangements made that these fruits as they might arrive would be regu- 
 larly consigned to these steamers and forwarded. It would be necessary, 
 therefore, that an understanding be had with the agents of these steam- 
 ship lines at Tacoma that immediate shipments be made via whatever 
 steamers might be sailing. 
 
 It is the desire of the donors that there be no delay in the shipments 
 as delays would lessen the benefits intended to those for whom the fruit 
 was provided. . . . 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 C. C. CROWLEY.
 
 244 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The statements of Louis J. Smith and van Koolbergen, com- 
 bined with a mass of other evidence consisting in part of letters 
 and telegrams, caused the grand jury to indict Consul-General 
 Bopp, his staff and his hired agents, for conspiracy to undertake 
 a military enterprise against Canada. Among the purposes of this 
 enterprise specified hi the indictment was the following: 
 
 "To blow up and destroy with their cargoes and crews any 
 and all vessels belonging to Great Britain, France, Japan or Russia 
 found within the limits of Canada, which were laden with horses, 
 munitions of war, or articles of commerce in course of transporta- 
 tion to the above countries. . . ." 
 
 The following descriptions have been made by the United 
 States Government of the tools of von Bernstorff in German plots : 
 
 Paul Koenig, the head of the Hamburg-American secret serv- 
 ice, who was active in passport frauds, who induced Gustave Stahl 
 to perjure himself and declare the Lusitania armed, and who plotted 
 the destruction of the Welland Canal. In his work as a spy he 
 passed under thirteen aliases hi this country and Canada. 
 
 Captains Boy-Ed, von Papen, von Rintelen, Tauscher, and von 
 Igel were all directly connected with the German Government itself. 
 There is now hi the possession of the United States Government 
 a check made out to Koenig and signed by von Papen, identified 
 by number hi a secret report of the German Bureau of Investiga- 
 tion as being used to procure $150 for the payment of a bomb- 
 maker, who was to plant explosives disguised as coal hi the bunkers 
 of the merchant vessels clearing from the port of New York. 
 Boy-Ed, Dr. Bunz, the German ex-minister to Mexico, the German 
 consul at San Francisco, and officials of the Hamburg-American 
 and North German Lloyd steamship lines evaded customs regula- 
 tions and coaled and victualed German raiders at sea. Von Papen 
 and von Igel supervised the making of the incendiary bombs on 
 the Friedrich der Grosse, then hi New York Harbor, and stowed 
 them away on outgoing ships. Von Rintelen financed Labor's 
 National Peace Council, which tried to corrupt legislators and 
 labor leaders. 
 
 A lesser light of this galaxy was Robert Fay, who invented an 
 explosive contrivance which he tied to the rudder posts of vessels. 
 According to his confession and that of his partner hi murder, 
 the money came from the German secret police.
 
 PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA 245 
 
 Among the other tools of the German plotters were David 
 Lamar and Henry Martin, who, in the pay of Captain von Rintelen, 
 organized and managed the so-called Labor's National Peace 
 Council, which sought to bring about strikes, an embargo on 
 munitions, and a boycott of the banks which subscribed to the 
 Anglo-French loan. A check for $5,000 to J. F. J. Archibald for 
 propaganda work, and a receipt from Edwin Emerson, the war 
 correspondent, for $1,000 traveling expenses were among the docu- 
 ments found in Wolf von IgeFs possession. 
 
 Others who bore English names were persuaded to take 
 leading places in similar organizations which concealed their origin 
 and real purpose. The American Embargo Conference arose out 
 of the ashes of Labor's Peace Council, and its president was 
 American, though the funds were not. Others tampered with 
 were journalists who lent themselves to the German propaganda 
 and who went so far as to serve as couriers between the Teutonic 
 embassies in Washington and the governments hi Berlin and 
 Vienna. A check of $5,000 was discovered which Count von 
 Bernstorff had sent to Marcus Braun, editor of Fair Play. And a 
 letter was discovered which George Sylvester Viereck, editor of the 
 Fatherland, sent to Privy Councilor Albert, the German agent, 
 arranging for a monthly subsidy of $1,750, to be delivered to him 
 through the hands of intermediaries women whose names he 
 abbreviates "to prevent any possible inquiry." There is a record 
 of $3,000 paid through the German embassy to finance the lecture 
 tour of Miss Ray Beveridge, an American artist, who was further 
 to be supplied with German war pictures. 
 
 The German propagandists also directed their efforts to poison- 
 ing the minds of the people through the circulation of lies con- 
 cerning affairs in France and at home. Here are some of the 
 rumors circulated throughout the country that were nailed as 
 falsehoods : 
 
 It was said that the national registration of women by the 
 Food Administration was to find out how much money each had 
 in the bank, how much of this was owed, and everything about 
 each registrant's personal affairs. 
 
 That the millions collected from the public for the Red Cross 
 went into the pockets of thieves, and that the soldiers and sailors 
 got none of it, nor any of its benefits.
 
 246 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 That base hospital units had been annihilated while en route 
 
 overseas. 
 
 That leading members of other hospital units had been executed 
 
 as spies by the American Government. 
 
 That canned goods put up by the housewives were to be 
 seized by the government and appropriated to the use of the army 
 
 and navy. 
 
 That soldiers hi training were being instructed to put out the 
 
 eyes of every German captured. 
 
 That all of the "plums" at the officers' training camps fell 
 to Roman Catholics. The plums went to Protestants when the 
 propagandist talked to a Catholic. 
 
 That the registration of women was held so that girls would 
 be enticed into the cities where white slaves were made of them. 
 
 That the battleship Pennsylvania had been destroyed with 
 everyone on board by a German submarine. 
 
 That more than seventy-five per cent of the American soldiers 
 in France had been infected with venereal diseases. 
 
 That intoxicants were given freely to American soldiers in 
 Y. M. C. A. and Knights of Columbus huts hi France. 
 
 But the lies and the plots failed to make any impression on 
 the morale of American citizenry. In fact, America from the 
 moment war was declared against Germany until the time an 
 armistice was declared, seemed to care for nothing but results. 
 Charges of graft made with bitter invective hi Congress created 
 scarcely more than a ripple. The harder the pro-German plotters 
 worked for the destruction of property and the incitement to labor 
 disturbances, the closer became the protective network of Ameri- 
 canism against these anti-war influences. After half a dozen German 
 lies had been casually passed from mouth to mouth as rumors, 
 the American people came to look upon other mischievous propa- 
 ganda in its true light. Patriotic newspapers in every community 
 exposed the false reports and citizens everywhere were on their 
 guard against the misstatements. It was noticeable that the 
 propaganda was intensified just previous to and during the several 
 Liberty Loan campaigns. Proof that the American spirit rises 
 superior to anti-American influences is furnished by the glorious 
 records of these Liberty Loans. Every one was over-subscribed 
 despite the severest handicaps confronted by any nation.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 
 
 THE United States was brought face to face with the Great 
 War and with what it meant in ruthless destruction of life 
 when, on May 7, 1915, the crack Cunard Liner Lusitania, 
 bound from New York to Liverpool, with 1,959 persons 
 aboard, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off 
 Old Head of Kinsale, Southwestern Ireland. Two torpedoes 
 reached then- mark. The total number of lives lost when the ship 
 sunk was 1,198. Of these 755 were passengers and the remainder 
 were members of the crew. Of the drowned passengers, 124 were 
 Americans and 35 were infants. 
 
 " Remember the Lusitania!" later became a battlecry just as 
 "Remember the Maine!" acted as a spur to Americans during 
 the war with Spain. It was first used by the famous " Black 
 Watch " and later American troops shouted it as they v/ent 
 into battle. 
 
 The sinking of the Lusitania, with its attendant destruction 
 of life, sent a thrill of horror through the neutral peoples of the 
 world. General opposition to the use of submarines in attacking 
 peaceful shipping, especially passenger vessels, crystallized as the 
 result of the tragedy, and a critical diplomatic controversy between 
 the United States and Germany developed. The American Govern- 
 ment signified its determination to break off friendly relations with 
 the German Empire unless the ruthless practices of the submarine 
 commanders were terminated. Germany temporarily agreed to 
 discontinue these practices. 
 
 Among the victims of the Cunarder's destruction were some 
 of the best known personages of the Western Hemisphere. Alfred 
 Gwynne Vanderbilt, multimillionaire; Charles Frohman, noted 
 theatrical manager; Charles Klein, dramatist, who wrote "The 
 Lion and the Mouse;" Justus Miles Forman, author, and Elbert 
 Hubbard, known as Fra Elbertus, widely read iconoclastic writer, 
 were drowned. 
 
 247
 
 248 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The ocean off the pleasant southern coast of Ireland was 
 dotted with bodies for days after the sinking of the liner. The 
 remains of many of the victims, however, never were recovered. 
 
 When the Lusitania prepared to sail from New York on her 
 last trip, fifty anonymous telegrams addressed to prominent 
 persons aboard the vessel warned the recipients not to sail with the 
 liner. In addition to these warnings was an advertisement 
 inserted in the leading metropolitan newspapers by the German 
 embassy, advising neutral persons that British steamships were 
 in danger of destruction in the war zone about the British Isles. 
 This notice appeared the day the Lusitania sailed, May 1st, and 
 was placed next the advertisement of the Cunard Line. Following 
 is the advertisement: 
 
 NOTICE! 
 
 Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded 
 that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great 
 Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to 
 the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the 
 Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, 
 or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that 
 travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies 
 do so at their own risk. 
 
 Imperial German Embassy, 
 Washington, D. C., April 22, 1915. 
 
 Little or no attention was paid to the warnings, only the 
 usual number of persons canceling their reservations. The gen- 
 eral agent of the Cunard Line at New York assured the passengers 
 that the Lusitania's voyage would be attended by no risk what- 
 ever, referring to the liner's speed and water-tight compartments. 
 
 As the great Cunarder drew near the scene of her disaster, 
 traveling at moderate speed along her accustomed route, there 
 was news of freight steamers falling victims to Germany's undersea 
 campaign. It was not definitely established, however, whether 
 the liner was warned of danger. 
 
 At two o'clock on the fine afternoon of May 7th, some ten miles 
 off the Old Head of Kinsale, the Lusitania was sighted by a sub- 
 marine 1,000 yards away. A second later the track of a tor- 
 pedo, soon followed by another, was seen and each missile crashed 
 into the Lusitania's hull with rending detonations.
 
 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 249 
 
 Many were killed or injured immediately by the explosions. 
 Before the liner's headway was lost, some boats were lowered, 
 and capsized as a result. The immediate listing of the steamship 
 added to the difficulties of rescue and increased the tragical toll 
 of dead. 
 
 Much heroism and calmness were displayed by many in the 
 few minutes the liner remained afloat. The bearing of Frohman, 
 Vanderbilt, Hubbard and other Americans was declared to have 
 been particularly inspiring. 
 
 Rescue ships and naval vessels rushed to the aid of the sur- 
 vivors from all nearby ports of Ireland. 
 
 It has been said that the sinking of the Lusitania was carefully 
 planned by the chiefs of the German admiralty. They expected, 
 it was believed, to demoralize British shipping and strike terror 
 into the minds of the British people by showing that the largest 
 and swiftest of liners could easily be destroyed by submarines. 
 
 According to the Paris paper, La Guerre Sotiale, published 
 by Gustave Herve, the submarine responsible was the U-21, com- 
 manded by Lieutenant Hersing. Hersing was said to have been 
 decorated for his deed. The U-21 afterwards was destroyed and 
 the story of its participation in the sinking of the great Cunarder 
 never was confirmed. 
 
 Immediately upon the news of the Lusitania disaster, President 
 Wilson took steps to hold Germany to that " strict accountability" 
 of which he had notified Berlin when the war-zone operations were 
 begun earlier in the year. His first communication, protesting 
 against the sinking of the liner in the name of humanity and 
 demanding disavowal, indemnity and assurance that the crime 
 would not be repeated, was despatched on May 13th. On May 
 30th the German reply argued that the liner carried munitions of 
 war and probably was armed. 
 
 The following official German version of the incident by the 
 German Admiralty Staff over the signature of Admiral Behncke 
 was given : 
 
 "The submarine sighted the steamer, which showed no flag, 
 May 7th, at 2.20 o'clock, Central European time, afternoon, on the 
 southeast coast of Ireland, in fine, clear weather. 
 
 "At 3.10 o'clock one torpedo was fired at the Lusitania, 
 which hit her starboard side below the captain's bridge. The
 
 250 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 detonation of the torpedo was followed immediately by a further 
 explosion of extremely strong effect. The ship quickly listed to 
 starboard and began to sink. 
 
 "The second explosion must be traced back to the ignition 
 of quantities of ammunition inside the ship." 
 
 These extenuations were all rejected by the United States, 
 and the next note prepared by President Wilson was of such char- 
 acter that Secretary of State Bryan resigned. This second com- 
 munication was sent on June llth, and on June 22d another was 
 cabled. September 1st Germany accepted the contentions of the 
 United States in regard to submarine warfare upon peaceful 
 shipping. There were continued negotiations concerning the 
 specific settlement to be made in the case of the Lusitania. 
 
 On February 4th, 1916, arrived a German proposition which, 
 coupled with personal parleys carried on between German Ambassa- 
 dor von Bernstorff and United States Secretary of State Lansing, 
 seemed in a fair way to conclude the whole controversy. It was 
 announced on February 8th that the two nations were in substantial 
 accord and Germany was declared to have admitted the sinking 
 of the liner was wrong and unjustified and promised that repara- 
 tion would be made. 
 
 However, a week later, when Germany took advantage of 
 tentative American proposals concerning the disarming of merchant 
 ships, by announcing that all armed hostile merchantmen would be 
 treated as warships and attacked without warning, the almost 
 completed agreement was overthrown. The renewed negotiations 
 were continuing when the torpedoing of the cross-channel passenger 
 ship Sussex, without warning, on March 24th, impelled the United 
 States to issue a virtual ultimatum, demanding that the Germans 
 immediately cease their present methods of naval warfare on pain 
 of the rupture of diplomatic relations with the most powerful 
 existing neutral nation. 
 
 The Lusitania, previous to her sinking, had figured in the 
 war news, first at the conflict, when it was feared she had been 
 captured by a German cruiser while she was dashing across the 
 Atlantic toward Liverpool, and again in February of 1915, when 
 she flew the American flag as a ruse to deceive submarines while 
 crossing the Irish Sea. This latter incident called forth a protest 
 from the United States.
 
 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 251 
 
 On her fatal trip the cargo of the Lusitania was worth $735,000. 
 
 As a great transatlantic liner, the Lusitania was a product of 
 the race for speed, which was carried on for years among larger 
 steamship companies, particularly of England and Germany. 
 When the Lusitania was launched, it was the wonder of the mari- 
 time world. Its mastery of the sea, from the standpoint of speed, 
 was undisputed. 
 
 Progress of the Lusitania on its first voyage to New York, 
 September 7, 1907, was watched by the world. The vessel made 
 the voyage in five days and fifty-four minutes, at that time a 
 record. Its fastest trip, made on the western voyage, was four 
 days eleven hours forty-two minutes. This record, however, 
 was wrested from it subsequently by the Mauretania, a sister ship, 
 which set the mark of four days ten hours forty-one minutes, that 
 still stands. 
 
 Although the Lusitania was surpassed in size by several other 
 liners built subsequently, it never lost the reputation acquired 
 at the outset of its career. Its speed and luxurious accommoda- 
 tions made it a favorite, and its passenger lists bore the names of 
 many of the most prominent Atlantic wayfarers. The vessel was 
 pronounced by its builders to be as nearly unsinkable as any ship 
 could be. 
 
 Everything about the Lusitania was of colossal dimensions. 
 Her rudder weighed sixty-five tons. She carried three anchors of 
 ten tons each. The main frames and beams, placed end to end, 
 would extend thirty miles. The Lusitania was 785 feet long, 
 88 feet beam, and 60 feet deep. Her gross tonnage was 32,500 
 and her net tonnage, 9,145. 
 
 Charges were made that one or more guardian submarines 
 deliberately drove off ships nearby which might have saved hundreds 
 of lives lost when the Lusitania went down. Captain W. F. Wood, 
 of the Leyland Line steamer Etonian, said his ship was prevented 
 from going to the rescue of the passengers of the sinking Lusitania 
 by a warning that an attack might be made upon his own vessel. 
 
 The Etonian left Liverpool, May 6th. When Captain Wood 
 was forty-two miles from Kinsale he received a wireless call from 
 the Lusitania for immediate assistance. 
 
 The call was also picked up by the steamers City of Exeter 
 and Narragansett. The Narragansett, Captain Wood said, was
 
 252 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 made a target for submarine attack, a torpedo missing her by a 
 few feet, and her commander then warned Captain Wood not to 
 attempt to reach the Lusitania. 
 
 "It was two o'clock in the afternoon, May 7th, that we received 
 the wireless S S," said Captain Wood. "I was then forty-two 
 miles distant from the position he gave me. The Narragansett 
 and the City of Exeter were nearer the Lusitania and she answered 
 the SOS. 
 
 "At five o'clock I observed the City of Exeter cross our bows 
 and she signaled, 'Have you heard anything of the disaster?' 
 
 "At that moment I saw a periscope of a submarine between 
 the Tonina and the City of Exeter, about a quarter of a mile directly 
 ahead of us. She dived as soon as she saw us. 
 
 "I signaled to the engine room for every available inch of 
 speed. Then we saw the submarine come up astern of us. I 
 now ordered full speed ahead and we left the submarine behind. 
 The periscope remained hi sight about twenty minutes. 
 
 "No sooner had we lost sight of the submarine astern, than 
 another appeared on the starboard bow. This one was directly 
 ahead and on the surface, not submerged. 
 
 "I starboarded hard away from him, he swinging as we did. 
 About eight minutes later he submerged. I continued at top 
 speed for four hours and saw no more of the submarines. It was 
 the ship's speed that saved her, that's all. 
 
 "The Narragansett, as soon as she heard the S S call, went 
 to the assistance of the Lusitania. One of the submarines dis- 
 charged a torpedo at her and missed her by not more than eight 
 feet. The Narragansett then warned us not to attempt to go to 
 the rescue, and I got her wireless call while I was dodging the two 
 submarines. You can see that three ships would have gone to the 
 assistance of the Lusitania had they not been attacked by the two 
 submarines." 
 
 The German Government defended the brutal destruction of 
 non-combatants by the false assertions that the Lusitania was 
 an armed vessel and that it was carrying a great store of munitions. 
 Both of these accusations were proved to be mere fabrications. 
 The Lusitania was absolutely unarmed and the nearest approach to 
 munitions was a consignment of 1,250 empty shell cases and 4,200 
 cases of cartridges for small arms.
 
 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 253 
 
 Intense indignation swept over the neutral world, the tide 
 rising highest in America. It well may be said that the destruc- 
 tion of the Lusitania was one of the greatest factors in driving 
 America into the war with Germany. 
 
 Concerning the charge that the Lusitania carried munitions, 
 Dudley Field Malone, Collector of the port of New York, testified 
 that he made personal and close inspection of the ship's cargo and 
 saw that it carried no guns and that there were no munitions in 
 its cargo. 
 
 His statement follows: 
 
 "This report is not correct. The Lusitania was inspected 
 before sailing, as is customary. No guns were found, mounted 
 or unmounted, and the vessel sailed without any armament. No 
 merchant ship would be allowed to arm in this port and leave the 
 harbor." 
 
 Captain W. T. Turner, of the Lusitania, testifying before the 
 coroner's inquest at Kinsale, Ireland, was interrogated as follows: 
 
 "You were aware threats had been made that the ship would 
 be torpedoed?" 
 
 "We were," the Captain replied. 
 
 "Was she armed?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "What precautions did you take?" 
 
 "We had all the boats swung when we came within the danger 
 zone, between the passing of Fastnet and the time of the accident." 
 
 The coroner asked him whether he had received a message 
 concerning the sinking of a ship off Kinsale by a submarine. Cap- 
 tain Turner replied that he had not. 
 
 "Did you receive any special instructions as to the voyage?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Are you at liberty to tell us what they were?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "Did you carry them out?" 
 
 "Yes, to the best of my ability." 
 
 "Tell us hi your own words what happened after passing 
 Fastnet." 
 
 "The weather was clear," Captain Turner answered. "We 
 were going at a speed of eighteen knots. I was on the port side 
 and heard Second Officer Hefford call out:
 
 254 HISTORY OF THE WORLD .WAR 
 
 " 'Here's a torpedo!' 
 
 "I ran to the other side and saw clearly the wake of a torpedo. 
 Smoke and steam came up between the last two funnels. There 
 was a slight shock. Immediately after the first explosion there 
 was another report, but that may possibly have been internal. 
 
 "I at once gave the order to lower the boats down to the 
 rails, and I directed that women and children should get into them. 
 I also had all the bulkheads closed. 
 
 "Between the tune of passing Fastnet, about 11 o'clock, and 
 of the torpedoing I saw no sign whatever of any submarines. There 
 was some haze along the Irish coast, and when we were near Fastnet 
 I slowed down to fifteen knots. I was in wireless communication 
 with shore all the way across." 
 
 Captain Turner was asked whether he had received any 
 message in regard to the presence of submarines off the Irish coast. 
 He replied hi the affirmative. Questioned regarding the nature of 
 the message, he replied: 
 
 "I respectfully refer you to the admiralty for an answer." 
 
 "I also gave orders to stop the ship," Captain Turner con- 
 tinued, "but we could not stop. We found that the engines were 
 out of commission. It was not safe to lower boats until the speed 
 was off the vessel. As a matter of fact, there was a perceptible 
 headway on her up to the time she went down. 
 
 "When she was struck she listed to starboard. I stood on 
 the bridge when she sank, and the Lusitania went down under me. 
 She floated about eighteen minutes after the torpedo struck her. 
 My watch stopped at 2.36. I was picked up from among the 
 wreckage and afterward was brought aboard a trawler. 
 
 "No warship was convoying us. I saw no warship, and none 
 was reported to me as having been seen. At the tune I was picked 
 up I noticed bodies floating on the surface, but saw no living 
 persons." 
 
 "Eighteen knots was not the normal speed of the Lusitania, 
 was it?" 
 
 "At ordinary tunes," answered Captain Turner, "she could 
 make twenty-five knots, but in war tunes her speed was reduced to 
 twenty-one knots. My reason for going eighteen knots was that I 
 wanted to arrive at Liverpool bar without stopping, and within two 
 or three hours of high water."
 
 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 255 
 
 "Was there a lookout kept for submarines, having regard to 
 previous warnings?" 
 
 "Yes, we had double lookouts." 
 
 "Were you going a zigzag course at the moment the torpedo- 
 ing took place?" 
 
 "No. It was bright weather, and land was clearly visible." 
 
 "Was it possible for a submarine to approach without being 
 seen?" 
 
 ' ' Oh, yes ; quite possible. ' ' 
 
 "Something has been said regarding the impossibility of 
 launching the boats on the port side?" 
 
 "Yes," said Captain Turner, "owing to the listing of the 
 ship." 
 
 "How many boats were launched safely?" 
 
 "I cannot say." 
 
 "Were any launched safely?" 
 
 "Yes, and one or two on the port side." 
 
 "Were your orders promptly carried out?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Was there any panic on board?" 
 
 "No, there was no panic at all. It was almost calm." 
 
 "How many persons were on board?" 
 
 "There were 1,500 passengers and about 600 crew." 
 
 By the Foreman of the Jury "In the face of the warnings 
 at New York that the Lusitania would be torpedoed, did you make 
 any application to the admiralty for an escort?" 
 
 "No, I left that to them. It is their business, not mine. 
 I simply had to carry out my orders to go, and I would do it again." 
 
 Captain Turner uttered the last words of this reply with 
 great emphasis. 
 
 By the Coroner "I am glad to hear you say so, Captain." 
 
 By the Juryman "Did you get a wireless to steer your vessel 
 hi a northern direction?" 
 
 "No," replied Captain Turner. 
 
 "Was the course of the vessel altered after the torpedoes 
 struck her?" 
 
 "I headed straight for land, but it was useless. Previous 
 to this the watertight bulkheads were closed. I suppose the explo-
 
 256 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 sion forced them open. I don't know the exact extent to which 
 the Lusitania was damaged." 
 
 "There must have been serious damage done to the water- 
 tight bulkheads?" 
 
 "There certainly was, without doubt." 
 
 "Were the passengers supplied with lifebelts?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Were any special orders given that morning that lifebelts 
 be put on?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Was any warning given before you were torpedoed?" 
 
 "None whatever. It was suddenly done and finished." 
 
 "If there had been a patrol boat about, might it have been of 
 assistance?" 
 
 "It might, but it is one of those things one never knows." 
 
 With regard to the threats against his ship, Captain Turner 
 said he saw nothing except what appeared in the New York papers 
 the day before the Lusitania sailed. He had never heard the 
 passengers talking about the threats, he said. 
 
 "Was a warning given to the lower decks after the ship had 
 been struck?" Captain Turner was asked. 
 
 "All the passengers must have heard the explosion," Captain 
 Turner replied. 
 
 Captain Turner, in answer to another question, said he 
 received no report from the lookout before the torpedo struck the 
 Lusitania. 
 
 Ship's Bugler Livennore testified that the watertight com- 
 partments were closed, but that the explosion and the force of 
 the water must have burst them open. He said that all the officers 
 were at their posts and that earlier arrivals of the rescue craft 
 would not have saved the situation. 
 
 After physicians had testified that the victims had met death 
 through prolonged immersion and exhaustion the coroner summed 
 up the case. 
 
 He said that the first torpedo fired by the German submarine 
 
 did serious damage to the Lusitania, but that, not satisfied with 
 
 this, the Germans had discharged another torpedo. The second 
 
 orpedo, he said, must have been more deadly, because it went 
 
 right through the ship, hastening the work of destruction.
 
 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 257 
 
 The characteristic courage of the Irish and British people 
 was manifested at the time of this terrible disaster, the coroner 
 continued, and there was no panic. He charged that the respon- 
 sibility "lay on the German Government and the whole people 
 of Germany, who collaborated in the terrible crime." 
 
 "I propose to ask the jury," he continued, "to return the 
 only verdict possible for a self-respecting jury, that the men in 
 charge of the German submarine were guilty of wilful murder." 
 
 The jury then retired and after due deliberation prepared this 
 verdict: 
 
 We find that the deceased met death from prolonged immersion and 
 exhaustion in the sea eight miles south-southeast of Old Head of Kinsale, 
 Friday, May 7, 1915, owing to the sinking of the Lusitania by torpedoes 
 fired by a German submarine. 
 
 We find that the appalling crime was committed contrary to inter- 
 national law and the conventions of all civilized nations. 
 
 We also charge the officers of said submarine and the Emperor and 
 the Government of Germany, under whose orders they acted, with the 
 crime of wholesale murder before the tribunal of the civilized world. 
 
 We desire to express sincere condolences and sympathy with the 
 relatives of the deceased, the Cunard Company, and the United States, 
 many of whose citizens perished in this murderous attack on an unarmed 
 liner. 
 
 President Wilson's note to Germany, written consequent on 
 the torpedoing of the Lusitania, was dated six days later, showing 
 that time for careful deliberation was duly taken. The President's 
 Secretary, Joseph P. Tumulty, on May 8th, the day following 
 the tragedy, made this statement: 
 
 Of course the President feels the distress and the gravity of the 
 situation to the utmost, and is considering very earnestly but very 
 calmly, the right course of action to pursue. He knows that the people 
 of the country wish and expect him to act with deliberation as well as 
 with firmness. 
 
 Although signed by Mr. Bryan, as Secretary of State, the note 
 was written by the President in shorthand a favorite method of 
 Mr. Wilson hi making memoranda and transcribed by him on his 
 own typewriter. The document was presented to the members 
 of the President's Cabinet, a draft of it was sent to Counselor 
 Lansing of the State Department, and after a few minor changes, 
 it was transmitted by cable to Ambassador Gerard in Berlin.
 
 258 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 
 WASHINGTON, MAY 13, 1915. 
 
 The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador at Berlin: 
 
 Please call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and after reading to 
 him this communication leave with him a copy. 
 
 In view of recent acts of the German authorities in violation of 
 American rights on the high seas, which culminated in the torpedoing 
 and sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which 
 over 100 American citizens lost their lives, it is clearly wise and desirable 
 that the Government of the United States and the Imperial German 
 Government should come to a clear and full understanding as to the 
 grave situation which has resulted. 
 
 The sinking of the British passenger steamer Falaba by a German 
 submarine on March 28th, through which Leon C. Thrasher, an American 
 citizen, was drowned; the attack on April 28th, on the American vessel 
 Gushing by a German aeroplane; the torpedoing on May 1st of the Ameri- 
 can vessel Gulflight by a German submarine, as a result of which two or 
 more American citizens met their death; and, finally, the torpedoing and 
 sinking of the steamship Lusitania, constitute a series of events which 
 the Government of the United States has observed with growing con- 
 cern, distress, and amazement. 
 
 Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by 
 the Imperial German Government in matters of international right, 
 and particularly with regard to the freedom of the seas; having learned 
 to recognize the German views and the German influence in the field of 
 international obligation as always engaged upon the side of justice and 
 humanity; and having understood the instructions of the Imperial 
 German Government to its naval commanders to be upon the same plane 
 of humane action prescribed by the naval codes of the other nations, the 
 Government of the United States was loath to believe it cannot now 
 bring itself to believe that these acts, so absolutely contrary to the 
 rules, the practices, and the spirit of modern warfare, could have the 
 countenance, or sanction of that great government. It feels it to be its 
 duty, therefore, to address the Imperial German Government concerning 
 them with the utmost frankness and in the earnest hope that it is not 
 mistaken in expecting action on the part of the Imperial German Govern- 
 ment, which will correct the unfortunate impressions which have been 
 created, and vindicate once more the position of that government with 
 regard to the sacred freedom of the seas. 
 
 The Government of the United States has been apprised that the 
 Imperial German Government considered themselves to be obliged by 
 the extraordinary circumstances of the present war and the measure 
 adopted by their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off from all 
 commerce, to adopt methods of retaliation which go much beyond the 
 ordinary methods of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of a war zone
 
 SUBMARINE HUNTING 
 
 A small naval dirigible used for scouting by the British Navy. Under the cigar- 
 ehaped balloon is swung an airplane chassis equipped with powerful motors and 
 steering apparatus, together with a light gun.
 
 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 261 
 
 from which they have warned neutral ships to keep away. This govern- 
 ment has already taken occasion to inform the Imperial German Govern- 
 ment that it cannot admit the adoption of such measures or such a warn- 
 ing of danger to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of 
 American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands 
 as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality, and that it 
 must hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability 
 for any infringement of those rights, intentional or incidental. It does 
 not understand the Imperial German Government to question these 
 rights. It assumes, on the contrary, that the Imperial Government 
 accept, as of course, the rule that the lives of noncombatants, whether 
 they be of neutral citizenship or citizens of one of the nations at war, 
 cannot lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the capture or destruc- 
 tion of an unarmed merchantman, and recognize also, as all other nations 
 do, the obligation to take the usual precaution of visit and search to 
 ascertain whether a suspected merchantman is in fact of belligerent 
 nationality or is in fact carrying contraband of war under a neutral flag. 
 
 The Government of the United States, therefore, desires to call the 
 attention of the Imperial German Government with the utmost earnest- 
 ness to the fact that the objection to their present method of attack against 
 the trade of their enemies lies in the practical impossibility of employing 
 submarines in the destruction of commerce without disregarding those 
 rules of fairness, reason, justice, and humanity which all modern opinion 
 regards as imperative. It is practically impossible for the officers of a 
 submarine to visit a merchantman at sea and examine her papers and 
 cargo. It is practically impossible for them to make a prize of her; and, 
 if they cannot put a prize crew on board of her, they cannot sink her 
 without leaving her crew and all on board of her to the mercy of the sea 
 in her small boats. These facts, it is understood, the Imperial German 
 Government frankly admit. We are informed that in the instances of 
 which we have spoken time enough for even that poor measure of safety 
 was not given, and in at least two of the cases cited not so much as a 
 warning was received. Manifestly, submarines cannot be used against 
 merchantmen, as the last few weeks have shown, without an inevitable 
 violation of many sacred principles of justice and humanity. 
 
 American citizens act within their indisputable rights in taking 
 their ships and in traveling wherever their legitimate business calls them 
 upon the high seas, and exercise those rights in what should be the well- 
 justified confidence that their lives will not be endangered by acts done 
 in clear violation of universally acknowledged international obligations, 
 and certainly in the confidence that their own government will sustain 
 them in the exercise of their rights. 
 
 There was recently published in the newspapers of the United States, 
 I regret to inform the Imperial German Government, a formal warning, 
 purporting to come from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington, 
 addressed to the people of the United States, and stating, in effect, that
 
 262 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 any citizen of the United States who exercised his right of free travel upon 
 the seas would do so at his peril if his journey should take him within the 
 zone of waters within which the Imperial German Navy was using sub- 
 marines against the commerce of Great Britain and France, notwithstand- 
 ing the respectful but very earnest protest of the Government of the 
 United States. I do not refer to this for the purpose of calling the atten- 
 tion of the Imperial German Government at this time to the surprising 
 irregularity of a communication from the Imperial German Embassy 
 at Washington addressed to the people of the United States through 
 the newspapers, but only for the purpose of pointing out that no warning 
 that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can possibly be 
 accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abatement of the 
 responsibility for its commission. 
 
 Long acquainted as this government has been with the character 
 of the Imperial Government, and with the high principles of equity by 
 which they have in the past been actuated and guided, the Government 
 of the United States cannot believe that the commanders of the vessels 
 which committed these acts of lawlessness did so except under a mis- 
 apprehension of the orders issued by the Imperial German naval authori- 
 ties. It takes for granted that, at least within the practical possibilities 
 of every such case, the commanders even of submarines were expected 
 to do nothing that would involve the lives of noncombatants or the 
 safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their object of capture 
 or destruction. It confidently expects, therefore, that the Imperial Ger- 
 man Government will disavow the acts of which the Government of the 
 United States complains; that they will make reparation so far as repara- 
 tion is possible for injuries which are without measure, and that they will 
 take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence of anything so obviously 
 subversive of the principles of warfare for which the Imperial German 
 Government have in the past so wisely and so firmly contended. 
 
 The government and people of the United States look to the Imperial 
 German Government for just, prompt, and enlightened action in this 
 vital matter with the greater confidence, because the United States and 
 Germany are bound together not only by ties of friendship, but also by 
 the explicit stipulations of the Treaty of 1828, between the United States 
 and the Kingdom of Prussia. 
 
 Expressions of regret and offers of reparation in case of the destruc- 
 tion of neutral ships sunk by mistake, while they may satisfy inter- 
 national obligations, if no loss of life results, cannot justify or excuse a 
 practice the natural and necessary effect of which is to subject neutral 
 nations and neutral persons to new and immeasurable risks. 
 
 +u Th r e T ^P 61 1 German Government will not expect the Government 
 of the United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the per- 
 >rmance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States 
 :s citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment. 
 
 BRYAN.
 
 263 
 
 Ex-President Roosevelt, after learning details of the sinking 
 of the Lusitania, made these statements : 
 
 "This represents not merely piracy, but piracy on a vaster 
 scale of murder than old-time pirate ever practiced. This is the 
 warfare which destroyed Louvain and Dinant and hundreds of 
 men, women and children hi Belgium. It is a warfare against 
 innocent men, women, and children traveling on the ocean, and 
 our own fellowcountrymen and countrywomen, who were among 
 the sufferers. 
 
 "It seems inconceivable that we can refrain from taking 
 action hi this matter, for we owe it not only to humanity, but to 
 our own national self-respect." 
 
 Former President Taf t made this statement : 
 
 "I do not wish to embarrass the President of the Administra- 
 tion by a discussion of the subject at this stage of the information, 
 except to express confidence that the President will follow a wise 
 and patriotic course. We must bear in mind that if we have a war 
 it is the people, the men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers 
 and sisters, who must pay with lives and money the cost of it, 
 and therefore they should not be hurried into the sacrifices until 
 it is made clear that they wish it and know what they are doing 
 when they wish it. 
 
 "I agree that the inhumanity of the circumstances in the 
 case now presses us on, but in the heat of even just indignation 
 is this the best tune to act, when action involves such momentous 
 consequences and means untold loss of life and treasure? There 
 are things worse than war, but delay, due to calm deliberation, 
 cannot change the situation or minimize the effect of what we 
 finally conclude to do. 
 
 "With the present condition of the war in Europe, our action, 
 if it is to be extreme, will not lose efficiency by giving time to the 
 people, whose war it will be, to know what they are facing. 
 
 "A demand for war that cannot survive the passion of the 
 first days of public indignation and will not endure the test of delay 
 and deliberation by all the people is not one that should be yielded 
 to." 
 
 President Wilson was criticised later by many persons for 
 not insisting upon a declaration of war immediately after the sink- 
 ing of the Lusitania. Undoubtedly the advice of former President
 
 264 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Taft and of others high in statesmanship, prevailed with the Presi- 
 dent. This in substance was that America should prepare resolutely 
 and thoroughly, giving Germany in the meantime no excuse for 
 charges that America's entrance into the conflict was for aggression 
 or for selfish purposes. 
 
 It was seen even as early as the sinking of the Lusitania that 
 Germany's only hope for final success lay in the submarine. It 
 was reasoned that unrestricted submarine warfare against the 
 shipping of the world, so far as tended toward the provisioning and 
 munitioning of the Allies, would be the inevitable outcome. It was 
 further seen that when that declaration would be made by Germany, 
 America's decision for war must be made. The President and his 
 Cabinet thereupon made all their plans looking toward that 
 eventuality. 
 
 The resignation of Mr. Bryan from the Cabinet was followed 
 by the appointment of Robert Lansing as Secretary of State. 
 It was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic that President 
 Wilson in all essential matters affecting the war was active in the 
 preparation of all state papers and hi the direction of that depart- 
 ment. Another Cabinet vacancy was created when Lindley M. 
 Garrison, of New Jersey, resigned the portfolio of Secretary of War 
 because of a clash upon his militant views for preparedness. 
 Newton D. Baker, of Cleveland, Ohio, a close friend and suppor- 
 ter of President Wilson, was appointed hi his stead.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR IN BLOOD-SOAKED TRENCHES 
 
 A FTER the immortal stand of Joffre at the first battle of the 
 / \ Marne and the sudden savage thrust at the German center 
 / \ which sent von Kluck and his men reeling back in retreat 
 to the prepared defenses along the line of the Aisne, the 
 war hi the western theater resolved itself into a play for position 
 from deep intrenchments. Occasionally would come a sudden big 
 push by one side or the other in which artillery was massed until 
 hub touched hub and infantry swept to glory and death in waves 
 of gray, or blue or khaki as the case might be. But these tremendous 
 efforts and consequent slaughters did not change the long battle 
 line from the Alps to the North Sea materially. Here and there a 
 bulge would be made by the terrific pressure of men and material 
 in some great assault like that first push of the British at Neuve 
 Chapelle, like the German attack at Verdun or like the tremendous 
 efforts by both sides on that bloodiest of all battle-fields, the Somme. 
 Neuve Chapelle deserves particular mention as the test in 
 which the British soldiers demonstrated their might in equal con- 
 test against the enemy. There had been a disposition in England 
 as elsewhere up to that time to rate the Germans as supermen, 
 to exalt the potency of the scientific equipment with which the 
 German army had taken the field. When the battle of Neuve 
 Chapelle had been fought, although its losses were heavy, there 
 was no longer any doubt hi the British nation that victory was 
 only a question of tune. 
 
 The action came as a pendant to the attack by General de 
 de Langle de Gary's French army during February, 1915, at Perthes, 
 that had been a steady relentless pressure by artillery and infantry 
 upon a strong German position. To meet it heavy reinforcements 
 had been shifted by the Germans from the trenches between La 
 Bassee and Lille. The earthworks at Neuve Chapelle had been 
 particularly depleted and only a comparatively small body of 
 Saxons and Bavarians defended them. Opposite this body was 
 
 265
 
 266 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the first British army. The German intrenchments at Neuve 
 Chapelle surrounded and defended the highlands upon which were 
 placed the German batteries and in their turn defended the road 
 towards Lille, Roubaix and Turcoing. 
 
 The task assigned to Sir John French was to make an assault 
 with only forty-eight thousand men on a comparatively narrow 
 front. There was only one practicable method for effective prep- 
 aration, and this was chosen by the British general. An artillery 
 concentration absolutely unprecedented up to that time was 
 employed by him. Field pieces firing at point-blank range were 
 used to cut the barbed wire entanglements defending the enemy 
 intrenchments, while howitzers and bombing airplanes were used 
 to drop high explosives into the defenseless earthworks. 
 
 Sir Douglas Haig, later to become the commander-in -chief 
 of the British forces, was in command of the first army. Sir 
 Horace Smith-Dorrien commanded the second army. It was the 
 first army that bore the brunt of the attack. 
 
 No engagement during the years on the western front was 
 more sudden and surprising hi its onset than that drive of the 
 British against Neuve Chapelle. At seven o'clock on the morning 
 of Wednesday, March 10, 1915, the British artillery was lazily 
 engaged in lobbing over a desultory shell fire upon the German 
 trenches. It was the usual breakfast appetizer, and nobody on 
 the German side took any unusual notice of it. Really, however, 
 the shelling was scientific "bracketing" of the enemy's important 
 position. The gunners were making sure of their ranges. 
 
 At 7.30 range finding ended, and with a roar that shook the 
 earth the most destructive and withering artillery action of the 
 war up to that time was on. Field pieces sending their shells 
 hurtling only a few feet above the earth tore the wire emplacements 
 of the enemy to pieces and made kindling wood of the supports. 
 Howitzers sent high explosive shells, containing lyddite, of 15-inch, 
 9.2-inch and 6-inch caliber into the doomed trenches and later 
 into the ruined village. It was eight o'clock in the morning, one- 
 half hour after the beginning of the artillery action, that the village 
 was bombarded. During this time British soldiers were enabled to 
 walk about hi No Man's Land behind the curtain of fire with 
 absolute immunity. No German rifleman or machine gunner left 
 cover. The scene on the German side of the line was like that
 
 NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 
 
 267
 
 268 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 upon the blasted surface of the moon, pock-marked with shell 
 holes, and with no trace of human life to be seen above ground. 
 
 An eye witness describing the scene said: 
 
 "The dawn, which broke reluctantly through a veil of clouds 
 on the morning of Wednesday, March 10, 1915, seemed as any 
 other to the Germans behind the white and blue sandbags hi their 
 long line of trenches curving in a hemicycle about the battered 
 village of Neuve Chapelle. For five months they had remained 
 undisputed masters of the positions they had here wrested from the 
 British in October. Ensconced in their comfortably-arranged 
 trenches with but a thin outpost in then* fire trenches, they had 
 watched day succeed day and night succeed night without the least 
 variation from the monotony of trench warfare, the intermittent 
 bark of the machine guns rat-tat-tat-tat-tat and the perpetual 
 rattle of rifle fire, with here and there a bomb, and now and then 
 an exploded mine. 
 
 "For weeks past the German airmen had grown strangely shy. 
 On this Wednesday morning none were aloft to spy out the strange 
 doings which, as dawn broke, might have been descried on the 
 desolate roads behind the British lines. 
 
 "From ten o'clock of the preceding evening endless files of 
 men marched silently down the roads leading towards the German 
 positions through Laventie and Richebourg St. Vaast, poor shattered 
 villages of the dead where months of incessant bombardment have 
 driven away the last inhabitants and left roofless houses and rent 
 roadways. . . . 
 
 Two days before, a quiet room, where Nelson's Prayer 
 stands on the mantel-shelf, saw the ripening of the plans that sent 
 these sturdy sons of Britain's four kingdoms marching all through 
 the night. * Sir John French met the army corps commanders and 
 unfolded to them his plans for the offensive of the British army 
 against the German line at Neuve Chapelle. 
 
 "The onslaught was to be a surprise. That was its essence. 
 .The Germans were to be battered with artillery, then rushed before 
 they recovered their wits. We had thirty-six clear hours before 
 us. Thus long, it was reckoned (with complete accuracy as after- 
 wards appeared), must elapse before the Germans, whose line 
 before us had been weakened, could rush up reinforcements. To 
 ensure the enemy's being pinned down right and left of the 'great
 
 NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 
 
 269 
 
 .-:#$,.-,,..''-.- .: y / 
 'F 
 
 \ !Sfi*\l *?**>""?" Ri - ^i-r-i 
 
 _JfeSai* 2 jsP* 
 
 MAP OF THE BATTLE FRONT BETWEEN ARMENTffiRES 
 
 AND LA BASSEE 
 
 On the left, half way up the map, may be seen Neuve Chapelle; a little to 
 the right of it is Aubers, where some of the sternest fighting occurred. 
 
 16
 
 270 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 push/ an attack was to be delivered north and south of the main 
 thrust simultaneously with the assault on Neuve Chapelle." 
 
 After describing the impatience of the British soldiers as they 
 awaited the signal to open the attack, and the actual beginning of 
 the engagement, the narrator continues: 
 
 "Then hell broke loose. With a mighty, hideous, screeching 
 burst of noise, hundreds of guns spoke. The men in the front 
 trenches were deafened by the sharp reports of the field-guns spitting 
 out their shells at close range to cut through the Germans' barbed 
 wire entanglements. In some cases the trajectory of these vicious 
 missiles was so flat that they passed only a few feet above the 
 British trenches. 
 
 "The din was continuous. An officer who had the curious 
 idea of putting his ear to the ground said it was as though the 
 earth were being smitten great blows with a Titan's hammer. 
 After the first few shells had plunged screaming amid clouds of 
 earth and dust into the German trenches, a dense pall of smoke 
 hung over the German lines. The sickening fumes of lyddite 
 blew back into the British trenches. In some places the troops 
 were smothered ki earth and dust or even spattered with blood from 
 the hideous fragments of human bodies that went hurtling through 
 the air. At one point the upper half of a German officer, his cap 
 crammed on his head, was blown into one of our trenches. 
 
 "Words will never convoy any adequate idea of the horror of 
 those five and thirty minutes. When the hands of officers' watches 
 pointed to five minutes past eight, whistles resounded along the 
 British lines. At the same moment the shells began to burst 
 farther ahead, for, by previous arrangement, the gunners, lengthen- 
 ing their fuses, were 'lifting' on to the village of Neuve Chapelle so 
 as to leave the road open for our infantry to rush in and finish 
 what the guns had begun. 
 
 "The shells were now falling thick among the houses of Neuve 
 Chapelle, a confused mass of buildings seen reddish through the 
 pillars of smoke and flying earth and dust. At the sound of the 
 whistle alas for the bugle, once the herald of victory, now banished 
 from the fray! our men scrambled out of the trenches and hurried 
 higgledy-piggledy into the open. Their officers were in front. 
 Many, wearing overcoats and carrying rifles with fixed bayonets, 
 closely resembled their men.
 
 NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 271 
 
 "It was from the center of our attacking line that the assault 
 was pressed home soonest. The guns had done their work well. 
 The trenches were blown to irrecognizable pits dotted with dead. 
 The barbed wire had been cut like so much twine. Starting from 
 the Rue Tilleloy the Lincolns and the Berkshires were off the mark 
 first, with orders to swerve to right and left respectively as soon as 
 they had captured the first line of trenches, in order to let the Royal 
 Irish Rifles and the Rifle Brigade through to the village. The 
 Germans left alive in the trenches, half demented with fright, 
 surrounded by a welter of dead and dying men, mostly surrendered. 
 The Berkshires were opposed with the utmost gallantry by two 
 German officers who had remained alone in a trench serving a 
 machine gun. But the lads from Berkshire made their way into 
 that trench and bayoneted the Germans where they stood, fighting 
 to the last. The Lincolns, against desperate resistance, eventually 
 occupied their section of the trench and then waited for the Irish- 
 men and the Rifle Brigade to come and take the village ahead of 
 them. Meanwhile the second Thirty-ninth Garhwalis on the 
 right had taken their trenches with a rush and were away towards 
 the village and the Biez Wood. 
 
 "Things had moved so fast that by the time the troops were 
 ready to advance against the village the artillery had not finished 
 its work. So, while the Lincolns and the Berks assembled the 
 prisoners who were trooping out of the trenches in all directions, 
 the infantry on whom devolved the honor of capturing the village, 
 waited. One saw them standing out hi the open, laughing and 
 cracking jokes amid the terrific din made by the huge howitzer 
 shells screeching overhead and bursting hi the village, the rattle of 
 machine guns all along the line, and the popping of rifles. Over 
 to the right where the Garhwalis had been working with the bayonet, 
 men were shouting hoarsely and wounded were groaning as the 
 stretcher-bearers, all heedless of bullets, moved swiftly to and fro 
 over the shell-torn ground. 
 
 "There was bloody work in the village of Neuve Chapelle. 
 The capture of a place at the bayonet point is generally a grim 
 business, hi which instant, unconditional surrender is the only 
 means by which bloodshed, a deal of bloodshed, can be prevented. 
 If there is individual resistance here and there the attacking troops 
 cannot discriminate. They must go through, slaying as they go
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 such as oppose them (the Germans have a monopoly of tne finish- 
 ing-off of wounded men), otherwise the enemy's resistance would not 
 be broken, and the assailants would be sniped and enfiladed from 
 hastily prepared strongholds at half a dozen different points. 
 
 "The village was a sight that the men say they will never 
 forget. It looked as if an earthquake had struck it. The pub- 
 lished photographs do not give any idea of the indescribable mass 
 of ruins to which our guns reduced it. The chaos is so utter that 
 the very line of the streets is all but obliterated. 
 
 "It was indeed a scene of desolation into which the Rifle 
 Brigade the first regiment to enter the village, I believe raced 
 headlong. Of the church only the bare shell remained, the interior 
 lost to view beneath a gigantic mound of debris. The little church- 
 yard was devastated, the very dead plucked from their graves, 
 broken coffins and ancient bones scattered about amid the fresher 
 dead, the slain of that morning grey-green forms asprawl athwart 
 the tombs. Of all that once fair village but two things remained 
 intact two great crucifixes reared aloft, one in the churchyard, 
 the other over against the chateau. From the cross that is the 
 emblem of our faith, the figure of Christ, yet intact though all 
 pitted with bullet marks, looked down in mute agony on the slain 
 in the village. 
 
 "The din and confusion were indescribable. Through the 
 thick pall of shell smoke Germans were seen on all sides, some 
 emerging half dazed from cellars and dugouts, their hands above 
 their heads, others dodging round the shattered houses, others 
 firing from the windows, from behind carts, even from behind the 
 overturned tombstones. Machine guns were firing from the houses 
 on the outskirts, rapping out their nerve-racking note above the 
 noise of the rules. 
 
 "Just outside the village there was a scene of tremendous 
 enthusiasm. The Rifle Brigade, smeared with dust and blood, fell 
 in with the Third Gurkhas with whom they had been brigaded in 
 India. The little brown men were dirty but radiant. Kukri in 
 hand they had very thoroughly gone through some houses at the 
 cross-roads on the Rue du Bois and silenced a party of Germans 
 who were making themselves a nuisance there with some machine 
 guns. Riflemen and Gurkhas cheered themselves hoarse." 
 
 Unfortunately for the complete success of the brilliant attack
 
 NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 
 
 273 
 
 SCENE OF THE BLOODY BATTLES OF THE SOMME 
 The tide of war swept over this terrain with terrific violence. Peronne 
 was taken by the British in their great offensives of 1916-17; in the last 
 desperate effort of the Germans in 1918 they plunged through Peronne, 
 advancing 35 miles, only to be hurled back with awful losses by Marshal 
 Foch. The town of Albert was taken and retaken severai times.
 
 274 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 a great delay was caused by the failure of the artillery that was to 
 have cleared the barbed wire entanglements for the Twenty-third 
 Brigade, and because of the unlocked for destruction of the British 
 field telephone system by shell and rifle fire. The check of the 
 Twenty-third Brigade banked other commands back of it, and the 
 Twenty-fifth Brigade was obliged to fight at right angles to the 
 line of battle. The Germans quickly rallied at these points, and 
 took a terrific toll in British lives. Particularly was this true at 
 three specially strong German positions. One called Port Arthur 
 by the British, another at Pietre Mill and the third was the fortified 
 bridge over Des Layes Creek. 
 
 Because of the lack of telephone communication it was impos- 
 sible to send reinforcements to the troops that had been held up by 
 barbed wire and other emplacements and upon which German 
 machine guns were pouring a steady stream of death. 
 
 As the Twenty-third Brigade had been held up by unbroken 
 barbed wire northwest of Neuve Chapelle, so the Seventh Division 
 of the Fourth Corps was also checked in its action against the 
 ridge of Aubers on the left of Neuve Chapelle. Under the plan 
 of Sir Douglas Haig the Seventh Division was to have waited until 
 the Eighth Division had reached Neuve Chapelle, when it was to 
 charge through Aubers. With the tragic mistake that cost the 
 Twenty-third Brigade so dearly, the plan affecting the Seventh 
 Division went awry. The German artillery, observing the con- 
 centration of the Seventh Division opposite Aubers, opened a 
 vigorous fire upon that front. During the afternoon General Haig 
 ordered a charge upon the German positions. The advance was 
 made in short rushes hi the face of a fire that seemed to blaze from 
 an inferno. Inch by inch the ground was drenched with British 
 blood. At 5.30 in the afternoon the men dug themselves hi under 
 the relentless German fire. Further advance became Impossible. 
 
 The night was one of horror. Every minute the men were under 
 heavy bombardment. At dawn on March llth the dauntless 
 British infantry rushed from the trenches in an effort to carry 
 Aubers, but the enemy artillery now greatly reinforced made that 
 task an impossible one. The trenches occupied by the British 
 forces were consolidated and the salient made by the push was 
 held by the British with bulldog tenacity. 
 
 The number of men employed in the action on the British side
 
 NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 275 
 
 was forty-eight thousand. During the early surprise of the action 
 the loss was slight. Had the wire in front of the Twenty-third 
 Brigade been cut by the artillery assigned to such action, and had 
 the telephone system not been destroyed the success of the thrust 
 would have been complete. The delay of four and a half hours 
 between the first and second phases of the attack caused virtually 
 all the losses sustained by the attacking force. The total casualties 
 were 12,811 men of the British forces. Of these 1,751 officers and 
 privates were taken prisoners and 10,000 officers and men were 
 killed and wounded. 
 
 The action continued throughout Thursday, March llth, with 
 little change in the general situation. The British still held Neuve 
 Chapelle and their intrenchments threatened Aubers. On Friday 
 morning, March 12th, the Crown Prince of Bavaria made a desperate 
 attempt under cover of a heavy fog to recapture the village. The 
 effort was made in characteristic German dense formations. The 
 Westphalian and Bavarian troops came out of Biez Wood in waves 
 of gray-green, only to be blown to pieces by British guns already 
 loaded and laid on the mark. Elsewhere the British waited until 
 the Germans were scarcely more than fifty paces away when they 
 opened with deadly rapid fire before which the German waves 
 melted like snow before steam. It was such slaughter as the 
 British had experienced when held up before Aubers. Slaughter 
 that staggered Germany. 
 
 So ended Neuve Chapelle, a battle in which the decision rested 
 with the British, a victory for which a fearful price had been paid 
 but out of which came a confidence that was to hearten the British 
 nation and to put sinews of steel into the British army for the dread 
 days to come. 
 
 The story of Neuve Chapelle was repeated in large and in 
 miniature many times during the deadlock of trench warfare on the 
 western front until victory finally came to the Allies. During 
 those years the western battle front lay like a wounded snake 
 across France and Belgium. It writhed and twisted, now this 
 way, now that, as one side or the other gambled with men and 
 shells and airplanes for some brief advantage. It bent back in a 
 great bulge when von Hindenburg made his famous retreat in the 
 winter of 1916 after the Allies had pressed heavily against the 
 Teutonic front upon the ghasty field of the Somme. The record is
 
 276 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 one of great value to military strategists, to the layman it is only 
 a succession of artillery barrages, of gas attacks, of aerial recon- 
 naissances and combats. 
 
 One day grew to be very much like another in that deadlock 
 of pythons. A play for position here was met by a counter-thrust 
 in another place. German inventions were outmatched and out- 
 numbered by those coming from the Allied side. 
 
 Trench warfare became the daily life of the men. They learned 
 to fight and live in the open. The power of human adaptation to 
 abnormal conditions was never better exemplified than in those 
 weary, dreary years on the western front. 
 
 The fighting-lines consisted generally of one, two, or three 
 lines of shelter-trenches lying parallel, measuring twenty or twenty- 
 five inches in width, and varying hi length according to the number 
 they hold; the trenches were joined together by zigzag approaches 
 and by a line of reinforced trenches (armed with machine guns), 
 which were almost completely proof against rifle, machine gun, or 
 gun fire. The ordinary German trenches were almost invisible from 
 350 yards away, a distance which permitted a very deadly fire. 
 It is easy to realize that if the enemy occupied three successive 
 lines and a line of reinforced intrenchments, the attacking line was 
 likely, at the lowest estimate, to be decimated during an advance 
 of 350 yards by rifle fire at a range of 350 yards' distance, and by 
 the extremely quick fire of the machine guns, each of which delivered 
 from 300 to 600 bullets a minute with absolute precision. In the 
 field-trench, a soldier enjoyed far greater security than he would if 
 merely prone behind his knapsack hi an excavation barely fifteen 
 inches deep. He had merely to stoop down a little to disappear 
 below the level of the ground and be immune from infantry fire; 
 moreover, his machine guns fired without endangering him. In 
 addition, this stooping position brought the man's knapsack on a 
 level with his helmet, thus forming some protection against shrapnel 
 and shell-splinters. 
 
 At the back of the German trenches shelters were dug for 
 non-commissioned officers and for the commander of the unit. 
 
 Ever since the outbreak of the war, the French troops in 
 Lorraine, after severe experiences, realized rapidly the advantages 
 of the German trenches, and began to study those they had taken 
 gloriously. Officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the
 
 NEUVE CHAPELLE AND WAR 279 
 
 engineers were straightway detached in every unit to teach the 
 infantry how to construct similar shelters. The education was 
 quick, and very soon they had completed the work necessary for 
 the protection of all. The tools of the enemy " casualties," the 
 spades and picks left behind in deserted villages, were all gladly 
 piled on to the French soldiers' knapsacks, to be carried willingly 
 by the very men who used to grumble at being loaded with even the 
 smallest regulation tool As soon as night had set in on the occa- 
 sion of a lull in the fighting, the digging of the trenches was begun. 
 Sometimes, in the darkness, the men of each fighting nation less 
 than 500 yards away from their enemy would hear the noise of 
 the workers of the foe: the sounds of picks and axes; the officers' 
 words of encouragement; and tacitly they would agree to an armis- 
 tice during which to dig shelters from which, in the morning, they 
 would dash out, to fight once more. 
 
 Commodious, indeed, were some of the trench barracks. 
 One French soldier wrote: 
 
 "In really up-to-date intrenchments you may find kitcnens, 
 dining-rooms, bedrooms, and even stables One regiment has 
 first-class cow-sheds One day a whimsical 'piou-piou, ' finding 
 a cow wandering about hi the danger zone, had the bright idea of 
 finding shelter for it in the trenches The example was quickly 
 followed, and at this moment the th Infantry possess an under- 
 ground farm, in which fat kine, well cared for, give such quantities 
 of milk that regular distributions of butter are being made and 
 very good butter, too " 
 
 But this is not all An officer writes home a tale of yet another 
 one of the comforts of home added to the equipment of the trenches: 
 
 "We are clean people here Thanks to the ingenuity of , 
 
 we are able to take a warm bath every day from ten to twelve. 
 We call this teasing the 'bosches,' for this bathing-establishment of 
 the latest type is fitted up would you believe it? in the trenches!"
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 STEADFAST SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 WHEN Germany struck at the heart of France through 
 Belgium simultaneous action was undertaken by the 
 German Command in Southwest Africa through 
 propaganda and mobilization of the available German 
 troops. Insidiously and by the use of money systematic propaganda 
 was instituted to corrupt the Boers against their allegiance to the 
 Union of South Africa. One great character stood like a rock 
 against all their efforts. It was the character of General Louis 
 Botha, formerly arrayed in battle against the British during the 
 Boer uprising. 
 
 With characteristic determination he formulated plans for the 
 invasion of German Southwest Africa without asking permission 
 of the citizens of the South African Union or of the British Foreign 
 Office. His vision comprehended an invasion that would have as 
 its culmination a British-Boer colony where the German colony 
 had been, and that from Cable Bay to the source of the Nile there 
 would be one mighty union, with a great trunk railway feeding 
 Egypt, the Soudan, Rhodesia, Uganda, and the Union of South 
 Africa. An able lieutenant to Botha was General Smuts. He 
 co-operated with his chief in a campaign of education. They 
 pointed out the absolute necessity for deafness to the German 
 tempters, and succeeded in obtaining full co-operation for the 
 Botha plan of invasion from the British Imperial Government and 
 the South African Union. Concerning this agreement General 
 Botha said: 
 
 "To forget their loyalty to the empire in this hour of trial 
 would be scandalous and shameful, and would blacken South 
 Africa in the eyes of the whole world. Of this South Africans were 
 incapable. They had endured some of the greatest sacrifices that 
 could be demanded of a people, but they had always kept before 
 them ideals, founded on Christianity, and never in their darkest 
 days had they sought to gain their ends by treasonable means. 
 
 280
 
 STEADFAST SOUTH AFRICA 281 
 
 The path of treason was an unknown path to Dutch and English 
 alike. 
 
 "Their duty and their conscience alike bade them be faithful 
 and true to the Imperial Government in all respects in this hour of 
 darkness and trouble. That was the attitude of the Union Govern- 
 ment; that was the attitude of the people of South Africa. The 
 government had cabled to the Imperial Government at the out- 
 break of war, offering to undertake the defense of South Africa, 
 thereby releasing the Imperial troops for service elsewhere. This 
 was accepted, and the Union Defense Force was mobilized." 
 
 Preliminary to the invasion of German Southwest Africa, 
 General Botha proclaimed martial law throughout the Union. 
 The first act in consequence of this proclamation was the arrest 
 of a number of conspirators who were planning sedition throughout 
 the Union. The head of this conspiracy was Lieutenant-Colonel 
 S. G. Maritz. General Beyers and General De Wet, both Boer 
 officers of high standing, co-operated with Maritz in an abortive 
 rebellion. The situation was most trying for the native Boers and, 
 to then: credit be it recorded, the great majority of them stood out 
 strongly against the Germans. Vigorous action by Botha and 
 Smuts smashed the rebellion in the fall of 1914. A force acting 
 under General Botha in person attacked the troops under General 
 Beyers at Rustemburg on October 27th, and on the next day 
 General Beyers sought refuge hi flight. A smaller force acting 
 under General Kemp was also routed on November 5th. 
 
 General De Wet opened his campaign of rebellion on November 
 Vth in an action at Wimburg, where he defeated a smaller force of 
 Loyalists under General Cronje. The decisive battle at Marquard 
 occurred on November 12th, Botha commanding the Loyalists 
 forces in person and De Wet the rebels. The victory of Botha in 
 this fierce engagement was complete. De Wet was routed and was 
 captured on December 1st with a rear-guard of fifty-two men. 
 General Beyers was drowned on December 9th while attempting 
 to escape from the Vail into the Transvaal. This virtually ended 
 all opposition to General Botha. The invasion of German South- 
 west Africa began on January 5, 1915, and was one uninterrupted 
 chapter of successes. Through jungle and - swamp, swept by 
 torrential rains and encountering obstacles that would have dis- 
 heartened any but the stoutest heart, the little force of invasion
 
 282 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 swept forward. Most of the engagements by the enemy were in 
 the nature of guerrilla and rear-guard actions. The backbone of 
 the German command was broken and the remaining forces 
 capitulated in July, 1915. 
 
 With the capitulation came the story of the German mis- 
 management in Southwest Africa, and particularly their horrible 
 treatment of the Hereros apd Hottentots in the country mis- 
 governed by them. An official report fully authenticated was 
 made and none of its essential details were refuted. 
 
 The report told the story of how the German authorities 
 exterminated the native Hereros. When Germany annexed the 
 country in 1890 they were believed to possess well over 150,000 head 
 of cattle. After the rinderpest scourge of 1897 they still owned 
 something like 90,000 head. By 1902, less than ten years after 
 the arrival of the first German settlers, the Hereros had only 
 45,898 head of cattle, while the 1,051 German traders and farmers 
 then in the country owned 44,487. The policy of robbing and 
 killing the natives had by that time received the sanction of Berlin. 
 By the end of 1905 the surviving Hereros had been reduced to 
 pauperism and possessed nothing at all. In 1907 the Imperial 
 German Government by ordinance prohibited the natives of 
 Southwest Africa from possessing live stock. 
 
 The wholesale theft of the natives' cattle, their only wealth, 
 with the direct connivance and approval of the Berlin Government, 
 was one of the primary causes of the Herero rebellion of 1904. The 
 revolt was suppressed with characteristic German ruthlessness. 
 But the Germans were not content with a mere suppression of the 
 rising; they had decided upon the practical extinction of the 
 whole tribe. For this purpose Leutwein, who was apparently 
 regarded as too lenient, was superseded by von Trotha, noted for 
 his merciless severity. He had played a notorious part in the 
 Chinese Boxer rebellion, and had just suppressed the Arab rising 
 in German East Africa by the wholesale massacre of men, women, 
 and children. As a preliminary von Trotha invited the Herero 
 chiefs to come in and make peace, "as the war was now over," 
 and promptly shot them in cold blood. Then he issued his notorious 
 "extermination order," in terms of which no Herero man, woman, 
 child, or babe was to receive mercy or quarter. "Kill every one 
 of them," he said, "and take no prisoners."
 
 STEADFAST SOUTH AFRICA 283 
 
 The hanging of natives was a common occurrence. A German 
 officer had the right to order a native to be hanged. No trial or 
 court was necessary. Many were hanged merely on suspicion. 
 
 The Hereros were far more humane hi the field than the 
 Germans. They were once a fine race. Now there is only a 
 miserable remnant left. 
 
 This is amply proved by official German statistics. Out of 
 between 80,000 and 90,000 souls, only about 15,000 starving and 
 fugitive Hereros were alive at the end of 1905, when von Trotha 
 relinquished his task. In 1911, after all rebellions had been 
 suppressed and tranquillity restored, the government had a census 
 taken. The figures, reproduced below, speak for themselves: 
 
 Estimate Official Census 
 
 1904 19 11 
 
 Decrease 
 
 Hereros 80,000 15,130 64,870 
 
 Hottentots 20,000 9,781 10,219 
 
 Berg-Darnaras 30,000 12,831 17,109 
 
 130,000 37,742 92,258 
 
 In other words, eighty per cent of the Herero people dis- 
 appeared, and more than half of the Hottentot and Berg-Damara 
 races shared the same fate. Dr. Paul Rohrbach's dictum, "It is 
 applicable to a nation in the same way as to the individual that 
 the right of existence is primarily justified in the degree that such 
 existence is useful for progress and general development," comes 
 forcible to mind. These natives of Southwest Africa had been 
 weighed in the German balance and had been found wanting. 
 
 Germany lost more than a million square miles of territory 
 in Africa as a direct consequence of General Botha's bold action. 
 These are divided hi four great regions, Southwest Africa, Kamerun, 
 Togo and East Africa. Togoland as this region is popularly known 
 extends from the north shore of the Gulf of Guinea into the interior 
 and is bounded by French and British colonies. By a joint attack 
 of French and British forces, beginning the second week in August, 
 1914, the German power in this rich domain was completely broken, 
 and the conquest of Togoland was complete on August 26, 1914. 
 The military operation was of a desultory nature, and the losses 
 negligible in view of the area of 33,000 square miles of highly pro- 
 ductive land passed from German control. 
 
 The fighting in the great region of Kamerun was somewhat
 
 284 
 
 more stubborn than that in Togoland. The villages of Bonaberi 
 and Duala were particularly well defended. The British and 
 French fought through swamps and jungle under the handicap of 
 terrific heat, and always with victory at the end of the engagement. 
 The conquest of the Kamerun was complete by the end of June, 
 1915. In addition to the operations by the British and French a 
 combined Belgian and French force captured Molundu and 
 Ngaundera in the German Congo. 
 
 The raids by General Botha on German Southwest Africa, 
 commenced on September 27, 1914. A series of brilliant strategic 
 actions resulted hi the conquest of a region once and a half the 
 size of the German Empire at the time the Great War began. A 
 British description of the operation states: 
 
 The occupation of Windhoek was effected by General Botha's 
 North Damaraland forces working along the railway from Swakop- 
 mund. At the former place General Vanderventer joined up with 
 General Botha's forces. The force from Swakopmund met with 
 considerable opposition, first at Tretskopje, a small township in 
 the great Namib Desert fifty miles to the northeast of Swakopmund, 
 and secondly at Otjimbingwe, on the Swakop River, sixty miles 
 northwest of Windhoek. Apart from these two determined stands, 
 however, little other opposition was encountered, and Karibib was 
 occupied on May 5th and Okahandja and Windhoek on May 12th. 
 With the fall of the latter place, 3,000 Europeans and 12,000 natives 
 became prisoners. 
 
 The wireless station one of Germany's most valuable high- 
 power stations, which was able to communicate with one relay 
 only, with Berlin was captured almost intact, and much rolling 
 stock also fell into the hands of the Union forces. 
 
 The advance from the south along the Luderitzbucht-Seeheim- 
 Keetmanshoop Railway, approximately 500 miles in length, was 
 made by two forces which joined hands at Keetmanshoop. The 
 advance from Aus (captured on April 10th) was made by General 
 Smuts's forces. Colonel (afterward General) Vanderventer, moving 
 up from the direction of Warmbad and Kalkfontein, around the 
 flanks of Karas Mountain, pushed on after reaching Keetmanshoop 
 in the direction of Gibeon. Bethany had previously been occupied 
 during the advance to Seeheim. At Kabus, twenty miles to the 
 north of Keetmanshoop, and at Gibeon pitched battles were fought
 
 STEADFAST SOUTH AFRICA 285 
 
 between General Vanderventer's forces and the enemy. No other 
 opposition of importance was encountered, and the operations were 
 brought to a successful conclusion 
 
 The stiffest fighting hi all Africa came hi German East Africa. 
 It began in late September, 1914, and continued until mid-June, 
 1915. The Germans, curiously enough, commenced the offensive 
 here with an attack upon Monbasa, the terminus of the Uganda 
 railway and the capital of British East Africa. The attack was 
 planned as a joint naval and military operation, the German 
 cruiser Koenigsburg being assigned to move into the harbor and 
 bombard the town simultaneously with the assault by land. The 
 plan went awry when the presence of British warships frightened 
 off the Koenigsburg. The land attack was easily checked by a 
 detachment of the King's African Rifles and native Arabian troops 
 until the detachments of Indian Regulars arrived upon the scene. 
 The enemy thereupon retreated to his original plans. 
 
 British reprisals came early hi November, when the towns of 
 Tanga and Gassin were attacked by British troops. The troops 
 selected for this adventure numbered 6,000 and carried only food, 
 water, guns and munitions. No protection of any kind nor any 
 other equipment was taken by the soldiers. Reinforcements to the 
 German forces delayed the capture of Gassin until January. A 
 garrison of three hundred men was left there and this hi turn was 
 besieged by three thousand Germans. After a stubborn defense 
 the Germans recaptured the town. A union of two British forces 
 was accomplished early in June, 1915. One of these cut through 
 German East Africa along the Kagera River and the other advanced 
 on steamers from Kisumu. They met the enemy on June 22d and 
 defeated it with heavy casualties. Later General Tighe, com- 
 manding the combined British forces, was congratulated on the 
 completeness of his victory on June 28th, by General Kitchener. 
 
 The territory acquired by the British as a consequence of the 
 invasion of Germany's African possessions, possesses formidable 
 natural barriers, but once these are past the traveller finds lands of 
 wonderful fertility and great natural resources. Approaching 
 German Southwest Africa from the east, access is across the Kala- 
 hari Desert. This in its trackless desolation, its frequent sand- 
 storms and torrid heat through which only the hardiest and best 
 provisioned caravans may penetrate is worse than the worst that
 
 286 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Sahara can show. There is not a sign of life. Approached from 
 the sea the principal port is Walfish Bay, a fair harbor that was 
 improved by the British when they occupied it. Near Walfish 
 some of the largest diamonds hi the history of the world have been 
 found and gold fields of considerable richness have been worked. 
 The climate of German Southwest Africa, after the torrential 
 storms of the seacoast and the terrific heat of the desert have been 
 passed, is one of the most salubrious in the world. It is unique 
 among African regions hi the opportunities it affords for coloniza- 
 tion by white men. Great Britain possessed large holdings of this 
 land before Germany came into possession, but abandoned them 
 under the belief that the region was comparatively worthless. 
 There was no misapprehension on this score when all of the lands 
 came into the possession of England as the result of the war.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 
 
 FOR many years before the great war began the great powers 
 of Europe were divided into two great alliances, the Triple 
 Entente, composed of Russia, France and England, and 
 the Triple Alliance, composed of Germany, Austria and 
 Italy. When the war began Italy refused to join with Germany 
 and Austria. Why? The answer to this question throws a vivid 
 light on the origin of the war. 
 
 Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance ; she knew the facts, 
 not only what was given to the public, but the inside facts. Accord- 
 ing to the terms of the alliance each member was bound to stand 
 by each other only in case of attack. Italy refused to join with 
 Austria and Germany because they were the aggressors. The 
 constant assertions of the German statesmen, and of the Kaiser 
 himself, that war had been forced upon them were declared untrue 
 by their associate Italy in the very beginning, and the verdict of 
 Italy was the verdict of the world. Not much was said in the 
 beginning about Italy's abstention from war. The Germans, indeed, 
 sneered a little and hinted that some day Italy would be made to 
 regret her course, but now that the Teuton snake is scotched the 
 importance of Italy's action has been perceived and appraised at 
 its true value. 
 
 . The Germans from the very beginning understood the real 
 danger that might come to the Central Powers through Italian 
 action. Every effort was made by the foreign office to keep her 
 neutral. First threats were used, later promises were held out of 
 addition to Italian territory if she would send her troops to Ger- 
 many's assistance. When this failed the most strenuous efforts 
 were made to keep Italy neutral, and a former German premier, 
 Prince von Billow, was sent to Italy for this purpose. Socialist 
 leaders, too, were sent from Germany to urge the Italian Socialists 
 to insist upon neutrality. 
 
 In July, 1914, the Italian Government was not taken by 
 
 287
 
 288 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 surprise. They had observed the increase year by year of the 
 German army and of the German fleet. At the end of the Balkan 
 wars they had been asked whether they would agree to an Austrian 
 attack upon Serbia. They had consequently long been deliberating 
 as to what their course should be hi case of war, and they had made 
 up their minds that under no circumstances would they aid Ger- 
 many against England. 
 
 Quite independently of her long-standing friendship with 
 England it would be suicide to Italy hi her geographical position to 
 enter into a war which should permit her coast to be attacked by 
 the English and French navies, and her participation in the Triple 
 Alliance always carried the proviso that it did not bind her to 
 fight England. This was well known in the German foreign office, 
 and, indeed, hi France where the writers upon war were reckoning 
 confidently on the withdrawing of Italy from the Triple Alliance, 
 and planning to use the entire forces of France against Germany. 
 
 A better understanding of the Italian position will result from 
 a consideration of the origin of the Triple Alliance. 
 
 After the war of 1870, Bismarck, perceiving the quick recovery 
 of France, considered the advisibility of attacking her again, 
 and, to use his own words, "bleeding her white." He found, 
 however, that if this were attempted France would be joined by 
 Russia and England and he gave up this plan. In order, however, 
 to render France powerless he planned an alliance which should be 
 able to control Europe. A league between Germany, Austria and 
 Russia was his desire, and for some tune every opportunity was 
 taken to develop friendship with the Czar. Russia, however, 
 remained cool. Her Pan-Slavonic sympathies were opposed to 
 the interests of Germany. Bismarck, therefore, determined, 
 without losing the friendship of Russia, to persuade Italy to join in 
 the continental combination. Italy, at the tune, was the least 
 formidable of the six great powers, but Bismarck foresaw that she 
 could be made good use of in such a combination. 
 
 At that time Italy, just after the completion of Italian unity, 
 found herself hi great perplexity. Her treatment of the Pope had 
 brought about the hostility of Roman Catholics throughout the 
 world. She feared both France and Austria, who were strong 
 Catholic countries, and hardly knew where to look for friends. 
 The great Italian leader at the time was Francesco Crispi, who,
 
 ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 289 
 
 beginning as a Radical and a conspirator, had become a constitu- 
 tional statesman. Bismarck professed the greatest friendship for 
 Crispi, and gave Crispi to understand that he approved of Italy's 
 aspirations on the Adriatic and in Tunis. 
 
 The next year, however, at the Berlin Congress, Italy's interests 
 were ignored, and finally, in 1882, France seized Tunis, to the great 
 indignation of the Italians. It has been shown in more recent 
 tunes that the French seizure of Tunis was directly due to Bismarck's 
 instigation. 
 
 The Italians having been roused to wrath, Bismarck proceeded 
 to offer them a place in the councils of the Triple Alliance. It was 
 an easy argument that such an alliance would protect them against 
 France, and no doubt it was promised that it would free them from 
 the danger of attack by Austria. England, at the time, was 
 isolated, and Italy continued on the best understanding with her. 
 
 The immediate result of the alliance was a growth of Italian 
 hostility toward France, which led, in 1889, to a tariff war on France. 
 Meanwhile German commercial and financial enterprises were 
 pushed throughout the Italian peninsula. VvTiat did Italy gain 
 by this? Her commerce was weakened, and Austria permitted 
 herself every possible unfriendly act except open war. 
 
 As time went on Germany and Austria became more and more 
 arrogant. Italy's ambitions on the Balkan peninsula were abso- 
 lutely ignored. In 1908 Austria appropriated Bosnia and 
 Herzegovina, another blow to Italy. By this time Italy understood 
 the situation well, and that same year, seeing no future for herself 
 in Europe, she swooped down on Tripoli. In doing this she fore- 
 stalled Germany herself, for Germany had determined to seize 
 Tripoli. 
 
 Both Germany and Austria were opposed to this action of 
 Italy, but Italy's eyes were now open. Thirty years of political 
 alliance had created no sympathy among the Italians for the 
 Germans. Moreover, it was not entirely a question of policy. 
 The lordly arrogance of the Prussians caused sharp antagonism. 
 The Italians were lovers of liberty; the Germans pledged toward 
 autocracy. They found greater sympathy in England and in 
 France. 
 
 "I am a son of liberty," said Cavour, "to her I owe all that 
 I am." That, too, is Italy's motto. When the war broke out
 
 290 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 popular sympathy in Italy was therefore strongly in favor of the 
 Allies. The party in power, the Liberals, adopted the policy of 
 neutrality for the time being, but thousands of Italians volunteered 
 for the French and British service, and the anti-German feeling 
 grew greater as tune went on. 
 
 Finally, on the 23d of May, 1915, the Italian Government with- 
 drew its ambassador to Austria and declared war. A complete 
 statement of the negotiations between Italy and Austria-Hungary, 
 which led to this declaration, was delivered to the Government of 
 the United States by the Italian Ambassador on May 25th. This 
 statement, of which the following is an extract, lucidly pre- 
 sented the Italian position: 
 
 "The Triple Alliance was essentially defensive, and designed 
 solely to preserve the status quo, or in other words equilibrium, 
 in Europe. That these were its only objects and purposes is 
 established by the letter and spirit of the treaty, as well as by the 
 intentions clearly described and set forth in official acts of the 
 ministers who created the alliance and confirmed and renewed 
 it in the interests of peace, which always has inspired Italian 
 policy. The treaty, as long as its intents and purposes had been 
 loyally interpreted and regarded, and as long as it had not been used 
 as a pretext for aggression against others, greatly contributed to 
 the elimination and settlement of causes of conflict, and for many 
 years assured to Europe the inestimable benefits of peace. But 
 Austria-Hungary severed the treaty by her own hands. She 
 rejected the response of Serbia which gave to her all the satisfaction 
 she could legitimately claim. She refused to listen to the con- 
 ciliatory proposals presented by Italy in conjunction with other 
 powers in the effort to spare Europe from a vast conflict, certain 
 to drench the Continent with blood and to reduce it to ruin beyond 
 the conception of human imagination, and finally she provoked 
 that conflict. 
 
 "Article first of the treaty embodied the usual and necessary 
 obligation of such pacts the pledge to exchange views upon any 
 fact and economic questions of a general nature that might arise 
 pursuant to its terms. None of the contracting parties had the 
 right to undertake without a previous agreement any step the 
 consequence of which might impose a duty upon the other 
 signatories arising under the alliance, or which would in any way
 
 ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 291 
 
 whatsoever encroach upon their vital interests. This article was 
 violated by Austria-Hungary, when she sent to Serbia her note 
 dated July 23, 1914, an action taken without the previous assent 
 of Italy. Thus, Austria-Hungary violated beyond doubt one of 
 the fundamental provisions of the treaty. The obligation of 
 Austria-Hungary to come to a previous understanding with Italy 
 was the greater because her obstinate policy against Serbia gave 
 rise to a situation which directly tended toward the provocation 
 of a European war. 
 
 "As far back as the beginning of July, 1914, the Italian Gov- 
 ernment, preoccupied by the prevailing feeling in Vienna, caused 
 to be laid before the Austro-Hungarian Government a number of 
 suggestions advising moderation, and warning it of the impending 
 danger of a European outbreak. The course adopted by Austria- 
 Hungary against Serbia constituted, moreover, a direct encroach- 
 ment upon the general interests of Italy both political and eco- 
 nomical in the Balkan peninsula. Austria-Hungary could not 
 for a moment imagine that Italy could remain indifferent while 
 Serbian independence was being trodden upon. On a number of 
 occasions theretofore, Italy gave Austria to understand, in friendly 
 but clear J;erms, that the independence of Serbia was considered by 
 Italy as essential to the Balkan equilibrium. Austria-Hungary 
 was further advised that Italy could never permit that equilibrium 
 to be disturbed through a prejudice. This warning had been con- 
 veyed not only by her diplomats hi private conversations with 
 responsible Austro-Hungarian officials, but was proclaimed pub- 
 licly by Italian statesmen on the floors of Parliament. 
 
 "Therefore, when Austria-Hungary ignored the usual prac- 
 tices and menaced Serbia by sending her an ultimatum, without in 
 any way notifying the Italian Government of what she proposed 
 to do, indeed leaving that government to learn of her action 
 through the press, rather than through the usual channels of 
 diplomacy, when Austria-Hungary took this unprecedented course 
 she not only severed her alliance with Italy but committed an act 
 inimical to Italy's interests. . . . 
 
 "After the European war broke out Italy sought to come to 
 an understanding with Austria-Hungary with a view to a settle- 
 ment satisfactory to both parties which might avert existing and 
 future trouble. Her efforts were in vain, notwithstanding the
 
 292 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 efforts of Germany, which for months endeavored to induce Austria- 
 Hungary to comply with Italy's suggestion thereby recognizing the 
 propriety and legitimacy of the Italian attitude. Therefore Italy 
 found herself compelled by the force of events to seek other 
 solutions. 
 
 "Inasmuch as the treaty of alliance with Austria-Hungary 
 had ceased virtually to exist and served only to prolong a state of 
 continual friction and mutual suspicion, the Italian Ambas- 
 sador at Vienna was instructed to declare to the Austro- 
 Hungarian Government that the Italian Government considered 
 itself free from the ties arising out of the treaty of the Triple 
 Alliance hi so far as Austria-Hungary was concerned. This com- 
 munication was delivered in Vienna on May 4th. 
 
 "Subsequently to this declaration, and after we had been 
 obliged to take steps for the protection of our interests, the Austro- 
 Hungarian Government submitted new concessions, which, how- 
 ever, were deemed insufficient and by no means met our minimum 
 demands. These offers could not be considered under the cir- 
 cumstances. The Italian Government taking into consideration 
 what has been stated above, and supported by the vote of Parlia- 
 ment and the solemn manifestation of the country came to the 
 decision that any further delay would be inadvisable. Therefore, 
 on May 23d, it was declared, in the name of the King, to the 
 Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at Rome that, beginning the fol- 
 lowing day, May 24th, it would consider itself hi a state of war 
 with Austria-Hungary." 
 
 It was a closely reasoned argument that the Italian statesmen 
 presented, but there was something more than reasoned argument 
 hi Italy's course. She had been waiting for years for the oppor- 
 tunity to bring under her flag the men of her own race still held in 
 subjection by hated Austria. Now was the tune or never. Her 
 people had become roused. Mobs filled the streets. Great orators, 
 even the great poet, D'Annunzio, proclaimed a holy war. The 
 ehiking of the Lusitania poured oil on the flames, and the treat- 
 ment of Belgium and eastern France added to the fury. 
 
 Italian statesmen, even if they had so desired, could not have 
 withstood the pressure. It was a crusade for Italia Irredenta, for 
 civilization, for humanity. The country had been flooded by 
 representatives of German propaganda, papers had been hired
 
 ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 293 
 
 and, by all report, money in large amounts distributed. But 
 every German effort was swept away in the flood of feeling. It 
 was the people's war. 
 
 Amid tremendous enthusiasm the Chamber of Deputies 
 adopted by vote of 407 to 74 the bill conferring upon the govern- 
 ment full power to make war. All members of the Cabinet main- 
 tained absolute silence regarding what step should follow the 
 action of the chamber. When the chamber reassembled on May 
 20th, after its long recess, there were present 482 Deputies out of 
 '500, the absentees remaining away on account of illness. The 
 Deputies especially applauded were those who wore military uni- 
 forms and who had asked permission for leave from their military 
 duties to be present at the sitting. All the tribunes were filled to 
 overflowing. No representatives of Germany, Austria or Turkey 
 were to be seen in the diplomatic tribune. The first envoy to 
 arrive was Thomas Nelson Page, the American Ambassador, who 
 was accompanied by his staff. M. Barrere, Sir J. Bennell Rodd, 
 and Michel de Giers, the French, British and Russian Ambassadors, 
 respectively, appeared a few minutes later and all were greeted 
 with applause, which was shared by the Belgian, Greek and Rou- 
 manian ministers. George B. McClellan, one-time mayor of 
 New York, occupied a seat hi the President's tribune. 
 
 A few minutes before the session began the poet, Gabrielle 
 D'Annunzio, one of the strongest advocates of war, appeared in the 
 rear of the public tribune which was so crowded that it seemed 
 impossible to squeeze in anybody else. But the moment the people 
 saw him they lifted him shoulder high and passed him over their 
 heads to the first row. 
 
 The entire chamber, and all those occupying the other trib- 
 unes, rose and applauded for five minutes, crying "Viva 
 D'Annunzio!" Later thousands sent him their cards and in return 
 received his autograph bearing the date of this eventful day. 
 Senor Marcora, President of the Chamber, took his place at 
 three o'clock. All the members of the House, and everybody in 
 the galleries, stood up to acclaim the old follower of Garibaldi. 
 Premier Salandra, followed by all the members of the Cabinet, 
 entered shortly afterward. It was a solemn moment. Then a 
 delirium of cries broke out. 
 
 "Viva Salandra!" roared the Deputies, and the cheering
 
 294 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 lasted for a long time. After the f ormalities of the opening, Premier 
 Salandra, deeply moved by the demonstration, arose and said: 
 
 "Gentlemen, I have the honor to present to you a bill to meet 
 the eventual expenditures of a national war." 
 
 The announcement was greeted by further prolonged applause. 
 The Premier's speech was continually interrupted by enthusiasm, 
 and at tunes he could hardly continue on account of the wild 
 cheering. The climax was reached when he made a reference to 
 the army and navy. Then the cries seemed interminable, and 
 those on the floor of the House and in the galleries turned to the 
 military tribune from which the officers answered by waving their 
 hands and handkerchiefs. 
 
 At the end of the Premier's speech there were deafening 
 vivas for the King, war and Italy. Thirty-four Socialists refused to 
 join the cheers, even in the cry "Viva Italia!" and they were 
 hooted and hissed. 
 
 The action of the Italian Government created intense feeling. 
 A newspaper man in Vienna, describing the Austrian indignation, 
 said: 
 
 "The exasperation and contempt which Italy's treacherous 
 surprise attack and her hypocritical justification aroused here, are 
 quite indescribable. Neither Serbia nor Russia, despite a long 
 and costly war, is hated. Italy, however, or rather those Italian 
 would-be politicians and business men who offer violence to the 
 majority of peaceful Italian people, are unutterably hated." On 
 the other hand German papers spoke with much more modera- 
 tion and recognized that Italy was acting in an entirely natural 
 manner. 
 
 On the very day on which war was declared active operations 
 were begun. Both sides had been making elaborate preparations. 
 Austria had prepared herself by building strong fortifications in 
 which were employed the latest technical improvements in defensive 
 warfare. Upon the Carso and around Gorizia the Austrians had 
 placed innumerable batteries of powerful guns mounted on rails 
 and protected by armor plates. They also had a great number of 
 medium and smaller guns. A net of trenches had been excavated 
 and constructed hi cement all along the edge of the hills which 
 dominated the course of the Isonzo River. 
 
 These trenches, occupying a position nearly impregnable
 
 ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 297 
 
 because so mountainous, were defended by every modern device. 
 They were protected with numerous machine guns, surrounded 
 by wire entanglements through which ran a strong electric current. 
 These lines of trenches followed without interruption from the 
 banks of the Isonzo to the summit of the mountains which dom- 
 inate it; they formed a kind of formidable staircase which had 
 to be conquered step by step with enormous sacrifice. 
 
 During this same period General Cadorna, then head of the 
 Italian army, had been bringing that army up to date, working 
 for high efficiency and piling up munitions. 
 
 The Army of Italy was a formidable one. Every man in Italy 
 is liable to military service for a period of nineteen years from the 
 age of twenty to thirty-nine. 
 
 At the time of the war the approximate war strength of the 
 army was as follows: Officers, 41,692; active army with the colors, 
 289,910; reserve, 638,979; mobile militia, 299,956; territorial 
 militia, 1,889,659; total strength, 3,159,836. The above number of 
 total men available included upward of 1,200,000 fully trained 
 soldiers, with perhaps another 800,000 partially trained men, the 
 remaining million being completely untrained men. This army 
 was splendidly armed, its officers well educated, and the men 
 brave and disciplined. 
 
 The Italian plan of campaign apparently consisted first, in 
 neutralizing the Trentino by capturing or covering the defenses 
 and cutting the two lines of communication with Austria proper, 
 the railway which ran south from Insbruck, and that which ran 
 southwest from Vienna and joined the former at Fransensfets; 
 and second, hi a movement in force on the eastern frontier, with 
 Trieste captured or covered on the right flank in the direction of 
 the Austrian fortress at Klagenfurt and Vienna. 
 
 The first blow was struck by Austria on the day that war 
 was declared. On that day bombs were dropped on Venice, and 
 five other Adriatic ports were shelled from air, and some from sea. 
 The Italian armies invaded Austria on the east with great rapidity, 
 and by May 27th a part of the Italian forces had moved across the 
 Isonzo River to Monfalcone, sixteen miles northwest of Trieste. 
 Another force penetrated further to the north in the Crown land 
 of Gorizia, and Gradisca. Reports from Italy were that encounters 
 with the enemy had thus far been merely outpost skirmishes, but
 
 298 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 had allowed Italy to occupy advantageous positions on Austrian 
 territory. By June 1st, the Italians had occupied the greater part 
 of the west bank of the Isonzo, with little opposition. The left 
 wing was beyond the Isonzo, at Caporetto, fighting among the 
 boulders of Monte Nero, where the Austrian artillery had strong 
 positions. Monfalcone was kept under constant bombardment. 
 
 A general Italian advance took place on June 7th across the 
 Isonzo River from Caporetto to the sea, a distance of about forty 
 miles. Monfalcone was taken by the Italians on June the 10th, 
 the first serious blow against Trieste, as Monfalcone was a railway 
 junction, and its electrical works operated the light and power of 
 Trieste. 
 
 Next day the center made a great blow against Gradisca and 
 Sagrado, but the river line proved too strong. The only success 
 was won that night at Plava, north of Borrigia, which was carried 
 by a surprise attack. The Isonzo was hi flood, and presented a 
 serious obstacle to the onrush of the Italians. By June 14th the 
 Italian eastern army had pushed forward along the gulf of Trieste 
 toward the town of Nebrosina, nine miles from Trieste. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Austrian armies were being constantly 
 strengthened. The initial weakness of the Austrian defensive was 
 due to the fact that the armies normally assigned to the invaded 
 region had been sent to defend the Austrian line hi Galicia against 
 the Russians. When Italy began her invasion the defenses of the 
 country were chiefly in the hands of hastily mobilized youths 
 below the military age of nineteen, and men above the military age 
 of forty-two. From now on Austrian troops began to arrive from 
 the Galician front, some of these representing the finest fighting 
 material in the Austrian ranks. The chance of an easy victory 
 was slipping from Italy's hands. The Italian advance was 
 checked. 
 
 On the 15th of June the Italians carried an important position 
 on Monte Nero, climbing the rocks by night and attacking by 
 dawn. But this conquest did not help much. No guns of great 
 caliber could be carried on the mountain, and Tolmino, which had 
 been heavily fortified, and contained a garrison of some thirty 
 thousand men, was entirely safe. The following week there were 
 repeated counter-attacks at Plava and on Monte Nero, but the 
 Italians held what they had won.
 
 ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 299 
 
 HEIGHTS IN FEET 
 r 60O-- 
 1-600 
 I-30O-- 
 
 AREA OF GENERAL CADORNA'S SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS AGAINST GORIZIA 
 
 The Isonzo valley forms the eastern line for the defense of Italy and its possession 
 was essential to the realization of Italian ideals. Gorizia, its main strategic position, 
 first fell to the Italians August 9, 1916.
 
 300 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The position was now that Cadorna's left wing was in a strong 
 position, but could not do much against Tolmino. His center was 
 facing the great camp of Gorizia, while his right was on the edge of 
 the Carso, and had advanced as far as Dueno, on the Monfalcone- 
 Trieste Railroad. The army was in position to make an attack 
 upon Gorizia. On the 2d of July an attack on a broad front was 
 aimed directly at Gorizia. The left was to swing around against 
 the defenses of Gorizia to the north ; the center was directed against 
 the Gorizia bridge-head, and the right was to swing around to 
 the northeast through the Doberdo plateau. If it succeeded the 
 Trieste railway would be cut and Gorizia must fall. 
 
 Long and confused fighting followed. The center and the 
 right of the Italian army slowly advanced their line, taking over 
 one thousand prisoners. For days there was continuous bombard- 
 ment and counter-bombardment. The fighting on the left was 
 terrific. In the neighborhood of Plava the Italian forces found 
 themselves opposed by Hungarian troops, unaccustomed to moun- 
 tain warfare, who at first fell back. Austrian reserves came to 
 then* aid, and flung back three times the Italian charge. 
 
 Three new Italian brigades were brought up, and King Victor 
 Emanuel himself came to encourage his troops. The final assault 
 carried the heights. On the 22d of July the Italian right cap- 
 tured the crest of San Michele, which dominates the Doberdo 
 plateau. 
 
 Meanwhile the Austrian armies were being heavily reinforced, 
 and General Cadorna found himself unable to make progress. 
 Much ground had been won but Gorizia was still unredeemed. 
 Many important vantage points were hi Italian hands, but it was 
 difficult to advance. The result of the three months' campaign 
 was a stalemate. In the high mountains to the north Italy's cam- 
 paign was a war of defense. To undertake her offensive on the Isonzo 
 it was necessary that she guard her flanks and rear. The Tyrolese 
 battle-ground contained three distinct points where it was necessary 
 to operate; the Trentino Salient, the passes of the Dolomites, and 
 the passes of the Carnic Alps. 
 
 Early hi June Italy had won control of the ridges of the moun- 
 tains in the two latter points, but the problem in the Trentino was 
 more difficult. It was necessary, because of the converging valleys, 
 to push her front well inland. On the Carnic Alps the fighting
 
 ITALY DECLARES WAR ON AUSTRIA 301 
 
 consisted of unimportant skirmishes. The main struggle centered 
 around the pass of Monte Croce Carnico. 
 
 In two weeks the Alpini had seized dominating positions to 
 the west of the pass, but the Austrians clung to the farther slopes. 
 A great deal of picturesque fighting went on, but not much progress 
 was made. Further west in the Dolomite region there was more 
 fighting. On the 30th of May Cartina had been captured, and the 
 Italians moved north toward the Pusterthal Railway. Progress 
 was slow, as the main routes to the railway were difficult. 
 
 By the middle of August they were only a few miles from the 
 railway, but all the routes led through defiles, and the neighboring 
 heights were hi the possession of the Austrians. To capture these 
 heights was a most difficult feat, which the Italians performed in 
 the most brilliant way; but even after they had passed these defiles 
 success was not yet won. Each Italian column was in its 
 own groove, with no lateral communication. The Austrians could 
 mass themselves where they pleased. As a result the Italian 
 forces were compelled to halt. 
 
 In the Trentino campaign the Italians soon captured the 
 passes, and moved against Trente and Roverito. These towns 
 were heavily fortified, as were their surrounding heights. The 
 campaign became a series of small fights on mountain peaks and 
 mountain ridges. Only small bodies of troops could maneuver, 
 and the raising of guns up steep precipices was extremely difficult. 
 The Italians slowly succeeded in gaming ground, and established a 
 chain of posts around the heights so that often one would see guns 
 and barbed wire intrenchments at a height of more than ten 
 thousand feet among the crevasses of the glaciers. The Alpini 
 performed wonderful feats of physical endurance, but the plains 
 of Lombardy were still safe.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI 
 
 IF EVER the true mettle and temper of a people were tried 
 and exemplified in the crucible of battle, that battle was 
 the naval and land engagement embracing Gallipoli and the 
 
 Dardanelles, and the people so tested the British race. 
 Separated in point of time but united in its general plan, the engage- 
 ments present a picture of heroism founded upon strategic mis- 
 takes; of such perseverance and dogged determination against 
 overwhelming natural and artificial odds as even the pages of 
 supreme British bravery cannot parallel. The immortal charge of 
 the Light Brigade was of a piece with Gallipoli, but it was merely a 
 battle fragment and its glorious record was written in blood within 
 the scope of a comparatively few inspired minutes. In the mine- 
 strewn Dardanelles and upon the sun-baked, blood-drenched 
 rocky slopes of Gallipoli, death always partnered every sailor and 
 soldier. As at Balaklava, virtually everyone knew that some one 
 had blundered, but the army and the navy as one man fought to the 
 bitter end to make the best of a bad bargain, to tear triumph out 
 of impossibilities. 
 
 France co-operated with the British in the naval engagement, 
 but the greater sacrifice, the supreme charnel house of the war, 
 the British race reserved for itself. There, the yeomanry of Eng- 
 land, the unsung county regiments whose sacrifices and achieve- 
 ments have been neglected in England's generous desire to honor 
 the men from "down under," the Australians and New Zealanders 
 grouped under the imperishable title of the Anzacs there the 
 Scotch, Welsh and Irish knit in one devoted British army with the 
 great fighters from the self-governing colonies waged a battle so 
 hopeless and so gallant that the word Gallipoli shall always remind 
 the world how man may triumph over the fear of death; how, with 
 nothing but defeat and disaster before them, men may go to their 
 deaths as unconcernedly as in other days they go to their nightly 
 sleep. 
 
 302
 
 GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI 303 
 
 On November 5, 1914, Great Britain declared war upon 
 Turkey. Hostilities, however, had preceded the declaration. On 
 November 3d the combined French and British squadrons had 
 bombarded the entrance forts. This was merely intended to draw 
 the fire of the forts and make an estimate of their power. From 
 that tune on a blockade was maintained, and on the 13th of Decem- 
 ber a submarine, commanded by Lieutenant Holbrook, entered 
 the straits and torpedoed the Turkish warship Messoudieh, which 
 was guarding the mine fields. 
 
 By the end of January the blockading fleet, through constant 
 reinforcement, had become very strong, and had seized the Island 
 of Tenedos and taken possession of Lemnos, which nominally 
 belonged to Greece, as bases for naval operations. On the 19th of 
 February began the great attack upon the forts at the entrance to 
 the Dardanelles, which attracted the attention of the world for 
 nearly a year. 
 
 The expedition against the Dardanelles had been considered 
 with the greatest care, and approved by the naval authorities. 
 That their judgment was correct, however, is another question. 
 The history of naval warfare seems to make very plain that a ship, 
 however powerful, is at a tremendous disadvantage when attacking 
 forts on land. The badly served cannon of Alexandria fell, indeed, 
 before a British fleet, but Gallipoli had been fortified by German 
 engineers, and its guns were the Krupp cannon. The British 
 fleet found itself opposed by unsurmountable obstacles. Looking 
 backward it seems possible, that if at the very start Lord Kitchener 
 had permitted a detachment of troops to accompany the fleet, 
 success might have been attained, but without the army the navy 
 was powerless. 
 
 The Peninsula of Gallipoli is a tongue of land about fifty miles 
 long, varying in width from twelve to two or three miles. It is a 
 mass of rocky hills so steep that in many places it is a matter of 
 difficulty to reach their tops. On it are a few villages, but there 
 are no decent roads and little cultivated land. On the southern 
 shore of the Dardanelles conditions are nearly the same. Here, 
 the entrance is a flat and marshy plain, but east of this plain are 
 hills three thousand feet high. The high ground overhangs the 
 sea passage on both sides and, with the exception of narrow bits of 
 beach at their base, presents almost no opportunity for landing.
 
 304 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 MAP OF THE GALLIPOLI PENINSULA 
 Showing the various landing places, with inset of the Sari-Bair Region.
 
 GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI 305 
 
 A strong current continually sifts down the straits from the Sea 
 of Marmora. 
 
 Forts are placed at the entrance on both the north and south 
 side, but they were not heavily armed and were merely outposts. 
 Fourteen miles from the mouth the straits become quite narrow, 
 making a sharp turn directly north and then resuming their original 
 direction. The channel thus makes a sharp double bend. At the 
 entrance to the strait, known as the Narrows, were powerful fort- 
 resses, and the slopes were studded with batteries. Along both 
 sides of the channel the low ground was lined with batteries. 
 It was possible to attack the forts at fairly long range, but there 
 was no room to bring any large number of ships into action at 
 the same time. 
 
 At the time of the Gallipoli adventure there were probably 
 nearly half a million of men available for a defense of the straits, 
 men well armed and well trained under German leadership. The 
 first step was comparatively easy. The operations against the 
 other forts began at 8 A. M. on Friday, the 19th of February. The 
 ships engaged were the Inflexible, the Agamemnon, the Cornwallis, 
 the Vengeance and the Triumph from the British fleet, and the 
 Bouvet, Suffren, and the Gaulois from the French, all under the 
 command of Vice-Admiral Sackville Garden. The French squadron 
 was under Rear-Admiral Gueprette. A flotilla of destroyers accom- 
 panied the fleet, and airplanes were sent up to guide the fire of the 
 battleships. 
 
 At first the fleet was arranged in a semicircle some miles out 
 to sea from the entrance to the strait. It afforded an inspiring 
 spectacle as the ships came along and took up position, and the 
 picture became most awe-inspiring when the guns began to boom. 
 The bombardment at first was slow. Shells from the various 
 ships screaming through the air at the rate of about one every 
 two minutes. 
 
 The Turkish batteries, however, were not to be drawn, and, 
 seeing this, the British Admiral sent one British ship and one 
 French ship close in shore toward the Sedd-el-Bahr forts. As they 
 went hi they sped right under the guns of the shore batteries, which 
 could no longer resist the temptation to see what they could do. 
 Puffs of white smoke dotted the landscape on the far shore, and 
 dull booms echoed over the placid water. Around the ships 
 a
 
 306 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 fountains of water sprang up into the air. The enemy had been 
 drawn, but his marksmanship was obviously very bad. Not a 
 single shot directed against the ships went within a hundred yards 
 
 of either. 
 
 At sundown, on account of the failing light, Admiral Garden 
 withdrew the fleet. On account of the bad weather the attack 
 was not renewed until February 25th. It appeared that the outer 
 forts had not been seriously damaged on the 19th, and that what 
 injury had been done had been repaired. In an hour and a half 
 the Cape Helles fort was silenced. The Agamemnon was hit by a 
 shell fired at a range of six miles, which killed three men and wounded 
 five. Early hi the afternoon Sedd-el-Bahr. was attacked at close 
 range, but not silenced till after 5 P. M. At this tune British trawlers 
 began sweeping the entrance for mines, and during the next day 
 the mine field was cleared for a distance of four miles up the straits. 
 
 As soon as this clearance was made the Albion, Vengeance and 
 Majestic steamed into the strait and attacked Fort Dardanos, a 
 fortification some distance below the Narrows. The Turks replied 
 vigorously, not only from Dardanos but from batteries scattered 
 along the shore. Believing that the Turks had abandoned the 
 forts at the entrance, landing parties of marines were sent to shore. 
 In a short time, however, they met a detachment of the enemy and 
 were compelled to retreat to their boats. The outer forts, however, 
 were destroyed, and their destruction was extremely encouraging 
 to the Allies. 
 
 For a tune a series of minor operations was carried on, meeting 
 with much success. Besides attacks on forts inside of the strait, 
 Smyrna was bombarded on March the 5th, and on March the 6th 
 the Queen Elizabeth, the Agamemnon and the Ocean bombarded 
 the forts at Chanak on the Asiatic side of the Narrows, from a 
 position in the Gulf of Saros on the outer side of the Gallipoli 
 Peninsula. To all of these attacks the Turks replied vigorously 
 and the attacking ships were repeatedly struck, but with no loss of 
 life. On the 7th of March Fort Dardanos was silenced, and Fort 
 Chanak ceased firing, but, as it turned out, only temporarily 
 
 Preparations were now being made for a serious effort against 
 the Narrows. The date of the attack was fixed for March 17th, 
 weather permitting. On the 16th Admiral Carden was stricken 
 down with illness and was invalided by medical authority.
 
 GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI 307 
 
 Admiral de Roebeck, second in command, who had been very active 
 in the operations, was appointed to succeed him. Admiral de Roe- 
 beck was in cordial sympathy with the purposes of the expedition 
 and determined to attack on the 18th of March. At a quarter to 
 eleven that morning, the Queen Elizabeth, Inflexible, Agamemnon, 
 Lord Nelson, the Triumph and Prince George steamed up the 
 straits towards the Narrows, and bombarded the forts of Chanak. 
 At 12.22 the French squadron, consisting of the Suffren, Gaulois, 
 Charlemagne, and Bouvet, advanced up the Dardanelles to aid their 
 English associates. 
 
 Under the combined fire of the two squadrons the Turkish 
 forts, which at first replied strongly, were finally silenced. All of 
 the ships, however, were hit several tunes during this part of the 
 action. A third squadron, including the Vengeance, Irresistible, 
 Albion, Ocean, Swiftshore and Majestic, then advanced to relieve 
 the six old battleships inside the strait. 
 
 As the French squadron, which had engaged the forts hi a 
 most brilliant fashion, was passing out the Bouvet was blown up by 
 a drifting mine and sank hi less than three minutes, carrying with 
 her most of her crew. At 2.36 P. M. the relief battleships renewed 
 the attack on the forts, which again opened fire. The Turks were 
 now sending mines down with the current. At 4.09 the Irresistible 
 quitted the line, listing heavily, and at 5.50 she sank, having prob- 
 ably struck a drifting mine. At 6.05 the Ocean, also having struck 
 a mine, sank in deep water. Practically the whole of the crews were 
 removed safely. The Gaulois was damaged by gunfire; the 
 Inflexible had her forward control position hit by a heavy shell, 
 which killed and wounded the majority of the men and officers at 
 that station and set her on fire. At sunset the forts were still hi 
 action, and during the twilight the Allied fleet slipped out of the 
 Dardanelles. 
 
 Meantime, an expeditionary force was being gathered. The 
 largest portion of this force came from Great Britain, but France 
 also provided a considerable number from her marines and from 
 her Colonial army. Both nations avoided, as far as possible, draw- 
 ing upon the armies destined for service in France. 
 
 In the English army there were divisions from Australia and 
 New Zealand and there were a number of Indian troops and Terri- 
 torials. The whole force was put under the command of General
 
 308 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Sir Ian Hamilton. The commander-in-chief on the Turkish side 
 was the German General Liman von Sanders, the former chief of 
 the military mission at Constantinople. The bulk of the expedi- 
 tionary force, which numbered altogether about a hundred and 
 twenty thousand men, were, therefore, men whose presence in the 
 east did not weaken the Allied strength in the west. 
 
 The great difficulty of the new plan was that it was impossible 
 to surprise the enemy. The whole Gallipoli Peninsula was so small 
 that a landing at any point would be promptly observed, and the 
 nature of the ground was of such a character that progress from any 
 point must necessarily be slow. The problem was therefore a 
 simple one. 
 
 The expeditionary force gathered in Egypt during the first 
 hah" of April, and about the middle of the month was being sent to 
 Lemnos. Germany was well aware of the English plans, and was 
 doing all that it could to provide a defense. 
 
 On April 23d the movement began, and about five o'clock in 
 the afternoon the first of the transports slowly made its way through 
 the maze of shipping toward the entrance of Mudros Bay. 
 
 Immediately the patent apathy, which had gradually over- 
 whelmed everyone, changed to the utmost enthusiasm, and as the 
 huge liners steamed through the fleet, then* decks yellow with 
 khaki, the crews of the warships cheered them on to victory while 
 the bands played them out with an unending variety of popular 
 airs. The soldiers in the transports answered this last salutation 
 from the navy with deafening cheers, and no more inspiring 
 spectacle has ever been seen than this great expedition. 
 
 The whole of the fleet from the transports had been divided 
 up into five divisions and there were three main landings. The 
 twenty-ninth division disembarked off the point of the Gallipoli 
 Peninsula near Sedd-el-Bahr, where its operations were covered 
 both from the gulf of Saros and from the Dardanelles by the fire of 
 the covering warships. The Australian and New Zealand contin- 
 gent disembarked north of Gaba Tepe. Further north a naval 
 division madea d emonstration. 
 
 Awaiting the Australians was a party of Turks who had been 
 intrenched almost on the shore and had opened up a terrible fusillade. 
 The Australian volunteers rose, as a man, to the occasion. They 
 waited neither for orders nor for the boats to reach the beach, but
 
 GLORIOUS GALLIPOLI 309 
 
 springing out into the sea they went in to the shore, and forming 
 some sort of a rough line rushed straight on the flashes of the 
 enemy's rifles. In less than a quarter of an hour the Turks were 
 in full flight. 
 
 While the Australians and New Zealanders, or Anzacs as they 
 are now generally known from the initials of the words Australian- 
 New Zealand Army Corps, were fighting so gallantly at Gaba Tepe, 
 the British troops were landing at the southern end of the Gallipoli 
 Peninsula. The advance was slow and difficult. The Turk was 
 pushed back, little by little, and the ground gained organized. 
 The details of this progress, though full of incidents of the greatest 
 courage and daring, need not be recounted. 
 
 On June the 4th a general attack was made, preceded by heavy 
 bombardments by all guns, but after terrific fighting, in which many 
 prisoners were captured and great losses suffered, the net result was 
 an advance of about five hundred yards. As time went on the 
 general impression throughout the Allied countries was that the 
 expedition had failed. On June 30th the losses of the Turks were 
 estimated at not less than seventy thousand, and the British naval 
 and military losses up to June 1st, aggregated 38,635 officers and 
 men. At that time the British and French allies held but a small 
 corner of the area to be conquered. In all of these attacks the 
 part played by the Australian and New Zealand army corps was 
 especially notable. Reinforcements were repeatedly sent to the 
 Allies, who worked more and more feverishly as time went on with 
 the hope of aiding Russia, which was then desperately struggling 
 against the great German advance. 
 
 On August 17th it was reported that a landing had been 
 made at Suvla Bay, the extreme western point of the Peninsula. 
 From this point it was hoped to threaten the Turkish communica- 
 tion with their troops at the lower end of the Peninsula. This new 
 enterprise, however, failed to make any impression, and in the 
 first part of September, vigorous Turkish counter-offensives gained 
 territory from the Franco-British troops. According to the English 
 reports the Turks paid a terrible price for their success. 
 
 It had now become evident that the expedition was a failure. 
 The Germans were already gloating over what they called the 
 "failure of British sea power," and English publicists were attempt- 
 ing to show that, though the enterprise had failed, the very presence
 
 310 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 of a strong Allied force at Saloniki had been an enormous gain. 
 The first official announcement of failure was made December 
 20 1916 when it was announced that the British forces at Anzac 
 and Suvla Bay had been withdrawn, and that only the minor 
 positions near Sedd-el-Bahr were occupied. Great Britain's loss 
 of officers and men at the Dardanelles up to December llth was 
 112,921, according to an announcement made in the House of 
 Commons by the Parliamentary Under Secretary for War. Besides 
 these casualties the number of sick admitted to hospitals was 
 96,683. The decision to evacuate Gallipoli was made in the course 
 of November by the British Government as the result of the early 
 expressed opinion of General Monro, who had succeeded General 
 Hamilton on October 28, 1915. 
 
 General Monro found himself confronted with a serious problem 
 in the attempt to withdraw an army of such a size from positions not 
 more than three hundred yards from the enemy's trenches, and 
 to embark on open beaches every part of which was within effective 
 range of Turkish guns. Moreover, the evacuation must be done 
 gradually, as it was impossible to move the whole army at once 
 with such means of transportation as existed. The plan was to 
 remove the munitions, supplies and heavy guns by instalments, 
 working only at night, carrying off at the same time a large portion 
 of the troops, but leaving certain picked battalions to guard the 
 trenches. Every endeavor had to be made for concealment. The 
 plan was splendidly successful, and the Turks apparently com- 
 pletely deceived. On December 20th the embarkation of the 
 last troops at Suvla was accomplished. The operations at Anzac 
 were conducted hi the same way. Only picked battalions were left 
 to the end, and these were carried safely off. 
 
 The success of the Suvla and Anzac evacuation made the 
 position at Cape Helles more dangerous. The Turks were on the 
 lookout, and it seemed almost impossible that they could be again 
 deceived. On January 7th an attack was made by the Turks upon 
 the trenches, which was beaten back. That night more than half 
 the troops had left the Peninsula. The next day there was a 
 heavy storm which made embarkation difficult, but it was never- 
 theless accomplished. The whole evacuation was a clever and 
 successful bit of work.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 
 
 GERMANY'S ambition for conquest at sea had been 
 nursed and carefully fostered for twenty years. During 
 the decade immediately preceding the declaration of 
 war, it had embarked upon a policy of naval upbuilding 
 that brought it into direct conflict with England's sea policy. 
 Thereafter it became a race in naval construction, England piling 
 up a huge debt in its determination to construct two tons of naval 
 shipping to every one ton built by Germany. 
 
 Notwithstanding Great Britain's efforts in this direction, 
 Germany's naval experts, with the ruthless von Tirpitz at then* 
 head, maintained that, given a fair seaway with ideal weather 
 conditions favoring the low visibility tactics of the German sea 
 command, a victory for the Teutonic ships would follow. It was 
 this belief that drew the ships of the German cruiser squadron and 
 High Seas Fleet off the coast of Jutland and Horn Reef into the 
 great battle that decided the supremacy of the sea. 
 
 The 31st of May, 1916, will go down in history as the date of 
 this titanic conflict. The British light cruiser Galatea on patrol 
 duty near Horn Reef reported at 2.20 o'clock on the afternoon 
 of that day, that it had sighted smoke plumes denoting the advance 
 of enemy vessels from the direction of Helgoland Bight. Fifteen 
 minutes later the smoke plumes were in such number and volume 
 that the advance of a considerable force to the northward and 
 eastward was indicated. It was reasoned by Vice-Admiral Beatty, 
 to whom the Galatea had sent the news by radio, that the enemy 
 in rounding Horn Reef would inevitably be brought into action. 
 The first ships of the enemy were sighted at 3.31 o'clock. These 
 were the battle screen of fast light cruisers. Back of these were 
 five modern battle cruisers of the highest power and armament. 
 
 The report of the battle, by an eye-witness, that was issued 
 upon semiofficial authority of the British Government, follows: 
 
 First Phase, 3.30 P. M. May 31st. Beatty's battle cruisers, 
 
 311
 
 312 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 consisting of the Lion, Princess Royal, Queen Mary, Tiger, Inflexible, 
 Indomitable, Invincible, Indefatigable, and New Zealand, were on 
 a southeasterly course, followed at about two miles distance by 
 the four battleships of the class known as Queen Elizabeths. 
 
 Enemy light cruisers were sighted and shortly afterward the 
 head of the German battle cruiser squadron, consisting of the 
 new cruiser Hindenburg, the Seydlitz, Derfflinger, Liitzow, Moltke, 
 and possibly the Salamis. 
 
 Beatty at once began firing at a range of about 20,000 yards 
 (twelve miles) which shortened to 16,000 yards (nine miles) as the 
 fleets closed. The Germans could see the British distinctly out- 
 lined against the light yellow sky. The Germans, covered by a 
 haze, could be very indistinctly made out by the British gunners. 
 
 The Queen Elizabeths opened fire on one after another as they 
 came within range. The German battle cruisers turned to port 
 and drew away to about 20,000 yards. 
 
 Second Phase, 4.40 P. M. A destroyer screen then appeared 
 beyond the German battle cruisers. The whole German High 
 Seas Fleet could be seen approaching on the northeastern horizon 
 hi three divisions, coming to the support of their battle cruisers. 
 
 The German battle cruisers now turned right round 16 points 
 and took station hi front of the battleships of the High Fleet. 
 
 Beatty, with his battle cruisers and supporting battleships, 
 therefore, had before him the whole of the German battle fleet, and 
 Jellicoe was still some distance away. 
 
 The opposing fleets were now moving parallel to one another 
 in opposite directions, and but for a master maneuver on the part 
 of Beatty the British advance ships would have been cut off from 
 Jellicoe's Grand Fleet. In order to avoid this and at the same time 
 prepare the way so that Jellicoe might envelop his adversary, 
 Beatty immediately also turned right around 16 points, so as to 
 bring his ships parallel to the German battle cruisers and facing the 
 same direction. 
 
 As soon as he was around he increased to full speed to get 
 ahead of the Germans and take up a tactical position in advance 
 of their line. He was able to do this owing to the superior speed of 
 the British battle cruisers. 
 
 Just before the turning point was reached the Indefatigable 
 sank, and the Queen Mary and the Invincible also were lost at th
 
 GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 315 
 
 turning point, where, of course, the High Seas Fleet concentrated 
 their fire. 
 
 A little earlier, as the German battle cruisers were turning, 
 the Queen Elizabeths had in similar manner concentrated their 
 fire on the turning point and destroyed a new German battle 
 cruiser, believed to be the Hindenburg. 
 
 Beatty had now got around and headed away with the loss 
 of three ships, racing parallel to the German battle cruisers. The 
 Queen Elizabeths followed behind engaging the main High Seas 
 Fleet. 
 
 Third Phase, 5 p. M. The Queen Elizabeths now turned short 
 to port 16 points in order to follow Beatty. The Warspite jammed 
 her steering gear, failed to get around, and drew the fire of six of 
 the enemy, who closed in upon her. 
 
 The Germans claimed her as a loss, since on paper she ought 
 to have been lost, but, as a matter of fact, though repeatedly 
 straddled by shell fire with the water boiling up all around her, 
 she was not seriously hit, and was able to sink one of her oppo- 
 nents. Her captain recovered control of the vessel, brought her 
 around, and followed her consorts. 
 
 In the meantime the Barham, Valiant and Malaya turned 
 short so as to avoid the danger spot where the Queen Mary and 
 the Invincible had been lost, and for an hour, until Jellicoe arrived, 
 fought a delaying action against the High Seas Fleet. 
 
 The Warspite joined them at about 5.15 o'clock, and all 
 four ships were so successfully maneuvered in order to upset the 
 spotting corrections of their opponents that no hits of a seriously 
 disabling character were suffered. They had the speed over their 
 opponents by fully four knots, and were able to draw away from 
 part of the long line of German battleships, which almost filled 
 up the horizon. 
 
 At this tune the Queen Elizabeths were steadily firing on at 
 the flashes of German guns at a range which varied between 12,000 
 and 15,000 yards, especially against those ships which were nearest 
 them. The Germans were enveloped in a mist and only smoke 
 and flashes were visible. 
 
 By 5.45 half of the High Seas Fleet had been left out of range, 
 and the Queen Elizabeths were steaming fast to join hands with 
 Jellicoe.
 
 316 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 To return to Beatty's battle cruisers. They had succeeded 
 in outflanking the German battle cruisers, which were, therefore, 
 obliged to turn a full right angle to starboard to avoid being headed. 
 
 Heavy fighting was renewed between the opposing battle 
 cruiser squadrons, during which the Derfflinger was sunk; but 
 toward 6 o'clock the German fire slackened very considerably, 
 showing that Beatty's battle cruisers and the Queen Elizabeths had 
 inflicted serious damage on then* immediate opponents. 
 
 Fourth Phase, 6 P. M. The Grand Fleet was now in sight, 
 and, coming up fast in three directions, the Queen Elizabeths 
 altered their course four points to the starboard and drew in toward 
 the enemy to allow Jellicoe room to deploy into line. 
 
 The Grand Fleet was perfectly maneuvered and the very diffi- 
 cult operation of deploying between the battle cruisers and the 
 Queen Elizabeths was perfectly timed. 
 
 Jellicoe came up, fell in behind Beatty's cruisers, and followed 
 by the damaged but still serviceable Queen Elizabeths, steamed 
 right across the head of the German fleet. 
 
 The first of the ships to come into action were the Revenue 
 and the Royal Oak with then- fifteen-inch guns, and the Agincourt, 
 which fired from her seven turrets with the speed almost of a 
 Maxim gun. 
 
 The whole British fleet had now become concentrated. They 
 had been perfectly maneuvered, so as to "cross theT" of the High 
 Seas Fleet, and, indeed, only decent light was necessary to com- 
 plete their work of destroying the Germans in detail. The light 
 did improve for a few minutes, and the conditions were favorable 
 to the British fleet, which was now in line approximately north 
 and south across the head of the Germans. 
 
 During the few minutes of good light Jellicoe smashed up the 
 three German ships, but the mist came down, visibility sud- 
 ienly failed, and the defeated High Seas Fleet was able to draw off 
 in ragged divisions. 
 
 Fifth Phase, Night. The Germans were followed by the 
 
 *h, who still had them enveloped between Jellicoe on the 
 
 eatty on the north, and Evan Thomas with his three Queen 
 
 ,hzabeths on the south. The Warspite had been sent back to 
 
 her base. 
 
 During the night the torpedo boat destroyers heavily attacked
 
 GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 317 
 
 BRITISH BATTLE FLEET 
 
 termn Battle CrMta/WcTV 
 
 * 
 
 NORTH 
 
 REFERENCE 
 
 Approximate Track of British Battle fleet 
 British &Jt/e 
 . Cnemyi 5/1//M 
 
 HOW THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE OF JUTLAND WAS FOUGHT 
 This chart must be taken only as a general indication of the courses of the opposing 
 fleets. Sir David Beatty, with two squadrons of battle cruisers and one squadron of 
 fast battleships, first steamed southward and southeastward of the German battle 
 cruiser squadron; then, sighting the German battle fleet, turned northward, after- 
 wards bearing eastward and connecting with Sir John Jelh'coe's battle squadron.
 
 318 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the German ships, and, although they lost seriously themselves, 
 succeeded in sinking two of the enemy. 
 
 Coordination of the units of the fleet was practically impos- 
 sible to keep up, and the Germans discovered by the rays of their 
 searchlights the three Queen Elizabeths, not more than 4,000 yards 
 away. Unfortunately they were then able to escape between the 
 battleships and Jellicoe, since the British gunners were not able to 
 fire, as the destroyers were in the way. 
 
 So ended the Jutland battle, which was fought as had been 
 planned and very nearly a great success. It was spoiled by the 
 unfavorable weather conditions, especially at the critical moment, 
 when the whole British fleet was concentrated and engaged in 
 crushing the head of the German line. 
 
 Commenting on the engagement, Admiral Jellicoe said: 
 "The battle cruiser fleet, gallantly led by Vice-Admiral Beatty, 
 and admirably supported by the ships of the fifth battle squadron 
 under Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas, fought the action under, at 
 times, disadvantageous conditions, especially in regard to light, 
 in a manner that was hi keeping with the best traditions of the 
 service." 
 
 His estimate of the German losses was: two battleships of 
 the dreadnaught type, one of the Deutschland type, which was 
 seen to sink; the battle cruiser Liitzow, admitted by the Germans; 
 one battle cruiser of the dreadnaught type, one battle cruiser 
 seen to be so severely damaged that its return was extremely 
 doubtful; five light cruisers, seen to sink one of them possibly 
 a battleship; six destroyers seen to sink, three destroyers so 
 damaged that it was doubtful if they would be able to reach port, 
 and a submarine sunk. The official German report admitted only 
 eleven ships sunk; the first British report placed the total at 
 eighteen, but Admiral Jellicoe enumerated twenty-one German 
 vessels as probably lost. 
 
 The Admiral paid a fine tribute to the German naval men: 
 "The enemy," he said, "fought with the gallantry that was expected 
 of him. We particularly admired the conduct of those on board a 
 disabled German light cruiser which passed down the British line 
 shortly after the deployment under a heavy fire, which was returned 
 by the only gun left in action. The conduct of the officers and 
 men was entirely beyond praise. :. On all sides it is reported that
 
 GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 319 
 
 the glorious traditions of the past were most worthily upheld; 
 whether hi the heavy ships, cruisers, light cruisers, or destroyers, 
 the same admirable spirit prevailed. The officers and men were 
 cool and determined, with a cheeriness that would have carried 
 them through anything. The heroism of the wounded was the 
 admiration of all. I cannot adequately express the pride with 
 which the spirit of the fleet filled me." 
 
 At daylight on the 1st of June the British battle fleet, being 
 southward of Horn Reef, turned northward in search of the enemy 
 vessels. The visibility early on the first of June was three to 
 four miles less than on May 31st, and the torpedo-boat destroyers, 
 being out of visual touch, did not rejoin the fleet until 9 A. M. 
 The British fleet remained hi the proximity of the battlefield and 
 near the line of approach to the German ports until 11 A. M., in 
 spite of the disadvantage of long distances from fleet bases and the 
 danger incurred in waters adjacent to the enemy's coasts from 
 submarines and torpedo craft. 
 
 The enemy, however, made no sign, and the admiral was 
 reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Sea Fleet 
 had returned into port. Subsequent events proved this assump- 
 tion to have been correct. The British position must have been 
 known to the enemy, as at 4 A. M. the fleet engaged a Zeppelin 
 about five minutes, during which time she had ample opportunty 
 to note and subsequently report the position and course of the 
 British fleet. 
 
 The Germans at first claimed a victory for their fleet. The 
 test, of course, was the outcome of the battle. The fact that the 
 German fleet retreated and nevermore ventured forth from beneath 
 the protecting guns and mine fields around Helgoland, demon- 
 strates beyond dispute that the British were entitled to the triumph. 
 The German official report makes the best presentation of the 
 German case. It follows in full: 
 
 The High Sea Fleet, consisting of three battleship squadrons, five 
 battle cruisers, and a large number of small cruisers, with several destroyer 
 flotillas, was cruising in theSkagerrak on May 31st for the purpose, as on 
 earlier occasions, of offering battle to the British fleet. The vanguard of 
 small cruisers at 4.30 o'clock in the afternoon (German time) suddenly 
 encountered, ninety miles west of Hanstholm (a cape on the northwest 
 coast of Jutland), a group of eight of the newest cruisers of the Calliope 
 class and fifteen or twenty of the most modern destroyers.
 
 320 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 While the German light forces and the first cruiser squadron under 
 Vice-Admiral Hipper were following the British, who were retiring north- 
 westward, the German battle cruisers sighted to the westward Vice- 
 Admiral Beatty's battle squadron of six ships, including four of the Lion 
 type and two of the Indefatigable type. Beatty's squadron developed a 
 battle line on a southeasterly course and Vice- Admiral Hipper formed his 
 line ahead on the same general course and approached for a running fight. 
 He opened fire at 5.49 o'clock in the afternoon with heavy artillery at a 
 range of 13,000 meters against the superior enemy. The weather was 
 clear and light, and the sea was light with a northwest wind. 
 
 After about a quarter of an hour a violent explosion occurred on the 
 last cruiser of the Indefatigable type. It was caused by a heavy shell, 
 and destroyed the vessel. 
 
 About 6.20 o'clock in the afternoon five warships of the Queen Eliza- 
 beth type came from the west and joined the British battle cruiser line, 
 powerfully reinforcing with then* fifteen-inch guns the five British battle 
 cruisers remaining after 6.20 o'clock. To equalize this superiority Vice- 
 Admiral Hipper ordered the destroyers to attack the enemy. The British 
 destroyers and small cruisers interposed, and a bitter engagement at close 
 range ensued, hi the course of which a light cruiser participated. 
 
 The Germans lost two torpedo boats, the crews of which were rescued 
 by sister ships under a heavy fire. Two British destroyers were sunk by 
 artillery, and two others the Nestor and Nomad remained on the 
 scene hi a crippled condition. These later were destroyed by the main 
 fleet after German torpedo boats had rescued all the survivors. 
 
 While this engagement was in progress a mighty explosion, caused 
 by a big shell, broke the Queen Mary, the third ship in line, asunder, 
 at 6.30 o'clock. 
 
 Soon thereafter the German main battleship fleet was sighted to the 
 southward, steering north. The hostile fast squadrons thereupon turned 
 northward, closing the first part of the fight, which lasted about an hour. 
 
 The British retired at high speed before the German fleet, which 
 followed closely. The German battle cruisers continued the artillery 
 combat with increasing intensity, particularly with the division of the 
 vessels of the Queen Elizabeth type, and in this the leading German battle- 
 ship division participated intermittently. The hostile ships showed a 
 desire to run hi a flat curve ahead of the point of our line and to cross it. 
 
 At 7.45 o'clock in the evening British small cruisers and destroyers 
 launched an attack against our battle cruisers, who avoided the tor- 
 pedoes by maneuvering, while the British battle cruisers retired from the 
 engagement, in which they did not participate further as far as can be 
 stablished. Shortly thereafter a German reconnoitering group, which 
 was parrying the destroyer attack, received an attack from the north- 
 east. The cruiser Wiesbaden was soon put out of action in this attack. 
 Ine German torpedo flotillas immediately attacked the heavy ships. 
 
 Appearing shadow-like from the haze bank to the northeast was
 
 GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 321 
 
 made out a long line of at least twenty-five battle ships, which at first 
 sought a junction with the British battle cruisers and those of the Queen 
 Elizabeth type on a northwesterly to westerly course, and then turned 
 on an easterly to southeasterly course. 
 
 With the advent of the British main fleet, whose center consisted of 
 three squadrons of eight battleships each, with a fast division of three 
 battle cruisers of the Invincible type on the northern end, and three of 
 the newest vessels of the Royal Sovereign class, armed with fifteen-inch 
 guns, at the southern end, there began about 8 o'clock in the evening the 
 third section of the engagement, embracing the combat between the main 
 fleets. 
 
 Vice-Admiral Scheer determined to attack the British main fleet, 
 which he now recognized was completely assembled and about doubly 
 superior. The German battleship squadron, headed by battle cruisers, 
 steered first toward the extensive haze bank to the northeast, where the 
 crippled cruiser Wiesbaden was still receiving a heavy fire. Around the 
 Wiesbaden stubborn individual fights now occurred. 
 
 The light enemy forces, supported by an armored cruiser squadron of 
 five ships of the Minatour, Achilles, and Duke of Edinburgh classes com- 
 ing from the northeast, were encountered and apparently surprised on 
 account of the decreasing visibility of our battle cruisers and leading 
 battleship division. The squadron came under a violent and heavy 
 fire, by which the small cruisers Defense and Black Prince were sunk. 
 The cruiser Warrior regained its own line a wreck and later sank. Another 
 small cruiser was damaged severely. 
 
 Two destroyers already had fallen victims to the attack of German 
 torpedo boats against the leading British battleships and a small cruiser 
 and two destroyers were damaged. The German battle cruisers and 
 leading battleship division had in these engagements come under increased 
 fire of the enemy's battleship squadron, which, shortly after 8 o'clock, 
 could be made out in the haze turning to the northeastward and finally 
 to the east. Germans observed, amid the artillery combat and shelling 
 of great intensity, signs of the effect of good shooting between 8.20 and 
 8.30 o'clock particularly. [ Several officers on German ships observed 
 that a battleship of the Queen Elizabeth class blew up under conditions 
 similar to that of the Queen Mary. The Invincible sank after being hit 
 severely. A ship of the Iron Duke class had earlier received a torpedo 
 hit, and one of the Queen Elizabeth class was running around in a circle, 
 its steering apparatus apparently having been hit. 
 
 The Lutzow was hit by at least fifteen heavy shells and was unable 
 to maintain its place in line. Vice-Admiral Hipper, therefore, trans- 
 shipped to the Moltke on a torpedo boat and under a heavy fire. The 
 DerfHinger meantime took the lead temporarily. Parts of the German 
 torpedo flotilla attacked the enemy's main fleet and heard detonations. 
 In the action the Germans lost a torpedo boat. An enemy destroyer 
 was seen in a sinking condition, having been hit by a torpedo.
 
 322 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 After the first violent onslaught into the mass of the superior enemy 
 the opponents lost sight of each other in the smoke by powder clouds. 
 After a short cessation in the artillery combat Vice Admiral Scheer ordered 
 a new attack by all the available forces. 
 
 German battle cruisers, which with several light cruisers and torpedo 
 boats again headed the line, encountered the enemy soon after 9 o'clock 
 and renewed the heavy fire, which was answered by them from the mist, 
 and then by the leading division of the main fleet. Armored cruisers now 
 flung themselves in a reckless onset at extreme speed against the enemy 
 line in order to cover the attack of the torpedo boats. They approached 
 the enemy line, although covered with shot from 6,000 meters distances. 
 Several German torpedo flotillas dashed forward to attack, delivered 
 torpedoes, and returned, despite the most severe counterfire, with the 
 loss of only one boat. The bitter artillery fight was again interrupted, 
 after this second violent onslaught, by the smoke from guns and funnels. 
 
 Several torpedo flotillas, which were ordered to attack somewhat 
 later, found, after penetrating the smoke cloud, that the enemy fleet was 
 no longer before them; nor, when the fleet commander again brought 
 the German squadrons upon the southerly and southwesterly course 
 where the enemy was last seen, could our opponents be found. Only 
 once more shortly before 10.30 o'clock did the battle flare up. For a 
 short time in the late twilight German battle cruisers sighted four enemy 
 capital ships to seaward and opened fire immediately. As the two Ger- 
 man battleship squadrons attacked, the enemy turned and vanished in 
 the darkness. Older German light cruisers of the fourth reconnoissance 
 group also were engaged with the older enemy armored cruisers in a 
 short fight. This ended the day battle. 
 
 The German divisions, which, after losing sight of the enemy, began 
 a night cruise in a southerly direction, were attacked until dawn by enemy 
 light force in rapid succession. 
 
 The attacks were favored by the general strategic situation and the 
 particularly dark night. 
 
 The cruiser Frauenlob was injured severely during the engagement 
 of the fourth reconnoissance group with a superior cruiser force, and was 
 lost from sight. 
 
 One armored cruiser of the Cressy class suddenly appeared close to a 
 German battleship and was shot into fire after forty seconds, and sank in 
 four minutes. 
 
 The Florent (?) Destroyer 60, (the names were hard to decipher in 
 the darkness and therefore were uncertainly established) and four destroyers 
 3, 78, 06, and 27 were destroyed by our fire. One destroyer 
 was cut in two by the ram of a German battleship. Seven destroyers, 
 including the G-30, were hit and severely damaged. These, including the 
 Tipperary and Turbulent, which after saving survivors, were left behind 
 in a sinking condition, drifted past our line, some of them burning at the 
 bow or stem.
 
 GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 323 
 
 The tracks of countless torpedoes were sighted by the German ships, 
 but only the Pommern (a battleship) fell an immediate victim to a torpedo. 
 The cruiser Rostock was hit, but remained afloat. The cruiser Elbing 
 was damaged by a German battleship during an unavoidable maneuver. 
 After vain endeavors to keep the ship afloat the Elbing was blown up, 
 but only after her crew had embarked on torpedo boats. A post torpedo 
 boat was struck by a mine laid by the enemy. 
 
 Following are the statistics of the fight: 
 
 ADMITTED LOSSES BRITISH 
 
 NAME TONNAGE PERSONNEL 
 
 Queen Mary (Jbattle cruiser) 27,000 1,000 
 
 Indefatigable (battle cruiser) 18,750 800 
 
 Invincible (battle cruiser) 17,250 750 
 
 Defense (armored cruiser) 14,600 755 
 
 Warrior (armored cruiser) 13,550 704 
 
 Black Prince (armored cruiser) 13,550 704 
 
 Tipperary (destroyer) 1,850 150 
 
 Turbulent (destroyer) 1,850 150 
 
 Shark (destroyer) 950 100 
 
 Sparrowhawk (destroyer) 950 100 
 
 Ardent (destroyer) 950 100 
 
 Fortune (destroyer) 950 100 
 
 Nomad (destroyer) 950 100 
 
 Nestor (destroyer) 950 100 
 
 BRITISH TOTALS 
 
 Battle cruisers 63,000 2,560 
 
 Armored cruisers 41,700 2,163 
 
 Destroyers 9,400 900 
 
 Fourteen ships 114,100 5,613 
 
 ADMITTED LOSSES GERMAN* 
 
 NAME TONNAGE PERSONNEL 
 
 Ltitzow (battle cruiser) 26,600 1,200 
 
 Pommern (battleship) 13,200 
 
 Wiesbaden (cruiser) 5,600 450 
 
 Frauenlob (cruiser) 2,715 
 
 Elbing (cruiser) 5,000 
 
 Rostock (cruiser) 4,900 
 
 Fire destroyers 5,000 
 
 GERMAN TOTALS 
 
 Battle cruisers 39,800 1,929 
 
 Cruisers 18.215 1,537 
 
 Destroyers 5,000 
 
 Eleven ships 63,015 3,966 
 
 'These firures are given for what they are worth, but no one outside of Germany doubted but thmt 
 their losses were very much greater than admitted m the official report.
 
 324 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 TOTAL LOSSES OF MEN 
 BRITISH 
 
 Dead or missing 6 10 
 
 Wounded 513 
 
 Total 6 > 617 
 
 GERMAN 
 
 Dead or missing 2,41^ 
 
 Wounded 449 
 
 Total 2,863 
 
 LOSS IN MONEY VALUE 
 (Rough Estimate) 
 
 British $115,000,000 
 
 German 63,000,000 
 
 Total $178,000,000 
 
 While the world was still puzzling over the conflicting reports 
 of the battle of Jutland came the shocking news that Field Marshal 
 Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the British Secretary of State 
 for War, had perished off the West Orkney Islands on June 5th, 
 through the sinking of the British cruiser Hampshire. The entire 
 crew was also lost, except twelve men, a warrant officer and eleven 
 seamen, who escaped on a raft. Earl Kitchener was on his way to 
 Russia, at the request of the Russian Government, for a consulta- 
 tion regarding munitions to be furnished the Russian army. He 
 was intending to go to Archangel and visit Petrograd, and expected 
 to be back in London by June 20th. He was accompanied by 
 Hugh James O'Beirne, former Councillor of the British Embassy 
 at Petrograd, O. A. Fitz-Gerald, his military secretary, Brigadier- 
 General Ellarshaw, and Sir Frederick Donaldson, all of whom 
 were lost. 
 
 The cause of the sinking of the Hampshire is not known. 
 It is supposed that it struck a mine, but the tragedy very naturally 
 brought into existence many stories which ascribe his death to 
 more direct German action. 
 
 Seaman Rogerson, one of the survivors, describes Lord 
 Kitchener's last moments as follows: "Of those who left the ship, 
 and have survived, I was the one who saw Lord Kitchener last. 
 He went down with the ship, he did not leave her. I saw Captain 
 Seville help his boat's crew to clear away his galley. At the same 
 time the Captain was calling to Lord Kitchener to come to the
 
 GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY 325 
 
 boat, but owing to the noise made by the wind and sea, Lord 
 Kitchener could not hear him, I think. When the explosion 
 occurred, Kitchener walked calmly from the captain's cabin, 
 went up the ladder and on to the quarter-deck. There I saw him 
 walking quite collectedly, talking to two of the officers. All three 
 were wearing khaki and had no overcoats on. Kitchener calmly 
 watched the preparations for abandoning the ship, which were 
 going on in a steady and orderly way. The crew just went to their 
 stations, obeyed orders, and did their best to get out the boats. 
 
 WHERE EARL KITCHENER MET His DEATH 
 
 But it was impossible. Owing to the rough weather, no boats 
 could be lowered. Those that were got out were smashed up at 
 once. No boats left the ship. What people on the shore thought 
 to be boats leaving, were rafts. Men did get into the boats as 
 these lay in their cradles, thinking that as the ship went under the 
 boats would float, but the ship sank by the head, and when she 
 went she turned a somersault forward, carrying down with her all 
 the boats and those in them. I do not think Kitchener got into 
 a boat. When I sprang to a raft he was still on the starboard i 
 of the quarter-deck, talking with the officers. From the little time
 
 326 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 that elapsed between my leaving the ship and her sinking I feel 
 certain Kitchener went down with her, and was on deck at the 
 time she sank." 
 
 The British admiralty, after investigation, gave out a state- 
 ment declaring that the vessel struck a mine, and sank about 
 fifteen minutes after. 
 
 The news of Lord Kitchener's death shocked the whole Allied 
 world. He was the most important personality in the British 
 Empire. He had built up the British army, and his name was 
 one to conjure by. His efficiency was a proverb, and he had an 
 air of mystery about him that made him a sort of a popular hero. 
 He was great before the World War began; he was the conqueror 
 of the Soudan; the winner of the South African campaign; the 
 reorganizer of Egypt. In his work as Secretary of War he had 
 met with some criticism, but he possessed, more than any other 
 man, the public confidence. At the beginning of the war he was 
 appointed Secretary of War at the demand of an overwhelming 
 public opinion. He realized more than any one else what such a 
 war would mean. When others thought of it as an adventure 
 to be soon concluded, he recognized that there would be years of 
 bitter conflict. He asked England to give up its cherished tradi- 
 tion of a volunteer army; to go through arduous military training; 
 he saw the danger to the empire, and he alone, perhaps, had the 
 authority to inspire his countrymen with the will to sacrifice. But 
 his work was done. The great British army was in the field.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 
 
 IN THE very beginning Russia had marked out one point for 
 attack. This was the city of Cracow. No doubt the Grand 
 Duke Nicholas had not hoped to be able to invest that city 
 
 early. The slowness of the mobilization of the Russian army 
 made a certain prudence advisable at the beginning of the cam- 
 paign. But the great success of his armies in Lemberg encouraged 
 more daring aims. He had invested Przemysl, and Galicia lay 
 before him. Accordingly, he set his face toward Cracow. 
 
 Cracow, from a military point of view, is the gate both of 
 Vienna and Berlin. A hundred miles west of it is the famous gap 
 of Moravia, between the Carpathian and the Bohemian mountains, 
 which leads down into Austria. Through this gap runs the great 
 railway connecting Silesia with Vienna, and the Grand Duke 
 knew that if he could capture Cracow he would have an easy road 
 before him to the Austrian capital. Cracow also is the key of 
 Germany. 
 
 Seventy miles from the city lies the Oder River. An army 
 might enter Germany by this gate and turn the line of Germany's 
 frontier fortresses. The Oder had been well fortified, but an invader 
 coming from Cracow might move upon the western bank. The 
 Russian plan no doubt was to threaten both enemy capitals. 
 Moreover, an advance of Russia from Cracow would take its 
 armies into Silesia, full of coal and iron mines, and one of the 
 greatest manufacturing districts in the German Empire. This 
 would be a real success, and all Germany would feel the blow. 
 
 Another reason for the Russian advance in Galicia was her 
 desire to control the Galician oil wells. To Germany petrol had 
 become one of the foremost munitions of war. Since she could not 
 obtain it from either America or Russia she must get it from 
 Austria, and the Austrian oil fields were all in Galicia. This, in 
 itself, would explain the Galician campaign. Moreover, through 
 the Carpathian Mountains it was possible to make frequent raids 
 
 327
 
 328 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 into Hungary, and Russia understood well the feeling of Hungary 
 toward her German allies. She hoped that when Hungary perceived 
 her regiments sacrificed and her plains overrun by Russian troops, 
 she would regret that she had allowed herself to be sacrificed to 
 Prussian ambition. The Russians, therefore, suddenly moved 
 toward Cracow. 
 
 Then von Hindenburg came to the rescue. The supreme com- 
 mand of the Austrian forces was given to him. The defenses of 
 Cracow were strengthened under the direction of the Germans, and 
 a German army advanced from the Posen frontier toward the 
 northern bank of the Vistula. The advance threatened the 
 Russian right, and, accordingly, within ten days' march of Cracow, 
 the Russians stopped. The German offensive in Poland had begun. 
 The news of the German advance came about the fifth of October. 
 Von Hindenburg, who had been fighting in East Prussia, had at last 
 perceived that nothing could be' gained there. The vulnerable part 
 of Russia was the city of Warsaw. This was the capital of Poland, 
 with a population of about three-quarters of a million. If he could 
 take Warsaw, he would not only have pleasant quarters for the 
 winter but Russia would be so badly injured that no further 
 offensive from her need be anticipated for a long period. Von 
 Hindenbufg had with him a large army. In his center he probably 
 had three-quarters of a million men, and on his right the Austrian 
 army hi Cracow, which must have reached a million. 
 
 Counting the troops operating in East Prussia and along the 
 Carpathians, and the garrison of Przemysl, the Teuton army must 
 have had two and a half million soldiers. Russia, on the other 
 hand, at this tune could not have had as many as two million men 
 in the whole nine hundred miles of her battle front. 
 
 The fight for Warsaw began Friday, October 16, and continued 
 for three days, von Hindenburg being personally in command. 
 On Monday the Germans found themselves in trouble. A Rus- 
 sian attack on their left wing had come with crushing force. Von 
 Hindenburg found his left wing thrown back, and the whole Ger- 
 man movement thrown into disorder. Meanwhile an attempt to 
 cross the Vistula at Josefov had also been a failure. The Rus- 
 sians allowed the Germans to pass with slight resistance, waited 
 until they arrived at the village Kazimirjev, a district of low hills 
 and swampy flats, and then suddenly overwhelmed them.
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 329 
 
 Next day the Russians crossed the river themselves, and 
 advanced along the whole line, driving the enemy before them, 
 through great woods of spruce out into the plains on the west. 
 This forest region was well known to the Russian guides, and the 
 Germans suffered much as the Russians had suffered in East 
 Prussia. Ruzsky, the Russian commander, pursued persistently; 
 the Germans retreating first to Kielce, whence they were driven, on 
 the 3d of November, with great losses, and then being broken into 
 two pieces, with the north retiring westward and the south wing 
 southwest toward Cracow. 
 
 Rennenkampf s attack on the German left wing was equally 
 successful, and von Hindenburg was driven into full retreat. 
 The only success won during this campaign was that in the far 
 south where Austrian troops were sweeping eastward toward the 
 San. This army drove back the Russians under Ivanov, reoccupied 
 Jaroslav and relieved Przemysl. This was a welcome relief to 
 Przemysl, for the garrison was nearly starved, and it was well for 
 the garrison that the relief came, for in a few days the Russians 
 returned, recaptured Jaroslav and reinvested Przemysl. As von 
 Hindenburg retreated he left complete destruction in his wake, 
 roads, bridges, railroad tracks, water towers, railway stations, all 
 were destroyed; even telegraph posts, broken or sawn through, and 
 insulators broken to bits. 
 
 It was now the turn of Russia to make a premature advance, 
 and to pay for it. Doubtless the Grand Duke Nicholas, whose 
 strategy up to this point had been so admirable, knew very well 
 the danger of a new advance in Galicia, but he realized the immense 
 political as well as military advantages which were to be obtained 
 by the capture of Cracow. He therefore attempted to move an 
 army through Poland as well as through Galicia, hoping that the 
 army in Poland would keep von- Hindenburg busy, while the 
 Galician army would deal with Cracow. 
 
 The advance was slow on account of the damaged Polish roads. 
 It was preceded by a cavalry screen which moved with more speed. 
 On November 10th, the vanguard crossed the Posen frontier and 
 cut the railway on the Cracow-Posen line. This reconnaissance 
 convinced the Russian general that the German army did not 
 propose to make a general stand, and it seemed to him that if he 
 struck strongly with his center along the Warta, he might destroy
 
 330 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the left flank of the German southern army, while his own left 
 flank was assaulting Cracow. He believed that even if his attack 
 upon the Warta failed, the Russian center could at any rate pre- 
 vent the enemy from interfering with the attack further south 
 upon Cracow. 
 
 The movement therefore began, and by November 12th, the 
 Russian cavalry had taken Miechow on the German frontier, 
 about twenty miles north of Cracow. Its main forces were still 
 eighty miles to the east. About this tune Grand Duke Nicholas 
 perceived that von Hindenburg was preparing a counter-stroke. 
 He had retreated north, and then, by means of his railways, was 
 gathering a large army at Thorn. Large reinforcements were 
 sent him, some from the western front, giving him a total of about 
 eight hundred thousand men. In his retreat from Warsaw, while 
 he had destroyed all roads and railways hi the south and west, 
 he had carefully preserved those of the north already planning to 
 use them in another movement. He now was beginning an advance, 
 once again, against Warsaw. On account of the roads he per- 
 ceived that it would be difficult for the Russians to obtain rein- 
 forcements. Von Hindenburg had with him as Chief of Staff 
 General von Ludendorff, one of the cleverest staff officers in the 
 German army, and General von Mackensen, a commander of 
 almost equal repute. 
 
 The Russian army hi the north had been pretty well scattered. 
 The Russian forces were now holding a front of nearly a thousand 
 miles, with about two million men. The Russian right center, 
 which now protected Warsaw from the new attack could hardly 
 number more than two hundred thousand men. Von Hinden- 
 burg's ami was Warsaw only, and did not affect directly the Russian 
 advance to Cracow, which was still going on. Indeed, by the end 
 of the first week in December, General Dmitrieff had cavalry hi 
 the suburbs of Cracow, and his main force was on the line of the 
 River Rava about twelve miles away. Cracow had been strongly 
 fortified, and much entrenching had been done in a wide circle 
 around the city. 
 
 The German plan was to use its field army hi Cracow's defense 
 rather than a garrison. Two separate forces were used; one mov- 
 ing southwest of Cracow along the Carpathian hills, struck directly 
 at Ivanov's left; the other, operating from Hungary, threatened
 
 Press Illustrating Service. 
 
 THE FAMOUS WITHERED ARM 
 
 A most unusual photograph of the ex-Kaiser showing his withered left arm. 
 The sale of this picture was forbidden in Germany. The other figure is the Het- 
 man of the Ukrainia, Skoropadski.
 
 THE FIRST STAGE HOMEWARDS 
 
 Stretcher bearers bringing in wounded from the battlefield to the 
 collecting posts. 
 
 GERMAN FRIGHTFOLNESS FROM THE AIR 
 
 ttack on the eastern front photographed by RqBsian ainna
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 333 
 
 the Russian rear. These two divisions struck at the same time 
 and the Russians found it necessary to fight rear actions as they 
 moved forward. They were doing this with reasonable success 
 and working then- way toward Cracow, when, on the 12th of 
 December, the Austrian forces working from Hungary carried the 
 Dukla Pass. This meant that the Austrians would be able to pour 
 troops down into the rear of the Russian advance, and the Russian 
 army would be cut off. Dmitrieff, therefore, fell rapidly back, 
 until the opening of the Dukla Pass was in front of his line, and 
 the Russian army was once more safe. 
 
 Meanwhile the renewed siege of Przemysl was going on with 
 great vigor, and attracting the general attention of the Allied 
 world. The Austrians attempted to follow up their successes at 
 the Dukla Pass by attempting to seize the Lupkow Pass, and the 
 Uzzok Pass, still further to the east, but the Russians were tired 
 of retreating. New troops had arrived, and about the 20th x of 
 December a new advance was begun. 
 
 With the right of the army swinging up along the river Nida, 
 northeast of Cracow, the Russian left attacked the Dukla Pass 
 hi great force, driving Austrians back and capturing over ten 
 thousand men. On Christmas Day all three great western passes 
 were in Russian hands. The Austrian fighting, during this period, 
 was the best they had so far shown, the brunt of it being upon the 
 Hungarian troops, who, at this tune, were saving Germany. 
 
 Meantime von Hindenburg was pursuing his movement in 
 the direction of Warsaw. The Russian generals found it difficult 
 to obtain information. Each day came the chronicle of contests, 
 some victories, some defeats, and it soon appeared that a strong 
 force was crushing hi the Russian outposts from the direction of 
 Thorn and moving toward Warsaw. Ruzsky found himself faced 
 by a superior German force, and was compelled to retreat. The 
 Russian aim was to fall back behind the river Bzura, which lies 
 between the Thorn and Warsaw. Bzura is a strong line of defense, 
 with many fords but no bridges. The Russian right wing passed 
 by the city of Lowicz, moved southwest to Strykov and then on 
 past Lodz. West of Lowicz is a great belt of marshes impossible 
 for the movement of armies. 
 
 The first German objective was the city of Lodz. Von Hinden- 
 burg knew that he must move quickly before the Russians should
 
 334 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 get up reserves. His campaign of destruction had made it impos- 
 sible for aid to be sent to the Russian armies from Ivanov, far in 
 the south, but every moment counted. His right pushed forward 
 and won the western crossings of the marshes. His extreme left 
 moved towards Plock, but the main effort was against Piontek, 
 where there is a famous causeway engineered for heavy transport 
 through the marshes. 
 
 At first the Russians repelled the attack on the causeway, 
 but on November 19th the Russians broke and were compelled 
 to fall back. Over the causeway, then, the German troops were 
 rushed in great numbers, splitting the Russian army into two parts; 
 one on the south surrounding Lodz, and the other running east 
 of Brezin on to the Vistula. The Russian army around Lodz 
 was assailed on the front flank and rear. It looked like an over- 
 whelming defeat for the Russian army. At the very last moment 
 possible, Russian reinforcements appeared a body of Siberians 
 from the direction of Warsaw. They were thrown at once into 
 the battle and succeeded hi re-establishing the Russian line. This 
 left about ninety thousand Germans almost entirely surrounded, 
 as if they were in a huge sack. Ruzsky tried his best to close the 
 mouth of the sack, but he was unsuccessful. The fighting was 
 terrific, but by the 26th the Germans in the sack had escaped. 
 
 The Germans were continually receiving reinforcements and 
 still largely outnumbered the Russians. Von Hindenburg there- 
 fore determined on a new assault. The German left wing was now 
 far in front of the Russian city of Lodz, one of the most important 
 of the Polish cities. The population was about half a million. 
 Such a place was a constant danger, for it was the foundation of a 
 Russian salient. When the German movement began the Russian 
 general, perceiving how difficult it would have been to hold the 
 city, deliberately withdrew, and on December 6th the Germans 
 entered Lodz without opposition. 
 
 The retreat relieved the Russians of a great embarrassment, 
 ts capture was considered hi Germany as a great German victory, 
 and at this tune von Hindenburg seems to have felt that he had 
 control of the situation. His movement, to be sure, had not inter- 
 with the Russian advance on Cracow, but Warsaw must 
 seemed to him almost in his power. He therefore concen- 
 trated his forces for a blow at Warsaw. His first new movement
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 335 
 
 was directed at the Russian right wing, which was then north 
 of the Bzura River and east of Lowicz. He also directed the 
 German forces in East Prussia to advance and attempted to cut 
 the main railway line between Warsaw and Petrograd. If this 
 attempt had been successful it would have been a highly serious 
 matter for the Russians. The Russians, however, defeated it, 
 and drove the enemy back to the East Prussian border. The 
 movement against the Russian right wing was more successful, 
 and the Russians fell back slowly. This was not because they 
 were defeated in battle, but because the difficult weather inter- 
 fered with communications. There had been a thaw, and the whole 
 country was waterlogged. The Grand Duke was willing that the 
 Germans should fight in the mud. 
 
 This slow retreat continued from the 7th of December to 
 Christmas Eve, and involved the surrender of a number of Polish 
 towns, but it left the Russians in a strong position. They were 
 able to entrench themselves so that every attack of the enemy 
 was broken. The Germans tried hard. Von Hindenburg would 
 have liked to enter Warsaw on Christmas. The citizens heard 
 day and night the sound of the cannon, but they were entirely 
 safe. 
 
 The German attack was a failure. On the whole, the Grand 
 Duke Nicholas had shown better strategy than the best of the 
 German generals. Outnumbered from the very start, his tactics 
 had been admirable. Twice he had saved Warsaw, and he was 
 still threatening Cracow. The Russian armies were fighting with 
 courage and efficiency, and were continually growing in numbers 
 as the days went by. 
 
 During the first weeks of 1915, while there were a number of 
 attacks and counter-attacks, both armies had come to the trench 
 warfare, so familiar in France. The Germans hi particular had 
 constructed a most elaborate trench system, with underground 
 rooms containing many of the ordinary comforts of life. Toward 
 the end of the month the Russians began to move in East Prussia 
 in the north and also far south hi the Bukovina. The object of 
 these movements was probably to prevent von Hindenburg from 
 releasing forces on the west. Russia was still terribly weak hi 
 equipment and was not ready for a serious advance. An attack 
 on sacred East Prussia would stir up the Germans, while Hungary
 
 336 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 would be likewise disturbed by the advance on Bukovina. Von 
 Hindenburg, however, was still full of the idea of capturing Warsaw. 
 He had failed twice but the old Field Marshal was stubborn and 
 moreover he knew well what the capture of Warsaw would mean 
 to Russia, and so he tried again. 
 
 The Russian front now followed the west bank of the Bzura 
 for a few miles, changed to the eastern bank following the river 
 until it met with the Rawka, from there a line of trenches passed 
 south and east of Balinov and from there to Skiernievice. Von 
 Mackensen concentrated a considerable army at Balinov and had 
 on the 1st of February about a hundred and forty thousand men 
 there. That night, with the usual artillery preparation, he moved 
 from Balinov against the Russian position at the Borzymov Crest. 
 The Germans lost heavily but drove forward into the enemy's 
 line, and by the 3d of February had almost made a breach in it. 
 This point, however, could be readily reinforced and troops were 
 hurried there from Warsaw hi such force that on February 4th 
 the German advance was checked. Von Mackensen had lost 
 heavily, and by the tune it was checked he had become so weak 
 that his forces yielded quickly to the counter-attack and were 
 flung back. 
 
 This was the last frontal attack upon Warsaw. Von Hinden- 
 burg then determined to attack Warsaw by indirection. Austria 
 was instructed to move forward along the whole Carpathian front, 
 while he himself, with strong forces, undertook to move from East 
 Prussia behind the Polish capital, and cut the communications 
 between Warsaw and Petrograd. If Austria could succeed, 
 Przemysl might be relieved, Lemberg recaptured, and Russia 
 forced back so far on the south that Warsaw would have to be 
 abandoned. On the other hand if the East Prussia effort were 
 successful, the Polish capital would certainly fall. These plans, 
 if they had developed successfully, would have crippled the power 
 of Russia for at least six months. Meantime, troops could be sent 
 to the west front, and perhaps enable Germany to overwhelm 
 France. By this time almost all of Poland west of the Vistula 
 was in the power of the Germans, while three-fourths of Galicia 
 was controlled by Russia. 
 
 Von Hindenburg now returned to his old battle-ground near 
 the Masurian Lakes. The Russian forces, which, at the end of
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 337 
 
 January, had made a forward movement in East Prussia, had been 
 quite successful. Their right was close upon Tilsit, and their left 
 rested upon the town of Johannisburg. Further south was the 
 Russian army of the Narev. Von Hindenburg determined to 
 surprise the invaders, and he gathered an army of about three 
 hundred thousand men to face the Russian forces which did not 
 number more than a hundred and twenty thousand, and which 
 were under the command of General Baron Sievers. The Russian 
 army soon found itself in a desperate position. A series of bitter 
 fights ensued, at some of which the Kaiser himself was present. 
 The Russians were driven steadily back for a week, but the German 
 stories of their tremendous losses are obviously unfounded. They 
 retreated steadily until February 20th, fighting courageously, and 
 by that date the Germans began to find themselves exhausted. 
 
 Russian reinforcements came up, and a counter-attack was 
 begun. The German aim had evidently been to reach Grodno 
 and cut the main line from Warsaw to Petrograd, which passes 
 through that city. They had now reached Suwalki, a little north 
 of Grodno, but were unable to advance further, though the Warsaw- 
 Petrograd railway was barely ten miles away. The southern por- 
 tion of von Hindenburg's army was moving against the railway 
 further west, in the direction of Ossowietz. But Ossowietz put 
 up a determined resistance, and the attack was unsuccessful. 
 By the beginning of March, von Hindenburg ordered a gradual 
 retreat to the East Prussian frontier. 
 
 While this movement to drive the Russians from East Prussia 
 was under way, von Hindenburg had also launched an attack 
 against the Russian army on the Narev. If he could force the 
 lower Narev from that point, too, he could cut the railroad running 
 east from the Polish capital. He had hoped that the attacks just 
 described further east would distract the Russian attention so that 
 he would find the Narev ill guarded. The advance began on 
 February 22d, and after numerous battles captured Przasnysz, 
 and found itself with only one division to oppose its progress to the 
 railroad. On the 23d this force was attacked by the German right, 
 but resisted with the utmost courage. It held out for more than 
 thirty-six hours, until, on the evening of the 24th, Russian reinforce- 
 ments began to come up, and drove the invaders north through 
 Przasnysz in retreat.
 
 338 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 It was an extraordinary fight. The Russians were unable 
 to supply all their troops with munitions and arms. At Przasnysz 
 men fought without rules, armed only with a bayonet. All they 
 could do was to charge with cold steel, and they did it so desperately 
 that, though they were outnumbered/ they drove the Germans 
 before them. By all the laws of war the Russians should have been 
 defeated with ease. As it was, the German attempt to capture 
 Warsaw by a flank movement was defeated. While the struggle 
 was going on hi the north, the Austrian armies hi Galicia were also 
 moving. Russia was still holding the three great passes in the 
 Carpathian Mountains, but had not been able to begin an offensive 
 in Hungary. 
 
 The Austrians had been largely reinforced by German troops, 
 and were moving forward to the relief of Przemysl, and also to 
 drive Brussilov from the Galician mountains. Brussilov's move- 
 ments had been partly military and partly political. From the 
 passes in those mountains Hungary could be attacked, and unless 
 he could be driven away there was no security for the Hungarian 
 cornfields, to which Germany was looking for food supplies. More- 
 over, from the beginning of the Russian movement in Galicia, 
 northern Bukovina had been in Russian hands. Bukovina was 
 not only a great supply ground for petrol and grain, but she adjoined 
 Roumania which, while still neutral, had a strong sympathy with 
 the Allies, especially Italy. The presence of a Russian army on 
 her border might encourage her to join the Allies. Austria naturally 
 desired to free Roumania from this pressure. The leading Austrian 
 statesmen, at this tune, were especially interested in Hungary. 
 The Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs was Baron Stephen 
 Burian, the Hungarian diplomatist, belonging to the party of the 
 Hungarian Premier, Count Tisza. It was his own country that was 
 threatened. The prizes of a victorious campaign were therefore 
 great. 
 
 The campaign began hi January amid the deepest snow, and 
 continued during February hi the midst of blizzards. The Austrians 
 were divided into three separate armies. The first was charged 
 with the relief of Przemysl. The second advanced in the direction 
 of Lemberg, and the third moved upon Bukovina. The first made 
 very little progress, after a number of lively battles. It was held 
 pretty safely by Brussilov. The second army was checked by
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 339 
 
 Dmitrieff. Further east, however, the army of the Bukovina 
 crossed the Carpathian range, and made considerable advances. 
 This campaign was fought out in a great number of battles, the 
 most serious of which, perhaps, was the battle of Koziowa. At 
 that point Brussilov's center withstood for several days the Austrian 
 second army which was commanded by the German General von 
 Linsengen. The Russian success here saved Lemberg, prevented 
 the relief of Przemysl and gave time to send reinforcements into 
 Bukovina. 
 
 The Austrian third army, moving on Bukovina, had the 
 greatest Austrian success. They captured in succession Czerno- 
 witz, Kolomea, and Stanislau. They did not succeed, however, 
 in driving the Russians from the province. The Russians retired 
 slowly, waiting for reinforcements. These reinforcements came, 
 whereupon the Austrians were pushed steadily back. The passes 
 in the Carpathians still remained in Austrian hands, but Przemysl 
 was not relieved or Lemberg recaptured. On March 22d Przemysl 
 fell. 
 
 The capture of Przemysl was the greatest success that Russia 
 had so far attained. It had been besieged for about four months, 
 and the taking of the fortress was hailed as the first spectacular 
 success of the war. Its capture altered the whole situation. It 
 released a large Russian army, which was sent to reinforce the 
 armies of Ivanov, where the Austrians were vigorously attacked. 
 
 By the end of March the Russians had captured the last 
 Austrian position on the Lupkow pass and were attacking vigor- 
 ously the pass of Uzzok, which maintained a stubborn defense. 
 Brussilov tried to push his way to the rear of the Uzzok position, 
 and though the Austrians delivered a vigorous counter-attack 
 they were ultimately defeated. In five weeks of fighting Ivanov 
 captured over seventy thousand prisoners. 
 
 During this period there was considerable activity hi East 
 Prussia, and the Courland coast was bombarded by the German 
 Baltic squadron. There was every indication that Austria was 
 near collapse, but all the tune the Germans were preparing for a 
 mighty effort, and the secret was kept with extraordinary success. 
 The little conflicts in the Carpathians and in East Prussia were 
 meant to deceive, while a great army, with an enormous number 
 of guns of every caliber, and masses of ammunition, were being
 
 340 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 gathered. The Russian commanders were completely deceived. 
 There had been no change in the generals in command except that 
 General Ruzsky, on account of illness, was succeeded by General 
 Alexeiev. The new German army was put under the charge of 
 von Hindenburg's former lieutenant, General von Mackensen. 
 This was probably the strongest army that Germany ever gathered, 
 and could not have numbered less than two millions of men, with 
 nearly two thousand pieces in its heavy batteries. 
 
 On April 28th, the action began. The Austro-German army 
 lay along the left bank of the Donajetz River to its junction with 
 the Biala, and along the Biala to the Carpathian Mountains. Von 
 Mackensen's right moved in the direction of Gorlice. General 
 Dmitrieff was compelled to weaken his front to protect Gorlice 
 and then, on Saturday, the 1st of May, the great attack began. 
 Under cover of artillery fire such as had never been seen before 
 bridges were pushed across the Biala and Ciezkowice was taken. 
 The Russian positions were blown out of existence. The Russian 
 armies did what they could but their defense collapsed and they 
 were soon in full retreat. 
 
 The German armies advanced steadily, and though the Russians 
 made a brave stand at many places they could do nothing. On 
 the Wisloka they hung on for five days, but they were attempting 
 an impossibility. From that tune on each day marked a new 
 German victory, and in spite of the most desperate fighting the 
 Russians were forced back until, on the llth, the bulk of their line 
 lay just west of the lower San as far as Przemysl and then south 
 to the upper Dniester. The armies were in retreat, but were not 
 routed. In a fortnight the army of Dmitrieff had fallen back 
 eighty-five miles. 
 
 The Grand Duke Nicholas by this time understood the situa- 
 tion. He perceived that it was impossible to make a stand. The 
 only thing to do was to retreat steadily until Germany's mass of 
 war material should be used up, even though miles of territory 
 should be sacrificed. It should be a retreat in close contact with 
 the enemy, so that the Austro-German troops would have to fight 
 for every mile. This meant a retreat not for days, but perhaps 
 for weeks. It meant that Przemysl must be given up, and Lemberg, 
 and even Warsaw, but the safety of the Russian army was of more 
 importance than a province or a city.
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 341 
 
 On May 13th the German War Office announced their suc- 
 cesses in the following terms: "The arrny under General von 
 Mackensen in the course of its pursuit of the Russians reached 
 yesterday the neighborhood of Subiecko, on the lower Wisloka, 
 and Kolbuezowa, northeast of Debica. Under the pressure of 
 this advance the Russians also retreated from their positions 
 north of the Vistula. In this section the troops under General 
 von Woyrach, closely following the enemy, penetrated as far as 
 the region northwest of Kielce. In the Carpathians Austro- 
 Hungarian and German troops under General von Linsingen 
 conquered the hills east of the Upper Stryi, and took 3,660 men 
 prisoners, as well as capturing six machine guns. At the present 
 moment, while the armies under General von Mackensen are 
 approaching the Przemysl fortresses and the lower San, it is pos- 
 sible to form an approximate idea of the booty taken. In the 
 battles of Tarno and Gorlika, and in the battles during the pursuit 
 of these armies, we have so far taken 103,500 Russian prisoners, 
 69 cannon, and 255 machine guns. In these figures the booty 
 taken by the Allied troops fighting in the Carpathians, and north 
 of the Vistula, is not included. This amounts to a further 40,000 
 prisoners. Przemysl surrendered to the Germans on June 3, 1915, 
 only ten weeks after the Russian capture of the fortress, which 
 had caused such exultation." 
 
 General von Mackensen continued toward Lemberg, the capital 
 of Galicia. On June 18th, when the victorious German armies 
 were approaching the gates of Lemberg, the Russian losses were 
 estimated at 400,000 dead and wounded, and 300,000 prisoners, 
 besides 100,000 lost before Marshal von Hindenburg's forces in 
 Poland and Courland. On June 23d Lemberg fell. The weak- 
 ness of Russia in this campaign arose from the exhaustion of her 
 ammunition supplies, but great shipments of such supplies were 
 being constantly forwarded from Vladivostok. 
 
 When the German army crossed the San, Wilhelm II, then 
 German Emperor, was present. It is interesting to look back 
 on the scene. Here is a paragraph from the account of the Wolff 
 Telegraphic Bureau: "The Emperor had hurried forward to his 
 troops by automobile. On the way he was greeted with loud 
 hurrahs by the wounded, riding back in wagons. On the heights 
 of Jaroslav the Emperor met Prince Eitel Friedrich, and then, 
 
 19
 
 342 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 from several points of observation, for hours followed with keen 
 attention the progress of the battle for the crossing." 
 
 While the great offensive hi Galicia was well under way, the 
 Germans were pushing forward hi East Prussia. Finding little 
 resistance they ultimately invaded Courland, captured Libau, 
 and established themselves firmly hi that province. The sweep 
 of the victorious German armies through Galicia was continued 
 into Poland. On July 19th William the War Lord bombastically 
 telegraphed his sister, the Queen of Greece, to the effect that he 
 had "paralyzed Russia for at least six months to come," and was 
 on the eve of "delivering a coup on the western front that will 
 make all Europe tremble." 
 
 It would be futile to recount the details of the various German 
 victories which followed the advance into Poland. On July 24th, 
 the German line ran from Novgorod hi the north, south of Przasnysz, 
 thence to Novogeorgievsk, then swinging to the southeast below 
 Warsaw it passed close to the west of Ivangorad, Lublin, Chelm, 
 and then south to a point just east of Lemberg. Warsaw at that 
 tune was hi the jaws of the German nutcracker. 
 
 On July 21st, the bells hi all the churches throughout Russia 
 clanged a call to prayer for twenty-four hours' continual sendee of 
 intercession for victory. In spite of the heat the churches were 
 packed. Hour after hour the people stood wedged together, while 
 the priests and choirs chanted then* litanies. Outside the Kamian 
 Cathedral an open-air mass was celebrated in the presence of an 
 enormous crowd. But the German victories continued. 
 
 On August 5th Warsaw was abandoned. Up to July 29th 
 hope was entertained in military quarters in London and Paris 
 that the Germans would stand a siege in their fortresses along the 
 Warsaw salient, but on that date advices came from Petrograd 
 that hi order to save the Russian armies a retreat must be made, 
 and the Warsaw fortresses abandoned. For some time before 
 this the Russian resistance had perceptibly stiffened, and many 
 vigorous counter-attacks had been made against the German 
 advance, but it was the same old story, the lack of ammunition. 
 The armies were compelled to retire and await the munitions 
 necessary for a new offensive. 
 
 The last days of Russian rule hi Warsaw were days of extraor- 
 dinary interest. The inhabitants, to the number of nearly half
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 343 
 
 a million, sought refuge in Russia. All goods that could be useful 
 to the Germans were either removed or burned. Crops were 
 destroyed in the surrounding fields. When the Germans entered 
 they found an empty and deserted city, with only a few Poles and 
 the lowest classes of Jews still left. Warsaw is a famous city, full 
 of ancient palaces, tastefully adorned shops, finely built streets, 
 and fourscore church towers where the bells are accustomed to 
 ring melodiously for matins and vespers. In the Ujazdowske 
 Avenue one comes to the most charming building in all Warsaw, 
 the Lazienki Palace, with its delicious gardens mirrored hi a lovely 
 lake. It is a beautiful city. 
 
 The fall of Warsaw meant the fall of Russian Poland, but 
 Russia was not yet defeated. Von Hindenburg was to be treated 
 as Napoleon was in 1812. The strategy of the Grand Duke was 
 sound; so long as he could save the army the victories of Germany 
 would be futile. It is true that the German armies were not com- 
 pelled, like those of Napoleon, to live on the land. They could 
 bring their supplies from Berlin day by day, but every mile they 
 advanced into hostile territory made their task harder. The 
 German line of communication, as it grew longer, became weaker, 
 and the troops needed for garrison duty in the captured towns, 
 seriously diminished the strength of the fighting army. The 
 Russian retreat was good strategy and it was carried on with most 
 extraordinary cleverness. 
 
 It is unnecessary to describe the events which succeeded the 
 fall of Warsaw hi great detail. There was a constant succession 
 of German victories and Russian defeats, but never was one of the 
 Russian armies enveloped or destroyed. Back they went, day 
 after day, always fighting; each great Russian fortress resisted 
 until it saw itself hi danger, and then safely withdrew its troops. 
 Kovno fell and Novogeorgievsk, and Ivangorad, then Ossowietz 
 was abandoned, and Brest-Litovsk and Grodno. 
 
 On September 5th the Emperor of Russia signed the following 
 order: 
 
 Today I have taken supreme command of all the forces of the sea 
 and land armies operating in the theater of war. With firm faith in the 
 clemency of God, with unshakable assurance in final victory, we shall 
 fulfil our sacred duty to defend our country to the last. We will not 
 dishonor the Russian land.
 
 844 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The Grand Duke Nicholas was made Viceroy of the Caucasus, 
 a post which took him out of the main theater of fighting but gave 
 him a great field for fresh military activity. He had been bearing 
 a heavy burden, and had shown himself to be a great commander. 
 He had outmaneuvered von Hindenburg again and again, and 
 though finally the Russian armies under his command had been 
 driven back, the retreat itself was a proof of his military ability, 
 not only hi its conception, but hi the way hi which it was done. 
 
 The Emperor chose General Alexieff as his Chief of General 
 Staff. He was the ablest of the great generals who had been lead- 
 ing the Russian army. With this change in command a new spirit 
 seemed to come over Russia. The German advance, however, 
 was not yet completely checked. It was approaching Vilna. 
 
 The fighting around Vilna was the bitterest in the whole 
 long retreat. On the 18th of September it fell, but the Russian 
 troops were safely removed and the Russian resistance had become 
 strong. Munitions were pouring into the new Russian army. 
 The news from the battle-front began to show improvement. On 
 September 8th General Brussilov, further in the south, had attacked 
 the Germans hi front of Tarnopol, and defeated them with heavy 
 loss. More than seventeen thousand men were captured with 
 much artillery. Soon the news came of other advances. Dubno 
 was retaken and Lutsk. 
 
 The end of September saw the German advance definitely 
 checked. The Russian forces were now extended in a line from 
 Riga on the north, along the river Dvina, down to Dvinsk. Then 
 turning to the east along the river, it again turned south and so 
 on down east of the Pripet Marshes, it followed an almost straight 
 line to the southern frontier. Its two strongest points were Riga, 
 on the Gulf of Riga, which lay under the protection of the guns 
 of the fleet, and Dvinsk, through which ran the great Petrograd 
 Railway line. Against these two points von Hindenburg directed 
 his attack. And now, for the first tune in many months, he met 
 with complete failure. The German fleet attempted to assist him 
 on the Gulf of Riga, but was defeated by the Russian Baltic fleet 
 with heavy losses. A bombardment turned out a failure and the 
 German armies were compelled to retire. 
 
 A more serious effort was made against Dvinsk but was equally 
 unsuccessful and the German losses were immense. Again and
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 
 
 345 
 
 THE GERMAN ATTACK ON THE ROAD TO PETROGRAD
 
 346 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 again the attempt was made to cross the Dvina River, but without 
 success; the German invasion was definitely stopped. By the 
 end of October there was complete stagnation in the northern 
 sector of the battle line, and though in November there were a 
 number of battles, nothing happened of great importance. 
 
 During the year 1916 the Russian armies seemed to have 
 had a new birth. At last they were supplied with guns and muni- 
 tions. They waited until they were ready. In March a series 
 of battles was fought in the neighborhood of Lake Narotch, and 
 eight successive attacks were made against the German army, 
 intrenched between] Lake Narotch and Lake Vischenebski. The 
 Germans at first were driven back and badly defeated. Later on, 
 however, the Russian artillery was sent to another section, and 
 the Germans were able to recover their position. During June the 
 Russians attacked all along the southern part of their line. In 
 three weeks they had regained a whole province. Lutsk and 
 Dubno had been retaken; two hundred thousand men and hun- 
 dreds of guns, had been captured, and the Austrian line had been 
 pierced and shattered. Further south the German army had been 
 compelled to retreat, and the Russian armies were in Bukovina 
 and Galicia. On the 10th of August Stanislau fell. 
 
 By this tune two Austrian armies had been shattered, over 
 three hundred and fifty thousand prisoners taken, and nearly 
 a million men put out of action. Germany, however, was sending 
 reinforcements as fast as possible, and putting up a desperate 
 defense. Nevertheless everything was encouraging for Russia 
 and she entered upon the whiter hi a very different condition from 
 her condition hi the previous year. Then she had just ended her 
 great retreat. Now she had behind her a series of successes. But 
 a new difficulty had arisen hi the loss of the political harmony at 
 home which had marked the first years of the war. Dark days 
 were ahead.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 How THE BALKANS DECIDED 
 
 FOR more than half a century the Balkans have presented a 
 problem which has disturbed the minds of the statesmen 
 of Europe. Again and again, during that period, it has 
 seemed that in the Balkan mountains might be kindled a 
 blaze which might set the world afire. Balkan politics is a labyrinth 
 in which one might easily be lost. The inhabitants of the Balkans 
 represent many races, each with its own ambition, and, for the 
 most part, military. There were Serbs, and Bulgarians, and Turks, 
 and Roumanians, and Greeks, and their territorial divisions did 
 not correspond to their nationalities. The land was largely moun- 
 tainous, with great gaps that make it, in a sense, the highway of 
 the world. From 1466 to 1878 the Balkans was in the dominion of 
 the Turks. In the early days, while the Turks were warring 
 against Hungary, then- armies marched through the Balkan hills. 
 The natives kept apart, and preserved then* language, religion and 
 customs. 
 
 In the nineteenth century, as the Turks grew weaker, then- 
 subject people began to seek independence. Greece came first, 
 and, in 1829, aided by France, Russia and Great Britain, she became 
 an independent kingdom. Serbia revolted in 1804, and by 1820 
 was an autonomous state, though still tributary to Turkey. In 
 1859, Roumania became autonomous. The rising of Bulgaria in 
 1876, however, was really the beginning of the succession of 
 events which ultimately led to the World War of 1914-18. The 
 Bulgarian insurrection was crushed by the Turks in such a way as 
 to stir the indignation of the whole world. What are known as 
 the "Bulgarian Atrocities" seem mild today, but they led to the 
 Russo-Turkish War in 1877. 
 
 The treaty of Berlin, by which that war was settled in 1878, 
 was one of those treaties which could only lead to trouble, 
 deprived Russia of much of the benefit of her victory, and left 
 nearly every racial question unsettled. Roumania lost Bessarabia, 
 
 347
 
 348 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 which was mainly inhabited by Roumanians. Bosnia and 
 Herzegovina were handed over to the administration of Austria. 
 Turkey was allowed to retain Macedonia, Albania and Thrace. 
 Serbia was given Nish, but had no outlet to the sea. Greece 
 obtained Thessaly, and a new province was made of the country 
 south of the Balkans called Eastern Rumelia. From that time 
 on, quarrel after quarrel made up the history of the Balkan peoples, 
 each of whom sought the assistance and support of some one jf 
 the great powers. Russia and Austria were constantly intriguing 
 with the new states, hi the hope of extending then- own domains 
 in the direction of Constantinople. 
 
 The history of Bulgaria shows that that nation has been con- 
 tinually the center of these intrigues. In 1879 they elected as 
 their sovereign Prince Alexander of Battenburg, whose career 
 might almost be called romantic. A splendid soldier and an accom- 
 plished gentleman, he stands out as an interesting figure in the sordid 
 politics of the Balkans. He identified himself with his new country. 
 In 1885 he brought about a union with Eastern Rumelia, which 
 led to a disagreement with Russia. 
 
 Serbia, doubtless at Russian instigation, suddenly declared 
 war, but was overwhelmed by Prince Alexander in short order. 
 Russia then abducted Prince Alexander, but later was forced to 
 restore him. However, Russian intrigues, and his failure to obtain 
 support from one of the great powers, forced his abdication in 1886. 
 
 In 1887 Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became the 
 Prince of Bulgaria. He, also, was a remarkable man, but not the 
 romantic figure of his predecessor. He seems to have been a sort of 
 a parody of a king. He was fond of ostentation, and full of ambi- 
 tion. He was a personal coward, but extremely cunning. During 
 his long reign he built up Bulgaria into a powerful, independent 
 kingdom, and even assumed the title of Czar of Bulgaria. During 
 the first days of his reign he was kept safely on the throne by his 
 mother, the Princess Clementine, a daughter of Louis Phillippe, who, 
 according to Gladstone, was the cleverest woman hi Europe, and 
 for a few years Bulgaria was at peace. In 1908 he declared Bulgaria 
 independent, and its independence was recognized by Turkey on 
 e payment of an indemnity. During this period Russia was the 
 tector of Bulgaria, but the Bulgarian fox was looking also for 
 the aid of Austria. Serbia more and more relied upon Russia.
 
 
 Photo by International Film Serrice. 
 
 TRANSPORTING WOUNDED AMID THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE 
 
 ITALIAN MOUNTAIN FRONT 
 
 The isolated mountain positions were only accessible to the bases of opera- 
 ions by these aerial cable cars. This picture, taken during the Austrian retreat, 
 shows a wounded soldier being taken down the mountain by this means. 
 
 \ 
 
 ' : ^^tj%' : ~ -' 
 
 .;.4,,:*-^K;^^f 
 
 ciV 5* *' ' -^>^>^*/ - 
 
 *SsL-._ :-v n .^% 
 
 O Vndvruood an d Underwood, N. Y. 
 
 m . , British Official Photo 
 
 THE NERVE-SYSTEM OF THE FIGHTING ARMIES 
 
 human th ^ signal 8y8 tem was to the armies,
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 351 
 
 The Austrian treatment of the Slavs was a source of constant 
 irritation to Serbia. Roumania had a divided feeling. Her loss 
 of Bessarabia to Russia had caused ill feeling, but in Austria's 
 province of Transylvania there were millions of Roumanians, 
 whom Roumania desired to bring under her rule. Greece was 
 fearful of Russia, because of Russia's desire for the control of 
 Constantinople. All of these nations, too, were deeply conscious 
 of the Austro-German ambitions for extension of their power 
 through to the East. Each of these principalities was also jealous 
 of the other. Bulgaria and Serbia had been at war; many Bul- 
 garians were in the Roumanian territory, many Serbians, Bulgarians 
 and Greeks in Macedonia. There was only one tie in common, 
 that was then* hatred of Turkey. In 1912 a league was formed, 
 under the direction of the Greek statesman, Venizelos, having for 
 its object an attack on Turkey. By secret treaties arrangements 
 were made for the division of the land, which they hoped to obtain 
 from Turkey. 
 
 War was declared, and Turkey was decisively defeated, and 
 then the trouble began. Serbia and Bulgaria had been particularly 
 anxious for an outlet to the sea, and in the treaty between them 
 it had been arranged that Serbia should have an outlet on the 
 Adriatic, while Bulgaria was to obtain an outlet on the JSgean. 
 The Triple Alliance positively refused Serbia its share of the 
 Adriatic coast. Serbia insisted, therefore, on a revision of the 
 treaty, which would enable her to have a seaport on the JEgean. 
 
 An attempt was made to settle the question by arbitration, 
 but King Ferdinand refused, whereupon, in July, 1913, the Second 
 Balkan War began. Bulgaria was attacked by Greece and Serbia, 
 and Turkey took a chance and regained Adrianople, and even 
 Roumania, which had been neutral in the First Baltic War, mobil- 
 ized her armies and marched toward Sofia. Bulgaria surrendered, 
 and on the 10th of August the Treaty of Bucharest was signed by 
 the Balkan States. 
 
 As a result of this Bulgaria was left in a thoroughly dissatisfied 
 state of mind. She had been the leader in the war against Turkey, 
 she had suffered heavy losses, and she had gained almost nothing. 
 Moreover she had lost to Roumania a territory containing a 
 quarter of a million Bulgarians, and a splendid harbor on the Black 
 Sea. Serbia and Greece were the big winners. Such a treaty
 
 352 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 could not be a final settlement. The Balkans were left seething 
 with unrest. Serbia, though she had gained much, was still dis- 
 satisfied. Her ambitions, however, now turned in the direction 
 of the Jugoslavs under the rule of Austria, and it was her agitation 
 in this matter which directly brought on the Great War. But 
 Bulgaria was sullen and ready for revenge. When the Great War 
 began, therefore, Roumania, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece were 
 strongly in sympathy with Russia, who had been their backer and 
 friend. Bulgaria, in spite of all she owed to Russia in the early 
 days, was now ready to find protection from an alliance with the 
 Central Powers. Her feeling was well known to the Allies, and 
 every effort was made to obtain her friendship and, if possible, 
 her aid. 
 
 Viviani, then Premier of France, in an address before the 
 French Chamber of Deputies, said: 
 
 The Balkan question was raised at the outset of the war, even before 
 it came to the attention of the world. The Bucharest Treaty had left hi 
 Bulgaria profound heartburnings. Neither King nor people were resigned 
 to the loss of the fruits of their efforts and sacrifices, and to the conse- 
 quences of the unjustifiable war they had waged upon their former allies. 
 From the first day, the Allied governments took into account the dangers 
 of such a situation, and sought a means to remedy it. Their policy has 
 proceeded in a spirit of justice and generosity which has characterized 
 the attitude of Great Britain, Russia and Italy as well as France. We 
 have attempted to re-establish the union of the Baltic peoples, and in 
 accord with them seek the realization of their principal national aspira- 
 tions. The equilibrium thus obtained by mutual sacrifices really made by 
 each would have been the best guarantee of future peace. Despite con- 
 stant efforts in which Roumania, Greece and Serbia lent their assistance, 
 we have been unable to obtain the sincere collaboration of the Bulgarian 
 Government. The difiiculties respecting the negotiations were always at 
 Sofia. 
 
 At the beginning of the war it appears, therefore, that Bul- 
 garia was entering into negotiations with the Allies, hoping to regain 
 in this way, some of the territory she had lost in the Second Baltic 
 War. Many of her leading statesmen and most distinguished gen- 
 erals favored the cause of Russia, but hi May came the great 
 German advance in Galicia, and the Allies' stalemate in the 
 Dardanelles, and the king, and his supporters, found the way 
 clear for a movement in favor of Germany. Still protesting 
 neutrality they signed a secret treaty with Berlin, Vienna and
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 353 
 
 Constantinople on July 17th. The Central Powers had promised 
 them not only what they had been asking, in Macedonia, but also 
 the Greek territory of Epirus. This treaty was concealed from 
 those Bulgarian leaders who still held to Russia, and on the 5th of 
 October Bulgaria formally entered into war on the side of Germany, 
 and began an attack on Serbia. 
 
 The full account of the intrigue which led to this action haa 
 never been told. It is not improbable that King Ferdinand him- 
 self never had any other idea than to act as he did, but he dis- 
 sembled for a long time. He set forth his claims in detail to the 
 Allies, who used every effort to induce Roumania, Greece and 
 Serbia to make the concessions that would be necessary. Such 
 concessions were made, but not until it was too late. In a tele- 
 gram from Milan dated September 24th, an account is given of 
 an interview between Czar Ferdinand and a committee from those 
 Bulgarians who were opposed to the King's policy. 
 
 "Mind your own head. I shall mind mine!" are the words 
 which the King spoke to M. Stambulivski when he received the 
 five opposition members who had come to warn him of the danger 
 to which he was exposing himself and the nation. 
 
 The five members were received by the King in the red room 
 at the Royal Palace and chairs had been placed for them around a 
 big table. The King entered the room, accompanied by Prince 
 Boris, the heir apparent, and his secretary, M. Boocovitch. 
 
 "Be seated, gentlemen," said the King, as he sat down him- 
 self, as if for a very quiet talk. His secretary took a seat at the 
 table, a little apart to take notes, but the conversation immediately 
 became so heated and rapid that he was unable to write it down. 
 
 The first to speak was M. Malinoff, leader of the Democratic 
 party, who said: "The policy adopted by the government is one 
 of adventure, tending to throw Bulgaria into the arms of Germany, 
 and driving her to attack Serbia. This policy is contrary to the 
 aspirations, feeling and interests of the country, and if the govern- 
 ment obstinately continues in this way it will provoke disturbances 
 of the greatest gravity." It was the first allusion to the possi- 
 bility of a revolution, but the King listened without flinching. 
 M. Malinoff concluded: "For these reasons we beg your Majesty, 
 after having vainly asked the government, to convoke the Chamber 
 immediately, and we ask this convocation for the precise object of
 
 354 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 saving the country from dangerous adventures by the formation 
 of a coalition Ministry." 
 
 The King remained silent, and, with a nod, invited M. Stam- 
 bulivski to speak. M. Stambulivski was a leader of the Agrarian 
 party, a man of sturdy, rustic appearance, accustomed to speak 
 out his mind boldly, and exceedingly popular among the peasant 
 population. He grew up himself as a peasant, and wore the labor- 
 er's blouse up till very recently. He stood up and looking the King 
 straight in the face said in resolute tones: "In the name of every 
 farmer in Bulgaria I add to what M. Malinoff has just said, that 
 the Bulgarian people hold you personally responsible more than 
 your government, for the disastrous adventure of 1913. If a 
 similar adventure were to be repeated now its gravity this tune 
 would be irreparable. The responsibility would once more fall 
 on your policy, which is contrary to the welfare of our country, 
 and the nation would not hesitate to call you personally to account. 
 That there may be no mistake as to the real wishes of the country 
 I present to your Majesty my country's demand hi writing." 
 
 He handed the King a letter containing the resolution voted 
 by the Agrarians. The King read it and then turned to M. Zanoff, 
 leader of the Radical Democrats, and asked him to speak. M. 
 Zanoff did so, speaking very slowly and impressively, and also 
 looking the King straight hi the face: "Sire, I had sworn never 
 again to set foot inside your palace, and if I come today it is 
 because the interests of my country are above personal questions, 
 and have compelled me. Your Majesty may read what I have to 
 say in this letter, which I submit to you in behalf of our party." 
 
 He handed the letter and the King read it and still remained 
 silent. Then he said, turning to his former Prime Minister and 
 ablest politician: "Gueshoff, it is now your turn to speak." 
 
 M. Gueshoff got up and said: "I also am fully in accord with 
 what M. Stambulivski has just said. No matter how severe his 
 words may have been in their simple unpolished frankness, which 
 ignores the ordinary formalities of etiquette, they entirely express 
 our unanimous opinion. We all, as representing the opposition, 
 consider the present policy of the government contrary to the 
 sentiments and interests of the country, because by driving it to 
 make common cause with Germany it makes us the enemies of 
 Russia, which was our deliverer, and the adventure into which we
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 355 
 
 are thus thrown compromises our future. We disapprove most 
 absolutely of such a policy, and we also ask that the Chamber be 
 convoked, and a Ministry formed with the co-operation of all 
 parties." 
 
 After M. Gueshoff, the former Premier, M. Daneff, also spoke, 
 and associated himself with what had already been said. 
 
 The King remained still silent for a while, then he, also, stood 
 up and said: "Gentlemen, I have listened to your threats, and 
 will refer them to the President of the Council of Ministers, that 
 he may know and decide what to do." 
 
 All present bowed, and a chilly silence followed. The King 
 had evidently taken the frank warning given him as a threat to him 
 personally, and he walked up and down nervously for a while. 
 Prince Boris turned aside to talk with the Secretary, who had 
 resumed taking notes. The King continued pacing to and fro, 
 evidently very nettled. Then, approaching M. Zanoff, and as if 
 to change the conversation, he asked him for news about this 
 season's harvest. 
 
 M. Zanoff abruptly replied: "Your Majesty knows that we 
 have not come here to talk about the harvest, but of something 
 far more important at present, namely, the policy of your govern- 
 ment, which is on the point of mining our country. We can on 
 no account approve the policy that is anti-Russian. If the Crown 
 and M. Radoslavoff persist hi their policy we shall not answer for 
 the consequences. We have not desired to seek out those responsi- 
 ble for the disaster of 1913, because other grave events have been 
 precipitated. But it was a disaster due to criminal folly. It 
 must not be repeated by an attack on Serbia by Bulgaria, as seems 
 contemplated by M. Radoslavoff, and which according to all 
 appearances, has the approval of your Majesty. It would be a 
 premeditated crime, and deserve to be punished." 
 
 The King hesitated a moment, and then held out his hand to 
 M. Zanoff, saying: "All right. At all events I thank you for your 
 frankness." Then, approaching M. Stambulivski, he repeated to 
 him his question about the harvest. 
 
 M. Stambuliviski, as a simple peasant, at first allowed himself 
 to be led into a discussion of this secondary matter, and had 
 expressed the hope that the prohibition on the export of cereals 
 would be removed, when he suddenly remembered, and said:
 
 356 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "But this is not the moment to speak of these things. I again 
 repeat to your Majesty that the country does not want a policy 
 of adventure which cost it so dear in 1913. It was your own 
 policy too. Before 1913 we thought you were a great diplomatist, 
 but since then we have seen what fruits your diplomacy bears. 
 You took advantage of all the loopholes in the Constitution to 
 direct the country according to your own views. Your ministers 
 are nothing. You alone are the author of this policy and you will 
 have to bear the responsibility." 
 
 The King replied frigidly, "The policy which I have decided 
 to follow is that which I consider the best for the welfare of the 
 country." 
 
 "It is a policy which will only bring misfortune," replied the 
 sturdy Agrarian. "It will lead to fresh catastrophes, and com- 
 promise not only the future of our country, but that of your 
 dynasty, and may cost you your head." 
 
 It was as bold a saying as ever was uttered before a King, and 
 Ferdinand looked astonished at the peasant who was thus speak- 
 ing to him. He said, "Do not mind my head; it is already old. 
 Rather mind your own!" he added with a disdainful smile, and 
 turned away. 
 
 M. Stambulivski retorted: "My head matters little, Sire. 
 What matters more is the good of our country." 
 
 The King paid no more attention to him, and took M. Gueshoff 
 and M. Danoff apart, who again insisted on convoking the Chamber, 
 and assured him that M. Radoslavoff's government would be in a 
 minority. They also referred to the Premier's oracular utterances. 
 
 "Ah I" said the King. "Has Radoslavoff spoken to you, and 
 what has he said?" 
 
 "He has said ' replied the leaders, "that Bulgaria would 
 march with Germany and attack Serbia." 
 
 The King made a vague gesture, and then said: 'Oh, I did 
 not know." 
 
 This incident throws a strong light upon the conflict which 
 was going on in the Balkan states, between those Kings who were 
 of German origin, and who believed in the German power, and 
 their people who loved Russia. King Ferdinand got his warning. 
 He did not listen, and he lost his throne. All this, however, took 
 place before the Bulgarian declaration of war. Yet much had
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 357 
 
 already shown what King Ferdinand was about to do. The 
 Allies, to be sure, were incredulous, and were doing their best to 
 cultivate the good will of the treacherous King. On September 
 23d the official order was given for Bulgaria's mobilization. She, 
 however, officially declared that her position was that of armed 
 neutrality and that she had no aggressive intentions. As it has 
 developed, she was acting under the direction of the German 
 High Command. 
 
 It was at this period that Germany had failed to crush Russia 
 in the struggle on the Vilna, and, in accordance with her usual 
 strategy when one plan failed, another was undertaken. It seemed 
 to her, therefore, that the punishment of Serbia would make up 
 for other failures, and moreover would enable her to assist Turkey, 
 which needed munitions, besides releasing for Germany supplies 
 of food and other material which might come from Turkey. They 
 therefore entrusted an expedition against Serbia to Field Marshal 
 von Mackensen, and had begun to gather an army for that purpose, 
 north of the Danube. 
 
 This army of course was mainly composed of Austrian troops, 
 but was stiffened throughout by some of the best regiments from 
 the German army. To assist this new army they counted upon 
 Bulgaria, with whom they had already a secret treaty, and hi 
 spite of the falsehoods issued from Sofia, the Bulgarian mobiliza- 
 tion was meant for an attack on Serbia. The condition of affairs 
 was well understood hi Russia. 
 
 On October 2, 1915, M. Sazonov, Russian Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs, issued the following statement. "The situation in the 
 Balkans is very grave. The whole Russian nation is aroused by 
 the unthinkable treachery of Ferdinand and his government to 
 the Slavic cause. Bulgaria owes her independence to Russia, and 
 yet seems willing now to become a vassal of Russia's enemies. 
 In her attitude towards Serbia, when Serbia is fighting for her very 
 existence, Bulgaria puts herself in the class with Turkey. We do 
 not believe that the Bulgarian people sympathize with the action of 
 then- ruler; therefore, the Allies are disposed to give them tune for 
 reflection. If they persist in then- present treacherous course they 
 must answer to Russia." 
 
 The next day the following ultimatum from Russia was 
 handed the Bulgarian Prime Minister:
 
 358 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Events which are taking place in Bulgaria at this moment give evi- 
 dence of the definite decision of King Ferdinand's Government to place 
 the fate of its country in the hands of Germany. The presence of German 
 and Austrian officers at the Ministry of War and on the staffs of the army, 
 the concentration of troops in the zone bordering on Serbia, and the 
 extensive financial support accepted from her enemies by the Sofia Cab- 
 inet, no longer leave any doubt as to the object of the present military 
 preparations of Bulgaria. The powers of the Entente, who have at 
 heart the realization of the aspirations of the Bulgarian people, have on 
 many occasions warned M. Radoslavoff that any hostile act against 
 Serbia would be considered as directed against themselves. The assur- 
 ances given by the head of the Bulgarian Cabinet in reply to these warn- 
 ings are contradicted by facts. The representative of Russia, bound to 
 Bulgaria by the imperishable memory of her liberation from the Turkish 
 yoke, cannot sanction by his presence preparations for fratricidal aggres- 
 sion against a Slav and allied people. The Russian Minister has, there- 
 fore, received orders to leave Bulgaria with all the staffs of the Legation 
 and the Consulates if the Bulgarian Government does not within twenty- 
 four hours openly break with the enemies of the Slav cause and of Russia, 
 and does not at once proceed to send away the officers belonging to the 
 armies of states who are at war with the powers of the Entente. 
 
 Similar ultimatums were presented by representatives of 
 France and Great Britain. Bulgaria's reply to these ultimatums was 
 described as bold to the verge of insolence. In substance she 
 denied that German officers were on the staffs of Bulgarian armies, 
 but said that if they were present that fact concerned only Bulgaria, 
 which reserved the right to invite whomsoever she liked. The 
 Bulgarian Government then issued a manifesto to the nation, an- 
 nouncing its decision to enter the war on the side of the Central 
 Powers. The manifesto reads as follows: 
 
 The Central Powers have promised us parts of Serbia, creating an 
 
 Austro-Hungarian border line, which is absolutely necessary for Bulgaria's 
 
 independence of the Serbians. We do not believe in the promises of the 
 
 Quadruple Entente. Italy, one of the Allies, treacherously broke her 
 
 treaty of thirty-three years. We believe in Germany, which is fighting 
 
 3 whole world to fulfil her treaty with Austria. Bulgaria must fight 
 
 3 victor's side. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians are victorious 
 
 I fronts. Russia soon will have collapsed entirely. Then will come 
 
 turn of France, Italy and Serbia. Bulgaria would commit suicide if 
 
 did not fight on the side of the Central Powers, which offer the only 
 
 lity of realizing her desire for a union of all Bulgarian peoples. 
 
 The manifesto also stated that Russia was fighting for Con- 
 stantinople and the Dardanelles; Great Britain to destroy Ger-
 
 359 
 
 many's competition; France for Alsace and Lorraine, and the 
 other allies to rob foreign countries; the Central Powers were 
 declared to be fighting to defend property and assure peaceful 
 progress. The manifesto filled seven columns hi the newspapers, 
 and discussed at some length Bulgaria's trade interests. It attacked 
 Serbia most bitterly, declaring that Serbia had oppressed the Bul- 
 garian population of Macedonia hi a most barbarous manner; 
 that she had attacked Bulgarian territory and that the Bulgarian 
 troops had been forced to fight for the defense of their own soil. 
 In fact it was written in quite the usual German manner. 
 
 Long before this M. Venizelos, the Greek Premier, had per- 
 ceived what was coming. Greece was bound by treaty to assist 
 Serbia if she were attacked by Bulgaria. On September 21st, 
 Venizelos asked France and Britain for a hundred and fifty thousand 
 troops. On the 24th, the Allies agreed to this and Greece at once 
 began to mobilize. His policy was received with great enthusiasm 
 in the Greek Chamber, and former Premier Gounaris, amid great 
 applause, expressed his support of the government. 
 
 On October 6th an announcement from Athens stated that 
 Premier Venizelos had resigned, the King having informed him 
 that he was unable to support the policy of his Minister. King 
 Constantine was a brother-in-law of the German Emperor, and 
 although professing neutrality he had steadily opposed M. Veni- 
 zelos' policy. He had once before forced M. Venizelos' resignation, 
 but at the general elections which followed, the Greek statesman 
 was returned to power by a decisive majority. 
 
 Intense indignation was caused by the King's action, though 
 the King was able to procure the support of a considerable party. 
 Venizelos' resignation was precipitated by the landing of the Allied 
 troops hi Saloniki. They had come at the invitation of Venizelos, 
 but the opposition protested against the occupation of Greek terri- 
 tory by foreign troops. After a disorderly session in which Veni- 
 zelos explained to the Chamber of Deputies the circumstances 
 connected with the landing, the Chamber passed a vote of confi- 
 dence in the government by 142 to 102. The substance of his 
 argument may be found in his conclusion: 
 
 "We have a treaty with Serbia. If we are honest we will 
 leave nothing undone to insure its fulfilment hi letter and spirit. 
 Only if we are rogues may we find excuses to avoid our obligations."
 
 SCO 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 361 
 
 Upon his first resignation M. Zaimis was appointed Premier, 
 and declared for a policy of armed neutrality. This position was 
 sharply criticised by Venizelos, but for a time became the policy 
 of the Greek Government. Meantime the Allied troops were 
 arriving at Saloniki. On October 3d, seventy thousand French 
 troops arrived. A formal protest was made by the Greek command- 
 ant, who then directed the harbor officials to assist in arranging 
 the landing. In a short time the Allied forces amounted to a 
 hundred and fifty thousand men, but the German campaign was 
 moving rapidly. 
 
 The German Balkan army captured Belgrade on the 9th of 
 October, and by that date two Bulgarian armies were on the 
 Serbian frontier. Serbia found herself opposed by two hundred 
 thousand Austro-Germans and a quarter of a million Bulgarians. 
 Greece and Roumania fully mobilized and were watching the 
 conflict, and the small allied contingent at Saloniki was preparing 
 to march inland to the aid of Serbia. 
 
 The conduct of Greece on this occasion has led to universal 
 criticism. The King himself, no doubt, was mainly moved by 
 his German wife and the influence of his Imperial brother-in-law. 
 Those that were associated with him were probably moved by 
 fear. They had been much impressed by the strength of the 
 German armies. They had seen the success of the great German 
 offensive in Russia, while the French and British were being held 
 in the West. They knew, too, the strength of Bulgaria. The 
 national characteristic of the Greeks is prudence, and it cannot 
 be denied that there was great reason to suppose that the armies of 
 Greece would not be able to resist the new attack. With these 
 views Venizelos, the greatest statesman that Greece had pro- 
 duced for many years, did not agree, and the election seemed to 
 show that he was supported by the majority of the Greek people. 
 
 This was another case where the Allies, faced by a dangerous 
 situation, were acting with too great caution. In Gallipoli they 
 had failed, because at the very beginning they had not used their 
 full strength. Now, again, knowing as they did all that depended 
 upon it, bound as they were to the most loyal support of Serbia, 
 the aid they sent was too small to be more than a drop in the bucket. 
 It must be remembered, however, that the greatest leaders among 
 the Allies were at all times opposed to in any way scattering their
 
 362 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 strength. They believed that the war was to be won in France. 
 Military leaders in particular yielded under protest to the political 
 leaders when expeditions of this character were undertaken. 
 
 Certainly this is true, that the world believed that Serbia had a 
 right to Allied assistance. The gallant little nation was fighting 
 for her life, and public honor demanded that she should be aided. 
 It was this strong feeling that led to the action that was taken, hi 
 spite of the military opinions. It was, however, too late. 
 
 In the second week of October Serbia found herself faced by 
 an enemy which was attacking her on three sides. She herself had 
 been greatly weakened. Her losses in 1914, when she had driven 
 Austria from her border, must have been at least two hundred 
 thousand men. She had suffered from pestilence and famine. Her 
 strength now could not have been more than two hundred thousand, 
 and though she was fairly well supplied with munitions, she was 
 so much outnumbered that she could hardly hope for success. 
 On her west she was facing the Austro-Gennan armies; on her east 
 Bulgaria; on the south Albania. Her source of supplies was 
 Saloniki and this was really her only hope. If the Allies at Salo- 
 niki could stop the Bulgarian movement, the Serbians might face 
 again the Austro-Gennans. They expected this help from the 
 Allies. 
 
 At Nish the town was decorated and the school children 
 waited outside the station with bouquets to present to the coming 
 reinforcements. But the Allies did not come. 
 
 Von Mackensen's plan was simple enough. His object was 
 to win a way to Constantinople. This could be done either by the 
 control of the Danube or the Ottoman Railroad. To control the 
 Danube he had to seize northeastern Serbia for the length of the 
 river. This was comparatively easy and would give him a clear 
 water way to the Bulgarian railways connected with Constanti- 
 nople. The Ottoman Railway was a harder route to win. It 
 meant an advance to the southeast, which would clear the Moravo 
 valley up to Nish, and then the Nishava valley up to Bulgaria. 
 The movements involved were somewhat complex, but easily 
 earned out on account of the very great numerical superiority of 
 von Mackensen's forces. 
 
 On September 19th Belgrade was bombarded. The Serbian 
 positions were gradually destroyed. On the 7th of October the
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 
 
 363 
 
 German armies crossed the Danube, and on the 8th the Serbians 
 began to retreat. There was great destruction in Belgrade and 
 the Bulgarian General, Mishitch, was forced slowly back to the 
 foothills of the Tser range. 
 
 For a tune von Mackensen moved slowly. He did not wish 
 to drive the Serbians too far south. On the 12th of October the 
 Bulgarian army began its attack. At first it was held, but by 
 October 17th was pushing forward all along the line. On the 20th 
 they entered Uskub, a central point of all the routes of southern 
 
 Serbia. This practically 
 separated the Allied forces 
 at Saloniki from the Serb- 
 ian armies further north. 
 Disaster followed dis- 
 aster. On Tuesday, 
 October 26th, a junction 
 of Bulgarian and Austro- 
 
 German pa- 
 trols was com- 
 pleted in the 
 D obr avodo 
 mountains. 
 General von Gallwitz 
 announced that a mo- 
 ment of world signifi- GERMANY'S 
 cance had come, that the 
 "Orient and Occident had been united, and on the basis of this 
 firm and indissoluble union a new and mighty vierbund comes into 
 being, created by the victory of our arms." 
 
 The road from Germany, through Austria-Hungary and Bul- 
 garia to Turkey lay open. On October 31st, Milanovac was lost, 
 and on November 2d, Kraguyevac surrendered, the decisive 
 battle of the war. On November 7th, Nish was captured. General 
 Jecoff announced: "After fierce and sanguinary fighting the for- 
 tress of Nish has been conquered by our brave victorious troops 
 and the Bulgarian flag has been hoisted to remain forever."
 
 364 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The Serbian army continued steadily to retreat, until on 
 November 8th, advancing Franco-British troops almost joined 
 with them, presenting a line from Prilep to Dorolovo on the Bul- 
 garian frontier. At this tune the Bulgarian army suffered a defeat 
 at Izvor, and also at Strumitza. The Allied armies were now 
 reported to number three hundred thousand men. The Austro- 
 Germans by this tune had reached the mountainous region of 
 Serbia, and were meeting with strong resistance. 
 
 On November 13th, German despatches from the front claimed 
 the capture of 54,000 Serbian prisoners. The aged King Peter 
 of Serbia was in full flight, followed by the Crown Prince. The 
 Serbians, however, were still fighting and on November 15th, 
 made a stand on the western bank of the Morava River, and recap- 
 tured the town of Tatova. 
 
 At this tune the Allied world was watching the Serbian struggle 
 with interest and sympathy. In the House of Lords, Lord Lans- 
 downe in a discussion of the English effort to give them aid said: 
 "It is impossible to think or speak of Serbia without a tribute to 
 the wondrous gallantry with which that little country withstood 
 two separate invasions, and has lately been struggling against a 
 third. She repelled the first two invasions by an effort which I 
 venture to think formed one of the most glorious chapters in the 
 history of this Great War." 
 
 Serbia, however, was compelled once more to retreat, and 
 their retreat soon became a rout. Then* guns were abandoned 
 and the roads were strewn with fainting, starving men. The suf- 
 ferings of the Serbian people during this time are indescribable. 
 Men, women, and children struggled along in the wake of the armies 
 without food or shelter. King Peter himself was able to escape, 
 with the greatest difficulty. By traveling on horseback and mule 
 back in disguise he finally reached Scutari and crossed to Brindisi 
 and finally arrived at Saloniki on New Year's Day, crippled and 
 almost blind, but still full of fight. 
 
 "I believe," he said, "in the liberty of Serbia, as I believe in 
 God. It was the dream of my youth. It was for that I fought 
 throughout manhood. It has become the faith of the twilight of 
 my life. I live only to see Serbia free. I pray that God may let 
 me live until the day of redemption of my people. On that day I 
 am ready to die, if the Lord wills. I have struggled a great deal
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 365 
 
 in my life, and am tired, bruised and broken from it, but I will see, 
 I shall see, this triumph. I shall not die before the victory of my 
 country." 
 
 The Serbian army had been driven out of Serbia. But the 
 Allies who had come up from Saloniki were still unbeaten. On 
 October 12th, the French General Serrail arrived and moved with 
 the French forces, as has already been said, to the Serbian aid. 
 They met with a number of successes. On October 19th they 
 seized the Bulgarian town of Struminitza, and occupied strong 
 positions on the left bank of the Vardar. On October 27th they 
 occupied Krivolak, with the British Tenth Division, which had 
 joined them on then 1 right. They then occupied the summit of 
 Karahodjali, which commanded the whole section of the valley. 
 This the Bulgarians attacked hi force on the 5th of November, 
 but were badly repulsed. They then attempted to move toward 
 Babuna Pass, twenty-five miles west of Krivolak, where they 
 hoped to join hands with the Serbian column at that point. 
 
 They were being faced by a Bulgarian army numbering one 
 hundred and twenty-five thousand men, and found themselves in 
 serious danger. They were compelled to fall back into what is 
 called the " Entrenched Camp of Kavodar" without bringing the 
 aid to the Serbian army that they had hoped. The Allied expedi- 
 tion to aid Serbia had failed. It was hopeless from the start, and, 
 if anything, had injured Serbia by raising false expectations which 
 had interfered with their plans. 
 
 During the whole of this disastrous campaign a desperate 
 political struggle was going on in Greece. On November 3d, the 
 Zaimis Cabinet tendered its resignation to King Constantine. 
 The trouble was over a bill for extra pay to army officers, but it 
 led to an elaborate discussion of the Greek war policy. M. Veni- 
 zelos made two long speeches defending his policy, and condemning 
 the policy of his opponents in regard to the Balkan situation. He 
 said that he deplored the fact that Serbia was being left to be 
 crushed by Bulgaria, Greece's hereditary enemy, who would not 
 scruple later to fall on Greece herself. He spoke of the King in a 
 friendly way, criticising, however, his position. He had been 
 twice removed from the Premiership, although he had a majority 
 behind him in the Greek Chamber. 
 
 "Our State" he said, "is a democracy, presided over by the
 
 366 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 King, and the whole responsibility rests with the Cabinet. I 
 admit that the Crown has a right to disagree with the responsible 
 government if he thinks the latter is not in agreement with the 
 national will. But after the recent election, non-agreement is 
 out of the question, and now the Crown has not the right to disagree 
 again on the same question. It is not a question of patriotism but 
 of constitutional liberty." 
 
 When the vote was taken the government was defeated by 
 147 to 114. Instead of appointing Venizelos Premier, King Con- 
 stantine gave the position to M. Skouloudis, and then dissolved 
 the Greek Chamber by royal decree. Premier Skouloudis declared 
 his policy to be neutrality with the character of sincerest benevo- 
 lence toward the Entente Powers. The general conditions at 
 Athens during this whole tune were causing great anxiety in the 
 Allied capitals, and the Allied expedition were in continual fear of 
 an attack in the rear in case of reverse. They endeavored to obtain 
 satisfactory assurances on this point, and while assurances were 
 given, during the whole period of King Constantino's reign aggres- 
 sive action was prevented because of the doubt as to what course 
 King Constantino would take. 
 
 It was not till August 27th, 1916, that Roumania cast aside 
 her r61e of neutral and entered the war with a declaration of hos- 
 tilities on Austria-Hungary. Great expectations were founded 
 upon the supposedly well-trained Roumanian army and upon the 
 nation which, because of its alertness and discipline, was known 
 as "the policeman of Europe." The belief was general hi Paris 
 and London that the weight of men and material thrown into the 
 scale by Roumania would bring the war to a speedy, victorious end. 
 
 Germany, however, was confident. A spy system excelling 
 hi its detailed reports anything that had heretofore been attempted, 
 made smooth the path of the German army. Scarcely had the 
 Roumanian army launched a drive in force into Transylvania on 
 August 30th, when the message spread from Bucharest "von 
 Mackensen is coming. Recall the army. Draft all males of 
 military age. Prepare for the worst." 
 
 And the worst fell upon hapless Roumania. A vast force of 
 military engineers moving like a human screen in front of von 
 Mackensen's army, followed routes carefully mapped out by 
 German spies during the period of Roumania's neutrality. Mili-
 
 BAGDAD THE MAGNIFICENT FALLS TO THE BRITISH 
 General Maude la here shown making his formal entry at the head of his troops 
 into the ancient city. This occurred on March 11, 1917, and was the most notable 
 exploit of General Maude, commander of the British Mesopotamian expedition until 
 his death by cholera nine months afterwards.
 
 HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED 369 
 
 tary bridges, measured to the inch, had been prepared to carry 
 cannon, material and men over streams and ravines. Every 
 Roumanian oil well, mine and storehouse had been located and 
 mapped. German scientists had studied Roumanian weather 
 conditions and von Mackensen attacked while the roads were at 
 their best and the weather most favorable. As the Germans 
 swept forward, spies met them giving them military information 
 of the utmost value. A swarm of airplanes spied out the move- 
 ments of the Roumanians and no Roumanian airplanes rose to 
 meet them. 
 
 General von Falkenhayn, co-operating with von Mackensen, 
 smashed his way through Vulkan Pass, and cut the main line 
 running to Bucharest at Craiova. The Dobrudja region was 
 over-run and the central Roumanian plain was swept clear of all 
 Roumanian opposition to the German advance. The seat of 
 government was transferred from Bucharest to Jassy on November 
 28, 1916, and on December 6th Bucharest was entered by von 
 Mackensen, definitely putting an end to Roumania as a factor in 
 the war. 
 
 The immediate result of the fall of Roumania was to release 
 immense stores of petroleum for German use. British and Rou- 
 manian engineers had done their utmost by the use of explosives 
 to make useless the great Roumanian oil wells, but German 
 engineers soon had the precious fluid in full flow. This furnished 
 the fuel which Germany had long and ardently desired. The 
 oil-burning submarine now came into its own. It was possible 
 to plan a great fleet of submersibles to attempt execution of von 
 Tirpitz's plan for unrestricted submarine warfare. This was 
 decided upon by the German High Command the day Bucharest 
 fell. It was realized that such a policy would bring the United 
 States into the war, but the Kaiser and his advisers hoped the 
 submarine on sea and a great western front offensive on land would 
 force a decision in favor of Germany before America could get 
 ready. How that hope failed was revealed at Chateau-Thierry 
 and in the humiliation of Germany.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 
 
 IN our previous discussion of the British campaign hi Mesopo- 
 tamia we left the British forces intrenched at Kurna, and 
 also occupying Basra, the port of Bagdad. The object of 
 
 the Mesopotamia Expedition was primarily to keep the enemy 
 from the shores of the Gulf of Persia. If the English had been 
 satisfied with that, the misfortune which was to come to them 
 might never have occurred, but the whole expediton was essen- 
 tially political rather than military hi its nature. 
 
 The British were defending India. The Germans, unable to 
 attack the British Empire by sea, were hoping to attack her by 
 land. They had already attempted to stir up a Holy War with 
 the full expectation that it would lead to an Indian revolution. 
 In this they had failed, fop the millions of Mohammedans in India 
 cared little for the Turkish Sultan or his proclamations. Through 
 Bagdad, however, they hoped to strike a blow at the English influ- 
 ence on the Persian Gulf . The English, therefore, felt strongly 
 that it was not enough to sit safely astride the Tigris, but that a 
 blow at Bagdad would produce a tremendous political effect. It 
 would practically prevent German communication with Persia, 
 and the Indian frontier. 
 
 As a matter of fact the Persian Gulf and the oil fields were 
 safe so long as the English held Kurna and Basra, and the Arabs 
 were of no special consequence. The real reason for the expedition 
 was probably that about this tune matters were moving badly 
 for the Allies. Serbia was in trouble in the Balkans, Gallipoli 
 was a failure, something it seemed ought to be done to restore the 
 British prestige. Up to this tune the Mesopotamia Expedition 
 had been a great success, but it had made no great impression on 
 the world. The little villages in the hands of the British had 
 unknown names, but if Bagdad should be captured Great Britain 
 would have something to boast of; something that would keep 
 up its prestige among its Mohammedan subjects. 
 
 370
 
 THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 371 
 
 Before the expedition to Bagdad was determined on, there 
 had been several lively fights between the English forces and the 
 Turks. On March 3d a Turkish force numbering about twelve 
 thousand appeared at Ahwaz where the British had placed a small 
 garrison to protect the pipe line of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. 
 The British retirement led to heavy fighting, with severe losses. 
 
 A number of lively skirmishes followed, and then came the 
 serious attack against Shaiba. The Turkish army numbered about 
 eighteen thousand men, of whom eleven thousand were regulars. 
 The fighting lasted for several days, the Turks being reinforced. 
 On the 14th of April, however, the English attacked in turn and 
 put the whole enemy force to flight. The British lost about seven 
 hundred officers and men, and reported a Turkish loss of about 
 six thousand. In their retreat the Turks were attacked by their 
 Arab allies, and suffered additional losses. From that time till 
 summer there were no serious contests, although there were occa- 
 sional skirmishes which turned out favorably to the British. 
 
 By this time the Turks had collected a considerable army 
 north of Kurna, and on May 31st an expedition was made to 
 disperse it. On June 3d the British captured Amara, seventy-five 
 miles above Kurna, scattering the Turkish army. Early in July 
 a similar expedition was sent against Nasiriyeh, which led to serious 
 fighting, the Turks being badly defeated with a loss of over two 
 thousand five hundred men. 
 
 Kut-el-Amara still remained, and early hi August an expedi- 
 tion was directed against that point. The Turks were found in 
 great force, well intrenched, and directed by German officers. 
 The battle lasted for four days. The English suffered great hard- 
 ship on account of the scarcity of water and the blinding heat, 
 but on September 29th they drove the enemy from the city and 
 took possession. More than two thousand prisoners were taken. 
 The town was found thoroughly fortified, with an elaborate system 
 of trenches extending for miles, built in the true German fashion. 
 Its capture was the end of the summer campaign. 
 
 The British now had at last made up their minds to push on 
 to Bagdad. General Townshend, whose work so far had been 
 admirable, protested, but Sir John Nixon, and the Indian military 
 authorities, were strongly in favor of the expedition. By October, 
 Turkey was able to gather a large army. She was fighting in
 
 37* 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
 
 THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 
 
 373 
 
 Transcaucasia, Egypt, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia. Little was 
 going on in the first three of these fronts, and she was able there- 
 fore to send to Mesopotamia almost a quarter of a million men. 
 
 To meet these, General Townshend had barely fifteen thousand 
 men, of whom only one-third were white soldiers. He was backed 
 by a flotilla of boats of almost every kind, river boats, motor 
 launches, paddle steamers, native punts. The British army was 
 almost worn out by the fighting during the intense heat of the 
 previous summer. But their success had given them confidence. 
 
 In the early days of October the advance began. For some 
 days it proceeded with no serious 
 fighting. On the 23d of October 
 it reached Azizie, and was halted 
 by a Turkish force numbering 
 about four thousand. These were 
 soon routed, and the advance 
 continued until General Town- 
 shend arrived at Lajj, about seven 
 miles from Ctesiphon, where the 
 Turks were found heavily in- 
 trenched and in great numbers. 
 Ctesiphon was a famous old city 
 which had been the battle ground 
 of Romans and Parthians, but was 
 now mainly ruins. In these ruins, 
 however, the Turks found admirable 
 shelter for nests of machine guns. 
 On the 21st of November General 
 Townshend made his attack. 
 
 The Turks occupied two lines of intrenchments, and had 
 about twenty thousand men, the English about twelve thousand. 
 General Townshend's plan was to divide his army into 1 
 columns. The first was to attack the center of the first 
 position. A second was directed at the left of that posilion, and 
 a third was to swing widely around and come in on the rear of the 
 Turkish force. This plan was entirely successful, but the Turkis 
 army was not routed, and retreated fighting desperately to its 
 second line. There it was reinforced and counter-attacked with 
 such vigor that it drove the British back to its old first trenches. 
 
 MAP OF GEN. TOWNSHEND'S LINES OF 
 ATTACK ON KUT-EL-AMARA
 
 374 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The next day the Turks were further reinforced and attacked 
 again. The British drove them back over and over, but found 
 themselves unable to advance. The Turks had lost enormously 
 but the English had lost about one-third of their strength, and 
 were compelled to fall back. They therefore returned on the 
 26th to Lajj, and ultimately, after continual rear-guard actions, 
 to Kut. There they found themselves surrounded, and there was 
 nothing to do but to wait for help. 
 
 By this tune the eyes of the world were upon the beleaguered 
 British army. Help was being hurried to them from India, but 
 Germany also was awake and Marshal von Der Goltz, who had 
 been military instructor in the Turkish army, was sent down to 
 take command of the Turkish forces. The town of Kut lies in 
 the loop of the Tigris, making it almost an island. There was an 
 intrenched line across the neck of land on the north, and the place 
 could resist any ordinary assault. The great difficulty was one of 
 supplies. However, as the relieving force was on the way, no 
 great anxiety was felt. For some days there was constant bombard- 
 ment, which did no great damage. On the 23d an attempt was 
 made to carry the place by assault, but this too failed. The reliev- 
 ing force, however, was having its troubles. These were the days 
 of floods, and progress was slow and at times almost impossible. 
 Moreover, the Turks were constantly resisting. 
 
 The relief expedition was composed of thirty thousand Indian 
 troops, two Anglo-Indian divisions, and the remnants of Town- 
 shend's expedition, a total of about ninety thousand men. General 
 Sir Percy Lake was in command of the entire force. The march 
 began on January 6th. By January 8th the British had reached 
 Sheikh Saad, where the Turks were defeated in two pitched battles. 
 On January 22d he had arrived at Umm-el-Hanna, where the 
 Turks had intrenched themselves. 
 
 After artillery bombardment the Turkish positions were 
 attacked, but heavy rains had converted the ground into a sea of 
 mud, rendering rapid movement impossible. The enemy's fire 
 was heavy and effective, inflicting severe losses, and though every 
 effort was made, the assault failed. 
 
 For weeks the British troops bivouacked in driving rain on 
 soaked and sodden ground. Three times they were called upon 
 to advance over a perfectly flat country, deep in mud, and abso-
 
 THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 375 
 
 lutely devoid of cover against well-constructed and well-planned 
 trenches, manned by a brave and stubborn enemy, approximately 
 their equal in numbers. They showed a spirit of endurance and 
 self-sacrifice of which their country may well be proud. 
 
 But the repulse at Hanna did not discourage the British army. 
 It was decided to move up the left bank of the Tigris and attack 
 the Turkish position at the Dujailah redoubt. This meant a night 
 march across the desert with the great danger that there would 
 be no water supply and that, unless the enemy was routed, the 
 army would be hi great danger. 
 
 General Lake says: "On the afternoon of March 7th, General 
 Aylmer assembled his subordinate commanders and gave his final 
 instructions, laying particular stress on the fact that the operation 
 was designed to effect a surprise, and that to prevent the enemy 
 forestalling us, it was essential that the first phase of the operation 
 should be pushed through with the utmost vigor. His dispositions 
 were, briefly, as follows: The greater part of a division under 
 General Younghusband, assisted by naval gunboats, controlled the 
 enemy on the left bank. The remaining troops were formed into 
 two columns, under General Kemball and General Keary respect- 
 ively, a reserve of infantry, and the cavalry brigade, being held 
 at the corps commander's own disposal. Kemball's column 
 covered on the outer flank by the cavalry brigade was to make a 
 turning movement to attack the Dujailah redoubt from the south, 
 supported by the remainder of the force, operating from a position 
 to the east of the redoubt. The night march by this large force, 
 which led across the enemy's front to a position on his right flank, 
 was a difficult operation, entailing movement over unknown ground, 
 and requiring most careful arrangement to attain success." 
 
 Thanks to excellent staff work and good march discipline the 
 troops reached their allotted position apparently undiscovered by 
 the enemy, but while Keary's column was in position at daybreak, 
 ready to support Kemball's attack, the latter's command did not 
 reach the point selected for its deployment hi the Dujailah depres- 
 sion until more than an hour later. This delay was highly preju- 
 dicial to the success of the operation. 
 
 When, nearly three hours later, Kemball's troops advanced 
 to the attack, they were strongly opposed by the enemy from 
 trenches cleverly concealed in the brushwood, and were unable to
 
 376 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 make further ground for some time, though assisted by Keary's 
 attack upon the redoubt from the east. The southern attack was 
 now reinforced, and by 1 P. M. had pushed forward to within five 
 hundred yards of the redoubt, but concealed trenches again stopped 
 further progress and the Turks made several counter-attacks with 
 reinforcements which had by now arrived from the direction of 
 Magasis. 
 
 It was about this tune that the corps commander received 
 from his engineer officers the unwelcome news that the water supply 
 contained hi rain-water pools in the Dujailah depression, upon 
 which he had reckoned, was insufficient and could not be increased 
 by digging. It was clear, therefore, that unless the Dujailah 
 redoubt could be carried that day the scarcity of water would, of 
 itself, compel the troops to fall back. Preparations were accord- 
 ingly made for a further assault on the redoubt, and attacks were 
 launched from the south and east under cover of a heavy bombard- 
 ment. 
 
 The attacking forces succeeded in gaining a foothold in the 
 redoubt. But here they were heavily counter-attacked by large 
 enemy reinforcements, and being subjected to an extremely rapid 
 and accurate shrapnel fire from concealed guns in the vicinity of 
 Sinn After, they were forced to fall back to the position from which 
 they started. The troops who had been under arms for some 
 thirty hours, including a long night march, were now much 
 exhausted, and General Aylmer considered that a renewal of the 
 assault during the night could not be made with any prospect of 
 success. Next morning the enemy's position was found to be 
 unchanged and General Aylmer, finding himself faced with the 
 deficiency of order already referred to, decided upon the immediate 
 withdrawal of his troops to Wadi, which was reached the same night. 
 
 For the next month the English were held in their positions 
 by the Tigris floods. On April 4th the floods had sufficiently 
 receded to permit of another attack upon Umm-el-Hanna, which 
 this tune was successful. On April 8th the Turkish position at 
 Sanna-i-yat was attacked, but the English were repulsed. They 
 then determined to make another attempt to capture the Sinn 
 After redoubt. On April 17th the fort of Beit-Aiessa, four miles 
 Sinn, on the left bank, was captured after heavy bombard- 
 ment, and held against serious counter-attacks. On the 20th
 
 THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 877 
 
 and 21st the Sanna-i-yat position was bombarded and a vigorous 
 assault was made, which met with some success. The Turks, 
 however, delivered a strong counter-attack, and succeeded in 
 forcing the British troops back. 
 
 General Lake says: "Persistent and repeated attempts on 
 both banks have thus failed, and it was known that at the outside 
 not more than six days' supplies remained to the Kut garrison. 
 The British troops were nearly worn out. The same troops had 
 advanced tune and again to assault positions strong by art and 
 held by a determined enemy. For eighteen consecutive days they 
 had done all that men could do to overcome, not only the enemy, 
 but also exceptional climatic and physical obstacles, and this 
 on a scale of rations which was far from being sufficient hi view of 
 the exertions they had undergone. The need for rest was im- 
 perative." 
 
 On April 28th the British garrison at Kut-el-Amara surrendered 
 unconditionally, after a heroic resistance of a hundred and forty- 
 three days. According to British figures the surrendered army 
 was composed of 2,970 English and 6,000 Indian troops. The 
 Turkish figures are 13,300. The Turks also captured a large 
 amount of booty, although General Townshend destroyed most of 
 his guns and munitions. 
 
 During the period in which Kut-el-Amara was besieged by 
 the Turks, the British troops had suffered much. The enemy bom- 
 barded the town almost every day, but did little damage. The 
 real foe was starvation. At first the British were confident that a 
 relief expedition would soon reach them, and they amused them- 
 selves by cricket and hockey and fishing hi the river. By early 
 February, however, it was found necessary to reduce the rations, 
 and a month later they were suffering from hunger. Some little 
 help was given them by airplanes, which brought tobacco and some 
 small quantities of supplies. Soon the horses and the mules were 
 slaughtered and eaten. As time went on the situation grew des- 
 perate; till almost the end, however, they did not lose hope. 
 Through the wireless they were informed about the progress of the 
 relief expeditions and had even heard their guns in the distance. 
 They gradually grew, however, weaker and weaker, so that on 
 the surrender the troops hi the first lines were too weak to march 
 back with their kits.
 
 378 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The Turks treated the prisoners in a chivalric manner; food 
 and tobacco was at once distributed, and all were interned in 
 Anatolia, except General Townshend and his staff, who were taken 
 to Constantinople. Later on it was General Townshend who was 
 to have the honor of carrying the Turkish plea for an armistice in 
 the closing days of the war. 
 
 The surrender of Kut created a world-wide sensation. The 
 loss of eight thousand troops was, of course, not a serious matter, 
 and the road to India was still barred, but the moral effect was 
 most unfortunate. That the great British nation, whose power 
 had been so respected in the Orient, should now be forced to yield, 
 was a great blow to its prestige. In England, of course, there 
 was a flood of criticism. It was very plain that a mistake had 
 been made. A commission was appointed to inquire into the 
 whole business. This committee reported to Parliament on June 
 26, 1917, and the report created a great sensation. The substance 
 of the report was, that while the expedition was justifiable from a 
 political point of view, it was undertaken with insufficient forces 
 and inadequate preparation, and it sharply criticised those that 
 were responsible. 
 
 It seems plain that the military authorities in India under- 
 estimated their opponent. The report especially criticised General 
 Sir John Eccles Nixon, the former commander of the British forces 
 in Mesopotamia, who had urged the expedition, in spite of the 
 objection of General Townshend. Others sharing the blame were 
 the Viceroy of India, Baron Hardinge, General Sir Beauchamp 
 Duff, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in India, and, in 
 England, Major-General Sir Edmund Barrow, Military Secretary 
 of the India office, J. Austen Chamberlain, Secretary for India, 
 and the War Committee of the Cabinet. According to the report, 
 beside the losses incurred by the surrender more than twenty- 
 three thousand men were lost in the relieving expedition. The 
 general armament and equipment were declared to be not only 
 insufficient, but not up to the standard. 
 
 In consequence of this report Mr. Chamberlain resigned as 
 Secretary for India. In the House of Commons, Mr. Balfour, 
 Secretary of Foreign Affairs, supported Lord Hardinge, who, at 
 the time of the report, was Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs. 
 He declared the criticism of Baron Hardinge to be grossly unjust.
 
 THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 379 
 
 After some discussion the House of Commons supported Mr. 
 Balfour's refusal to accept Baron Hardinge's resignation, by a vote 
 of 176 to 81. It seems to be agreed that the civil administration 
 of India were not responsible for the blunders of the expedition. 
 Ten years before, Lord Kitchener, after a bitter controversy with 
 Lord Curzon, had made the military side of the Indian Govern- 
 ment free of all civilian criticism and control. The blunders here 
 were military blunders. 
 
 The English, of course, were not satisfied to leave the situation 
 in such a condition, and at once began their plans for a new attempt 
 to capture Bagdad. The summer campaign, however, was unevent- 
 ful, though on May 18th a band of Cossacks from the Russian 
 armies in Persia joined the British camp. A few days afterwards 
 the British army went up the Tigris and captured the Dujailah 
 redoubt, where they had been so badly defeated on the 8th of 
 March. They then approached close to Kut, but the weather was 
 unsuitable, and there was now no object in capturing the city. 
 
 In August Sir Percy Lake was succeeded by Lieutenant-General 
 Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, who carefully and thoroughly pro- 
 ceeded to prepare for an expedition which should capture Bagdad. 
 A dispatch from General Maude dated July 10, 1917, gives a full 
 account of this expedition. It was thoroughly successful. This 
 time with a sufficient army and a thorough equipment the British 
 found no difficulties, and on February 26th they captured Kut-el- 
 Amara, not after a hard-fought battle, but as the result of a suc- 
 cessful series of small engagements. The Turks kept up a steady 
 resistance, but the British blood was up. They were remembering 
 General Townshend's surrender, and the Turks were driven before 
 them in great confusion. 
 
 The capture of Kut, however, was not an object hi itself, and 
 the British pushed steadily on up the Tigris. The Turks occa- 
 sionally made a stand, but without effect. On the 28th of February 
 the English had arrived at Azizie, half way to Bagdad, where a 
 halt was made. On the 5th of March the advance was renewed. 
 The Ctesiphon position, which had defied General Townshend, 
 was found to be strongly intrenched, but empty. On March 7th 
 the enemy made a stand on the River Diala, which enters the 
 Tigris eight miles below Bagdad. Some lively fighting followed, 
 the enemy resisting four attempts to cross the Diala. However,
 
 380 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 on March 10th the British forces crossed, and were now close to 
 Bagdad. The enemy suddenly retired and the British troops 
 found that then* main opponent was a dust storm. The enemy 
 retired beyond Bagdad, and on March llth the city was occupied 
 by the English. 
 
 The fall of Bagdad was an important event. It cheered the 
 Allies, and proved, especially to the Oriental world, the power 
 of the British army. Those who originally planned its capture 
 had been right, but those who were to carry out the plan had not 
 done their duty. Under General Maude it was a comparatively 
 simple operation, though full of admirable details, and it produced 
 all the good effects expected. The British, of course, did not stop 
 at Bagdad. The city itself is not of strategic importance. The 
 surrounding towns were occupied and an endeavor was made to 
 conciliate the inhabitants. The real object of the expedition was 
 attained.
 
 CANADA'S PAKT IN THE GREAT WAR 
 
 BY COL. GEO. G. NASMITH, C. M. G., TORONTO 
 
 WHEN, in August, 1914, war burst suddenly upon a 
 peaceful world like distant thunder in a cloudless 
 summer sky, Canada, like the rest of the British 
 Empire, was profoundly startled. She had been a 
 peace-loving, non-military nation, satisfied to develop her great 
 natural resources, and live in harmony with her neighbors; taking 
 little interest in European affairs, Canadians, in fact, were a typical 
 colonial people, with little knowledge even of the strength of the 
 ties that linked them to the British Empire. 
 
 Upon declaration of war by Great Britain Canada immediately 
 sprang to arms. The love of country and empire which had been 
 no obvious thing burst forth in a patriotic fervor as deep as it was 
 spontaneous and genuine. The call to action was answered with 
 an enthusiasm the like of which had rarely, if ever, been seen hi any 
 British colony. 
 
 The Canadian Government called for 20,000 volunteers 
 enough for a single division as Canada's contribution to the 
 British army. In less than a month 40,000 men had volunteered, 
 and the Minister of Militia was compelled to stop the further 
 enrolment of recruits. From the gold fields of the Yukon, from 
 the slopes of the Rockies on the west to the surf-beaten shores 
 of the Atlantic on the east; from workshop and mine; from farm, 
 office and forest, Canada's sons trooped to the colors. 
 
 It will be the everlasting glory of the men of the first Canadian 
 contingent, that they needed no spur, either of victory or defeat: 
 they volunteered because they were quick to perceive that the 
 existence of their Empire was threatened by the action of the most 
 formidable nation-in-arms that the world had ever seen. They 
 had been stirred by the deepest emotion of a race the love of 
 country. 
 
 381
 
 38* HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 A site for a concentration camp was chosen at Valcartier, 
 nestling among the blue Laurentian hills, sixteen miles from Quebec, 
 and convenient to that point of embarkation. Within four days 
 6,000 men had arrived at Valcartier; in another week there were 
 25,000 men. From centers all over Canada troop trains, each 
 carrying hundreds of embryo soldiers, sped towards Valcartier and 
 deposited their burdens on the miles of sidings that had sprung up 
 as though by magic. 
 
 The rapid evolution of that wild and wooded river valley into a 
 model military camp was a great tribute to the engineering skill and 
 energy of civilians who had never done the like before. One day 
 an army of woodmen were seen felling trees; the next day the 
 stumps were torn out and the hollows filled; on the third day long 
 rows of tents in regular camp formation covered the ground, and 
 on the fourth day they were occupied by civilian soldiers concen- 
 trated upon learning the rudiments of the art and science of war. 
 
 Streets were laid out; miles of water pipes, sunk in machine- 
 made ditches, were connected to hundreds of taps and shower 
 baths; electric light was installed; three miles of rifle butts com- 
 pleted, and in two weeks the camp was practically finished the 
 finest camp that the first Canadians were destined to see. The 
 building of Valcartier camp was characteristic of the driving power, 
 vision and genius of the Minister of Militia, General Sir Sam 
 Hughes. 
 
 Of the 33,000 men assembled at- Valcartier, the great majority 
 were civilians without any previous training in warfare. About 
 7,000 Canadians had taken part hi the South African war, fifteen 
 years before, and some of these, together with a few ex-regulars 
 who had seen active service, were formed into the Princess Patricia's 
 Light Infantry. Otherwise, with the exception of the 3,000 regulars 
 that formed the standing army of Canada, the men and most of the 
 officers were amateurs. 
 
 It was therefore a feat that the Canadian people could well 
 afford to be proud of, that in the great crisis they were able, through 
 then- aggressive Minister of Militia, not only to gather up these 
 forces so quickly but that they willingly and without delay con- 
 verted their industries to the manufacture of all necessary army 
 equipment. Factories all over the country immediately began 
 turning out vast quantities of khaki cloth, uniforms, boots, ammuni-
 
 CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 383 
 
 tion, harness, wagons, and the thousand and one articles necessary 
 for an army. 
 
 Before the end of September, 1914, the Canadian Expeditionary 
 Force had been roughly hewn into shape, battalions had been 
 regrouped and remodeled, officers transferred and re-transferred, 
 intensive training carried on, and all the necessary equipment 
 assembled. On October 3, 1914, thirty-three Atlantic liners, 
 carrying the contingent of 33,000 men, comprising infantry, artillery, 
 cavalry, engineers, signalers, medical corps, army service supply 
 and ammunition columns, together with horses, guns, ammunition, 
 wagons, motor lorries and other essentials, sailed from Gaspe" basin 
 on the Quebec seaboard to the battle-field of Europe. 
 
 It was probably the largest convoy that had ever been gathered 
 together. This modern armada in three long lines, each line one 
 and one-half miles apart, led by cruisers and with battleships on 
 the front, rear and either flank, presented a thrilling spectacle. 
 The voyage proved uneventful, and on October 14th, the convoy 
 steamed into Plymouth, receiving an extraordinary ovation by 
 the sober English people, who seemed temporarily to have gone 
 wild with enthusiasm. Back of that demonstration was the con- 
 viction that blood had proved thicker than water and that the 
 apparently flimsy ties that bound the colonies to the empire were 
 bonds that were unbreakable. The German conviction that the 
 British colonies would fall away and the British Empire disintegrate 
 upon the outbreak of a great war had proved fallacious. It was, 
 moreover, a great demonstration of how the much-vaunted German 
 navy had already been swept from the seas and rendered impotent 
 by the might of Britain's fleet. 
 
 A few days later the Canadians had settled down on Salisbury 
 Plain in southern England for the further course of training neces- 
 sary before proceeding to France. There, for nearly four months 
 hi the cold and the wet, in the fog and mud, in crowded, dripping 
 tents and under constantly dripping skies, they carried on and 
 early gave evidence of their powers of endurance and unquenchable 
 spirit. 
 
 Lord Roberts made his last public appearance before this 
 division and addressing the men said in part: "Three months 
 ago we found ourselves involved in this war a war not of our 
 own seeking, but one which those who have studied Germany's
 
 384 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 literature and Germany's aspirations, knew was a war which we 
 should inevitably have to deal with sooner or later. The prompt 
 resolve of Canada to give us such valuable assistance has touched 
 
 us deeply. . . . 
 
 "We are fighting a nation which looks upon the British Empire 
 as a barrier to her development, and has hi consequence, long 
 contemplated our overthrow and humiliation. To attain that end 
 she has manufactured a magnificent fighting machine, and is strain- 
 ing every nerve to gain victory. . . . It is only by the most 
 determined efforts that we can defeat her." 
 
 And this superb German military organization, created by 
 years of tireless effort, was that which Canadian civilians had volun- 
 teered to fight. Was it any wonder that some of the most able 
 leaders doubted whether men and officers, no matter how brave 
 and intelligent, could ever equal the inspired barbarians who, even 
 at that very moment, were battling with the finest British and 
 French regulars and pressing them steadily towards Paris? 
 
 In a short chapter of this kind attempting to deal with Canada's 
 effort in the great war it is obviously impossible to go into detail 
 or give more than the briefest of historical pictures. Consequently 
 much that is fascinating can be given but a passing glance: for 
 greater detail larger works must be consulted. Nevertheless it is 
 well to try and view in perspective events as they occurred, in 
 order to obtain some idea of then* relative importance. 
 
 In February, 1915, the first Canadian division crossed the 
 Channel to France, and began to obtain front-line experiences hi a 
 section of the line just north of Neuve Chapelle. 
 
 While the first division had been going through its course of 
 training hi England a second division had been raised in Canada 
 and arrived in England shortly after the first left it. 
 
 During that period the conflict in Europe had passed through 
 certain preliminary phases most of them fortunate for the Allies. 
 The unexpected holding up of the German armies by the Belgians 
 had prevented the enemy from gaining the channel ports of Calais 
 and Boulogne in the first rush. Later on the battle of the Marne 
 had resulted in the rolling back of the German waves until they 
 had subsided on a line roughly drawn through Dixmude, Ypres, 
 Annentieres, La Basse"e, Lens, and southward to the French border 
 and the trench phase of warfare had begun.
 
 ON VIMY RIDGE, WHERE CANADA WON LAURELS 
 The Canadians took the important position of Vimy Ridge on Easter Monday. 
 April 9? 1917 They advanced 'with brilliance having taken the whote system o 
 German front-line trenches between dawn and 6.30 A. M. This f n f "" t r v O n the 
 machine gunners operating from shell-craters m support of the infantry o 
 plateau above the ridge.
 
 Photo from Western Newspaper Union 
 
 GENERAL SIR ARTHUR CURRIE 
 Commander of the Canadian forces on the Western Front
 
 CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 387 
 
 The British held the section of front between Ypres and 
 La-Basse"e, about thirty miles in length, the Germans, unfortunately, 
 occupying all the higher grounds. 
 
 Shortly after the arrival of the Canadian division the British, 
 concentrating the largest number of guns that had hitherto been 
 gathered together on the French front, made an attack on the 
 Germans at Neuve Chapelle. This attack, only partially successful 
 in gains of terrain, served to teach both belligerents several lessons. 
 It showed the British the need for huge quantities of high explosives 
 with which to blast away wire and trenches and, that in an attack, 
 rifle fire, no matter how accurate, was no match for unlimited 
 numbers of machine guns. 
 
 It showed the enemy what could be done with concentrated 
 artillery fire a lesson that he availed himself of with deadly effect 
 a few weeks later. 
 
 Though Canadian artillery took part hi that bombardment 
 the infantry was not engaged in the battle of Neuve Chapelle; it 
 received its baptism of fire, however, under excellent conditions, 
 and after a month's experience in trench warfare was taken out of 
 the line for rest. 
 
 The division was at the time under the command of a British 
 general and the staff included several highly trained British staff 
 officers. Nevertheless the commands were practically all in the 
 hands of Canadians lawyers, business men, real-estate agents, 
 newspapermen and other amateur soldiers, who, hi civilian life as 
 militiamen, had spent more or less time hi the study of the theory 
 of w r arfare. This should always be kept in mind hi view of subse- 
 quent events, as well as the fact that these amateur soldiers were 
 faced by armies whose officers and men professionals in the art 
 and science of warfare regarded themselves as invincible. 
 
 In mid-April the Canadians took over a sector some five 
 thousand yards long in the Ypres salient. On the left they joined 
 up with French colonial troops, and on their right with the British. 
 Thus there were Canadian and French colonial troops side by side. 
 
 Toward the end of April the Germans reverted to supreme 
 barbarism and used poison gas. Undismayed, though suffering 
 terrible losses, the heroic Canadians fought the second battle of 
 Ypres and held the line in the face of the most terrific assaults. 
 
 When the news of the second battle of Ypres reached Canada
 
 388 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 her people were profoundly stirred. The blight of war had at last 
 fallen heavily, destroying her first-born, but sorrow was mixed with 
 pride and exaltation that Canadian men had proved a match for 
 the most scientifically trained troops hi Europe. As fighters 
 Canadians had at once leaped into front rank. British, Scotch 
 and Irish blood, with British traditions, had proved greater forces 
 than the scientific training and philosophic principles of the Huns. 
 It was a glorious illustration of the axiom "right is greater than 
 might," which the German had in his pride reversed to read "might 
 is right." It was prophetic of what the final issue of a contest based 
 on such divergent principles was to be. So in those days Canadian 
 men and women held their heads higher and carried on their war 
 work with increased determination, stimulated by the knowledge 
 that they were contending with an enemy more remorseless and 
 implacable than those terrible creatures which used to come to 
 them in their childish dreams. It was felt that, a nation which 
 could scientifically and in cold blood resort to poison gases 
 contrary to all accepted agreements of civilized countries to gain 
 its object must be fought with all the determination, resources and 
 skill which it was possible to employ. 
 
 Canada's heart had been steeled. She was now in the war 
 with her last dollar and her last man if need be. She had begun 
 to realize that failure in Europe would simply transfer the struggle 
 with the German fighting hordes to our Atlantic provinces and 
 the eastern American states. 
 
 The famous Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was 
 originally composed of soldiers who had actually seen service and 
 were therefore veterans. Incidentally they were older men and 
 most of them were married but the call of the Empire was insistent. 
 
 In the winter of 1914-15 the British line in Flanders was 
 very thin and the P. P. C. L. I's. being a trained regiment was sent 
 over to France several weeks before the first Canadian division. 
 It soon earned the name of a regiment of extraordinarily hard- 
 fighting qualities and was all but wiped out before spring arrived. 
 Fhe immortal story of this gallant unit must be read in detail if 
 one wishes to obtain any clear conception of then- deeds of valor 
 of what it is possible for man to go through and live. However, it 
 was but one regiment whose exploits were later equaled by other 
 Canadian regiments and it would therefore be invidious to select
 
 CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 389 
 
 any one for special praise. After operating as a separate regiment 
 for nearly two years and having been recruited from the regular 
 Canadian depots hi England, it became hi composition like other 
 Canadian regiments and was finally incorporated in the third 
 Canadian division. 
 
 In the spring of 1915, a Canadian cavalry brigade was formed 
 hi France made up of Strathcona's Horse, King Edward's Horse, 
 the Royal Canadian Dragoons and Canadian Mounted Rifles. 
 
 After the second battle of Ypres, the Canadians after resting 
 and re-organization, were moved to a section of the line near 
 LaBassee. Here they fought the battle of Festubert a series of 
 infantry attacks and artillery bombardments, which gamed little 
 ground. 
 
 Shortly afterwards they fought the battle of Givenchy, equally 
 futile, as far as material results were concerned. Both of these 
 battles had the double object of feeling out the strength of the 
 German line and of obtaining the Aubers Ridge, should the attacks 
 prove successful. In both battles the Canadians showed great 
 aptitude for attack, and tenacity in their hold of captured trenches. 
 They also learned the difficult lesson that if an objective is passed 
 by the infantry the latter enter the zone of their own artillery fire 
 and suffer accordingly. 
 
 In September, 1915, the Second Canadian Division arrived 
 in Flanders and took its place at the side of the First Canadian 
 Division, then occupying the Ploegsteert section in front of the 
 Messines-Wytschaete Ridge. The rest of the winter was spent 
 more or less quietly by both divisions hi the usual trench warfare, 
 and battling with mud, water and weather. 
 
 It was here that the Canadians evolved the " trench raid," 
 a method of cutting off a section of enemy trench, killing or taking 
 prisoners all the enemy inhabitants, destroying it and returning 
 with little or no loss to the attacking party. This method was 
 quickly copied from one end of the Franco-British line to the 
 other; it proved a most valuable method of gaining information, 
 and served to keep the troops, during the long cold winter months, 
 stimulated and keen when otherwise life would have proved most 
 dull and uninteresting. 
 
 The Third Canadian Division was formed hi January and 
 February, 1916. One infantry brigade was composed of regiments
 
 390 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 which had been acting as Canadian corps troops, including the 
 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and the Royal 
 Canadian Regiment. The second infantry brigade was made 
 up of six Canadian mounted rifle regiments, which had com- 
 prised part of the cavalry brigade. These two brigades, of the 
 Third Division, under the command of General Mercer of Toronto, 
 almost immediately began front-line work. 
 
 During this period, the Germans, making desperate efforts 
 extending over weeks of time, did their utmost to break through 
 the French line at Verdun and exhaust the French reserves. To 
 offset these objects, a fourth British army was assembled, which 
 took over still more of the French line, while a series of British 
 attacks, intended to pin down the German reserves all along the 
 line, was inaugurated. One of these developed into a fight for the 
 craters a terrible struggle at St. Eloi, where, blasted from their 
 muddy ditches, with rifles and machine guns choked with mud 
 and water; with communications lost and lack of artillery support, 
 the men of the Second Canadian Division fought gamely from 
 April 6th to April 20th, but were forced to yield the craters and 
 part of their front line system to the enemy. 
 
 Notwithstanding this the men of the Second Canadian Division 
 at St. Eloi fought quite as nobly as had their brothers of the First 
 Division just a year before, at the glorious battle of Ypres, a few 
 miles farther north. But it was a bitter experience. The lesson of 
 failure is as necessary hi the education of a nation as that of success. 
 
 On June 2d and 3d, the Third Canadian Division, which then 
 occupied part of the line in the Ypres salient, including Hooge 
 and Sanctuary Wood, was smothered by an artillery bombardment 
 unprecedented in length and intensity. Trenches melted into 
 irregular heaps of splintered wood, broken sand bags and mangled 
 bodies. Fighting gallantly the men of this division fell in large 
 numbers, where they stood. The best infantry in the world is power- 
 less against avalanches of shells projected from greatly superior 
 numbers of guns. The Canadian trenches were obliterated, not 
 captured. 
 
 By this time Britain had thoroughly learned her lesson, and 
 now countless shells and guns were pouring into France from 
 Great Britain where thousands of factories, new and old, toiled 
 night and day, under the inspiring energy of Mr. Lloyd George.
 
 CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 391 
 
 On June 13th, in a terrific counter-attack, the Canadians in 
 turn blasted the Huns from the trenches taken from them a few 
 days before. The First Canadian Division recaptured and con- 
 solidated all the ground and trench systems that had been lost 
 Thus ended the second year of Canadian military operations hi the 
 Ypres salient Each of the three Canadian divisions had been 
 tried by fire in that terrible region, from which, it was said, no 
 man ever returned the same as he entered it. Beneath its torn and 
 rifted surface, thousands of Canadians lie, mute testimony to the 
 fact that love of liberty is still one of the most powerful, yet most 
 intangible, things that man is swayed by. 
 
 A very distinguished French general, speaking of the part 
 that Canada was playing in the war, said, "Nothing in the history 
 of the world has ever been known quite like it. My countrymen 
 are fighting within fifty miles of Paris, to push back and chastise 
 a vile and leprous race, which has violated the chastity of beautiful 
 France, but the Australians at the Dardanelles and the Canadians 
 at Ypres, fought with supreme and absolute devotion for what to 
 many must have seemed simple abstractions, and that nation 
 which will support for an abstraction the horror of this war of all 
 wars will ever hold the highest place in the records of human 
 valor." 
 
 The Fourth Canadian Division reached the Ypres region in 
 August, 1916, just as the other three Canadian divisions were 
 leaving for the Sonune battle-field farther south. For a while it 
 occupied part of the line near Kemmel, but soon followed the other 
 divisions to the Somme, there to complete the Canadian corps. 
 
 It may be stated here that though a fifth Canadian division 
 was formed and thoroughly trained in England, it never reached 
 France. Canada, until the passing of the Military Service Act 
 on July 6, 1917, depended solely on voluntary enlistment. Up to 
 that time Canada, with a population of less than 9,000,000, had 
 recruited 525,000 men by voluntary methods. Of this number 
 356,986 had actually gone overseas. Voluntary methods at last, 
 however, failed to supply drafts in sufficient numbers to keep up 
 the strength of the depleted reserves in England, and in consequence 
 conscription was decided upon. By this means, 56,000 men were 
 drafted in Canada before the war ended. In the meantime, through 
 heavy fighting the demand for drafts became so insistent that the
 
 392 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Fifth Canadian Division in England had to be broken up to rein- 
 force the exhausted fighting divisions in France. 
 
 It would be an incomplete summary of Canada's part in the 
 war that did not mention some of the men who have been responsible 
 for the success of Canadian arms. It is obviously impossible to 
 mention all of those responsible; it is even harder to select a few. 
 But looking backward one sees two figures that stand forth from 
 all the rest General Sir Sam Hughes in Canada, and General Sir 
 Arthur Currie commander of the Canadian corps. 
 
 To General Sir Sam Hughes must be given the credit of having 
 foreseen war with Germany and making such preparations as were 
 possible hi a democracy like Canada. He it was of all others who 
 galvanized Canada into action; he it was whose enthusiasm and 
 driving power were so contagious that they affected not only 
 his subordinates but the country at large. 
 
 Sir Sam Hughes will be remembered for the building of 
 Valcartier camp and the dispatch of the first Canadian contingent. 
 But he did things of just as great importance. It was he who 
 sought and obtained for Canada, huge orders for munitions from 
 Great Britain and thereby made it possible for Canada to weather 
 the financial depression, pay her own war expenditures and emerge 
 from the war in better financial shape than she was when the war 
 broke out. It was easy to build up a business once established but 
 the chief credit must go to the man who established it. 
 
 Sir Sam Hughes was also responsible for the selection of the 
 officers who went overseas with the first Canadian contingent. 
 Among those officers who subsequently became divisional command- 
 ers were General Sir Arthur Currie, General Sir Richard Turner, 
 General Sir David Watson, Generals Lipsett, Mercer and Hughes. 
 
 Of these generals, Sir Arthur Currie through sheer ability 
 ultimately became commander of the Canadian corps. This big, 
 quiet man, whose consideration, prudence and brilliancy had won 
 the absolute confidence of Canadian officers and men alike, welded 
 the Canadian corps into a fighting force of incomparable effective- 
 nessa force which was set the most difficult tasks and, as events 
 proved, not in vain. 
 
 When Canada entered the war she had a permanent force 
 of 3,000 men. When hostilities ceased on November 11, 1918, 
 Canada had sent overseas 418,980 soldiers. In addition to this
 
 CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 393 
 
 about 15,000 men had joined the British Royal Air Service, several 
 hundred physicians and veterinarians, as well as 200 nurses, had 
 been supplied to the British army, while many hundreds of uni- 
 versity men had received commissions hi the imperial army and 
 navy. 
 
 In September, October and November, 1916, the Canadian 
 corps of four divisions, which had been welded by General Byng 
 and General Currie into an exceedingly efficient fighting machine, 
 took its part in the battle of the Somme a battle in which the 
 British army assumed the heaviest share of the fighting and 
 casualties, and shifted the greatest burden of the struggle from 
 the shoulders of the French to their own. The British army had 
 grown vastly in power and efficiency and in growing had taken over 
 more and more of the line from the French. 
 
 The battle of the Somme was long and involved. The Franco- 
 British forces were everywhere victorious and by hard and con- 
 tinuous fighting forced the Hun back to the famous Hindenburg 
 line. It was in this battle that the tanks, evolved by the British, 
 were used for the first tune, and played a most important part in 
 breaking down wire entanglements and rounding up the machine 
 gun nests. The part played in this battle by the Canadian corps 
 was conspicuous, and it especially distinguished itself by the capture 
 of Courcelette. Although the battles which the Canadian corps 
 took part in subsequently were almost invariably both successful 
 and important, they can be merely mentioned here. The Canadian 
 corps now known everywhere to consist of shock troops second 
 to none on the western front, was frequently used as the spearhead 
 with which to pierce particularly tough parts of the enemy defenses. 
 
 On April 9th to 13th, 1917, the Canadian corps, with some 
 British support, captured Vimy Ridge, a point which had hitherto 
 proved invulnerable. When a year later, the Germans, north and 
 south, swept the British line to one side hi gigantic thrusts they 
 were unable to disturb this key point, Vimy Ridge, which served 
 as an anchor to the sagging line. The Canadian corps was engaged 
 at Arleux and Fresnoy in April and May and was effective hi the 
 operations around Lens in June. Again on August 15th, it was 
 engaged at Hill 70 and fought with conspicuous success in that 
 toughest, most difficult, and most heart-breaking of all battles 
 Passchendaele.
 
 394 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 In 1918, the Canadian Cavalry Brigade won distinction in 
 the German offensive of March and April. On August 12, 1918, 
 the Canadian corps was engaged in the brilliantly successful 
 battle of Amiens, which completely upset the German offensive 
 plan. On August 26th to 28th the Canadians captured Monchy- 
 le-Preux, and, in one of the hammer blows which Foch rained on the 
 German front, were given the most difficult piece of the whole line 
 to pierce the Queant-Drocourt line. This section of the famous 
 Hindenburg line was considered by the enemy to be absolutely 
 impregnable, but was captured by the Canadians on September 
 3d and 4th. With this line outflanked a vast German retreat began, 
 which ended on November llth with the signing of the armistice. 
 
 To the Canadians fell the honors of breaking through the 
 first Hindenburg line by the capture of Cambrai, on October 1st to 
 9th. They also took Douai on October 19th, and Dena on October 
 20th. On October 26th to November 2d they had the signal honor of 
 capturing Valenciennes thereby being the first troops to break 
 through the fourth and last Hindenberg line. 
 
 It surely was a curious coincidence that Mons, from which 
 the original British army the best trained, it is said, that has 
 taken the field since the tune of Caesar began its retreat hi 1914, 
 should have been the town which Canadian civilians were destined 
 to recapture. The war began for the professional British army 
 the Contemptibles when it began its retreat from Mons in 1914; 
 the war ended for the British army at the very same town four 
 years and three months later, when on the day the armistice was 
 signed the men from Canada re-entered it. Was it coincidence, or 
 was it fate? 
 
 During the war Canadian troops had sustained 211,000 
 casualties, 152,000 had been wounded and more than 50,000 had 
 made the supreme sacrifice. Put into different language this means 
 that the number of Canadians killed was just a little greater than 
 the total number of infantrymen in their corps of four divisions. 
 
 The extent of the work involved in the care of the wounded 
 and sick of the Canadians overseas may be gathered from the fact 
 that Canada equipped and sent across the Atlantic, 7 general 
 hospitals, 10 stationary hospitals, 16 field ambulances, 3 sanitary 
 sections, 4 casualty clearing stations and advanced and base depots 
 of medical stores: The personnel of these medical units consisted
 
 CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 395 
 
 FROM THE VOSGES MOUNTAINS TO YPRES 
 Map showing the Northeastern frontiers of France, and neutral Belgium 
 through which the German armies poured in 1914. The battle line Tield 
 straight from Belfort to Verdun, with the exception of the St. Mihiel salient. 
 Above Verdun the line veered to the west, north of Rheims, marking a wide 
 curve toward St. Quentin and Arras and bending back to Ypres, held by the 
 Canadians throughout the war.
 
 396 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 of 1,612 officers, 1,994 nursing sisters and 12,382 of other ranks, or 
 a total of about 16,000. This will give some conception of the 
 importance of the task involved hi the caring for the sick and 
 wounded of about 90,000 fighting troops, some 60,000 auxiliary 
 troops behind the lines and the reserve depots in England. 
 
 The work of the Canadian Red Cross Society included the 
 building and equipping of auxiliary hospitals to those of the Cana- 
 dian Army Medical Corps; providing of extra and emergency stores 
 of all kinds, recreation huts, ambulances and lorries, drugs, serums 
 and surgical equipment calculated to make hospitals more efficient ; 
 the looking after the comfort of patients in hospitals providing 
 recreation and entertainment to the wounded, and dispatching 
 regularly to every Canadian prisoner parcels of food, as well as 
 clothes, books and other necessaries: The Canadian Red Cross 
 expended on goods for prisoners in 1917 nearly $600,000. 
 
 In all the Canadian Red Cross distributed since the beginning 
 of the war to November 23, 1918, $7,631,100. 
 
 The approximate total of voluntary contributions from 
 Canada for war purposes was over $90,000,000. 
 
 The following figures quoted from tables issued by the Depart- 
 ment of Public Information at Ottawa, show the exports in certain 
 Canadian commodities, having a direct bearing on the war for the 
 last three fiscal years before the war (1912-13-14), and for the 
 last fiscal year (1918); and illustrates the increase, during this 
 period, in the value of these articles exported : 
 
 VALUES 
 
 Average for 1912-191S-1914 1918 
 
 Foodstuffs $143,133,374 $617,515,690 
 
 Clothing, metals, leather, etc 45,822,717 215,873,357 
 
 Total $188,956,091 $833,389,047 
 
 As practically all of the increase of food and other materials 
 went to Great Britain, France and Italy, the extent of Canada's 
 effort in upholding the allied cause is clearly evident and was by no 
 means a small one. 
 
 The trade of Canada for 1914 was one billion dollars; for 
 the fiscal year of 1917-18 it was two and one-half billion dollars. 
 
 Approximately 60,000,000 shells were made in Canada during 
 the war. Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities a shell com-
 
 CANADA'S PART IN THE GREAT WAR 397 
 
 mittee was formed in Canada to really act as an agent for the 
 British war office in placing contracts. The first shells were 
 shipped in December, 1914, and by the end of May, 1915, approxi- 
 mately 400 establishments were manufacturing shells in Canada. 
 By November, 1915, orders had been placed by the Imperial Gov- 
 ernment to the value of $300,000,000, and an Imperial Munitions 
 Board, replacing the shell committee, was formed, directly 
 responsible to the Imperial Ministry of Munitions. 
 
 During the war period Canada purchased from her bank 
 savings $1,669,381,000 of Canadian war loans. 
 
 Estimates of expenditures for the fiscal year ending March 
 31, 1919, demonstrated the thoroughness with which Canada went 
 to war. They follow: 
 
 Pay of 110,000 troops in Canada and 
 290,000 in England and France. . . 
 
 Assigned pay, overseas troops 
 
 Separation allowances 
 
 Rations, Canada, 50 cents per day; 
 England, 38 J^ cents per day 
 
 Clothing and necessaries 
 
 Outfit allowances, officers and nurses . . 
 
 Equipment, including harness, vehicles, 
 tents, blankets, but not rifles, 
 machine guns, etc 
 
 Ordnance service 
 
 Medical services 
 
 Ammunition 
 
 Machine guns 
 
 Ocean transport 
 
 Railway transport 
 
 Forage 
 
 Veterinary service, remounts 
 
 Engineer works, housing 
 
 Civilian employese 
 
 Sundries, including recruiting, censors, 
 customs dues, etc 
 
 Overseas printing and stationery 
 
 General expenses overseas 
 
 Maintenance of troops in France at 
 9s. 4d. each per day 
 
 Expenditure 
 in Canada. 
 
 $50,187,500 
 54,000,000 
 21,750,000 
 
 20,075,000 
 
 19,080,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 Expenditure 
 Overseas. 
 
 $70,312,500 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 21,000,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 Total 
 
 Expenditures. 
 
 $120,500,000 
 64,000,000 
 27,750,000 
 
 41,075,000 
 
 19,080,000 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 20,000,000 
 
 
 20,000,000 
 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 4,612,500 
 
 
 4,612,500 
 
 11,062,500 
 
 450,000 
 
 11,512,500 
 
 450,000 
 
 
 450,000 
 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 2,750,000 
 
 1,250,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 2,920,000 
 
 750,000 
 
 3,670,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 
 300,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 
 115,000,000 
 
 115,000,000 
 
 $217,887,500 
 
 $225,162,500 
 
 $443,050,000
 
 IMMORTAL VERDUN \ 
 
 FRANCE was revealed to herself, to Germany and to the 
 world as the heroic defender of civilization, as a defender 
 defying death in the victory of Verdun. There, with the 
 gateway to Paris lying open at its back, the French army, 
 in the longest pitched battle hi all history, held like a cold blue 
 rock against the uttermost man power and resources of the German 
 army. 
 
 General von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff 
 and military dictator of the Teutonic allies, there met disaster and 
 disgrace. There the mettle of the Crown Prince was tested and he 
 was found to be merely a thing of straw, a weak creature whose 
 mind was under the domination of von Falkenhayn. 
 
 For the tremendous offensive which was planned to end the 
 wa* by one terrific thrust, von Falkenhayn had robbed all the 
 other fronts of effective men and munitions. Field Marshal von 
 Hindenburg and his crafty Chief of Staff, General Ludendorf, had 
 planned a campaign against Russia designed to put that tottering 
 military Colossus out of the war. The plans were upon a scale 
 that might well have proved successful. The Kaiser, influenced 
 by the Crown Prince and by von Falkenhayn, decreed that the 
 Russian campaign must be postponed and that von Hindenburg 
 must send his crack troops to join the army of the Crown Prince 
 fronting Verdun. Ludendorf promptly resigned as Chief of Staff 
 to von Hindenburg and suggested that the Field Marshal also 
 resign. That grim old warrior declined to take this action, pre- 
 ferring to remain idle in East Prussia and watch what he predicted 
 would be a useless effort on the western front. His warning to the 
 General Staff was explicit, but von Falkenhayn coolly ignored the 
 message. 
 
 Why did Germany select this particular point for its grand 
 offensive? The answer is to be found in a demand made by the 
 great Junker associations of Germany in May, 1915, nine months 
 
 398
 
 IMMORTAL VERDUN 
 
 399 
 
 IMMORTAL VERDUN, WHERE THE FRENCH HELD THE GERMANS WITH 
 THE INSPIRING SLOGAN "THEY SHALL NOT PASS"
 
 400 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 before the attack was undertaken. That demand was to the effect 
 that Verdun should be attacked and captured. They declared that 
 the Verdun fortifications made a menacing salient thrust into the 
 rich iron fields of the Briey basin. From this metalliferous field 
 of Lorraine came the ore that supplied eighty per cent of the steel 
 required for German and Austrian guns and munitions. These 
 fields of Briey were only twenty miles from the great guns of Verdun. 
 They were French territory at the beginning of the war and had 
 been seized by the army of the Crown Prince, co-operating with the 
 Army of Metz because of their immense value to the Germans in 
 war making. 
 
 As a preliminary to the battle, von Falkenhayn placed a 
 semicircle of huge howitzers and rifles around the field of Briey. 
 Then assembling the vast forces drained from all the fronts and 
 having erected ammunition dumps covering many acres, the great 
 battle commenced with a surprise attack upon the village of Hau- 
 mont on February 21, 1916. 
 
 The first victory of the Germans at that point was an easy one. 
 The great fort of Douaumont was the next objective. This was 
 taken on February 25th after a concentrated bombardment that for 
 intensity surpassed anything that heretofore had been shown in the 
 war. 
 
 Von Falkenhayn, personally superintending the disposition 
 of guns and men, had now penetrated the outer defenses of Verdun. 
 The tide was running against the French, and shells, more shells for 
 the guns of all caliber; men, more men for the earthworks surround- 
 ing the devoted city were needed. The narrow-gauge railway con- 
 necting Verdun with the great French depots of supplies was totally 
 inadequate for the transportation burdens suddenly cast upon it. 
 In this desperate emergency a transport system was born of 
 necessity, a system that saved Verdun. It was fleet upon fleet of 
 motor trucks, all sizes, all styles; anything that could pack a few 
 shells or a handful of men was utilized. The backbone of the 
 system was a greet fleet of trucks driven by men whose average 
 daily rest was four hours, and upon whose horizon-blue uniforms 
 the stains of snow and sleet, of dust and mud, were indelibly fixed 
 through the winter, spring, summer and fall of 1916, for the glori- 
 ous engagement continued from February 21st until November 2d, 
 when the Germans were forced into full retreat from the field of
 
 IMMORTAL VERDUN 401 
 
 honor, the evacuation of Fort Vaux putting a period to Germany's 
 disastrous plan and to von Falkenhayn's military career. 
 
 Lord Northcliffe, describing the early days of the immortal 
 battle, wrote: 
 
 "Verdun is, in many ways, the most extraordinary of battles. 
 The mass of metal used on both sides is far beyond all parallel; 
 the transformation on the Douaumont Ridge was more suddenly 
 dramatic than even the battle of the Marne; and, above all, the 
 duration of the conflict already looks as if it would surpass any- 
 thing in history. More than a month has elapsed since, by the 
 kindness of General Joffre and General P6tain, I was able to watch 
 the struggle from various vital viewpoints. The battle had then 
 been raging with great intensity for a fortnight, and, as I write, 
 four to five thousand guns are still thundering round Verdun. 
 Impossible, therefore, any man to describe the entire battle. 
 The most one can do is to set down one's impressions of the first 
 phases of a terrific conflict, the end of which cannot be fore- 
 
 seen. 
 it 
 
 My chief impression is one of admiration for the subtle 
 powers of mind of the French High Command. General Joffre 
 and General Castelnau are men with especially fine intellects 
 tempered to terrible keenness. Always they have had to contend 
 against superior numbers. In 1870, when they were subalterns, 
 their country lost the advantage of its numerous population by 
 abandoning general military service at a time when Prussia was 
 completely realizing the idea of a nation in arms. In 1914, when 
 they were commanders, France was inferior to a still greater degree 
 in point of numbers to Prussianized Germany. In armament, 
 also, France was inferior at first to her enemy. The French High 
 Command has thus been trained by adversity to do all that human 
 intellect can against almost overwhelming hostile material forces. 
 General Joffre, General Castelnau and, later, General P6tain, who 
 at a moment's notice displaced General Herr had to display 
 genius where the Germans were exhibiting talent, and the result 
 is to be seen at Verdun. They there caught the enemy in a series 
 of traps of a kind hitherto unknown in modern warfare something 
 elemental, and yet subtle, neo-primitive, and befitting the atavistic 
 character of the Teuton. They caught him in a web of his own 
 unfulfilled boasts.
 
 402 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "The enemy began by massing a surprising force on the 
 western front. Tremendous energy and organizing power were 
 the marks of his supreme efforts to obtain a decision. It was 
 usually reckoned that the Germans maintain on all fronts a field 
 army of about seventy-four and a half army corps, which at full 
 strength number three million men. Yet, while holding the Rus- 
 sians from Riga to the south of the Pripet Marshes, and main- 
 taining a show of force in the Balkans, Germany seems to have 
 succeeded in bringing up nearly two millions and a half of men for 
 her grand spring offensive in the west. At one time her forces 
 in France and Flanders were only ninety divisions. But troops 
 and guns were withdrawn in increasing numbers from Russia and 
 Serbia in December, 1915, until there were, it is estimated, a 
 hundred and eighteen divisions on the Franco-British-Belgian 
 front. A large number of six-inch and twelve-inch Austrian howitz- 
 ers were added to the enormous Krupp batteries. Then a large 
 proportion of new recruits of the 1916 class were moved into Rhine- 
 land depots to serve as drafts for the fifty-nine army corps, and it 
 is thought that nearly all the huge shell output that had accumu- 
 lated during the whiter was transported westward. 
 
 "The French Staff reckoned that Verdun would be attacked 
 when the ground had dried somewhat in the March winds. It 
 was thought that the enemy movement would take place against 
 the British front in some of the sectors of which there were chalk 
 undulations, through which the rains of whiter quickly drained. 
 The Germans skilfully encouraged this idea by making an apparent 
 preliminary attack at Lihons, on a five-mile front, with rolling 
 gas-clouds and successive waves of infantry. During this feint 
 the veritable offensive movement softly began on Saturday, Feb- 
 ruary 19, 1916, when the enormous masses of hostile artillery west, 
 east, and north of the Verdun salient started registering on the 
 French positions. Only hi small numbers did the German guns 
 fire, in order not to alarm their opponents. But even this trial 
 bombardment by shifts was a terrible display of power, calling 
 forth all the energies of the outnumbered French gunners to main- 
 tain the artillery duels that continued day and night until Monday 
 morning, February 21st. 
 
 "The enemy seems to have maintained a bombardment all 
 round General Heir's lines on February 21, 1916, but this general
 
 AMMUNITION FOR THE GUNS 
 
 Canadian narrow-gauge line taking ammunition up the line through a 
 shattered village 
 
 [HOW VERDUN WAS SAVED 
 The motor transport never faltered when the railroads were put out of action.
 
 IIS
 
 IMMORTAL VERDUN 405 
 
 battering was done with a thousand pieces of field artillery. The 
 grand masses of heavy howitzers were used in a different way. 
 At a quarter past seven hi the morning they concentrated on the 
 small sector of advanced intrenchments near Brabant and the 
 Meuse; twelve-inch shells fell with terrible precision every few 
 yards, according to the statements made by the French troops. 
 I afterwards saw a big German shell, from at least six miles distant 
 from my place of observation, hit quite a small target. So I can 
 well believe that, in the first bombardment of French positions, 
 which had been photographed from the air and minutely measured 
 and registered by the enemy gunners hi the trial firing, the great, 
 destructive shots went home with extraordinary effect. The 
 trenches were not bombarded they were obliterated. In each 
 small sector of the six-mile northward bulge of the Verdun salient 
 the work of destruction was done with surprising quickness. 
 
 "After the line from Brabant to Haumont was smashed, the 
 main fire power was directed against the other end of the bow at 
 Herbebois, Ornes, and Maucourt. Then when both .ends of the 
 bow were severely hammered, the central point of the Verdun 
 salient, Caures Woods, was smothered hi shells of all sizes, poured 
 hi from east, north and west. In this manner almost the whole 
 enormous force of heavy artillery was centered upon mile after 
 mile of the French front. When the great guns lifted over the lines 
 of craters, the lighter field artillery, placed row after row hi front 
 of the wreckage, maintained an unending fire curtain over the com- 
 municating saps and support intrenchments. 
 
 "Then came the second surprising feature in the new German 
 system of attack. No waves of storming infantry swept into the 
 battered works. Only strong patrols at first came cautiously 
 forward, to discover if it were safe for the main body of troops to 
 advance and reorganize the French line so as to allow the artillery 
 to move onward. There was thus a large element of truth hi the 
 marvelous tales afterwards told by German prisoners. Their 
 commanders thought it would be possible to do all the fighting 
 with long-range artillery, leaving the infantry to act as squatters 
 to the great guns, and occupy and rebuild line after line of the 
 French defenses without any serious hand-to-hand struggles. All 
 they had to do was to protect the gunners from surprise attack, 
 while the guns made an easy path for them.
 
 406 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "But, ingenious as was this scheme for saving the man-power 
 of Germany by an unparalleled expenditure of shell, it required 
 for full success the co-operation of the French troops. But the 
 French did not co-operate. Their High Command had continually 
 improved their system of trench defense in accordance with the 
 experiences of their own hurricane bombardments in Champagne 
 and the Carency sector. General Castelnau, the acting Com- 
 mander-in-Chief on the French front, was indeed the inventor 
 of hurricane fire tactics, which he had used for the first time in 
 February, 1915, in Champagne. When General Joffre took over 
 the conduct of all French operations, leaving to General Castelnau 
 the immediate control of the front in France, the victor of the battle 
 of Nancy weakened his advance lines and then his support lines, 
 until his troops actually engaged in fighting were very little more 
 that a thin covering body, such as is thrown out towards the fron- 
 tier while the main forces connect well behind. 
 
 "We shall see the strategical effect of this extraordinary meas- 
 ure in the second phase of the Verdun battle, but its tactical effect 
 was to leave remarkably few French troops exposed to the appalling 
 tempest of German and Austrian shells. The fire-trench was 
 almost empty, and in many cases the real defenders of the French 
 line were men with machine guns, hidden in dug-outs at some dis- 
 tance from the photographed positions at which the German gun- 
 ners aimed.^ The batteries of light guns, which the French handled 
 with the flexibility and continuity of fire of Maxims, were also 
 concealed in widely scattered positions. The main damage caused 
 by the first intense bombardment was the destruction of all the 
 telephone wires along the French front. In one hour the German 
 guns plowed up every yard of ground behind the observing posts 
 and behind the fire trench. Communications could only be slowly 
 re-established by messengers, so that many parties of men had to 
 fight on their own initiative, with little or no combination of effort 
 with their comrades. 
 
 "Yet, desperate as were their circumstances, they broke 
 down the German plan for capturing trenches without an infantry 
 attack. They caught the patrols and annihilated them, and then 
 swept back the disillusioned and reluctant main bodies of German 
 troops. First, the bombing parties were felled, then the sappers as 
 they came forward to repair the line for their infantry, and at last
 
 IMMORTAL VERDUN 407 
 
 the infantry itself in wave after wave of field-gray. The small 
 French garrison of every center of resistance fought with cool, 
 deadly courage, and often to the death. 
 
 "Artillery fire was practically useless against them, for though 
 their tunnel shelters were sometimes blown in by the twelve-inch 
 shells, which they regarded as their special terror by reason of 
 their penetrative power and wide blast, even the Germans had not 
 sufficient shells to search out all their underground chambers, 
 every one of which have two or three exits. 
 
 "The new organization of the French Machine-gun Corps 
 was a fine factor in the eventual success. One gun fired ten 
 thousand rounds daily for a week, most of the positions selected 
 being spots from which each German infantry advance would be 
 enfiladed and shattered. Then the French 75's which had been 
 masked during the overwhelming fire of the enemy howitzers, 
 came unexpectedly into action when the German infantry attacks 
 increased in strength. Near Haumont, for example, eight succes- 
 sive furious assaults were repulsed by three batteries of 75's. One 
 battery was then spotted by the Austrian twelve-inch guns, but 
 it remained in action until all its ammunition was exhausted. The 
 gunners then blew up their guns and retired, with the loss of only 
 one man. 
 
 "Von Falkenhayn had increased the Crown Prince's army from 
 the fourteen divisions that battled to Douaumont Fort to 
 twenty-five divisions. In April he added five more divisions to 
 the forces around Verdun by weakening the effectives in other 
 sectors and drawing more troops from the Russian front. It was 
 rumored that von Hindenburg was growing restive and complaining 
 that the wastage at Verdun would tell against the success of the 
 campaign on the Riga-Dvinsk front, which was to open when the 
 Baltic ice melted. 
 
 "Great as was the wastage of life, it was in no way immediately 
 decisive. But when the expenditure of shells almost outran the 
 highest speed of production of the German munition factories, 
 and the wear on the guns was more than Krupp and Skoda could 
 make good, there was danger to the enemy in beginning another 
 great offensive likely to overtax his shelhnakers and gunmakers." 
 
 Immortal and indomitable France had won over her foe more 
 power than she had possessed even after the battle of the Marne.
 
 408 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Throughout the entire summer Verdun, with the whole popu- 
 lation of France roused to the supreme heights of heroism behind 
 it, held like a rock. Wave after wave of Germans hi gray-green 
 lines were sent against the twenty-five miles of earthworks, while 
 the French guns took their toll of the crack German regiments. 
 German dead lay upon the field until the exposed flesh became the 
 same ghastly hue of their uniforms. No Man's Land around Verdun 
 was a waste and a stench. 
 
 General Joffre's plan was very simple. It was to hold out. 
 As was afterwards revealed, much to the satisfaction of the French 
 people, Sir Douglas Haig had placed himself completely at the 
 service of the French Commander-in-Chief, and had suggested 
 that he should use the British army to weaken the thrust at Verdun. 
 But General Joffre had refused the proffered help. No man knew 
 better than he what his country, with its exceedingly low birth- 
 rate, was suffering on the Meuse. He had but to send a telegram 
 to British Headquarters, and a million Britons, with thousands of 
 heavy guns, would fling themselves upon the German lines and 
 compel Falkenhayn to divide his shell output, his heavy artillery, 
 and his millions of men between Verdun and the Somme. But 
 General Joffre, instead of sending the telegram in question, merely 
 dispatched officers to British Headquarters to assure and calm the 
 chafing Scotsman commanding the military forces of the British 
 Empire. 
 
 Throughout that long^Summer the battle cry of Verdun, 
 "Ne passeront pas!" ("They shaU not pass!"), was an inspiration to 
 the French army and to the world. Then as autumn drifted its 
 red foliage over the heights surrounding the bloody field, the 
 French struck back. General Nivelle, who had taken command at 
 Verdun under Joffre, commenced a series of attacks and a per- 
 sistent pressure against the German forces on both sides of the 
 Meuse. These thrusts culminated in a sudden sweeping attack 
 which, on October 24th, resulted in the recapture by Nivelle's 
 forces of Fort Douaumont and, on November 2d, in the recapture 
 of Fort Vaux. 
 
 Thus ended in glory the most inspiring battle in the long and 
 splendid history of France.
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 MURDERS AND MARTYRS 
 
 ANY examples might be cited to show that the Central 
 empires were dead to the humanities. There were ap- 
 parently no limits to the brutality of the German war- 
 makers. Among the outstanding deeds of the Teutons 
 that sickened the world was the killing of Miss Edith Cavell, an 
 English nurse working in Belgian hospitals. 
 
 A shudder of horror circled the world when announcement was 
 formally made that this splendid woman was sentenced to death 
 and murdered by a German firing squad at two o'clock on the 
 morning of October 12, 1915. 
 
 The killing of this gentle-natured, brave woman typified to the 
 world Germanjr's essentially brutal militarism. It placed the 
 German military command hi a niche of dishonor unique in all 
 history. 
 
 The specific charge against Miss Cavell was that she had 
 helped English and French soldiers and Belgian young male civilians 
 to cross the border into Holland. The direct evidence against her 
 was hi the form of letters intercepted by the Germans in which some 
 of these soldiers and civilians writing from England thanked her 
 for the aid she had given to them. 
 
 Upon the farcical trial that resulted in the predetermined 
 sentence of death, Miss Cavell courageously and freely admitted her 
 assistance in the specified cases of escape. When she was asked 
 why she did it, she declared her fear that if she had not done so 
 the men would have been shot by the Germans. Her testimony 
 was given hi a clear conversational tone that betrayed no nervous- 
 ness and her entire bearing was such as to win the sympathy of 
 everyone except her stony-hearted judges. 
 
 The German officers in command at Brussels made it impossible 
 for Miss Cavell to see counsel before the trial, and a number of 
 able lawyers who were solicited to undertake her defense declined 
 to do so because of their fear of the Germans. 
 
 409
 
 410 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Sentence was imposed upon her at five o'clock on the afternoon 
 of October llth. In accordance with its terms, she was taken from 
 her cell and placed against a blank wall at two o'clock the following 
 morning the darkness of the hour vying with the blackness of the 
 deed. Mr. Gahan, the English clergyman connected with the 
 prison, was permitted to see her a short time before her murder. 
 He gave her Holy Communion at ten o'clock on the night of October 
 llth. To him she declared she was happy in her contemplation 
 of death; that she had no regret for what she had done; and that 
 she was glad to die for her country. 
 
 Brand Whitlock, American Minister to Belgium, and Hugh 
 Gibson, Secretary of the Legation, did all that was humanly possible 
 to avert the crime, but without avail. They were told that, "the 
 Emperor himself could not intervene." 
 
 Defending the murder, Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, German 
 Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, callously disposed of the 
 matter thus: 
 
 "I see from the English and American press that the shooting 
 of an Englishwoman and the condemnation of several other women 
 in Brussels for treason has caused a sensation, and capital against 
 us is being made out of the fact. Men and women are equal 
 before the law, and only the degree of guilt makes a difference in the 
 sentence for the crime and its consequences." 
 
 Monuments to Edith Cavell were reared hi widely scattered 
 communities. A mountain was named in her honor. Her murder 
 multiplied enlistments and fed the fires of patriotism throughout 
 the Allied countries. In the end, Germany lost heavily. The 
 Teutons aimed to strike terror into the hearts of men and women. 
 They only succeeded hi arousing a righteous anger that ultimately 
 destroyed the Imperial government. 
 
 Another instance equally flagrant of the utter callousness of 
 the men who at that time ruled Germany, was the murder of 
 Captain Fryatt, a gallant British seaman, who had dared to 
 attack the pirates of the under-seas. 
 
 Captain Charles Fryatt was the master of the steamship 
 Brussels, a merchant vessel owned by the Great Eastern Railway. 
 It was captured by the Germans on June 23, 1916. Captain 
 Fryatt was taken to Zeebrugge. A court-martial went through 
 the motions of a trial at Bruges on July 27th. The charge against
 
 MURDERS AND MARTYRS 411 
 
 Captain Fryatt was that of attempting to ram the German sub- 
 marine U-33. 
 
 Mute testimony against Captain Fryatt was a gold watch 
 found upon his person. This carried an inscription testifying 
 that the watch had been presented by the mayor and people of 
 Harwich in recognition of the Captain's bravery in attempting to 
 ram a submarine, and his successful escape when the U-boat called 
 upon him to surrender. 
 
 The prisoners who were captured with Captain Fryatt were 
 sent to the prison camp at Ruhlaben, but Captain Fryatt was 
 condemned to death as a "franc-tireur." The news of the murder 
 was sent to the world through a German communique dated July 
 28th. It stated: 
 
 The accused was condemned to death because, although he was not a 
 member of a combatant force, he made an attempt on the afternoon of 
 March 20, 1915, to ram the German submarine U-33 near the Maas 
 lightship. The accused, as well as the first officer and the chief engineer of 
 the steamer, received at the time from the British Admiralty a gold watch 
 as a reward of his brave conduct on that occasion, and his action was 
 mentioned with praise in the House of Commons. 
 
 On the occasion in question, disregarding the U-boat's signal to stop 
 and show his national flag, he turned at a critical moment at high speed on 
 the submarine, which escaped the steamer by a few meters only by imme- 
 diately diving. He confessed that in so doing he had acted hi accordance 
 with the instructions of the Admiralty. One of the many nefarious 
 franc-tireur proceedings of the British merchant marine against our war 
 vessels has thus found a belated but merited expiation. 
 
 This brutal action by Germany coining after the murder of 
 Edith Cavell created intense indignation throughout the world. 
 It ranked with the poison gas at Ypres, the Lusitania, the Belgian 
 atrocities, the killing of Edith Cavell and the unrestricted submarine 
 sinkings, as a factor hi arousing the democratic peoples of the 
 world to a fighting pitch. 
 
 Germany sowed its seeds of destruction in the wind that bore 
 the fumes of poison gas, and in the ruthless brutality that decreed 
 the sinking of the Lusitania and the murders of Edith Cavell and 
 Captain Fryatt. 
 
 It reaped the whirlwind in the world-wide wrath that brought 
 America into the war, and that visited disgrace and defeat upon 
 the German Empire.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 THE SECOND BATTLE OP YPRES 
 
 FIRST to feel the effects of German terrorism through poison 
 gas were the gallant Canadian troops on the afternoon of 
 April 22, 1915, at Ypres, Belgium. Gas had been used by 
 the Germans previously to this, but they were mere experi- 
 mental clouds directed against Belgian troops. 
 
 Before the battle, the English and Canadians held a line from 
 Broodseinde to half a mile north of St. Julien on the crest of the 
 Graf ens taf el Ridge. The French prolonged the line to Steenstraate 
 on the Yperlee Canal. The Germans originally planned the 
 attack for Tuesday, April 20th, but with satanic ingenuity the 
 offensive was postponed until between 4 and 5 o'clock on the 
 afternoon of Thursday, the 22d. During the morning the wind 
 blew steadily from the north and the scientists attached to the 
 German Field Headquarters predicted that the strong wind would 
 continue at least twelve hours longer. 
 
 The Canadian division held a line extending about five miles 
 from the Ypres-Roulers Railway to the Ypres-Poelcapelle road 
 The division consisted of three infantry brigades, in addition to the 
 artillery brigades. Upon this unsuspecting body of men the poison 
 fumes were projected by means of pipes and force pumps. The 
 immediate consequences were that the asphyxiating gas of great 
 intensity rendered immediately helpless thousands of men. The 
 same gas attack that was projected upon the Canadians also fell 
 with murderous effect upon the French. The consequences were 
 that the French division on the left of the Canadians gave way and 
 the Third brigade of the Canadian division, so far as the hft was 
 concerned, was "up in the ah-," to use the phrase of its commanding 
 officer. 
 
 It became necessary for Brigadier-General Turner, commanding 
 the Third brigade, to throw back his left flank southward to protect 
 his rear. This caused great confusion, and the enemy, advancing 
 rapidly, took a number of guns and many prisoners, penetrating to 
 
 412
 
 THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 413 
 
 the village of St. Julien, two miles in the rear of the original French 
 trenches. The Canadians fought heroically, although greatly 
 outnumbered and pounded by artillery that inflicted tremendous 
 losses. The Germans, as they came through the gas clouds, were 
 protected by masks moistened with a solution containing bi-car- 
 bonate of soda. 
 
 The tactics of General Turner off-set the numerical superiority 
 of the enemy, and prevented a disastrous rout. General Curry, 
 commanding the Second brigade of Canadians, repeated this 
 successful maneuver when he flung his left flank southward and, 
 presenting two fronts to the enemy, held his line of trenches from 
 Thursday at 5 o'clock until Sunday afternoon. The reason the 
 trenches were held no longer than Sunday afternoon was that they 
 had been obliterated by heavy artillery fire. The Germans finally 
 succeeded in capturing a line, the forward point of which was the 
 village of St. Julien. Reinforcements under General Alderson had 
 come up by this time and the enemy's advance was suddenly 
 checked. Enemy attacks upon the line running from Ypres to 
 Passchendaele completely broke down under the withering fire of the 
 reinforced and re-formed artillery and infantry brigades. The 
 record officer of the Canadians makes this comment of the detailed 
 fighting: 
 
 The story of the second battle of Ypres is the story of how 
 the Canadian division, enormously outnumbered for they had in 
 front of them at least four divisions, supported by immensely heavy 
 artillery, with a gap still existing, though reduced, hi their lines, 
 and with dispositions made hurriedly under the stimulus of critical 
 danger, fought through the day and through the night, and then 
 through another day and night; fought under their officers until, as 
 happened to so many, those perished gloriously, and then fought 
 from the impulsion of sheer valor because they came from fighting 
 stock. 
 
 The enemy, of course, was aware whether fully or not may 
 perhaps be doubted of the advantage his breach in the line had 
 given him, and immediately began to push a formidable series of 
 attacks upon the whole of the newly-formed Canadian salient. 
 The attack was everywhere fierce, but developed with particular 
 intensity at this moment upon the apex of the newly-formed line, 
 running in the direction of St. Julien.
 
 414 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 It has already been stated that some British guns were taken 
 in a wood comparatively early in the evening of the 22d. In the 
 course of that night, and under the heaviest machine-gun fire, this 
 wood was assaulted by the Canadian Scottish, Sixteenth battalion 
 of the Third brigade, and the Tenth battalion of the Second brigade, 
 which was intercepted for this purpose on its way to a reserve trench. 
 The battalions were respectively commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Leckie and Lieutenant-Colonel Boyle, and after a most fierce strug- 
 gle hi the light of a misty moon they took the position at the point 
 of the bayonet. At midnight the Second battalion, under Colonel 
 Watson, and the Toronto regiment, Queen's Own, Third battalion, 
 under Lieutenant-Colonel Rennie, both of the First brigade, brought 
 up much-needed reinforcement, and though not actually engaged hi 
 the assault, were in reserve. 
 
 All through the following days and nights these battalions 
 shared the fortunes and misfortunes of the Third brigade. An 
 officer who took part hi the attack describes how the men about 
 him fell under the fire of the machine guns, which, in his phrase, 
 played upon them "like a watering pot." He added quite simply 
 "I wrote my own life off." But the line never wavered. When 
 one man fell another took his place, and with a final shout the 
 survivors of the two battalions flung themselves into the wood. The 
 German garrison was completely demoralized, and the impetuous 
 advance of the Canadians did not cease until they reached the far 
 side of the wood and intrenched themselves there hi the position 
 so dearly gained. They had, however, the disappointment of 
 finding that the guns had been blown up by the enemy, and later 
 on in the same night a most formidable concentration of artillery 
 fire, sweeping the wood as a tropical storm sweeps the leaves from a 
 forest, made it impossible for them to hold the position for which 
 they had sacrificed so much. 
 
 The fighting continued without intermission all through the 
 night, and, to those who observed the indications that the attack 
 was being pushed with ever-growing strength, it hardly seemed 
 possible that the Canadians, fighting in positions so difficult to 
 defend and so little the subject of deliberate choice, could maintain 
 their resistance for any long period. At 6 A. M. on Friday it became 
 apparent that the left was becoming more and more involved, and 
 a powerful German attempt to outflank it developed rapidly. The
 
 THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 
 
 415 
 
 consequences, if it had been broken or outflanked, need not be 
 insisted upon. They were not merely local. 
 
 It was there decided, formidable as the attempt undoubt- 
 edly was, to try and give relief by a counter-attack upon the first 
 
 driven 
 to the south of 
 
 pOEKftPPEU- 
 
 PASSCHENDALfi 
 
 rUUllEN 
 
 QHELUVEL 
 
 X / R SiaO 
 
 THE TOWN OF YPRES is FCLL OF MEMOBIES FOB THE CANADIANS 
 
 line of German trenches, now far, far advanced from those originally 
 occupied by the French. This was carried out by the 
 First and Fourth battalions of the First brigade, under Brigadier- 
 General Mercer, acting in combination with a British brigade. 
 It is safe to say that the youngest private in the ik, a
 
 416 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 set his teeth for the advance, knew the task hi front of him, and 
 the youngest subaltern knew all that rested upon its success. It 
 did not seem that any human being could live in the shower of shot 
 and shell which began to play upon the advancing troops. They 
 suffered terrible casualties. For a short tune every other man 
 seemed to fall, but the attack was pressed ever closer and closer. 
 
 The Fourth Canadian battalion at one moment came under a 
 particularly withering fire. For a moment not more it wavered. 
 Its most gallant commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Burchill, 
 carrying, after an old fashion, a light cane, coolly and cheerfully 
 rallied his men and, at the very moment when his example had in- 
 fected them, fell dead at the head of his battalion. With a hoarse cry 
 of anger they sprang forward (for, indeed they loved him), as if to 
 avenge his death. The astonishing attack which followed pushed 
 home in the face of direct frontal fire made hi broad daylight by bat- 
 talions whose names should live forever in the memories of soldiers 
 was carried to the front line of the German trenches. After a 
 hand-to-hand struggle the last German who resisted was bayoneted, 
 and the trench was won. 
 
 The measure of this success may be taken when it is pointed 
 out that this trench represented in the German advance the apex 
 in the breach which the enemy had made in the original line of the 
 Allies, and that it was two and a half miles south of that line. 
 This charge, made by men who looked death indifferently in the 
 face (for no man who took part in it could think that he was likely 
 to live) saved, and that was much, the Canadian left. But it did 
 more. Up to the point where the assailants conquered, or died, it 
 secured and maintained during the most critical moment of all the 
 integrity of the allied line. For the trench was not only taken, it 
 was held thereafter against all comers, and in the teeth of every 
 conceivable projectile, until the night of Sunday, the 25th, when all 
 that remained of the war-broken but victorious battalion was 
 relieved by fresh troops.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 ZEPPELIN RAIDS ON FRANCE AND ENGLAND 
 
 THE idea of warfare in the air has been a dream of romancers 
 from a period long before Jules Verne. Indeed, balloons 
 were used for observation purposes in the eighteenth century 
 by the French armies. The crude balloon of that period, in a 
 more developed form, was used hi the Franco-Prussian War, and 
 during the siege of Paris by its assistance communication was 
 kept up between Paris and the outside world. Realizing its possi- 
 bilities inventors had been trying to develop a balloon which could 
 be propelled against the wind and so guided that explosives could 
 be dropped upon a hostile army. Partially successful dirigible 
 balloons have been occasionally exhibited for a number of years. 
 
 The idea of such a balloon took a strong hold upon the imagina- 
 tion of the German army staff long before the Great War, and 
 Count Ferdinand Zeppelin gave the best years of his life to its 
 development. From the beginning he met with great difficulties. 
 His first ships proved mechanical failures, and after these diffi- 
 culties were overcome he met with a series cf accidents which 
 almost put an end to his efforts. By popular subscription, and by 
 government support, he was able to continue, and when the war 
 began Germany had thirty-five dirigible balloons of the Zeppelin 
 and other types, many of them as much as 490 feet long. 
 
 The Zeppelin balloon, called the Zeppelin from the name of 
 its inventor, was practically a vast ship, capable of carrying a 
 load of about fifteen thousand pounds. It would carry a crew of 
 twenty men or more, fuel for the engines, provisions, a wireless 
 installation, and armament with ammunition. For a journey of 
 twenty hours such a vessel would need at least seven thousand 
 pounds of fuel. It would probably be able to carry about two 
 tons of explosives. These Zeppelins could travel great distances. 
 Before the war one of them flew from Lake Constance to Berlin, 
 a continuous flight of about one thousand miles, hi thirty-one 
 hours 
 
 417
 
 418 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 These great aerial warships were given a thorough trial by 
 the Germans. They disliked to admit that they had made a costly 
 mistake in adding them to their armament. It soon turned out, 
 however, that the Zeppelins were practically useless in battle. 
 Whatever they could do, either for scouting purposes or hi dropping 
 explosives behind the enemy's lines, could be better done by the 
 airplane. The French and the English, who before the war had 
 decided that the airplane was the more important weapon, were 
 right. But the Germans did not give up their costly toy so easily, 
 and they determined to use it hi the bombardment of cities and 
 districts situated far away from the German line, in dropping bombs, 
 not upon fortifications, or armed camps where they might meet with 
 resistance, but upon peaceful non-belligerents in the streets of 
 great unf ortified cities. 
 
 It was their policy of frightfulness once again. And once 
 again they had made a mistake. The varied expeditions of the 
 Zeppelin airships sent from Germany to bombard Paris, or to 
 cross the Channel and, after dropping bombs on seaside resorts, 
 to wander over the city of London in the hope of spreading destruc- 
 tion there, did little real damage and their net effects, from a mili- 
 tary point of view, were practically nil. 
 
 The first Zeppelin raid upon England took place on January 19, 
 1915. The Zeppelins passed over the cities of Yarmouth, Cromer, 
 Sherringham and King's Lynn. On this expedition there were 
 two Zeppelins. They reached the coast of Norfolk about 8.30 in 
 the evening and then steered northwest across the country toward 
 King's Lynn, dropping bombs as they went. In these towns there 
 were no military stations and the damage suffered was very slight. 
 Nine persons were killed, all civilians. This raid was followed by 
 many others, which at first usually wasted their ammunition, 
 dropping then* bombs on small country towns or in empty fields. 
 
 On the 31st of May an expedition reached London and killed 
 six persons in the east end. The result of this raid was to stir the 
 English to intense indignation. Mobs gathered in the London 
 streets, and persons suspected of being Germans, or with German 
 sympathies, were attacked. Other raids followed, none of them 
 doing serious military damage, but usually killing or wounding 
 innocent ^ non-combatants. The stupid policy of secrecy which 
 they maintained during the first year of the war unfortunately
 
 ZEPPELIN RAIDS 419 
 
 permitted great exaggeration of the real damages which they had 
 suffered. 
 
 During the first year, according to Mr. Balfour, in eighteen 
 Zeppelin raids there were only seventy-one civilian adults and 
 eighteen children killed, one hundred and eighty-nine civilian 
 adults and thirty-one children wounded. No soldier or sailor 
 was killed and only seven wounded. 
 
 In France similar attacks had been made on Paris and Calais. 
 On the 20th of March two Zeppelins dropped bombs on Paris, 
 but Paris, unlike London, was a fortified city, and the sky soldiers 
 were driven off by the anti-aircraft guns. The French also devised 
 an efficient method of defense. On the appearance of an airship 
 great searchlights flashed into the air and the enemy was made at 
 once a target, not only for the guns of all the forts, but also for 
 airplane attack. In order to attack successfully a Zeppelin it was 
 necessary that an airplane should attain a position above the 
 enemy. For an airplane to rise to such a height time was required, 
 as the airplane rises slowly. The French, therefore, devised a scheme 
 by which two or more airplanes were kept constantly circling at a 
 very great height above the city. Relays were formed which 
 relieved each other at regular intervals. When an airship 
 approached it would therefore be compelled in the first place to 
 pass through the fire of the guns on the great forts, and then would 
 find in the ah* above airplanes in waiting. The Germans, there- 
 fore, practically gave up attacks upon Paris. They were dangerous. 
 
 London, practically unarmed, seemed to them an easy mark. 
 But the British Lion was now awake. The English had been 
 taken by surprise. They attempted at first, hi an unorganized 
 way, to protect their city, and, though occasionally successful in 
 destroying an airship through the gallantry of some individual 
 hero, they soon found that their defense must be organized, and 
 Admiral Sir Percy Scott was entrusted with the task. Lights were 
 extinguished on the streets and screened on the water front. 
 Illumination for advertising purposes was forbidden; windows 
 were covered, so that London became at night a mass of gloom. 
 The Zeppelins, compelled to fly at a very great height, because of 
 anti-aircraft guns, were blinded. As in Paris airplanes were con- 
 stantly kept on the alert and searchlights and anti-airship guns 
 placed at every convenient point.
 
 420 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The suggestion was made that the English should undertake 
 reprisals, but the suggestion was strongly opposed on the ground 
 that the British should not be a "party to a line of conduct con- 
 demned by every right-thinking man of every civilized nation." 
 
 The effect of the English improved defenses was soon obvious, 
 when the German expeditions began to lose airship after airship. 
 Under the new regime, when such an attack was signaled, the whole 
 city immediately received warning and the sky was swept by dozens 
 of searchlights. Safe retreats were ready for those who cared to 
 use them, but ordinarily the whole population rushed out to watch 
 the spectacle. Airplanes would dash at the incoming foe; the 
 searchlights would be switched off and the guns be silent to avoid 
 hindering the aviators. Then would come the attack and Zeppelin 
 after Zeppelin would be seen falling, a great mass of flames, while 
 their companions would hurry back across the Channel. Even 
 there they would not be safe, for many an airship was brought 
 down on English fields, or on the waters of the sea. 
 
 The Germans, however, did not confine then* policy of fright- 
 fulness hi the air to the performances of their Zeppelins. Before 
 the Zeppelins had crossed the Channel their airplanes had visited 
 England. On Christmas Day, 1914, an airplane attacked Dover, 
 doing, however, no damage. Other airplanes also visited the British 
 Isles from time to time, dropping bombs, and as the Germans 
 began to lose faith in the efficacy of their Zeppelin fleets they 
 began more and more to substitute airplanes for their airships. 
 
 On some of these expeditions much more damage was done 
 than had ever been done by the Zeppelins. The airplane expedi- 
 tion grew serious in the year 1917; between May 23d and June 
 16th of that year there were five such aerial attacks. The air- 
 planes could not only move with greater speed but with better 
 direction. An attack on May 25th resulted in the killing of seventy- 
 six persons and the injuring of one hundred and seventy-four, 
 the principal victims being women and children. This was at the 
 town of Folkestone on the southeast coast. In this attack there 
 were about sixteen airplanes, and the time of the attack was not 
 more than three minutes. Scarcely any part of Folkestone escaped 
 injury. The attack was methodically organized. Four separate 
 squadrons passed over the city, following each other at short 
 intervals. It was impossible to tell when the attack would end,
 
 P C gS R 
 
 fiffi 
 
 SIM *
 
 GUARDING PARIS FROM THE HUN 
 
 Observation post fitted with instruments for gauging the height and speed 
 i aS^SS^'ife 1 """* a listening post and a "75'^ installed 
 
 on the outakirta of Paris.
 
 ZEPPELIN RAIDS 
 
 423 
 
 and people in shelters or cellars were kept waiting for hours without 
 being able to feel certain that the danger had passed. 
 
 It is probable that one of the motives of these raids was to 
 keep at home fleets of English airplanes which might be more 
 useful on the front. Indeed, many Englishmen, alarmed by the 
 damage, urged such a policy, but the good sense of the English 
 leaders prevented such a mistake from being made. Pitiful as 
 must have been the suffering in individual cases, the whole of the 
 damage caused by the German frightfulness was but a trifle as 
 compared with the usefulness of the English air-fleets when 
 directly sent against the German armies. Nevertheless, every 
 squadron of German airplanes sent to England was attacked by 
 
 RU55IA 
 
 THE FIRST GERMAN ARMY WHICH INVADED FRANCE (1,200,000) WOULD HAVE STRETCHED 
 PROM PARIS INTO RUSSIA (1,200 MILES) IF MARCHING IN SINGLE FILE 
 
 British aviators, and in those attacks the Germans suffered many 
 losses. 
 
 The worst raid of all those made was one on June 13th, which 
 was directed upon the city of London. On that occasion ninety- 
 seven persons were killed and four hundred and thirty-seven 
 wounded. These airplane operations differed from the Zeppelin 
 expeditions in being carried on hi the daytime, and this raid took 
 place while the schools were in session and large numbers of people 
 were in the street. Only one of the attacking airplanes was 
 brought down. The raiding machines were of a new type, about 
 three times the size of the ordinary machine, and there were twenty- 
 two such machines in the squadron. The battle in the air was a 
 striking spectacle and in spite of the danger was watched by mil- 
 lions of the population. The raiders were easily seen and their
 
 424 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 flight seemed like a flight of swallows as they dived and swerved 
 through the air. 
 
 The raids on England were not the only raids conducted by the 
 Germans during the war. Paris suffered, but as soon as the warn- 
 ing sounded, the sky over the city was alive with defense airplanes. 
 An attack on the French capital took place on the 27th of July 
 and began about midnight. The German airmen, however, never 
 got further than a suburban section of the city, and their bombard- 
 ment caused but little damage. In one of the suburbs, however, 
 a German flyer dropped four bombs on a Red Cross Hospital, 
 killing two doctors, a chemist and a male nurse, and injuring a 
 number of patients. The raider was flying low and the distinguish- 
 ing marks of the hospital were plainly apparent. 
 
 Almost every day during the bitter fighting of 1918, reports 
 came in that Allied hospitals had been bombed by German raiders. 
 Attacks on hospitals were, of course, strictly forbidden by the 
 Hague Convention, and they caused bitter indignation. Such 
 attacks were of a piece with those upon hospital ships which were 
 made from tune to tune. From the very beginning of the war the 
 Germans could not understand the psychology of the people of 
 the Allied countries. They were not fighting with slaves, ready 
 to cower under the lash, but with free people, ready to fight for 
 liberty and roused to fury by lawlessness.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 
 
 THE Russian Revolution was not a sudden movement of 
 the people. Long before the war it had raised its head. 
 The Duma itself came into existence as one of its fruits; 
 but when the war began all parties joined in patriotic 
 support of the Russian armies and laid aside for the time their 
 cherished grievances. The war was immensely popular. Slavonic 
 nationalism turned against Austria-Hungary and Germany who 
 were bent upon crushing the Slavonic sister state, Serbia. The 
 Liberal elements saw in Germany the stronghold of reaction and 
 of militarism, and trusted that its downfall would be followed 
 by that of Russian autocracy. But so glaring was the incapacity 
 of the old regime, that a union was formed during the war by all 
 the Liberal parties. This group united on the single aim of pushing 
 on the war, and silently preparing for the moment when the catas- 
 trophe to Czarism was to come. 
 
 This was long before the revolution. But a conviction of 
 the necessity of immediate change gradually came to all. The 
 Czar himself brought matters to an issue. His vacillation, his 
 appointment of ministers who were not only reactionary, but were 
 suspected of being German tools, were too much for even honest 
 supporters of the Imperial regime. Some of these reactionaries, 
 it is true, were easily driven from power. In 1915 Sukhomlinov 
 and Maklakov were overthrown by the influence of the army 
 and the Duma. But in 1916 the parasites came to life again. 
 M. Boris Stuermer became Prime Minister, and appointed as 
 Minister of the Interior the notorious Protopopov. On November 
 14, 1916, Miliukov, the leader of the Constitutional Democrats, 
 or Cadet Party, attacked the Premier in one of the fiercest speeches 
 ever made in the Russian Duma. Stuermer was compelled to 
 resign, but his successor, M. Trepov, though an honest man with 
 high ambitions, was forced to retain Protopopov at the Interior. 
 For a moment there was calm. But it was the calm before the storm. 
 
 425
 
 426 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The Russian Revolution, now recognized as the most bloody 
 revolution in history, began with the assassination of a single man. 
 This man was Gregory Novikh, known throughout the world 
 under the name of Rasputin. A Siberian peasant by birth, immoral, 
 filthy in person, untrained in mind, he had early received the nick- 
 name of Rasputin, which means " ne'er-do-well," on account of his 
 habits. A drunkard, and a libertine always, he posed as a sort of 
 saint and miracle worker, let his hair grow long, and tramped 
 about the world barefoot. 
 
 Rasputin had left his district of Tobolsk and at Moscow had 
 started a new cult, where mystical seances were mingled with 
 debauchery. Through Madame Verubova he had been introduced 
 to the Empress herself. He became the friend of Count Witte, 
 of Stuermer, and Protopopov was his tool. Rumor credited him 
 with exercising an extraordinary influence upon the Czarina, and 
 through her upon the Czar. This influence was thought to be 
 responsible for many of the Czar's unpopular policies. In times 
 of great public agitation the wildest rumors are easily taken for 
 truth and the absurd legends which were easily associated with his 
 name were greedily accepted by people of every rank. The influ- 
 ence of Rasputin over the Imperial family was denied again and 
 again. It has been said from authoritative sources that the Czar 
 did not know him by sight, and that the Czarina knew him only 
 as a superstitious and neurotic woman might know some fortune 
 teller or other charlatan. Nevertheless the credulous public 
 believed him to be the evil spirit of the Imperial circle, and every 
 false move, every unpopular act, was ascribed to his baneful influ- 
 ence. But such a career could not last long, and the end became a 
 tragedy. 
 
 Several times Rasputin had been attacked, but had escaped. 
 At last, on the 29th of December, 1916, Prince Yusapov, a young 
 man of wealth and position, invited him to dine with him at his 
 own home. The Prince came for him hi his own car. Entering 
 the dining-room, they found there the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlo- 
 vitch. M. Purishkevitch, a member of the Duma, had acted as 
 chauffeur, and he followed him in. The three told him that he 
 was to die and he was handed a pistol that he might kill himself; 
 instead of doing so, he shot at the Grand Duke, but missed, and 
 then was shot in turn by his captors. The noise attracted the
 
 RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 427 
 
 attention of the police who inquired what had happened. "I have 
 just killed a dog," was the reply. 
 
 His body was taken in an automobile to the Neva River, a 
 hole cut in the ice, and weighted with stones, it was dropped into 
 the waters. On the next day his executioners notified the police 
 of what they had done, and the news was announced at the 
 Imperial Theatre, whose audience went wild with enthusiasm, and 
 sang the National Hymn. No legal action was ever taken against 
 Rasputin's executioners. His body was recovered and given 
 honorable burial. The Czarina, according to report, following 
 the coffin to the grave. And so disappeared from the Imperial 
 Court one evil force. 
 
 But his tool, Alexander Protopopov, still survived. Pro- 
 topopov was an extraordinary man. In 1916 he had visited Eng- 
 land and France and made a splendid impression. His speeches, 
 full of fire and patriotism, were regarded as the best made by any 
 deputation that had come from Russia. But on his return to 
 Petrograd he fell completely into the hands of the Court party. 
 He became associated with Rasputin, and his wild talk and rest- 
 less conduct suggested to many that his mind had become affected. 
 
 After the death of Rasputin, the meeting of the Duma, which 
 should have taken place on January 25, 1917, was postponed for a 
 month. The censorship was drawn tighter, the members of the 
 secret police were greatly increased, and a deliberate endeavor, 
 under the direction of Protopopov was made to encourage an abor- 
 tive revolution, so that its overthrow might establish the reaction- 
 aries in power. But the attempt failed. 
 
 During January and February the people were calm. No one 
 wanted revolution then. On February 9th, the labor members of 
 the War Industry Committee were arrested. This was regarded 
 as plainly provocative, and M. Miliukov wrote appeals to the 
 people for patience. These were suppressed, but no disturbance 
 ensued. A British Commission, then on a visit to Russia, reported 
 that there was no danger of revolution. But the people were 
 hungry. Speakers in the Duma discussed the food problem. 
 It became harder and harder to procure bread, and little that was 
 practical seemed to be done to improve the situation, though in 
 some parts of the country there were large surplus stocks. On 
 March 8th crowds gathered around the bakery shops, and looted
 
 428 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 several of them. The next day the crowds in the streets increased. 
 Groups of Cossacks rode here and there, fraternizing with the peo- 
 ple. They, too, were hungry. In the afternoon two workmen 
 were arrested for disorder by the police. A band of Cossacks freed 
 them. Street speakers began to appear here and there, and crowds 
 gathered to listen to their fiery denunciations of the government. 
 
 On March llth, General Khabalov, military governor of 
 the city, issued a proclamation announcing that the police had 
 orders to disperse all crowds, and that any workman who did not 
 return to work on Monday morning would be sent to the trenches. 
 The main streets of the city were cleared and guarded by the 
 police and soldiery. The crowds were enormous, and disorderly, 
 and more than two hundred of the rioters were killed. Yet it 
 seemed as if the government had the situation in a firm grasp, 
 though an ominous incident was that the Pavlovsk regiment on 
 being ordered to fire upon the mob, mutinied and had to be ordered 
 to their quarters. 
 
 Meantime Rodzianko, the President of the Duma, had tele- 
 graphed to the Czar: 
 
 Situation serious. Anarchy reigns in Capital. Government is 
 paralyzed. Transport food and fuel supplies are utterly disorganized. 
 General discontent is growing. Disorderly firing is going on in streets. 
 Various companies of soldiers are shooting at each other. It is absolutely 
 necessary to invest someone, who enjoys the confidence of the people, 
 with powers to form a new government. No time must be lost, and 
 delay may be fatal. I pray to God that in this hour responsibility may 
 not fall on the wearer of the crown. 
 
 The Prime Minister, Prince Golitzin, acting under powers 
 which he had received from the Czar, prorogued the Duma. But 
 the Duma refused to be prorogued. Its President, Rodzianko, 
 holding in his hand the order for dissolution, announced that the 
 Duma was now the sole constitutional authority of Russia. 
 
 During the night following, the soldiers at the Capital, and 
 the Socialists, decided upon then* course. The soldiers deter- 
 mined that they would not fire upon their civilian brothers. The 
 Socialists planned an alternative scheme of government. 
 
 On March the 12th, the city was taken possession of by a 
 mob. The Preo Crajenski Guards refused to fire upon the crowd. 
 The Volynsky regiment, sent to coerce them, joined in the mutiny.
 
 RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 429 
 
 Followed by the mob, the two regiments seized the arsenal. A 
 force of 25,000 soldiers was in the revolt. At 1 1 A. M., the Courts of 
 Law were set on fire and the fortress of SS. Peter and Paul was 
 seized. The police, fighting desperately, were hunted from their 
 quarters, their papers destroyed and the prisoners, political and 
 criminal, released from the jails. 
 
 During the day the Duma kept hi constant session, awaiting 
 the Emperor, who did not come. Telegram after telegram was 
 sent him, each more urgent. There is reason to believe that these 
 telegrams never reached the Czar. When information finally did 
 come to him it was too late. Meantime the Duma appointed an 
 executive committee. Their names were Rodzianko, Nekrasov, 
 Konovalov, Dmitrikov, Lvov, Rjenski, Karaulov, Miliukov, Schled- 
 lovski, Schulgin, Tcheidze and Kerensky. The workmen and 
 soldiers also formed a committee, which undertook to influence 
 the troops now pouring into Petrograd. But the center of the 
 revolution was still the Duma, and crowds gathered to listen to 
 its speeches. In the evening Protopovo surrendered to the Russian 
 guards, but General Khabalov still occupied the Admiralty build- 
 ing with such forces as were faithful. 
 
 On March 13th it became evident that the army in the field 
 were accepting the authority of the provisional government. The 
 Duma committee was composed mainly of men of moderate 
 political views. They moved slowly, fearing on the one hand the 
 Reactionaries who still preserved then* loyalty to the Czar, and 
 on the other hand the Council of Labor, with its extreme views, 
 and its influence with the troops. The siege of the Admiralty 
 building was ended by the surrender of General Khabalov. The 
 police, however, were still keeping up a desultory resistance, but 
 the mob were hunting them like wild beasts. On Wednesday, 
 the 14th of March, the revolution was over. 
 
 The Executive Committee of the Duma and the Council of the 
 Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, now universally known as the 
 Soviet, were working in harmony. Every hour proclamations were 
 issued, some of them foolish, some of them, it is thought, inspired 
 by German agents, and some of them wise and patriotic. One of 
 the most unfortunate of these proclamations was one to the army 
 directing that "the orders of the War Committee must be obeyed, 
 saving only on those occasions when they shall contravene the
 
 430 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 orders and regulations of the labor deputies and military delegates." 
 This same proclamation abolished saluting for private soldiers off 
 duty. It was the beginning of the destruction of the Russian 
 military power. The proclamation of the Duma committee itself 
 was admirable: 
 
 CITIZENS: 
 
 The Provisional Executive Committee of the Duma, with the aid 
 and support of the garrison of the capital and its inhabitants, has now 
 triumphed over the baneful forces of the old regime in such a manner as 
 to enable it to proceed to the more stable organization of the executive 
 power. With this object, the Provisional Committee will name ministers 
 of the first national cabinet, men whose past public activity assures them 
 the confidence of the country. 
 
 The new cabinet will adopt the following principles as the basis of 
 its policy: 
 
 1. An immediate amnesty for all political and religious offenses, 
 including military revolts, acts of terrorism, and agrarian crimes. 
 
 2. Freedom of speech, of the press, of associations and labor organiza- 
 tions, and the freedom to strike; with an extension of these liberties to 
 officials and troops, in so far as military and technical conditions permit. 
 
 3. The abolition of social, religious, and racial restrictions and 
 privileges. 
 
 4. Immediate preparation for the summoning of a Constituent Assem- 
 bly, which, with universal suffrage as a basis, shall establish the govern- 
 mental regime and the constitution of the country. 
 
 5. The substitution for the police of a national militia, with elective 
 heads and subject to the self-governing bodies. 
 
 6. Communal elections to be carried out on the basis of universal 
 suffrage. 
 
 7. The troops that have taken part in the revolutionary movement 
 shall not be disarmed, but they are not to leave Petrograd. 
 
 8. While strict military discipline must be maintained on active 
 service, all restrictions upon soldiers in the enjoyment of social rights 
 granted to other citizens are to be abolished. 
 
 Meantime the Emperor, "the Little Father," at first thoroughly 
 incredulous of the gravity of the situation, had at last become 
 alarmed. He appointed General Ivanov Commander-in-Chief of 
 the^anny, and ordered him to proceed to Petrograd at the head of 
 a division of loyal troops. General Ivanov set out, but his train 
 was held up at Tsarkoe Selo, and he returned to Pskov. The 
 Czar himself then started for the city, but he, too, was held up 
 at the little station of Bologoi, where workmen had pulled up the 
 track, and he returned to Pskov.
 
 RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 431 
 
 He sent for Ruzsky and declared that he was ready to yield 
 to the Duma and grant a responsible ministry. Ruzsky advised 
 him to get hi touch with Rodzianko, and as a result of a telephone 
 communication with Rodzianko and with several of his trusted 
 generals, it became clear that there was no other course than 
 abdication. Guchkov and Shulgin, messengers from the Duma, 
 arrived on the evening of March 15th, and found the Emperor 
 alone, except for his aide-de-camp, Count Fredericks. 
 
 "What do you want me to do?" he asked. 
 
 "You must abdicate," Guchkov told him, "in favor of your 
 son, with the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch as Regent." 
 
 The Emperor sat for a long time silent. " I cannot be separated 
 from my boy," he said. "I will hand the throne to my brother." 
 Taking a sheet of paper he wrote as follows : 
 
 By the Grace of God, We, Nicholas II, Emperor of all the Russias, 
 to all our faithful subjects: 
 
 In the course of a great struggle against a foreign enemy, who has 
 been endeavoring for three years to enslave our country, it has pleased 
 God to send Russia a further bitter trial. Internal troubles have threatened 
 to compromise the progress of the war. The destinies of Russia, the 
 honor of her heroic army, the happiness of her people, and the whole 
 future of our beloved country demand that at all costs victory shall be 
 won. The enemy is making his last efforts, and the moment is near 
 when our gallant troops, in concert with their glorious Allies, will finally 
 overthrow him. 
 
 In these days of crisis we have considered that our nation needs the 
 closest union of all its forces for the attainment of victory. In agreement 
 with the Imperial Duma, we have recognized that for the good of our land 
 we should abdicate the throne of the Russian state and lay down the 
 supreme power. 
 
 Not wishing to separate ourselves from our beloved son, we bequeath 
 our heritage to our brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch, 
 with our blessing upon the future of the Russian throne. We bequeath 
 it to him with the charge to govern in full unison with the national repre- 
 sentatives who may sit in the legislature, and to take his inviolable oath 
 to them in the name of our well-beloved country. 
 
 We call upon all faithful sons of our land to fulfil this sacred and 
 patriotic duty in obeying their Emperor at this painful moment of national 
 trial, and to aid him, together with the representatives of the nation, 
 to lead the Russian people in the way of prosperity and glory. 
 
 May God help Russia. 
 
 So ended the reign of Nicholas the Second, Czar of all the 
 Russias. The news of the Czar's abdication spread over the world
 
 432 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 with great rapidity, and was received by the Allies with mixed 
 feelings. The Czar had been scrupulously loyal to.4;he alliance. 
 He was a man of high personal character, and his sympathies on 
 the whole, liberal; but he was a weak man hi a position in which 
 even a strong man might have failed. He was easily influenced, 
 especially by his wife. Warned again and again of the danger 
 before him, he constantly promised improvement, only to fail 
 hi keeping his promises. He deeply loved his wife, and yielded 
 continually to her unwise advice. 
 
 The Empress Alexandra Feodorovna is but another instance 
 of a devoted queen who dethroned her consort. She believed in 
 Divine Right and looked with suspicion upon popular leaders. 
 Her one object hi life was to hand on the Russian crown to her son, 
 with no atom of its power diminished. She surrounded herself 
 and her husband with scoundrels and charlatans. 
 
 On the whole, the feeling among the Allies was one of relief. 
 There was a general distrust of the influences which had been sur- 
 rounding the Czar. The patriotism of the Grand Duke Michael 
 was well known, and a government conducted by him was sure 
 to be a great improvement. But it was not to be. Before the 
 news of the abdication reached Petrograd a new ministry had 
 been formed by the Duma. Miliukov announced then* names 
 and explained their credentials. The Prime Minister was Prince 
 George Lvov. Miliukov was Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guchkov 
 Minister of War and Marine, Kerensky, a new name in the govern- 
 ment, Minister of Justice. The ministry included representatives 
 of every party of the left and center. 
 
 Miliukov declared that their credentials came from the Russian 
 revolution: "We shall not fight for the sake of power. To be 
 in power is not a reward or pleasure but a sacrifice. As soon 
 as we are told that the sacrifice is no longer needed, we shall give 
 up our places with gratitude for the opportunity which has been 
 accorded us." 
 
 He concluded by informing his hearers that the despot who 
 had brought Russia to the brink of ruin would either abdicate of 
 his free will, or be deposed. He added that the Grand Duke 
 Michael would be appointed Regent. 
 
 This announcement at once produced an explosion. A min- 
 istry of moderates and a continuance of the Imperial government
 
 RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 433 
 
 under a regency stirred the delegates of the workmen and soldiers 
 to revolt. For a time it seemed as if the new government would 
 disappear in the horrors of mob rule. But Kerensky saved the 
 situation. Making his way into the meeting of the Soviet he 
 burst into an impassioned speech. 
 
 "Comrades!" he cried, "I have been appointed Minister of 
 Justice. No one is a more ardent Republican than I, but we must 
 bide our tune. Nothing can come to its full growth at once. We 
 shall have our Republic but we must first win the war. The need 
 of the moment is organization and discipline and that need will 
 not wait." 
 
 His eloquence carried the day. The Soviet passed a resolu- 
 tion supporting the provisional government with only fifteen dis- 
 senting votes. But it had been made clear that the people did not 
 approve of the regency, and on the night of the 15th of March, 
 Prince Lvov, Kerensky and other leaders of the Duma sought 
 out the Grand Duke Michael and informed him of the situation. 
 The Grand Duke yielded to the people, and on Friday, March the 
 16th, issued a declaration which ended the power of the Romanovs 
 hi Russia: 
 
 I am firmly resolved to accept the supreme power only if this should 
 be the desire of our great people, who must, by means of a plebiscite 
 through their representatives in the Constituent Assembly, establish 
 the form of government and the new fundamental laws of the Russian 
 state. Invoking God's blessing, I, therefore, request all citizens of Russia 
 to obey the provisional government, set up on the initiative of the Duma, 
 and invested with plenary powers, until within as short a time as possible 
 the Constituent Assembly elected on a basis of equal, universal and 
 secret suffrage, shall enforce the will of the nation regarding the future 
 form of the constitution. 
 
 With this declaration the sacred monarchy had disappeared. 
 In one we*k the people had come to their own and Russia was 
 free. But what form of new government was to replace the old 
 regime was still the question. There were two rival theories as 
 to the principles to be followed, one that of the Moderates, the 
 other of the Extremists. The Moderates, who controlled 
 provisional government were practical men. They realized that 
 Russia was at war and that efficient administration was the great 
 need. 
 
 The Extremists of the Soviet were a different type of men.
 
 434 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 They were profoundly ignorant of all practical questions of govern- 
 ment; their creed was socialism. The Socialistic party in Russia 
 may be divided into three different groups. The first, the Social 
 Revolutionary party, came into prominence in Russia about 1900. 
 It was composed of followers of the Russian Lavrov who believed 
 in the socialist state, but a state which should not be a tyrant 
 overriding the individual. Liberty was his watchword and he 
 made his appeal not only to the workmen in the shops but with a 
 special force to the peasant. He did not preach class war in the 
 ordinary sense, and believed hi the value of national life. To this 
 party belonged Kerensky, more and more becoming the leader of 
 the revolutionary movement. 
 
 The second group of the Socialist party were the Bolsheviki. 
 This group were followers of the German Karl Marx. The revo- 
 lution which they sought was essentially a class revolution. To 
 the Bolsheviki the fate of their country mattered not at all. They 
 were eager for peace on any terms. The only war in which they 
 were interested was a class war; they recognized no political boun- 
 daries. The leader of this group was Vladimir Iljetch Uljanov, 
 who, under his pen name of Lenine, was already widely known and 
 who had now obtained the opportunity which he had long desired. 
 
 The third group were the Mensheviki. The Mensheviki 
 believed in the importance of the working classes, but they did not 
 ignore other classes. They were willing to use existing forms of 
 government to carry out the reforms they desired. They saw 
 that the Allied cause was then* own cause, the cause of the work- 
 man as well as the intellectual. 
 
 The Soviet contained representatives of these three groups. 
 It did not represent Russia, but it was hi Petrograd and could 
 exert its influence directly upon the government. 
 
 The attitude of the provisional government toward the 
 Imperial family was at first not unkindly. The Czar and the 
 Czarina were escorted to the Alexandrovsky Palace hi Tsarskoe- 
 Selo. The Czar for a tune lived quietly as plain Nicholas Romanov. 
 The Czarina and her children were very ill with measles, the case 
 of the little Prince being complicated by the breaking out of an 
 old wound in his foot. The Grand Duchess Tatiana was in a 
 serious condition and oxygen had been administered. As his 
 family improved in health the Czar amused himself by strolls
 
 RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 435 
 
 in the palace yard, and even by shoveling snow. Later on Nicholas 
 was transferred to Tobolsk, Siberia, and then, hi May, 1918, to 
 Yekaterinberg. His wife and his daughter Marie accompanied 
 him to the latter place, while Alexis and his other three daughters 
 remained in Tobolsk. On July 20th a Russian government dis- 
 patch announced his assassination. It read as follows : 
 
 At the first session of the Central Executive Committee, elected by 
 the Fifth Congress of the Councils, a message was made public that had 
 been received by direct wire from the Ural Regional Council, concerning 
 the shooting of the ex-Czar, Nicholas Romanov. Recently Yekaterin- 
 berg, the Capital of the Red Urals, was seriously threatened by the approach 
 of Czecho-Slovak bands, and a counter-revolutionary conspiracy was 
 discovered, which had as its object the wresting of the ex-Czar from the 
 hands of the Council's authority. In view of this fact the President of 
 the Ural Regional Council decided to shoot the ex-Czar, and the decision 
 was carried out on July 16th. 
 
 The wife and the son of Nicholas Romanov had been sent 
 to a place of security. In a detailed account of the execution, 
 published in Berlin, it appeared that the Czar had been awakened 
 at five o'clock hi the morning, and informed that he was to be 
 executed in two hours. He spent some tune with a priest in his 
 bedroom and wrote several letters. According to this account, 
 when the patrol came to take him out for execution he was found 
 in a state of collapse. Hi a last words, uttered just before the 
 executioners fired, are reported to have been "Spare my wife and 
 my innocent and unhappy children. May my blood preserve 
 Russia from ruin." 
 
 The Russian press, including the Socialist papers, condemned 
 the execution as a cruel and unnecessary act. The charges of 
 conspiracy were utterly unproven, and were merely an excuse. 
 The Central Executive Committee, however, accepted the decision 
 of the Ural Regional Soviet as being regular, and a decree by the 
 Bolshevist Government declared all the property of the former 
 Emperor, his wife, his mother and all the members of the Imperial 
 house, forfeit to the Soviet Republic. 
 
 Meantime the provisional government, which had taken power 
 on the 16th of March, seemed as if it might succeed. Miliukov, 
 whose announcement of the Regency had made him unpopular, 
 declared for a Republic. The great army commanders for the 
 most part accepted the revolution. The Grand Duke Nicholas
 
 436 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 was removed from his command and the other Grand Dukes were 
 ordered not to leave Petrograd. Alexiev became commander-in- 
 chief; Ruzsky had the northern group of armies, Brusilov the 
 southern; Kornilov was in command of Petrograd, and the cen- 
 tral group was put under the command of Lechitsky. Reports 
 came that discipline was improving everywhere on the front. 
 
 The plans of the government, too, met with general approval. 
 Their policy was announced by Prince Lvov. "The new govern- 
 ment considers it its duty to make known to the world thaUthe 
 
 CAPITAL OF THE NEW REPUBLIC OP RUSSIA 
 
 object of free Russia is not to dominate other nations and forcibly 
 to take away then- territory. The object of independent Russia 
 is a permanent peace and the right of all nations to determine 
 their own destiny." 
 
 Kerensky, hi inspiring speeches, encouraged the country to 
 war, and declared against a separate peace. The new government 
 announced that Poland was to receive complete independence, 
 with a right to determine its own form of government, and its 
 slation, if any, to Russia. In Finland the Governor, Sein, was 
 removed. A Liberal was appointed Governor and the Finnish
 
 RED REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA 437 
 
 Diet was convened. A manifesto was issued on March 21st, 
 completely restoring the Finnish constitution. To the Armenians 
 Kerensky expressed himself as in favor of an autonomous govern- 
 ment for them, under Russia's protection, and on March 25th, 
 absolute equality of the Jews was proclaimed by the new govern- 
 ment. A number of Jews were made officers hi the army, and 
 two Jewish advocates were appointed members of the Russian 
 Senate and of the Supreme Court. On April 4th full religious 
 liberty was proclaimed, and on the same date the Prune Minister 
 promised a delegation of women that women would be given the 
 right to vote. 
 
 These acts caused a general subsidence of unrest, and public 
 good feeling was increased by the return of the political exiles 
 and prisoners from Siberia. A full hundred thousand of such pris- 
 oners were released, and their progress across Siberia to Russia 
 was one grand triumphal march. 
 
 The most celebrated of these political prisoners were two 
 women, Catherine Breshkovskaya and Marie Spiridonova. Cath- 
 erine Breshkovskaya was known as the grandmother of the revolu- 
 tion. Forty-four years of her life were spent hi exile. When 
 she reached Petrograd she was met at the railroad depot by a 
 military band, and carried hi procession through the streets. 
 Equally popular was Marie Spiridonova, who, though still young, 
 had suffered martyrdom. She had been tortured with cruelty 
 that is unprintable. Her face had been disfigured for life. The 
 agents who had inflicted the torture were assassinated by the 
 revolutionists. 
 
 It was a great day for Russia, and the outlook seemed full of 
 promise.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 
 
 r I ^HE hopes entertained for the new Republic of Russia were 
 doomed to disappointment. For a short time, under the 
 leadership of Lvov, the Russians marched along the path 
 of true democracy. But the pace became too rapid. 
 
 The government prospered in Petrograd, and the economic 
 organization of the country proceeded with great speed. An eight- 
 hour day was introduced in the capital and in many other cities 
 throughout the republic. The fever of organization spread even 
 to the peasants. They formed a Council of Peasants' Deputies, 
 modeled after the Council of Workmen and Soldiers. On the 13th 
 of April, 1917, came the first meeting of the All-Russia Congress 
 of Soviets, and with it a revival of the differences of opinion which 
 ultimately were to destroy the government. The great majority 
 were for war, but the minority, led by Lenine and the Bolsheviki 
 element, demanded an immediate peace. They declared that the 
 enemies of the Revolution were not the Central Powers, but the 
 capitalists in all countries, and not least the Provisional Govern- 
 ment of Russia. 
 
 Some clew to the meaning of the Bolsheviki movement in 
 Russia is to be found in the life of Lenine, its leading spirit. It 
 has been charged that he was the tool of the German Government. 
 He undoubtedly received facilities from the German Government 
 to return to Russia from Switzerland immediately after the Revo- 
 lution in March. His whole career, however, suggests that he was 
 not a tool, but a fanatic. 
 
 He was born in Simbirsk, in Central Russia, in the year 1870. 
 Lenine was only one of the several aliases that he had found it 
 necessary to adopt at various times. He was of good family, and 
 received his education at the Petrograd University. From the 
 very beginning he took an active interest in the political and social 
 problems of the day. In 1887 his brother, A. Uljanov, was arrested, 
 and after a secret trial condemned to death and hanged as a partici- 
 
 438
 
 Underwood and Underwood, N. Y 
 
 THE WOMEN'S "BATTALION OF DEATH" IN NATIONAL DANCE 
 
 A unique outgrowth of the Russian revolution was this organization of W 
 which came into prominence at the beginning of the Russian front's break-up. 
 
 Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. 
 
 DEMONSTRATION OF CITIZENS BEFORE THIS WINTER PALACI 
 The formation of the Red Guard adopting the propaganda of the Bolshevists 
 
 resulted, which drove Russia into a chaos of Revolution.
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 441 
 
 pant in a plot to wreck the imperial train carrying Alexander III. 
 Lenine was also arrested, but was released on account of a lack of 
 evidence. At this time the Russian Socialistic movement was 
 still in its infancy. 
 
 Lenine spent his Sundays in a circle of uneducated workmen, 
 explaining to them the elements of socialistic economics. Along 
 with this propaganda work he studied deeply the economic phases 
 of Russian life, being especially interested in its working and peasant 
 classes. He wrote several books on the subject,which are still 
 accepted as valuable representatives of Russian economic literature. 
 Because of his socialistic activities, Lenine was compelled to leave 
 Russia on several occasions, when he lived in Switzerland, France 
 and Austria. From these countries he directed the work of one 
 of the groups of the Social Democratic party, and became an impor- 
 tant leader. 
 
 In the General Russian Socialistic Convention, held in 1903, 
 this group made a definite stand for its program and policies. This 
 was the tune when the word "Bolsheviki" was corned, meaning 
 the ''majority," who had voted in accord with Lenine's proposals. 
 Lenine believed in the seizure of political power by means of violent 
 revolution and in establishing a proletarian government. After 
 the Revolution of 1905, the Lenine faction dwindled and it seemed 
 as if Bolshevism was destined to die out. But in 1911, with the 
 awakening of a new spirit in the political and social life of Russia, 
 a new impetus was given to the activities of the Bolsheviki. The 
 first Socialist daily paper, Pravda, ("the Truth,") was one of their 
 efforts. In 1913 the Bolsheviki sent six representatives to the 
 Duma. 
 
 At the outbreak of the war Lenine was in Cracow. Like 
 other revolutionary leaders he was compelled to live hi exile. He 
 went to Switzerland where he remained until the news of the suc- 
 cessful revolution caused his return to Russia. On his arrival in 
 Petrograd he gathered together his followers and began the agita- 
 tion in favor of the Bolshevist program and of peace. 
 
 The first sign of the conflict between the Provisional Govern- 
 ment and the Soviet arose in connection with the joint note sent 
 to the Allies by the Provisional Government on May 1st. This 
 note was signed by Foreign Secretary Miliukov. It declared, 
 among other things, that the Provisional Government would
 
 442 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "maintain a strict regard for its engagements with the Allies of 
 
 Russia." 
 
 The document aroused strong disapproval among many 
 members of the Council of the Soviet, and serious anti-government 
 demonstrations occurred in Petrograd on May 3d and 4th. These 
 demonstrations were directed distinctly against Miliukov. Detach- 
 ments of soldiers and workmen gathered in front of the headquarters 
 of the Provisional Government, carrying banners, with inscriptions 
 ' ' Down with Miliukov ! Down with the Provisional Government ! ' ' 
 Miliukov appealed to the crowd for confidence, and his words 
 were greeted with hearty cheering. 
 
 The Soviet Council ultimately voted confidence in the govern- 
 ment by a narrow margin of 35 in a total of 2,500. But the agita- 
 tion against the government persisted, and on May 16th Miliukov 
 resigned. General Kornilov, Commander of the Petrograd Garri- 
 son, and Guchkov, Minister of War, finding their control of the 
 army weakened by the interference of the Soviet Council, also 
 resigned. 
 
 The situation became critical. As a result of this agitation a 
 new coalition government was formed. Prince Lvov remained 
 Prime Minister. Terestchenko became Foreign Minister. Most 
 significant of all, Kerensky became the Minister of War. The new 
 government issued a new declaration of policy, promising a firm 
 support of the war with Germany, and an effort to call together 
 at the earliest possible date a Constituent Assembly to deal with 
 questions of land and of finance. This manifesto was received coldly 
 by the Soviets and their press. 
 
 It was at this time that the Allies sent special missions to 
 Russia to aid the Russian Government in forwarding the fight 
 against the common enemy. The American mission to Russia 
 was headed by Elihu Root, former Secretary of State. It was 
 cordially received, and housed in the former Winter Palace of the 
 Czar. On June 15th the American Ambassador, David R. Francis, 
 presented the Root mission to the Council of Ministers hi the Marin- 
 sky Palace, and Mr. Root made an eloquent address, declaring the 
 sympathy of the American Republic with the new Russian Democ- 
 racy. He declared that the liberty of both nations was in danger. 
 "The armed forces of military autocracy are at the gates of Russia 
 and the Allies. The triumph of German arms will mean the death
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 443 
 
 of liberty in Russia. No enemy is at the gates of America, but 
 America has come to realize that the triumph of German arms 
 means the death of Liberty in the world." 
 
 At Moscow Mr. Root addressed representatives of the Zemstvo 
 and the local Council of the Workmen and Soldiers. He was 
 warmly applauded, and on motion of the Mayor a telegram was 
 sent to President Wilson, thanking him for sending the Root 
 Commission to Russia. The Root Mission returned to the United 
 States early in August, and reported to Washington August 12th. 
 At a public reception given by the citizens of New York, Senator 
 Root expressed supreme confidence in the stability of the Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 On July 1st, inspired by Kerensky, and under the personal 
 leadership of General Kornilov, the Russian army began an 
 offensive in Galicia. It first met with complete success, capturing 
 Halicz, and sweeping forward close to Dolina in the Carpathian 
 foothills. Then under a very slight hostile German pressure, the 
 Russian armies, immediately to the north and south of Kornilov's 
 army, broke and ran. This action was directly traced to orders 
 subversive of discipline, emanating from the Petrograd Soviet. 
 Kornilov's army was compelled to retire, and by July 21st was hi 
 full retreat from Galicia. 
 
 The Russian mutiny spread. Regiments refused to fight or 
 to obey their officers. 
 
 One of the most picturesque episodes of this phase of the 
 war was the formation of a woman's regiment, known as the 
 "Command of Death," which was reviewed at Petrograd June 21st, 
 by Minister of War, Kerensky. In front of the barracks assigned 
 to this regiment a visitor found posted at the gate a little blue- 
 eyed sentry in a soldier's khaki blouse, short breeches, green forage 
 cap, ordinary woman's black stockings and neat shoes. The 
 sentry was Mareya Skridlov, daughter of Admiral Skridlov, former 
 commander of the Baltic fleet and Minister of Marines. In the 
 courtyard three hundred girls were drilling, mostly between 18 and 
 25 years old, of good physique and many of them pretty. They 
 wore then- hair short or had their heads entirely shaved. They 
 were drilling under the instruction of a male sergeant of the 
 Volynsky regiment, and marched to an exaggerated goose step. 
 
 The girl commander, Lieutenant Buitchkarev, explained that
 
 444 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 most of the recruits were from the higher educational academies, 
 with a few peasants, factory girls and servants. Some married 
 women were accepted, but none who had children. The Battalion 
 of Death distinguished itself on the field, setting an example of 
 courage to the mutinous regiments during the retreat of Brusilov. 
 
 With the army thus demoralized the Russian Revolution 
 encountered a perilous period toward the end of July, 1917, and 
 civil war or anarchy seemed almost at hand, when out of the 
 depths of the national spirit there arose a new revolution to save 
 the- situation and to maintain order. The country was every- 
 where the scene of riotous disturbances. Anarchists, radicals, 
 and monarchists seemed to be working hand-in-hand to precipitate 
 a reign of terror, when once more Kerensky saved the situation. 
 On July 20th, it was announced that the Premier, Prince Lvov, had 
 resigned, and that Alexander Kerensky had been appointed 
 Premier, but would also retain his portfolio as Minister of War. 
 
 A new government was quickly formed. Kerensky was made 
 practical Dictator, and his government received the complete 
 endorsement of a joint Congress of the Soviets and the Council of 
 peasant delegates. Kerensky acted with the utmost vigor. Orders 
 were given to fire on deserters and warrants issued for the arrest 
 of revolutionary agitators whoever they might be. Rear-Admiral 
 Verdervski, commander of the Baltic fleet, was seized for com- 
 municating a secret government telegram to sailors' committees. 
 Agitators from the Soviet were arrested, charged with inciting the 
 Peterhof troops against the Federal Government. On July 22d, 
 the following resolution was passed by the joint Congress. 
 
 Recognizing that the country is menaced by a military debacle on 
 the front and by anarchy at home, it is resolved : 
 
 1. That the country and the revolution are in danger. 
 
 2. That the Provisional Government is proclaimed the Government 
 of National Safety. 
 
 3. That unlimited powers are accorded the government for re-estab- 
 lishing the organization and discipline of the army for a fight to a finish 
 against the enemies of public order, and for the realization of the whole 
 program embodied in the governmental program just announced. 
 
 The reorganization of the Councils of the All-Russia, and 
 Workmen's and Peasants' Organizations on the 23d, issued a 
 ringing address to the army denouncing its mutinous spirit and
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 445 
 
 warning it of the inevitable result. The Provisional Government 
 also issued a proclamation on July 22d, charging that the dis- 
 orders were precipitated to bring about a counter-revolution by 
 the enemies of the country. But the army was demoralized. It 
 disregarded discipline and refused to recognize military rule. A 
 general retreat followed. The Germans and Austrians steadily 
 advanced through Galicia and crossed the frontier before the Rus- 
 sian armies could be forced to make a stand. 
 
 The death penalty for treason or mutiny was restored in the 
 army on July 25th, when Kerensky threatened to resign unless 
 this was done. On that same date the government authorized 
 the Minister of the Interior to suspend the publication of periodicals 
 that incite to insubordination or disobedience to orders given by 
 the military authorities. By July 28th the situation had become 
 more hopeful. On that day General Ruzsky, formerly commander- 
 in-chief of the northern armies of Russia, and General Gurko, 
 ex-commander on the Russian southwestern front, were sum- 
 moned, to Petrograd. Each had retired on account of the inter- 
 ference of the Council of Workmen and Soldiers' delegates. Their 
 return to the service was a hopeful sign. The Soviet also passed 
 by an overwhelming majority a resolution censuring Lenine, and 
 demanding that he should be publicly tried. Charges had been 
 made that Lenine and his associates were working under German 
 direction and financed by Germans. On August 2d, Kornilov 
 became Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army. A disagree- 
 ment in the Cabinet led to its reorganization. In the new Cabinet 
 appeared again representatives of the Constitutional Democratic 
 party. Conditions began to show improvement from this tune 
 forth. 
 
 An extraordinary National Council met at Moscow August 
 26th, 1917. This conference consisted of 2,500 delegates repre- 
 senting the Duma, the Soviets, the Zemstvos, and indeed all 
 organized Russia. Kerensky opened the conference in a speech 
 of great length in which he reviewed the general situation, declar- 
 ing that the destructive period of the Revolution had past and 
 that the time had come to consolidate its conquests. 
 
 Perhaps the most important address before the Council was 
 that made by General Kornilov, Commander-in-Chief of the army. 
 General Kornilov was received with prolonged cheers, which in
 
 446 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the light of his subsequent action were especially significant. 
 General Kornilov described with much detail the disorganization 
 and insubordination in the army, and continued: 
 
 "We are implacably fighting anarchy in the army. Undoubt- 
 edly it will finally be repressed, but the danger of fresh debacles is 
 weighing constantly on the country. The situation on the front 
 is bad. We have lost the whole of Galicia, the whole of Bukowina, 
 and all the fruits of our recent victories. If Russia wishes to be 
 saved the army must be regenerated at any cost." General Korni- 
 lov then outlined the most important of the reform measures which 
 he recommended, and concluded: "I believe that the genius and 
 the reason of the Russian people will save the country. I believe 
 in a brilliant future for our army. I believe its ancient glory will 
 be restored." 
 
 General Kaledines, leader of the Don Cossacks, mounted the 
 tribune and read a resolution passed by the Cossacks demanding 
 the continuation of the war until complete victory was attained. 
 He defied the extreme Radicals. "Who saved you from the Bol- 
 sheviki on the 14th of July?" he asked contemptuously. "We 
 Cossacks have been free men. We are not made drunk by our 
 new-found liberties and are unblinded by party or program. We 
 tell you plainly and categorically, 'Remove yourselves from the 
 place which you have neither the ability or the courage to fill, and 
 let better men than yourselves step in, or take the consequences of 
 your folly." 1 
 
 The conference took no definite action, being invested with no 
 authority, but it served to bring out clearly the line of cleavage 
 between the Radical or Socialistic element represented by Kerensky 
 and the Conservatives represented by the generals of the army. 
 
 Immediately on the heels of the Moscow conference an impor- 
 tant German advance was made in the direction of Riga, the most 
 important Russian Baltic port. In spite of a vigorous defense the 
 Germans captured the city. 
 
 The loss of Riga intensified the political excitement in Russia, 
 and produced a profound crisis. A wave of unrest spread through- 
 out the country. The Grand Duke Michael, and the Grand Duke 
 Paul with their families, were arrested on a charge of conspiracy. 
 The Provisional Government was charged with responsibility of 
 the collapse of the army.
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 447 
 
 It was on September 9th, that the storm broke, and General 
 Korniloy, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, raised 
 the flag of revolt against the Provisional Government. The details 
 of the revolt are as follows: 
 
 At one o'clock Saturday afternoon, Deputy Lvov, of the 
 Duma, called upon Premier Kerensky, and declared that he had 
 come as the representative of General Kornilov to demand the 
 surrender of all power into Kornilov's hands. M. Lvov said that 
 this demand did not emanate from Kornilov only but was supported 
 by an organization of Duma members, Moscow industrial interests, 
 and other conservatives. This group, said M. Lvov, did not 
 object to Kerensky personally, but demanded that he transfer 
 the Portfolio of War to M. Savinkov, assistant Minister of War, 
 who all along had supported Kornilov. 
 
 "If you agree," M. Lvov added, "we invite you to come to 
 headquarters and meet General Kornilov, giving you a solemn 
 guarantee that you will not be arrested." 
 
 Premier Kerensky replied that he could not believe Kornilov 
 to be guilty of such an act of treason, and that he would commu- 
 nicate with him directly. In an exchange of telegrams Kornilov 
 confirmed fully to the Premier his demands. Kerensky promptly 
 placed Lvov under arrest, denounced Kornilov as a traitor and 
 deposed him from his position as Commander-in-Chief, General 
 Klembovsky being appointed in his place. General Koniilov 
 responded to the order of dismissal by moving an army against the 
 Capital. 
 
 Martial law was declared in Moscow and hi Petrograd. 
 Kerensky assumed the functions of Commander-in-Chief and took 
 military measures to defend Petrograd and resist the rebels. On 
 the 12th it was clear that the Kornilov revolt had failed to receive 
 the expected support. Kornilov advanced toward Petrograd, 
 and occupied Jotchina, thirty miles southwest of the Capital, but 
 there was no bloodshed. On the night of the 13th, General 
 Alexief demanded Kornilov's unconditional surrender, and the 
 revolt collapsed. Kornilov was arrested and the Provisional 
 Government reconstituted on stronger lines. 
 
 After the so-called Kornilov revolt, the Russian Revolution 
 assumed a form which might almost be called stable. A democratic 
 congress met at Moscow, September 27th, and adopted a resolu-
 
 448 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 tion providing for a preliminary parliament to consist of 231 
 members, of whom 110 were to represent the Zemstvos and the 
 towns. The congress refused its sanction to a coalition cabinet 
 in which the Constitutional Democrats should participate, but 
 Kerensky practically defied the congress, and named a coalition 
 cabinet, in which several portfolios were held by members of 
 the Constitutional Democratic Party. The new government 
 issued a statement declaring that it had three principal aims: 
 to raise the fighting power of the army and navy; to bring 
 order to the country by fighting anarchy; to call the Constitu- 
 ent Assembly as soon as possible. The Constituent Assembly 
 was called to assemble in December. It was to consist of 732 
 delegates to be elected by popular vote. 
 
 Meantime agitation against the Coalition Government con- 
 tinued. On November 1st, the Premier issued a statement through 
 the Associated Press, to all the newspapers of the Entente, which 
 conveyed the information that he almost despaired of restoring 
 civil law in the distracted country. He said that he felt that help 
 was needed urgently and that Russia asked it as her right. " Russia 
 has fought consistently since the beginning," he said. "She 
 saved France and England from disaster early in the war. She is 
 worn out by the strain and claims as her right that the Allies now 
 shoulder the burden." 
 
 On November 7th, an armed insurrection against the Coali- 
 tion Government and Premier Kerensky was precipitated by the 
 Bolsheviki faction. The revolt was headed by Leon Trotzky, 
 President of the Central Executive Committee of the Petrograd 
 Council, with Nicholas Lenine, the Bolsheviki leader. The Revo- 
 lutionists seized the offices of the telephone and telegraph com- 
 panies and occupied the state bank and the Marie Palace where 
 the preliminary Parliament had been sitting. The garrison at 
 Petrograd espoused the cause of the Bolsheviki and complete 
 control was seized with comparatively little fighting. The govern- 
 ment troops were quickly overpowered, except at the Winter 
 Palace, whose chief guardians were the Woman's Battalion, and 
 the Military Cadets. The Woman's Battalion fought bravely, and 
 suffered terribly, and with the Military Cadets who also remained 
 true, held the Palace for several hours. The Bolsheviki brought 
 up armored cars and the cruiser Aurora, and turned the guns of
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 449 
 
 the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul upon the Palace before its 
 defenders would surrender. 
 
 That evening the Revolutionary Committee issued a char- 
 acteristic proclamation, denouncing the government of Kerensky 
 as opposed to the government and the people, and calling upon 
 the soldiers in the army to arrest their officers if they did not at 
 once join the Revolution. They announced the following 
 program: 
 
 First: The offer of an immediate democratic peace. 
 
 Second: The immediate handing over of large proportional lands to 
 the peasants. 
 
 Third: The transmission of all authority to the Council of Work- 
 men's and Soldiers' Delegates. 
 
 Fourth: The honest convocation of the Constituent Assembly. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council, Trotzky declared that the govern- 
 ment no longer existed, and introduced Lenine as an old comrade 
 whom he welcomed back. Lenine was received with prolonged 
 cheers, and said: "Now we have a Revolution. The peasants 
 and workmen control the government. This is only a preliminary 
 step toward a similar revolution everywhere." 
 
 Proclamation after proclamation came from the new govern- 
 ment. In one of them it was stated "M. Kerensky has taken 
 flight, and all military bodies have been empowered to take all 
 possible measures to arrest Kerensky and bring him back to 
 Petrograd. All complicity with Kerensky will be dealt with as 
 high treason." 
 
 A Bolsheviki Cabinet was named. The Premier was Nicholas 
 Lenine; the Foreign Minister, Leon Trotzky. The other Cabinet 
 members were all Bolsheviki, including Bibenko, a Kronstadt 
 sailor, of the Committee on War and Marine, and Shliapnikov, a 
 laborer, who was Minister of Labor. Lenine's personality has 
 already been described. Trotzky, the chief aid of Lenine's rebel- 
 lion, had been living in New York City three months before the 
 Czar was overthrown, but he had previously been expelled from 
 Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain. His real name was 
 Leber Braunstein, and he was born in the Russian Government 
 of Kherson, near the Black Sea. 
 
 When the insurrection occurred, Kerensky succeeded in escap- 
 ing from Petrograd, and persuaded about two thousand Cossacks,
 
 450 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 several hundred Military Cadets, and a contingent of Artillery, 
 to fight under his banner. He advanced toward Petrograd, but 
 his forces were greatly outnumbered by the Bolsheviki. At 
 Tsarskoe-Selo a battle took place, the Kerensky troops met defeat, 
 and its leader saved himself by flight. 
 
 At Moscow the entire city passed into the control of the 
 Bolsheviki but not without severe fighting in which more than 
 three thousand people were slain. On the collapse of the Kerensky 
 government conditions throughout Russia became chaotic. 
 Ukraine declared its independence, and Finland also severed its 
 connection with Russia. General Kaledines declared against the 
 Bolsheviki, and organized an army to save the country. Siberia, 
 Bessarabia, Lithuania, the Caucasus and other districts declared 
 their complete independence of the Central Government. 
 
 The Bolsheviki, hi control at Petrograd, opened negotiations 
 with the Central Powers for an armistice along the entire front 
 from the Baltic to Asia Minor, and on December 17th, such an 
 armistice went into effect. Meanwhile they began negotiations 
 for a treaty of peace. General Dukholin, the Commander-in-Chief , 
 on November 20th, was ordered by Lenine to propose the armistice. 
 To this request he made no reply, and on November 21st, he was 
 deposed and Ensign Krylenko was appointed the new Commander- 
 in-Chief. General Dukholin was subsequently murdered, by 
 being thrown from a train after the Bolsheviki seized the general 
 headquarters. 
 
 Trotzky sent a note to the representatives of neutral powers 
 in Petrograd, informing them of his proposal for an armistice, and 
 stating "The consummation of an immediate peace is demanded 
 in all countries, both belligerent and neutral. The Russian Govern- 
 ment counts on the firm support of workmen in all countries hi 
 this struggle for peace." Lenine, however, declared that Russia 
 did not contemplate a separate peace with Germany, and that the 
 Russian Government, before agreeing to an armistice, would 
 communicate with the Allies and make a certain proposal to the 
 imperialistic governments of France and England, rejection of 
 which would place them in open opposition to the wishes of their 
 own people. 
 
 A period of turmoil followed. In the meantime elections for 
 the Constituent Assembly were held. The result in Petrograd
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 451 
 
 was announced as 272,000 votes for the Bolsheviki, 211,000 for the 
 Constitutional Democrats, and 116,000 for the Social Revolution- 
 aries, showing that the Bolsheviki failed to attain a majority. 
 Notwithstanding the prevailing chaos, the Lenine-Trotzky Govern- 
 ment persisted in negotiations for an armistice, and it was arranged 
 that the first conference be held at the German headquarters at 
 Brest-Litovsk. 
 
 The Russian delegates were Kamenev, whose real name was 
 Rosenfelt, a well known Bolshevist leader; Sokolnikov, a sailor; 
 Bithenko, a soldier, and Mstislasky, who had formerly been libra- 
 rian to the General Staff, but who was now a strong Socialist. Repre- 
 sentatives were present of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey 
 and Bulgaria. 
 
 After many interchanges of opinion a suspension of hostilities 
 for ten days was authorized, to be utilized in bringing to a con- 
 clusion negotiations for an armistice. On December 7th it was 
 announced from Petrograd that for the first tune since the war 
 not a shot was fired on the Russian front. Foreign Secretary 
 Trotzky, on the 6th of December, notified the allied embassies hi 
 Petrograd of these negotiations and added that the armistice would 
 be signed only on condition that the troops should not be trans- 
 ferred from one front to another. He announced that negotia- 
 tions had been suspended to afford the Allied Governments oppor- 
 tunity to define their attitude toward the peace negotiation; that 
 is, their willingness or refusal to participate in negotiations for an 
 armistice and peace. In case of refusal they must declare clearly 
 and definitely before all mankind the aims for which the peoples of 
 Europe had been called to shed their blood during the fourth year 
 of the war. 
 
 No official replies were made to this note. On December 7th, 
 Generals Kaledines and Kornilov raised the standard of revolt, 
 but reports indicated that the Bolsheviki were extending their 
 control over all Russia. A meeting of the Constituent Assembly 
 took place on December llth. Less than 50 of the 600 delegates 
 attended. Meanwhile the negotiations for an armistice continued. 
 On December 16th an agreement was reached and an armistice 
 signed, to continue from December 17th to January 14th, 1918. 
 
 Within the first month in which the Bolsheviki conducted the 
 government numerous edicts of a revolutionary character were
 
 452 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 453 
 
 issued. Class titles, distinctions and privileges were abolished; the 
 corporate property of nobles, merchants and burgesses was to be 
 handed over to the state, as was all church property, lands, money 
 and precious stones; and religious instruction was to cease in the 
 schools. Strikes were in progress everywhere, and disorder was 
 rampant. 
 
 Kornilov, Terestchenko and other associates of Kerensky, 
 were imprisoned in the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul; the Cadet 
 Party was outlawed by decree and the houses of its leaders raided. 
 On January 8, 1918, it was announced that the Bolsheviki had 
 determined that all loans and Treasury bonds held by foreign 
 subjects, abroad or in Russia, were repudiated. 
 
 During this period the Bolsheviki's Foreign Secretary aston- 
 ished the world by making public the secret treaties between 
 Russia and foreign governments in the early years of the war. 
 These treaties dealt with the proposed annexation by Russia of the 
 Dardanelles, Constantinople and certain areas in Asia Minor; 
 with the French claim on Alsace-Lorraine and the left bank of the 
 Rhine; with offers to Greece, for the purpose of inducing her to 
 assist Serbia; with plans to alter her Western boundaries, with 
 the British and Russian control of Persia; and with Italy's desire 
 to annex certain Austrian territories. These treaties had been 
 seized upon the Bolsheviki assumption of power, and were now 
 repudiated by the new government. 
 
 During the period of the armistice Lenine began his move 
 for a separate peace, in spite of the formal protests of the Allied 
 representatives at Petrograd. 
 
 The first sitting took place on Saturday, December 22, 1917. 
 Among the delegates were Dr. Richard von Kiihlmann, Foreign 
 Minister, and General Hoffman, of Germany; Count Czernin, 
 Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary; Minister Kopov, of Bulgaria; 
 Nesimy Bey, former Foreign Minister of Turkey, and a large 
 delegation from Russia, composed of Bolshevist leaders. Dr. von 
 Kiihlmann was chosen as the presiding officer and made the 
 opening speech. The Russian peace demands and the German 
 counter-proposals were then read, and considered. 
 
 The German proposals proved unacceptable to Russia, and a 
 second session of the peace conference was held at Brest-Litovsk 
 on January 10, 1918. Trotzky himself attended this meeting as
 
 4.54 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 one of the representatives from Russia, and there was also a repre- 
 sentative from Ukraine, which had declared its independence, and 
 was allowed to join the conference. General Hoffman protested 
 strongly against the Russian endeavor to make appeals of a revo- 
 lutionary character to the German troops. 
 
 The armistice having expired, it was agreed it should be con- 
 tinued to February 12th. After a long and acrimonious debate 
 the Conference broke up in a clash over the evacuation of the 
 Russian provinces. On January 24th it was announced that the 
 
 RUSSIA AS PARTITIONED BY THE BREST-LITOVSK TREATY 
 
 Russian delegates to the peace conference had unanimously decided 
 to reject the German terms. They stated that when they asked 
 Germany's final terms General Hoffman of the German delegation 
 had replied by opening a map and pointing out a line from the 
 shores of the Gulf of Finland to the east of the Moon Sound Islands, 
 to Valk, to the west of Minsk, to Brest-Litovsk, thus eliminating 
 Courland and all the Baltic provinces. 
 
 Asked the terms of the Central Powers in regard to the terri- 
 tory south of Brest-Litovsk General Hoffman replied that was a 
 question which they would discuss only with Ukraine. M. Kam-
 
 THE DESCENT TO BOLSHEVISM 455 
 
 inev asked: "Supposing we do not agree to such condition, what 
 are you going to do?" 
 
 General Hoffman's answer was, "Within a week we would 
 occupy Reval." 
 
 On January 27th, Trotzky made his report to the Soviets at 
 Petrograd. After a thorough explanation of the peace debates, 
 he declared that the Government of the Soviets could not sign 
 
 * 
 
 GULF \OF 
 
 ':> BOTHltft 
 
 GENERAL MAP OF THE BALTIC SEA 
 
 With the collapse of Russia German forces advanced from Riga, along the Gulf of 
 Finland occupying Reval and threatening Petrograd. 
 
 such a peace. It was then decided to demobilize the Russian army 
 and withdraw from the war. 
 
 Final sessions of the peace congress were resumed at Brest- 
 Litovsk January 29th; a peace treaty was made between the 
 Central Powers and the Ukraine, and the Bolsheviki yielded to the 
 German demands without signing a treaty. Meanwhile the 
 Russian Constituent Assembly which met at Petrograd on Janu- 
 ary 19th, was dissolved on January 20th, by the Bolsheviki Council.
 
 456 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Disorders continued throughout all Russia and counter-revo- 
 lutionary movements were started at many places. On Febru- 
 ary 18th, the day when the armistice agreement between Russia 
 and the Central Powers expired, German forces began a new 
 invasion of Russia. The next day the Bolshevist Government 
 issued a statement, announcing that Russia would be compelled 
 to sign a peace. The German advance went on rapidly, and many 
 important Russian cities were occupied. On February 24th, the 
 Bolshevist Government announced that peace terms had been 
 accepted, and a treaty was signed at Brest-Litovsk on March 3d. 
 
 On March 14th the All-Russia Council of Soviets voted to 
 ratify the treaty, after an all-night sitting. Lenine pronounced 
 himself in favor of accepting the German terms; Trotzky stood for 
 war, but did not attend the meetings of the Council. Lenine 
 defended the step by pointing out that the country was completely 
 unable to offer resistance, and that peace was indispensable for 
 the completion of the social war in Russia. 
 
 The new treaty dispossessed Russia of territories amounting 
 to nearly one-quarter of the area of European Russia, and inhabited 
 by one-third of Russia's total population. Trotzky resigned on 
 account of his opposition to the treaty and was succeeded by M. 
 Tchitcherin. He became Chairman of the Petrograd Labor 
 Commune. The treaty between Russia and the Central Powers 
 was formally denounced by the Premiers and Foreign Ministers 
 of Great Britain, France, and Italy, and was not recognized by the 
 Allied nations. 
 
 A final revocation of its provisions by both sides did not put 
 an end to the military operations of the Central Powers in Russia, 
 nor did the Russians cease to make feeble and sporadic attempts 
 at resistance. Germany was forced to keep large bodies of troops 
 along the Russian front, but formally Russia's part in the war had 
 come to an end.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 GERMANY'S OBJECT LESSON TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 DURING the first two years of the war many Americans, 
 especially those in the West, observed the great events 
 which were happening with great interest, no doubt, but 
 with a feeling of detachment. The war was a long 
 way off. The Atlantic Ocean separated Europe from America, 
 and it seemed almost absurd to think that the Great War could 
 ever affect us. 
 
 In the year 1916, however, two events happened which seemed 
 to bring the war to our door. The first was the arrival at Baltimore, 
 on July 9th, of the Deutschland, a German submarine of great size, 
 built entirely for commercial purposes, and the second was the 
 appearance, on the 7th of October, of a German war submarine in 
 the harbor at Newport, Rhode Island, and its exploit on the follow- 
 ing day when it sunk a number of British and neutral vessels just 
 outside the three-mile line on the Atlantic coast. 
 
 The performances of these two vessels were equally suggestive, 
 but the popular feeling with regard to what they had done was very 
 divergent. The voyage of the Deutschland roused the widest 
 admiration but the action of the U-53 stirred up the deepest indigna- 
 tion. Yet the voyages of each showed with equal clearness that, 
 however much America might consider herself separated from the 
 Great War, the new scientific invention, the submarine, had anni- 
 hilated space, and America, too, was now but a neighbor of the 
 nations at war. 
 
 The voyage of the Deutschland was a romance in itself. It 
 was commanded by Captain Paul Koenig, a German officer of the 
 old school. He had been captain of the Schleswig of the North 
 German Lloyd, and of other big liners. When the power of the 
 British fleet drove German commerce from the seas, he had found 
 himself without a job, and, as he phrased it, "was drifting about the 
 country like a derelict." One day, in September, 1915, he was 
 asked to meet Herr Alfred Lohmann, an agent of the North German 
 
 459
 
 460 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Lloyd Line, and surprised by an offer to navigate a submarine 
 cargo ship from Germany to America. Captain Koenig, who 
 seems to have been in every way an admirable personage, at once 
 consented. He has told us the story of his trip in his interesting 
 book called "The Voyage of the Deutschland." 
 
 The Deutschland itself was three hundred feet long, thirty 
 feet wide, and carried one thousand tons of cargo and a crew of 
 twenty-nine men. It cost a hah" a million dollars, but paid for 
 itself in the first trip. According to Captain Koenig the voyage 
 on the whole seems to have been most enjoyable. He understood 
 his boat well and had watched its construction. Before setting 
 out on his voyage he carefully trained his crew, and experimented 
 with the Deutschland until he was thoroughly familiar with all its 
 peculiarities. The cargo was composed of dye stuffs, and the ship 
 was well supplied with provisions and comforts. In his description 
 of the trip he lays most emphasis upon the discomfort resulting 
 from heavy weather and from storms. He was able to avoid all 
 danger from hostile ships by the very simple process of diving. No 
 English ship approached him closely as he was always able to see 
 them from a distance, usually observing their course by means of 
 their smoke. 
 
 One of his liveliest adventures, however, occurred when 
 attempting to submerge suddenly during a heavy sea on the 
 appearance of a destroyer. The destroyer apparently never 
 observed the Deutschland, but in the endeavor to dive quickly 
 the submarine practically stood on its head, and dived down into 
 the mud, where it found itself held fast. Captain Koenig however 
 was equal to the emergency, and by balancing and trimming the 
 tanks he finally restored the center of gravity and released his boat. 
 
 A considerable portion of his trip was passed upon the surface 
 as he only submerged when there was suspicion of danger. Accord- 
 nig to his story his men kept always in the highest spirits. They 
 had plenty of music, and doubtless appreciated the extraordinary 
 nature of then* voyage. 
 
 An amusing incident during the trip was the attempt to camou- 
 flage his ship by a frame work, made of canvas and so constructed 
 as to give the outline of a steamer. One day a hostile steamer 
 appeared in the distance and Captain Koenig proceeded to test his 
 disguise. After great difficulties, especially hi connection with the
 
 GERMANY'S OBJECT LESSON 461 
 
 production of smoke, he finally had the whole construction fairly at 
 work. The steamer, which had been peacefully going its way, on 
 seeing the new ship suddenly changed her course and steered directly 
 toward the Deutschland. It evidently took the Deutschland for 
 some kind of a wreck and was hurrying to give it assistance. Cap- 
 tain Koenig at once pulled off his super-structure and revealed 
 himself as a submarine, and the strange vessel veered about and 
 hurried off as fast as it could. 
 
 On the arrival of the Deutschland hi America Captain Koenig 
 and his crew found their difficulties over. All arrangements had 
 been made by representatives of the North German Lloyd for their 
 safety and comfort. As they ran up Chesapeake Bay they were 
 greeted by the whistles of the neutral steamers that they passed. 
 The moving-picture companies immortalized the crew and they 
 were treated with the utmost hospitality. 
 
 The Allied governments protested that the Deutschland was 
 really a war vessel and on the 12th of July a commission of three 
 American naval officers was sent down from Washington to make an 
 investigation. The investigation showed the Deutschland was 
 absolutely unarmed and the American Government decided not to 
 interfere. 
 
 The position of the Allies was that a submarine, even though 
 without guns or torpedoes, was practically a vessel of war from its 
 very nature, and for it to pretend to be a merchant vessel was as if 
 some great German man-of-war should dismount its guns and pass 
 them over to some tender and then undertake to visit an American 
 port. They argued that if the submarine would come out from 
 harbor it might be easily fitted with detachable torpedo tubes, and 
 become as dangerous as any U-boat. Even without arms it might 
 easily sink an unarmed merchant vessel by ramming. But the 
 United States was not convinced, and American citizens rather 
 admired the genial captain. 
 
 His return was almost as uneventful as his voyage out. At 
 the very beginning he had trouble in not being able to rise after an 
 experimental dive. This misadventure was caused by a plug of 
 mud which had stopped up the opening of the manometer. But the 
 difficulty was overcome, and he was able to pass under water between 
 the British ships which were on the lookout. His return home was 
 a triumph. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along the
 
 462 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 banks of the Weser, filled with the greatest enthusiasm. Poems 
 were written in his honor and his appearance was everywhere greeted 
 with enthusiastic applause. The Germans felt sure that through 
 the Deutschland and similar boats they had broken the British 
 blockade. 
 
 Captain Koenig made a second voyage, landing at New London, 
 Connecticut, on November 1st, where he took on a cargo of rubber, 
 nickel and other valuable commodities. On November 16th, in 
 attempting to get away to sea, he met with a collision with the tug 
 T. A. Scott, Jr., and had to return to New London for repairs. He 
 concluded his voyage, however, without difficulty. In spite of his 
 success the Germans did not make any very great attempt to. 
 develop a fleet of submarine cargo boats. 
 
 The other German act which brought home to Americans the 
 possibilities of the submarine, the visit of the U-53, was a very 
 different sort of matter. U-53 was a German submarine of the 
 largest type. On October 7, 1916, it made a sudden appearance at 
 Newport, and its captain, Lieutenant-Captain Hans Rose, was 
 entertained as if he were a welcome guest. He sent a letter to the 
 German Ambassador at Washington and received visitors in his 
 beautiful boat. The U-53 was a war submarine, two hundred and 
 thirteen feet long, with two deck guns and four torpedo tubes. It 
 had been engaged in the war against Allied commerce in the Medi- 
 terranean. Captain Rose paid formal visits to Rear- Admiral 
 Austin Knight, Commander of the United States Second Naval 
 District, stationed at Newport, and Rear- Admiral Albert Gleaves, 
 Commander of the American destroyer flotilla at that place, and 
 then set out secretly to his destination 
 
 On the next day the news came in that the U-53 had sunk 
 five merchant vessels. These were the Strathdene, which was tor- 
 pedoed; the West Point, a British freighter, also torpedoed; the 
 Stephano, a passenger liner between New York and Halifax, which 
 the submarine attempted to sink by opening its sea valves but was 
 finally torpedoed; the Blommersdijk, a Dutch freighter, and the 
 Christian Knudsen, a Norwegian boat. The American steamer 
 Kansan was also stopped, but allowed to proceed. When the 
 submarine began its work wireless signals soon told what was 
 happening, and Admiral Knight, with the Newport destroyer 
 flotilla, hurried to the rescue. These destroyers picked up two
 
 GERMANY'S OBJECT LESSON 463 
 
 hundred and sixteen men and acted with such promptness that not 
 a single life was lost. 
 
 The action of the TJ-53 produced intense excitement in America. 
 The newspapers were filled with editorial denunciation, and the 
 people were roused to indignation. The American Government 
 apparently took the ground that the Germans were acting according 
 to law and according to their promise to America. They had 
 given warning in each case and allowed the crews of the vessels 
 which they sunk to take to their boats. This was believed to be a 
 fulfilment of their pledge "not to sink merchant vessels without 
 warning and without saving human lives, unless the ship attempts 
 to escape or offers resistance." 
 
 The general feeling, however, of American public opinion was 
 that it was a brutal act. In the case of the Stephano there were 
 ninety-four passengers. These, together with the crew, were 
 placed adrift in boats at eight o'clock in the evening, in a rough 
 sea sixty miles away from the nearest land. If the American 
 destroyer fleet had not rushed to the rescue it is extremely likely 
 that a great many of these boats would never have reached land. 
 The German Government did not save these human lives. It was 
 the American navy which did that. But, technicalities aside, the 
 pride of the American people was wounded. They could not 
 tolerate a situation in which American men-of-war should stand 
 idly by and watch a submarine in a leisurely manner sink ships 
 engaged in American trade whose passengers and crews contained 
 many American citizens. 
 
 It was another one of those foolish things that Germans were 
 'constantly doing, which gave them no appreciable military advan- 
 tage, but stirred up against them the sentiment of the world. The 
 Germans perhaps were anxious to show the power of the submarines, 
 and to give America an object lesson hi that power. They wished 
 to make plain that they could destroy overseas trade, and that if the 
 United States should endeavor to send troops across the water they 
 would be able to sink those troops. 
 
 The Germans probably never seriously contemplated a blockade 
 of the American coast. The U-53 returned to its base and the 
 danger was ended. American commerce went peacefully on, and 
 the net result of the German audacity was in the increase of bitter- 
 ness in the popular feeling toward the German methods.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 
 
 WHEN Germany threw down the gauge of battle to the 
 civilized world, the German High Command calcu- 
 lated that the long, rigorous and thorough military 
 training to which every male German had submitted, 
 would make a military force invincible in the field. The High 
 Command believed that a nation so trained would carve out vic- 
 tory after victory and would end the World War before any nation 
 could train its men sufficiently to check the Teutonic rush. 
 
 To that theory was opposed the democratic conception that 
 the free nations of earth could train then* young men intensively 
 for six months and send these vigorous free men into the field to 
 win the final decision over the hosts of autocracy. 
 
 These antagonistic theories were tried out to a finish in the 
 World War and the theory of democracy, developed in the training 
 camps of America, Canada, Australia, Britain, France and Italy, 
 triumphed. Especially hi the training camps of America was the 
 German theory disproved. There within six months the best 
 fighting troops on earth were developed and trained in the most 
 modern of war-tune practices. Everything that Germany could 
 devise found its answer hi American ingenuity, American endurance 
 and American skill. 
 
 The entrance of America into the tremendous conflict on 
 April 6, 1917 was followed immediately by the mobilization of the 
 entire nation. Business and industry of every character were 
 represented in the Council of National Defense which acted as a 
 great central functioning organization for all industries and agencies 
 connected with the prosecution of the war. Executives of rare 
 talent commanding high salaries tendered their services freely to 
 the government. These were the "dollar a year men" whose 
 productive genius was to bear fruit hi the clothing, arming, pro- 
 visioning, munitioning and transportation of four million men and 
 the conquest of Germany by a veritable avalanche of war material. 
 
 464
 
 AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 465 
 
 Out of the ranks of business and science came Hurley, Schwab, 
 Piez, Coonley to drive forward a record-breaking shipbuilding 
 program, Stettinius to speed up the manufacture of munitions, 
 John W. Ryan to coordinate and accelerate the manufacture of 
 airplanes, Vance C. McCormick and Dr. Alonzo E. Taylor to solve 
 the problems of the War Trade Board, Hoover to multiply food 
 production, to conserve food supplies and to place the army and 
 citizenry of America upon food rations while maintaining the morale 
 of the Allies through scientific food distribution and a host of ether 
 patriotic civilians who put the resources of the nation behind the 
 military and naval forces opposed to Germany. Every available 
 loom was put at work to make cloth for the army and the navy, 
 the leather market was drained of its supplies to shoe our forces 
 with wear adapted to the drastic requirements of modern warfare. 
 
 German capital invested in American plants was placed under 
 the jurisdiction of A. Mitchell Palmer as Alien Property Cus- 
 todian. German ships were seized and transformed into American 
 transports. Physicians over military age set a glorious example of 
 patriotic devotion by their enlistment in thousands. Lawyers 
 and citizens generally in the same category as to age entered the 
 office of the Judge Advocate General or the ranks of the Four 
 Minute Men or the American Protective League which rendered 
 great service to the country hi exposing German propaganda and 
 in placing would-be slackers in military service. Bankers led the 
 mighty Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamp drives and unsel- 
 fishly placed the resources of their institutions at the service of the 
 government. 
 
 Women and children rallied to the flag with an intensity of pur- 
 pose, sacrifice and effort that demonstrated how completely was 
 the heart of America hi the war. Work in shops, fields, hospitals, 
 Red Cross work rooms and elsewhere was cheerfully and enthusi- 
 astically performed and the sacrifices of food rationing, higher 
 prices, lightless nights, gasolineless Sundays, diminished steam 
 railway and trolley service were accepted with a multitude of minor 
 inconvenience without a murmur. Congress had a free hand hi 
 making appropriations. The country approved without a minute's 
 hesitation bills for taxation that in other days would have brought 
 ruin to the political party proposing them. ' Billions were voted to 
 departments where hundreds of thousands had been the rule.
 
 466 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
 
 AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 467 
 
 The true temper of the American people was carefully hidden 
 from the German people by the German newspapers acting under 
 instructions from the Imperial Government. Instead of the truth, 
 false reports were printed in the newspapers of Berlin and else- 
 where that the passage of the American conscription law had been 
 followed by rioting and rebellion hi many places and that fully 
 fifty per cent of the American people was opposed to the declara- 
 tion of war. The fact that the selective service act passed hi 
 May, 1917, was accepted by everybody in this country as a wholly 
 equitable and satisfactory law did not permeate into Germany until 
 the first American Expeditionary Force had actually landed in 
 France. 
 
 America's fighting power was demonstrated conclusively to the 
 Germanic intellect at Seicheprey, Bouresches Wood, Belleau Wood, 
 Chateau-Thierry, and in the Forest of the Argonne. Especially was 
 it demonstrated when it came to fighting hi small units, or in in- 
 dividual fighting. The highly disciplined and highly trained Ger- 
 man soldiers were absolutely unfitted to cope with Americans, 
 Canadians and Australians when it came to matching individual 
 against individual, or small group against small group. 
 
 This was shown in the wild reaches of the Forest of the 
 Argonne. There the machine-gun nests of the Germans were iso- 
 lated and demolished speedily. Small parties of Germans were 
 stalked and run down by the relentless Americans. On the other 
 hand, the Germans could make no headway against the American 
 troops operating in the Forest. The famous "Lost Battalion" of 
 the 308th United States Infantry penetrated so far in advance of 
 its supports that it was cut off for four days without food, water or 
 supplies of munitions in the Argonne. The enemy had cut its 
 line of communication and was enforced both in front and in the 
 rear. Yet the lost battalion, comprising two companies armed 
 with rifles and the French automatic rifle known as the Chauchat 
 gun, called by the doughboys "Sho Sho," held out against the 
 best the overpowering forces of the Germans could send against 
 them, and were ultimately rescued from their dangerous position. 
 
 The training of the Americans was also in modern efficiency 
 that made America prominent in the world of industry. The 
 reduction of the German salient at St. Mihiel was an object lesson 
 to the Germans in American methods. General Pershing com-
 
 468 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 manding that operation in person, assembled the newspaper cor- 
 respondents the day before the drive. Maps were shown, giving 
 the extent and locale of the attack. The correspondents were 
 invited to follow the American troops and a tune schedule for the 
 advance was given to the various corps commanders. 
 
 In that operation, 152 square miles of territory and 72 
 villages were captured outright. For the reduction of the German 
 defenses and for the creeping barrage preceding the American 
 advance, more than 1,500,000 shells were fired by the artillery. 
 Approximately 100,000 detail maps and 40,000 photographs pre- 
 pared largely from aerial observations, were issued for the guidance 
 of the artillery and the infantry. These maps and photographs 
 detailed all the natural and artificial defenses of the entire salient. 
 More than 5,000 miles of telephone wire was laid by American 
 engineers immediately preceding the attack, and as the Americans 
 advanced on the morning of the battle, September 12, 1918, 6,000 
 telephone instruments were connected with this wire. Ten thous- 
 and men were engaged in operating the hastily constructed tele- 
 phone system; 3,000 carrier pigeons supplemented this work. 
 
 During the battle American airplanes swept the skies clear 
 of enemy air-craft and signaled instructions to the artillery, 
 besides attacking the moving infantry, artillery and supply trains 
 of the enemy. So sure were the Americans of their success that 
 moving-picture operators took more than 10,000 feet of moving 
 picture film showing the rout of the Germans. Four thousand 
 eight hundred trucks carried food, men and munitions into the 
 lines. Miles of American railroads, both of standard and narrow 
 gauge, carrying American-made equipment, assisted in the trans- 
 portation of men and supplies. Hospital facilities including 35 
 hospital trains, 16,000 beds in the advanced sector, and 55,000 
 other beds back of the fighting line, were prepared. Less than 
 ten per cent of this hospital equipment was used. 
 
 As the direct consequence of this preparation, which far out- 
 stripped anything that any other nation had attempted in a similar 
 offensive, the Americans with a remarkably small casualty list 
 took 15,188 prisoners, 111 guns, many of them of large caliber, 
 immense quantities of munitions and other supplies, and inflicted 
 heavy death losses upon the fleeing Germans. 
 
 Two selective service laws operated as manhood conscription.
 
 AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 469 
 
 The first of these took men between the ages of twenty-one and 
 thirty-one years inclusive. June 5, 1917, was fixed as registration 
 day. The total number enrolled was 9,586,508. The first selec- 
 tive army drawn from this number was 625,000 men. 
 
 The second selective service legislation embraced all citizens 
 between the ages of 18 and .45 inclusive, not included in the first 
 draft. Over 13,000,000 men enrolled on September 12, 1918. 
 
 The grand total of registrants in both drafts was 23,456,021. 
 Youths who had not completed their 19th year were set apart in a 
 group to be called last and men between thirty-six and forty-five 
 were also put in a deferred class. The government's plan was to 
 have "approximately 5,000,000 men under arms before the sum- 
 mer of 1919. The German armistice on November llth found 
 4,000,000 men actually under arms and an assignment of 250,000 
 made to the training camps. 
 
 A most important factor in the training plans of the United 
 States was that incorporated in the organization of the Students' 
 Army Training Corps, by which 359 American colleges and uni- 
 versities were taken over by the government and 150,000 young 
 men entered these institutions for the purpose of becoming trained 
 soldiers. The following are the conditions under which the 
 S. A. T. C. was organized: 
 
 The War Department undertook to furnish officers, uniforms, 
 rifles, and equipment, and to assign the students to military duty, 
 after a few months, either at an officers' training camp or in some 
 technical school, or in a regular army cantonment with troops 
 as a private, according to the degree of aptitude shown on the 
 college campus. 
 
 At the same tune a circular letter to the presidents of colleges 
 arranged for a contract under which the government became 
 responsible for the expense of the housing, subsistence, and instruc- 
 tion of the students. The preliminary arrangement contained this 
 provision, among others: 
 
 The per diem rate of $1 for subsistence and housing is to govern 
 temporarily, pending examination of the conditions in the individual 
 institution and a careful working out of the costs involved. The amount 
 so fixed is calculated from the experience of this committee during the 
 last five months in contracting with over 100 collegiate institutions for 
 the housing and subsistence of over 100,000 soldiers in the National
 
 Army Training Detachment. This experience indicates that the average 
 cost of housing is 15 to 20 cents per day; subsistence (army ration or 
 equivalent), 70 to 80 cents per day. The tuition charge is based on the 
 regular per diem tuition charge of the institution in the year 1917-18. 
 
 A permanent contract was arranged later under these govern- 
 ing principles: 
 
 The basis of payment will be reimbursement for actual and necessary 
 costs to the institutions for the services rendered to the government in 
 the maintenance and instruction of the soldiers with the stated limitation 
 as to cost of instruction. Contract price will be arrived at by agreement 
 after careful study of the conditions in each case, in conference with 
 authorities of the institution. 
 
 The War Department will have authority to specify and control the 
 courses of instruction to be given by the institution. 
 
 The entity and power for usefulness of the institutions will be safe- 
 guarded so that when the contract ends the institutions shall be in condi- 
 tion to resume their functions of general education. 
 
 The teaching force will be preserved so far as practicable, and this 
 matter so treated that its members shall feel that in changing to the special 
 intensive work desired by the government they are rendering a vital and 
 greatly needed service. 
 
 The government will ask from the institutions a specific service; 
 that is, the housing, subsistence, and instruction along specified lines of a 
 certain number of student soldiers. There will be no interference with the 
 freedom of the institution in conducting other courses in the usual way. 
 
 The contract will be for a fixed term, probably nine months, subject 
 to renewal for a further period on reasonable notice, on terms to be agreed 
 upon and subject to cancellation on similar terms. 
 
 The story of the life of the American army behind the lines in 
 France would fill a volume. The hospitality of the French people 
 had something pathetic in it. They were expecting miracles of 
 their new Allies. They were war sick. Nearly all of them had 
 lost some father, or brother, or husband, and here came these big, 
 hearty, joyous soldiers, full of ardor and confident of victory. 
 It put a new spirit into all France. Their reception when they 
 first landed was a scene of such fervor and enthusiasm as had 
 never been known before and probably will not be known again. 
 Soon the American soldier, in his khaki, with his wide-brimmed 
 soft hat, became a common sight. 
 
 The villagers put up bunting, calico signs, flags and had 
 stocks of American canned goods to show in their shop windows. 
 The children, when bold, played with the American soldiers, and
 
 AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 471 
 
 the children that were more shy ventured to go up and touch an 
 American soldier's leg. Very old peasant ladies put on their 
 Sunday black, and went out walking, and in some mysterious way 
 talking with American soldiers. The' village mayors turned out 
 and made speeches, utterly incomprehensible to the American 
 soldiers. 
 
 The engineering, building and machinery works the Americans 
 put up were astonishing. Gangs of workers went over hi thousands; 
 many of these were college men. They dug and toiled as efficiently 
 as any laborer. One American major told with glee how a party 
 of these young workers arrived straight from America at 3.30 P. M. 
 and started digging at 5 A. M. next morning, "and they liked it, 
 it tickled them to death." Many of these draftees, hi fact, were 
 sick and tired of inaction in ports before then* departure from 
 America, and they welcomed work in France as if it were some 
 great game. 
 
 Perhaps the biggest work of all the Americans performed 
 was a certain aviation camp and school. In a few months it was 
 completed, and it was the biggest of its kind hi the world. The 
 number of airplanes used merely for training was hi itself remarkable. 
 The flying men or boys who had, of course, already been broken- 
 in in America, did an additional course in France, and when they left 
 the aviation camp they were absolutely ready for air-fighting at 
 the front. This was the finishing school. The aviators went 
 through eight distinct courses in the school. They were perfected 
 hi flying, in observation, hi bombing, hi machine-gun firing. On 
 even a cloudy and windy day the air overhead buzzed with these 
 young American fliers, all getting into the pink of condition to do 
 then- stunts at the front. They lived in the camp, and it required 
 moving heaven and earth for one of them to get leave to go even 
 to the nearest little quiet old town. 
 
 An impression of complete businesslike determination was 
 what one got when visiting the Americans in France. A discipline 
 even stricter than that which applied in British and French troops 
 was in force. In towns, officers, for instance, were not allowed out 
 after 9 P. M. Some towns where subalterns discovered the wine 
 of the country were instantly put "out of bounds." ^ No officer, 
 on any pretext whatsoever was allowed to go to Paris except on 
 official business.
 
 472 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The postal censors who read the letters of the American 
 Expeditionary Force were required to know forty-seven languages! 
 Of these languages, the two least used were Chinese and German. 
 
 The announcement of the organization of the first American 
 Field Army was contained in the following dispatch from France, 
 August 11, 1918: 
 
 "The first American field army has been organized. It is 
 under the direct command of General John J. Pershing, Commander- 
 in-Chief of the American forces. The corps commanders thus 
 
 
 
 
 
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 KEY 
 
 i __ The state of German civilian mom 
 1. MM Variations in Germany's military ] 
 . *- f -4- Decree of political unity in Gerina 
 *-< The Food situation in North Germ 
 i ...... Condition of Austria -Hungary. 
 6. == C-Boat sinkings. (Monthly reports 
 
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 Oft 
 
 
 
 
 
 THB SECRETARY OP WAR'S OFFICIAL CHART 
 
 This reproduction of Secretary Baker's chart, which hung in his office at Washington, 
 
 illustrates graphically Germany's success and failure in the war. 
 
 far announced are Major-Generals Liggett, Bullard, Bundy, Read, 
 and Wright. 
 
 "The creation of the first field army is the first step toward 
 the coordination of all the American forces in France. This 
 does not mean the immediate withdrawal from the British and 
 French commands of all American units, and it is probable that 
 divisions will be used on the French and British fronts for weeks 
 yet. It is understood, however, that the policy of organizing other 
 armies will be carried out steadily." 
 
 This announcement marked a milestone in the military effort 
 
 of the United States. When the American troops first arrived in 
 
 ranee, they were associated in small units with the French to 
 
 get primary training. Gradually regiments began to function
 
 AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 
 
 under French division commanders. Then American divisions 
 were formed and trained under French corps commanders. Next, 
 American corps began to operate under French army commanders. 
 Finally, the first American army was created, because enough 
 divisions and corps had been graduated from the school of experience. 
 An American division numbers 30,000 men, and a corps con- 
 sists of six divisions, two of which play the part of reserves. With 
 auxiliary troops, air squadrons, tank sections, heavy artillery, 
 and other branches, a corps numbers from 225,000 to 250,000 men. 
 
 The main line in this graph the heavy broken line represents the state of 
 civilian morale in Germany. 
 
 German morale is arbitrarily regarded as standing at 100% in August. It 14. 
 
 Zero, for the same line, is taken to be the point at which an effective major- 
 ity of the German people will refuse longer to support the war. 
 
 The degree of movement of this line is determined mainly by a consideration 
 of the deflections of the secondary lines which represent the forces exerting the 
 greatest influence on the German state of mind. 
 
 SHOWING GERMANY'S ROAD TO DEFEAT 
 
 Austria's fluctuations are indicated, aa well as the morale, military position, political 
 and food conditions and undersea enterprises of Germany. 
 
 The following were the general officers temporarily assigned 
 to command the first five corps : 
 
 First corps Major-General Hunter Liggett. 
 
 Second corps Major-General Robert L. Bullard. 
 
 Third corps Major-General William M. Wright. 
 
 Fourth corps ^Major-General George W. Read. 
 
 Fifth corps Major-General Omar Bundy. 
 
 Seven divisions and one separate regiment of American troops 
 participated in the counter-offensive between Chateau-Thierry 
 and Soissons and in resisting the German attack in the Champagne, 
 it was officially stated on July 20. The 42d, or "Rainbow" 
 Division, composed of National Guard troops from twenty-six
 
 474 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 states and the District of Columbia, including the New York 
 69th Infantry, now designated as the 165th Infantry, took part in 
 the fighting in the Champagne east of Rheims. The six other 
 divisions were associated with the French in the counter-offensive 
 between Chateau-Thierry and Soissons. These divisions were the 
 1st, t 2d, 3d and 4th of the Regular Army, the 26th National 
 Guard Division, composed of troops from the six New England 
 States, and the 28th, composed of the Pennsylvania National 
 Guard. Marines were included in this number. The separate 
 regiment that fought hi the Champagne was a negro unit attached 
 to the new 93d Division, composed entirely of negro troops. It 
 was also announced that the 77th Division was "hi the line near 
 Lune'ville" and was "operating as a division, complete under its 
 own commander." 
 
 The 42d Division had the distinction, General March an- 
 nounced on August 3d, of defeating the 4th Division of the crack 
 Prussian Guards, professional soldiers of the German standing army, 
 who had never before failed. General March also disclosed the 
 fact that another American division had been sent into that part 
 of the Rheims salient where the Germans showed resistance. This 
 was the 32d Division. "The American divisions in the Rheims 
 salient," General March said, "have now been put in contiguously 
 and are actually getting together as an American force. Southeast 
 of Fere-en-Tardenois our 1st Corps is operating, with General 
 Liggett hi actual command." 
 
 The organization of twelve new divisions was announced by 
 General March, Chief of Staff, in statements made on July 24th 
 and July 31st. These divisions were numerically designated from 
 9 to 20, and organized at Camps Devens, Meade, Sheridan, Custer, 
 Funston, Lewis, Logan, Kearny, Beauregard, Travis, Dodge, and 
 Sevier. Each division had two infantry regiments of the regular 
 army as nucleus, the other elements being made up of drafted 
 men. The new divisions moved into the designated camps as the 
 divisions already trained there moved out. 
 
 The composition of an American division is as follows: 
 
 Two brigades of infantry, each consisting of two regiments of 
 infantry and one machine-gun battalion. 
 
 One brigade of artillery, consisting of three regiments of field 
 artillery, and one trench mortar battery.
 
 (i3) International FdmService. 
 
 SAFE ON SHORE AT LAST 
 
 Arrival of American troops in Liverpool after defying the perils of the submarine. 
 Note the bulk of the packs carried by each toldier in heavy marching order. 
 
 International Film Service. 
 
 THE FIRST OF THE TIDAL WAVE OF KHAKI 
 Beeinnine with the handful of American soldiers who landed in France on 
 June TEST? the .flood of troops poured across the ocean m eyer-mcrea.mg 
 volume until at the end of the war more than two million soldiers fa 
 transported to France,
 
 AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR 477 
 
 One regiment of engineers. 
 
 One field signal battalion. 
 
 ^ The following trains: Headquarters and military police, 
 sanitary, supply, engineer, and ammunition. 
 
 The following division units: Headquarters troop and one 
 machine-gun battalion. 
 
 A general order of the War Department providing for the 
 consolidation of all branches of the army into one army to be known 
 as the " United States Army" was promulgated by General March 
 on August 7th. The text of the order read: 
 
 1. This country has but one army the United States Army. It 
 includes all the land forces in the service of the United States. Those 
 forces, however raised, lose their identity in that of the United States 
 Army. Distinctive appellations, such as the Regular Army, Reserve 
 Corps, National Army, and National Guard, heretofore employed in 
 administration command, will be discontinued, and the single term, 
 the United States Army, will be exclusively used. 
 
 2. Orders having reference to the United States Army as divided in 
 separate and component forces of distinct origin, or assuming or con- 
 templating such a division, are to that extent revoked. 
 
 3. The insignia now prescribed for the Regular Army shall hereafter 
 be worn by the United States Army. 
 
 4. All effective commissions purporting to be, and described therein, 
 as commissions in the Regular Army, National Guard, National Army, 
 or the Reserve Corps, shall hereafter be held to be, and regarded as, com- 
 missions in the United States Army permanent, provisional, or tem- 
 
 .porary, as fixed by the conditions of their issue; and all such commissions 
 are hereby amended accordingly. Hereafter during the period of the 
 existing emergency all commissions of officers shall be in the United States 
 Army and in staff corps, departments, and arms of the service thereof, and 
 shall, as the law may provide, be permanent, for a term, or for the period 
 of the emergency. And hereafter during the period of the existing emer- 
 gency provisional and temporary appointments in the grade of second 
 lieutenant and temporary promotions in the Regular Army and appoint- 
 ments in the Reserve Corps will be discontinued. 
 
 5. While the number of commissions in each grade and each staff 
 corps, department, and arm of the service shall be kept within the limits 
 fixed by law, officers shall be assigned without reference to the term of 
 then: commissions solely in the interest of the service; and officers and 
 enlisted men will be transferred from one organization to another as the 
 interests of the service may require. 
 
 6. Except as otherwise provided by law, promotion in the United 
 States Army shall be by selection. Permanent promotions in the Regular 
 Army will continue to be made as prescribed by law.
 
 CHAPTER, XXXIV 
 
 How FOOD WON THE WAR 
 
 FOOD won the war. Without the American farmer the 
 Entente Allies must have capitulated. Wheat, beef, corn, 
 foods of every variety, hermetically sealed in tins, were 
 thrown into the scales on the side of the Entente Allies in 
 sufficient quantities to tip the balance toward the side of civiliza- 
 tion and against autocracy. Late hi the fall of 1918 when victory 
 was assured to America and the Allies, there was received this 
 message of appreciation from General Pershing to the farmers of 
 America, through Carl Vrooman, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture: 
 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 
 Office of the Commander-in-Chief , France, 
 
 October 16, 1918. 
 Honorable CARL VROOMAN, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture: 
 
 DEAR MR. VROOMAN: Will you please convey to farmers of America 
 our profound appreciation of their patriotic services to the country and 
 to the Allied armies in the field. They have furnished their full quota of 
 fighting men; they have bought largely of Liberty Bonds; and they have 
 increased their production of food crops both last year and this by over a 
 thousand million bushels above normal production. Food is of vital 
 military necessity for us and for our Allies, and from the day of our entry 
 into the war America's armies of food producers have rendered invaluable 
 service to the Allied cause by supporting the soldiers at the front through 
 their devoted and splendidly successful work in the fields and furrows 
 at home. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 JOHN J. PERSHING. 
 
 This tribute to the men and women on the farms of America 
 from the head of the American forces hi France is fit recognition of 
 the important part played by American food producers hi the war. 
 It was early recognized by all the belligerent powers that final 
 victory was a question of national morale and national endurance. 
 Morale could not be maintained without food. The bread lines in 
 
 m
 
 HOW FOOD WON THE WAR 479 
 
 Petrograd gave birth to the revolution, and Russian famine was the 
 mother of Russian terrorism. German men and women, starved 
 of fats and sweets, deteriorated so rapidly that the crime ratio 
 both in towns and country districts mounted appallingly Condi- 
 tions in Austria-Hungary were even worse. Acute distress arising 
 from threatening famine was instrumental hi driving Bulgaria out 
 of the war. The whole of Central Europe indeed was in the 
 shadow of famine and the masses were crying out for peace at any 
 price. 
 
 On the other hand, Germany's greatest reliance for a victorious 
 decision lay hi the U-boat blockade of Great Britain, France and 
 Italy. Though some depredations came to these countries, the 
 submarine blockade never fully materialized and with its failure 
 Germany's hopes faded and died. 
 
 The Entente Allies and the United States were fortunate in 
 securing Herbert C. Hoover to administer food distribution through- 
 out their lands and to stimulate food production by the r farmers of 
 the United States. After his signal success in the administration 
 of the Belgian Relief Commission, Mr. Hoover became the unani- 
 mous choice of the Allies for the victualing of the militant and 
 civilian populations after America's entrance into the World War. 
 His work divided itself into three heads: 
 
 First, stimulation of food production. 
 
 Second, elimination of food wastage in the homes and public 
 eating places of the country. 
 
 Third, education of food dealers and the public in the use of 
 such foods as were substitutes for wheat, rye, pork, beef and 
 sugar. 
 
 After long and acrimonious debates in Congress, Mr. Hoover, 
 as Federal Food Administrator, was clothed with extraordinary 
 powers enabling him to fulfil the purposes for which he was 
 appointed. The ability with which he and his associates performed 
 their work was demonstrated in the complete debacle of Bulgaria, 
 Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Germany. These countries were 
 starved out quite as truly as they were fought out. The concrete 
 evidence of the Food Administration's success is shown in the 
 subjoined table which indicates the increase over normal in export- 
 ing of foodstuffs by the United States since it became the food reser- 
 voir for the world on account of the war*
 
 480 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 TOTAL EXPORTS 
 
 
 3-year pre- 
 
 1916-17 fiscal 
 
 1917-18 fiscal 
 
 July. 1917. to 
 
 July. 1918. to 
 
 
 war average. 
 
 year. 
 
 year. 
 
 Sept. 30, 1917. 
 
 Sept. 30. 1918. 
 
 Total beef products, Ibs. . 
 
 186,375,372 
 
 405.427,417 
 
 565.462.445 
 
 93,962,477 
 
 171,986.147 
 
 Total pork products, Ibs. . 
 
 996.230,627 
 
 1.498.302,713 
 
 1,691.437.435 
 
 196,256.750 
 
 540,946,324 
 
 Total dairy products, Ibs. . 
 
 26,037,790 
 
 351.958,338 
 
 590.798.274 
 
 130,071.165 
 
 161.245,029 
 
 Total vegetable oils, Ibs. . 
 
 332,430.537 
 
 206,708.490 
 
 151,029,893 
 
 27.719,553 
 
 26,026,701 
 
 Total grains, bushels. . . . 
 
 183,777,331 
 
 395,140,238 
 
 *349. 123.235 
 
 66,383,084 
 
 121,668,823 
 
 Total sugar, pounds 
 
 621.745.507 
 
 3.084.390.281 
 
 2.149,787.050 
 
 1,108.559.519 
 
 1.065.398.247 
 
 Upon the same subject Mr. Hoover himself after the harvest 
 of 1918 said: 
 
 It is now possible to summarize the shipments of foodstuffs from 
 the United States to the allied countries during the fiscal year just closed 
 practically the last harvest year. These amounts include all shipments 
 to allied countries for their and our armies, the civilian population, the 
 Belgium relief, and the Red Cross. The figures indicate the measure of 
 effort of the American people in support of allied food supplies. 
 
 The total value of these food shipments, which were in the main 
 purchased through, or with the collaboration of the Food AHminist.rfl.tinn, 
 amounted to, roundly, $1,400,000,000 during the fiscal year. 
 
 The shipments of meats and fats (including meat products, dairy 
 products, vegetable oils, etc.) to allied destinations were as follows: 
 
 POUNDS 
 
 Fiscal year 1916-17 2,166,500,000 
 
 Fiscal year 1917-18. 3,011,100,000 
 
 Increase 844,600,000 
 
 Our slaughterable animals at the beginning of the last fiscal year were 
 not appreciably larger in number than the year before; and particularly 
 in hogs, there were probably less. The increase in shipments is due to 
 conservation and the extra weight of animals added by our farmers. 
 
 The full effect of these efforts began to bear their best results in the 
 last half of the fiscal year, when the exports to the Allies were 2,133,100,000 
 pounds, as against 1,266,500,000 pounds in the same period of the year 
 before. This compares with an average of 801,000,000 pounds of total 
 exports for the same half years of the three-year pre-war period. 
 
 In cereals and cereal products reduced to terms of cereal bushels, our 
 shipments to allied destinations have been: 
 
 BUSHEIJS 
 
 Fiscal year 1916-17 259,900,000 
 
 Fiscal year 1917-18 340,800,000 
 
 Increase 80,900,000 
 
 * mieat harvest 1917-18 was 200,217.333 bushela below the average of the three previous years.
 
 HOW FOOD WON THE WAR 481 
 
 Of these cereals our shipments of the prime breadstuffs in the fiscal 
 year 1917-18 to allied destinations were: Wheat, 131,000,000 bushels and 
 rye 13,900,000 bushels, a total of 144,900,000 bushels. 
 
 The exports to allied destinations during the fiscal year 1916-17 
 were: Wheat, 135,100,000 bushels and rye, 2,300,000 bushels, a total 
 of 137,400,000 bushels. In addition, some 10,000,000 bushels of 1917 
 wheat are now in port for allied destinations or en route thereto. The 
 total shipments to allied countries from our last harvest of wheat will be, 
 therefore, about 141,000,000 bushels, or a total of 154,900,000 bushels of 
 prime breadstuffs. 
 
 In addition to this we have shipped some 10,000,000 bushels to 
 neutrals dependent upon us and we have received some imports from 
 other quarters. A large part of the other cereals exported has also gone 
 into war bread. 
 
 It is interesting to note that since the urgent request of the Allied 
 Food Controllers early in the year for a further shipment of 75,000,000 
 bushels from our 1917 wheat than originally planned, we shall have shipped 
 to Europe, or have en route, nearly 85,000,000 bushels. At the time 
 of this request our surplus was already more than exhausted. 
 
 This accomplishment of our people in this matter stands out even 
 more clearly if we bear in mind that we had available in the fiscal year 
 1916-17 from net carry over and a surplus over our normal consumption 
 about 200,000,000 bushels of wheat which we were able to export that 
 year without trenching on our home loaf. This last year, however, owing 
 to the large failure of the 1917 wheat crop we had available from net 
 carry over and production and imports only just about our normal con- 
 sumption. Therefore our wheat shipments to allied destinations represent 
 approximately savings from our own wheat bread. 
 
 These figures, however, do not fully convey the volume of the effort 
 and sacrifice made during the past year by the whole American people. 
 Despite the magnificent effort of our agricultural population in planting 
 a much increased acreage in 1917, not only was there a very large failure in 
 wheat, but also the com failed to mature properly, and corn is our 
 dominant crop. 
 
 We calculate that the total nutritional production of the country for 
 the fiscal year just closed was between seven per cent and nine per cent 
 below the average of the three previous years, our nutritional surplus 
 for export in those years being about the same amount as the shrinkage last 
 year. Therefore the consumption and waste in food have greatly reduced 
 in every direction during the year. 
 
 I am sure that the millions of our people, agricultural as well as urban, 
 who have contributed to these results, should feel a very definite satis- 
 faction that, in a year of universal food shortage in the Northern 
 Hemisphere, all of these people joined together against Germany have 
 come through into sight of the coming harvest not only with health and 
 strength fully maintained, but with only temporary periods of hardship.
 
 482 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The European Allies have been compelled to sacrifice more than our own 
 people, but we have not failed to load every steamer since the delays of the 
 storm months of last winter. 
 
 Our contributions to this end could not have been accomplished with- 
 out effort and sacrifice, and it is a matter for further satisfaction, that it 
 had been accomplished voluntarily and individually. It is difficult to 
 distinguish between various sections of our people the homes, public 
 eating places, food trades, urban or agricultural populations in assessing 
 credit for these results, but no one will deny the dominant part of the 
 American woman. 
 
 But the work of the Food Administration did not come to an 
 end with the close of the war. Insistent cries for food came from 
 the members of the defeated Teutonic alliance, as well as from the 
 suffering Allied and neutral nations. To meet those demands, 
 Mr. Hoover sailed for Europe to organize the food relief of the 
 needy nations. The State Department, explaining his mission, 
 stated that as the first measure of assistance to Belgium it was 
 necessary to increase immediately the volume of foodstuffs formerly 
 supplied, so as to physically rehabilitate this under-nourished 
 population. The relief commission during the four years of war 
 sent to the 10,000,000 people in the occupied area over 600 cargoes of 
 food, comprising 120,000,000 bushels of breadstuffs and over 
 3,000,000,000 pounds of other foodstuffs besides 20,000,000 gar- 
 ments, the whole representing an expenditure of nearly $600,000,000. 
 The support of the commission came from the Belgian, British, 
 French and American governments, together with public charity. In 
 addition to this some $350,000,000 worth of native produce was 
 financed internally in Belgium by the relief organization. 
 
 The second portion of Mr. Hoover's mission was to organize and 
 determine the need of foodstuffs to the liberated populations in 
 Southern Europe the Czecho-Slovaks, the Jugo-Slavs, and Ser- 
 bians, Roumanians and others. 
 
 To meet the conditions in Europe following the armistice of 
 November 11, 1918, the employment service of the United States 
 set to work laying far-reaching plans for meeting the problem of 
 world food shortage. The demands after the war were greater 
 than they had been during the conflict but the nation that had 
 fed the allies of civilization in war time performed the task of 
 feeding the world, friend and foe alike, when peace at length came 
 upon the earth.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 
 
 C[G before war was declared the United States Government 
 had been engaged in preparation. It had realized that 
 unrestricted submarine warfare was sure to lead to war, and 
 though for a time it was preserving what it was pleased to 
 call "an armed neutrality" the President doubtless was well aware 
 what such an "armed neutrality" would lead to. Merchant ships 
 were being armed for protection against the submarine, and crews 
 from the Navy assigned to work the guns. The first collision was 
 sure to mean an active state of war. The Naval Department, 
 therefore, was working at full speed, getting the Navy ready for 
 active service as soon as war should be declared. 
 
 Secretary Daniels made every effort to obtain the crews that 
 were necessary to man the new ships which were being fully com- 
 missioned with the greatest possible speed and called upon news- 
 papers all through the country to do their utmost to stimulate 
 enlistment. 
 
 On March 26th President Wilson issued an order increasing 
 the enlisted strength of the United States Marine Corps to 17,400 
 men, the limit allowed under the law. On March 29th a hundred 
 and three ensigns were graduated from the Naval Academy three 
 months ahead of their tune, and on April 6th, as soon as war was 
 declared, the Navy was mobilized. 
 
 Within a few minutes after Secretary Daniels had signed the 
 order for this purpose one hundred code messages were sent out 
 from the office of Admiral W. S. Benson, Chief of Naval Operations, 
 which placed the Navy on a war basis, and put into the control of 
 the Navy Department the naval militia of all the states as well as 
 the Naval Reserves and the Coast Guard Service. In the Naval 
 Militia were about 584 officers, and 7,933 men. These were at 
 once assembled and assigned to coast patrol service. All of the 
 ships that were in active commission in the Navy were already 
 ready for duty. But there were reserve battleships and reserve 
 
 483
 
 484 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 destroyers, besides ships which had been out of commission which 
 had to be manned as quickly as possible. 
 
 At the beginning of the war there were 361 vessels ready for 
 service, including twelve first-line battleships, twenty-five second- 
 line battleships, nine armored cruisers, twenty-four other cruisers, 
 seven monitors, fifty destroyers, sixteen coast torpedo vessels, 
 seventeen torpedo boats, forty-four submarines, eight tenders to 
 torpedo boats, twenty-eight gunboats, four transports, four supply 
 ships, one hospital ship, twenty-one fuel ships, fourteen converted 
 yachts, forty-nine tugs, and twenty-eight minor vessels. There 
 were about seventy thousand regularly enlisted men, besides eight 
 thousand five hundred members of the naval militia. Many yachts 
 together with then 1 volunteer crews had been offered to the govern- 
 ment by patriotic citizens. 
 
 For the complete mobilization of the Navy, as it then stood, 
 99,809 regularly enlisted men and 45,870 reserves were necessary. 
 About twenty-seven thousand of these were needed for coast 
 defense, and twelve thousand at the various shore stations. Retired 
 officers were called out, and assigned to duty which would permit 
 officers on the active list to be employed in sea duty. The Navy 
 therefore still lacked thirty-five thousand men to bring it up to its 
 full authorized strength at the beginning, but after the declaration 
 of war an active recruiting campaign brought volunteers by thou- 
 sands. The service was a popular one and recruits were easily 
 obtained. 
 
 One of the first phases of the mobilization was the organization 
 of a large fleet of mosquito craft to patrol the Atlantic Coast, and 
 keep on the watch for submarines. Many of these boats had been 
 private yachts, and hundreds of young men volunteered from 
 the colleges and schools of the country for this work. Many boat 
 builders submitted proposals to construct small boats for this kind 
 of patrol duty, and on March 31st a coast patrol fleet was organized 
 by the government under the command of Captain Henry B. 
 Wilson. 
 
 The Navy took possession immediately on the declaration of 
 war of all wireless stations in the United States dismantling all that 
 could not be useful to the government. War zones were established 
 along the whole coast line of the United States, making a series of 
 local barred zones extending from the larger harbors in American
 
 THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 485
 
 486 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 waters all along the line. These harbors were barred at night 
 to entering vessels in order to guard against surprise by German 
 submarines. Contracts were awarded for the construction of 
 twenty-four destroyers even before war was declared, and many 
 more were already under construction. 
 
 The growth of the Navy in one year may give some idea of the 
 efficiency of the Navy Department. In April, 1917, the regular 
 Navy contained 4,366 officers and 64,680 men. In April, 1918, it 
 contained 7,798 officers and 192,385 men. In the Marine Corps hi 
 1917 there were 426 officers and 13,266 men. In one year this was 
 increased to 1,389 officers and 38,629 men. In the organization of 
 the Naval Reserves, naval volunteers and coast guards there were 
 in 1917, 24,569 men; hi 1918, 98,319 men, and 11,477 officers. 
 
 While personnel of the Navy was thus expanding the United 
 States battle fleet had grown to more than twice the size of the 
 fleet before the war. When war was declared there were under 
 construction 123 new naval vessels. These were completed and 
 contracts made for 949 new vessels. Among the ships completed are 
 fifteen battleships, six battle cruisers, seven scout cruisers, twenty- 
 seven destroyers, and sixty-one submarines. About eight hundred 
 craft were taken over and converted into transports, patrol service 
 boats, submarine chasers, mine sweepers and mine layers. 
 
 The government also seized 109 German ships which had been 
 interned hi American ports. The Germans had attempted to 
 damage these ships so that they would be useless, but they were 
 all repaired, and carried American troops and supplies in great 
 quantities to France. 
 
 As the fleet grew the training of the necessary officers and 
 crews was conducted on a grand scale. Naval camps were estab- 
 lished at various points. The main ones were those at Philadelphia, 
 (League Island); Newport, Rhode Island; Cape May, New Jersey; 
 Charleston, South Carolina; Pensacola, Florida; Key West, 
 Florida; Mare Island, California; Puget Sound, Washington; 
 Hingham, Massachusetts; Norfolk, Virginia; New Orleans, San 
 Diego, New York Navy Yard; Great Lakes, Illinois; Pelham, 
 New York; Hampton Roads, Virginia; and Gulf port, Mississippi. 
 Schools hi gunnery and engineering were established and thousands 
 of gunners and engineers were trained, not only for the Navy but 
 for the armed merchant vessels.
 
 THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 487 
 
 The training of gun crews by target practice was a feature of 
 this work. Long before the war began systematic training of this 
 kind had been done, but mainly in connection with the big guns, 
 and great efficiency had been obtained by the steady practice. 
 With the introduction of the submarine, it became necessary to 
 pay special attention to the training of the crews of guns of smaller 
 caliber, and it was not long before the officers of our Navy were 
 congratulating themselves on the efficiency of their men. It is 
 not easy to hit so small a mark as the periscope of a submarine, but 
 it could be done and many tunes was done. 
 
 Twenty-eight days after the declaration of war a fleet of 
 United States destroyers under the command of Admiral William S. 
 Suns reported for service at a British port. 
 
 The American destroyer squadron arrived at Queenstown after 
 a voyage without incident. The water front was lined with an 
 excited crowd carrying small American flags, which cheered the 
 destroyers from the tune they were first seen until they reached the 
 dock. They cheered again when Admiral Suns went ashore to 
 greet the British senior officer who had come to welcome the 
 Americans. It was a most informal function. After the usual 
 handshakes the British commander congratulated the Americans on 
 their safe voyage and then asked: 
 
 "When will you be ready for business?" 
 
 " We can start at once," was the prompt reply of Admiral Sims. 
 
 This rather took the breath away from the British commander 
 and he said he had not expected the Americans to begin work so soon 
 after their long voyage. Later after a short tour of the destroyers 
 he admitted that the American tars looked prepared. 
 
 "Yes," said the American commander, "we made preparations 
 on the way over. That is why we are ready." 
 
 Everything on board the destroyers was in excellent condition. 
 The only thing lacking was heavier clothing. The American 
 uniforms were too light for the cool weather which is common in the 
 English waters. This condition, however, was quickly remedied, 
 and the American ships at once put out to sea all in splendid con- 
 dition and filled with the same enthusiasm that the Marines showed 
 later at Chateau-Thierry. 
 
 "They are certainly a fine body of men, and what's more, their 
 craft looked just as fit," declared the British commander.
 
 488 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 One of the American destroyers, even before the American 
 fleet had arrived at Queenstown, had begun war duty. It had 
 picked up and escorted through the danger zone one of the 
 largest of the Atlantic liners. The passengers on board the 
 liner sent the commander of the destroyer the following message: 
 
 British passengers on board a steamer, bound for a British port, 
 under the protection of an American destroyer, send their hearty greetings 
 to her commander and her officers and crew, and desire to express their 
 keen appreciation of this practical co-operation between the government 
 and people of the United States and the British Empire, who are now 
 fighting together for the freedom of the seas. 
 
 Moving pictures were taken by the official British Government 
 photographer as the American flotilla came into the harbor, and 
 sailors who received shore leave were plied with English hospitality. 
 The streets of Queenstown were decorated with the Stars and Stripes. 
 As soon as American residents in England learned that American 
 warships were to cross the Atlantic they held a conference to provide 
 recreation buildings, containing sleeping, eating, and recreation 
 accommodations for the comfort of the American sailors. The 
 destroyer flotilla was the first contribution of American military 
 power to the Entente Alliance against Germany. 
 
 Admiral Sims is one of the most energetic and efficient of 
 American naval officers and to him as much as to any other man 
 is due the efficiency of the American Navy. During the period just 
 before the Spanish-American War Lieutenant Suns was Naval 
 Attache* at Paris, and rendered invaluable services in buying ships 
 and supplies for the Navy. In 1900 he was assigned to duty on the 
 battleship Kentucky, then stationed in the Orient. In 1902 he 
 was ordered to the Navy Department and placed in charge of the 
 Office of Naval Practice, where he remained for seven years and 
 devoted his attention to the improvement of the Navy in gunnery. 
 During that time he made constant trips to England to consult 
 with English experts in gunnery and ordnance, and became inti- 
 mately acquainted with Sir Percy Scott, who had been knighted 
 and made Rear- Admiral for the improvements he had introduced hi 
 connection with, the gunnery of the British warships. In 1909 
 he was made commander of the battleship Minnesota, and in 1911 
 was a member of the college staff at the Naval War College. In 
 1913 he was made commander of the torpedo flotilla of the Atlantic
 
 THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 489 
 
 fleet and in 1905 assigned to command the Dreadnaught Nevada. 
 In 1916 he was President of the Naval War College. He was made 
 Rear-Admiral in 1916 and Vice-Admiral in 1917 and assigned to the 
 command of all American war vessels abroad. 
 
 Immediately upon their arrival the American vessels began 
 operation in the submarine zone. Admiral Beatty then addressed 
 the following message to Admiral Henry T. Mayo of the United 
 States Atlantic Fleet: 
 
 The Grand Fleet rejoices that the Atlantic fleet will now share in 
 preserving the liberties of the world and in maintaining the chivalry of 
 the sea. 
 
 Admiral Mayo replied: 
 
 The United States Atlantic Fleet appreciates the message from the 
 British fleet and welcomes opportunities for work with the British fleet for 
 the freedom of the seas. 
 
 It may also be noted, as a fact which is not without significance, 
 that the losses by submarine which had reached their highest mark 
 in the last week in April began from that time steadily to diminish. 
 
 One of the main duties of the Navy was to convoy transports 
 and supplies across the Atlantic. This was done with the assistance 
 of Allied vessels with remarkable success. For a long period it 
 seemed as if the U-boats would not be able to penetrate through 
 the Allied convoy, but during 1918 four transports were torpedoed. 
 The first was the Tuscania which was sunk in February off the north 
 coast of Ireland, with 1,912 officers and men of the Michigan and 
 Wisconsin guardsmen, of whom 204 were lost. The Oronsa, which 
 was torpedoed in April, contained 250 men and all were saved except 
 three of the crew. The Moldavia came next with five hundred 
 troops, of whom fifty-five were lost. On September 6th the troopship 
 Persic with 2,800 American soldiers was torpedoed but American 
 destroyers rescued all on board, and the Persic, which was prevented 
 from sulking by its water-tight bulkheads, was afterwards beached. 
 
 Several American ships, including the troop transport Mount 
 Vemon, were torpedoed on return trips and a number of the men 
 of their crews were lost, and several naval vessels were lost, including 
 the destroyer Jacob Jones, and the patrol vessel Alcedo. The 
 Cassin was torpedoed, but reached port under its own steam and 
 later returned to service*
 
 490 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 In September and October three more American transports 
 were added to the list of American losses. On September 26th 
 the United States steamer Tampa was torpedoed and sank with all 
 on board, losing 118 men. On September 30th the Ticonderoga 
 was also torpedoed, eleven naval officers and 102 enlisted men being 
 
 lost. 
 
 In addition to these submarine losses several ships and a 
 number of men were lost through collision. The United States 
 steamer Westgate was sunk hi a collision with the steamer American 
 on October 7th, with the loss of seven men. On October 9th the 
 United States destroyer Shaw lost fifteen men in a collision, though 
 she later succeeded hi reaching port. On October 1 1th the American 
 steamer Otranto was sunk in a collision with the British liner 
 Cashmere. Of seven hundred American soldiers who were on 
 board 365 were lost. At this tune about three thousand anti- 
 submarine craft were in operation day and night around the British 
 Isles, and about five thousand working in the open sea. This was 
 what made it possible for the Allies to win the war. 
 
 Inasmuch as the illegal use of the submarine by Germany 
 brought America into the war it was extremely appropriate that she 
 should take an active part in the suppression of the submarine 
 menace. The methods which were used in fighting the submarines 
 differed much in different cases. The action of the government in 
 arming merchantment and hi providing them with trained gun 
 crews did much to lower the number of such ships sunk by the 
 U-boats. 
 
 The submarine, which had formerly been able to stop the 
 unarmed merchantman and sink him at leisure, after a few com- 
 bats with an armed merchantman began to be very wary and to 
 depend almost entirely upon his torpedoes. It was not always 
 easy for the submarine to get in a position where her torpedo 
 would be effective, and the merchantman was carefully directed, 
 if attacked, to pursue a ziz-zag irregular course, and at the same 
 tune endeavor to hamper the submarine by shooting as near her 
 periscope as possible. 
 
 Along the sea coasts and at certain points in the English 
 Channel great nets were used effectively. Submarines, however, 
 toward the end of the war were made sufficiently large to be able to 
 force their way through these nets, and net-cutting devices were
 
 THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 491 
 
 also used by them with considerable effect. The best way to destroy 
 the submarines seemed to be in a direct attack by flotillas of 
 destroyers. 
 
 By the end of the war the whole process of sinking or destroy- 
 ing submarines had been thoroughly organized. Practically every 
 portion of the seas near Great Britain and France was carefully 
 watched and the appearance of a submarine immediately reported. 
 As the submarine would only travel at a certain well-understood 
 speed during a given time, it was possible to calculate, after the 
 locality of one was known, about how far from that point it would 
 be found at any later period. Destroyers were therefore sent 
 circling around the point where the submarine had been discovered, 
 enlarging their distance from the center every hour. In the course 
 of time the submarine would be compelled to come"up for air, and 
 then, if luck were with the destroyer, it might find its foe before 
 it was seen itself. Having discovered the submarine the destroyer 
 immediately endeavored to ram, dropping depth bombs at the 
 point where they supposed the enemy to be. 
 
 These bombs were so constructed that at a certain depth in the 
 water they would explode, and the force of the explosion was so 
 great that even if they did not strike the submarine they would be 
 sure to damage it seriously, sometimes throwing the submarine to 
 the surface partly out of water, and at other times driving her to 
 come to the surface herself ready to surrender. 
 
 In many cases it was not necessary to use the depth bomb at 
 all. The gunners on board the destroyers had become extraordi- 
 narily expert, and though a shot might destroy the periscope of a 
 submarine without doing much damage, most submarines carrying 
 extra periscopes to use if necessary, yet it was soon found that it 
 was possible by the use of plunging shells to do effective damage. 
 Plunging shells are somewhat similar in their operation to bombs. 
 Such a shell falling just short of a periscope and fused to burst 
 both on contact and at a certain depth was extremely likely to 
 do damage. 
 
 In the pursuit of the U-boat the airplane was also extremely 
 effective. These were sent out to patrol large districts near the 
 Allied coast, and also, in some cases, from ships themselves. It is 
 possible in certain weather conditions for the observer on an air- 
 plane to detect a submarine even when it is submerged and the
 
 492 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 airplane can not only attack the submarine by dropping depth 
 bombs, but it can signal at once the location of the enemy to the 
 hurrying destroyers. Indeed, as the submarine warfare proceeded 
 the main difficulty of the Allies was to locate the submarines. 
 Many ingenious devices were used for this purpose, and many of the 
 English vessels had listening attachments under water which were 
 intended to make it possible to hear a submarine as it moved. 
 These, however, do not seem to have been very effective. The 
 submarine itself seems at times to have been fitted out in a similar 
 way and to have thus been able to hear the sound of an approach- 
 ing ship. 
 
 Many thrilling reports of naval actions against German sub- 
 marines were given out officially by the British admiralty from 
 time to time. In most of these cases the submarine was both 
 rammed and attacked by depth bombs. In nearly all of them the 
 only proof of success was the oil and air bubbles which came to the 
 surface. 
 
 One interesting encounter was that in which a British submarine 
 sighted a German U-boat, while both were on the surface. The 
 British submarine dived and later was able to pick up the enemy 
 through the periscope and discharge a torpedo in such a way 
 as to destroy the German vessel. When the British submarine 
 arose it found a patch of oil in which Germans were swimming. 
 
 Ordinarily, however, a submarine was of little service hi a 
 fight against another for the radius of sight from a periscope is so 
 short that it is practically blind so far as another periscope is con- 
 cerned. This blindness of the submarine was taken advantage of 
 by the Allies in every possible way. 
 
 Merchant ships were camouflaged, that is painted in such a 
 way that they could not be easily distinguished at a distance. 
 In the great convoys ships were often hidden by great masses of 
 smoke to prevent a submarine from finding an easy mark. At 
 night all lights were put out or else so shaded as not to be seen by 
 the enemy. The result of these methods was the gradual destruc- 
 tion of the U-boat menace. 
 
 In the summer of 1918, while occasionally some ship was lost, 
 the production of new ships was much greater than those that were 
 sunk. During the month of June it was announced that the 
 completion of new tonnage by the Allies had outstripped the losses
 
 THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 495 
 
 by thousands of tons. During this period the United States had 
 attained its full stride in building ships, airplanes and ordnance. 
 
 Archibald Kurd, the English naval expert, said: "When the 
 war is over the nation will form some conception of the debt which 
 we owe the American Navy for the manner in which it has co-oper- 
 ated, not only in connection with the convoy system, but hi 
 fighting the submarines. If the naval position is improving today, 
 as it is, it is due to the fact that the British and American fleets are 
 working in closest accord, supported by an immense body of skilled 
 workers on both sides of the Atlantic, who are turning out destroyers 
 and other craft for dealing with the submarine, as well as mines and 
 bombs. Some of the finest battleships of the United States Navy 
 are now associated with the British Grand fleet. They are not 
 only splendid fighting ships but they are well officered and manned." 
 
 On May 13, 1918, in appreciation of some remarks which had 
 been made by Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the British Admiralty, 
 Josephus Daniels, the American Secretary of the Navy, addressed a 
 letter to him in the following terms: 
 
 "Your reference to the splendid spirit of co-operation between 
 the navies of our countries, and your warm praise of the officers 
 and men of our navy, have been most grateful to me and to all 
 Americans. The brightest spot in the tragedy of this war is this 
 mutual appreciation of the men hi the naval service. Our officers 
 who have returned confirm the statements of Admiral Suns of the 
 courtesies and kindness shown in every way by the admiralty and 
 the officers of the British fleet. I had hoped to have the pleasure of 
 visiting Great Britain and of personally expressing this feeling of 
 mutual working together, but the task here of making ready more 
 and more units for the fleet is a very serious one, and my duty 
 chains me here. The order hi all the Navy is 'Full speed ahead' 
 in the construction of destroyers and other craft, and the whole 
 service is keyed up to press this program forward. Therefore I 
 shall not have the pleasure, until this program shall materialize, 
 of a personal acquaintance and a conference which would be of 
 such interest and value." 
 
 Sir Eric Geddes replied: "I am exceedingly grateful for your 
 letter. As you know we, all of us here, have great admiration for 
 your officers and men, and for the splendid help they are giving in 
 European waters. Further, we find Admiral Sims invaluable in
 
 496 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 council and in co-operation. I fully appreciate how onerous your 
 office must be and much though I regret that you do not see your 
 way to visiting this country in the near future, I hope we may some 
 day have the pleasure of welcoming you here." 
 
 Sir Eric afterward himself visited the United States and his 
 visit was made the occasion of a general expression of the high 
 regard which the United States felt for the splendid assistance which 
 the great British Navy had rendered hi convoying its armies across 
 the eas. 
 
 Secretary Daniels, in his report of December, 1918, said that 
 American sea forces hi European waters comprised 338 vessels, 
 with 75,000 men and officers a force larger than the entire Navy 
 was before the war began. 
 
 From August, 1914, to September, 1918, German submarines 
 sank 7,157,088 deadweight tons of shipping hi excess of the tonnage 
 turned out in that period by the allied and neutral nations. That 
 total does not represent the depletion of the fleets at the command 
 of the allied and neutral nations, however, as 3,795,000 deadweight 
 tons of enemy ships were seized in the meantime. Actually, the 
 allied and neutral nations on September 1, 1918, had only 3,362,088 
 less tons of shipping in operation than in August, 1914. 
 
 These details of the shipping situation were issued by the 
 United States Shipping Board along with figures to show that, with 
 American and allied yards under full headway, Europe's danger of 
 being starved by the German submarine was apparently at an end. 
 The United States took the lead of all nations in shipbuilding. 
 
 In all, the allied and neutral nations lost 21,404,913 dead- 
 weight tons of shipping since the beginning of the war, showing 
 that Germany maintained an average destruction of about 445,000 
 deadweight tons monthly. During the latter months, however, 
 the sinkings fell considerably below the average, and allied con- 
 struction passed destruction for the first time in May, 1918. 
 
 The losses of the allied and neutral shipping in August, 1918, 
 amounted to 327,676 gross tonnage, of which 176,401 was British 
 and 151,275 allied and neutral, as compared with the adjusted 
 figures for July of 323,772, and 182,524 and 141,248, respectively. 
 British losses from all causes during August were 10,887 tons 
 higher than in June, which was the lowest month since the intro- 
 duction of unrestricted submarine warfare.
 
 THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR 497 
 
 An official statement of the United States Shipping Board, 
 issued September 21, 1918, set forth the following facts: 
 
 STATUS OF WORLD TONNAGE, SEPTEMBER 1, 1918 
 (Germany and Austria excluded) 
 
 Deadweight 
 Tons 
 
 Total losses (allied and neutral) August, 1914-September 1, 1918 ......... 21,404,913 
 
 Total construction (allied and neutral) August, 1914-September 1, 1918 . . . 14,247,825 
 Total enemy tonnage captured (to end of 1917) ......................... 3,795,000 
 
 Excess of losses over gains ............................................ 3,362,088 
 
 Estimated normal increase in world's tonnage if war had not occurred (based 
 
 on rate of increase, 1905-1914) .................................... 14,700,000 
 
 Net deficit due to war ................................................ 18,062,088 
 
 In August, deliveries to the Shipping Board and other seagoing construction in the 
 United States for private parties passed allied and neutral destruction for that month. 
 The figures: 
 
 (Actual) Tons 
 
 Deliveries to the Shipping Board ......................................... 244,121 
 
 Other construction over 1,000 gross ....................................... 16,918 
 
 Total 261,039 
 
 Losses (allied and neutral) 259,400 
 
 America alone surpassed losses for month by 1,630 
 
 NOTE. World's merchant tonnage, as of June 30, 1914, totaled 49,089,552 gross 
 tons, or, roughly, 73,634,328 deadweight tons. (Lloyd's Register.) 
 
 The climax to Germany's piratical submarine adventure took 
 place a few days after the armistice, when a mournful procession of 
 shamefaced-looking U-boats sailed between lines of English cruisers 
 to be handed over to the tender mercies of the Allied governments.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 CHINA JOINS THE FIGHTING DEMOCRACIES 
 
 r i ^"FTR circumstances connected with the entrance of the 
 Republic of China into the World War were as follows: 
 On February 4, 1917, the American Minister, Dr. Reinsch, 
 requested the Chinese Government to follow the United 
 States in protesting against the German use of the submarine against 
 neutral ships. On February 9th Pekin made such a protest to 
 Germany, and declared its intention of severing diplomatic relations 
 if the protest were ineffectual. The immediate answer of Germany 
 was to torpedo the French ship Atlas in the Mediterranean on which 
 were over seven hundred Chinese laborers. On March 10th the 
 Chinese Parliament empowered the government to break with 
 Germany. On the same afternoon a reply was received from the 
 German Government to the Chinese protest, of a very mild char- 
 acter. The reply produced a great deal of surprise in China. 
 
 A Chinese statesman made this comment on the German 
 change of attitude: "The troops under Count Waldersee leaving 
 Germany for the relief of Pekin were instructed by the War Lord 
 to grant no quarter to the Chinese. On the other hand, the latter 
 were to be so disciplined that they would never dare look a German 
 in the face again. The whirligig of time brings its own revenge, and 
 today, after the lapse of scarcely seventeen years, we hear the 
 Vossiche Zetiung commenting on the diplomatic rupture between 
 China and Germany, lamenting that even so weak a state as the 
 Far Eastern Republic dares look defiantly at the German nation." 
 
 The breaking off of relations with Germany led to trouble 
 between the President of the Republic and the Premier. The 
 Premier desired to break off relations without consulting Parliament. 
 The President insisted that Parliament should be consulted, which 
 was actually done. The next move was to declare war, but here 
 the Chinese statesmen hesitated, and their hesitation arose through 
 their feeling toward Japan. 
 
 They sympathized with the Allies, but to Chinese eyes Japan 
 
 498
 
 CHINA JOINS THE DEMOCRACIES 499 
 
 has stood for all that Germany, as depicted by its worst enemies, 
 stood for. The Japanese Government was professing friendliness 
 to China, but that profession the Chinese could not reconcile with 
 Japan's action in the Chino- Japanese War, and on many other 
 occasions since that war. In Chinese hearts there was a strong 
 feeling of distrust, fear and hatred for their Japanese neighbor. 
 There were other reasons also why they hesitated to declare war. 
 Indeed the devotion to peace, which is deep-rooted in the nation, 
 would be a sufficient reason in itself. 
 
 Moreover, China, like other neutral nations, was a strong 
 center for German propaganda. German consuls and diplomatic 
 officers, who were scholars in Chinese literature and philosophy, 
 and who also had sufficient funds to entertain Chinese officials as 
 they liked to be entertained, were actively endeavoring to influence 
 Chinese statesmen. 
 
 The Chinese Government, however, was determined to declare 
 war, and to secure support the Chinese Premier summoned a 
 council of military governors to consider the question. The majority 
 of the conference agreed with the Premier, but a vigorous opposition 
 began to develop. On May 7th the President sent a formal 
 request to Parliament to approve of a declaration of war. Parlia- 
 ment delayed and was threatened by a mob. The Premier was 
 accused of having instigated the riot and support began to gather 
 for Parliament, and an attack was made on the Premier as being 
 willing to sell China. 
 
 Day by day the differences between the militants and demo- 
 crats became more bitter. The question of war was almost lost in 
 the differences of opinion as to the comparative powers of Parliament 
 and the Executive. A demand was made that the Premier resign. 
 He refused to resign and was dismissed from office by the President, 
 who was supported in his action by the Parliament. This was 
 practically a success of the Parliamentary party, when suddenly 
 several of the northern generals and governors declared their 
 independence, and the movement gradually developed into a 
 revolution in favor of the restoration of the Manchu Dynasty. 
 This revolution was finally suppressed. 
 
 The Japanese declared themselves, not the enemies, but the 
 protectors of China hi terms that suggested the appearance of a 
 Monroe Doctrine for Asia. They pledged themselves not to violate
 
 500 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the political independence or territorial integrity of China, and 
 declared strongly in favor of the principle of the open door and 
 equal opportunity. 
 
 On August 14th China formally joined the Allies and declared 
 war on Austria and Germany. She took no great part in the war, 
 except to invade the German and Austrian settlements in Tientsin 
 and Hankow, which were taken over by the Chinese authorities. 
 The Chinese officials also seized the Deutsche Asiatiche Bank which 
 had been the financing agent in China for the German Government, 
 and fourteen German vessels which had been interned in Chinese 
 ports. Thousands of Chinese coolies were sent to Europe to work 
 hi the Allied interests behind the battle lines, and China has in all 
 respects been faithful to her pledges. 
 
 The official war proclamation of China which was signed by 
 President Feng-kuo-chang reviewed China's efforts to induce 
 Germany to modify her submarine policy. It declared that China 
 had been forced to sever relations with Germany and with Austro- 
 Hungary to protect the lives and property of Chinese citizens. 
 It promised that China would respect the Hague Convention, 
 regarding the humane conduct of the war, and asserted that 
 China's object was to hasten peace. 
 
 On July 22d Siam officially entered the war and all German 
 and Austrian subjects were interned and German ships seized. The 
 Prince of Songkla, brother of the reigning monarch, declared that 
 natural necessity and moral pressure forced Siam into the war on 
 the side of the Entente. Neutrality had become increasingly diffi- 
 cult, and it had become apparent that freedom and justice in states 
 which were not strong from a military standpoint were not to be 
 secured through the policy of the Central Powers. Sympathy for 
 Belgium and the popular aversion to Teutonic methods had left 
 no doubt as to the duty of Siam. The motive of Siam had a curious 
 fitness, though there was a certain quaintness in her expression of a 
 desire to make, "the world safe for democracy." 
 
 The native name of Siam is Muang-Thai, which means the 
 Kingdom of the Free. Siam is about as large as France, and has a 
 population of about eight millions. Its people, who are of many 
 shades of yellowish-brown, have descended into this corner of Asia 
 from the highlands north of Burma and east of Tibet. The tradition 
 among these people was that the further south thev descended the
 
 CHINA JOINS THE DEMOCRACIES 501 
 
 shorter they would grow, that when they reached the southern 
 plains they would be no larger than rabbits, and that when they 
 came to the sea they would vanish altogether. As a fact the 
 northern tribes are much taller than the southern. 
 
 The original population of the Siamese peninsula was a race 
 of black dwarfs, remnants of whom still dwell in caves and nests of 
 palm leaves, so shy that it is almost impossible to catch a glimpse of 
 them. The literary and religious culture of Siam comes mainly 
 from southern India Buddhism is the dominant religion, but 
 there are many Mohammedans also. 
 
 The accession of Siam to the ranks of the Allies did not make 
 any great difference from a military point of view, but it was another 
 evidence of the general world feeling with regard to the Germans and 
 their encroachments in all parts of the world. Germany had tried 
 its best to keep these nations from participation in the war, but 
 not only had her propaganda failed but the feeling of these Oriental 
 peoples was strongly anti-German. Much of this feeling, it is 
 readily seen from their statements and their private letters, comes 
 from a personal resentment of the boorish attitude of the individual 
 German. By the end of 1918 the Teuton influence in the Orient 
 had completely disappeared.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 NONE of the surprises of the World War brought such 
 sudden and stunning dismay to the Entente Allies as 
 the news of the Italian disaster beginning October 24, 
 1917, and terminating in mid-November. It is a story 
 hi which propaganda was an important factor. It taught the 
 Allies the dangers lying hi fraternization between opposing armies. 
 
 During the summer of 1917 the second Italian army was 
 confronted by Austrian regiments composed largely of war-weary 
 Socialists. During that summer skilful German propagandists 
 operating from Spain had sown the seeds of pacificism throughout 
 Italy. This was made easy by the distress then existing particu- 
 larly in the villages where food was scanty and complaints against 
 the conduct of the war were numerous. The propaganda extended 
 from the civilian population to the army, and its channel was 
 directed mainly toward the second army encamped along the 
 Isonzo River. 
 
 As a consequence of the pacifists' preachments both by word 
 of mouth and document, the second army was ready for the 
 friendly approaches that came from the front lines of the Austrians 
 only a few hundred yards away. Daily communication was estab- 
 lished and at night the opposing soldiers fraternized generally. 
 The Russian doctrine that an end of the fighting would come if 
 the soldiers agreed to do no more shooting, spread throughout the 
 Italian trenches. 
 
 This was all part of a plan carefully mapped out by the Ger- 
 man High Command. When the infection had spread, the fra- 
 ternizing Austrian troops were withdrawn from the front trenches 
 and German shock troops took their places. 
 
 On October 24th these troops attacked hi force. The Italians 
 in the front line, mistaking them for the friendly Austrians, waved 
 a greeting. German machine guns and rifles replied with a deadly 
 fire, and the great flanking movement commenced. So well had 
 
 602
 
 THE DEFEAT AND RECOVERY OF ITALY 503 
 
 the Germans played their game the Italians lost more than 
 250,000 prisoners and 2,300 guns in the first week. The attack 
 began in the Julian Alps and continued along the Isonzo south- 
 westward into the plain of Venice. The Italian positions at Tol- 
 mino and Plezzo were captured and the whole Italian force was 
 compelled to retreat along a seventy-mile front from the Carnic 
 Alps to the sea. The most important point gained by the enemy 
 in its early assault was the village of Caporetto on the Upper 
 
 AREA OP THE FLOW AND EBB OP ITALY'S MILITABY SUCCESS 
 From the Carso plateau to the Piave line. 
 
 Isonzo where General Cadorna held a great series of dams which 
 could have drained the Isonzo River dry within twelve hours. 
 
 The Italian retreat at places degenerated into a rout and it 
 was not until the Italians, reinforced by French and British, 
 reached the Piave River, that a stand was finally made. The 
 defeat cost Cadorna his command, and he was succeeded by General 
 Armando Diaz, whose brilliant strategy during the remainder of 
 the war marked him as a national hero and one of the outstanding 
 military geniuses of the war. 
 
 The order for a general retreat was issued on October 27th.
 
 504 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Poison gas shells rained blindness and death upon the retreating 
 Italians and upon the heroic rear-guards. The city of Udine and 
 its environs were emptied of their inhabitants; and Goritzia, which 
 had been wrested after a desperate effort from the Austrians, was 
 retaken on October 28th. 
 
 That the entire Italian army escaped the fate that had come 
 to the Russians at the Masurian Lakes was due mainly to the third 
 army commanded by the Duke of Aosta. During the long running 
 fight, it faced about from tune to tune and drove the Germans back 
 hi bloody encounters. 
 
 By November 10th the Italian forces had come to the hastily 
 prepared entrenchments on the west bank of the Piave River. 
 The Austrians and the Germans dug hi on the east bank from 
 the village of Susegana hi the Alpine foothills to the Adriatic Sea. 
 
 Here a long-drawn-out battle was fought, resulting in enormous 
 losses to the Germans and Austrians. By this tune reinforcements 
 had come up from the French front and every attempt by the 
 enemy to g,ain ground met a bloody check. The hardest fighting 
 was on the Asiago Plateau. There, although the Italians were 
 greatly outnumbered, the concentration of their artillery in the 
 hills overlooking the great field completely dominated the situation. 
 
 A factor that was of the utmost value in checking the Aus- 
 trians was the system of lagoon defenses rumung from the lower 
 Piave to the Gulf of Venice. 
 
 From November 13th, when the Austrians in crossing the 
 lower Piave in their headlong rush to Venice were suddenly 
 checked by the Italian lagoon defenses, the entire Gulf of Venice, 
 with its endless canals and marshes, with islands disappearing and 
 reappearing with the tide, was the scene of a continuous battle. 
 A correspondent described the fighting as absolutely without pre- 
 cedent. The Teutons were desperately trying to turn the Italian 
 right wing by working their way around the northern limits of 
 the Venetian Gulf. The Italians inundated the region and sealed 
 all the entrances into the gulf by mine fields. The gulf, therefore, 
 was converted into an isolated sea. Over this inland waterway 
 the conflict raged bitterly. The Italians had a "lagoon fleet" 
 ranging from the swiftest of motor boats, armed with machine 
 guns, small cannon, and torpedo tubes, to huge, cumbersome, 
 flat-bottomed British monitors, mounting the biggest guns.
 
 THE DEFEAT AND RECOVERY OF ITALY 505 
 
 The Italian vessels navigated secret channels dug in the bottom 
 of the shallow lagoons. Only the Italian war pilots knew these 
 courses. Even gondolas straying out of the channels were instantly 
 and hopelessly stranded. Not only this, but as the muddy flats 
 and marshy islands did not permit of artillery emplacements the 
 Italians developed an immense fleet of floating batteries. The 
 guns ranged from three-inch fieldpieces to great fifteen-inch mon- 
 sters. Each was camouflaged to represent a tiny island, a garden 
 patch, or a houseboat. Floating on the glasslike surface of the 
 lagoons, the guns fired a few shots and then changed position, mak- 
 ing it utterly impossible for the enemy to locate them. The entire 
 auxiliary service of supplying this floating army was adapted to 
 meet the lagoon warfare. Munition dumps were on boats, con- 
 stantly moved about to prevent the enemy spotting them. Gon- 
 dolas and motor boats replaced the automobile supply lorries 
 customary in land warfare. Instead of motor ambulances, motor 
 boats carried off the dead and wounded. Hydro-airplanes replaced 
 ordinary fighting aircraft. 
 
 Along the northern limit of the Venetian Gulf, where the 
 Austrians, having filtered into the Piave Delta, sought to cross 
 both the Sile and the Piave, the enemy each night hooked up 
 pontoons. At daybreak every morning one end of a hugh pon- 
 toon structure was anchored to the east bank of the Piave and the 
 other flung out to the strong current, which soon stretched the 
 makeshift bridge across. 
 
 The moment this happened, the enemy infantry madly dashed 
 across. Simultaneously the Italian floating batteries opened a 
 terrific fire. Practically every morning the Austrians tried the 
 trick, and every morning they failed, with heavy losses, to effect a 
 crossing. At last they gave up the attempt as hopeless, and the 
 armies remained locked on the Piave for several months.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 REDEMPTION OP THE HOLY LAND 
 
 FROM the beginning of the war the German General Staff 
 and the British War Office planned the occupation of 
 Palestine and Macedonia. Germany wanted domination 
 of that territory because through it lay the open road to 
 Egypt and British prestige in the East. Turkey was the cat's paw 
 of the Hun in this enterprise. German officers and German guns 
 were supplied to the Turks, but the terrible privations necessary 
 in a long campaign that must be spent largely in the desert, and 
 the inevitable great loss in human life, were both demanded from 
 Turkey. 
 
 Great Britain made no such demands upon any of its Allies. 
 Unflinchingly England faced virtually alone the rigors, the disease 
 and the deaths consequent upon an expedition having as its object 
 the redemption of the Holy Land from the unspeakable Turk. 
 
 Volunteers for the expedition came by the thousands. 
 Canada, the United States, Australia and other countries furnished 
 whole regiments of Jewish youths eager for the campaign. The 
 inspiration and the devotion radiating from Palestine, and particu- 
 larly from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, drew Jew and Gentile, hardy 
 adventurer and zealous churchman, into AUenby's great army. 
 
 It was a long campaign. On February 26, 1917, Kut-el- 
 Amara was recaptured from the Turks by the British expedition 
 under command of General Sir Stanley Maude, and on March llth 
 following General Maude captured Bagdad. From that tune 
 forward pressure upon the Turks was continuous. On September 
 29, 1917, the Turkish Mesopotamian army commanded by Ahmad 
 Bey was routed by the British, and historic Beersheba in Palestine 
 was occupied on October 31st. The untimely death of General 
 Maude, the hero of Mesopotamia, on November 18, 1917, tem- 
 porarily cast gloom over the Allied forces but it had no deterrent 
 effect upon their successful operations. Siege was laid to Jerusalem 
 and its environs late in November, and on December 8, 1917, the
 
 REDEMPTION OF THE HOLY LAND 507 
 
 Holy City which had been held by the Turks for six hundred and 
 seventy-three years surrendered to General Allenby and his British 
 army. Thus ended a struggle for possession of the holiest of 
 shrines both of the Old and New Testaments, that had cost mil- 
 
 How THE Two WINGS OP THE BRITISH ARMT TRAPPED THB TURKS. 
 
 lions of Hves during fruitless crusades and had been the center of 
 
 religious aspirations for ages. 
 
 General Allenby's official report follows: 
 
 "I entered the city officially at noon December ;
 
 508 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 few of my staff, the commanders of the French and Italian detach- 
 ments, the heads of the political missions, and the military attache's 
 of France, England, and America. 
 
 "The procession was all afoot, and at Jaffa gate I was received 
 by the guards representing England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, 
 Australia, New Zealand, India, France and Italy. The population 
 received me well. 
 
 "Guards have been placed over the holy places. My military 
 governor is hi contact with the acting custodians and the Lathi 
 and Greek representatives. The governor has detailed an officer 
 to supervise the holy places. The Mosque of Omar and the area 
 around it have been placed under Moslem control, and a military 
 cordon of Mohammedan officers and soldiers has been established 
 around the mosque. Orders have been issued that no non-Moslem 
 is to pass within the cordon without permission of the military 
 governor and the Moslem in charge." 
 
 A proclamation in Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, Italian 
 Greek and Russian was posted hi the citadel, and on all the walls 
 proclaiming martial law and intimating that all the holy places 
 would be maintained and protected according to the customs and 
 beliefs of those to whose faith they were sacred. The proclamation 
 read: 
 
 PROCLAMATION 
 
 To the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Blessed and the People Dwelling 
 in Its Vicinity. 
 
 The defeat inflicted upon the Turks by the troops under my command 
 has resulted in the occupation of your city by my forces. I, therefore, 
 proclaim it to be under martial law, under which form of adminis- 
 tration it will remain so long as military consideration makes necessary. 
 
 However, lest any of you be alarmed by reason of your experience 
 at the hands of the enemy who has retired, I hereby inform you that it is 
 my desire that every person should pursue his lawful business without 
 fear of interruption. 
 
 Futhermore, since your city is regarded with affection by the 
 adherents of three of the great religions of mankind and its soil has been 
 consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of devout people 
 of these three religions for many centuries, therefore, do I make it known 
 to you that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional 
 te, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer of whatso- 
 ever form of the three religions will be maintained and protected according 
 to the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacred.
 
 REDEMPTION OF THE HOLY LAND 509 
 
 Guardians have been established at Bethlehem and on Rachel's 
 Tomb. The tomb at Hebron has been placed under exclusive Moslem 
 control. 
 
 The hereditary custodians at the gates of the Holy Sepulchre have 
 been requested to take up their accustomed duties in remembrance of the 
 magnanimous act of the Caliph Omar, who protected that church. 
 
 Jerusalem was now made the center of the British operations 
 against the Turks in Palestine. Mohammed V, the Sultan of 
 Turkey, died July 3, 1918, and many superstitious Turks looked 
 upon that event as forecasting the end of the Turkish Empire. 
 The Turkish army in Palestine was left largely to its fate by Ger- 
 many and Austria, and although it was numerically a formidable 
 opponent for General Allenby's forces, that distinguished strategist 
 fairly outmaneuvered the Turkish High Command in every 
 encounter. The beginning of the end for Turkish misrule in 
 Palestine came on September 20th when the ancient town of 
 Nazareth was captured by the British. 
 
 A military net was thereupon closed upon the Turkish army. 
 The fortified towns of Beisan and Afule followed the fate of 
 Nazareth. In one day's fighting 18,000 Turkish prisoners, 120 guns, 
 four airplanes, a number of locomotives and cars, and a great quan- 
 tity of military and food supplies were bagged by the victorious 
 British. So well did Allenby plan that the British losses were far 
 the smallest suffered in any large operation of the entire war. It 
 was the swiftest and most decisive victory of any scored by the 
 Allies. It ended the grandiose dream of Germany for an invasion 
 of Egypt in stark disaster, and swept the Holy Land clear of 
 the Turks. 
 
 This great battle on the Biblical field of Armageddon was 
 remarkable in that it was virtually the only engagement during 
 the entire war offering the freest scope to cavalry operations. 
 British cavalry commands operated over a radius of sixty miles 
 between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, sweeping the Turks 
 before them. 
 
 By September 25th the total bag of Turkish prisoners exceeded 
 40,000. Munition depots covering acres of ground were taken. 
 Whole companies of Turkish soldiers were found sitting on their 
 white flags waiting for the British to accept their terms. Two 
 hundred sixty-five pieces of artillery were captured.
 
 510 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Damascus was captured on Tuesday, October 1st, after an 
 advance of 130 miles by General Allenby since September 1st, 
 the day of his surprise attack north of Jerusalem. During that 
 period a total of 73,000 prisoners was captured. 
 
 Palestine's delivery from the Turks was complete. Official 
 announcement was made by the British War Office that the total 
 casualties from all sources in this final campaign was less than 
 4,000. 
 
 Plans for the government of the people of Palestine were 
 announced immediately. Their general scope was outlined in an 
 agreement made between the British, French and Russian govern- 
 ments hi 1916. Under that arrangement Republican France was 
 charged with the preparation of a scheme of self-government. 
 The town of Alexandretta was fixed upon as a free port of entry for 
 the new nation.
 
 Underwood and Underwood, N. F. ***** Official Phot - 
 
 JERUSALEM DELIVERED 
 
 On December 1 1 , 1917, the Holy City was entered by the Brit ish forces F 1!< ?V"S 
 the custom of the Crusaders, General Allenby, commander of the British and Allied 
 forces, made his entry, with his staff and Allied officers, through the Jaffa Gate, on 
 . foot.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 AMERICA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS 
 
 WHEN America entered the war there was a very great 
 increase hi the volume of business of the railroads of 
 the country. The roads were already so crowded 
 by what the Allies had done in purchasing war supplies, 
 that a great deal of confusion had resulted. The Allies had expended 
 more than three billion dollars in the United States, and as nearly 
 all of their purchases had to be sent to a few definite points for 
 shipment to Europe, the congestion at those points had become a 
 serious difficulty. Thousands of loaded cars had to stand for 
 long periods awaiting the transfer of their contents to ships. This 
 meant that thousands of cars which had been taken from lines in 
 other parts of the country would be in a traffic blockade for weeks 
 at a time. The main difficulty appeared to be that of getting 
 trains unloaded promptly. 
 
 The declaration of war by the United States made the situation 
 very much worse. Not only did the railroads have to handle the 
 freight destined for the Allies, but there was a very large addition 
 to the passenger movement on account of the thousands of men 
 that were being sent to the various training camps, and the immense 
 masses of supplies that had to be sent to these camps. This 
 included not only the ordinary supplies to the men but thousands 
 of carloads of lumber. Moreover, all over the country mills and 
 factories were now being handed over to the government for war 
 work; and to them, too, great quantities of raw material had to be 
 sent, and the finished product removed to its destination. 
 
 A vigorous endeavor to meet the new difficulties was instituted 
 by the railroads themselves. They themselves named a war 
 board, which was to co-operate with the government and which 
 was to have absolute authority. But this arrangement soon proved 
 unsatisfactory. Each government official would do his best to 
 obtain preference for what his department required, and to obtain 
 that preference a system of priority tags was established which 
 
 513
 
 514 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 became a great abuse. The result was that priority freight soon 
 began to crowd out the freight which the railroads could handle 
 according to their own discretion, thus seriously interfering with 
 business all over the country. 
 
 Naturally, the railroad executives and the government author- 
 ities studied the question with the greatest care, but they could 
 not reach an understanding among themselves, nor with the 
 Administration. At last the President settled the matter by 
 announcing his decision to have the government take over com- 
 plete control of the roads. The President derived his power 
 from an Act of Congress dated August 29, 1916, which reads as 
 follows: 
 
 The President in time of war is empowered, through the Secretary 
 of War, to take possession and assume control of any system or systems 
 of transportation, or any part thereof, and to utilize the same to the 
 exclusion, as far as may be necessary, of all other traffic thereon, for the 
 transfer or transportation of troops, war material and equipment, or for 
 such other purposes connected with the emergency as may be needful or 
 desirable. 
 
 The proclamation went into effect on December 28, 1917, and 
 the President declared that it applied to "each and every system 
 of transportation and the appurtenances thereof, located, wholly 
 or in part, within the boundaries of the Continental United States, 
 and consisting of railroads and owned or controlled systems of 
 coastwise and inland transportation, engaged in general trans- 
 portation, whether operated by steam, or by electric power, includ- 
 ing also terminals, terminal companies, and terminal associations, 
 sleeping and parlor cars, private cars, and private car lines, elevators, 
 warehouses, telegraph and telephone lines, and all other equipment 
 and appurtenances commonly used upon or operated as a part of 
 such rail or combined rail and water systems of transportation. . . . 
 That the possession, control, operation, and utilization of such 
 transportation systems shall be exercised by and through William G. 
 McAdoo, who is hereby appointed, and designated Director General 
 of Railroads. Said Director may perform the duties imposed upon 
 him so long and to such an extent as he shall determine through the 
 boards of directors, receivers, officers and employees, of said 
 system of transportation." President Wilson issued an explanation 
 with this proclamation in which he said:
 
 TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS 515 
 
 This is a war of resources no less than of men, perhaps even more 
 than of men, and it is necessary for the complete mobilization of our 
 resources that the transportation systems of the country should be organ- 
 ized and employed under a single authority and to simplify methods 
 for coordination which have not proved possible under private manage- 
 ment and control. A committee of railway executives who have been 
 co-operating with the government in this all-important matter, have 
 done the utmost that it was possible for them to do, but there were differ- 
 ences that they could neither escape nor neutralize. Complete unity of 
 administration in the present circumstances involves upon occasion, and 
 at many points, a serious dislocation of earnings, and the committee was, 
 of course, without power or authority to rearrange charges or effect proper 
 compensations hi adjustments of earnings. Several roads which were 
 willingly and with admirable public spirit accepting the orders of the 
 committee, have already suffered from these circumstances, and should 
 not be required to suffer further. In mere fairness to them, the full 
 authority of the government must be substituted. The public interest 
 must be first served, and in addition the financial interests of the govern- 
 ment, and the financial interests of the railways, must be brought under a 
 common direction. The financial operations of the railway need not, 
 then, interfere with the borrowings of the government, and they them- 
 selves can be conducted at a great advantage. Investors in railway 
 securities may rest assured that their rights and interests will be as 
 scrupulously looked after by the government as they could be by the 
 directors of the several railway systems. Immediately upon the reassem- 
 bling of Congress I shall recommend that these different guarantees be 
 given. The Secretary of War and I are agreed that, all the circumstances 
 being taken into consideration, the best results can be obtained under 
 the immediate executive direction of the Honorable William G. McAdoo, 
 whose practical experience peculiarly fits him for the service, and whose 
 authority as Secretary of the Treasury will enable him to coordinate, as 
 no other man could, the many financial interests which will be involved, 
 and which might, unless systematically directed, suffer very embarrassing 
 entanglements. 
 
 President Wilson's proclamation stirred up great excitement 
 on the stock market. Speculators rushed to buy back railroad 
 stocks which they had previously sold short, and the market value 
 of such stocks was raised more than three hundred and fifty million 
 dollars as a result. The Federal Government's assumption of 
 control of the railroads was generally recognized as the proper act 
 under existing circumstances, and the guarantee of pre-war earnings 
 made them a good investment. 
 
 The railroad system in the United States consists of 260,000 
 miles of railroad, owned by 441 distinct corporations, with about
 
 516 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 650,000 shareholders. It employs 1,600,000 men and represents a 
 property investment of $17,500,000,000. The outstanding capital 
 in round numbers is $16,000,000,000, $9,000,000,000 of which is 
 represented by a funded debt. The rolling stock comprises 61,000 
 locomotives, 2,250,000 freight cars, 52,000 passenger cars and 
 95,000 service cars. All this was now under the charge of William G. 
 McAdoo. On January 4, 1918, President Wilson explained his 
 plan to Congress, and recommended legislation to put the new 
 system of control into effect, and to guarantee to the holders of 
 railroad stocks and bonds a net annual income equal to the average 
 net income for the three years ending June 30, 1917. 
 
 The wise recommendations of President Wilson were at once 
 approved by Congress; provision was made for guaranteeing the 
 railroads the income which he recommended, and for financing the 
 roads. The railroads' war board was abolished and Mr. McAdoo 
 appointed an advisory board to assist him. This board consisted 
 of John Skelton Williams, Controller of the Currency; Hale Holden, 
 President of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad; Henry 
 Walters, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Coast 
 Line; Edward Chambers, Vice-President of the Santa Fe Railroad 
 and head of the transportation division of the United States Food 
 Administration; Walter D. Hines, Chairman of the Executive 
 Committee of the Santa Fe*. Specific duties were assigned to the 
 various members of this committee. Mr. Williams was to deal 
 with the financial problem; Mr. Holden to assume direction of 
 committees and sub-committees, and other phases of the work 
 were allotted to other members. Mr. Walter D. Hines was made 
 assistant to the Director General. 
 
 Mr. McAdoo's first order was to pool all terminals, ports, 
 locomotives, rolling stock and other transportation facilities. 
 Another order had as its object to end the congestion of traffic in 
 New York City and Chicago. It gave all lines entering these 
 centers equal rights in trackage and water terminal facilities. This 
 wiped out the identity of the great Pennsylvania Terminal Station 
 in New York, and gave all railroads the use of the Pennsylvania 
 tubes under the Hudson River. 
 
 The effect of government control of the railroads was felt 
 from the very first. Coal was given the right of way, giving great 
 relief to such sections as were suffering from fuel shortage. Many
 
 TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS 517 
 
 passenger trains were taken off, more than two hundred and fifty 
 of such trains being dropped from the schedules of the eastern 
 roads. This permitted a great increase in the freight traffic. 
 Orders were also given that all empty box cars were to be sent to 
 wheat-producing centers, so that wheat could be moved to the 
 Atlantic sea coasts for shipment to England and France. These 
 orders preceded the adoption of the railroad control bill, which was 
 not passed by Congress until March 14th. A feature of the bill is 
 the proviso that government control of the railroads shall not 
 continue more than twenty-one months after the war. After the 
 passing of the bill plans were made to make contracts with each 
 railroad company for government compensation on the basis 
 provided in the bill. 
 
 The action of the government in thus assuming control of the 
 railroads very naturally led to wide differences of opinion, some of 
 which were sharply expressed in the Congress of the United States. 
 On the whole, however, public opinion decided that the government 
 acted wisely. Certain inconveniences to the traveling public were 
 easily excused when it was realized that the movement of troops 
 throughout the country to the camps, or from the camps to the 
 ports which were to take them across the sea, from "Texas to 
 Toul," was being accomplished with great success; that the move- 
 ment of war material was now possible, and that the gigantic rail- 
 road system was working without a hitch. 
 
 Many details, in connection with the railroad management, 
 were not at once worked out, and many months passed without 
 complete agreements regarding the railway operating contracts. 
 But this was a matter of greater interest to the owners than it was 
 to patriotic citizens, anxious for the winning of the war. Govern- 
 mental control of the railroads, was only a beginning. On 
 July 16th President Wilson took control, for the period of the war, 
 of all telegraph, telephone, cable and radio lines, signing a bill on 
 that day passed by Congress authorizing such action. 
 
 The transportation of the American army across the ocean 
 was the greatest military feat of its kind ever accomplished in 
 history. The transportation of English troops during the Boer War 
 meant a longer journey, but the number of troops sent on that 
 journey was but a small fraction of America's army. 
 
 The railroads in existence were not sufficient. The ships that
 
 518 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 were necessary could not be found in America's navy. It was 
 necessary to build new roads, new docks, new terminals, new bases 
 of supplies in America, and to send abroad thousands of trained 
 workmen and experienced railroad engineers to build similar necessi- 
 ties in France. To convey the millions of men across the water 
 England had to come to the rescue, and though hundreds of 
 American ships were built with a speed that was almost miraculous, 
 they were in constant need of the assistance of the Allies. But 
 wonderful men were put in charge of the work, wonderful organizers 
 with wonderful assistants, and the great task was accomplished. 
 
 As soon as the army was trained it was sent across first by 
 thousands, then by tens of thousands, then by hundreds of thou- 
 sands, until before the war was over more than two million men had 
 made the great trip "over there." And throughout that whole trip 
 they were watched over as carefully as if they were at home. Every 
 want was supplied; food, clothing, munitions were all where they 
 were needed. Even their leisure hours were looked after, their 
 health attended to. Books, games, theaters, classes for those who 
 cared to study, all were there. 
 
 It was a wonderful performance, and the whole movement was 
 conducted with clock-like precision. On such a day at such an 
 hour the trained soldier would start. At such an hour he would 
 report in some Atlantic port. At such an hour and such a minute 
 he would board ship, and with equal precision that ship would sail 
 upon the appointed moment. Perhaps on the journey over some 
 submarine might delay the ship, but the destroyers were there on 
 the alert, and the submarine was but an amusing episode. On the 
 other side the process was carried on with equal efficiency. Before 
 the American doughboy could realize that he was in France he was in 
 his quarters, just like home, in the base camps behind the fighting 
 line, and it was this miracle of transportation that won the war. 
 
 A study of transportation construction in other countries 
 showed that actual construction of railroads had been suspended 
 in some cases, and in others retarded, but in not a few instances 
 hastened by the war. Brazil experienced a more nearly complete 
 suspension of railroad building than any of the other countries, 
 but preparation was made for prompt resumption of construction, 
 with the return of more normal conditions. 
 
 The Chinese building program also had been affected unf avor-
 
 TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS 519 
 
 ably by the war. Nevertheless, there were important additions 
 made, aggregating approximately 800 miles during the war. Of 
 the lines completed in 1917, two are of especial significance. One 
 of these, a 140-mile section of the Canton-Hankow line, a link hi 
 the route between South China and Peking. The other is a 60-mile 
 feeder of the Trans-Siberian Railway in Manchuria. A line was 
 extended from South Manchuria into Mongolia, the first railroad to 
 penetrate this territory. Financial arrangements were made for 
 the early construction of a line across Southern Manchuria and for 
 another connecting the Peking-Hankow and Tientsin-Pukow lines. 
 
 Construction in Siberia proceeded rapidly. The completion, 
 in 1915, of the Amur River division of the Trans-Siberian in the 
 east, together with the extension hi 1913 of the Ekaterinburg- 
 Tiumen line to Omsk hi the west, gave virtually a double track 
 from European Russia to Vladivostok. 
 
 The notable achievement in Africa was the continuation of the 
 southern rail link in the Cape-to-Cairo route. This line was com' 
 pleted to Bukama on the navigable Congo, 2,600 miles from Cape- 
 town. The railway in German East Africa, was extended to Lake 
 Tanganyika on the eve of the war, making a rail-water line across the 
 center of the continent. The railroad from Lobito Bay was extended 
 eastward to Katanga, a rich mineral region of the Belgian Congo, 
 and, with the road already reaching the Indian Ocean at Beira, 
 gave a second east and west transcontinental line. A permanent 
 standard gauge railroad was laid by the British Expeditionary 
 Forces from Egypt into Palestine. 
 
 Despite the magnitude of the Australian contribution to the 
 Allied military and naval forces, the east and west transcontinental 
 railway, begun in 1912, was completed hi 1917. In all, more than 
 3,500 miles of track were built hi the commonwealth hi the years 
 1915-17. 
 
 In Canada, the work of providing two transcontinental 
 railroads was completed; feeders were added, and a line from La Pas 
 to Hudson Bay was under construction. From 1912 to 1916 more 
 than 10,000 miles of track were put in operation, nearly 7,000 of 
 which were added in the first two years of the war.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM. 
 
 WHEN the United States of America entered the World 
 War she was confronted at once by a serious question. 
 The great Allied nations were struggling against the 
 attempt of the Germans, through the piratical use of 
 submarines, to blockade the coast of the Allied countries. It was 
 this German action which had led America to take part in the war. 
 It is true that America had other motives. Few wars ever take 
 place among democratic nations as a result of the calculation of the 
 nation's leaders. The people must be interested, and the people 
 must sympathize with the cause for which they are going to fight. 
 The people of America had sympathized with Belgium, and had 
 become indignant at the brutal treatment of that inoffensive nation. 
 They had sympathized with France in its gallant endeavor to 
 protect its soil from the inroads of the Hun. This feeling had 
 become a personal one as they reviewed the lists of Americans lost 
 in the sinking of the Lusitania, and this sympathy had gradually 
 grown into indignation when the Germans, after having promised 
 to conduct submarine warfare according to international law, again 
 and again violated that promise. When, then, the Germans declared 
 that they would no longer even pretend to treat neutral shipping 
 according to the laws of maritime warfare the people with one accord 
 approved the action of the President of the United States in 
 declaring war. The Germans at this tune were making a desperate 
 effort to starve England, by destroying its commerce, and it was in 
 the endeavor to accomplish this purpose that they thought it 
 necessary to attack American ships. 
 
 The first effort of Americans, therefore, was naturally to use 
 every power of the navy to destroy the lurking submarines, and in 
 the second place to use every means in then* power to supply the 
 Allies with food. But America had for many years neglected to 
 give encouragement to her merchant fleets. Her commerce was 
 very largely carried in foreign bottoms. 
 
 520
 
 SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM 521 
 
 Ships were needed, and needed urgently, and one of the very 
 first acts of the American Government was to authorize their pro- 
 duction. Congress therefore appropriated for this purpose what 
 was then the extraordinary sum of $1,135,000,000 and General 
 Goethals, recently returned from his work in building the Panama 
 Canal, was appointed manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation 
 and entrusted with the execution of the government's ship-building 
 program. 
 
 The Emergency Fleet Corporation, however, was then inde- 
 pendent of the United States Shipping Board, of which Mr. William 
 Denman was made chairman, and friction between General Goethals 
 and Mr. Denman at the very start caused long delay. The difference 
 of opinion between them arose over the comparative merits of 
 wooden and steel ships. The matter was finally laid before President 
 Wilson and ended in the resignation of both men and the complete 
 reorganization of the board and the Fleet Corporation, hi which 
 reorganization the Fleet Corporation was made subordinate to the 
 Shipping Board but given entire control of construction. 
 
 Rear-Admiral Capps succeeded General Goethals, but was 
 compelled to resign on account of ill health. Rear-Admiral Harris, 
 who had been chief of the Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks, 
 then had the job for two weeks, but resigned because in his opinion 
 he had not enough authority. Then came Mr. Charles Piez, who 
 held the position for a longer period. Mr. Edward N. Hurley had 
 been made chairman of the United States Shipping Board, and 
 under the direction of these two men much progress was made. 
 
 In the spring of 1918 the boards themselves were not satisfied 
 with their progress, and on April 16, 1918, Mr. Charles M. Schwab, 
 chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bethlehem Steel Corpora- 
 tion, was made Director General of the Emergency Fleet Corpora- 
 tion. Mr. Schwab was one of the most prominent business men in 
 the United States and one of the best known, and his appointment 
 was received all over the country with the greatest satisfaction. 
 His wonderful work in building up the Bethlehem steel plant not 
 only showed his great ability, but especially fitted him for a task 
 in which the steel industry bore such a vital part. The official 
 statement issued from the White House read as follows: 
 
 Edward N. Hurley, Charles M. Schwab, Bainbridge Colby and Charles 
 Piez were received by the President at the White House today. It was
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 stated that the subject discussed was the progress and condition of a 
 national ship-building program. The carrying forward of the construction 
 work in the one hundred and thirty shipyards now in operation is so vast 
 that it requires a reinforcement of the ship-building organization through- 
 out the country. Later in the day Chairman Hurley of the Shipping 
 Board announced that a new office with wide powers had been created 
 by the Trustees of the Emergency Fleet Corporation. The new position 
 is that of Director General and Mr. Schwab has been asked, and has 
 agreed, to accept this position in answer to the call of the nation. Charles 
 Piez, Vice-President of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, recommended 
 that the post of General Manager of the corporation be at once abolished, 
 so that Mr. Schwab as Director General should be wholly unhampered hi 
 carrying on the large task entrusted to him. Mr. Piez, since the retirement 
 of Admiral Harris, has been filling both the position of Vice-President and 
 that of General Manager. Mr. Schwab will have complete supervision 
 and direction of the work of ship-building. He agreed to take up the work 
 at the sacrifice of his personal wishes in the matter. His services were 
 virtually commandeered. His great experience as a steel maker and 
 builder of ships has been drafted for the nation. 
 
 Although the fact that production during the month of March 
 had not been as great as had been hoped probably brought about 
 this change, it should also be said that those who had been respon- 
 sible deserved much credit for what had actually been done. They 
 had been handicapped constantly by poor transportation and 
 shortage of materials, but had worked faithfully and with what 
 under ordinary circumstances would be regarded as remarkable 
 success. The call upon Mr. Schwab was simply an effort to draft 
 into the service of the country its very highest executive ability. 
 Mr. Schwab's name had been mentioned before for more than one 
 government post, and it was thought that here was the place 
 where his talents could have the fullest play. It was stated in 
 Washington that he would receive a salary of one dollar a year. 
 
 Mr. Schwab at once proceeded to "speed up" the shipping 
 program. It took him just one day to arrange his own business 
 affairs and then he began his work. His first day was spent hi 
 going over the details of his task with Chairman Hurley and Mr. 
 Piez. He then received newspaper men, beginnmg the campaign 
 of publicity which turned out to be so successful. He was full of 
 compliments for the work which had already been done. "It is 
 prodigious, splendid, magnificent!" he said. "It is far greater than 
 any man who hasn't seen the inside of things can appreciate. The
 
 SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM 523 
 
 foundation is laid. That task is well done. We are going to get 
 the results which are needed and I should be proud if I could have 
 any part hi the accomplishment. All I can say for myself is that 
 I am filled with enthusiasm, energy and confidence. Mr. Hurley 
 and I are in full accord on everything, and we are going to work 
 shoulder to shoulder to make the work a success, but the large 
 burden must fall upon the people at the yards, and they are entitled 
 to any credit for success. I do not want to have any man hi the 
 shipyards working for me. I want them all working with me. 
 Nothing is going to be worth while unless we win this war, and 
 every one must do the task to which he is called." 
 
 One of the first steps that Mr. Schwab took to speed up ship 
 production was to establish his headquarters in Philadelphia, as the 
 center of the ship-building region. Chairman Hurley remained at 
 Washington, and the operating department, which included agencies 
 such as the Inter-Allied Ship Control Committee, was removed to 
 New York City. It was stated that nearly fifty per cent of the 
 work in progress was within a short radius of Philadelphia. 
 
 The year before the war the total output of the United States 
 shipyards was only two hundred and fifty thousand tons. The 
 program of the shipping board contemplated the construction of 
 one thousand one hundred and forty-five steel ships, with a tonnage 
 of eight million one hundred and sixty-four thousand five hundred 
 and eight, and four hundred and ninety wooden ships, with a 
 tonnage of one million seven hundred and fifteen thousand. These 
 of course could not be built in the shipyards then in existence. 
 New shipyards had to be built in various parts of the country. 
 
 In the first year after the shipping board took control, one 
 hundred and eighty-eight ships were put in the water and through 
 requisition and by building, one hundred and three more were 
 added to the American merchant fleet. By April, 1918, the govern- 
 ment had at its service 2,762,605 tons of shipping. During the 
 month of May, the first month after Mr. Schwab began his work, 
 the record of production had mounted from 160,286 tons to 263,571. 
 American shipyards had completed and delivered during that 
 month forty-three steel ships and one wooden ship. Mr. Hurley, 
 in an address on June 10th, said: 
 
 On June 1st, we had increased the American built tonnage to over 
 3,500,000 dead-weight tons of shipping. This gives us a total of more
 
 524 
 
 than one thousand four hundred ships with an approximate total dead- 
 weight tonnage of 7,000,000 now under the control of the United States 
 Shipping Board. In round numbers and from, all sources we have added 
 to the American flag since our war against Germany began, nearly 4,500,000 
 tons of shipping. Our program calls for the building of 1,856 passenger, 
 cargo and refrigerator ships and tankers, ranging from five thousand to 
 twelve thousand tons each, with an aggregate dead-weight of thirteen 
 million. Exclusive of these we have two hundred and forty-five com- 
 mandeered vessels, taken over from foreign and domestic owners which 
 are being completed by the Emergency Fleet Corporation. These will 
 aggregate a total dead-wight tonnage of 1,715,000. This makes a total of 
 two thousand one hundred and one vessels, exclusive of tugs and barges 
 which are being built and will be put on the seas in the course of carrying 
 out the present program, with an aggregate dead-weight tonnage of 
 14,715,000. Five billion dollars will be required to finish our program, but 
 the expenditure of this enormous sum will give to the American people the 
 greatest merchant fleet ever assembled in the history of the world. 
 American workmen have made the expansion of recent months possible, 
 and they will make possible the successful conclusion of the whole program. 
 
 In the wonderful work that followed his appointment Mr. 
 Schwab constantly came before the public, mainly through his 
 addresses to the working men of the different yards. His main 
 endeavor was to stimulate enthusiasm and rivalry among the men. 
 A ten-thousand-dollar prize was offered to the yard producing the 
 largest surplus above its program, and he traveled throughout the 
 country urging the employees at all the great yards to break their 
 records. The result of his work was that it was not long before it 
 was announced that the monthly tonnage of ships completed by the 
 Allies exceeded the tonnage of those sunk by the German submarine. 
 The menace of the submarine, which had seemed so formidable, 
 had disappeared. 
 
 The most important of the great shipyards which were pro- 
 ducing the American cargo ships was at Hog Island in the southwest 
 part of Philadelphia. This shipyard may indeed be called the 
 greatest shipyard in the world. Before Mr. Schwab became 
 Director General much criticism had been launched at the work 
 that was going on there, and an investigation had been made which 
 resulted in a favorable report. On August 5th the new shipyard 
 launched its first ship, the 7,500 ton freight steamer, Quistconck, 
 in the presence of a distinguished throng among whom were the 
 President of the United States and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. The
 
 SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM 525 
 
 ship was christened by Mrs. Wilson, and the President swung his 
 hat and led the cheers as the great ship glided down the ways. 
 The name "Quistconck" is the ancient Indian name of Hog Island. 
 The crowd numbered more than sixty thousand people, and special 
 trams from Washington and New York brought many notable 
 guests. President and Mrs. Wilson were escorted by Mr. Hurley 
 and Mr. Schwab, and apparently thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. 
 An enormous bouquet was presented to Mrs. Wilson by Foreman 
 McMillan, who had driven the first rivet in the Quistconck's keel. 
 
 Shortly after the armistice it was announced that the Hog 
 Island plant would be acquired by the United States Government. 
 The real estate, valued at $1,760,000, was owned by the American 
 International Ship Building Company, and the government had 
 invested about $60,000,000 in equipping the plant. At the time 
 the war ended thirty-five thousand persons were at work and a 
 hundred and eighty ships were in various stages of completion. 
 
 An interesting feature in connection with the endeavor to 
 " speed up" was the competition in riveting. Early in the year 
 hi yard after yard expert riveters were reported as making extraor- 
 dinary records, and prizes were offered to the winners of such 
 records'. Later, however, such contests were discouraged by 
 Chairman Hurley and by others. The best record was made by 
 John Omir, who drove twelve thousand two hundred and nine 
 rivets in nine hours at the Belfast Yards of Workman and Clark. 
 In the accomplishment of this feat on two occasions he passed the 
 mark of one thousand four hundred rivets an hour. In his best 
 minute he drove twenty-six rivets. 
 
 The ships constructed by the Shipping Board were of steel, of 
 wood and of concrete, and at times considerable difference of 
 opinion existed with regard to which form of ship should receive 
 the most attention. The policy of the government seemed finally 
 to favor the steel as it was claimed that the wooden type was not 
 only more expensive, but that it was less efficient. However until 
 the very end wooden ships in great numbers were being built. 
 
 On May 31st the steamship Agawam, described as the first 
 fabricated ship in the world, was launched in the yards of the 
 Submarine Boat Corporation at Newark. This was essentially a 
 standardized steel cargo ship. "Fabricated" is the technical term 
 applied to ships built from numbered shapes made fromjjiatteriis.
 
 526 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 President Carse, of the Submarine Boat Corporation, said that 
 the Agawam was the first of a hundred and fifty vessels of that 
 type which would be constructed in the yard. The parts were made, 
 he said, in bridge and tank shops throughout the country and were 
 assembled at the yard. "Ninety-five per cent of the work in 
 forming the parts entering into the hull of this vessel, and punching 
 rivet holes, is done at shops widely separated, from drawings fur- 
 nished by this company, and these drawings have been of such exac- 
 titude, and the work has been so carefully performed by the different 
 bridge shops that when they are brought together at this yard they 
 fit perfectly and the ship as you see is absolutely fair. The con- 
 struction of the hull of this vessel requires the driving of over four 
 hundred thousand rivets, and by our method more then one quarter 
 of these rivets are driven at the distant shops, the different parts 
 being brought to the yard in sections as large as can be transported 
 on the railroad. Each part is numbered and lettered and as they 
 are shaped perfectly all that is necessary is to place them in position, 
 bolt them, and finally fasten them with rivets." 
 
 Officials of the company said that they expected to launch in 
 the course of time two such vessels hi each week. A standard ship 
 of this type has a dead-weight carrying capacity of five thousand 
 five hundred tons. It is three hundred and forty-three feet long 
 and forty-six feet wide and is expected to show an average speed 
 of ten and a half knots. Fuel oil is used to generate steam, to drive 
 a turbine operating three thousand six hundred revolutions a 
 minute. The oil is carried in compartments of the double bottom 
 of the ship in sufficient quantity for more than a round trip to 
 Europe. Twenty-seven steel mills, fifty-six fabricating plants, 
 and two hundred foundries and equipment shops were drawn upon 
 to construct the ship. 
 
 In addition to the steel and wood vessels the Emergency Fleet 
 Corporation also constructed a number of concrete ships. The 
 first step in this direction was taken on April 3d, when the con- 
 struction of four 7,500-ton concrete ships at a Pacific coast shipyard 
 was authorized. This action was taken as a result of a report on 
 the trials made with the concrete ship, Faith, which was built in 
 San Francisco by private capital. The test of this ship had been 
 satisfactory and Mr. R. J. Wig, an agent of the Emergency Fleet 
 Corporation, who had made a careful inspection of the Faith and
 
 SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM 527 
 
 watched the tests, reported his confidence hi the new cargo carrier. 
 The successful trial trip of the Faith led, on the 17th of May, to the 
 government order that fifty-eight more such ships be constructed. 
 Sites for yards were leased and contracts awarded. The concrete 
 ship turned out to be a great success. 
 
 The extraordinary success of the American ship-building pro- 
 gram during the World War was due to the enthusiasm of the 
 workmen employed at the government plants, and that same 
 enthusiasm was found hi connection with then* work in every 
 industry on which the Government made demands. American 
 labor was thoroughly loyal. It recognized that hi the war for 
 democracy against autocracy it had a vital concern. The attitude 
 of the great American labor unions must however be sharply 
 distinguished from that of the extreme socialists who refused to 
 take any part hi helping to win the war. 
 
 From the very beginning, the American Federation of Labor 
 took a patriotic stand. Its leader was Mr. Samuel Gompers, and 
 it was fortunate for America that the leadership of this great 
 organization was hi such patriotic hands. Mr. Gompers had been 
 for many years president of this great labor organization, and was 
 so often called in consultation by the President of the United States 
 in connection with labor affairs that he might almost be called an 
 unofficial member of the President's cabinet. Mr. Gompers was 
 by birth an Englishman, but he had left his home when still a boy 
 and was thoroughly filled with true American patriotism. From the 
 beginning he devoted himself with the greatest enthusiasm not only 
 to the protection of the interests of which he was in charge, but to 
 the prosecution of a successful war. He had to contend, as labor 
 leaders in other countries had been compelled to contend, with 
 socialistic and anarchistic organizations. 
 
 During the period of America's participation in the war there 
 were certain disturbances caused by the I. W. W., but from such 
 movements the American Federation of Labor held itself aloof. 
 Occasional strikes, on account of special conditions, were easily 
 settled. The governmental assumption of control over railroads 
 and other essential industries had much to do with the peaceful 
 attitude of the workmen. The very high wages which were offered 
 to the workmen at munitions works, ship-building plants and other 
 governmental enterprises enabled the workmen there to live in
 
 528 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 reasonable comfort, though it caused a great deal of trouble in 
 private industry, and compelled an increase in pay to labor all over 
 the land. 
 
 In the latter part of the war Mr. Gompers traveled abroad, as a 
 representative of American labor, and was greeted everywhere with 
 the utmost enthusiasm, while his influence was strongly felt in 
 favor of moderate and sane views as to labor's rights. 
 
 The American situation with regard to labor was made much 
 simpler by the organization of the United States Employment 
 Service. This was made an arm of the Department of Labor, with 
 branch offices in nearly all the large cities of every state. It had a 
 large corps of traveling examiners, men skilled in determining the 
 fitness of workers for particular jobs, and it undertook to recruit 
 labor for the various war industries in which they were needed. 
 During the last year of the war from a hundred and fifty thousand 
 to two hundred thousand workers of all kinds were given work each 
 month. In addition to this the Employment Service was a clearing 
 house of information for manufacturers. The Director General of 
 this service was Mr. John B. Densmore. 
 
 Labor throughout the country, except when influenced by men 
 of foreign birth who were not in touch with the spirit of America, 
 was universally loyal, and its share in the winning of the war will 
 always remain a matter for pride.
 
 CHAPTER XLI 
 GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 
 
 IN THE spring of 1918 it must have been plain to the German 
 High Command that if the war was to be won it must be won 
 at once. In spite of all their leaders said of the impossibility 
 
 of bringing an American army to France they must have been 
 well informed of what the Americans were doing. They knew that 
 there were already more than two million men in active training hi 
 the American army, and while at that time only a small proportion 
 of them were available on the battle front, yet every day that pro- 
 portion was growing greater and by the middle of the summer the 
 little American army would have become a tremendous fighting 
 force. 
 
 Then* own armies on their western front had been enormously 
 increased in size by the removal to that front of troops from Russia. 
 Hundreds of thousands of their best regiments were now withdrawn 
 from the east and incorporated under the command of their great 
 Generals, Hindenburg and Ludendorf, in the armies of the west. 
 They must, therefore, take advantage of this increased force and 
 win the war before the Americans could come. 
 
 The problem of the Allies was also simple. It was not nec- 
 essary for them to plan a great offensive. All they had to do was 
 to hold out until, through the American aid which was coming now 
 in such numbers, their armies would be so increased that German 
 resistance would be futile. Under such circumstances began the 
 last great offensive of the German army. 
 
 At that time it seems probable that the armies of Great Britain 
 and France numbered about three million five hundred thousand 
 men, and that, of these, six hundred and seventy thousand were 
 on the front lines when the German attack began, leaving an army 
 of reserve of about two million eight hundred and fifty thousand 
 men. A considerable number of these were probably in England on 
 leave. The number of French soldiers must have been between 
 four and five million, of whom about one million five hundred 
 
 531
 
 532 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 HOW GERMANY ATTEMPTED TO DIVIDE THE ALLIED ARMIES 
 
 The map shows the ground covered by the Germans in the terrific Picardy drive 
 of March, 1918, which had for its object the capture of Amiens and the push forward 
 along the Somme to the channel, thus dividing the British army in the north from the 
 French and Americans in the south.
 
 GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 533 
 
 thousand were on the front line. Adding to these the American, 
 Belgian, Portuguese, Russian and Polish troops the Allied forces 
 could not have been short of eight million five hundred thousand 
 men. 
 
 The strength of the Germans on the western front before the 
 Russian Revolution was probably about four million five hundred 
 thousand men, and the withdrawal of Russia from the war had 
 added to that number probably as many as one million five hundred 
 thousand men, making an army of six million men to oppose that 
 of the Allies. The Allies, therefore, must have considerably out- 
 numbered the Germans. 
 
 In spite of this fact in nearly all the engagements in the early 
 part of the great offensive the Allied forces were outnumbered in 
 a ratio varying from three to one to five to three. This was possible, 
 first, because in any offensive the attacking side naturally con- 
 centrates as many troops as it can gather at the point from which the 
 offense is to begin, and second, since the Allies were not under one 
 command it was with great difficulty that arrangements could 
 be made by which the forces of one nation could reinforce the 
 armies of another. 
 
 The first difficulty of course could not be obviated, but the 
 solution of the second difficulty was the appointment of General 
 Foch as Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied forces. 
 
 The appointment was made on March 28th and all the influence 
 of the United States had been exerted in its favor. General 
 Pershing at once offered to General Foch the unrestricted use of the 
 American force in France and it was agreed that a large part of the 
 American army should be brigaded with the Allied troops wherever 
 there were weak spots. 
 
 Foch was already famous as the greatest strategist in Europe. 
 He comes of a Basque family and was born in the town of Tarbes, 
 in the Department of the Hautes-Pyrene*es, which is on the border of 
 Spam, on October 2, 1851. Foch served as a subaltern in the 
 Franco-Prussian War and at twenty-six was made captain hi the 
 artillery. Later he became Professor of Tactics hi the Ecole de 
 Guerre, where he remained for five years. He then returned to regi- 
 mental work and won steady promotion until he became brigadier- 
 general. He was sent back to the War College as Director and 
 wrote two books, "The Principles of War" and "Conduct of War,"
 
 534 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 which have been translated into English, German and Italian and 
 are considered standard works. He was now recognized as a man 
 of unusual ability and was appointed to the command first, of the 
 Thirteenth division, then of the Eighth corps at Bourges, and 
 then to the command of the Twentieth corps at Nancy. 
 
 Unlike Marshal Joffre who was cool, careful, slow moving, 
 Marshal Foch is full of daring and impetuosity. Everything is 
 calculated scientifically but his strategy is full of dash. Many of 
 his sayings have been passed from mouth to mouth among the 
 Allies. 
 
 "Find out the weak point of your enemy and deliver your blow 
 there," he said once at a staff banquet. 
 
 "But suppose, General," said an officer, "that the enemy has 
 no weak point?" 
 
 "If the enemy has no weak point," replied the Commander, 
 "make one." 
 
 It was he who telegraphed to Joffre during the first battle of 
 the Marne: "The enemy is attacking my flank. My rear is 
 threatened. I am therefore attacking in front." 
 
 Foch is a great student, an especial admirer of Napoleon, 
 whose campaigns he had thoroughly studied. Even the campaigns 
 of Caesar he had found valuable and had gathered from them 
 practical suggestions for his own campaigns. He is the hero of the 
 Marne, the man who on September 9th marched his army between 
 Von Bulow and Von Hausen's Saxons, drove the Prussian Guards 
 into the marshes of St. Gond and forced both Prussians and Saxons 
 into their first great retreat. Later his armies fought on the Yser 
 while the British were battling at Ypres. During the battle of the 
 Somme he was on the English right pressing to Peronne. 
 
 For a tune he became Chief of the French Staff, until he was 
 called into the field again to his great command. Foch was one 
 of those French officers who had felt that war was sure to come, 
 and had constantly urged that France should be kept in a state of 
 preparedness. The appointment of General Foch to the Supreme 
 Command was largely the result of American urgency. 
 
 General March, the American Chief of Staff, in one of his 
 weekly announcements, stated: "One of the most striking things 
 noticeable hi the situation as it is shown on the western front is 
 the supreme importance of having a single command. The accep-
 
 GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 535 
 
 tance of the principle of having a single command, which was 
 advocated by the President of the United States and carried through 
 under his constant pressure, is one of the most important single 
 military things that has been done as far as the Allies are concerned. 
 The unity of command which Germany has had from the start of the 
 war has been a very important military asset, and we already see 
 the supreme value of having that central command which now 
 has been concentrated hi General Foch." 
 
 General March, who had earlier been appointed Chief of Staff 
 of the United States army, was sending a steady stream of 
 American troops to Europe, a fact whose importance was well 
 understood by the new Commander-in-Chief. On General March's 
 promotion General Foch sent him the following message: 
 
 I hear with deep satisfaction of your promotion to the rank of General. 
 I associate myself to the just pride which you must feel in evoking the 
 names of your glorious predecessors, Grant and Sheridan. I convey to 
 you my sincere congratulations and I am happy to see you assume per- 
 manently the huge task of Chief of Staff of the United States army which 
 you are already performing in so brilliant a way. 
 
 General March replied : 
 
 Your message of congratulation upon my promotion to the grade of 
 General Chief of Staff, United States army, was personally conveyed to 
 me by General Vignal, French Military Attache". I appreciate deeply 
 your most kindly greetings and in expressing my most sincere thanks, avaD 
 myself of the opportunity to assure you of every assistance and constant 
 support which may lie in my power to aid you in the furtherance and 
 successful accomplishment of your great task. 
 
 General Foch took command at a very critical time. The 
 Germans had prepared the most formidable drive in the history 
 of the war. They had gathered immense masses of munitions and 
 supplies. Their great armies had been refitted and they were in 
 hopes of a victory which would end the war. Their great offensive 
 had many phases. It resulted in the development of three great 
 salients, the first in Picardy and in the direction of Amiens along 
 the Somme, which was launched on March 21st; the second on the 
 Lys, which was launched on April 9th; and the third which is 
 called the Oise-Marne salient, launched on May 27th. 
 
 Between the attacks which developed these salients there 
 were also some unsuccesful attacks of almost equal power. On
 
 536 
 
 March 28th there was a desperate struggle to capture Arras, pre- 
 ceded by a bombardment as great as any during the whole offensive, 
 but this attack was defeated with enormous losses to the German 
 troops. A fourth phase of the German offensive took place on 
 June 9th, on a front of twenty miles between Noyon and Mont- 
 didier, which gained a few miles at an enormous cost. 
 
 THE LAST DESPERATE DRIVES OP THE GERMANS 
 
 On July 15th came the last of the great offensives. It was a 
 smash on a sixty-mile line from Chateau-Thierry up the Marne, 
 around Rheims, and then east to a few miles west of the Argonne 
 forest. This offensive at the start made a penetration of from 
 three to five miles, but was held firmly and much of the gain lost, 
 through the counter-attacks of the Allies. It was at this point 
 that the American troops first began to be seriously felt, and it
 
 GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 537 
 
 was at this point that General Foch took up the story, and began 
 the great series of Allied drives which were to crush the German 
 power. But there had been many days of great anxiety before the 
 turn of the tide. 
 
 The objects of the German drives were doubtless more or less 
 dependent upon their success. The first drive in Picardy, in the 
 direction of Amiens had apparently as its object to drive a wedge 
 between the French and British and the object was so nearly attained 
 that only the heroic work of General Carey saved the Allies from 
 disaster. 
 
 The Fifth British army, which had borne the brunt of the 
 German attack, had found itself almost crushed by the sheer weight 
 of numbers. The whole line was broken up and it seemed as if the 
 road was open to Amiens. French reinforcements could not come up 
 in time; bridges could not be blown up because the engineers were 
 all killed. Orders came to General Carey at two o'clock hi the 
 morning, March 26th, to hold the gap. He at once proceeded to 
 gather an extemporized army. 
 
 Every available man was rounded up, among others a body of 
 American engineers. Laborers, sappers, raw recruits as well as 
 soldiers of every arm. There were plenty of machine guns, but 
 few men knew how to handle them. With this scratch army in 
 temporary trenches, he lay for six days, and as Lloyd George said, 
 "They held the German army and closed that gap on the way 
 to Amiens." 
 
 During this fight General Carey rode along the lines shouting 
 encouraging words to his hard-pressed men. He did not know 
 whether he would get supplies of ammunition and provisions or 
 not, but he stuck to it. Later on the regular troops arrived. The 
 American engineers, who had been fighting, immediately returned 
 to their base, and resumed work laying out trenches. General 
 Rawlinson, Commander of the British army at that point, sent the 
 commanding officer of the Americans engaged, the following 
 letter: 
 
 The army Commander wishes to record officially his appreciation of 
 the excellent work your regiment has done in assisting the British army to 
 resist the enemy's powerful offensive during the last ten days. I iully 
 realize that it has been largely due to your assistance that the enemy has 
 been checked, and I rely on you to assist us still further during the .few
 
 538 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 days that are still to come before I shall be able to relieve you in the line. 
 I consider your work in the line to be greatly enhanced by the fact that for 
 six weeks previous to your taking your place in the front line your men had 
 been working at such high pressure erecting heavy bridges on the Somme. 
 My best congratulations and warm thanks to all. 
 
 RAWLINSON. 
 
 The demoralization of General Cough's Fifth army, which had 
 thus left an eight-mile gap on the left, and which had been saved at 
 that point by General Carey, permitted also the opening of another 
 gap between its right wing and the Sixth French army. Here 
 General Fayolle did with organized troops what Carey had done 
 with his volunteers further north. The reason for the success 
 of both Carey and Fayolle appears to have been that the German 
 armies had been so thoroughly battered that they were unable to 
 take advantage of the situation. Their regiments had been mixed 
 up, their officers had been separated from their men in the rush 
 of the attack, and before they could recover the opportunity was 
 lost. 
 
 The first days of April saw the end of the drive toward Amiens. 
 The Germans claimed the capture of ninety thousand prisoners 
 and one thousand three hundred guns. They had penetrated into 
 the Allies' territory in some points a distance of thirty-five miles. 
 Their new line extended southwest from Arras beyond Albert to the 
 west of Moreuil, which is about nine miles south of Amiens, and 
 then went on west of Pierrepont and Montdidier, curving out at 
 Noyon to the region of the Oise. 
 
 The first part of April was a comparative calm, when suddenly 
 there developed the second drive of the German offensive. This 
 drive was not so extensive as the first one, and its object appeared 
 to be to break through the British forces hi Flanders and reach the 
 Channel ports. It resulted hi a salient embracing an area about 
 three hundred and twenty square mils, and the Germans claimed 
 the capture of twenty thousand prisoners and two hundred guns. 
 It was at this point that General Haig issued his famous order hi 
 which he described the British armies as standing with their "backs 
 to the wall." It reads as follows: 
 
 Three weeks ago today the enemy began his terrific attacks against 
 us on a fifty-mile front. Its objects are to separate us from the French, 
 to take the Channel ports, and to destroy the British army. In spite of 
 throwing already one hundred and six divisions into the battle and enduring
 
 GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 539 
 
 the most reckless sacrifice of human life, he has yet made little progress 
 toward his goals. We owe this to the determined fighting and self-sacrifice 
 of our troops. Words fail me to express the admiration which I feel for the 
 splendid resistance offered by all ranks of our army under the most trying 
 circumstances. Many among us now are tired. To those I would say 
 that victory will belong to the side which holds out the longest. The 
 French army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support. There 
 is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be 
 held to the last man. There must be no retiring. With our backs to the 
 wall and believing hi the justice of our cause each one of us must fight to 
 the end. The safety of our homes, and the freedom of mankind depend 
 alike upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment. 
 
 The British commander's order made the situation clear to the 
 British people and to the world. The Germans had given up for 
 the moment their attempt to divide the British and French armies, 
 and were now attempting to seize the Channel ports, and the 
 British were fighting with true British pluck with their "backs 
 to the wall." 
 
 One can imagine the anxiety in the villages of Flanders where 
 they watched the German advance and heard the terrible bombard- 
 ment which was destroying their beautiful little cities, and threaten- 
 ing to put them under the dominion of the brutal conquerors of 
 Belgium. Town after town fell to the enemy until at last the 
 German attack began to weaken. 
 
 Counter-attacks on April 17th recaptured the villages of 
 Wytschaete and Meteren. At other points German attacks were 
 repulsed, and the attack on the Lys had reached its limits. It had 
 not only failed to reach the coast but it had not even reached so 
 far as to force the evacuation of Ypres or to endanger Arras. On 
 the contrary the Germans had paid for their advance by such 
 terrible losses that the ground that they had gained meant almost 
 nothing. They then made, on April 30th, a vigorous endeavor to 
 broaden the Amiens salient in the region of Hangard and Noyon. 
 This attack also failed. 
 
 On May 27th Ludendorf made his next move. This was in 
 the south, and was preceded by the most elaborate preparations 
 over a forty-mile front. At first it met with great success. German 
 troops from a point northwest of Rheims to Montdidier were moving 
 apparently with the purpose of breaking the French lines and 
 clearing the way for a drive to Paris. Consternation reigned among
 
 540 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Allied observers as the Germans carried, apparently with ease, 
 first the formidable Chemin des Dames, which was believed invul- 
 nerable, and then the south bank of the Aisne, with its great forti- 
 fications at Soissons. 
 
 Criticism began to appear of General Foch, who was thought 
 at first to have been taken by surprise. The Germans were using 
 four hundred thousand of then- best troops, and the greatest force 
 of tanks, machine guns and poison-gas projectors which they had 
 ever gathered. They captured over forty-five thousand prisoners 
 and took four hundred guns. They penetrated thirty miles and 
 gained six hundred and fifty square miles of territory, but they 
 were held on the River Marne. 
 
 It is now apparent that General Foch knew exactly what he 
 was about. He might easily, by sending in reinforcements, have 
 put up the same desperate resistance to the German offensive 
 which they were now meeting in other sectors. But he preferred 
 to retreat and lead the enemy on to a position which would make 
 them vulnerable to the great counter-attack he was preparing for 
 them on their flank. The Germans reached the Marne, but they 
 paid for it in the terrible losses which they incurred. 
 
 The German line now from Montdidier, the extreme point of 
 the Amiens salient, to Chateau-Thierry, the point of the new Marne 
 salient, was in the form of a bow, and on June 9th General Luden- 
 dorf attempted to straighten out the line. His new attack was 
 made on a twenty-mile front between Montdidier and Noyon in the 
 direction of Compidgne. This was another terrific drive and at 
 first gained about seven miles. French counter-attacks, however, 
 not only held him hi a vise but regained a distance of about one 
 mile. This battle was probably the most disastrous one fought 
 by the Germans during then 1 whole offensive. Nearly four hundred 
 thousand men were completely used up, without gaining the slightest 
 strategic success. 
 
 Then followed a period without battles of major importance, 
 during which General Foch by periodic assaults on the Lys, the 
 Somme, on the flanks of Montdidier and Soissons, on the Chateau- 
 Thierry sector and southwest of Rheims, captured many important 
 positions and kept the enemy in constant anxiety. 
 
 During the great German offensives the Germans had lost 
 at least five hundred thousand men, while the casualties of the
 
 GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 541 
 
 Allies were barely one hundred and fifty thousand. The Germans 
 also were beginning to lose then* morale. They were finding that 
 however great might be their efforts, however terrible might be 
 their losses, they were still being constantly held. Their troops 
 were now apparently made of inferior material, and included boys, 
 old men and even convicts. 
 
 The system of making attacks by means of shock troops was 
 producing the inevitable result. The shock regiments were com- 
 posed of selected men, picked here and there, from the regular 
 troops. Their selection had naturally weakened the regiments 
 from which they were taken. After three months of great offensives 
 these shock troops were now hi great part destroyed, and the 
 German lines were being held mainly by the inferior troops which 
 had been left. Moreover, in other parts of the world, the allies 
 of Germany were being beaten. In Italy and Albania and Mace- 
 donia there was danger. 
 
 The Germans prepared for one more effort. On June 18th they 
 had made a costly attempt to carry Rheims. On July 15th they 
 made their last drive. Ludendorf took almost a month for prep- 
 aration. He gathered together seventy divisions and great 
 masses of munitions, and then drove in from Chateau-Thierry on 
 a sixty-mile line up on the Marne, and then east to the Argonne 
 forests. His line made a sort of semicircle around Rheims and then 
 pushed south to the east and west of that fortress. 
 
 Once again he had temporary success. West of Rheims he 
 penetrated a distance of five miles, and on the first day, had crossed 
 the Marne at Dormans, but was held sharply by the Americans 
 east of Chateau-Thierry. On the second day he made further 
 gams, but with appalling losses. On the 17th he was still struggling 
 on with minor successes but on July 18th the French and Americans 
 launched the great counter-offensive from Chateau-Thierry along 
 a twenty-five mile front, between the Marne and the Aisne. The 
 Germans everywhere began their retreat and the war tide had 
 turned. 
 
 The German attack east of Rheims had been a failure from the 
 start. The Allied forces retired about two miles and then held firm. 
 The country there is flat and sandy and gave little shelter to the 
 attacking forces which lost terribly. In this sector, too, there were 
 many American troops, who behaved with distinguished bravery.
 
 542 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 By this time nearly seven hundred thousand men of 
 the American army were on the battle line. They had been 
 fighting here and there among the French and English but on 
 June 22d General March made the announcement that five 
 divisions of these troops had been transferred to the direct com- 
 mand of General Pershing as a nucleus for an American 
 army. 
 
 In glancing back at the great German drives which have now 
 been described, one is impressed by the terrific character of the 
 fighting. This struggle undoubtedly was the greatest exertion of 
 military power in the history of the world. Never before had 
 such masses of munitions been used; never before had scientific 
 knowledge been so drawn on in the service of war. Thousands of 
 airplanes were patrolling the air, sometimes scouting, sometimes 
 dropping bombs on hostile troops or on hostile stores, sometimes 
 flying low, firing their machine guns into the faces of marching 
 troops. Thousands upon thousands of great guns were sending 
 enormous projectiles, which made great pits wherever they fell. 
 Swarms of machine guns were pouring their bullets like water from 
 a hose upon the charging soldiers. 
 
 One of the most noticeable artillery developments was the 
 long-range gun which off and on during this period was bombard- 
 ing Paris. This bombardment began on March 23d, when the 
 nearest German line was more than sixty-two miles away. For a 
 time the story was regarded as pure fiction, but it was soon estab- 
 lished that the great nine-inch shells which were dropping into the 
 city every twenty minutes came from the forests of St. Gobain, 
 seven miles back of the French trenches near Laon, and about 
 seventy-five miles from Paris. This was another of those futile 
 bits of frightfulness hi which the Germans reveled. Military advan- 
 tage gained by such a gun was almost nothing, and the expense of 
 every shot was out of all proportion to the damage inflicted. It 
 only roused intense indignation and stirred the Allies to greater 
 determination. The first day's casualties in Paris were ten killed 
 and fifteen wounded. By the next day one would not have been 
 able to tell from the Paris streets that such a bombardment was 
 going on at all. The subway and surface cars were running, the 
 streets were thronged and traffic was going on as usual. About 
 two dozen shells were thrown into Paris every day, mainly in the
 
 GERMANY'S DYING DESPERATE EFFORT 543 
 
 Montmartre district, in a radius of about a mile. This seemed to 
 show that the gun was immovable. 
 
 On March 29th, however, a shell struck the church of St. 
 Gervais during the Good Friday service, killing seventy-five persons 
 and wounding ninety. Fifty-four of those killed were women. 
 The church had been struck at the moment of the Elevation of the 
 Host. This outrage aroused special indignation, and Pope Benedict 
 sent a protest to Berlin. 
 
 An examination of exploded shells indicated that the new 
 German gun was less than nine inches in caliber, and that the pro- 
 jectiles, which weighed about two hundred pounds, contained two 
 charges, in two chambers connected by a fuse which often exploded 
 more than a minute apart. It took three minutes for each shell to 
 travel to Paris and it was estimated that such a shell rose to a 
 height of twenty miles from the earth. Three of these guns were 
 used. One of these guns exploded on March 29th, killing a German 
 lieutenant and nine men. The Kaiser was present when the gun 
 was first used. It was said by American scientists that seismographs 
 in the United States felt the shock of each discharge. On April 9th 
 French aviators discovered the location of the new guns, and French 
 artillery began to drop enormous shells weighing half a ton each near 
 the German monsters. A few days later a French shell fell on the 
 barrel of one of these guns and put it out of commission. Great 
 craters were made around the other, interfering with its use, and 
 toward the end of the period it was only occasionally that the 
 remaining gun was fired, and no great damage resulted. 
 
 Another feature of the great German drives was the tremendous 
 destruction that accompanied them. Not only were churches, 
 public buildings, and private houses throughout almost the whole 
 district turned into ruins, but the very ground itself was plowed 
 up into craters and shell holes, and the trees smashed into mere 
 splinters. During the whole campaign poison gas of various kinds 
 was used hi immense quantities, and it was constantly necessary 
 for the troops to wear gas masks. Sometimes after a town had been 
 evacuated by the enemy it was so filled with gas that it was impos- 
 sible for victorious troops to enter. One of the fiercest bombard- 
 ments was that directed against the Portuguese during the fighting 
 along the Lys. The enemy made a special attempt to crush the 
 Portuguese contingent which behaved with the utmost gallantry.
 
 544 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 It was the season of the year when the orchards were covered 
 with blossoms and the fields with flowers, but the horrors of war 
 destroyed the beauty of the spring. In these battles men fought 
 until they were completely exhausted and one could see troops 
 staggering as they walked and leaning on each other from pure 
 exhaustion. 
 
 These were days when wonders were performed by the Medical 
 Departments of the Allied armies, and the work of the Red Cross was 
 almost as important as the work of the soldiers. Relief for the 
 wounded had to be undertaken and carried on on a mammoth scale. 
 Many of the doctors, nurses, orderlies and ambulance men lost their 
 lives while making efforts to rescue the wounded. 
 
 These were days when the German leaders were filled with the 
 pride of victory. They were talking now about a hard German 
 peace. On June 17th the German Kaiser celebrated the thirtieth 
 anniversary of his accession to the throne. He talked no more of a 
 war of self-defense, but declared the war to be the struggle of two 
 world views wrestling with each other. "Either German principles 
 of right, freedom, honor and morality must be upheld, or Anglo- 
 Saxon principles with their idolatry of Mammon must be vic- 
 torious." He sent congratulations to Field Marshal von Hinden- 
 burg, to General Ludendorf and to the Crown Prince. Von Hin- 
 denburg assured the Kaiser of the unswerving loyalty until death of 
 Germany's sons at the front, and concluded "May our old motto 1 
 ' Forward with God for King and Fatherland, for Kaiser and 
 Empire* result hi many years of peace being granted to your 
 Majesty after our victorious return home." 
 
 But the terrific attacks which the German commanders directed 
 upon the Americans at Chateau-Thierry and at other points upon 
 the southern lines show well that they knew that there was another 
 danger rising to confront them; that during their great drives a 
 million and a half American soldiers had been learning the art of 
 war, and that every moment of delay meant a new danger. By the 
 end of this period the Americans had arrived.
 
 CHAPTER XLII 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 
 
 NOWHERE in American history may be found a more 
 glorious record than that which crowned with laurel the 
 American arms at Chateau-Thierry. Here the American 
 Marines and divisions comprising both volunteers and 
 selected soldiers, were thrown before the German tide of invasion 
 like a huge khaki-colored breakwater. Germany knew that a 
 test of its empire had come. To break the wall of American might 
 it threw into the van of the attack the Prussian Guard backed by 
 the most formidable troops of the German and Austrian empires. 
 The object was to put the fear of the Hun into the hearts of the 
 Yankees, to overwhelm them, to drive straight through them as 
 the prow of a battleship shears through a heavy sea. If America 
 could be defeated, Germany's way to a speedy victory was at hand. 
 If America held well, that way lay disaster. 
 
 And the Americans held. Not only did they hold but they 
 counter-attacked with such bloody consequences to the German 
 army that Marshal Foch, seizing the psychological moment for his 
 carefully prepared counter-offensive, gave the word for a general 
 attack. 
 
 With Chateau-Thierry and the Marne as a hinge, the clamp 
 of the Allies closed upon the defeated Germans. From Switzer- 
 land to the North Sea the drive went forward, operating as huge 
 pincers cutting like chilled steel through the Hindenburg and the 
 Kriemhild lines. It was the beginning of autocracy's end, the 
 end of Der Tag of which Germany had dreamed. 
 
 The matchless Marines and the other American troops suffered 
 a loss that staggered America. It was a loss, however, that was 
 well worth while. The heroic young Americans who held the 
 might of Germany helpless and finally rolled them back defeated 
 from the field of battle, and who paid for that victory with their 
 lives, made certain the speedy end of the world's bloodiest war. 
 
 The story of the American army's effective operations in France 
 
 645
 
 546 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 from Cantigny to the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient, ia one 
 long record of victories. To the glory of American arms must be 
 recorded the fact that at no time and at no place in the World 
 War did the American forces retreat before the German hosts. 
 
 In the latter days of May, 1918, the Allied forces in France 
 seemed near defeat. The Germans were steadily driving toward 
 Paris. They had swept over the Chemin des Dames and the 
 papers from day to day were chronicling wonderful successes. The 
 Chemin des Dames had been regarded as impregnable, but the 
 Germans passed it apparently without the slightest difficulty. 
 They were advancing on a forty-mile front and on May 28th had 
 reached the Aisne, with the French and British steadily falling 
 back. The anxiety of the Allies throughout the world was 
 indescribable. This was the great German " Victory Drive" and 
 each day registered a new Allied defeat. Newspaper headlines 
 were almost despairing. 
 
 On May 29th, however, hi quiet type, under great headlines 
 announcing a German gain of ten miles in which the Germans had 
 taken twenty-five thousand prisoners and crossed two rivers, had 
 captured Soissons, and were threatening Rheims, there appeared hi 
 American papers a quiet little despatch from General Pershing. It 
 read as follows: 
 
 "This morning in Picardy our troops attacked on a front of 
 one and one-fourth miles, advanced our lines, and captured the 
 village of Cantigny. We took two hundred prisoners, and inflicted 
 on the enemy severe losses hi killed and wounded. Our casualties 
 were relatively small. Hostile counter-attacks broke down under 
 our fire." This was the first American offensive. 
 
 The American troops had now been hi Europe almost a year. 
 At first but a small force, they had been greeted in Paris and in 
 London with tremendous enthusiasm. Up to this point they had 
 done little or nothing, but the small force which passed through 
 Paris in the summer of 1917 had been growing steadily. By this 
 time the American army numbered more than eight hundred 
 thousand men. They had been getting ready; in camps far behind 
 the lines they had been trained, not only by their own officers, but 
 by some of the greatest experts in the French and the British 
 armies. Thousands of officers and men who, but a few months 
 before, had been busily engaged in civilian pursuits, had now learned
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 549 
 
 something of the art of war. They had been supplied with a 
 splendid equipment, with great guns and with all the modern 
 requirements of an up-to-date army. 
 
 For some months, here and there, on the French and British 
 lines, small detachments of American troops flanked on both 
 sides by the Allied forces, had been learning the art of war. Here 
 and there they had been under fire. At Cantigny itself they had 
 resisted attack. On May 27th General Pershing had reported 
 "In Picardy, after violent artillery preparations, hostile infantry 
 detachments succeeded in penetrating our advance positions in 
 two points. Our troops counter-attacked, completely expelling the 
 enemy and entering his lines." They had also been fighting that 
 day in the Woevre sector where a raiding party had been repulsed. 
 There had been other skirmishes, too, in which many Americans 
 had won honors both from Great Britain and France. But the 
 attack at Cantigny was the first distinct American advance. 
 
 The Ameriotans penetrated the German positions to the depth 
 of nearly a mile. Their artillery completely smothered the Germans, 
 and its whirr could be heard for many miles in the rear. Twelve 
 French tanks supported the American infantry. The artillery 
 preparation lasted for one hour, and then the lines of Americans 
 went over the top. A strong unit of flame throwers and engineers 
 aided the Americans. The American barrage moved forward a 
 hundred yards hi two minutes and then a hundred yards in four 
 minutes. The infantry followed with clock-like precision. Fierce 
 hand-to-hand fighting occurred in Cantigny, which contained a 
 large tunnel and a number of caves. The Americans hurled hand 
 grenades like baseballs into these shelters. 
 
 The attack had been carefully planned and was rehearsed 
 by the infantry with the tanks. In every detail it was under 
 the direction of the Superior French Command, to whom much of 
 the credit for its success was due. The news of the American 
 success created general satisfaction among the French and English 
 troops. The operation, of course, was not one of the very greatest 
 importance. It was a sort of an experiment, but coming as it did, 
 in the middle of the great German Drive, it was ominous. America 
 had arrived. 
 
 On May 30th General Pershing announced the complete repulse 
 of further enemy attacks from the new American positions near
 
 550 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Cantigny. This time he says: "there was considerable shelling 
 with gas, but the results obtained were very small. The attempt 
 was a complete failure. Our casualties were very light. We have 
 consolidated our positions." 
 
 The London Evening News commenting on this fact says: 
 "Bravo the young Americans! Nothing in today's battle narrative 
 from the front is more exhilarating than the account of their fight 
 at Cantigny. It was clean cut from beginning to end, like one of 
 their countrymen's short stories, and the short story of Cantigny 
 is going to expand into a full-length novel which will write the 
 doom of the Kaiser and Kaiserism. Cantigny will one day be 
 repeated a thousand fold." 
 
 The Germans, in reporting this fight, avoided mention of the 
 fact that the operation had been conducted by American troops. 
 This seemed to indicate that they feared the moral effect of such 
 an admission in Germany. Up to this time, with the exception of 
 small brigades, the American army had been held as a reserve. 
 After the Cantigny fight they were hurried to the front. The main 
 point to which they were sent at first was Chateau-Thierry, north 
 of the Marne, the nearest point to Paris reached by the enemy. 
 There, at the very critical point of the great German Drive, they 
 not only checked the enemy but, by a dashing attack, threw him 
 back. 
 
 This may be said to be the turning point in the whole war. 
 It not only stopped the German Drive at this point, but it gave 
 new courage to the Allies and took the heart out of the Germans. 
 The troops were rushed to the battle front at Thierry, arriving on 
 Saturday, June 1st. They entered the battle enthusiastically, 
 almost immediately after they had arrived. A despatch from 
 Picardy says: "On their way to the battle lines they were cheered 
 by the crowds in the villages through w r hich they passed; their 
 victorious stand with then* gallant French Allies, so soon after 
 entering the line, has electrified all France." 
 
 General Pershing's terse account of what happened reads as 
 follows: "In the fighting northwest of Chateau-Thierry our troops 
 broke up an attempt of the enemy to advance to the south through 
 Veuilly Woods, and by a counter-attack drove him back to the north 
 of the woods." 
 
 The American troops had gone into the action only an hour or
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 551 
 
 so after their arrival on the banks of the River Marne. Scarcely 
 had they alighted from their motor trucks when they were ordered 
 into Chateau-Thierry with a battalion of French-Colonial troops. 
 The enemy were launching a savage drive, and at first succeeded 
 in driving the Americans out of the woods of Veuilly-la-Poterie. 
 But the Americans at once counter-attacked, driving their oppo- 
 nents from then* position, and regaining possession of the woods. 
 On the same day the Germans launched an attack of shock troops, 
 
 WHERE THE "YANKS" FOUGHT THE SECOND BATTLE OP THE MAKNB 
 
 attempting to gain a passage across the Marne at Jaulgonne. 
 They obtained a footing on the southern bank but another Ameri- 
 can counter-attack forced them back across the river. The 
 American soldiers were fighting with wonderful spirit, and the 
 French papers were filled with praise of their work. As they came 
 up to go into the line they were singing, and they charged, cheering. 
 On June 6th came a climax of the American fighting. It was 
 the attack of the American Marines in the direction of Torcy. 
 This gained more than two miles over a two and a half mile front. 
 On the next day the advance continued over a front of nearly six
 
 552 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 miles, and during the night the Americans captured Bouresches 
 and entered Torcy. 
 
 The fighting at Torcy was characteristically American; the 
 Marines advanced yelling like Indians, using bayonet and rifle. 
 From Torcy the Marines set forward and took strong ground on 
 either side of Belleau Wood. They had reached all the objectives 
 and pushed beyond them. The Germans were on the run, and 
 surrendering right and left to the Americans. The attack by the 
 Marines forestalled an attack by the enemy. German reports 
 now noticed the Americans. Then* report on June 9th referring 
 to this attack, says: "Americans who attempted to attack north- 
 west of Chateau-Thierry were driven back beyond then- positions 
 of departure with heavy losses and prisoners were captured." 
 The Americans had lost heavily, and the hospitals were filled 
 with then* wounded, but the thorough American organization was 
 giving the wounded every care, and the Americans were still 
 moving forward. 
 
 On June the 10th, another attack was made on the German 
 lines in the Belleau Wood, which penetrated for about two-thirds 
 of a mile, leaving the Germans in possession of only the northern 
 fringe of the Wood. On June llth the official statement of the 
 French War Office declared: " South of the Ourcq River the Ameri- 
 can troops this morning brilliantly captured Belleau Wood, and 
 took three hundred prisoners." 
 
 Belleau Wood had been considered an almost impregnable 
 position, but the valiant fighting of the American Marines had 
 carried them past it. Fighting here was not merely a series of 
 exciting engagements, but an important action, which may have 
 turned, and very probably did turn, the whole tide of battle. The 
 Americans put three German divisions out of business, and caused 
 a change hi the German plans, by preventing an extending move- 
 ment to Meaux, which was the German objective. 
 
 From this tune on the confidence shown in all reports from the 
 Allies in France was strengthened. They had found that the 
 Americans were all that they had hoped for, and they were sure 
 now that they could hold on until the full American strength 
 could be brought to bear. General Pershing himself was full of 
 optimism and his fine example stimulated his troops. From this 
 time on all dispatches show that the Americans were more and
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 553 
 
 more getting in the game. Repeated German attacks against 
 their forces, on the Belleau-Bouresches line were repulsed, in 
 spite of the fact that crack German divisions, who had been picked 
 especially to punish them, had been found on their front. It was 
 later found that these divisions had been suddenly ordered to that 
 point "in order to prevent at all costs the Americans being able 
 to achieve success." The German High Command was apparently 
 anxious to prevent American success from stimulating the morale 
 of the Allied army. 
 
 During the rest of the summer the Americans took an active 
 part in Foch's great offensive which ultimately crushed the German 
 army. They were heard from at widely divergent points: in 
 Alsace, about Chateau-Thierry, at Montdidier, and in the British 
 lines. 
 
 Most of the fighting during June indicated a slow advance at 
 Chateau-Thierry. On June 19th the Americans crossed the Marne, 
 near that city. But Chateau-Thierry itself was not captured 
 until the middle of July. On June 29th they participated in a 
 raid near Montdidier and on July 2d captured Vaux. In the 
 week of July 4th news came of American success in the Vosges. 
 On July 18th they advanced close to Soissons. On August 3d 
 the Americans captured Fismes, and then for nearly a month 
 made little actual progress, though bitter fighting went on in the 
 country around Fismes and near Soissons. On August 29th after a 
 furious battle they captured the plain of Juvigny, north of Soissons. 
 
 In all these battles the Americans were doing their part at 
 difficult points, during the great French drive which was clearing 
 out the Marne salient. 
 
 On the 12th of September, the first American army, assisted 
 by certain French units, and under the direct command of General 
 Pershing, launched an attack against the St. Mihiel salient. This 
 was the most important operation of the American troops in the 
 Great War. It was a complete success. September 12th was the 
 fourth anniversary of the establishment of the salient, which 
 reached out from the German line in the direction of Verdun. 
 
 The attack was lighting on a grand scale, and that such an 
 operation should be intrusted to the American army indicated an 
 entirely new phase of America's participation in the war. It was 
 preceded by a barrage lasting four hours. The German troops,
 
 554 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 though probably suspecting that such an attack was coming, were 
 nevertheless surprised. The American attack was on the southern 
 leg of the salient along a distance of twelve miles. The French 
 attacked on the western side from a front of eight miles. Each 
 attack was eminently successful. On the southern front the Ameri- 
 cans reached then- first objectives at some points an hour ahead of 
 schedule tune. Thiaucourt was captured early in the drive; 
 
 AMERICAN LIME 
 HINPtHBURG LINE. 
 OLD BATTLE LINE 
 SHADED TERRITORY 18 BOUND 
 GERMAN FRONTIER 
 
 THE GREAT ST. MIHIEL SALIENT ESTABLISHED IN 1914 WAS OBLITERATED 
 BT THE AMERICANS IN SEPTEMBER, 1918 
 
 later the Americans gained possession of Nonsard, Pannes, and 
 Bouillonville. 
 
 At first the resistance of the Germans, without being tame, 
 was not actually stiff, and the doughboys were able to sweep toward 
 the second line of any position without difficulty. There, however, 
 the Germans began to defend themselves sharply, which delayed, 
 but did not stop the American advance. The attack was made 
 in two waves and carried the American forces a distance of about 
 five miles. 
 
 The next day the attack continued, and General Pershing's 
 dispatch stated: "In the St. Mihiel sector we have achieved further
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 555 
 
 successes. The junction of our troops advancing from the south 
 of the sector with those advancing from the west has given us 
 possession of the whole salient to points twelve miles northeast of 
 St. Mihiel, and has resulted in the capture of many prisoners. 
 Forced back by our steady advance the enemy is retiring, and is 
 destroying large quantities of material as he goes. The number of 
 prisoners counted has risen to 13,300. Our line now includes 
 Herbeville, Thillet, Hattonville, St. Benoit, Xammes, Jaulny, 
 Thiaucourt and Vieville." 
 
 The salient was wiped out, and the St. Mihiel front reduced 
 from forty to twenty miles. Secretary Newton D. Baker, accom- 
 panied by Generals Pershing and Pe"tain, visited St. Mihiel a few 
 hours after its capture. They walked through the streets of the 
 city, and heard many stories of the long German occupation. 
 
 As the attack proceeded it became more and more evident 
 that the German defense had lost heart. Thousands of them 
 surrendered, declaring they did not care to fight any more. It 
 was also noted that a surprisingly large number of officers were 
 among those captured. The only serious resistance was to the 
 attack south of Fresnes, which was obviously for the purpose of 
 protecting the German retreat. 
 
 The first American regiment stationed hi the St. Mihiel sector 
 was the 370th Infantry, formerly the Eighth Illinois, a Negro 
 regiment officered entirely by soldiers of that race. This regiment 
 was one of the three that occupied a sector at Verdun when a 
 penetration there by the Germans would have been disastrous to 
 the Allied cause. 
 
 The St. Mihiel salient had no great military value to the Ger- 
 mans, and was probably held by them from a sentimental motive. 
 It represented the desperate efforts made by the Crown Prince 
 in his early drive against Verdun. Its destruction, however, was 
 of great importance to the French. It was not only a removal of 
 a menace to the French citizens of Verdun, but it released the French 
 armies at that point for active offensive operation. It also liber- 
 ated the railway line from Verdun to Nancy, which was of the utmost 
 value to General Pershing and the French armies to his left. It 
 also later developed that the French command regarded the reduc- 
 tion of the St. Mihiel salient as the corner stone of a great encircling 
 movement aimed at the German fortress of Metz. The moral
 
 556 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 557 
 
 effect of its reduction was also notable as it was one more sign of 
 the weakening of the Germans. 
 
 History usually concerns itself with the deeds of humanity 
 in the mass and with the leaders of these masses. It is eminently 
 fitting, however, that this history should record the impressions 
 made upon the mind of an American soldier by a modern battle. 
 The United States Government singled out of all the letters 
 received from the front, that written by Major Robert L. Denig, of 
 Philadelphia, to his wife. The letter is now part of the archives 
 of the War Department, and occupies the highest place of literary 
 honor in the records of the Marines. It describes the operation 
 against the Germans on the Marne on July 18th, 1918. This was 
 the counter-attack led by the Marines which broke the back of 
 the German invasion. Major Denig wrote: 
 
 The day before we left for this big push we had a most interesting 
 fight between a fleet of German planes and a French observation balloon, 
 right over our heads. We saw five planes circle over our town, then put 
 on, what we thought afterwards, a sham fight. One of them, after many 
 fancy stunts, headed right for the balloon. They were all painted with 
 our colors except one. This one went near the balloon. One kept right 
 on. The other four shot the balloon up with incendiary bullets. The 
 observers jumped into then: parachutes just as the outfit went up in a mass 
 of flame. 
 
 The next day we took our positions at various places to wait for 
 camions that were to take us somewhere in France, when or for what 
 purpose we did not know. Wass passed me at the head of his company 
 we made a date for a party on our next leave. He was looking fine and 
 was as happy as could be. Then Hunt, Keyser and a heap of others went 
 by. I have the battalion and Holcomb the regiment. Our turn to 
 en-buss did not come until near midnight. 
 
 We at last got under way after a few big "sea bags" had hit nearby. 
 Wilmer and I led in a touring car. We went at a good clip and nearly got 
 ditched in a couple of new shell holes. Shells were falling fast by now, 
 and as the tenth truck went under the bridge a big one landed near with a 
 crash, and wounded the two drivers, killed two marines and wounded 
 five more. We did not know it at the time, and did not notice anything 
 wrong till we came to a crossroad when we found we had only eleven 
 cars all told. We found the rest of the convoy after a hunt, but even then 
 were not told of the loss, and did not find it out until the next day. 
 
 We were finally, after twelve hours' ride, dumped in a big field and 
 after a few hours' rest started our march. It was hot as Hades and we 
 had had nothing to eat since the day before. We at last entered a forest; 
 troops seemed to converge on it from all points. We marched some six
 
 558 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 miles in the forest, a finer one I have never seen deer would scamper 
 ahead and we could have eaten one raw. At 10 that night without food, 
 we lay down in a pouring rain to sleep. Troops of all kinds passed us in 
 the night a shadowy stream, over a half-million men. Some French 
 officers told us that they had never seen such concentration since Verdun, 
 if then. 
 
 The next day, the 18th of July, we marched ahead through a jam 
 of troops, trucks, etc., and came at last to a ration dump where we fell to 
 and ate our heads off for the first time in nearly two days. When we 
 left there, the men had bread stuck on their bayonets. I lugged a ham. 
 All were loaded down. 
 
 Here I passed one of Wass' lieutenants with his hand wounded. He 
 was pleased as Punch and told us the drive was on, the first we knew of it. 
 I then passed a few men of Hunt's company, bringing prisoners to the 
 rear. They had a colonel and his staff. They were well dressed, cleaned 
 and polished, but mighty glum looking. 
 
 We finally stopped at the far end of the forest near a dressing station, 
 where Holcomb again took command. This station had been a big fine 
 stone farm but was now a complete ruin wounded and dead lay all 
 about. Joe Murray came by with his head all done up his helmet had 
 saved him. The Lines had gone on ahead so we were quite safe. Had a 
 fine aero battle right over us. The stunts that those planes did cannot be 
 described by me. 
 
 Late in the afternoon we advanced again. Our route lay over an 
 open field covered with dead. 
 
 We lay down on a hillside for the night near some captured German 
 guns, and until dark I watched the cavalry some four thousand, come 
 up and take positions. 
 
 At 3.30 the next morning Sitz woke me up and said we were to attack. 
 The regiment was soon under way and we picked our way under cover of 
 a gas infested valley to a town where we got our final instructions and 
 left our packs. I wished Sumner good luck and parted. 
 
 We formed up in a sunken road on two sides of a valley that was 
 perpendicular to the enemy's front; Hughes right, Holcomb left, Sibley 
 support. We now began to get a few wounded; one man with ashen 
 face came charging to the rear with shell shock. He shook all over, foamed 
 at the mouth, could not speak. I put him under a tent, and he acted as 
 if he had a fit. 
 
 I heard Overton call to one of his friends to send a certain pin to 
 his mother if he should get hit. 
 
 At 8.30 we jumped off with a line of tanks in the lead. For two 
 "kilos" the four lines of Marines were as straight as a die, and their 
 advance over the open plain in the bright sunlight was a picture I shall 
 never forget. The fire got hotter and hotter, men fell, bullets sung, 
 shells whizzed-banged and the dust of battle got thick. Overton was hit 
 by a big piece of shell and fell. Afterwards I heard he was hit in the
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 559 
 
 heart, so his death was without pain. He was buried that night and the 
 pin found. 
 
 A man near me Was cut in two. Others when hit would stand, it 
 seemed, an hour, then fall in a heap. I yelled to Wilmer that each gun 
 in the barrage worked from right to left, then a rabbit ran ahead and I 
 watched him wondering if he would get hit. Good rabbit it took my 
 mind off the carnage. Looked for Hughes way over to the right; told 
 Wilmer that I had a hundred dollars and be sure to get it. You think all 
 kinds of things. 
 
 About sixty Germans jumped out of a trench and tried to surrender, 
 but their machine guns opened up, we fired back, they ran and our left 
 company after them. That made a gap that had to be filled, so Sibley 
 advanced one of his to do the job, then a shell lit in a machine-gun crew 
 of ours and cleaned it out completely. 
 
 At 10.30 we dug in the attack just died out. I found a hole or old 
 trench and when I was flat on my back I got some protection. Holcomb 
 wa^ next me; Wilmer some way off. We then tried to get reports. Two 
 companies we never could get in touch with. Lloyd came in and reported 
 he was holding some trenches near a mill with six men. Gates, with his 
 trousers blown off, said he had sixteen men of various companies; another 
 officer on the right reported he had and could see forty men, all told. That, 
 with the headquarters, was all we could find out about the battalion of 
 nearly 800. Of the twenty company officers who went in, three came out, 
 and one, Gates, was slightly wounded. 
 
 From then on to about 8 p. M. life was a chance and mighty uncom- 
 fortable. It was hot as a furnace, no water, and they had our range 
 to a "T." Three men lying in a shallow trench near me were blown to bits. 
 
 I went to the left of the line and found eight wounded men in a shell 
 hole. I went back to Gates' hole and three shells landed near them. We 
 thought they were killed, but they were not hit. You could hear men 
 calling for help in the wheat fields. Their cries would get weaker and 
 weaker and die out. The German planes were thick in the air; they were 
 in groups of from three to twenty. They would look us over and then we 
 would get a pounding. One of our planes got shot down; he fell about 
 a thousand feet, like an arrow, and hit in the field back of us. The tank 
 exploded and nothing was left. 
 
 We had a machine gun officer with us and at six a runner came up 
 and reported that Sumner was killed. He commanded the machine-gun 
 company with us. He was hit early in the fight by a bullet, I hear; lean 
 get no details. At the start he remarked: "This looks easy they do 
 not seem to have much art." Hughes' headquarters were all shot up. 
 Turner lost a leg. 
 
 Well, we just lay there all through the hot afternoon. 
 
 It was great a shell would land near by and you would bounce in 
 your hole. 
 
 As twilight came, we sent out water parties for the relief of the
 
 560 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 wounded. Then we wondered if we would get relieved. At 9 o'clock we 
 got a message congratulating us and saying the Algerians would take over 
 at midnight. We then began to collect our wounded. Some had been 
 evacuated during the day, but at that, we soon had about twenty on the 
 field near us. A man who had been blinded wanted me to hold his hand. 
 Another, wounded in the back, wanted his head patted, and so it went; 
 one man got up on his hands and knees. I asked him what he wanted. 
 He said, "Look at the full moon," then fell dead. I had him buried, and 
 all the rest I could find. All the time bullets sung and we prayed that 
 shelling would not start until we had our wounded on top. 
 
 The Algerians came up at midnight and we pushed out. They went 
 over at daybreak and got all shot up. We made the relief under German 
 flares and the light from a burning town. 
 
 We went out as we came, through the gulley and town, the latter by 
 now all in ruins. The place was full of gas, so we had to wear our masks. 
 We pushed on to the forest and fell down in our tracks and slept all day. 
 That afternoon a German plane got a balloon and the observer jumped 
 and landed in a high tree. It was some job getting him down. The 
 wind came up and we had to dodge falling trees and branches. As it was, 
 we lost two killed and one wounded from that cause. 
 
 That night the Germans shelled us and got three killed and seventeen 
 wounded. We moved a bit further back to the crossroad and after burying 
 a few Germans, some of whom showed signs of having been wounded before, 
 we settled down to a short stay. 
 
 It looked like rain, and so Wilmer and I went to an old dressing 
 station to salvage some cover. We collected a lot of bloody shelter halves 
 and ponchos that had been tied to poles to make stretchers, and were about 
 to go, when we stopped to look at a new grave. A rude cross made of 
 two slats from a box had written on it: 
 
 "Lester S. Wass, Captain U. S. Marines, July 18, 1918" 
 
 The old crowd at St. Nazaire and Bordeaux, Wass and Sumner killed, 
 Baston and Hunt wounded, the latter on the 18th, a clean wound, I hear, 
 through the left shoulder. We then moved further to the rear and camped 
 for the night. Dunlap came to look us over. His car was driven by a 
 sailor who got out to talk to a few of the marines, when one of the latter 
 yelled out, "Hey, fellows! Anyone want to see a real live gob, right this 
 way." The gob held a regular reception. A carrier pigeon perched on a 
 tree with a message. We decided to shoot him. It was then quite dark, so 
 the shot missed. I then heard the following as I tried to sleep: "Hell; 
 he only turned around;" "Send up a flare;" "Call for a barrage," etc. 
 The next day further to the rear still, a Ford was towed by with its front 
 wheels on a truck. 
 
 We are now back in a town for some rest and to lick our wounds. 
 
 As I rode down the battalion, where once companies 250 strong used 
 to march, now you see fifty men, with a kid second lieutenant in command; 
 one company commander is not yet twenty-one.
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY, FIELD OF GLORY 561 
 
 After the last attack I cashed in the gold you gave me and sent it 
 home along with my back pay. I have no idea of being "bumped off" 
 with money on my person, as if you fall into the enemy's hands you are 
 first robbed, then buried perhaps, but the first is sure. 
 
 Baston, the lieutenant that went to Quantico with father and myself, 
 and of whom father took some pictures, was wounded in both legs in the 
 Bois de Belleau. He nearly lost his legs, I am told, but is coming out O. K. 
 Hunt was wounded in the last attack, got his wounds fixed up and went 
 back again till he had to be sent out. Coffenburg was hit in the hand, all 
 near him were killed. Talbot was hit twice, but is about again. That 
 accounts for all the officers in the company that I brought over. In the 
 first fight 103 of the men in that outfit were killed or wounded. The 
 second fight must have about cleaned out the old crowd. 
 
 The tanks, as they crushed their way through the wet, gray forest 
 looked to me like beasts of the pre-stone age. 
 
 In the afternoon as I lay on my back in a hole that I dug deeper, the 
 dark gray German planes with their sinister black crosses, looked like 
 Death hovering above. They were for many. Sumner, for one. He was 
 always saying, "Denig, let's go ashore!" Then here was Wass, whom I 
 usually took dinner with dead, too. Sumner, Wass, Baston and Hunt 
 the old crowd that stuck together; two dead, one may never be any 
 good any more; Hunt, I hope, will be as good as as ever. 
 
 The officers mentioned in Major Denig's letter, with their 
 addresses and next of kin, are: 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel Berton W. Sibley; Harriet E. Sibley, 
 mother; Essex Junction, Vt. 
 
 First Lieutenant Clifton B. Gates; Mrs. Willis J. Gates, 
 mother; Tiptonville, Tenn. 
 
 First Lieutenant Horace Talbot, no next of kin; Woonsocket, 
 R.I. 
 
 Captain Arthur H. Turner; Charles S. Turner, father, 188 
 West River St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 
 
 Captain Bailey Metcalf Coffenberg; Mrs. Elizabeth Coffen- 
 berg, 30 Jackson St., Staten Island, N. Y. 
 
 Captain Albert Preston Baston; Mrs. Ora Z. Baston, mother; 
 Pleasant Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minn. 
 
 Captain Lester Sherwood Wass; L. A. Wass, father, Glouces- 
 ter, Mass. 
 
 Captain Allen M. Sumner; Mrs. Mary M. Sumner, wife; 
 1824 S Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Holcomb; Mrs. Thomas Hoi- 
 comb, wife, 1535 New Hampshire Avenue, Washington, D. C.
 
 562 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Second Lieutenant John Laury Hunt; Etta Newman, sister; 
 Gillet, Texas. 
 
 Captain Walter H. Sitz; Emil H. Sitz, father; Davenport, 
 Iowa. 
 
 First Lieutenant John W. Overton, son of J. M. Overton, 901 
 Stahlman Building, Nashville, Term. 
 
 Major Egbert T. Lloyd; Mrs. E. T. Lloyd, wife; 4900 Cedar 
 Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Major Ralph S. Keyser; Charles E. Keyser, father; Thor- 
 oughfare, Va. 
 
 Captain Pere Wilmer; Mrs. Alice Emory Wilmer, mother; 
 Centreville, Md. 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel John A. Hughes; Mrs. A. J. Hughes, 
 wife, care of Rear-Admiral William Parks, Post Office Building, 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Lieutenant Overton was the famous Yale athlete, the inter- 
 collegiate one-mile champion.
 
 CHAPTER XLIII 
 ENGLAND AND FRANCE STRIKE IN THE NORTH 
 
 UP TO July 18, 1918, the Allied armies in France had been 
 steadily on the defensive, but on that date the tide turned. 
 General Foch, who had been yielding territory for several 
 months in the great German drives, now assumed the 
 offensive himself and began the series of great drives which was to 
 crush the German power and drive the enemy in defeat headlong 
 from France. 
 
 The first of these great blows was the one which began with the 
 appearance of the Americans at Chateau-Thierry. The Germans 
 had formed a huge salient whose eastern extremity lay near Rheims, 
 and its western extremity west of Soissons. It was like- ft great 
 pocket reaching down in the direction of Paris from tKbse two 
 points. Against this salient the French and Americans had directed 
 a tremendous thrust. The Germans resisted with desperation. 
 It was the turning point of the war, but they were compelled to 
 yield. Town after town was regained by the French and American 
 troops, until, by August 5th, the Crown Prince had been driven from 
 the Marne to the Vesle, and the salient obliterated. 
 
 On August 7th General Foch delivered his second blow. During 
 the fighting on the Marne it had often been wondered by those who 
 were observing the great French general's strategy, why the British 
 seemed to make no move. Occasionally there had been reports of 
 minor assaults, either on the Lys salient, far north, or on the Somme 
 and Montdidier sectors, lying between. It had not been noticed 
 that in these minor assaults the English had been obtaining positions 
 of strategic importance, and that they were steadily getting ready 
 for an English offensive. 
 
 But their time had now come, and on August 7th the armies 
 of Sir Douglas Haig began an attack against the armies of Prince 
 Rupprecht on the Lys salient. This was followed, on August 8th, 
 by another still greater Allied advance in Picardy, between Albert 
 and Montdidier. 
 
 563
 
 564 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Both of these attacks met with notable success. On the Lys 
 salient the English penetrated a distance of one thousand yards 
 over a four-mile front, and followed up this advance by persistent 
 attacks which led to the reoccupation, on August 19th, of Merville, 
 and on August 31st, of Mont Kemmel. On this front the Germans 
 had weakened their strength by withdrawing troops to aid other 
 parts of then* front, and the British were constantly taking 
 advantage of this weakening. 
 
 The Germans had found this salient a failure. It had failed 
 to attain its objective, the flanking of the Lens line south. They 
 therefore were steadily retreating without any intention other than 
 to extricate themselves from positions of no value, hi the most 
 economical manner. The quick operations of the British, however, 
 led to the capture of many prisoners and guns. 
 
 The English offensive in Picardy was a more serious matter, 
 and from some points of view was the greatest offensive in the war. 
 The Allied front had been prepared for offensive operations by 
 minor attacks which had secured for the Allied troops dominating 
 positions. The attack was a surprise attack. The Germans were 
 expecting local attacks but not a movement of this magnitude. 
 The surprise was increased because it was made through a heavy 
 mist which prevented observation. It was preceded by tremendous 
 artillery fire which lasted for four minutes, and which was followed 
 by the charge of infantry and tanks. The German artillery hardly 
 replied at all, and only the resistance of a few rifles and machine 
 guns fired vaguely through the fog met the charging troops. 
 
 The attack was on a twenty-five-mile front and on the first 
 day gained seven miles, captured seven thousand men and a hundred 
 guns. On the following day there was an advance of about five 
 miles and seventeen thousand more prisoners were captured. 
 
 The Germans were now retiring in great haste, blowing up 
 ammunition dumps and abandoning an enormous quantity of 
 stores of all kinds. The English were using cavalry and airplanes, 
 which were flying low over the field and throwing the German troops 
 into confusion. Over three hundred guns, including many of 
 heavy caliber, were captured. The ground had been plowed up by 
 shells and thousands of bodies of men and horses were found lying 
 where they fell. A feature of the attack was the swift whippet 
 tanks which advanced far ahead of the infantry lines.

 
 mm m 
 
 .sJtt* h * 
 
 ,
 
 ENGLAND AND FRANCE STRIKE 567 
 
 In the French official report occurred the following statement: 
 
 "The brilliant operation which we, in concert with British 
 troops, executed yesterday has been a surprise for the enemy. 
 As occurred in the offensive of July 18th the soldiers of General 
 Debeney have captured enemy soldiers engaged in the peaceful 
 pursuit of harvesting the fields behind the German lines." 
 
 By August 10th the Germans had fallen back to a line running 
 through Chaulnes and Roye. Montdidier had been captured, and 
 eleven German divisions had been smashed. By August 12th the 
 number of prisoners was 40,000, and by the 18th the Allied front 
 was almost hi the same line as it was in the summer of 1916, before 
 the battle of the Somme. 
 
 The next step was to capture Bapaume and Peronne. The 
 French, on August 19th, captured the Lassigny Massif, and con- 
 tinued to press on their attack. Noyon fell on the 29th, Roye on 
 the 27th, Chaulnes on the 29th. Further north the British had 
 captured Albert, and on the 29th occupied Bapaume. On Septem- 
 ber 1st they took Peronne with two thousand prisoners. 
 
 The advance still continued, and the German weakness was 
 becoming more and more apparent. On September 6th the whole 
 Allied line swept forward, with an average penetration of eight 
 miles. Chauny was captured and the fortress of Ham. On 
 September 17th the British were close to St. Quentin and the 
 French in then* own old intrenchments before La Fere. On 
 September 18th a surprise advance over a twenty-two-mile front 
 crossed the Hindenburg line at two points north of St. Quentin, 
 Villeret and from Pontru to Hollom. 
 
 The first and third British armies, a little further to the north, 
 were moving toward Cambrai and Douai, threatening not only 
 them, but to get in the rear of Lens. This force proceeded up the 
 Albert-Bapaume highway, and on August 27th captured a consid- 
 erable portion of the Hindenburg line. On the 30th they reached 
 Bullecourt and on September 2d crossed the Drocourt-Queant 
 line on a six-mile front. This was the famous switch line, meant to 
 supplement the Hindenburg line and its capture meant the complete 
 overthrow of the German intrenched positions at this point. 
 
 The Germans retreated hastily to the Canal du Nord, and on 
 September 3d Queant was captured by an advance on a twenty- 
 mile front, along with ten thousand prisoners. The Allied forces
 
 568 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR
 
 ENGLAND AND FRANCE STRIKE 569 
 
 were moving steadily forward. On September 18th the British 
 reached the defenses of Cambrai and were encircling the city of 
 St. Quentin. On October 3d the advance upon Cambrai forced the 
 Germans to evacuate the Lens coal fields, and on October 9th 
 another advance over a thirty-mile front enabled the Allies to 
 occupy Cambrai and St. Quentin. On the llth they had reached 
 the suburbs of Douai. By this time the whole of the Picardy 
 salient had been wiped out. 
 
 The preceding summary of this great movement gives little 
 idea of the tremendous struggle which had gone on during these 
 two critical months, and hardly does more than suggest the tre- 
 mendous importance of the British operations. The Hindenburg 
 line was like a great fortification, and for more than a year had 
 been regarded as impregnable. At Bullecourt there were two 
 mam lines. One hundred and twenty-five yards hi front of the 
 first line was a belt of wire twenty-five feet broad, so thick that it 
 could not be seen through. The line itself contained double 
 machine-gun emplacements of ferro-concrete, one hundred and 
 twenty-five yards apart, with lesser emplacements between them. 
 More belts of wire protected the support line. Here a continuous 
 tunnel had been constructed at a depth of over forty feet. Every 
 thirty-five yards there were exits with flights of forty-five steps. 
 The tunnels were roofed and lined and bottomed with heavy timber, 
 and numerous rooms branched off. They were lighted by electricity. 
 Large nine-inch trench mortars stood at the traverses and strong 
 machine-gun positions covered the line from behind. 
 
 The Hindenburg line was really only one of a series of twenty 
 lines, each connected with the others by communicating trenches. 
 The main lines were solid concrete, separated by an unending vista 
 of wire entanglements. At points this barrier barbed wire extended 
 in solid formation for ten miles. This tremendous system of 
 defenses was originally called by the Germans the Siegfried line, 
 and hi the spring of 1917 they found it wise, at points where a 
 strong offensive was expected, to fall back to it for protection. 
 It had been their hope that it would prove an impassable barrier 
 to the Allied troops, but now it had been broken, and the moral 
 effect of the British success was even greater than the material. 
 
 One of the most noticeable results of the British advance had 
 been the capture of Lens. It had been captured without a fight,
 
 570 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 because of the British threat upon its rear, but its capture was of 
 tremendous importance. Lens had been the scene of bitter fighting 
 hi the latter part of August, 1917, when the Canadians had specially 
 distinguished themselves. This city had been heavily fortified by 
 the Germans who had recognized its importance as being the 
 center of the great Lens coal fields, and they had never given it up. 
 It had sometimes been described as the strongest single position 
 that had ever confronted the Allies on the western front. It had 
 been made a sort of citadel of reinforced concrete. Even the 
 courage and power of the Canadians had only given them possession 
 of some of its suburbs. Between these suburbs and the concrete 
 citadel were the coal pits, with their fathomless depths of ages and 
 the mysteries of kultural strategy. The struggle became a 
 succession of avalanches of gas, burning oil, rifle and machine-gun 
 fire. Both sides lost terrifically, but the Germans had held the 
 town. Now it was given up without a blow and its great coal 
 fields were once more hi possession of the French. Before retreat- 
 ing the Germans showed their usual destructive energy and the 
 mines were found flooded as a result of consistent and scientific 
 use of dynamite. 
 
 The recapture of Lens was cheering news in Paris. Not the 
 least of the many sufferings of the French during the last two 
 years of the war was that which came from the scarcity of coal. 
 Indeed, more than once during those two winters coal could not 
 be obtained at any price. These periods unfortunately came in 
 the latter part of the winter, and it happened they were unusual 
 periods of intense cold. Thousands of people stayed hi bed all day 
 hi order to keep warm. The capture of Lens, therefore, had been 
 anxiously desired. Nearly the whole of the French coal supply 
 had come from Lens and the adjacent Bethune coal fields. The 
 Bethune field, although steadily working, had never produced 
 enough coal for even the pressing necessities of the French munition 
 works. 
 
 The news that Bapaume had fallen on August 29th brought 
 back, especially to the British, memories not only of the previous 
 year and of the great forward movement which, on March 17th, 
 had swept them over Bapaume and Peronne, but also bitter memo- 
 ries of the retreat in the previous March, which had carried them 
 back under the overwhelming German pressure. The capture
 
 ENGLAND AND FRANCE STRIKE 571 
 
 therefore was balm to their spirits, and an English correspondent, 
 Mr. Philip Gibbs, who had accompanied the British on their previous 
 advance, found officers and men full of laughter and full of 
 memories. 
 
 On all sides were the battle-fields of 1916 and 1917; Mametz 
 Wood, Belleville Wood, Usna Hill, Ginchy, Morval, Guillemont. 
 The fields were covered with battle debris, and yet to the English 
 it was sacred ground from the graves of the men who fell there. 
 Those graves still remained. The British shell fire had not touched 
 them, but as the English advanced there were many bodies of 
 gray-clad men on the roads and fields, and dead horses, and a 
 litter of barbed wire, and deep shelters dug under banks, and shell 
 craters, and helmets, gas masks, and rifles thrown here and there 
 by the enemy as they fled. Now it was the Germans that were 
 fleeing, and fleeing hopelessly, sullen, bitter at their officers, 
 impatient of discipline. 
 
 One of the great differences between the attacks of the Allies in 
 then" last year of the war and those of preceding years, was the 
 increased use and the improved character of the tanks. The tanks 
 were a development of the war. Before the war, however, the 
 development of the caterpillar tractor had suggested to a few far- 
 sighted people the possibility of evolving from this invention a 
 machine capable of offensive use over rough country in close 
 warfare. Experiments were made in behalf of the English War 
 Office for some time without practical results. 
 
 At last, after these experiments had resulted hi various failures, 
 a type of tractor was finally designed which produced satisfactory 
 results. It was a caterpillar tractor, with an endless self -laid track, 
 over which internal driving wheels could be propelled by the 
 engines. It was not until July, 1916, that the first consignment of 
 these new engines of warfare arrived at the secret maneuver ground. 
 
 There were two kinds. One called the male was armed with 
 two Hotchkiss quick-fire guns, as well as with an armament of 
 machine guns. The other type, called the female, was armed only 
 with machine guns. The male tank was designed for dealing with 
 the concrete emplacements for the German machine guns. The 
 other was more suitable for dealing with machine-gun personnel 
 and riflemen. Some time was taken in training men to use these 
 tanks, for the crew of a tank must suffer a great deal of hardship;
 
 572 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 on account of the noise of the engine every command had to be 
 made by signs, and the motion of the tank being like that of a ship 
 on a heavy sea, was likely to produce seasickness. 
 
 The tanks were painted with weird colors for the purpose of 
 concealment, and when they first appeared caused a great deal of 
 wonder and amusement. They were first used in battle on Septem- 
 ber 15, 1916, in a continuation of the battle of the Somme, and 
 proved a great surprise to the Germans. The Germans directed 
 all available rifle and machine-gun fire upon them without success. 
 A correspondent narrates that : "As the 'Creme de Menthe' moved 
 on its way, the bullets fell from its sides harmlessly. It advanced 
 upon a, broken wall, leaned up against it heavily, until it fell with 
 a crasfi of bricks, and then rose on to the bricks and passed over 
 them and walked straight into the midst of factory rums." They 
 were an immense success and had come to stay.
 
 CHAPTER XLIV 
 
 BELGIUM'S GALLANT EFFORT 
 
 FOR more than four years Belgium suffered under the iron 
 heel of the German invaders. One little corner in the far 
 west was occupied by her gallant army, fighting with the 
 utmost courage and a patriotism which has won the admira- 
 tion of the world under its great King Albert, whose heroic- leader- 
 ship had turned the little commercial nation into a nation of heroes. 
 Conditions of life in the Belgian cities were almost intolerable. 
 The great Belgian Relief Commission, under the direction of Mr. 
 Hoover, had kept the people from starvation, but it could not 
 secure them their rights. They lived in the midst of brutality and 
 injustice. 
 
 On Belgian Independence Day at London, Arthur J. Balfour, 
 the British Foreign Minister, made an address in which he com- 
 mented upon the German treatment of Belgium. In the course 
 of his address he said: "Bitter must be the thought hi every Belgian 
 heart of what Belgians in Belgium are now suffering. Let them 
 however, take courage. Let their spirits rise hi a mood of profound 
 cheerfulness, for these dark days are not going to last forever, 
 and when they come to a conclusion, when again peace dawns 
 upon this much tormented and cruelly tried world, when Belgium 
 is again free and prosperous, then Belgians, whether they have 
 spent these unhappy years in exile, or, an even harder fate, have 
 spent them in their own country, they will be able to look back 
 upon this tune of cruel and unexampled trial, and they will say to 
 themselves, to their children and to their descendants, that Belgium, 
 though her existence as a political entity is less than a century, 
 has within that period shown an example of courage, constancy 
 and virtue to mankind for which all the world should be grateful." 
 
 The English Foreign Minister was perhaps not prophesying. 
 He knew something of what was coming. The Great Offensive 
 which was to free Belgium of her German oppressor was already 
 under way. The first move, however, was not upon land, but 
 
 573
 
 574 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 upon the sea. In the autumn of 1914 the little Belgian port of 
 Zeebrugge, with the neighboring port of Ostend, was captured 
 by the Germans. The Germans, who had already seized the ship- 
 building plants at Antwerp, then began to build submarines, and 
 sent them down the canals through Bruges to Zeebrugge and 
 Ostend. From these ports they proceeded to attack the English 
 commerce. 
 
 In the spring of 1918 submarine attacks on English shipping 
 were so serious that England was using every possible effort to 
 destroy these piratical craft, and it was determined to make an 
 attempt to block the entrances to the canals at Zeebrugge and at 
 Ostend, by sinking old ships in the channels. 
 
 The expedition took place during the night of April 22d, 
 under the command of Vice- Admiral Sir Roger Keyes. Six obsolete 
 British cruisers took part in the expedition. These were the Bril- 
 liant, Iphigenia, Sirius, Intrepid, Thetis and Vindictive. The 
 Vindictive carried storming parties to destroy the stone mole at 
 Zeebrugge; the remaining five cruisers were filled with concrete, 
 and it was intended that they should be sunk hi the entrances of 
 the two ports. A large force of monitors and small fast craft 
 accompanied the expedition. An observer thus describes the 
 heroic exploit: 
 
 The night was overcast and there was a drifting haze. Down 
 the coast a great searchlight swung its beam to and fro in the 
 small wind and short sea. From the Vindictive's bridge, as she 
 headed in toward the mole, there was scarcely a glimmer of light 
 to be seen shoreward. Ahead as she drove through the water 
 rolled the smoke screen, her cloak of invisibility, wrapped about 
 her by small craft. This was the device of Wing-Commander 
 Brock, without which, acknowledged the Admiral in command, 
 the operation could not have been conducted. A northeast wind 
 moved the volume of it shoreward ahead of the ships. Beyond it 
 was the distant town, its defenders unsuspicious. 
 
 It was not until the Vindictive, with bluejackets and marines 
 standing ready for landing, was close upon the mole, that the wind 
 lulled and came away again from the southeast, sweeping back 
 the smoke screen and laying her bare to eyes that looked seaward. 
 There was a moment immediately afterward when it seemed to 
 chose on the ships as if the dim harbor exploded into light. A
 
 BELGIUM'S GALLANT EFFORT 575 
 
 star shell soared aloft, then a score of star shells. Wavering beams 
 of the searchlights swung around and settled into a glare. A wild 
 fire of gun flashes leaped against the sky; strings of luminous 
 green beads shot aloft, hung and sank. The darkness of the night 
 was supplemented by a nightmare daylight of battle-fired guns, 
 and machine guns along the mole. The batteries ashore woke 
 to life. 
 
 It was in a gale of shelling that the Vindictive laid her nose 
 against the thirty-foot-high concrete side of the mole, let go her 
 anchor, and signaled to the Daffodil to shove her stern in. The 
 Iris went ahead and endeavored to get alongside likewise. 
 
 The fire was intense while the ships plunged and rolled beside 
 the mole in the seas, the Vindictive, with her greater draft, jarring 
 against the foundations of the mole with every lunge. They were 
 swept diagonally by machine-gun fire from both ends of the mole 
 and by the heavy batteries on shore. Captain Carpenter conned 
 the Vindictive from the open bridge until her stern was laid in, 
 when he took up his position in the flame thrower hut on the port 
 side. It is marvelous that any occupant should have survived a 
 minute in this hut, so riddled and shattered was it. 
 
 The officer of the Iris, which was in trouble ahead of the 
 Vindictive, described Captain Carpenter as handling her like a 
 picket boat. The Vindictive was fitted along her port side with a 
 high, false deck, from which ran eighteen brows, or gangways, by 
 which the storming and demolition parties were to land. The 
 men gathered in readiness on the main lower decks, while Colonel 
 Elliott, who was to lead the marines, waited on the false deck just 
 abaft the bridge. Captain Hallahan, who commanded the blue- 
 jackets, was amidships. The word for the assault had not yet 
 been given when both leaders were killed. 
 
 The mere landing on the mole was a perilous business. It 
 involved a passage across the crashing and splintering gangways, 
 a drop over the parapet into the field of fire of the German machine- 
 guns which swept its length, and a further drop of some sixteen 
 feet to the surface of the mole itself. Many were killed and more 
 wounded as they crowded up the gangways, but nothing hindered 
 the orderly and speedy landing by every gangway. The lower 
 deck was a shambles, as the commander made the round of the 
 ship, yet the wounded and dying raised themselves to cheer as 
 he made his tour.
 
 576 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The Iris had trouble of her own. Her first attempts to make 
 fast to the mole ahead of the Vindictive failed, as her grapnels 
 were not large enough to span the parapet. Two officers, Lieu- 
 tenant-Commander Bradford, and Lieutenant Hawkins, climbed 
 ashore and sat astride the parapet trying to make the grapnels 
 
 ZEEBRUQGE HARBOR, BLOCKED BY BRITISH 
 
 fast, till each was killed, and fell down between the ship and the 
 wall. Commander Valentine Gibbs had both legs shot away, 
 and died next morning. Lieutenant Spencer though wounded, 
 took command and refused to be relieved. 
 
 The Iris was obliged at last to change her position and fall 
 in astern of the Vindictive, which suffered very heavily from fire.
 
 BELGIUM'S GALLANT EFFORT 577 
 
 Her total casualties were eight officers and sixty-nine men killed, 
 and three officers and 103 men wounded. 
 
 The storming parties upon the mole met with no resistance 
 from the Germans other than an intense and unremitting fire. 
 One after another buildings burst into flames, or split and crumbled 
 as dynamite went off. A bombing party working up toward the 
 mole in search of the enemy destroyed several machine gun emplace- 
 ments but not a single prisoner awarded them. It appears that 
 upon the approach of the ships and with the opening of fire the 
 enemy simply retired and contented themselves with bringing 
 machine guns to the short end of the mole. 
 
 The object of the fighting on the mole was in large part to 
 divert the enemy's attention while the work of blocking the canals 
 was being accomplished. 
 
 Of this operation the official narrative says: "The Thetis 
 came first steaming into a tornado of shells from great batteries 
 ashore. All her crew save a remnant who remained to steam her 
 in and sink her, already had been taken off her by a ubiquitous 
 motor launch. The remnant spared hands enough to keep her 
 four guns going. It was hers to show the road to the Intrepid 
 and Iphigenia which followed. She cleared a string of armed 
 barges, which defends the channel from the tip of the mole, but 
 had the ill-fortune to foul one of her propellers upon a net defense 
 which flanks it on the shore side. The propeller gathered hi the 
 net and it rendered her practically unmanageable. Shore batteries 
 found her and pounded her unremittingly. She bumped into the 
 bank, edged off and found herself in the channel again, still some 
 hundreds of yards from the mouth of the canal in practically a 
 sinking condition. As she lay she signaled invaluable directions 
 to others, and her commander blew charges and sank it. Motor 
 launches took off her crew. The Intrepid, smoking like a volcano, 
 and with all her guns blazing, followed. Her motor launch had 
 failed to get alongside, outside the harbor, and she had men enough 
 for anything. Straight into the canal she steered, her smoke 
 blowing back from her into the Iphigenia's eyes so that the latter 
 was blinded, and going a little wild, ran into the dredger, with her 
 barge moored beside it, which lay at the western arm of the canal. 
 She was not clear though, and entered the canal, pushing the barge 
 before her.
 
 578 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "It was then that a shell hit the steam connections of her 
 whistle and the escape of steam which followed drove off some of 
 the smoke, and let her see what she was doing. Lieutenant Carter, 
 commanding the Intrepid, placed the nose of his ship neatly on 
 the mud of the western bank, ordered his crew away, and blew 
 up his ship by switches in the chart room. Lieutenant Leake, 
 commanding the Iphigenia, beached her according to arrangement 
 on the eastern side, blew her up, saw her drop nicely across the 
 canal, and left her with her engines still going to hold her in posi- 
 tion till she should have bedded well down on the bottom. Accord- 
 ing to the latest reports from air observation the two old ships, 
 with their holds full of concrete, are lying across the canal hi a 
 V-position, and it is probable that the work they set out to do has 
 been accomplished and that the canal is effectively blocked." 
 
 At Ostend an attempt was also made to block the canal on 
 the same night, but it was unsuccessful owing to a shift of wind 
 which blew away the smoke screen behind which the British craft 
 were acting, and enabled the German gun fire to destroy the flares 
 which had been lit to mark the entrance to the harbor. The cruisers 
 tried to act by guess work, and one of the block ships was sunk, 
 but it was not in a position to obstruct the canal. 
 
 On May 9th another attempt was made, and the Vindictive, 
 filled with concrete was sunk in the Ostend channel. 
 
 This daring exploit of the English fleet, though it had destroyed 
 the value of Zeebrugge and Ostend as submarine bases, had left 
 the Germans in possession. In September, however, General 
 Foch determined that the time had come to throw his armies 
 against the German forces in the distracted little country. He 
 planned two widely separated thrusts. On the south he sent 
 Pershing against the Germans between the Argonne and the Meuse. 
 They made rapid progress, capturing Montfaucon, Varennes and 
 driving on until they had destroyed the German control of the 
 Paris-Chalons-Verdun Railroad. 
 
 This was a serious blow to the Germans, for a further push 
 northward would cut the vital lateral railway connecting the 
 German armies hi Belgium and France with those in Alsace- 
 Lorraine. Ludendorf hastened reserves to this front, and the 
 American operation was slowed down. Meanwhile at the other
 
 BELGIUM'S GALLANT EFFORT 579 
 
 end of the line the Belgians, with General Plumer's Second British 
 Army, suddenly attacked on a front which extended all the way 
 from the canal at Dixmude to the Lys, swept the Germans out of 
 all the famous fighting ground of the Ypres salient, pushed across 
 the Passchendaele Ridge and down into the Flanders plain below. 
 
 The situation of the Germans in the Lille regions of the south 
 and also along the Belgian coast became at once dangerous. Once 
 more Ludendorf was compelled to send reserves, and this thrust 
 began to slow up but it was not checked permanently, and the 
 Belgian armies were to move on. While this advance was being 
 conducted the British fleet were bombarding the coastal defenses. 
 The Belgian army, righting with the utmost spirit under command 
 of King Albert, made a penetration of five miles and captured 
 four thousand prisoners and an immense amount of supplies. 
 
 On September 30th they captured the city of Holders. For 
 ten days there was a consolidation of position by the Allies, but 
 on October 14th they made a furious attack in the general direc- 
 tion of Ghent and Courtrai. Thousands of prisoners and several 
 complete batteries of guns were captured. In this attack British, 
 Belgian and French troops took part, and the troops of the three 
 nations went over the top without preliminary bombardment, 
 taking the enemy by surprise. 
 
 On October 15th the news from Flanders showed that the 
 victory was growing in extent, the Allied armies were advancing 
 on a front of about twenty-five miles, and in some places had 
 penetrated the enemy's positions six or seven miles. The Belgians 
 had captured seven thousand prisoners and the British and French 
 about four thousand. In French Flanders the British advanced 
 to a point about three miles west of Lille. 
 
 The battle was carried on in a heavy rain which turned the 
 battle-fields into seas of mud; while this hampered the Allied 
 troops it hindered even more the Germans in trying to move away 
 their material through the mired ground of the Flanders Lowland. 
 
 On the next day dispatches indicated that a retreat on a 
 tremendous scale in northern Belgium was under way. The 
 Germans were retreating so fast that the Allies lost touch with 
 the enemy. The gallant little Belgian army, assisted by crack 
 British and French troops, had driven the despoilers of its country 
 from a large section which the Germans had occupied since the
 
 580 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 early days of the war, and had gained positions of such importance 
 as to make it probable that the Germans would have to abandon 
 the entire coast of Belgium. 
 
 Moreover, on the south, the city of Lille, with the great mining 
 and manufacturing districts around it, was being left in a salient 
 which was growing deeper every hour and which the enemy could 
 not hope to hold. At certain points the resistance of the Germans 
 was extraordinarily fierce. This was especially true in the region 
 of Thouret. The battle here was from street to street and from 
 house to house. The Germans had placed machine-guns in the 
 windows of houses and cellars and fired murderous streams of 
 bullets into the advancing Belgians but were unable to stop them. 
 
 The Belgians fought with a dogged determination such as 
 only troops fighting to regain their outraged country could display. 
 Nothing could stop them. At other points, especially in the 
 northern part of the battle area, the Germans surrendered freely. 
 Many civilians were rescued from the towns and districts cap- 
 tured, and little processions of these were straggling rearward 
 out of range of the guns, and out of the way of the fighting troops. 
 At times liberated Belgian women could see their sons, brothers 
 or husbands going forward into battle. On October 17th the 
 German retreat in Flanders became a rout. The enemy were 
 fleeing rapidly on their entire front. The British entered Lille. 
 
 The Germans fled from Ostend and British naval forces were 
 landed there. The Belgian infantry were sweeping up the coast, 
 and Belgian patrols entered Bruges. In the afternoon of the day 
 King Albert of Belgium, and Queen Elizabeth entered Ostend. 
 The splendid fighting of the Belgian troops and their magnificent 
 victory was now attracting universal attention. It was one of the 
 revelations of the war. They were bearing the giant's share of 
 the work of the Allied armies in their own country, and had already 
 liberated territory which more than doubled the area of that part 
 of Belgium which had been in their possession. 
 
 With the Belgian coast cleared of invaders it became open to 
 British transports which would afford relief to the whole Allied 
 armies from the resultant decrease in the congestion of the channel 
 ports. On October 19th the progress continued. Zeebrugge 
 was occupied by the Allies, the last Belgian port remaining in 
 German hands.
 
 BELGIUM'S GALLANT EFFORT 581 
 
 The Belgian advance continued along the whole line. King 
 Albert entered Bruges. Day after day the advance continued. 
 The reception of the King and Queen of Belgium in the recovered 
 towns was something to remember. In Bruges they rode in amid 
 the tumultuous cheering of the frenzied population. On the central 
 square they were received by the burgomaster with an escort of a 
 solitary gendarme, who had refused to give up his uniform and old- 
 fashioned rifle to the enemy; though fined and imprisoned he had 
 kept their hiding place secret. As he stood there alone with fixed 
 bayonet the King and the Queen shook him by the hand and con- 
 gratulated him. Greatly moved, he stammered, "It is too great 
 an honor, too great an honor." 
 
 And with all this happiness came the happiness arising from 
 the return of the soldiers to the homes from which they had been 
 absent so long, the reunions of husband and wife, of parents and 
 children. Belgium was now to reap the reward for her heroism.
 
 CHAPTER XLV 
 
 ITALY'S TERRIFIC DRIVE 
 
 FOR many months after the great Italian stand on the Piave 
 there was inactivity on both fronts in Italy. The Italians 
 had been reinforced by troops from France and Great 
 Britain and their own army was now larger than it had 
 been at any other time. On June 15th, about the time when the 
 Germans were being driven back on the Marne and the Oise, the 
 Austrians, urged to action by the Germans, suddenly undertook 
 a great offensive on a front from the Asiago Plateau to the sea, a 
 distance of ninety-seven miles. 
 
 From the very start it was plain that the Italians were resisting 
 magnificently. The offensive was not unexpected, either in time 
 or locality, and had been openly discussed in the Italian press. 
 The Italians therefore were not taken by surprise, and moreover 
 since the disaster of Caparetto the Italians had learned by a patient 
 campaign of education what they were fighting for. 
 
 On the second day of the battle the Austrian troops made a 
 desperate effort to break through the Italian lines, particularly in 
 the eastern sector of the Asiago Plateau, and crossed the Piave 
 River at two places. They also attacked the French positions 
 between Osteria di Monfenera and Maranzine, but were driven 
 back with heavy loss. At every point where the Austrians were 
 able to advance the Italians initiated vigorous counter-attacks. 
 The order to Italy's army was, "Hold at any cost." 
 
 On the third day of the battle the Austrian offensive was 
 being strongly checked. They had established three bridgeheads 
 on the Piave, but had not been able to advance. The most notable 
 of these crossings was that in the Montello sector. Montello is of 
 particular importance, because it is the hinge between the mountains 
 and the Piave sectors of the Italian front. If it could be held the 
 Austrians would be in a position to dominate from the flank and 
 rear all the Italian positions defending the line of the Piave in the 
 dead flat plain to the south. 
 
 582
 
 STORMING THE MOLE AT ZEEBRUGGE 
 
 One of the most brilliant and spectacular feats in naval history was the British 
 blocking of the submarine harbor at Zeebrugge. The picture shows one of the detach- 
 nents of marines that braved the terrific German defense fire and swarmed up the 
 mole that protects the harbor, planting explosives that made a great breach and let 
 the tides in.
 
 ITALY'S TERRIFIC DRIVE 585 
 
 On the Lower Piave the Austrians had made gains and had 
 captured Capo Sile. The Austrians were using a million men and 
 were using liquid fire and gas bombs, but their every move was 
 resisted strongly. Vienna was claiming the capture of 30,000 men, 
 but the Italian reports claimed that the Austrian losses were stu- 
 pendous. Thousands of dead were heaped before the Italian line 
 in the mountain sectors, blocking the mule paths and choking the 
 defiles. No fewer than nine desperate onslaughts upon Monte 
 Grappa, always with fresh reserves, were broken upon Grappa 
 heights, with terrific losses. 
 
 On July 19th the dispatches from Rome were emphasizing the 
 Italian counter-attacks. Not only were the Italians preventing the 
 enemy from making further gains, but they were beginning to 
 crowd him back at the points where he had crossed the river, and 
 were raining bombs and machine-gun bullets upon the Austrian 
 troops at the bridgehead. They were also taking the initiative in 
 the fighting in the mountain sectors. 
 
 By June 20th the Austrian defeat was clear. Then* forces 
 were backed against the flooded Piave, which had carried away 
 their bridges and left them to the mercy of the Italians. Thousands 
 were being killed and other thousands captured. Czecho-Slovak 
 troops, it was reported, had joined in the fighting, and had given 
 their first tribute of blood to the generous principles of freedom and 
 independence for which they were in arms. In the Piave delta the 
 Italians had regained Capo Sile, which had been captured early in 
 the drive, and it was reported that all along the Piave line they had 
 won complete control of the air, not a single Austrian machine 
 being still aloft. The spirits of the Austrian troops had been 
 definitely weakened. They were war wearied, and evidence began 
 to accumulate that Austria's drive was a "hunger offensive." 
 
 As the battle continued reports began to arrive of the gallant 
 deeds of American airmen, who were helping in the fighting along the 
 front. The airmen were assisting in destroying the bridges that 
 the Austrians were trying to throw across the river. The Piave 
 was now a vast cataract and the bridges which it had not washed 
 down were constantly destroyed by the aviators. The Austrians 
 on the western bank were finding it difficult to obtain supplies and 
 were resorting to hydroplanes for that purpose. On June 24th the 
 Austrian attack had definitely failed and they were fleeing in dis-
 
 586 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 order across the Piave. One hundred and eighty thousand men 
 had already been lost and forty thousand were hemmed in on the 
 western side of the river. The Austrian communications were 
 emphasizing the difficulties they were meeting with through the 
 heavy rains. 
 
 The victory of the Italians, which was now apparent, was 
 received all over Italy with great public rejoicing. Italy had been 
 repenting hi sackcloth and ashes her defeat of the previous fall. 
 Now they had made amends and were showing what the Italian 
 soldier could really do. In America, and among the Allied Powers, 
 there was great enthusiasm, and Secretary of War Baker sent this 
 congratulatory message to the Italian Minister of War: 
 
 Your Excellency: The people of the United States are watching with 
 enthusiasm and admiration the splendid exploits of the great army of 
 Italy in resisting and driving back the enemy forces which recently under- 
 took a major offensive on the Italian front. I take great pleasure in 
 tendering my own hearty congratulations, and would be most happy to 
 have a message of greeting and congratulation transmitted to General 
 Diaz and his brave soldiers. 
 
 NEWTON D. BAKER, 
 Secretary of War of the United States. 
 
 In announcing to his victorious army the repulse of the 
 Austrians General Diaz, the Italian Commander-in-Chief, said: 
 "The enemy who, with furious impetuosity, used all means to 
 penetrate our territory has been repulsed at all points. His losses 
 are very heavy. His pride is broken. Glory to all commands, all 
 soldiers, all sailors." 
 
 On the 26th of June the Italian troops, having forced the last 
 rear guard of the retreating Austrians to surrender and completely 
 occupied the west bank of the Piave, began an offensive on the 
 mountain front in the Monte Grappa sector. They gained more 
 than 3,000 prisoners, and considerable territory. On the southern 
 part of the Piave front they were carrying on a vigorous offensive 
 against the Austrian positions within the Piave delta. The 
 Austrian troops, at that point, were being prevented from retreat 
 by the high water, and suffered terrible losses. On July 6th the 
 Italians drove the last of the enemy from the delta. 
 
 The campaign in Italy now languished, until, on October 27th, 
 Italy began her last terrible drive. The great Italian offensive
 
 ITALY'S TERRIFIC DRIVE 587 
 
 was made not only by their own forces and the French and British 
 troops, which had assisted them the previous June, but during the 
 intervening period a large force of Americans had arrived in Italy. 
 On June 27th Secretary Baker had made the announcement that 
 General Pershing had been instructed to send into Italy a regi- 
 ment that was then in training in France. The regiment thus sent 
 was augmented considerably later. The purpose of sending troops 
 to Italy, Mr. Baker explained, was rather political than military. 
 It was desired to demonstrate again that the Allied nations and the 
 United States were one in then* purposes on all fronts, and to extend 
 the intercourse between the troops of all the powers at war with 
 Germany. 
 
 On the second day of the Italian offensive their success 
 increased. More than nine thousand Austrians were taken prisoners 
 and fifty-one guns were captured. The Piave River had been 
 crossed, and the Italians had advanced four miles to its east. 
 The attacks in the mountain region were being more bitterly con- 
 tested, and counter-attacks had enabled the enemy to regain some 
 of their lost positions. 
 
 On October 30th the Italian advance was continuing. The 
 Austrian front appeared to be breaking under the heavy blows of 
 the Allied troops. Dispatches indicated striking successes, not 
 only on the Italian front but at the points where the British and the 
 French were holding the line. The Americans were being held in 
 reserve, but American airplanes were actively participating in the 
 work at the front. By this time the last lines of the Austro- 
 Hungarian resistance on the central positions along the Piave 
 River had been broken, and more than fifteen thousand prisoners 
 been taken. The Austrians, however, had been desperately resisting, 
 and then* artillery fire at many points was very effective, especially 
 that which had been directed at the pontoon bridges thrown across 
 the Piave. 
 
 King Victor Emanuel had been present hi person during the 
 crossing, and was often under the fire of the Austrian guns. On 
 October 30th, 33,000 Austrians had been captured and the Italians 
 had reached Vittorio. Americans had now joined in the fighting. 
 
 The Austrian retreat reached the proportion of a rout. They 
 were still fighting, especially in the mountain region, but in the 
 plains east of the Piave they were hi full flight. Taking into
 
 588 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 consideration the numbers of troops in the Austrian lines and their 
 apparently plentiful supplies, it began to seem probable that their 
 break was due more to political maneuvers than to military force. 
 The Austrians at this time were making a great peace drive, and 
 the dissatisfaction at home had affected the morale of the troops 
 at the front. The conditions in Italy were in close resemblance to 
 those in Bulgaria just before Bulgaria applied for an armistice. 
 
 On the 1st of November the Austrians were completely routed, 
 and were streaming in confusion down the valleys of the Alpine 
 foothills, and fleeing northward from the Piave. Reports from 
 Austria indicated riots at Vienna and Budapest. In Vienna people 
 were parading the streets, shouting "Down with the Hapsburgs!" 
 On October 29th, the Austrians asked for an armistice. Their 
 announcement read as follows: 
 
 The High Command of the armies, early Tuesday, by means of a 
 Parliamentaire, established communication with the Italian army com- 
 mand. Every effort is to be made for the avoidance of further useless 
 sacrifice of blood, for the cessation of hostilities, and the conclusion of an 
 armistice. Toward this step which is animated by the best intentions the 
 Italian High Command at first assumed an attitude of unmistakable 
 refusal, and it was only on the evening of Wednesday that, in accord with 
 the Italian High Command, General Weber, accompanied by a deputation, 
 was permitted to cross the fighting line for preliminary pourparlers. 
 
 General Diaz, the Italian Commander, had referred the 
 Austrian request to the Versailles Conference, and had acted in 
 accordance with their direction. In proposing the armistice the 
 Austrians had also expressed their resolve to bring about peace and 
 to evacuate the occupied territory of Italy. This was the beginning 
 of the end. 
 
 The northern part of Italy is bounded by the Alps, and between 
 those lofty ranges and the deep valleys there had been constant 
 fighting. In this fighting, both on mountain and in valley, there 
 were the most extraordinary deeds of individual heroism, con- 
 stantly exhibited. 
 
 The Alpine regiments, known in Italy as the Alpini, were men 
 of extraordinary physical powers, accustomed to mountain climbing, 
 and filled with courage and patriotism. Owing to the nature of the 
 territory in such contests, only a limited number of men could be 
 used at one time, and the fighting went on over masses of snow or
 
 ITALY'S TERRIFIC DRIVE 589 
 
 solid rock. Guns were hauled up precipices and dugouts excavated 
 in the rock itself. The Italian troops, clothed in white overalls to 
 prevent their being seen, moved with great rapidity from point to 
 point, and forced their enemy to keep constantly on the alert. 
 In the great Italian drive just described the most bitter fighting was 
 that which occurred in these mountainous regions. 
 
 The work of the Italian aviators is also worthy of special 
 attention. They not only secured entire command of the air, 
 but by flying low they often threw into confusion with then* machine 
 guns the Austrian infantry. Their wonderful work in bringing in 
 military information, and in bombing expeditions, was not excelled, 
 if it was equaled, by the airmen of any other country. The 
 Itab'an airplanes themselves were engineering triumphs. The 
 inventive genius so notable in these days in Italy found expression 
 in their development. Some of their machines were the biggest 
 made during the whole war, and the long journeys made by such 
 machines deserve special mention. The most interesting feat of this 
 kind was performed on August 9th by the famous poet, Captain 
 Gabrielle D'Annunzio. Accompanied by eight Italian machines, 
 he flew to the city of Vienna, a total distance of 620 miles, and 
 dropped copies of an Allied manifesto over the city. They crossed 
 the Alps in a great wind storm at a height of ten thousand feet, 
 and all but one returned safely. The manifesto, which was written 
 by D'Annunzio reads as follows: 
 
 People of Vienna, you are fated to know the Italians. We are flying 
 over Vienna and could drop tons of bombs. On the contrary we leave a 
 salutation and the flag with its colors of liberty. We Italians do not make 
 war on children, the aged and women. We make war on your govern- 
 ment, which is the enemy of the liberty of nations, on your blind, wanton, 
 cruel government, which gives you neither peace nor bread, and nurtures 
 you on hatred and delusions. People of Vienna, you have the reputation 
 of being intelligent, why then do you wear the Prussian uniform? Now 
 you see the entire world is against you, do you wish to continue the war? 
 Keep on, then, but it will be your suicide. What can you hope from 
 the victory promised to you by the Prussian generals? Their decisive 
 victory is like the bread of the Ukraine, one dies while awaiting it. 
 People of Vienna, think of your dear ones, awake! Long live Italy, 
 Liberty and the Entente! 
 
 It was said that copies of this proclamation in Vienna had a 
 value of fifty dollars a copy. D'Annunzio's great fame had
 
 590 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 seized upon the popular imagination. His career in the war would 
 have been interesting in itself, but when one recognizes that he 
 was already a world figure, the greatest modern Italian dramatist 
 and novelist, his life seems almost like a fairy story. Before the 
 war began he made addresses all over his country, urging Italy's 
 participation in the war, and when war was declared, to him, as 
 much as to any other man, was due the credit. He entered the 
 navy, and has written some fascinating descriptions of his life on 
 board ship. Later he joined the airplane corps, and now was 
 showering down upon the gaping populace of Vienna appeals to 
 rise against its Hapsburg masters. D 'Annunzio was extraordinary 
 in his literary career. He had been the poet of passion, a writer of 
 novels and plays, which, although artistic in the highest degree, 
 showed him to be an egotist and a decadent. But long before 
 the war he had tired of his erotic productions and had begun to 
 write the praises of Nature and of heroes. He had been singing the 
 praises of his country. "La Nave" symbolizes the glory of Venice. 
 He had become more wholesome. War was making him not only 
 a man but a hero. 
 
 Of course D'Annunzio was not the only great literary man 
 who had left the study for the battle-field. JSschylus fought at 
 Marathon and Salamis; Ariosto put down a rebellion for his prince 
 between composition of cantos of Orlando Furioso; Sir Philip 
 Sydney was scholar, poet and soldier, and many a soldier when 
 his wars were over has turned to the labors of the pen. Yet it is 
 not without surprise that one sees D'Annunzio join this distin- 
 guished company, and one's admiration grows as it becomes plain 
 that he was not a mere poseur. He was a poet, but he was a soldier 
 too. Not every great poet could drive an airplane to Vienna.
 
 CHAPTER XLVI 
 , BULGABIA DESERTS GERMANY 
 
 DURING the year 1916 there was little movement in the 
 Balkans. The Allies had settled down at Saloniki and 
 intrenched themselves so strongly that their positions 
 were practically impregnable. These intrenchments 
 were on slopes facing north, heavily wired and with seven miles 
 of swamp before them, over which an attacking army would have 
 to pass. It was obviously inadvisable to withdraw entirely the 
 armies at Saloniki. So long as they were there it was possible at 
 any time to make an attack on Bulgaria in case Russia or Roumania 
 should need such assistance. And moreover, it was evident that 
 it was only the presence of the Saloniki army that kept Greece 
 neutral. During the year there were a few fights which were 
 little more than skirmishes; almost all of the German soldiers 
 had been withdrawn, and it was chiefly the Bulgarian army that 
 was facing the Allies. On May 26th Bulgarian forces advanced 
 into Greece and occupied Fort Rupel, with the acquiescence of the 
 Greek Government. 
 
 The Greeks were in a difficult position. It was not unnatural 
 that King Constantine and the Greek General Staff believed that 
 the Allies had small chance of victory. Moreover, they had no 
 special ambitions which could be satisfied by a war against the 
 Central Powers. On the other hand, Turkey was an hereditary 
 enemy, and the big sea coast would put them at the mercy of the 
 British navy hi case they should join their fortunes to those of 
 Austro-Germany. To an impartial observer their policy of neu- 
 trality, if not heroic, was at least wise. The Greek Government, 
 therefore, did its best to preserve neutrality. The surrender of 
 Fort Rupel was not, however, a neutral act and roused in Greece 
 a strong popular protest. 
 
 Venizelos, who at all tunes was strongly friendly to the Allies 
 and who was the one great Greek statesman who not only believed 
 in their ultimate victory but who saw that the true interests of 
 
 591
 
 592 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Greece were in Anatolia and the Islands of the ^Egean, was strongly 
 opposed to King Constantine's action. The Allies showed their 
 resentment by a pacific blockade, to prevent the export of coal to 
 Greece, with the object of preventing supplies from reaching the 
 enemy. This led to a certain amount of excitement and the Allied 
 embassies in Athens were insulted by mobs. The governments, 
 therefore, presented an ultimatum commanding the demobilization 
 of the Greek army, the appointment of a neutral Ministry, and 
 the calling of a new election for the Greek Chamber of Deputies, 
 as well as the proper punishment of those who were guilty of the 
 disorder. 
 
 In substance, the Greeks yielded to the Allied demand, but 
 before a new election could be held an attack by the Bulgarians 
 on the 17th of August changed the situation. The Bulgarian 
 armies entered deep in Greek territory in the eastern provinces 
 and captured the city of Kavalla without resistance from the 
 armies of Greece. A portion of the Greek army at Kavalla sur- 
 rendered and was taken to Germany as " guests" of the German 
 Government. 
 
 This action of the Greek army led to a Greek revolution which 
 broke out at Saloniki on the 30th of August. The King pursued 
 a tortuous policy, professing neutrality and yet constantly bringing 
 himself under suspicion. The Revolutionists organized an army 
 and finally M. Venizelos, after strong efforts to induce the King 
 to act, became the head of the Provisional Government of the 
 Revolutionists. The Allies pursued a policy almost as tortuous 
 as that of King Constantino. They could not agree among them- 
 selves as to the proper policy, and took no decided course. King 
 Constantino apparently had the support of Russia and of Italy. 
 
 Meantime the fighting against Bulgaria was still proceeding. 
 The main force of the Allies was directed against the city of 
 Monastir, which, after considerable fighting, was captured on 
 November 19th. This gave the Serbians possession of an important 
 point in then* own country and naturally proved a great stimulus 
 to the Serbian armies. 
 
 From that tune on, and during the year 1917, little was done. 
 Minor offensives were undertaken, some of which, like the Allied 
 attack upon Doiran, deserve mention, but on the whole the fight- 
 ing was a stalemate. Meanwhile the action of the Greek Govern-
 
 BULGARIA DESERTS GERMANY 593 
 
 ment had become so unsatisfactory that it was finally determined 
 to demand the abdication of King Constantine, and on June llth 
 he found himself compelled to yield. In his proclamation he said: 
 
 Obeying necessity of fulfilling my duty toward Greece, I am departing 
 from my beloved country accompanied by the heir to the crown, and I 
 leave my son Alexander on the throne. I beg you to accept my decision 
 with calm. 
 
 Early the next morning the King and his family set sail for 
 Italy on his way to Switzerland, where he became another "King 
 hi exile." His son Alexander accepted the throne and issued the 
 following proclamation: 
 
 At the moment when my august father, making a supreme sacrifice 
 to our dear country, entrusted to me the heavy duties of the Hellenic 
 throne I express but one single wish that God, hearing his prayer, will 
 protect Greece, that He will permit us to see her again united and power- 
 ful. In my grief at being separated in circumstances so critical from 
 my well-beloved father I have a single consolation: to carry out his 
 sacred mandate which I will endeavor to realize with all my power, follow- 
 ing the lines of his brilliant reign, with the help of the people upon whose 
 love the Greek dynasty is supported. I am convinced that in obeying 
 the wishes of my father the people by their submission will do their part 
 in enabling us together to rescue our dear country from the terrible 
 situation in which it finds itself. 
 
 The whole country to all appearances received the abdication 
 with satisfaction. On June 21st, M. Venizelos came to Athens 
 and the Greek Chamber, which was illegally dissolved in 1915, 
 was convoked and Venizelos once again became Prime Minister. 
 At last he had succeeded, and he proceeded at once to join the 
 whole of the Grecian forces to the cause of the Allies. Of all the 
 statesmen prominent in the Great War, there was none more wise, 
 more consistent or more loyal than the great Greek statesman. 
 
 For more than a year the Allied armies facing Bulgaria remained 
 upon the defensive, when, suddenly, on the 16th of September, 
 1918, in the midst of the wonderful movements that were forcing 
 back the German armies hi France, a dispatch was received from 
 the Allied forces in Macedonia. The Serbian army, in co-operation 
 with French and English forces, had attacked the Bulgarian posi- 
 tions on a ten-mile front, had stormed those positions and progressed 
 more than five miles. On the next day news was received that the 
 advance was continuing; that the Allies had occupied an important
 
 594 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 series of ridges, and had pierced the Bulgarian front; that more 
 than three thousand prisoners had been captured and twenty-four 
 guns. The movement took place about twelve miles east of 
 Monastir and the ridge of Sokol, and the town of Gradeshnitsa 
 were captured by the Allied troops. 
 
 It soon became evident that one of the most important move- 
 ments in the whole war was being carried on. The Bulgarian 
 armies were crumbling, and the German troops sent to aid them 
 had been put to flight. The Allied troops had advanced on an 
 average of ten miles and were continuing to advance. The Serbs, 
 fighting at last near their own homes, were showing their real 
 military strength. Four thousand prisoners had been taken, with 
 an enormous quantity of war supplies. The Bulgarian positions 
 which had yielded so easily were positions which they had been 
 fortifying for three years, and had been previously thought to be 
 impregnable. 
 
 On September 23d it became evident that the retreat of the 
 Bulgarians had turned into a rout. Notwithstanding reinforce- 
 ments of Germans and Bulgars rushed down in a frantic effort to 
 check them, the Allied armies were advancing on an eighty-five- 
 mile front, crushing all resistance. The Italian army, on the west, 
 was meeting with equal success, and the news dispatches reported 
 that the first Bulgarian army in the region of Prilep had been cut 
 off. A dispatch received by the British War Office reported "As 
 the result of attacks and continual heavy pressure by British and 
 Greek troops, in conjunction with the French and Serbian advance 
 farther west, the enemy has evacuated his whole line from Doiran 
 to the west of the Vardar." As it retreated the Bulgarian army 
 was burning supplies and destroying ammunition dumps, burning 
 railway stations and ravaging the country. 
 
 By this tune it was felt throughout the Allied world that the 
 Bulgarian defeat would have important political consequences. 
 It was remembered that a short time before King Ferdinand had 
 paid a visit to Germany, and after long conferences with the German 
 War Lord, had hastily returned to Bulgaria. It was recalled that 
 there had been many signs of serious disorder in Bulgaria, where 
 the Socialist party had been in close touch with the advance parties 
 in the Ukrainian Republic. It seemed possible that the Bulgarian 
 defeats had been brought about by Bulgarian dissension and it
 
 BULGARIA DESERTS GERMANY 595 
 
 was also evident that Germany was in no position to offer effective 
 support to its Bulgarian accomplice. 
 
 As the days passed by the news from this front became more 
 and more favorable. At all points the Bulgarian armies were 
 retreating in the most disorderly manner, closely pursued by the 
 Serbians, French, English, Italians, and Greeks. Bulgarian troops 
 were deserting in thousands, and thousands of others were sur- 
 rendering without resistance. 
 
 On September 26th it was announced that the Bulgar front 
 had disappeared; that the armies had been cut into a number of 
 groups and were fleeing before the Allied troops. Town after 
 town was being captured, with enormous quantities of stores. 
 On Friday, September 27th, it was announced that Bulgaria had 
 asked the Allies for an armistice of forty-eight hours, with a view 
 to making peace. 
 
 The situation was now causing intense excitement. The 
 Germans tried to minimize the Bulgarian surrender. A dispatch 
 from Berlin declared that Premier Malinoff's offer of an armistice 
 was made without the support of other members of the Cabinet 
 or of King Ferdinand, and that Germany would make a solemn 
 protest against it. German newspapers were demanding that 
 Malinoff be dismissed immediately and court-martialed for high 
 treason. The Berlin message asserted that the Premier's offer 
 had created great dissatisfaction in Bulgaria and that strong 
 military measures had been taken to support the Bulgarian front. 
 According to statements from Sofia it was added a counter-move- 
 ment against the action of the Premier had already been set on 
 foot. It was declared in Germany that the Premier's act was the 
 result of Germany's refusal to send sufficient reinforcements to 
 Bulgaria. Secretary Lansing made the announcement that the 
 United States Government had received a proposal for an armistice. 
 
 It appeared that Bulgaria had been maneuvering toward peace 
 for some time. The Bulgarians had foreseen their inability to meet 
 the expected Allied attack, and had made every effort to obtain 
 German reinforcements. Moreover, they were highly dissatisfied 
 with the treatment they had received from Germany in connection 
 with Bulgaria's dispute with Turkey as to territorial dispositions 
 to be made after the war. Probably the most important reason, 
 however, for the Bulgarian overthrow was that by this time they
 
 596 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 were sick of the war. They had not, in the first place, gone into it 
 with any enthusiasm, and though they could fight bravely enough 
 against their Serbian foe, no true Bulgarian could ever feel him- 
 self in a natural position facing his old-time Russian friend. 
 
 Bulgaria had come to the end. Malinoff, the Premier, had 
 from the beginning been opposed to the war. Mobs in Sofia were 
 demanding surrender. Ferdinand was compelled to give way to 
 the wishes of his Cabinet and his people, and in spite of the fact 
 that he had promised the Kaiser to remain faithful to the Alliance, 
 he gave his consent to the movement for unconditional surrender. 
 
 An official Bulgarian statement read as follows: "In view of 
 the conjunction of circumstances which have recently arisen, and 
 after the position had been jointly discussed with all competent 
 authorities, the Bulgarian Government, desiring to put an end to 
 the bloodshed, has authorized the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 army to propose to the Generalissimo of the armies of the Entente 
 at Saloniki, a cessation of hostilities, and the entering into of 
 negotiations for obtaining an armistice and peace. The members 
 of the Bulgarian delegation left yesterday evening in order to get 
 into touch with the Plenipotentiaries of the Entente belligerents." 
 This statement was dated September 24th. 
 
 When the Bulgarian officers entrusted with the proposal for 
 an armistice presented themselves at Saloniki, General d'Esperey 
 gave the folio whig reply: "My response cannot be, by reason of 
 the military situation, other than the following. I can accord 
 neither an armistice nor a suspension of hostilities tending to 
 interrupt the operations in course. On the other hand, I will 
 receive with all due courtesy the delegates duly qualified of the 
 Royal Bulgarian Government." The Bulgarian delegates were 
 General Lonkhoff, commander of the Bulgarian Second Army, 
 M. Liapcheff, Finance Minister, and M. Radeff, a former member 
 of the Bulgarian Cabinet. 
 
 On the evening of the 29th an armistice was signed. The 
 terms of the surrender were approved by the Entente govern- 
 ments, and hostilities ceased at noon September 30th. The terms 
 of the armistice were as follows: 
 
 Bulgaria agrees to evacuate all the territory she now occupies in 
 Greece and Serbia; to demobilize her army immediately and surrender all 
 means of transport to the Allies. Bulgaria also will surrender her boats
 
 BULGARIA DESERTS GERMANY 597 
 
 and control of navigation on the Danube, and concede to the Allies free 
 passage through Bulgaria for the development of military operations. All 
 Bulgarian arms and ammunition are to be stored under the control of the 
 Allies, to whom is conceded the right to occupy all important strategic 
 points. The military occupation of Bulgaria will be entrusted to British, 
 French and Italian forces, and the evacuated portions of Greece and 
 Serbia, respectively, to Greek and Serbian troops. 
 
 This armistice meant a complete military surrender, and 
 Bulgaria ceased to be a belligerent. All questions of territorial 
 rearrangement in the Balkans were purposely omitted from the 
 Convention. The Allies made no stipulation concerning King 
 Ferdinand, his position being considered an internal matter, one 
 for the Bulgarians themselves to deal with. The armistice was to 
 remain in operation until the final general peace was concluded. 
 
 The request of Bulgaria for an armistice and peace, stunned 
 Germany, which at that time was living in an atmosphere of political 
 crisis and military misfortune. The German papers laid much 
 of the blame on the desperate economic conditions in Bulgaria, 
 which had been made worse by political strife. 
 
 After the Bulgarian collapse the Serbians, with the other 
 Allied troops who had just captured Uskub, swept northward to 
 drive the remaining Germans and Austrians out of Serbia and 
 beyond the Danube. On October 13th they captured Nish, thus 
 cutting the famous Orient railroad from Berlin to Constantinople. 
 German authorities announced that henceforth trains on this 
 line would run only to the Serbian border. 
 
 On October 4th King Ferdinand abdicated his throne in favor 
 of his son Crown Prince Boris, and left Sofia the same night for 
 Vienna. Before leaving he issued the following manifesto renounc- 
 ing the Bulgarian crown: 
 
 By reason of the succession of events which have occurred in my 
 kingdom, and which demand a sacrifice from each citizen, even to the 
 surrendering of oneself for the well being of all, I desire to give as the first 
 example the sacrifice of myself. Despite the sacred ties, which for thirty- 
 two years have bound me so firmly to this countiy, for whose prosperity 
 and greatness I have given all my powers, I have decided to renounce the 
 royal Bulgarian crown in favor of my eldest son, His Highness the Prince 
 Royal Boris of Tirnovo. I call upon all faithful subjects and true patriots 
 to unite as one man about the throne of King Boris, to lift the country 
 from its difficult situation, and to elevate new Bulgaria to the height 
 to which it is predestined.
 
 598 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Before signing his declaration of abdication he had consulted 
 with the party leaders and received their approval. King Ferdinand 
 had lost his popularity ever since it became apparent that he had 
 made a mistake in siding with the Teutonic Powers. He was 
 undoubtedly in fear that a revolution might upset the whole 
 dynasty. Premier MalinofF announced the abdication to the 
 Bulgarian Parliament, and the accession of Prince Boris to the 
 throne was received with much enthusiasm. The church bells 
 were rung, and great crowds gathered in the streets. 
 
 Speaking from the steps of the Palace the new King said: 
 "I thank you for your manifestation of patriotic sentiments. 
 I have faith in the good star of Bulgaria, and I believe that the 
 Bulgar people, by their good qualities and co-operation, are directed 
 to a brilliant future." King Ferdinand, it was given out, had 
 renounced politics and was intending in the future to devote him- 
 self to his favorite pursuits, chiefly to botany. 
 
 The surrender of Bulgaria was at once recognized as the over- 
 throw of Germany's "Mittel-Europa" threat, which had appar- 
 ently been carried into effect when Turkey and Bulgaria joined the 
 Central Powers. It had for a long tune been one of Germany's 
 most coveted aims. After the Franco-Prussian war the German 
 people had grown enormously in wealth and hi numbers. It had 
 become one of the greatest manufacturing powers in the world. 
 Its ships were transporting its commerce on every sea, but it was 
 not satisfied. The German leaders, most of whom were young 
 men at the tune of the war with France, and had been deeply 
 impressed by a sense of the German power, were full of the idea 
 that Germany was the greatest of nations, and that she should 
 impress her will on all the world. 
 
 They might have done this peacefully, for the seas were free, 
 but German self-esteem was not satisfied with peaceful progress. 
 They felt that it was necessary to reach out in the world for colonies. 
 They seized a province in China. They meddled with affairs in 
 Morocco. They annexed colonies in Africa, but none of these 
 projects were wholly satisfactory. They provided no great outlet 
 for the products of their workshops, nor for their overflow popula- 
 tion, which largely went to North and South America and became 
 citizens of these foreign nations. 
 
 Their eyes finally turned to the great East. There hi China
 
 BULGARIA DESERTS GERMANY 
 
 599 
 
 and India and the neighboring countries were three hundred 
 millions of men whose trade would be a worthy prize for even 
 Germany's ambition. Then began the development of what is 
 sometimes called Germany's Mittel-Europa dream. Her scholars 
 encouraged it; her travelers brought reports which stimulated the 
 interest, and soon she began practically to carry it into effect. 
 
 GERMANY'S 
 CORRIDOR 
 
 How THE PAN-GEBMANB PLANNED TO EXTEND THEIB **MITTEL-EUEOPA" DBBAM 
 
 It meant the building of a great railroad down to the Persian Gulf ; 
 a railroad to be controlled by nations where her influence would 
 be all-powerful. ^She needed Austria, she needed Serbia, she 
 needed Bulgaria and Turkey. 
 
 At first the project was carried out peacefully. Friendly 
 relations were stimulated with Turkey and the other necessary 
 powers; permits were obtained to build the railroad. But Germany 
 was not the only power that had dreamed this dream. Alexander 
 the Great had done it. Napoleon had done it, and England had
 
 600 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 carried it out. From the days of Queen Elizabeth the English 
 control of India was one of its greatest assets. 
 
 Through most of the nineteenth century the English power 
 in the East was threatened, not by Germany, but by Russia. It 
 was because of this threat that England had always protected 
 Turkey. Turkey and Constantinople were her barrier against 
 Russia. The literature of England in the last days of the nineteenth 
 century shows clearly her fear of Russian intrigues in India. Kip- 
 ling's Indian stories are full of it. But now that fear had passed. 
 It was no longer the imaginary danger which might come from the 
 great Slavic Empire, but a trade weapon hi the grasp of the most 
 efficient military power ever developed that was threatening. 
 Against this threat England had been doing her best. Here and 
 there near the Persian Gulf she had been extending her influence. 
 Here and there, as German Consuls obtained concessions, they 
 would find them later withdrawn, because England had stepped in. 
 Yet just before the war England, anxious for peace, had come to an 
 agreement with Germany practically admitting the German plans 
 to be carried out as far as Bagdad. 
 
 It looked as though it were only a question of time, but when 
 the Balkan wars established Serbia as the greatest of the Balkan 
 powers, and gave Russia a preponderating influence among the 
 Balkan nations, and when it began to look as if some great Balkan 
 state might be established which should be friendly to Russia and 
 consequently a hindrance to the German scheme, then it was that 
 it was necessary that war should come. The Germans had been 
 wonderfully successful. For a time they controlled Austria, 
 Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkey, but with Bulgaria's fall the end 
 had come. -They were compelled to awake from then* Mittel- 
 Europa dream.
 
 Ch 
 
 a
 
 -3 
 eS 
 
 H-i
 
 CHAPTER XLVI1 
 
 THE CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE 
 
 THE Allied victories in France during the months of August 
 and September of 1918, led to a new peace offensive among 
 the Central Powers. It was very plain to the German 
 High Command, as well as to the Allied leaders, that 
 Germany's great ambitions had now been definitely thwarted. It 
 seems clear that, in spite of the hopeful and encouraging words 
 which they addressed to their own armies, the expert soldiers, 
 who were controlling the destinies of Germany, understood well 
 the conditions they were facing. Putting aside all sentiment, 
 therefore, they deliberately set out to obtain a peace which would 
 leave them an opportunity to gam by diplomacy what they were 
 sure that they were about to lose on the field of battle. They had 
 made pleas for peace before, but their pleas had been rejected. 
 
 The Allied leaders were fighting for a principle. They could 
 not be satisfied with a draw. They could not be satisfied if Ger- 
 many were left in a position which would enable her after a rest 
 of a few years to renew her effort to impose her will upon the world. 
 It was unanimously recognized that the war must be carried on 
 to the very end. The Allies took this position when the fortunes 
 of war seemed to have gone against them, when Russia was defeated, 
 Roumania and Serbia crushed, and the German lines in France 
 were approaching the capital. It was unlikely that now, when 
 Germany was suffering defeat and every day was yielding the 
 Allied armies encouraging gains, there should be any change in 
 the strong determination of the Allied leaders. Nevertheless, it 
 was necessary to make the attempt. 
 
 On September 15th, the Austro-Hungarian Government 
 addressed a communication to the Allied Powers and to the Holy 
 See suggesting a meeting for a confidential and non-binding dis- 
 cussion of war aims, with a view to the possible calling of a peace 
 conference. 
 
 The official communication from the Austro-Hungarian Gov- 
 
 608
 
 604 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 eminent was handed to Secretary of State Lansing in Washington 
 at 6.20 o'clock on September 16th. 
 
 At 6.45 the following abbreviated reply of the United States 
 Government was made public, by the Secretary of State: 
 
 I am authorized by the President to state that the following will be 
 the reply of this government to the Austro-Hungarian note proposing an 
 unofficial conference of belligerents. "The Government of the United 
 States feels that there is only one reply which it can make to the suggestion 
 of the Austro-Hungarian Government. It has repeatedly and with 
 entire candor stated the terms upon which the United States would con- 
 sider peace, and can and will entertain no proposal for a conference upon 
 the matter concerning which it has made its position and purpose so plain." 
 
 Arthur J. Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, in a state- 
 ment made September 16th said: "It is incredible that anything 
 can come of this proposal. . . . This cynical proposal of the 
 Austrian Government is not a genuine attempt to obtain peace. 
 It is an attempt to divide the Allies." Premier Clemenceau in 
 France took similar grounds, and stated in the French Senate: 
 "We will fight until the hour when the enemy comes to understand 
 that bargaining between crime and right is no longer possible. 
 We want a just and a strong peace, protecting the future against 
 the abominations of the past." Italy joined with her Allies and 
 declared that a negotiated peace was impossible. 
 
 The refusal on the part of the Allies to respond to the Austrian 
 peace proposal evidently greatly disturbed the German leaders. 
 The continued German reverses, and the surrender of Bulgaria 
 had taken away all hope. They were anxious to conclude some 
 kind of peace before meeting irretrievable disaster. They there- 
 fore determined to appoint as Chancellor of the Empire some 
 statesman who might be represented as a supporter of an honest 
 peace, and Count von Hertling, whose previous utterances might 
 put under suspicion any peace move coming from him, was removed 
 and Prince Maximilian of Baden appointed as his successor on 
 September 30th. 
 
 Prince Maximilian was put forward as a Moderate, in accord- 
 ance with the evident purpose of the government to continue peace 
 proposals. He was the heir apparent to the Grand Ducal throne 
 of Baden, and was the first man in public life in Germany to declare 
 that the Empire could not conquer by the sword alone. He did
 
 CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE 605 
 
 this in an address to the Upper Chamber in Baden, of which he 
 was President, on December 15, 1917. "Power alone can never 
 secure our position," he said, "and our sword alone will never be 
 able to tear down the opposition to us." 
 
 At the same time he made an attack upon the ideals set up 
 by President Wilson. "President Wilson," he continued, "after 
 three years of war gathers together all the outworn slogans of the 
 Entente of 1914, and denounces Germany as the disturber of the 
 peace, proclaiming a crusade for humanity, liberty and the rights 
 of small nations." Then, forgetting that the United States had 
 entered the war nearly a month after the abdication of the Czar 
 of Russia, he added: "President Wilson has no right to speak in 
 the name of democracy and liberty, for he was the mighty war 
 ally of Russian Czardom, but he had deaf ears when the Russian 
 democracy appealed to him to allow it to discuss peace conditions." 
 The Baden address created a great sensation all over Germany, 
 which was increased when, in an interview in January, he declared 
 that all ideas of conquest must be abandoned, and that Germany 
 must serve as a bulwark to prevent the spread of Bolshevism among 
 the western nations. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the appointment of Prince 
 Maximilian was a definite attempt to seek peace. It was thought 
 that he would be recognized by the Allied leaders as an honest 
 friend of peace, and that any effort he would make would be 
 treated with respect. He was, however, a vigorous supporter of 
 the Kaiser and of German autocracy, and while his appointment 
 might mean that Germany was desirous of peace it did not mean 
 that she had changed her ways. Three days before the appoint- 
 ment of Prince Maximilian, President Wilson, in an address delivered 
 in the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, had restated the 
 issues of the war, declaring (1) for impartial justice, (2) settlement 
 to be made in the common interests of all, (3) no leagues within 
 the common family of the league of nations, (4) no selfish economic 
 combination within that league, and (5) all international agree- 
 ments and treaties of every kind must be made known in their 
 entirety to the rest of the world. 
 
 Prince Maximilian, coming into power undoubtedly for the 
 purpose of arranging a peace, proceeded at once to make a new 
 peace offer. He based his action on President Wilson's speech
 
 606 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 and on October 4th sent to President Wilson, through the Swiss 
 Government, the following note: 
 
 The German Government requests the President of the United 
 States to take in hand the restoration of peace, acquaint all the belligerent 
 states with this request, and invite them to send plenipotentiaries for the 
 purpose of opening negotiations. It accepts the program set forth by the 
 President of the United States in his message to Congress on January 8th, 
 and in his later pronouncements, especially his speech of September 27th, 
 as a basis for peace negotiations. With a view to avoiding further blood- 
 shed the German Government requests the immediate conclusion of an 
 armistice on land and on water and in the air. 
 
 He followed this note on October 5th with an address before 
 the German Reichstag, of which the following are the most impor- 
 tant points: 
 
 In accordance with the Imperial decree of September 30th, the 
 German Empire has undergone a basic alteration of its politic leadership. 
 As successor to Count George F. von Hertling, whose services in behalf of 
 the Fatherland deserve the highest acknowledgment, I have been sum- 
 moned by the Emperor to lead the new government. In accordance with 
 the governmental method now introduced I submit to the Reichstag, 
 publicly and without delay, the principles by which I propose to conduct 
 the grave responsibilities of the office. These principles were firmly 
 established by the agreement of the federated governments and the 
 leaders of the majority parties in this honorable House before I decided 
 to assume the djaties of Chancellor. They contain therefore not only my 
 own confession of political faith, but that of an overwhelming portion of 
 the German people's representatives that is, of the German nation 
 which has constituted the Reichstag on the basis of a general, equal, and 
 secret franchise and according to their will. 
 
 Only the fact that I know the conviction and will of the majority 
 of the people are back of me, has given me strength to take upon myself 
 conduct of the Empire's affairs in this hard and earnest time in which we 
 are living. One man's shoulders would be too weak to carry alone the 
 tremendous responsibility which falls upon the government at present. 
 Only if the people take active part in the broader sense of the word in 
 deciding then* destinies, in other words, if responsibility also extends to 
 the majority of their freely elected political leaders, can the leading states- 
 man confidently assume his part of the responsibility in the service of folk 
 and Fatherland. 
 
 My resolve to this has been especially lightened for me by the fact 
 that prominent leaders of the laboring class have found a way in the 
 new government to the highest offices of the Empire. I see therein a sure 
 guarantee that the new government will be supported by the confidence
 
 CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE 607 
 
 of the broad masses of the people, without whose true support the whole 
 undertaking would be compelled to failure in advance. Hence what I 
 say today is not only in my own name, and those of my official helpers, 
 but in the name of the German people. 
 
 The program of the majority parties, upon which I take my stand, 
 contains first, an acceptance of the answer of the former Imperial Govern- 
 ment to Pope Benedict's note of August 1, 1916, and an unconditional 
 acceptance of the Reichstag resolution of July 19th, the same year. It 
 further declares willingness to join the general league of nations based on 
 the foundation of equal rights for all, both strong and weak. It considers 
 the solution of the Belgian question to lie in the complete rehabilitation 
 of Belgium, particularly of its independence and territorial integrity. 
 An effort shall also be made to reach an understanding on the question of 
 indemnity. 
 
 The program will not permit the peace treaties hitherto concluded to 
 be a hindrance to the conclusion of the general peace. Its particular aim 
 is that popular representative bodies shall be formed immediately on a 
 broad basis in the Baltic provinces, in Lithuania and Poland. We will 
 promote the realization of necessary preliminary conditions therefore 
 without delay by the introduction of civilian rule. All these lands shall 
 regulate their constitutions and their relations wi'h neighboring peoples 
 without external interference. 
 
 He went on to point out the progressive political developments 
 in Prussia and declared that the "message of the King of Prussia 
 promising the democratic franchise must be fulfilled quickly and 
 completely." 
 
 President Wilson did not find Prince Maximilian's proposal 
 wholly satisfactory, and on October 8th, he inquired of the 
 Imperial Chancellor whether the meaning of the proposal was that 
 the German Government accepted the terms laid down in his ad- 
 dress to the Congress of the United States and in subsequent ad- 
 dresses; and whether its object in entering into discussions would 
 be only to agree upon the practical details of their application. 
 He also suggested that so long as the armies of the Central Powers 
 were upon the soil of the governments with which the United 
 States was associated, he would not feel at liberty to propose a 
 cessation of arms to those governments. He also inquired whether 
 the Imperial Chancellor was speaking merely for the constituted 
 authorities of the Empire, who had so far conducted the war. 
 
 President Wilson's reply aroused much difference of opinion 
 among the Allies, but on the whole was regarded as a clever dip- 
 lomatic move.
 
 608 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The German Government responded to these questions of the 
 President on October 12th, by a message signed by Dr. W. S. Solf, 
 who had just been appointed Imperial Foreign Secretary. In this 
 reply the German Government declared that it did accept Presi- 
 dent Wilson's terms; that it was ready to comply with the sugges- 
 tion of the President and withdraw its troops from Allied territory, 
 and that the German Government was representing in all its actions 
 the will of the great majority of the German people. 
 
 Germany had, indeed, made enormous concessions, and the 
 German people appeared to have taken for granted that such an 
 offer would be accepted. An Amsterdam despatch declared: 
 "People hi Berlin are kissing one another in the street, though they 
 are perfect strangers and shouting peace congratulations to each 
 other. The only words heard anywhere in Germany are ' Peace 
 at last'." 
 
 The President however, had been struck by the news coming in 
 from day to day of new atrocities hi France, and of new cases of 
 submarine murders, and in his reply of October 14th, he declared 
 that while he was ready to refer the question of an armistice to the 
 judgment and advice of military advisers of the government of 
 the United States and the Allied governments, he felt sure that 
 none of those governments would consent to consider an armistice 
 as long as the armed forces of Germany continued the illegal and 
 inhuman practices which they were persisting in. He also empha- 
 sized the fact that no armistice would be accepted that would 
 not provide absolutely satisfactory safeguards and guarantees of 
 the maintenance of the military supremacy of the armies of the 
 United States and of the Allies in the field. The President also 
 called the attention of the Government of Germany to that clause 
 of his address on the Fourth of July in which he had demanded 
 "the destruction of every arbitrary power that can separately, 
 secretly and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world, 
 or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at least its reduction to 
 virtual impotency." He declared that the power which had hitherto 
 controlled the German nation was of the sort thus described, and 
 that its alteration actually constituted a condition precedent to 
 peace. 
 
 This answer of the President was greeted with approval in 
 the United States and everywhere hi the Allied countries. It
 
 CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE 609 
 
 meant that the Imperial Power of Germany was not to be allowed 
 to hide itself behind a so-called reorganization done under its own 
 direction. As one of the Senators of the United States expressed 
 it: "It is an uneauivocal demand that the Hohenzollerns shall get 
 out." 
 
 During these negotiations the Allied armies under Marshal 
 Foch had been driving the enemy before them. When Baron 
 Burian was making his peace offer on behalf of Austria-Hungary 
 the Americans were engaged in pinching off the St. Mihiel salient, 
 and about that date the British were launching their great attack 
 on the St. Quentin defenses. The reports of the great Allied drive 
 indicated a constant succession of Allied victories. 
 
 On September 19th, the British advanced into the Hinden- 
 burg line, northwest of St. Quentin, and on September 20th, while 
 the American guns were shelling Metz, the British were advancing 
 steadily near Cambrai and La Bassee. 
 
 Day by day the advance proceeded. On September 26th, the 
 first American army smashed through the Hindenburg line for an 
 average gain of seven miles, between the Meuse and the Aisne rivers 
 on a twenty-mile front. On September 27th, the French gained five 
 miles hi an advance east of Rheims, and the British were attacking 
 hi the Cambrai sector on a fourteen-mile front, crossing the Canal 
 du Nord and piercing the Hindenburg line at several points. On 
 September 28th, the Americans reached the Kriemhilde line, 
 while the British were close in on Cambrai. On September 30th, 
 the British took Messines Ridge, while the French were still 
 advancing between the Aisne and Vesle Rivers. On October 1st, 
 the French troops entered St. Quentin and the British took the 
 northern and western suburbs of Cambrai. During the next week 
 an enveloping movement was instituted north and south of Lille. 
 On October 5th, the Germans evacuated Lille, on October 9th the 
 British took Cambrai. 
 
 In these drives the American colored troops played a con- 
 spicuous part. The entire Three hundred and sixty-fifth regiment, 
 composed wholly of colored troops, was later awarded the coveted 
 Croix de Guerre, or War Cross, by the French Government. It 
 was a well-deserved honor, for the boys of the Three hundred 
 and sixty-fifth bore themselves with great gallantry in the 
 September and October offensive in the Champagne sector and
 
 610 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 suffered heavy losses. In conferring the Croix de Guerre, the 
 citation dealt in considerable detail with the valor of particular 
 officers and praised the courage and tenacity of the whole 
 regiment. 
 
 The Germans were retreating in Belgium day by day, under 
 the attacks of the Belgian and French armies. On October llth 
 the Germans evacuated the Chemin des Dames. On October 16th 
 the Germans began the evacuation of the Belgian coast region and 
 each day increased the number of Belgian towns once more hi 
 Allied control.
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII 
 BATTLES IN THE Ani 
 
 HE WHO conquers the fear of death is master of his fate. 
 Upon this philosophy fifty thousand young men of the 
 warring nations went forth to do battle among the clouds. 
 The story of these battles is the real romance of the 
 World War. In 1914 no one had ever known and history had 
 never recorded a struggle to the death in the air. When the war 
 ended a new literature of adventure had been created, a literature 
 emblazoned with superb heroisms, with God-like daring, and with 
 such utter disdain of death that they were raised out of the olden 
 ranks of mere earth-crawling mankind and became supermen of 
 the air. 
 
 Some of these heroic names became household words during the 
 war. These were the aces of the French, American and German 
 air-forces. The British adopted a policy in news concerning then* 
 airmen similar to that governing then* publication of submarine 
 sinkings. They argued that the naming of British, Canadian and 
 Australian aces would direct the attacks of German aviators against 
 the most useful men in the British forces. They also felt that 
 publicity would tend toward the swagger which in English slang 
 was "swank" and toward a deterioration in discipline. 
 
 Raoul Lufberry, Quentin Roosevelt, son of ex-President 
 Roosevelt, and Edward Rickenbacher were names that figured 
 extensively in news of the American air forces. 
 
 Lufberry and Roosevelt were killed in action. Rickenbacher, 
 after dozens of hair-raising escapes from death, came through the 
 war without injury. The pioneer of American aviators in the war 
 was William Thaw of Yale, who formed the original Lafayette 
 Escadrille. 
 
 Besides these men, America produced a number of other 
 brilliant aces, an ace being one who brought down five enemy 
 planes, each victory being attested by at least three witnesses. 
 
 611
 
 612 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The French had as their outstanding aces Georges Guynemer 
 and Rene Fonck. Guynemer went into the flying game as a 
 mechanician. He became the most formidable human fighting 
 machine on the western front before he was sent to death in a 
 blazing airplane. 
 
 Lieut. Rene Fonck ended the war with a total of seventy-five 
 official aerial victories. He had an additional forty Huns to his 
 credit but not officially confirmed. His greatest day was when 
 he brought down six planes. His quickest work was the shooting 
 down of three Germans in twenty seconds. 
 
 He fought three distinct battles in the ah* when, on May 8, 
 1918, he brought down six German airplanes in one day. All three 
 engagements were fought within two hours. In all, Fonck fired 
 only fifty-six shots, an average of little more than nine bullets for 
 each enemy brought down an extraordinary record, in view of the 
 fact that aviators often fired hundreds of rounds without crippling 
 their opponent. 
 
 The first fight, m which Lieutenant Fonck brought down three 
 German machines, lasted only a minute and a half, and the young 
 Frenchman fired only twenty-two shots. Fonck was leading two 
 other companions on a patrol hi the Moreuil-Montdidier sector on 
 May 8th, when the French squadron met three German two-seater 
 airplanes coming toward them in arrow formation. Signaling to 
 his companions, Lieutenant Fonck dived at the leading German 
 plane and, with a few shots sent it down in flames. Fonck turned 
 to the left, and the second enemy flier followed in an effort to 
 attack him from behind, but the Frenchman made a quick turn 
 above him and, with five shots, sent the second German to 
 death. Ten seconds had barely elapsed between the two victories. 
 
 The third enemy pilot headed for home, but when Lieutenant 
 Fonck apparently gave up the chase and turned back toward the 
 French lines the German went after him, and was flying parallel 
 and a little below, when Fonck made a quick turn, drove straight 
 at him and sent him down within half a mile of the spot where his 
 two comrades hit the earth. 
 
 The German heroes were the celebrated Captain Boelke, and 
 the no less famous inventor of the " flying circus," Count von 
 Richthofen. Captain Boelke caused a great many Allied " crashes" 
 by hiding in clouds and diving straight at planes flying beneath
 
 BATTLES IN THE AIR 613 
 
 him. As he came within range, he opened up with a stream of 
 machine-gun bullets. If he failed to get his prey, his rush carried 
 him past his opponent into safety. He rarely re-attacked. Count 
 von Richthofen was responsible for many airplane squadron 
 tactics that later were used on both sides. The planes under his 
 command were gaily painted for easy identification during the 
 thick of a fight. Their usual method was to cut off single planes or 
 small groups of Allied planes, and to circle around them hi the 
 method employed by Admiral Dewey for the reduction of the 
 Spanish forts and ships hi the Battle of Manila Bay. 
 
 The dangers of aerial warfare were instrumental in producing 
 high chivalry in all the encampments of air men. Graves of fallen 
 aviators were marked and decorated by their former foes, and 
 captured aviators received exceptionally good treatment, where- 
 foemen aviators could procure such treatment for them. 
 
 Until the advent of America into the war, neither side had a 
 marked advantage hi aircraft. At first Germany had a slight 
 advantage; then the balance swung to the Allied side; but at no 
 tune was the scale tipped very much. American quantity pro- 
 duction of airplanes, however, gave to the Entente Allies an over- 
 whelming advantage. Final standardization of tools and design 
 for the "Soul of the American Airplane" was not accomplished 
 until February, 1918. Yet within eight months more than 15,000 
 Liberty engines, each of them fully tested and of the highest quality, 
 were delivered. 
 
 The United States did not follow European types of engines, 
 but hi a wonderfully short time developed an engine standardized 
 in the most recent efficiency of American industries. 
 
 According to Secretary of War Baker, an inspiring feature of 
 this work was the aid rendered by consulting engineers and motor 
 manufacturers, who gave up their trade secrets under the emergency 
 of war needs. Realizing that the new design would be a govern- 
 ment design and no firm or individual would reap selfish benefit 
 because of its making, the motor manufacturers, nevertheless, 
 patriotically revealed their trade secrets and made available trade 
 processes of great commercial value. These industries also con- 
 tributed the services of approximately two hundred of their best 
 draftsmen. Parts of the first engine were turned out at twelve 
 different factories, located all the way from Connecticut to Cali-
 
 614 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 fornia. When the parts were assembled the adjustment was 
 perfect and the performance of the engine was wonderfully grat- 
 ifying. 
 
 Thirty days after the assembling of the first engine pre- 
 liminary tests justified the government in formally accepting the 
 engine as the best aircraft engine produced in any country. The 
 final tests confirmed the faith in the new motor. 
 
 British and French machines as a rule were not adapted to 
 American manufacturing methods. They were highly specialized 
 machines, requiring much hand work from mechanics, who were, 
 in fact, artisans. 
 
 The standardized United States aviation engine, produced 
 under government supervision, said Secretary of War Baker, was 
 expected "to solve the problem of building first-class, powerful and 
 yet comparatively delicate aviation engines by American machine 
 methods the same standardized methods which revolutionized 
 the automobile industry in this country." 
 
 The manufacture of De Haviland airplanes equipped with 
 Liberty motors was a factor in the war. One of these De Havilands 
 without tuning up, made a non-stop trip on November 11, 1918, 
 from Dayton, Ohio, to Washington, D. C., a distance of 430 miles, 
 in three hours and fifty minutes. Great battle squadrons of these 
 De Haviland planes equipped with Liberty motors made bombing 
 raids over the German lines in the Verdun sector. Others operated 
 as scouting and reconnaissance planes and as spotters for American 
 artillery. 
 
 In the period from September 12th to 11 o'clock on the morning 
 ol November llth, the American aviators brought down 473 Ger- 
 man machines. Of this number, 353 were confirmed officially. 
 Day bombing groups, from the time they began operations, dropped 
 a total of 116,818 kilograms of bombs within the German lines. 
 
 Bombing operations were begun in August by the 96th Squa- 
 dron, which hi five flying days dropped 18,080 kilograms of bombs. 
 The first day bombardment group began work in September, the 
 group including the 96th, the 20th and llth Squadrons. The 
 166th Squadron joined the group in November. 
 
 In twelve flying days in September the bombers dropped 
 3,466 kilograms of bombs; in fifteen flying days in October, 46,133 
 kilograms, and in four flying days in November, 17,979 kilograms.
 
 BATTLES IN THE AIR 615 
 
 On November llth, the day of the signing of the armistice, 
 there were actually engaged on the front 740 American planes, 
 744 pilots, 457 observers and 23 aerial gunners. 
 
 Of the total number of planes, 329 were of the pursuit type, 
 296 were for observation and 115 were bombers. In addition, 
 several hundred planes of various types were being used at the 
 instruction camps when the war ended. 
 
 America, although the last of the great nations to embark upon 
 a great aircraft production program, was the birthplace of the 
 airplane, the Wright Brothers being the undisputed inventors of 
 the modern type. 
 
 Wilbur and Orville Wright made their first experiments 
 hi flying at Kittyhawk, N. C. Their first attempts were of a gliding 
 nature and were accomplished by starting from the top of a dune 
 or sand hill, the operator lying full length, face downward, on the 
 under plane of the machine. During these experiments they suc- 
 ceeded in flying six hundred feet. 
 
 Their first flight with an airplane driven by a motor was on 
 December 17, 1903, when they succeeded in flying about two hun- 
 dred and seventy yards in fifty-nine seconds. This machine was 
 driven by a sixteen-horse-power motor. 
 
 Santos Dumont was one of the early pioneers in aeronautical 
 experiments. After showing a marked talent with balloons, he 
 turned his attention to heavier-than-air machines, and in 1906 
 created a world's record in a flight of 230 yards at a speed of twenty- 
 five miles an hour. 
 
 In 1907 Henry Farnum made a half circular flight in a Voisin 
 biplane, using a fifty-horse-power motor, returning to his start- 
 ing point. About this time a flight of nine minutes and fifteen 
 seconds was recorded by Delagrande on a Voisin constructed biplane. 
 
 The first previously announced public flight was made on 
 July 4, 1908, by Glenn H. Curtiss at Hammondsport, N. Y., and 
 was witnessed by a number of New Yorkers who had gone to 
 Hammondsport to see the flight. 
 
 In the winter of 1913-14 Mr. Rodman Wanamaker gave 
 Glenn H. Curtiss a commission to build a flying boat which would 
 fly across the Atlantic. Commander Porte was brought from 
 England, and he, with Mr. Curtiss, worked out the designs for a 
 flying boat much larger than any previously built, and fitted with
 
 616 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 / 
 
 two motors instead of one. As entirely separate power plants 
 would be used, one motor would naturally run somewhat faster 
 than the other, and it was freely predicted that the machine could 
 not be handled. The first trial, however, proved that it would 
 not only fly, but that after it was once in the air, one motor could 
 be slowed down and even stopped and the machine continue to fly. 
 This machine was the forerunner of the seaplane, used by the 
 American, British and other navies in the war, although somewhat 
 changed in detail. The beginning of the war stopped the trans- 
 atlantic experiments and this machine found its way into the 
 British navy. It was christened the "America," and the larger 
 flying boats or seaplanes which are now being built and used by 
 the British and American navies are still known as the "America" 
 or super-American type. 
 
 At first fighting operations were carried out by individual 
 aviators or comparatively small squadrons, but the battles of 
 March, 1918, witnessed the definite development of larger squadrons, 
 maneuvering as effectively as bodies of cavalry, and in massed 
 formation attacking infantry columns. The possibilities of the 
 new aerial arm were further demonstrated in the creation of a 
 barrage, as effective as that of heavy artillery, for the purpose of 
 holding back advancing bodies of infantry. 
 
 In the first days of the German offensive there took place an 
 serial battle which up to that tune was unique in the annals of 
 warfare. It was a battle not merely for the purpose of gaining 
 the mastery of the air, but to aid Allied infantry and artillery in 
 stemming the tide of the German advance, and when the drive 
 finally slowed down and came to a halt in Picardy, the Allied airmen 
 had undoubtedly contributed largely to the result. 
 
 During March 21 and 22, 1918 the opening days of the 
 great German drive there was comparatively little aerial activity. 
 The aviators of both sides were preparing for the impending battle, 
 which actually began on the morning of March 23d and lasted all 
 that day and the day following. 
 
 The story of the air battle of March 23d-24th reads like one 
 of the most extraordinary adventure tales ever imagined. The 
 struggle, began with squadrons of airplanes ascending and maneuver- 
 ing as perfectly as cavalry. They rose to dizzy heights, and, 
 descending, swept the air close to the ground. The individual
 
 BATTLES IN THE AIR 617 
 
 pilots of the opposing sides then began executing all manner of 
 movements, climbing, diving, turning hi every direction, and 
 seeking to get into the best position to pour machine-gun fire into 
 enemy airplanes. Every few minutes a machine belonging to an 
 Allied or German squadron crashed to the ground, often in flames. 
 At the end of the first day's fighting wrecked airplanes and the 
 mangled bodies of aviators lay strewn all over the battle-field. 
 
 All next day, March 24th, the struggle in the air went on with 
 unabated fury. The Allied air squadrons were now on the offensive 
 and penetrated far inside the German lines. The German aviators 
 counter-attacked whenever they could, and more than once suc- 
 ceeded in crossing the French lines. But at the close of the second 
 day victory rested with the Allied airmen, and during the next five 
 scarcely a German airplane took the air. 
 
 The sudden termination of the war caused speculation through- 
 out the world concerning the future of the airplane. When rumor 
 declared that America's newly-won pre-eminence in aviation would 
 disappear, Captain Roy N. Francis, of the Division of Military 
 Aeronautics, made this statement. 
 
 America cannot afford to junk the airplane fleet which has cost her so 
 many millions of dollars. I do not believe that any other nation will 
 do so. Even if the peace congress should decide on universal disarmament, 
 there are still any number of uses to which airplanes can be put in time 
 of peace. 
 
 Take the air mail service, for instance. This is now only in its infancy, 
 but it is destined to become as common as the railway mail service. It 
 will employ hundreds of airplanes and aviators all over the country. 
 
 Then there is the possibility of our machines being used for sea- 
 coast patrol work, a valuable addition to our coast-guard forces which save 
 many ocean vessels from disaster every year. 
 
 They will be largely used for army dispatch work. Instead of sending 
 official messages from post to post by the present methods, airplanes 
 will be used after the war as they are now being used at the front. 
 
 On the Great Lakes, airplanes can be used for coast-guard work, 
 as on the seacoast, and they can also be used for patrolling the lakes 
 themselves. Think how many wrecked lake vessels might have been 
 saved in the past had there been an airplane nearby to carry its message 
 of distress and guide rescue ships to the scene. 
 
 Forest patrol is still another opening for the use of expert aviators. 
 Every year, almost, our great forest fires in the northwest demonstrate 
 that our present methods of prevention of forest fires are faulty; chiefly 
 because the fires are not discovered while they are still smoldering. Con-
 
 618 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 etant airplane patrol over our great forests would make forest fires a thing 
 of the past. 
 
 Then there are any number of commercial uses to which airplanes 
 can be put. Instead of a cargo of bombs, a commercial airplane could 
 carry a cargo of small package freight for which immediate delivery is 
 necessary. 
 
 The use of the airplane for passenger carrying is now being developed. 
 The huge Caproni and Handley-Page machines will be used for this pur- 
 pose in the future. Thousands of persons will want to fly just for the 
 novelty, and the possibility of accidents will be reduced to the minimum. 
 
 Again, there is the need for scientific research and improvement of 
 the airplane, which will keep scores of men and machines busy for years. 
 
 It will not be necessary, of course, to maintain the numerous govern- 
 ment training fields for aviators after the war, but some of the best of them 
 should be retained. I do not believe it will be necessary to discharge a 
 single pilot or observer from the army or to junk a single undamaged 
 airplane after the war. 
 
 Henry Woodhouse, Governor of the Aero Club of America 
 and a world-wide authority on aeronautics, made the following 
 forecast: 
 
 Aircraft capable of lifting fifteen tons, with a speed of one hundred 
 miles an hour, are now in actual production. The first of the American- 
 built Caproni planes, equipped with four Liberty motors and developing 
 1,750 horse-power has just been successfully tested. This giant plane has 
 a total lifting capacity of 40,000 pounds, or twenty tons. The super- 
 Handley-Page or the Caproni could easily carry fifty bags, or more than a 
 ton of mail. This means 100,000 letters. Judging the future development 
 of aircraft by what has taken place in the last two years, we may look for 
 the building of a 5,000-horse-power airplane, possibly within a year. 
 
 If the people of the various cities along the eight great air-ways 
 already proposed insist on it, at least a dozen additional aerial mail lines 
 can be established within twelve months. This can be done by utiliz- 
 ing only machines not needed by the army or navy. That means it will 
 be possible to send by postplane at least 50,000,000 of the 100,000,000 
 day and night letters, and at least 25,000,000 of the 50,000,000 special 
 delivery letters that are sent each year in the United States. 
 
 Postoffice officials estimate that the average cost of telegraphic day 
 and night letters now going over the wires is close to one dollar each. 
 Special delivery letters average about thirteen cents apiece. 
 
 This makes a total of more than fifty million dollars' worth of potential 
 aerial mail business that is simply waiting for the establishment of aerial 
 mail routes which can easily be established within the next twelve months. 
 
 Four hundred miles is the distance over which postplane day mail 
 is most effective. Aerial mail letters are effective over any distance, 
 since, with proper stations, light signals and guides for night postplane
 
 Mechanics 
 in 1918 that raided Germany. 
 
 CARRYING THE WAR INTO GERMANY 
 tuning up" one of the giant British bombing machines developed 
 The size is shown by comparison with the human 
 
 figures. Note the forward gunner, the pilot, the rear gunner and the window of 
 the commodious cock-pit within which the airmen could stand upright.
 
 BATTLES IN THE AIR 621 
 
 flying, the air mail can be carried more than one thousand miles between 
 the hours of 6 p. M. and 8 A. M. 
 
 The cost of aerial mail night and "day letters will be less than that of 
 wire communication. The cost of an aerial mail letter is sixteen cents for 
 two ounces. For this price there can be sent a message that would cost 
 five dollars to send by telegraph. 
 
 The estimate of $50,000,000 of potential postplane business takes 
 no account of the possibilities of transporting parcel post aerial mail. 
 One of the Caproni 2,100-horse-power machines now in operation could 
 easily transport 2,500 pounds of mail. At least $25,000,000 worth of 
 parcel post could be sent by airplance. 
 
 Enthusiasts who look forward to the transatlantic transportation of 
 aerial mail as certain to come within the next twelve-month assert that 
 there is another twenty-five million dollars' worth of transatlantic mail 
 waiting for an aerial mail service. They point out that Uncle Sam now 
 pays eighty cents a pound to American steamships to carry transatlantic 
 mail and that a charge of one dollar per letter across the Atlantic would be a 
 paying proposition. 
 
 Charges of mismanagement and graft were investigated by the 
 United States Senate and by the Department of Justice. Former 
 Justice of the United States Supreme Court Charles E. Hughes 
 was named by President Wilson to conduct the latter inquiry. 
 Waste was found, due largely to the emergency nature of the 
 contract. Justice Hughes recommended that Col. Edward Deeds, 
 of the United States Signal Corps, be tried by court martial for 
 his connection with certain contracts, and recommended that sev- 
 eral other persons be tried in the United States courts. Justice 
 Hughes and the Senate Investigation Committee gave their un- 
 qualified approval to the management of America's aircraft pro- 
 duction by John D. Ryan. Mr. Ryan resigned his charge as 
 head of the Aircraft Production Board hi November, 1918. His 
 last public announcement was of the invention of an aerial tele- 
 phone, by which the commander of a squadron standing on the 
 ground could communicate with aviators flying hi battle formation.
 
 CHAPTER XLIX 
 
 HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OP THE AMERICAN FORCES 
 
 SINCE the fateful day when Cain slew Abel, thereby setting 
 a precedent for human warfare, no fighter has been so well 
 protected from disease and discomfort of mind and body, 
 so speedily cured of his wounds, as the American soldier 
 and sailor during the World War. 
 
 The basis of this remarkable achievement was sanitary edu- 
 cation preached first by competent physicians and sociologists; 
 then by newspapers to the civilian population; and ultimately by 
 the soldiers and sailors themselves, each man acting as an evangel 
 of personal and community health and sanitation. In 1914, before 
 war was declared, the words "venereal diseases" were relegated to 
 the advertisements of quacks and patent medicines. When the 
 war ended, virtually every young and old man and woman knew 
 the meaning of the words and the miseries that come hi their 
 train. So it was with other details of the care of the human body, 
 with sewage problems, with the grave community question of 
 pure water, with the use of intoxicating beverages, and with other 
 problems inter-woven with the health and happiness of humanity. 
 
 Among the leaders in this wide-flung campaign of education 
 was the American Red Cross. Starting with a mere nominal 
 membership before the war, its roster rose to the mighty total of 
 more than 28,000,000 American men, women and children when 
 the war ended. More than $300,000,000 was poured into the 
 American Red Cross treasury. In addition to these contributions 
 of money, came the free services of millions of Americans, mostly 
 women. Red Cross workshops dotted the land, and from these 
 came bandages, sweaters, comfort-kits, trench necessities, clothing 
 for homeless refugees, and a vast quantity of material aid hi every 
 conceivable form. American Red Cross workers during the war 
 knitted 14,089,000 garments for the army and navy. In addition, 
 the workers turned out 253,196,000 surgical dressings, 22,255,000 
 hospital garments and 1,464,000 refugee garments. Sewing chap- 
 
 622
 
 HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF THE FORCES 623 
 
 ters repaired old clothing and sent it overseas to the orphaned 
 and the widowed, and millions of Americans learned the sublime 
 lesson of sacrifice through the Red Cross a lesson that left its 
 imprint upon America for generations. 
 
 The work of the American Red Cross extended through many 
 lands. It followed the flags of the Entente Allies into Palestine, 
 Mesopotamia, India, South Africa, and other battle-grounds. 
 Its work on the western front was a miracle of achievement. In 
 Russia through the Red Terror of the Revolution the workers of 
 the American Red Cross went serenely about their tasks of mercy, 
 relieving the hungry, aiding the sick, and clothing the ragged 
 peasants. 
 
 Henry P. Davidson left the firm of J. P. Morgan & Company 
 to devote his administrative genius to the affairs of the American 
 Red Cross. Other men and women of rare executive ability joined 
 hi the free tender of their services to the work of the Red Cross. 
 
 While the organization strove mightily against famines, 
 wounds and disease overseas, it was suddenly confronted during 
 the period from September 8th to November 9th, 1918, with the 
 severest epidemic America had experienced in generations. Return- 
 ing American troops brought the germs of the malady known as 
 "Spanish influenza" into New York and Boston. Thence it 
 spread throughout the country. During its brief career the epi- 
 demic claimed a total of 82,306 deaths in forty-six American cities, 
 having a combined population of 23,000,000. Philadelphia, a great 
 center of war industry, with the Philadelphia Navy Yard harboring 
 thousands of sailors and marines, showed the highest mortality in 
 proportion to population, 7.4 per 1,000; Baltimore with 6.7 per 1,000 
 showed the next greatest mortality. 
 
 The record of the Red Cross in this epidemic was one of 
 instant service. Hundreds of thousands of masks were made in 
 Red Cross workrooms, and these were worn by nurses and by 
 members of families in afflicted homes. 
 
 On May 1, 1917, just before the appointment of the War 
 Council, the American Red Cross had 486,194 members working 
 through 562 chapters. On July 31, 1918, the organization num- 
 bered 20,648,103 annual members, besides 8,000,000 members of 
 the Junior Red Cross a total enrolment of over one-fourth the 
 population of the United States. These members carried on their
 
 624 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Red Cross work through 3,854 chapters, which again divided 
 themselves into some 30,000 branches and auxiliaries. 
 
 The total actual collections from the first war fund amounted 
 to more than $115,000,000. The subscriptions to the second war 
 fund amounted to upward of $176,000,000. From membership 
 dues the collections approximated $24,500,000. 
 
 The Home Service of the Red Cross with its more than 40,000 
 workers, extended its ministrations of sympathy and counsel 
 each month to upward of 100,000 families left behind by soldiers 
 at the front. 
 
 Supplementing, but not duplicating, the work of the American 
 Red Cross, were the services of the Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., 
 Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Association, Salvation Army, 
 American Library Association and other bodies. 
 
 These operated under the general supervision of the War and 
 Navy departments: Commissions on Training Camp Activities. 
 Raymond B. Fosdick was the chairman of both these bodies. 
 Concerning these commissions, President Wilson declared : 
 
 I do not believe it an exaggeration to say that no army ever before 
 assembled has had more conscientious and painstaking thought given to 
 the protection and stimulation of its mental, moral and physical man- 
 hood. Every endeavor has been made to surround the men, both here 
 and abroad, with the kind of environment which a democracy owes to 
 those who fight in its behalf. In this work the Commissions on Training 
 Camp Activities have represented the government and the government's 
 solicitude that the moral and spiritual resources of the nation should be 
 mobilized behind the troops. The country is to be congratulated upon 
 the fine spirit with which organizations and groups of many kinds, some 
 of them of national standing, have harnessed themselves together under 
 the leadership of the government's agency in a common ministry to the 
 men of the army and navy. 
 
 Afloat and ashore the organizations operating under the super- 
 vision of the two commissions gave to the men of the American 
 forces home care, suitable recreation, and constant protection. 
 The club life of the army and navy, both in the training camps and 
 after the men went into the service, was most capably directed 
 by the Y. M. C. A., Knights of Columbus, and the Jewish Welfare 
 Association. Non-sectarianism was the rule in all of the huts and 
 clubs conducted by these organizations. Catholic, Protestant and 
 Jewish chaplains mingled with workers of the Salvation Army,
 
 HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF THE FORCES 625 
 
 with professional prize-fighters who became athletic instructors, 
 with actors and actresses who contributed their talents freely to 
 the entertainment of soldiers and sailors. Moving-picture shows, 
 boxing contests, continuation schools, canteens where women 
 workers served American-made dishes these were some some of the 
 activities following the men. The Y. M. C. A. and Knights of 
 Columbus bore the largest share of this work. More than $300,- 
 000,000 was contributed by the people of America to the main- 
 tenance of these activities. 
 
 The other organizations rounded out the work of the first 
 two organizations and filled in with special attention to needs on 
 which the others did not specialize. 
 
 The larger organization, the Y. M. C. A., was chosen by the 
 government to carry out a portion of the government program 
 the conducting of the canteens. 
 
 The Knights of Columbus specialized in comforts less considered 
 by other war relief organizations. 
 
 Nothing gave greater relaxation to the fighting man, coming 
 from the trenches, or the battle line caked with mud and blood 
 and weary with long hours, than a shower bath, and generous 
 facilities were provided close to the fighting front. 
 
 Back of the lines hi the rest billets and concentration camps, 
 provisions were less generous than at the front until the Knights 
 of Columbus took up the task of seeing that the men who were 
 temporarily away from the active fighting had these facilities for 
 bathing. It was but one of the many activities of the Knights of 
 Columbus, but one of the most appreciated. 
 
 One of the first requisitions made by Rev. John B. De Valles, 
 one of the first chaplains sent over by the Knights of Columbus, 
 was for a shower bath and he set it up in connection with his head- 
 quarters hi a little French town and it was overworked from the 
 first. From this spread the movement for establishing shower 
 baths hi club houses being opened behind the lines and in villages. 
 
 There was no preaching in a Knights of Columbus hall or club 
 room, but there was clean moral environment and healthy recreation 
 and amusement, for this was proven the thing to keep up the morale 
 of fighting men. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. built 1,500 huts in Europe costing from $2,000 
 to $20,000 each, equipped with canteen, reading and writing and
 
 626 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 recreational facilities to soldiers. It operated twenty-eight different 
 leave areas with hotels that had a total of 35,000 beds. In addition, 
 in Paris, port towns, and several big centers in the war zone there 
 were "Y" hotels for transient soldiers where one could get a clean 
 bed and a good meal at about half the price charged by French 
 hotels. Over 3,000 movie and theatrical shows a week were pro- 
 vided free, and 300 "Y" athletic directors had charge of the sports 
 in the American army, operating 836 athletic fields. Enormous 
 quantities of cookies and chocolate and cigarettes were supplied. 
 
 A hundred of the best known educators from America directed 
 educational work. The staff consisted of Professor Erskine of 
 Columbia University, Professor Daly of Harvard, Professor Cole- 
 man of Chicago University, Professor Appleton of the University 
 of Kansas and Frank Spaulding, superintendent of the Cleveland 
 public schools. 
 
 Seconding the work of the Y. M. C. A., its sister organization, 
 the Y. W. C. A., extended its activities from the training camps of 
 America to the battle-fields of Europe. 
 
 At the close of its first year of America's participation in the 
 war, the Y. W. C. A. had six established lines of work in France: 
 Hostess Houses, clubs for French working women and business 
 girls, clubs for nurses with the American army, clubs for women of 
 the signal corps, clubs for British women (Waac's) working with 
 the American army, and recreation work for all women employed 
 in any way by the American Expeditionary Force. In one year 
 its activities spread to twenty-five cities, and it had forty-three 
 units. 
 
 The Hostess Houses were at Paris and Tours. The Hotel 
 Petrograd, on the Rue Caumartin, was leased in Paris and turned 
 out to be one of the most interesting centers of American life in 
 France. It was run on the most liberal lines, in a thoroughly 
 democratic way. The meals were good and hi the big dining-room 
 men were admitted on the same footing as women. There were 
 two of these Hostess Houses at Tours. 
 
 For the girls of the signal corps twenty-two homes were opened 
 and there were huts for the Waacs at Bourges and Tours. Y. W. 
 C. A. secretaries were attached to twenty base hospital units and 
 opened fourteen clubs for nurses. 
 
 The most interesting and unique work of the Y. W. C. A. was
 
 HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF THE FORCES 627 
 
 that of its foyers for French working women and business girls. 
 There were thirteen of these in Lyons, Rouen, Bourges, Tours, 
 Ste. Etienne, Paris and Mont Lucon. 
 
 The Salvation Army erected hotels at the various large train- 
 ing camps in America, and its workers made American doughnuts 
 for the soldiers close to the battle-lines in France. The work done 
 by the men and women of the Salvation Army aided materially 
 in bringing the heart of America into France. 
 
 The Jewish Welfare Association not only performed notable 
 service in following the men from training camps into actual ser- 
 vice, but it also planned and executed a great reconstruction pro- 
 gram under the direction of Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the 
 Joint Distribution Committee. 
 
 The American Library Association solved the grave problem 
 of providing the soldiers and sailors with suitable reading matter. 
 Each of the cantonments had its special library building in charge 
 of a trained librarian, and interesting literature followed the men 
 into the field through the services of this organization. 
 
 Some idea of the work of these various organizations is gamed 
 by reading the following order received by Raymond B. Fosdick 
 at his headquarters in Washington after the steamship Kansas 
 carrying supplies for the various huts at American field quarters, 
 was sunk: 
 
 Send 20 tons plain soap, 20 tons condensed milk, 10 tons chocolate, 
 5 tons cocoa, 2 tons tea, 5 tons coffee, 5 tons vanilla wafers, 50 tons sugar, 
 20 tons flour, 2 tons fruit essences, 2 tons lemonade powder, 120,000 Testa- 
 ments, 120,000 hymn-books, tons of magazines and other literature, 30 
 tons writing-paper and envelopes, 50,000 folding chairs, 500 camp cots, 
 2,000 blankets, 20 typewriters, 60 tents, 75 moving-picture machines, 
 200 phonographs, 5,000 records, 1 ton ink blotters, $75,000 worth athletic 
 goods, 30 automobiles and trucks. 
 
 The order was filled at once. 
 
 Besides the associations above enumerated, other volunteer 
 organizations contributed to the health and happiness of American 
 soldiers and sailors. The Emergency Aid of Pennsylvania estab- 
 lished two clubs, one in Paris, the other in Tours, both of which 
 performed notable services in feeding and restoring the spirits of 
 American soldiers and sailors. The club in Paris was under the 
 direction of the Rev. Frederick W. Beekman, and that at Tours
 
 628 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 was directed by Amos Tuck French. Mrs. Barclay Warburton 
 of Philadelphia was designated by Governor Brumbaugh as Com- 
 missioner-General of Overseas Work for the Emergency Aid. 
 Other states had similar organizations looking after the comfort 
 of the men v 
 
 But it was upon tne professional doctors, nurses and sani- 
 tarians that the bulk of the task devolved. This task included the 
 prevention as well as the cure of maladies menacing the American 
 forces. It reached out into years after the war into the problems 
 of re-education and re-habilitation of the shell-shocked and the 
 wounded. Major-General William C. Gorgas, former Surgeon 
 General of the Army, stated this concept when he said: 
 
 "The whole conception of governmental and national respon- 
 sibility for caring for the wounded has undergone radical change dur- 
 ing the months of study given the subject by experts serving with 
 the Medical Officers' Reserve Corps and others consulting with 
 them. Instead of the old idea that responsibility ended with the 
 return of the soldier to private life with his wounds healed and 
 such pension as he might be given, it is now considered that it is 
 the duty of the government to equip and re-educate the wounded 
 man, after healing his wounds, and to return him to civil life ready 
 to be as useful to himself and his country as possible." 
 
 To carry out this idea reconstruction hospitals were estab- 
 lished in large centers of population. Boston, New York, Phila- 
 delphia, Baltimore, Washington, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago, 
 St. Paul, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Kansas 
 City, St. Louis, Memphis, Richmond, Atlanta and New Orleans 
 were sites of these institutions. Each was planned as a 500-bed 
 hospital but with provision for enlargement to 1,000 beds if needed. 
 
 These hospitals were not the last step in the return of the 
 wounded soldiers to civil life. When the soldiers were able to 
 take up industrial training, further provision was ready. 
 
 Arrangements were made by the Department of Military 
 Orthopedics to care for soldiers, so far as orthopedics (the pre- 
 vention of deformity) was concerned, continuously until they 
 were returned to civil life. Orthopedic surgeons were attached 
 to the medical force near the firing line and to the different 
 hospitals back to the base orthopedic hospital which was established 
 within one hundred miles of the firing line. In this hospital, in addi-
 
 HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF THE FORCES 629 
 
 tion to orthopedic surgical care, there was equipment for surgical 
 reconstruction work and " curative workshops" in which men ac- 
 quired ability to use injured members while doing work interesting 
 and useful in itself. This method supplanted the old and tiresome 
 one of prescribing a set of motions for a man to go through with no 
 other purpose than to re-acquire use of his injured part. 
 
 Instructors and examiners for all the troops were furnished 
 by the Department of Military Orthopedic Surgery. A number 
 of older and more experienced surgeons acted as instructors and 
 supervisors for each of the groups into which the army was 
 divided. 
 
 A peculiar condition arising from the use of heavy artillery 
 in the war was that called " shell-shock." 
 
 The most pathetic wrecks of war were soldiers suffering from 
 shattered nerves. Paris had many of them. They appeared to 
 be normal. But they were human wrecks. 
 
 Shell-shock or the aftermath of illness from wounds left them 
 in weakened health, subject to violent heart attacks. Most of 
 them lacked energy and perseverance. They became awkward, 
 like big children. If employment was found for them for many 
 had large families to support they quickly lost their jobs through 
 apathy or collapse. 
 
 A society hi Paris did everything possible to relieve the suf- 
 ferings of these victims of the war. It operated with the authoriza- 
 tion of the French Government under the name "L' Assistance aux 
 Blesses Nerveux de la Guerre." 
 
 American hospitals after the war contained many of these 
 cases. Some of the victims became incurably insane. 
 
 Besides the noble work done by the great army of American 
 physicians, surgeons and nurses, in caring for soldiers and sailors, 
 a service of scarcely less magnitude was rendered to the civilian 
 populations of France, Belgium and Italy. Tuberculosis in 
 France was a real plague, taking a toll of 80,000 lives every year. 
 American physicians and nurses preached the doctrine of fresh 
 air, care of the teeth and proper food for children. Almost imme- 
 diately this campaign of sanitation had its effect in a decreasing 
 death-rate from tuberculosis. 
 
 European nations generally were benefited by the stay of the 
 American army overseas. The straightforward manner in which 
 the social evil was attacked had direct benefits. The important
 
 630 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 detail of dental care also received an interest through the advent 
 of the American soldier. The London Daily Mail made this 
 comment on that question: 
 
 "One thing about the American soldiers and sailors must 
 strike English people when they see these gallant fighters, and that 
 is the soundness and general whiteness of their teeth. From child- 
 hood the 'Yank' is taught to take cafe of his teeth. He has 
 'tooth drill' thrice daily and visits his dentist at fixed periods, 
 say, every three or four months. If by chance a tooth does decay, 
 the rot is at once arrested by gold or platinum filling. American 
 dentists never extract a tooth. No matter how badly decayed it 
 may be, they save the molar by crowning it with gold. 
 
 "The United States soldiers have set us a splendid example 
 hi this matter. They fairly shame the ordinary ' Tommy' by 
 the brilliance of then 1 molars, but they will do so no longer if young 
 English mothers will only wake up to the fact that bad teeth cause 
 bad health, and that doctors' and dentists' bills will be saved by 
 the regular use of the tooth-brush."
 
 CHAPTER L 
 THE PIRATES OP THE UNDER-SEAS 
 
 GERMANY relied upon the submarine to win the war. 
 This in a nut-shell explains the main reason why the 
 United States was drawn into the World War. Von 
 Tirpitz, the German Admiral, obsessed with the theory 
 that no effective answer could be made to the submarine, con- 
 vinced the German High Command and the Kaiser that only 
 through unrestricted submarine warfare could England be starved 
 and the war brought to an end with victory for Germany. Since 
 August, 1914, the theory held by von Tirpitz and his party of 
 extremists had been combated by Prince Maximilian of Baden 
 and by Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg and by others high in 
 the council of the Kaiser. These men pointed out that, leaving 
 out such questions as piracy on the high seas, the drowning of 
 women and children, the destruction of the property of neutrals, 
 there still remained the question of expediency. America, they 
 asserted, was certain to enter the war if unrestricted submarine 
 warfare was decreed. These men were denounced as cowards 
 and von Tirpitz finally triumphed. 
 
 The submarine employed by the Germans was of the type 
 designed by Simon Lake, an American. The Germans bought 
 two submarines built by Mr. Lake at Kronstadt for the Russians 
 during the Russian-Japanese war. Various improvements upon 
 the Diesel engine and special training for submarine crews enabled 
 the German navy to strike terrible blows during the early part of 
 the war. 
 
 Little by little, however, the Allies discovered the answer 
 to the submarine menace. One of these was the convoy: fleets of 
 merchant vessels surrounded by fast destroyers made life a misery 
 for the submarine crews. In the early days vessels of all char- 
 acter fled from the approach of the submarine. The destroyers 
 of the convoys, however, adopted a different method. They 
 rushed at the periscopes in efforts to ram the submarine, and as 
 
 631
 
 632 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 they raced over the spot where the submarine had been at the 
 rate of twenty-two knots or more an hour, they dropped huge 
 containers, dubbed "ash cans", containing depth charges of trini- 
 trotoluol. 
 
 Sea planes carrying bombs, small dirigible balloons known 
 as "blimps," observation balloons moored on the decks of warships, 
 steel nets, and especially devised anti-submarine mines, were also 
 factors in the general work of submarine destruction. 
 
 In addition to all these, every ship, both cargo carrier and 
 war vessel, had its well-trained gun crew, and hundreds of thousands 
 of keen-eyed mariners daily and nightly swept the seas with 
 binoculars watching for anything that resembled a periscope. 
 
 As a consequence of this combination of destructive agencies 
 the British Admiralty was enabled to announce at the close of the 
 war that more than 150 German submarines had been destroyed. 
 
 The names of the commanding officers of the German sub- 
 marines which had been disposed of were given out by the govern- 
 ment in order to substantiate to the world the statement made 
 by the Prime Minister hi the House of Commons on August 7th, 
 and denied in the German papers, that "at least 150 of these ocean 
 pests had been destroyed." The statement included no officers 
 commanding the Austrian submarines, of which a number had 
 been destroyed, and did not exhaust the list of German submarines 
 put out of action. 
 
 The fate of the officers was given, and of these the majority 
 (116) were dead; twenty-seven were prisoners of war, six were 
 interned in neutral countries where they took refuge, and one 
 succeeded in returning to Germany. 
 
 Further light on the subject of German submarines was given 
 on September 18, 1918, by Senator William H. Thompson of Kansas 
 in a speech hi which he told the Senate : 
 
 The submarine is no longer a serious menace to transportation across 
 the seas. It is, of course, an annoyance and a great hindrance, and as 
 long as there is a single submarine in the waters of the sea every effort 
 must be made by the allied powers to destroy it, for it is an outlaw and 
 must not exist. The truth is that Germany never had more than 320 sub- 
 marines all told, including all construction before and since the war. 
 
 We have positive knowledge of the destruction of more than one-half 
 of these submarines, and we also know that it is practically impossible 
 for Germany to keep in operation more than 10 per cent of those remain-
 
 THE PIRATES OF THE UNDER-SEAS 633 
 
 ing. It is therefore reduced to a negligible quantity so far as its ultimate 
 effect, upon the result of the war is concerned. 
 
 I saw a reliable statement in France to the effect that there is one ship 
 of some character leaving the eastern shores of America for the war zone 
 every six minutes, and it is only a few vessels which are ever torpedoed, 
 estimated at about one per cent. This is less than the loss by storm and 
 accident in the earlier days of transportation and is not much greater 
 than such loss now. We must bear in mind that we read only of the ships 
 which have been torpedoed and see but little account of the hundreds of 
 ships which pass over the ocean safely and undisturbed. Three hundred 
 thousand soldiers are conveyed across the Atlantic every thirty days, 
 and an average of about 500,000 tons of freight carried to the French 
 coast. There are warehouses in only one of the many ports of France 
 with a capacity of over 2,000,000 tons. 
 
 It is to the navy that the credit for the destruction of this outlaw 
 seagoing craft is due. The navy is and has been the backbone of this war, 
 the same as it has been of almost every great war in history. Without 
 the allied navy the submarine would have perhaps accomplished its nefar- 
 ious purpose in starving the European allies and in preventing them from 
 securing the necessary munitions of war to defend themselves. It has 
 utterly failed in this respect. The Allies are amply supplied with food, 
 and there are provisions enough on hand now, if every ship should be 
 sunk, to last the Allies and armies for months. The destroyer is the 
 ship which has brought Germany to her knees in submarine warfare and 
 will keep her there. We have not enough destroyers, and it is for this 
 reason we are obliged in this great transportation problem to run risks 
 which would not be taken under ordinary conditions. If every ship 
 was escorted by a sufficient number of destroyers I doubt if there would 
 be a single ship of any consequence sunk, except by the merest accident. 
 
 Upon the same subject, Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the 
 British Admiralty, on October 14th, reviewing the British effort 
 in the war said that during 1918 the casualties of the British on 
 the western front equaled those of all the Allies combined. The 
 British navy, he said, since the beginning of the war had lost in 
 fighting ships of all classes a total of 230, more than twice the losses 
 in war vessels of all the Allies. 
 
 In addition to these, Great Britain had lost 450 auxiliary craft, 
 such as mine-sweepers and trawlers, making a total of 680. He 
 revealed the fact that the effective warship barrage, which had 
 been drawn between the Orkneys and Norway against German 
 submarines and surface craft, was, during the later months of the 
 war, maintained largely by ships of the United States. 
 
 The British merchant ships lost since 1914 exceeded 2,400,
 
 634 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 representing a gross tonnage of 7,750,000, nearly three times the 
 aggregate loss of all other allied and neutral countries. 
 In his statement on the submarine situation he said : 
 
 In February, 1917, the ruthless submarine warfare confronted us, 
 whilst the armies in France at that tune were feeling a sense of superiority 
 over the enemy which was illustrated by the successes of the battle of 
 Arras, the taking of Vimy Ridge, the advance between the Ancre and the 
 Somme, the offensive in Champagne, Chemin des Dames, Messines and 
 Passchendaele Ridges. Thus we felt, and rightly felt, that the weakest 
 front at that time was the sea not on the surface, but under water. 
 
 The whole of the available energies of the Allies were consequently 
 thrown into overcoming the submarine and the menace which threatened 
 to destroy the lines of communication of the Alliance. The reduced 
 sinkings which have been published since that period show how we grad- 
 ually overcame that menace and today most men say that the sub- 
 marine menace is a thing of the past. 
 
 That it is a thing of the past in so far as it can never win the war for 
 the enemy or enable the enemy to prevent us from winning the war, 
 provided we do not underrate the danger but take adequate steps against 
 it, I affirm now as the opinion of the British Admiralty; but it is a menace 
 that comes and goes. 
 
 The end of the great submarine menace came on November 
 20th, when twenty German submarines were officially surrendered 
 to Rear-Admiral Tyrwhitt of the British Navy, thirty miles off 
 Harwich, Englandk Within the following week more than eighty 
 other German submarines and a number of Austrian craft were 
 also surrendered to the British. The spectacle of the surrender 
 was most impressive. 
 
 After steaming some twenty miles across the North Sea, the 
 Harwich forces, which consisted of five light cruisers and twenty 
 destroyers, were sighted. The flagship of Admiral Tyrwhitt, the 
 commander, was the Curacao. High above about the squadron 
 hung a big observation balloon. 
 
 The squadron, headed by the flagship, then steamed toward 
 the Dutch coast, followed by the Coventry, Dragoon, Danal and 
 Centaur. Other ships followed in line with their navigation lights 
 showing. The picture was a noble one as the great vessels, with 
 the moon still shining, plowed their way to take part in the sur- 
 render of the German U-boats. 
 
 Soon after the British squadron started the "paravanes" 
 were dropped overboard. These devices are shaped like tops and
 
 THE PIRATES OF THE UNDER-SEAS 63d 
 
 divert any mines which may be encountered, for the vessels were 
 now entering a mine field. 
 
 Almost everyone on board donned a life belt and just as the 
 red sun appeared above the horizon the first German submarine 
 appeared in sight. 
 
 Soon after seven o'clock twenty submarines were seen in line, 
 accompanied by two German destroyers, the Tibania and the 
 Sierra Ventana, which were to take the submarine crews back to 
 Germany after the transfer. 
 
 All the submarines were on the surface with their hatches open 
 and their crews standing on deck. The vessels were flying no 
 flags whatever and their guns were trained fore and aft, in accord- 
 ance with the terms of surrender. 
 
 A bugle sounded on the Curasao and all the gun crews took 
 up their stations, ready for any possible treachery. 
 
 The leading destroyer, in response to a signal from the admiral, 
 turned and led the way towards England and the submarines 
 were ordered to follow. They immediately did so. The surrender 
 had been accomplished. 
 
 Each cruiser turned, and, keeping a careful lookout, steamed 
 toward Harwich. On the deck of one of the largest of the sub- 
 marines, which carried two 5.9 guns, twenty-three officers and men 
 were counted. The craft was estimated to be nearly 300 feet in 
 length. Its number had been painted out. 
 
 Near the Ship Wash lightship three large British seaplanes, 
 followed by an airship, were observed. One of the submarines was 
 seen to send up a couple of carrier pigeons and at once a signal 
 was flashed from the admiral that it had no right to do this. 
 
 When the ships had cleared the mine field and entered the 
 war channel the " paravanes" were hauled aboard. On reaching a 
 point some twenty miles off Harwich the ships dropped anchor and 
 Captain Addison went out on the warship Maidstone. 
 
 British crews were then put on board the submarines to take 
 them into harbor. With the exception of the engine staffs all the 
 German sailors remained on deck. The submarines were then 
 taken through the gates of the harbor and the German crews 
 were transferred to the transports and taken back to Germany. 
 
 As the boats went through the gates a white signal was run 
 up on each of them with the German flag underneath.
 
 636 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Each German submarine commander at the transfer was 
 required to sign a declaration to the effect that his vessel was in 
 running order, that its periscope was intact, that its torpedoes 
 were unloaded and that its torpedo heads were safe. 
 
 Orders had been issued forbidding any demonstration and 
 these instructions were obeyed to the letter. There was complete 
 silence as the submarines surrendered and as the crews were 
 transferred. 
 
 On November 21st, the German High Seas fleet that had 
 been protected by the submarines surrendered to the combined 
 fleet consisting of British, American and French battleships. 
 The British admiralty's terse statement concerning the historic 
 spectacle follows: 
 
 The commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet has reported that at 
 9.30 o'clock this morning he met the first and main installment of the 
 German high seas fleet, which is surrendering for internment. Admiral 
 Sir David Beatty is Commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet. 
 
 On the same day another flotilla of German U-boats also was 
 surrendered to a British squadron. There were nineteen sub- 
 marines in all; the twentieth broke down on the way. 
 
 The Grand Fleet, accompanied by five American battleships 
 and three French cruisers, steamed out at 3 o'clock on the morning 
 of November 21st, from its Scottish base to accept the surrender. 
 The vessels moved in two long columns. 
 
 The German fleet which surrendered consisted of nine battle- 
 ships, five cruisers, seven light cruisers and fifty destroyers. 
 Seventy-one vessels in all. There remained to be surrendered two 
 battleships, which were under repair, and fifty modern torpedo- 
 boat destroyers. 
 
 One German destroyer while on its way across the North Sea 
 with the other ships of the German High Seas fleet to surrender 
 struck a mine. It was so badly damaged that it sank. 
 
 Describing the surrender of the German warships to Sir David 
 Beatty, the Commander-in-Chief of the grand fleet, correspondents 
 said that after all the German ships had been taken over, the British 
 admiral went through the line on the Queen Elizabeth, every 
 Allied vessel being manned and greeting the admiral and the flag- 
 ship with loud and ringing cheers. 
 
 The British grand fleet put to sea in two single lines six miles
 
 Courtesy of Joseph A. Steinmetz, Phil/I. 
 
 THE EYE 
 
 OF THE SUBMARINE 
 
 Diagram of a periscope, showing how, when its tip is lifted out of water, a picture of 
 the sea's surface is reflected downward from a prism, through lenses, and then a lower 
 prism, hence to the officer's eye. It turns in any direction.
 
 THE PIRATES OF THE UNDER-SEAS 639 
 
 apart, and so formed as to enable the surrendering fleet to come 
 up the center. The leading ship of the German line was sighted 
 between 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning. It was the Seydlitz, 
 flying the German naval ensign. 
 
 A telegram received in Amsterdam from Berlin gave this list 
 of surrendered warships, which includes one mpre battleship than 
 later reports showed : 
 
 Battleships Kaiser, 24,113 tons; Kaiserin, 24,113 tons; 
 Koenig Albert, 24,113 tons; Kronprinz Wilhelm, 25,000 tons; 
 Prinzregent Luitpold, 24,113 tons; Markgraf, 25,293 tons; Grosser 
 Kurfuerst, 25,293 tons; Bayern, 28,000 tons; Koenig, 25,293 tons, 
 and Friedrich der Grosse, 24,113. 
 
 Battle Cruisers Hindenburg, 27,000 tons ; Derflinger, 28,000 
 tons; Seydlitz, 25,000 tons; Moltke, 23,000 tons, and Von Der 
 Tann, 18,800 tons. 
 
 Light Cruisers Bremen, 4,000 tons; Brummer, 4,000 tons; 
 Frankfurt, 5,400 tons; Koeln, tonnage uncertain; Dresden, tonnage 
 uncertain, and Emden, 5,400 tons.
 
 CHAPTER LI 
 APPROACHING THE FINAL STAGE 
 
 THE might and pride of Germany were smashed and humbled 
 by Foch in frontal attacks divided roughly into three great 
 sectors. The first of these attacks was delivered by the 
 French and Americans in the southern sector which included 
 Verdun and the Argonne. The second smash was delivered by 
 British, French and Americans in the Cambrai sector. The third 
 was delivered by British, Belgians, French and Americans in the 
 Belgian sector on the north of the great battle line. 
 
 The Cambrai operation had as its first objectives the possession 
 of the strategic railways both of which ran from Valenciennes, one 
 to the huge distribution center at Douai; the other to Cambrai 
 itself. To reach these objectives the Allies were obliged to cross 
 the Sensee and the Escaut canals under infantry and artillery fire. 
 Besides these natural obstacles, there was the famous Hunding line 
 of fortifications erected by the Germans between the Scarpe and the 
 Oise River. 
 
 The attack was opened in force on September 18, 1918, by 
 the Fourth British army under General Rawlinson and the First 
 French army under General Debeney. The assault was successful 
 northwest of St. Quentin and determined German counter-attacks 
 were broken down by French and British artillery fire. 
 
 The Third British army under General Byng and the Thirtieth 
 American division co-operating with the First British army under 
 Sir Henry Home, attacked furiously over a fourteen-mile front 
 toward Cambrai. The net result of this operation was the possession 
 of the Canal du Nord, the taking of several villages, and 6,000 prison- 
 ers. This was on September 27th. The following day the same forces 
 captured Fontaine-Notre Dame, Marcoing, Noyelles, and Cantaing. 
 More than 200 guns were captured and 10,000 prisoners. On 
 September 29th the Americans took Bellecourt and Nauroy, and 
 invested the suburbs of Cambrai. The British crossed the Escaut 
 
 MO
 
 APPROACHING THE FINAL STAGE 641 
 
 canal and the Canadians penetrated some of the environs of 
 Cambrai. 
 
 The resolution and ferocity of the attack thoroughly dismayed 
 the Germans, and the salient produced by the smash forced the 
 Teutons to evacuate the greatly prized Lens coal fields on October 
 3d. Home and Byng continued their advance, the former occu- 
 pying Biache-St. Vaast southwest of Douai, and the latter reaching 
 a position five miles northwest of Cambrai. 
 
 Caught between the jaws of the pincers, the German forces 
 occupying Cambrai made haste to escape outright capture. The 
 city that had been the objective of British hopes and thrusts for 
 two years, fell into the hands of the Allies. The German retreat 
 extended over a thirty-mile front and included both St. Quentin 
 and Cambrai. Simultaneously the German forces between Arras 
 and St. Quentin fell steadily backward. Le Cateau and Zazeuel 
 fell into the hands of the British October 17th, three thousand 
 prisoners and a ojiantity of war material being included in the bag. 
 
 In the meantime General Mangin attacking in the Laon sector, 
 drove the Germans from the strategic Chemin des Dames and with 
 General Berthelot captured Berry-au-Bac, the St. Gobain massif 
 and completed contact with Generals Pershing and Gouraud on 
 the right and with Generals Rawlinson and Debeney on the left. 
 
 The Allied advance now became a huge steel broom, sweeping 
 the Germans irresistibly before it. The operation extended from 
 the Oise southeast to the Aisne, broadening thence until it included 
 the entire front. The Hindenburg line, the Somme battle-field, 
 the Hunding line, were all quickly overrun. The fortress of 
 Maubeuge, fifty miles northeast of St. Quentin, which was con- 
 nected with that city by a triple railway connection, was evacuated 
 as a direct result of this operation. 
 
 When St. Quentin itself fell into the hands of Debeney, it 
 was found that the Germans had deported the entire civilian popu- 
 lation of 50,000. 
 
 This was the crux of the operations by Foch. Germans were 
 given no rest; night and day the pressure continued. Every clash 
 showed the increasing superiority of the Allies both in men and 
 material and the corresponding deterioration of the German forces. 
 This demoralization of the Germans extended from the High Com- 
 mand to the private soldier. Prisoners poured into the hands of
 
 642 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 the Allies. Evacuation of Lille was commenced on October 2d 
 and Roubaix and Turcoing also fell. 
 
 It was the beginning of Germany's military debacle. The 
 tune was ripe for the coup-de-grace soon to be delivered by Ameri- 
 cans co-operating with the Allies on a seventy-one mile front. 
 
 The Kaiser, Ludendorf and von Hindenburg abandoned hope. 
 The command went forth from the German general headquarters to 
 retreat, retreat, retreat, while Prince Maximilian of Baden appealed 
 to America for an armistice. The sword hi Germany's hand was 
 broken. Autocracy, defeated in the eyes of its deluded subjects and 
 discredited in the eyes of the world, was in headlong flight. Its 
 only concern was to save as much as possible from the ruins of the 
 ostentatious temple it had reared.
 
 CHAPTER LII 
 LAST DAYS OF THE WAR 
 
 FROM November 1st until November llth, the day when 
 the armistice granting terms to Germany was signed, the 
 collapse of the German defensive was complete. The 
 army that under von Hindenburg and Ludendorf had 
 smashed its way over Poland, Roumania, Serbia, Belgium, and into 
 the heart of France, was now a military machine in full retreat. 
 It is only justice to that machine to say that the great retreat 
 at no place degenerated into a rout. Von Hindenburg and the 
 German General Staff had planned a series of rear-guard actions 
 that were effective in protecting the main bodies of infantry and 
 artillery. Machine-gun nests and airplane attacks were the main 
 reliance of the Germans in these maneuvers of delay, but the 
 German field artillery also did its share. 
 
 Immense quantities of material and many thousands of 
 prisoners were captured by the British, Canadians and Australians 
 in the north, and by the French and Americans in the south. 
 Simultaneously with this wide and savage drive upon the Germans 
 along the Belgian and French fronts, came the heaviest Italian 
 attack of the war. Before it the Austrians were swept in a torrent 
 that was irresistible. French, English and American troops 
 co-operated in this thrust that extended from the plains of the 
 Piave into Trentino. The immediate effect of the Italian offensive 
 was to force Austria to her knees in abject surrender. An armis- 
 tice, humiliating in its terms, was signed by the Austrian repre- 
 sentatives, and the back door to Germany was opened to the 
 Allies. 
 
 Germany's frantic plea for an armistice followed. There 
 were those in the Allied countries who maintained that nothing 
 short of unconditional surrender should be permitted. Cooler 
 counsel prevailed, and an armistice was offered to the German 
 High Command through General Foch, the terms of which far 
 exceeded in severity those granted to Turkey and Austria. These 
 
 643
 
 644 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 were read for the first time by Germany's representatives on Friday, 
 November 8th. General Foch, when he gave the document to the 
 German delegation, declared that Germany's decision must be 
 made within seventy-two hours. Eleven o'clock on Monday, 
 November llth, was the tune limit permitted to Germany. The 
 armistice was signed by General Foch and the German repre- 
 sentatives on the morning of November llth, but fighting did not 
 actually cease until eleven o'clock, several hours after the terms 
 had been agreed to. This was in accordance with arrangement 
 made between the signers. 
 
 Sedan, where Marshals McMahon and Bazaine, commanding 
 the armies of Napoleon III, surrendered to the King of Prussia in 
 1870, marked the last notable victory of the American forces in 
 France. The Sedan of 1870 marked the birth of German milita- 
 rism. The Sedan of 1918 marked its death. 
 
 Preceding the advance of the Americans upon Sedan, came a 
 cloud of aviators in pursuit and bombing planes, headed by the 
 famous aces of the American forces. The First and Second divisions 
 of the First army led the way. In the van of the Second division 
 were the Marines, whose heroism in Belleau Wood marked the 
 beginning of Germany's end. The famous Rainbow division 
 made the most savage thrust of the action, pursuing the foe for 
 ten miles and sweeping the Freya Hills clear of machine nests and 
 German artillery. 
 
 The last action of the war for the Americans followed imme- 
 diately on the heels of the battle of Sedan. It was the taking of the 
 town of Stenay. The engagement was deliberately planned by 
 the Americans as a sort of battle celebration of the end of the war. 
 The order fixing eleven o'clock as the tune for the conclusion of 
 hostilities, had been sent from end to end of the American lines. 
 Its text follows: 
 
 1. You are informed that hostilities will ceaae along the whole front 
 at 11 o'clock A. M., November 11, 1918, Paris time. 
 
 2. No Allied troops will pass the line reached by them at that hour 
 in date until further orders. 
 
 3. Division commanders will immediately sketch the location of 
 their line. This sketch will be returned to headquarters by the courier 
 bearing these orders. 
 
 4. All communication with the enemy, both before and after the 
 termination of hostilities, is absolutely forbidden. In case of violation of
 
 LAST DAYS OF THE WAR 645 
 
 this order severest disciplinary measures will be immediately taken. Any 
 officer offending will be sent to headquarters under guard. 
 
 5. Every emphasis will be laid on the fact that the arrangement is an 
 armistice only and not a peace. 
 
 6. There must not be the slightest relaxation of vigilance. Troops 
 must be prepared at any moment for further operations. 
 
 7. Special steps will be taken by all commanders to insure strictest 
 discipline and that all troops be held in readiness fully prepared for any 
 eventuality. 
 
 8. Division and brigade commanders will personally communicate 
 these orders to all organizations. 
 
 Signal corps wires, telephones and runners were used in carry- 
 ing the orders and so well did the big machine work that even 
 patrol commanders had received the orders well in advance of the 
 hour. Apparently the Germans also had been equally diligent in 
 getting the orders to the front line. Notwithstanding the hard 
 fighting they did Sunday to hold back the Americans, the Ger- 
 mans were able to bring the firing to an abrupt end at the scheduled 
 hour. 
 
 The staff and field officers of the American army were disposed 
 early in the day to approach the hour of eleven with lessened 
 activity. The day began with less firing and doubtless the fight- 
 ing would have ended according to plan, had there not been a 
 sharp resumption on the part of German batteries. The Americans 
 looked upon this as wantonly useless. It was then that orders 
 were sent to the battery commanders for increased fire. 
 
 Although there was no reason for it, German ruthlessness was 
 still rampant Sunday, stirring the American artillery in the region 
 of Dun-sur-Meuse and Mouzay to greater activity. Six hundred 
 aged men and women and children were in Mouzay when the 
 Germans attacked it with gas. There was only a small detach- 
 ment of American troops there and the town no longer was of 
 strategical value. However, it was made the direct target of 
 shells filled with phosgene. Every street reeked with gas. 
 
 Poorly clad and showing plainly evidences of malnutrition, 
 the inhabitants crowded about the Americans, kissing their hands 
 and hailing them as deliverers. They declared they had had no 
 meat for six weeks. They virtually had been prisoners of war for 
 four years and were overwhelmed with joy when they learned 
 that an armistice was probable.
 
 646 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The last French town to fall into American hands before the 
 armistice went into effect was Stenay. Patrols reported they had 
 found it empty not more than a quarter of an hour before eleven 
 o'clock. American troops rushed through the town and in a few 
 minutes Allied flags were beginning to appear from the windows. 
 As the church bell solemnly tolled the hour of eleven, troops from 
 the Ninetieth division were pouring into the town. 
 
 The inhabitants told the usual stories of German treatment. 
 They were forced to work at all sorts of tasks from seven in the 
 morning until six at night. In return they received paper bills 
 with which they were unable to purchase milk and similar necessi- 
 ties. The majority, however, were so overjoyed at their deliver- 
 ance that they were almost incoherent in discussing the enemy 
 occupation. 
 
 The inhabitants of Stenay remained hiding in their cellars 
 even after the Americans had entered the town. They came out 
 hesitatingly and in small groups. 
 
 Hostilities along the American front ended with a crash of 
 cannon. 
 
 The early forenoon had been marked by a falling off in fire all 
 along the line, but an increasing bombardment from the retreat- 
 ing Germans at certain points stimulated the Americans to a 
 quick retort. From their positions north of Stenay to southeast 
 of the town the Americans began to bombard fixed targets. The 
 firing reached a volume at times almost equivalent to a barrage. 
 
 Two minutes before eleven o'clock the firing dwindled, the 
 last shells shrieking over No Man's Land precisely on time. 
 
 There was little celebration on the front line, where American 
 routine was scarcely disturbed over the cessation of fighting. In 
 the areas behind the battle zone there were celebrations on all 
 sides. Here and there there were little outbursts of cheering, but 
 even those instances were not on the immediate front. 
 
 Many of the French soldiers went about singing. 
 
 "Well, I don't know," drawled a lieutenant from Texas while 
 the artillery was sending its last challenge to the Germans, "but 
 somehow I can't help wondering if we have licked them enough." 
 
 The Germans were manifestly so glad over the cessation of 
 hostilities that they could not conceal their pleasure. Prisoners 
 taken at Stenay grinned with satisfaction. Their demeanor was in
 
 LAST DAYS OF THE WAR 647 
 
 sharp contrast to that of the American doughboys who took the 
 matter philosophically and went about their appointed tasks. 
 
 In the front line it was the same. The Americans were happy, 
 but quiet. They made no demonstrations. The Germans, on the 
 other hand, were in a regular hysteria of joy. They waited only 
 until nightfall to set off every rocket in their possession. In the 
 evening the sky was ablaze with red, green, blue and yellow flares 
 all along the line. 
 
 Flags appeared like magic over the shell-torn buildings of 
 Verdun, French and American colors flying side by side. 
 
 In every village, even those from which the Germans had 
 been driven, there were flags and decorations which were brought 
 up to the front by the soldiers. In the villages back of the line 
 there were impromptu celebrations and the civilians in holiday 
 spirit saluted the Americans, shouting "the war is finished." 
 
 Northeast of Verdun, just before 11 o'clock, American artillery- 
 men in loading a six-inch howitzer, wrote "good luck" on a ninety- 
 pound shell and "let 'er go." The shot was aimed at the cross- 
 road at Ornas, just ahead of the American lines. 
 
 While the bells of the ancient Verdun Cathedral were ringing 
 the news of peace the fortress city was illuminated and a military 
 procession headed by the drum corps of the Twenty-sixth American 
 division swung along the crowded streets accompanied by a French 
 detachment of buglers representing the famed defenders of Verdun. 
 
 Only a half hour before the Germans had thrown large shells 
 within the city walls, apparently as a reminder that Verdun was 
 still within the range of their guns to the hills to the northeast. 
 
 Monday afternoon and night virtually was the first time that 
 Verdun had not been shelled in many hours almost since the war 
 began.
 
 CHAPTER LIII 
 THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER 
 
 THE end of the war came with almost the dramatic sudden- 
 ness of its beginning. Bulgaria, hemmed in by armies 
 through which no relief could penetrate, asked for terms. 
 The reply came in two words, " Unconditional Surrender." 
 
 Turkey, witnessing the rout of her army in Palestine by the 
 great strategist, General Allenby, and a British army, asked for 
 an armistice. The Porte signed without hesitation an agreement 
 comprising twenty-five severe requirements. 
 
 The surrender of Bulgaria and Turkey forced Austria's hand. 
 The terms under which it was permitted to capitulate were even 
 harder than those granted to Turkey. They comprised eighteen 
 requirements divided into military and naval clauses. 
 
 Germany, proud, imperial Germany, met the greatest humilia- 
 tion of all the Teutonic allies when the Kaiser and the German 
 High Command were brought to their knees. Thirty-five clauses, 
 the most severe and drastic ever demanded from a great power, 
 were included in the armistice agreement. Only the imminent 
 menace of an invasion of Germany would have sufficed to compel 
 the German representatives to sign such a document. Following 
 are the drafts of the Turkish, Austrian and German armistice 
 agreements. 
 
 THE TURKISH AGREEMENT 
 
 1. The opening of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus and access 
 to the Black Sea. Allied occupation of the Dardanelles and Bosporus 
 forts. 
 
 2. The positions of all mine fields, torpedo tubes and other obstruc- 
 tions in Turkish waters are to be indicated, and assistance given to sweep 
 or remove them, as may be required. 
 
 3. All available information concerning mines in the Black Sea is to 
 be communicated. 
 
 4. All Allied prisoners of war and Armenian interned persons and 
 prisoners are to be collected in Constantinople and handed over uncon- 
 ditionally to the Allies. 
 
 648
 
 THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER 649 
 
 5. Immediate demobilization of the Turkish army, except such troops 
 as are required for surveillance on the frontiers and for the maintenance 
 of internal order. The number of effectives and their disposition to be 
 determined later by the Allies. 
 
 6. The surrender of all war vessels in Turkish waters or waters 
 occupied by Turkey. These ships will be interned in such Turkish port 
 or ports as may be directed, except such small vessels as are required for 
 police and similar purposes in Turkish territorial waters. 
 
 7. The Allies to have the right to occupy any strategic points in the 
 event of any situation arising which threatens the security of the Allies. 
 
 8. Use by Allied ships of all ports and anchorages now in Turkish 
 occupation and denial of their use by the enemy. Similar conditions 
 are to apply to Turkish mercantile shipping in Turkish waters for the 
 purposes of trade and the demobilization of the army. 
 
 9. Allied occupation of the Taurus Tunnel system. 
 
 10. Immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from Northern Persia 
 to behind the pre-war frontier already has been ordered and will be 
 carried out. 
 
 11. A part of Transcaucasia already has been ordered to be evacuated 
 by Turkish troops. The remainder to be evacuated, if required by the 
 Allies, after they have studied the situation. 
 
 12. Wireless, telegraph and cable stations to be controlled by the 
 Allies. Turkish Government messages to be excepted. 
 
 13. Prohibition against the destruction of any naval, military or 
 commercial material. 
 
 14. Facilities are to be given for the purchase of coal, oil, fuel and 
 naval material from Turkish sources, after the requirements of the coun- 
 try have been met. None of the above materials are to be exported. 
 
 15. The surrender of all Turkish offices in Tripolitania and Cyre- 
 naica to the nearest Italian garrison. Turkey agrees to stop supplies 
 and communication with these officers if they do not obey the order to 
 surrender. 
 
 16. The surrender of all garrisons in Hedjaz, Assir, Yemen, Syria 
 and Mesopotamia to the nearest Allied commander, and withdrawal of 
 Turkish troops from Cilicia, except those necessary to maintain order, as 
 will be determined under Clause 6. 
 
 17. The use of all ships and repair facilities at all Turkish ports and 
 arsenals. 
 
 18. The surrender of all ports occupied in Tripolitania and Cyre- 
 naica, including Mizurata, to the nearest Allied garrison. 
 
 19. All Germans and Austrians, naval, military or civilian, to be 
 evacuated within one month from Turkish dominions, and those in remote 
 districts as soon after that time as may be possible. 
 
 20. Compliance with such orders as may be conveyed for the disposal 
 of equipment, arms and ammunition, including the transport of that 
 portion of the Turkish army which is demobilized under Clause 5.
 
 650 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 21. An Allied representative to be attached to the Turkish Ministry 
 of Supplies in order to safeguard Allied interests. This representative to 
 be furnished with all aid necessary for this purpose. 
 
 22. Turkish prisoners are to be kept at the disposal of the Allied 
 Powers. The release of Turkish civilian prisoners and prisoners over 
 military age is to be considered. 
 
 23. An obligation on the part of Turkey to cease all relations with 
 the Central Powers. 
 
 24. In case of disorder in the six Armenian vilayets the Allies reserve 
 to themselves the right to occupy any part of them. 
 
 25. Hostilities between the Allies and Turkey shall cease from noon, 
 local time, Thursday, the 31st of October, 1918. 
 
 THE AUSTRIAN AGREEMENT 
 Military Clauses 
 
 1. The immediate cessation of hostilities by land, sea and air. 
 
 2. Total demobilization of the Austro-Hungarian army and imme- 
 diate withdrawal of all Austro-Hungarian forces operating on the front 
 from the North Sea to Switzerland. Within Austro-Hungarian territory, 
 limited as in Clause 3 below, there shall only be maintained as an 
 organized military force reduced to pre-war effectiveness. Half the 
 divisional, corps and army artillery and equipment shall be collected at 
 points to be indicated by the Allies and United States of America for 
 delivery to them, beginning with all such material as exists in the territories 
 to be evacuated by the Austro-Hungarian forces. 
 
 3. Evacuation of all territories invaded by Austro-Hungary since the 
 beginning of the war. Withdrawal within such periods as shall be deter- 
 mined by the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces on each front of the 
 Austro-Hungarian armies behind a line fixed as follows: 
 
 From Pic Umbrail to the north of the Stelivo it will follow the crest 
 of the Rhetian Alps up to the sources of the Adige and the Eisach, passing 
 thence by Mounts Reschen and Brenner and the heights of Oetz and 
 Zoaller. The line thence turns south, crossing Mount Toblach and meeting 
 the present frontier Camic Alps. It follows this frontier up to Mount 
 Tarvis and after Mount Tarvis the watershed of the Julian Alps by the 
 Col of Predil, Mount Mangart, the Terglou and the watershed of the 
 Cols di Podberdo, Podlaniscam and Idria. From this point the line turns 
 southeast towards the Schneeberg, excludes the whole basin of the Save 
 and its tributaries. From Schneeberg it goes down towards the coast in 
 such a way as to include Castua, Mattuglia and Volosca in the evacuated 
 territories. 
 
 It will also follow the administrative limits of the present province of 
 Dalmatia, including the north Lisarica and Trivania and, to the south, 
 territory limited by a line from the Semigrand of Cape Planca to the 
 summits of the watersheds eastwards, so as to include in the evacuated area 
 all the valleys and water course flowing towards Sebenaco, such as the
 
 THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER 651 
 
 Cicola, Kerka, Butisnica and their tributaries. It will also include all the 
 islands in the north and west of Dalmatia from Premuda, Selve, Ulbo, 
 Scherda, Maon, Paga and Puntadura in the north up to Meleda in the 
 south, embracing Santandrea, Busi, Lisa, Lesina, Tercola, Curzola, Cazza 
 and Lagosta, as well as the neighboring rocks and islets and pressages, 
 only excepting the islands of Great and Small Zirona, Bua, Solta and 
 Brazza. All territory thus evacuated shall be occupied by the forces of 
 the Allies and of the United States of America. 
 
 All military and railway equipment of all kinds, including coal belong- 
 ing or within those territories, to be left in situ and surrendered to the 
 Allies, according to special orders given by the commander-in-chief of 
 the forces of the associated Powers on the different fronts. No new 
 destruction, pillage or requisition to be done by enemy troops in the 
 territories to be evacuated by them and occupied by the forces of the 
 associated Powers. 
 
 4. The Allies shall have the right of free movement over all road and 
 rail and waterways in Austro-Hungarian territory and of the use of the 
 necessary Austrian and Hungarian means of transportation. The armies 
 of the associated Powers shall occupy such strategic points in Austria- 
 Hungary at times as they may deem necessary to enable them to conduct 
 military operations or to maintain order. They shall have the right of 
 requisition on payment for the troops of the associated Powers whatever 
 they may be. 
 
 5. Complete evacuation of all German troops within fifteen days not 
 only from the Italian and Balkan fronts, but from all Austro-Hungarian 
 territory. Internment of all German troops which have not left Austro- 
 Hungary within the date. 
 
 . 6. The administration of the evacuated territories of Austria-Hungary 
 will be entrusted to the local authorities under the control of the Allied 
 and associated armies of occupation. 
 
 7. The immediate repatriation without reciprocity of all Allied 
 prisoners of war and internal subjects and of civil populations evacuated 
 from their homes on conditions to be laid down by the commander-in-chief 
 of the forces of the associated Powers on the various fronts. Sick and 
 wounded who cannot be removed from evacuated territory will be cared 
 for by Austria-Hungary personnel, who will be left on the spot with the 
 medical material required. 
 
 Naval Clauses 
 
 1. Immediate cessation of all hostilities at sea and definite information 
 to be given as to the location and movements of all Austro-Hungarian 
 ships. Notification to be made to neutrals that freedom of navigation in 
 all territorial waters is given to the naval and mercantile marine of the 
 Allied and associated Powers, all questions of neutrality being waived. 
 
 2. Surrender to Allies and the United States of fifteen Austro- 
 Hungarian submarines completed between the years 1910 and 1918 and
 
 652 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 of all German submarines which are in or may hereafter enter Austro- 
 Hungarian territorial waters. All other Austro-Hungarian submarines 
 to be paid off and completely disarmed and to remain under the super- 
 vision of the Allies and United States. 
 
 3. Surrender to Allies and United States with their complete armament 
 and equipment of three battleships, three light cruisers, nine destroyers, 
 twelve torpedo boats, one mine layer, six Danube monitors, to be designated 
 by the Allies and United States of America. All other surface warships, 
 including river craft, are to be concentrated in Austro-Hungarian naval 
 bases to be designated by the Allies and United States of America and are 
 to be paid off and completely disarmed and placed under the supervision 
 of Allies and United States of America. 
 
 4. Freedom of navigation to all warships and merchant ships of 
 Allied and associated Powers to be given in the Adriatic and up the River 
 Danube and its tributaries in the territorial waters and territory of Austria- 
 Hungary. The Allies and associated Powers shall have the right to sweep 
 up all mine fields and obstructions, and the positions of these are to be 
 indicated. In order to insure the freedom of navigation on the Danube, 
 the Allies and the United States of America shall be empowered to occupy 
 or to dismantle all fortifications or defense work. 
 
 5. The existing blockade conditions set up by the Allied and associated 
 Powers are to remain unchanged and all Austro-Hungarian merchant 
 ships found at sea are to remain liable to capture, save exceptions may be 
 made by a commission nominated by the Allies and the United States of 
 America. 
 
 6. All naval aircraft are to be concentrated and impactionized in 
 Austro-Hungarian bases to be designated by the Allies and United States 
 of America. 
 
 7. Evacuation of all the Italian coasts and of all ports occupied by 
 Austria-Hungary outside their national territory and the abandonment of 
 all floating craft, naval materials, equipment and materials for inland 
 navigation of all kinds. 
 
 8. Occupation by the Allies and the United States of America of the 
 land and sea fortifications and the islands which form the defenses and 
 of the dockyards and arsenal at Pola. 
 
 9. All merchant vessels held by Austria-Hungary belonging to the 
 Allies and associated Powers to be returned. 
 
 10. No destruction of ships or of materials to be permitted before 
 evacuation, surrender or restoration. 
 
 11. All naval and mercantile marine prisoners of the Allied and 
 associated Powers in Austro-Hungarian hands to be returned without 
 reciprocity. 
 
 THE GERMAN AGREEMENT 
 
 1. Cessation of operations by land and in the air six hours after the 
 signature of the armistice.
 
 THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER 653 
 
 2. Immediate evacuation of invaded countries: Belgium, France, 
 Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, so ordered as to be completed within fourteen 
 days from the signature of the armistice. German troops which have not 
 left the above-mentioned territories within the period fixed will become 
 prisoners of war. Occupation by the Allied and United States forces 
 jointly will keep pace with evacuation in these areas. All movements 
 of evacuation and occupation will be regulated in accordance with a note 
 annexed to the stated terms. 
 
 3. Repatriation beginning at once and to be completed within fifteen 
 days of all inhabitants of the countries above mentioned, including 
 hostages and persons under trial or convicted. 
 
 4. Surrender in good condition by the German armies of the follow- 
 ing equipment: Five thousand guns (two thousand five hundred heavy, 
 two thousand five hundred field), twenty-five thousand machine guns, 
 three thousand minenwerfers, seventeen hundred airplanes. The above 
 to be delivered in situ to the Allies and the United States troops in accord- 
 ance with the detailed conditions laid down in the annexed note. 
 
 5. Evacuation by the German armies of the countries on the left 
 bank of the Rhine. These countries on the left bank of the Rhine shall 
 be administered by the local troops of occupation under the control of the 
 Allied and United States armies of occupation. The occupation of these 
 territories will be carried out by Allied and United States garrisons holding 
 the principal crossings of the Rhine, Mayence, Coblenz, Cologne, together 
 with bridgeheads at these points in thirty kilometer radius on the right 
 bank and by garrisons similarly holding the strategic points of the regions. 
 
 A neutral zone shall be reserved on the right of the Rhine between 
 the stream and a line drawn parallel to it forty kilometers (twenty-six 
 miles) to the east from the frontier of Holland to the parallel of Gernsheim 
 and as far as practicable a distance of thirty kilometers (twenty miles) 
 from the east of stream from this parallel upon Swiss frontier. Evacuation 
 by the enemy of the Rhine lands shall be so ordered as to be completed 
 within a further period of sixteen days, in all thirty-one days after the 
 signature of the armistice. All movements of evacuation and occupation 
 will be regulated according to the note annexed. 
 
 6. In all territory evacuated by the enemy there shall be no evacuation 
 of inhabitants; no damage or harm shall be done to the persons or property 
 of the inhabitants. No destruction of any kind to be committed. Military 
 establishments of all kinds shall be delivered as well as military stores of 
 food, munitions, equipment not removed during the periods fixed for 
 evacuation. Stores of food of all kinds for the civil population, cattle, 
 etc., shall be left in situ. Industrial establishments shall not be impaired 
 in any way and their personnel shall not be moved. Roads and means 
 of communication of every kind, railroad, waterways, main roads, bridges, 
 telegraphs, telephones, shall be in no manner impaired. No person shall 
 be prosecuted for offenses of participation in war measures prior to the 
 signing of the armistice.
 
 654 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 7. All civil and military personnel at present employed on them 
 shall remain. Five thousand locomotives, one hundred fifty thousand 
 wagons and five thousand motor lorries in good working order with all 
 necessary spare parts and fittings shall be delivered to the associated 
 Powers within the period fixed for the evacuation of Belgium and Luxem- 
 burg. The railways of Alsace-Lorraine shall be handed over within thirty- 
 six days, together with all pre-war personnel and material. Further 
 material necessary for the working of railways in the country on the 
 left bank of the Rhine shall be left in situ. All stores of coal and material 
 for the upkeep of permanent ways, signals and repair shops left entire 
 in situ and kept in an efficient state by Germany during the whole period 
 of armistice. All barges taken from the Allies shall be restored to them. 
 All civil and military personnel at present employed on such means of 
 communication and transporting including waterways shall remain. 
 
 8. The German command shall be responsible for revealing within 
 forty-eight hours all mines or delay acting fuses disposed on territory 
 evacuated by the German troops and shall assist in their discovery and 
 destruction. The German command shall also reveal all destructive 
 measures that may have been taken (such as poisoning or polluting of 
 springs, wells, etc.) under penalty of reprisals. 
 
 9. The right of requisition shall be exercised by the Allies and the 
 United States armies in all occupied territory, "subject to regulation of 
 accounts with those whom it may concern." The upkeep of the troops of 
 occupation in the Rhine land (excluding Alsace-Lorraine) shall be charged 
 to the German Government. 
 
 10. An immediate repatriation without reciprocity according to 
 detailed conditions which shall be fixed, of all Allied and United States 
 prisoners of war. The Allied Powers and the United States shall be able 
 to dispose of these prisoners as they wish. This condition annuls the 
 previous conventions on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war, 
 including the one of July, 1918, in course of ratification. However, the 
 repatriation of German prisoners of war interned in Holland and in Switzer- 
 land shall continue as before. The repatriation of German prisoners of 
 war shall be regulated at the conclusion of the preliminaries of peace. 
 
 11. Sick and wounded, who cannot be removed from evacuated 
 territory will be cared for by German personnel who will be left on the 
 spot with the medical material required. 
 
 12. All German troops at present in any territory which before the 
 war belonged to Roumania, Turkey or Austria-Hungary shall immediately 
 withdraw within the frontiers of Germany as they existed on August 1, 1914. 
 German troops now in Russian territory shall withdraw within the 
 frontiers of Germany, as soon as the Allies, taking into account the internal 
 situation of those territories, shall decide that the time for this has come. 
 
 13. Evacuation by German troops to begin at once and all German 
 instructors, prisoners and civilian as well as military agents, now on the 
 territory of Russia (as defined before 1914) to be recalled.
 
 ll-2Lsli:8.S 
 
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 .Press Illustrating Service. 
 
 GERMANS FLEEING BEFORE ALLIED ADVANCE 
 
 To speed their retreat the German engineers built a temporary bridge usinj 
 
 a British tank as a foundation. 
 
 Press Illustrating Service. 
 
 THE GERMAN GOOSE-STEP 
 
 The Kaiser reviews his troops marching with the goose-step. This photo- 
 graph shows the pick of the German army. Most of these men were killed by 
 the end of the first year of the war,
 
 14. German troops to cease at once all requisitions and seizures and 
 any other undertakings with a view to obtaining supplies intended for 
 Germany in Roumania and Russia (as defined on August 1, 1914). 
 
 15. Renunciation of the treaties of Bucharest and Brest-Litovsk 
 and of the supplementary treaties. 
 
 16. The Allies shall have free access to the territories evacuated by 
 the Germans on their eastern frontier either through Danzig or by the 
 Vistula in order to convey supplies to the populations of those territories 
 and for the purpose of maintaining order. 
 
 17. Evacuation by all German forces operating hi East Africa within 
 a period to be fixed by the Allies. 
 
 18. Repatriation, without reciprocity, within maximum period of 
 one month, in accordance with detailed conditions hereafter to be fixed, 
 of all civilians interned or deported who may be citizens of other Allied 
 or associated states than those mentioned in clause three, paragraph 
 nineteen. 
 
 19. The following financial conditions are required: Reparation for 
 damage done. While such armistice lasts no public securities shall be 
 removed by the enemy which can serve as a pledge to the Allies for the 
 recovery or repatriation of the cash deposit, in the National Bank of 
 Belgium, and in general immediate return of all documents, specie, stocks, 
 shares, paper money together with plant for the issue thereof, touching 
 public or private interests in the invaded countries. Restitution of the 
 Russian and Roumanian gold yielded to Germany or taken by that Power. 
 This gold to be delivered in trust to the Allies until the signature of peace. 
 
 20. Immediate cessation of all hostilities at sea and definite informa- 
 tion to be given as to the location and movements of all German ships. 
 Notification to be given to neutrals that freedom of navigation in all 
 territorial waters is given to the naval and merchant marines of the 
 Allied and associate Powers, all questions of neutrality being waived. 
 
 21. All naval and mercantile marine prisoners of war of the Allied 
 and associated Powers in German hands to be returned without reciprocity. 
 
 22. Surrender to the Allies and the United States of America of all 
 German submarines now existing (including all submarine cruisers and 
 mine-laying submarines), with their complete armament and equipment, in 
 ports which will be specified by the Allies and the United States of America. 
 Those which cannot take the sea shall be disarmed of the material and 
 personnel and shall remain under the supervision of the Allies and the 
 United States. All the conditions of the article shall be carried into 
 effect within fourteen days. Submarines ready for sea shall be prepared 
 to leave German ports immediately upon orders by wireless, and the 
 remainder at the earliest possible moment. 
 
 23. The following German surface warships which shall be designated 
 by the Allies and the United States of America shall forthwith be disarmed 
 and thereafter interned hi neutral ports, to be designated by the Allies and 
 the United States of America and placed under the surveillance of the
 
 658 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Allies and the United States of America, only caretakers being left on 
 board, namely: 
 
 Six battle cruisers, ten battleships, eight light cruisers, including 
 two mine layers, fifty destroyers of the most modern type. All other 
 surface warships (including river craft) are to be concentrated in naval 
 bases to be designated by the Allies and the United States of America, 
 and are to be paid off and completely disarmed and placed under the 
 supervision of the Allies and the United States of America. All vessels 
 of the auxiliary fleet (trawlers, motor vessels, etc.) are to disarmed. 
 Vessels designated for internment, shall be ready to leave German ports 
 within seven days upon directions by wireless, and the military armament 
 of all vessels of the auxiliary fleet shall be put on shore. 
 
 24. The Allies and the United States of America shall have the 
 right to sweep all mine fields and obstructions laid by Germany outside 
 German territorial waters, and the positions of these are to be indicated. 
 
 25. Freedom of access to and from the Baltic to be given to the naval 
 and mercantile marine of the Allied and associated Powers. To secure 
 this Allies and the United States of America shall be empowered to occupy 
 all German forts, fortifications, batteries and defense works of all kinds 
 in all the entrances from the Cattegat into the Baltic, and to sweep up all 
 mines and obstructions within and without German territorial waters 
 without any question of neutrality being raised, and the positions of all 
 such mines and obstructions are to be indicated. 
 
 26. The existing blockade conditions set up by the Allies and asso- 
 ciated Powers are to remain unchanged and all German merchant ships 
 found at sea are to remain liable to capture. The Allies and the United 
 States shall give consideration to the provisioning of Germany during the 
 armistice to the extent recognized as necessary. 
 
 27. All naval aircraft are to be concentrated and immobilized in 
 German bases to be specified by the Allies and the United States. 
 
 28. In evacuating the Belgian coasts and ports, Germany shall aban- 
 don all merchant ships, tugs, lighters, cranes and all other harbor mate- 
 rials, all materials for inland navigation, all aircraft and all materials 
 and stores, all arms and armaments, and all stores and apparatus of all 
 kinds. 
 
 29. All Black Sea ports are to be evacuated by Germany, all Russian 
 war vessels of all descriptions seized by Germany in the Black Sea are 
 to be handed over to the Allies and the United States of America; all 
 neutral merchant vessels seized are to be released; all warlike and other 
 materials of all kinds seized in those parts are to be returned and German 
 materials as specified in clause twenty-eight are to be abandoned. 
 
 30. All merchant vessels in German hands belonging to the Allied 
 and associated Powers are to be restored in ports to be specified by the 
 Allies and the United States of America without reciprocity. 
 
 31. No destruction of ships or materials to be permitted before 
 evacuation, surrender or restoration.
 
 THE DRASTIC TERMS OF SURRENDER 659 
 
 32. The German Government will notify neutral governments of 
 the world, and particularly the governments of Norway, Sweden, Den- 
 mark and Holland, that all restrictions placed on the trading of their 
 vessels with the Allied and associated countries, whether by the German 
 Government or by private German interests, and whether in return for 
 specific concessions such as the export of shipbuilding materials or not, 
 are immediately canceled. 
 
 33. No transfers of German merchant shipping of any description to 
 any neutral flag are to take place after signature of the armistice. 
 
 34. The duration of the armistice is to be thirty days, with option 
 to extend. During this period, on failure of execution of any of the above 
 clauses, the armistice may be denounced by one of the contracting parties 
 on forty-eight hours' previous notice. It is understood that the execution 
 of Articles 3 and 18 shall not warrant the denunciation of the armistice on 
 the ground of insufficient execution within a period fixed, except in the 
 case of bad faith in carrying them into execution. In order to assume the 
 execution of this convention under the best conditions, the principle of a 
 Permanent International Armistice Commission is admitted. This 
 commission shall act under authority of the Allied military and naval 
 commanders-in-chief. 
 
 35. This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany within 
 seventy-two hours of notification.
 
 CHAPTER LIV 
 PEACE AT LAST 
 
 WAR came upon the world in August, 1914, with a sud- 
 denness and an impact that dazed the world. When 
 it seemed, in 1918, that mankind had habituated him- 
 self to war and that the bloody struggle would continue 
 until the actual exhaustion and extinction of the nations involved, 
 peace suddenly appeared. The debacle of the Teutonic alliance 
 was both dramatic and unexpected, except to those who knew how 
 desperate were the conditions in the nations that were battling for 
 autocracy. Bulgaria was first to crumble, then Turkey fell, and 
 Austria-Hungary deserted Germany. The Kaiser and his military 
 advisers, left alone, appealed to the Allies through President Wilson, 
 for an armistice during which peace terms might be negotiated. 
 Prince Maximilian of Baden, a statesman whose liberal ideas were 
 rumored rather than demonstrated, was chosen to open negotiations. 
 President Wilson, acting in concert with the Allies, referred Prince 
 Maximilian to Marshal Foch. 
 
 While negotiations were pending, a cabled message was received 
 on November 7th to the effect that the armistice had been signed 
 and that all soldiers would cease fighting on two o'clock of that 
 afternoon. It was a false report, but it spread with incredible speed 
 throughout the country. Celebrations which included virtually 
 every American, made the country a gala place for twenty-four 
 hours. The American people with characteristic good nature 
 laughed at the hoax next day and settled down in patience to await 
 the inevitable declaration of an armistice. 
 
 The true report arrived about three o'clock, Eastern time, in the 
 morning of November llth. Shrieks of whistles, the booming of 
 cannon, and the clangor of bells, awoke millions of sleeping persons, 
 many of whom trooped into the streets to mingle their rejoicings 
 with those of their neighbors. For a day there was high carnival 
 in town and country throughout the land, then the nation settled 
 down to face the imminent problems of reconstruction. 
 
 660
 
 PEACE AT LAST 661 
 
 One of these had to do with the immediate reduction of govern- 
 mental expenditures during the approaching year. President Wilson 
 had appealed to the voters to elect a Democratic Congress as an 
 evidence of approval for his administration. The reply was 
 a Republican House of Representatives and a Republican 
 Senate. 
 
 The Congress that had been in continuous session since America 
 entered the war, ended its labors hi mid-November. 
 
 For length, bulk of appropriations for the war and the number 
 and importance of legislative measures passed, the session was 
 unprecedented. 
 
 Appropriations passed aggregated $36,298,000,000, making 
 the total for this Congress more than $45,000,000,000, of which 
 $19,412,000,000 was appropriated at the first (an extra) session, at 
 which war was declared on Germany. 
 
 Legislation passed included bills authorizing billions of Liberty 
 bonds; creation of the War Finance Corporation; government 
 control of telegraphs, telephones and cables; executive reorganiza- 
 tion of government agencies, and extensions of the espionage act 
 and the army draft law by which men between eighteen and forty- 
 five years of age were required to register. 
 
 Prohibition and woman suffrage furnished sharp controversies 
 throughout the session. The war-time "dry" measure was com- 
 pleted, but after the woman suffrage constitutional amendment 
 resolution had been adopted, January 10th, by the House, it was 
 defeated in the Senate by two votes. 
 
 Every man, woman and child in the belligerent nations owed 
 almost seven times as much money when peace came as he did at 
 the beginning of the war. 
 
 Figures of the war's cost to the world compiled by the Federal 
 Reserve Board were summarized in the statement that the approx- 
 imate public debt per capita had increased from $60 before the war 
 to almost $400 at the end of July, 1918. To this was added the 
 cost since July, which is at the highest rate of the entire period. 
 
 The direct cost of the war was calculated by the board at 
 somewhere between $170,000,000,000 and $180,000,000,000, not 
 taking into account the authorization of the debt or the cost of 
 indemnities. 
 
 Four-fifths of the huge burden fell upon the shoulders of the
 
 662 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 future, only Great Britain and America absorbing a considerable 
 amount by taxation. 
 
 The total debt of the seven principal belligerents before the 
 war did not exceed $25,000,000,000. 
 
 The board contrasted these figures with the total value of the 
 gold and silver extracted from the earth since the beginning of the 
 world, which, it said, hardly exceeded $30,000,000,000. 
 
 The belligerent nations, therefore, owed about six tunes the 
 amount of all the gold and silver produced hi all time. 
 
 Prices rose to three tunes the average of what they were at the 
 beginning of the war. 
 
 Great Britain's debt increased almost ten times over hi the 
 period of the war, or from $3,580,000,000 to $32,450,000,000 down 
 to June, 1918. These figures do not include the debts of Australia, 
 Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, British colonies. 
 
 France's debt was quadrupled by the beginning of 1918, 
 increasing from $6,833,000,000 to $25,410,000,000. 
 
 Italy's debt rose from $2,929,000,000 to $6,918,000,000. 
 
 Figures for Russia were brought up only to September, 1917, 
 but they showed that at that time she owed $26,287,000,000, as 
 compared with $5,234,000,000 at the beginning of the war. 
 
 The public debt of the United States was calculated to 
 January 1, 1918, in order to be in line with those of other countries, 
 increasing by that date to over $8,000,000,000 from a pre-war figure 
 of a billion and a quarter. Since that time $11,500,000,000 have 
 been subscribed to the Liberty Loans, thus increasing the national 
 debt about sixteen fold. 
 
 The most extraordinary increase of all was that of Germany, 
 rising from $1,208,000,000 to $26,332,000,000. 
 
 Austria owed $2,736,000,000 at the beginning of the war, 
 which was increased by June, 1917, to $11,573,000,000. 
 
 Hungary increased her debt from $1,392,000,000 to $5,910,- 
 000,000 by December, 1917. 
 
 The neutrals, Denmark, Spain, Holland, Norway, Sweden and 
 Switzerland together owed $2,871,000,000 when war began and 
 increased their debts only to $3,710,000,000. 
 
 Existing war obligations of the United States at the close of 
 1918 matured as follows: 
 
 First Liberty Loan, $2,000,000,000, redeemable at the option
 
 PEACE AT LAST 663 
 
 of the Treasury after 1932 and payable not later than 1947; Second 
 Liberty Loan, $3,808,000,000, redeemable after 1927, payable 
 in 1942; Third Liberty Loan, $4,176,000,000, redeemable and pay- 
 able without option hi 1928; Fourth Liberty Loan, $6,989,047,000, 
 redeemable after 1933, payable in 1938; War Savings, $879,300,000 
 up to November, 1918, payable in 1923. 
 
 With this program of maturity, the Treasury by exercising 
 its option could call in the nation's war debt for redemption hi 
 installments every five years until 1947. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury, William Gibbs McAdoo, who was 
 also Director General of Transportation, created a sensation when 
 he resigned both offices in November, 1918, the resignation to take 
 effect January 1, 1919. Coming upon the eve of the peace con- 
 ference hi Paris and the announcement that President Wilson 
 intended to head the American delegates to the conference, the 
 resignation caused widespread surprise. The reasons given by 
 Mr. McAdoo were ill-health and a serious depreciation of his 
 private fortune during his incumbency of governmental positions. 
 
 Following the armistice, steps were immediately taken for the 
 repatriation of a considerable portion of the American forces in 
 France and the return to their homes of the men in American 
 training camps. The Third Army of the United States, com- 
 manded by General Dickman, was ordered to the western shore 
 of the Rhine, there to co-operate with the troops of the Allies until 
 the conclusion of peace negotiations. 
 
 The country was amazed on November 23d when General 
 March announced that the casualties of the American forces 
 which had been anticipated as being less than 100,000, had in 
 reality exceeded 236,000. Explanation for this lay hi the fierce 
 on-rush of the American forces during the last month of the war. 
 
 A forecast that many thousands of American boys would 
 remain hi France was given by Andre Tardieu, General Com- 
 missioner for Franco-American affairs, when addressing the Asso- 
 ciation of Foreign Correspondents hi New York City, after the 
 armistice had been signed. 
 
 M. Tardieu appealed for permission to retain American 
 soldiers in France. He said: 
 
 "We want first an immediate assistance hi the matter of labor. 
 We hope that, during the preparation and the carrying out of the
 
 664 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 transportation of your troops back to America your technical units 
 as well as other units with their equipment will be able to co-operate 
 in that effort. We soon will have to cany out a colossal work of 
 transportation hi view of the supplying of the regions evacuated by 
 the enemy, of the recovering of the railroads in Northern and 
 Eastern France and in Alsace-Lorraine. We will have to clean 
 the reconquered ground of the rums accumulated by the German 
 hordes. Your army will help us in this work while our population 
 will restore her cities and villages. 
 
 "Again in reference, not to all purchases as a large part of 
 our needs will be supplied outside of the United States but in 
 reference to those purchases which will be made in America, we are 
 in need of credits in dollars covering about fifty per cent of our total 
 purchases for reconstruction. The assurance of that financial 
 help will bring to every one in France, government and private 
 enterprise, the courage and faith necessary to apply to peace recon- 
 struction the energy and the spirit of enterprise she has so promi- 
 nently shown during the war. 
 
 "We will exact from Germany the restitution of each part of 
 the material taken away from us as can be recovered. But, besides 
 that restitution, we must bear in mind that speed is a primary 
 condition in the reconstruction of France, and that America, on 
 account of her immense capacities for production, ought to give us 
 the first help. We need ships, chartered ships as well as ships 
 transferred to our flag; the speedy reconstruction of the country is 
 strictly depending on the revival of our mercantile fleet. 
 
 "The colossal effort put up by the United States in the building 
 of her fleet for war purposes will not be diverted from this sacred 
 end if it, in part, helps France to recover on the seas, for the revival 
 of her forces in peace, the means of transportation which were lost 
 to her on account of the war. 
 
 "In reference to these four items labor, credit, raw materials, 
 ships I have explained in detail our needs to your administration, 
 by whose welcome I have been deeply moved. What I told them, 
 what I asked for, I am telling it to you again, because a policy of 
 secrecy does not befit our day. 
 
 "We have lost two million and a half men; some are dead, 
 some maimed, some have returned sick and incapacitated from 
 German prisons. Whether they be lost altogether, or whether their
 
 PEACE AT LAST 665 
 
 working capacity be permanently reduced, they will not participate 
 in this reconstruction. The fifteenth part of our people is missing 
 at the very tune we need all our material and moral forces hi order 
 to build up our life again. The younger part, yea, the stronger part 
 of our nation, the flower of France, has died away on the battle-fields. 
 Our country has been bereft of its most precious resources. 
 
 "Our war expenses, on the other side, 120,000,000,000 francs, 
 are weighing heavily on our shoulders. To pay off this debt there 
 are at hand only such limited resources as invasion has left us. 
 The territories which have been under German occupation for 
 four years were the wealthiest part of France. Their area did not 
 exceed six per cent of the whole country. They paid, however, 
 twenty-five per cent of the sum total of our taxes. 
 
 "These territories which have been, for the last three months, 
 occupied again by us at the cost of our own blood and of the blood of 
 our allies, are now in a state of ruin even worse than we had antici- 
 pated. Of the cities and villages nothing remains but ruins; 
 350,000 homes have been destroyed. To build them up again 
 I am referring to the building proper, without the furnishings 
 600 million days' of work will be necessary, involving, together with 
 building material, an outlay of 10,000,000,000 francs. v As regards 
 personal property of every description either destroyed by battle, 
 or stolen by the Germans, there stands an additional loss of at 
 least 4,000,000,000 francs. 
 
 "This valuation of lost personal property does not include 
 as definite figures are lacking as yet the countless war contributions 
 and fines by the enemy, amounting also to billions. I need hardly 
 say that, in those wealthy lands, practically no agricultural re- 
 sources are left. 
 
 The losses hi horses and in cattle, bovine and ovine species, 
 hogs, goats, amount to 1,510,000 head in agricultural equip- 
 ment to 454,000 machines or carts the two items worth together 
 6,000,000,000 francs. 
 
 "Now as regards industries, the disaster is even more complete. 
 These districts occupied by the Germans and whose machinery 
 has been methodically destroyed or taken away by the enemy, 
 were, industrially speaking, the very heart of France. They were 
 the very backbone of our production, as shown in the following 
 startling figures: 
 
 37
 
 666 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 "In 1913 the wool output of our invaded regions amounted to 
 94 per cent of the total. French production and corresponding 
 figures were: For flax from the spinning mills, 90 per cent; iron ore, 
 90 per cent; pig iron, 83 per cent; steel, 70 per cent; sugar, 70 per 
 cent; cotton, 60 per cent; coal 55 per cent; electric power, 45 per 
 cent. Of all that, plants, machinery, mines, nothing is left. Every- 
 thing has been carried away or destroyed by the enemy. So com- 
 plete is the destruction that, in the case of our great coal mines in 
 the north, two years of work will be needed before a single ton of 
 coal can be extracted and ten years before the output is brought 
 back to the figures of 1913. 
 
 "All that must be rebuilt, and to carry out that kind of recon- 
 struction only, there will be a need of over 2,000,000 tons of pig 
 iron, nearly 4,000,000 tons of steel not to mention the replenishing 
 of stocks and of raw materials which must of necessity be supplied 
 to the plants during the first year of resumed activity. If we take 
 into account these different items we reach as regards industrial 
 needs a total of 25,000,000,000 francs. 
 
 "To resurrect these regions, to reconstruct these factories, 
 raw materials are not now sufficient; we need means of transporta- 
 tion. Now the enemy has destroyed our railroad tracks, our rail- 
 road equipment, and our rolling stock, which in the first month of the 
 war, hi 1914, was reduced by 50,000 cars, has undergone the wear 
 and tear of fifty months of war. 
 
 "Our merchant fleet, on the other hand, has lost more than a 
 million tons through submarine warfare. .1 Our shipyards during the 
 last four years have not built any ships. : For they have produced 
 for us and for our allies cannon, ammunition, and tanks. Here, 
 again, for this item alone of means of transportation we must 
 figure on an expense of 2,500,000,000 francs. 
 
 "This makes, if I sum up these different items, a need of raw 
 material which represents in cost, at the present rate of prices in 
 France, not less than 50,000,000,000 francs. 
 
 "And this formidable figure, gentlemen, does not cover every- 
 thing. I have not taken into account the loss represented for the 
 future production of France by the transformation of so many 
 factories which for four years were exclusively devoted to war 
 munitions. I have not taken into account foreign markets lost to 
 us as a result of the destruction of one-fourth of our productive
 
 PEACE AT LAST 667 
 
 capital and the almost total collapse of our trade. I have not taken 
 into account the economic weakening that we will suffer tomorrow 
 owing to that loss, to which I referred a while ago, of 2,500,000 
 young and vigorous men." 
 
 This was one of the great by-products of the war. Thousands 
 of young Americans, vigorous evangels of democratic thought, 
 remained in Europe to bring American ideals and American force 
 into the affairs of the old world. 
 
 Those who returned were formidable factors hi re-shaping the 
 affairs of the nation. Grave injustices were done hi some instances 
 to young men who had volunteered hi the early days of the war 
 through patriotic motives and who returned to find their places 
 in industry taken by others. In the main, however, the process of 
 absorption went forward steadily and without serious incident. 
 
 One factor making for satisfactory adjustment was the insur- 
 ance system put into effect by the United States Government, 
 affecting its war forces. Immediately following the armistice, the 
 folio whig announcement was made: 
 
 Preparations by the government for re-insuring the lives of soldiers 
 and sailors on their return have been hastened by the signing of the 
 armistice. Although regulations have not yet been fully drafted, it is 
 certain that each of the 4,250,000 men in the military or naval service 
 now holding voluntary government insurance will be permitted within 
 five years after peace is declared to convert it without further medical 
 examination into ordinary life, twenty-pay life, endowment maturing at 
 the age of sixty-two, or other prescribed forms of insurance. 
 
 This insurance will be arranged by the government, not by private 
 companies, and the cost is expected to be at least one-fourth less than 
 similar forms offered by private agencies. The low cost will result from 
 the fact that the government will pay all overhead administration 
 expenses, which, for private companies, amount to about seventeen per 
 cent of premium receipts; will save the usual solicitation fees and, in 
 addition, bear the risk resulting from the wounding or weakening of 
 men while in the service. Private companies would not write insurance 
 on many wounded men, or their rates would be unusually high. 
 
 The government will arrange to collect premiums monthly, if men 
 wish to pay that way, or for longer periods in advance. This may be 
 done through post-offices. The minimum amount of insurance to be 
 issued probably will be $1,000, and the maximum $10,000, with any 
 amount between those sums in multiple of $500. There will be provision 
 for payments in case of disability as well as death, according to the tenta- 
 tive plan.
 
 668 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Thus will be created out of the government's emergency war insur- 
 ance bureau the greatest life insurance institution in the world for peace 
 times, with more policyholders and greater aggregate risks than a half 
 dozen of the world's biggest private companies combined. Out of the 
 experience gained may eventually develop expansion of government 
 insurance to old age, industrial and other forms of insurance, in the opin- 
 ion of officials who have studied the subject. 
 
 Regulations for reinsuring returning soldiers and sailors are being 
 framed by an advisory board to the military and naval section of the war 
 risk bureau, consisting of Arthur Hunter, actuary of the New York Life 
 Insurance Company; W. A. Fraser, Omaha, of the Woodmen of the World, 
 and F. Robertson Jones, of the Workmen's Compensation Publicity 
 Bureau, New York. 
 
 Plans also are under consideration for allowing beneficiaries of men 
 who have died or been killed in the service to choose between taking 
 monthly payments over a period of twenty years or to commute these 
 payments in a lump sum.
 
 CHAPTER LV 
 AMERICA'S POSITION IN WAR AND PEACE 
 
 BY common consent of the Entente Allies, President Wilson 
 was made the spokesman for the democracy of the world. 
 As Lloyd George, Premier Clemenceau of France, Premier 
 Orlando of Italy, and other Europeans recognized, his 
 utterances most clearly and cogently expressed the principles for 
 which civilization was battling against the Hun. More than that, 
 these statesmen and the peoples they represented recognized that 
 back of President Wilson were the high ideals of an America 
 pledged to the redemption of a war-weary world. 
 
 The war produced a sterility in literature. Out of the great 
 mass that was written, however, two productions stood out hi 
 their nobility of thought and hi their classic directness of expression. 
 These were the address before Congress by President Wilson on 
 the night of April 2, 1917, when, recognizing fully the dread 
 responsibility of his action, he pronounced the words which led 
 America into the World War, and the speech made by him on 
 Monday, November 11, 1918, when addressing Congress he 
 announced the end of the war. Other declarations of the Presi- 
 dent that will be treasured as long as democracy survives, are 
 those enunciating the fourteen points upon which America would 
 make peace, and two later declarations as to America's purposes. 
 
 His address of April 2d was delivered before the most 
 distinguished assemblage ever gathered within the hall of the 
 House of Representatives. The Supreme Court of the United 
 States, headed by the Chief Justice, every member of the embassies 
 then resident in Washington, the entire membership of the House 
 and Senate, and a host of the most distinguished men and women 
 that could crowd themselves into the great hall, listened to what 
 was virtually America's Declaration of War. 
 
 The air was still and tragic suspense was upon every face 
 as the President began his address. At first he was pale as the 
 marble rostrum against which he leaned. As he read from small 
 
 669
 
 670 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 sheets typewritten with his own hand, his voice grew firmer and 
 the flush of indignation and of resolution overspread his counte- 
 nance. He said: 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: 
 
 I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there 
 are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immedi- 
 ately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I 
 should assume the responsibility of making. 
 
 On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraor- 
 dinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on 
 and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all 
 restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every 
 vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and 
 Ireland on the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled 
 by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean. That had seemed 
 to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, 
 but since April of last year the Imperial Government had somewhat 
 restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its 
 promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and 
 that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines 
 might seek to destroy, when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, 
 and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save 
 their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were meager and 
 haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance 
 in the progress of the cruel and unmanly business, but a certain degree of 
 restraint was observed. The new policy has swept every restriction aside. 
 Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, 
 their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom 
 without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, 
 the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even 
 hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken 
 people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct 
 through the proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were 
 distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with 
 the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle. 
 
 I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact 
 be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane 
 practices of civilized nations. International law had its origin in the 
 attempt to set up some law which would be respected and observed upon 
 the seas, where no nation had right of dominion and where lay the free 
 highways of the world. By painful stage after stage has that law been 
 built up, with meager enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished 
 that could be accomplished, but always with a clear view, at least, of 
 what the heart and conscience of mankind demanded, This minimum of
 
 AMERICA'S POSITION IN WAR AND PEACE 671 
 
 right the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retalia- 
 tion and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at 
 sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them 
 without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for 
 the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the 
 world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense 
 and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction 
 of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in 
 pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, 
 been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the 
 lives of peaceful and innocent people can not be. The present German 
 submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind. 
 
 It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, 
 American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn 
 of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have 
 been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has 
 been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation 
 must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for our- 
 selves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of 
 judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must 
 put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the vic- 
 torious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindica- 
 tion of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion. 
 
 When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of February last 
 I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our 
 right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our 
 people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now 
 appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws when 
 used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping, 
 it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations 
 has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers 
 or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open sea. It is common 
 prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity indeed, to endeavor to 
 destroy them before they have shown their own intention. They must be 
 dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. The German Government denies 
 the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which 
 it has proscribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publicist 
 has ever before questioned their right to defend. The intimation is con- 
 veyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships 
 will be treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as 
 pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such 
 circumstances and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual : 
 it is likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically 
 certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness 
 of belligerents. There is one choice we can not make, we are incapable of 
 making: we will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most
 
 672 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The 
 wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; 
 they cut to the very roots of human life. 
 
 With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of 
 the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but 
 in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise 
 that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Govern- 
 ment to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and 
 people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of bel- 
 ligerent which has thus been thrust upon it; and that it take immediate 
 steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense but 
 also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the Govern- 
 ment of the German Empire to terms and end the war. 
 
 What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable 
 co-operation in counsel and action with the governments now at war with 
 Germany, and, as incident to that, the extension to those governments of 
 the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so far 
 as possible be added to theirs. It will involve the organization and mobili- 
 zation of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials 
 of war and serve the incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant 
 and yet the most economical and efficient way possible. It will involve 
 the immediate full equipment of the navy in all respects but particularly 
 in supplying it with the best means of dealing with the enemy's submarines. 
 It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of the United 
 States already provided for by law hi case of war at least five hundred 
 thousand men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle 
 of universal liability to service, and also the. authorization of subsequent 
 additional increments of equal force so sooif as they may be needed and 
 can be handled in training. It will involve also, of course, the granting 
 of adequate credits to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they 
 can equitably be sustained by the present generation, by well conceived 
 taxation. 
 
 I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it 
 seems to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will 
 now be necessary entirely on money borrowed. It is our duty, I most 
 respectfully urge, to protect our people so far as we may against the very 
 serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of the infla- 
 tion which would be produced by vast loans. 
 
 In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be accom- 
 plished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as 
 little as possible hi our own preparation and in the equipment of our own 
 military forces with the duty for it will be a very practical duty of 
 supplying the nations already at war with Germany with the materials 
 which they can obtain only from us or by our assistance. They are in the 
 field and we should help them in every way to be effective there. 
 
 I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive
 
 International Film Service. 
 
 SURRENDER OF THE GERMAN HIGH SEAS FLEET 
 
 Actual photograph showing the greatest naval surrender in history the German 
 fleet arriving to surrender. Below, The commanders of the British and American fleets, 
 Admirals Beatty and Rodman, the King of England and the Prince of Wales viewing 
 the surrender .
 
 AMERICA'S POSITION IN WAR AND PEACE 675 
 
 departments of the Government, for the consideration of your committees, 
 measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I have mentioned. 
 I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them as having been 
 framed after very careful thought by the branch of the Government upon 
 which the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the nation 
 will most directly fall. 
 
 While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be 
 very clear, and make very clear to all the world what our motives and our 
 objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and 
 normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not 
 believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by them. 
 I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when I 
 addressed the Senate on the 22d of January last; the same that I had in 
 mind when I addressed the Congress on the 3d of February and on the 
 26th of February. Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles 
 of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and auto- 
 cratic power and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed 
 peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will hence- 
 forth ensure the observance of those principles. Neutrality is no longer 
 feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the 
 freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in 
 the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which 
 is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We 
 have seen the last of neutrality hi such circumstances. We are at the 
 beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of 
 conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among 
 nations and their governments that are observed among the individual 
 citizens of civilized states. 
 
 We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling 
 towards them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their 
 impulse that their government acted in entering this war. It was not 
 with their previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined 
 upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when 
 peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked 
 and waged in the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men 
 who were accustomed to use their fellow men as pawns and tools. Self- 
 governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies or set the course 
 of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of affairs which will give 
 them an opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs can be 
 successfully worked out only under cover and where no one has the right 
 to ask questions. Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, 
 carried, it may be, from generation to generation, can be worked out and 
 kept from the light only within the privacy of courts or behind the care- 
 fully guarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class. They are 
 happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon full 
 information concerning all the nation's affairs.
 
 676 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a 
 partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic government could be 
 trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be a 
 league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals 
 away; the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they would and 
 render account to no one would be a corruption seated at its very heart. 
 Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a 
 common end and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest 
 of their own. 
 
 Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our 
 hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening 
 things that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia? 
 Russia was known by those who knew it best to have been always in fact 
 democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thoughts, in all the inti- 
 mate relationships of her people that spoke then* natural instinct, their 
 habitual attitude towards life. The autocracy that crowned the summit 
 of her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality 
 of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or purpose; and 
 now it has been shaken off and the great, generous Russian people have 
 been added in all their native majesty and might to the forces that are 
 fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here is a fit 
 partner for a League of Honor. 
 
 One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian 
 autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very 
 outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and 
 even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues every- 
 where afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within and 
 without, our industries and our commerce. Indeed it is now evident that 
 its spies were here even before the war began; and it is unhappily not a 
 matter of conjecture but a fact proved in our courts of justice that the 
 intrigues which have more than once come perilously near to disturbing 
 the peace and dislocating the industries of the country have been carried 
 on at the instigation, with the support, and even under the personal direc- 
 tion of official agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. Even in checking these things and trying to 
 extirpate them we have sought to put the most generous interpretation 
 possible upon them because we knew that their source lay, not in any 
 hostile feeling or purpose of the German people towards us (who were, 
 no doubt as ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish 
 designs of a government that did what it pleased and told its people noth- 
 ing. But they have played then* part in serving to convince us at last 
 that that government entertains no real friendship for us and means to 
 act against our peace and security at its convenience. That it means to 
 stir up enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note to the 
 German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence. 
 
 We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know
 
 AMERICA'S POSITION IN WAR AND PEACE 677 
 
 that in such a government, following such methods, we can never have a 
 friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying in 
 wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured 
 security for the democratic governments of the world. We are now about 
 to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if neces- 
 sary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its preten- 
 sions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil 
 of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the 
 world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: 
 for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men every- 
 where to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be 
 made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested 
 foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We 
 desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, 
 no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are 
 but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied 
 when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom 
 of nations can make them. 
 
 Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seek- 
 ing nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free 
 peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents 
 without passion, and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles 
 of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. o 
 
 I have said nothing of the governments allied with the Imperial 
 Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or 
 challenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro-Hungarian 
 Government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and accep- 
 tance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without 
 disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has therefore not 
 been possible for this government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Ambas- 
 sador recently accredited to this government by the Imperial and Royal 
 Government of Austria-Hungary; but that government has 'not actually 
 engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and 
 I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of 
 our relations with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only 
 where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of 
 defending our rights. 
 
 It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a 
 high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in 
 enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or dis- 
 advantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible 
 government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of 
 right and is running amuck. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends 
 of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early 
 re-establishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us 
 however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is
 
 678 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 spoken from our hearts. We have borne with their present government 
 through all these bitter months because of that friendship exercising a 
 patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. 
 We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in 
 our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women of 
 German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share our 
 life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to 
 their neighbors and to the government in the hour of test. They are, 
 most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known 
 any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in 
 rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and pur- 
 pose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand 
 of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and 
 there and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few. 
 It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, 
 which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, 
 many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing 
 to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and dis- 
 astrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But 
 the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things 
 which we have always carried nearest our hearts for democracy, for the 
 right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own govern- 
 ments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion 
 of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety 
 to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can 
 dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything 
 that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come 
 when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the 
 principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has 
 treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. 
 
 His address to Congress on November 11, 1918, while all the 
 Allied Nations were celebrating with exultant hearts the victory 
 that had come to 'them, was no less dramatic than the speech 
 that had marked the beginning of the war. He prefaced it by 
 reading the drastic terms of the armistice granted to Germany. 
 Continuing he said : 
 
 The war thus comes to an end; for, having accepted these terms of 
 armistice, it will be impossible for the German command to renew it. 
 
 It is not now possible to assess the consequences of this great con- 
 summation. We know only that this tragical war, whose consuming 
 flames swept from one nation to another until all the world was on fire, 
 is at an end and that it was the privilege of our own people to enter it at 
 its most critical juncture in such fashion and in such force as to contribute, 
 in a way of which we are all deeply proud, to the great result. We know,
 
 too, that the object of the war is attained; the object upon which all 
 free men had set their hearts; and attained with a sweeping complete- 
 ness which even now we do not realize. Armed imperialism such as the 
 men conceived who were but yesterday the masters of Germany is at an 
 end, its illicit ambitions engulfed in black disaster. Who will now seek 
 to revive it? 
 
 The arbitrary power of the military caste of Germany which once 
 could secretly and of its own single choice disturb the peace of the world 
 is discredited and destroyed. And more than that much more than 
 that has been accomplished. The great nations which associated them- 
 selves to destroy it have now definitely united in the common purpose 
 to set up such a peace as will satisfy the longing of the whole world for 
 disinterested justice, embodied in settlements which are based upon some- 
 thing much better and more lasting than the selfish competitive interests 
 of powerful states. There is no longer conjecture as to the objects the 
 victors have in mind. They have a mind in the matter, not only, but a 
 heart also. Their avowed and concerted purpose is to satisfy and protect 
 the weak as well as to accord their just rights to the strong. 
 
 The humane temper and intention of the victorious governments 
 have already been manifested in a very practical way. Their representa- 
 tives in the Supreme War Council at Versailles have by unanimous resolu- 
 tion assured the peoples of the Central Empires that everything that is 
 possible in the circumstances will be done to supply them with food and 
 relieve the distressing want that is in so many places threatening their 
 very lives; and steps are to be taken immediately to organize these efforts 
 at relief in the same systematic manner that they were organized in the 
 case of Belgium. By the use of the idle tonnage of the Central Empires 
 it ought presently to be possible to lift the fear of utter misery from their 
 oppressed populations and set their minds and energies free for the great 
 and hazardous tasks of political reconstruction which now face them on 
 every hand. Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and 
 all the ugly distempers that make an ordered life impossible. 
 
 For with the fall of the ancient governments, which rested like an 
 incubus on the peoples of the Central Empires, has come political change 
 not merely, but revolution; and revolution which seems as yet to assume 
 no final and ordered form, but to run from one fluid change to another, 
 until thoughtful men are forced to ask themselves, with what govern- 
 ments and of what sort are we about to deal in the making of the covenants 
 of peace? With what authority will they meet us, and with what assur- 
 ance that their authority will abide and sustain securely the international 
 arrangements into which we are about to enter? There is here matter 
 for no small anxiety and misgiving. When peace is made, upon whose 
 promises and engagements besides our own is it to rest? 
 
 Let us be perfectly frank with ourselves and admit that these ques- 
 tions cannot be satisfactorily answered now or at once. But the moral 
 is not that there is little hope of an early answer that will suffice. It is
 
 680 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 only that we must be patient and helpful and mindful above all of the 
 great hope and confidence that lie at the heart of what is taking place. 
 Excesses accomplish nothing. Unhappy Russia has furnished abundant 
 recent proof of that. Disorder immediately defeats itself. If excesses 
 should occur, if disorder should for a time raise its head, a sober second 
 thought will follow and a day of constructive action, if we help and do 
 not hinder. 
 
 The present and all that it holds belongs to the nations and the 
 peoples who preserve their self-control and the orderly processes of their 
 governments; the future to those who prove themselves the true friends 
 of mankind. To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary con- 
 quest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make permanent 
 conquest. I am confident that the nations that have learned the discipline 
 of freedom and that have settled with self-possession to its ordered practice 
 are now about to make conquest of the world by the sheer power of example 
 and of friendly helpfulness. 
 
 The peoples who have but just come out from under the yoke of 
 arbitrary government and who are now coming at last into their freedom 
 will never find the treasures of liberty they are in search of if they look 
 for them by the light of the torch. They will find that every pathway 
 that is stained with the blood of their own brothers leads to the wilderness, 
 not to the seat of their hope. They are now face to face with their initial 
 test. We must hold the light steady until they find themselves. And 
 in the meantime, if it be possible, we must establish a peace that will 
 justly define their place among the nations, remove all fear of their neigh- 
 bors and of their former masters, and enable them to live in security and 
 contentment when they have set their own affairs in order. I, for one, do 
 not doubt their purpose or their capacity. There are some happy signs 
 that they know and will choose the way of self-control and peaceful accom- 
 modation. If they do, we shall put our aid at their disposal in every way 
 that we can. If they do not, we must await with patience and sympathy 
 the awakening and recovery that will assuredly come at last. 
 
 FOURTEEN PRINCIPLES OF PEACE 
 
 On Tuesday, January 8, 1918, President Wilson placed the 
 peace terms of the United States Government before both houses 
 of Congress, in joint session. The. fourteen principles were: 
 
 1. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there 
 shall be no private international understanding of any kind, but diplomacy 
 shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. 
 
 2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial 
 waters, alike in peace and war, except as the seas may be closed in whole 
 or in part by international action for the enforcement of international 
 covenants.
 
 AMERICA'S POSITION IN WAR AND PEACE 681 
 
 3. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the 
 establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations 
 consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. 
 
 4. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments 
 will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. 
 
 5. A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all 
 Colonial claims based upon a strict observance of the principle that in 
 determining all such questions of sovereignty, the interests of the popula- 
 tions concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the 
 government whose title is to be determined. 
 
 6. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of 
 all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest co-operation 
 of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and 
 unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her 
 own political development and national policy, and assure her of a sincere 
 welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own 
 choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that 
 she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia 
 by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their 
 good will, of their comprehension of her needs, as distinguished from their 
 own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. 
 
 7. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and 
 restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys 
 in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve 
 as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which 
 they have themselves set and determined for the government of their 
 relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure 
 and validity of international law is forever impaired. 
 
 8. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions 
 restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871, in the matter 
 of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly 
 fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made 
 secure in the interests of all. 
 
 9. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along 
 clearly recognized lines of nationality. 
 
 10. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations 
 we wish to see safeguarded and restored, should be accorded the freest 
 opportunity of autonomous development. 
 
 11. Roumania, Serbia and Montenegro should be evacuated, occupied 
 territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea, 
 and the relations of the several Balkan States to one another determined 
 by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and 
 nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic 
 independence and territorial integrity, of the several Balkan States, should 
 be entered into. 
 
 12. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be
 
 682 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now 
 under Turkish rule, should be assured an undoubted security of life and 
 an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and 
 the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the 
 ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees. 
 
 13. An independent Polish State should be erected which should 
 include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, 
 which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose 
 political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be 
 guaranteed by international covenants. 
 
 14. General association of nations must be formed under specific 
 covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political 
 independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. 
 
 President Wilson in his address to Congress on February 11, 
 1918, presented these four principles which are to be applied in 
 arranging world peace: 
 
 1. That each part of the final settlement must be based upon the 
 essential justice of that particular case and upon such adjustments, as 
 are most likely to bring a peace that will be permanent. 
 
 2. That peoples and provinces are not to be bartered about from 
 sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were mere chattels and pawns in a 
 game, even the great game now forever discredited, of the balance of 
 power; but that 
 
 3. Every territorial settlement must be made in the interest and for 
 the benefit of the populations concerned, and not as part of any mere 
 adjustment or compromise of claims amongst rival states; and, 
 
 4. That all well-defined national aspirations shall be accorded the 
 utmost satisfaction that can be accorded them without introducing new or 
 perpetuating old elements of discord and antagonism that would be likely 
 in time to break the peace of Europe and consequently of the world. 
 
 President Wilson, in his Liberty Loan address in New York 
 on September 27th, thus stated this government's interpretation of 
 its duty -with regard to peace: 
 
 1. The impartial justice meted out must involve no discrimination 
 between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not 
 wish to be just. It must be a justice that plays no favorites and knows 
 no standard but the equal rights of the several peoples concerned; 
 
 2. No special or separate interest of any single nation or any group 
 of nations can be made the basis of any part of the settlement which is 
 not consistent with the common interests of all; 
 
 3. There can be no leagues or alliances or special covenants and under- 
 standings within the general and common family of the League of Nations; 
 
 4. And more specifically, there can be no special, selfish economic
 
 AMERICA'S POSITION IN WAR AND PEACE 683 
 
 combinations within the league and no employment of any form of economic 
 boycott or exclusion except as the power of economic penalty by exclusion 
 from the markets of the world may be vested in the League of Nations 
 itself as a means of discipline and control. 
 
 5. All international agreements and treaties of every kind must be 
 made known in their entirety to the rest of the world. 
 
 - ' xyy^^^v ^ "^ ^ ''' * ^* tfA ^ R- 2 
 
 THE WAR ZONE ESTABLISHED BY GERMANY, FEBRUARY, 1917, THAT 
 BROUGHT AMERICA INTO THE WAR.
 
 CHAPTER LVI 
 THE WAR BY YEAHS 
 
 GERMANY'S military strength developed during forty 
 years of preparation, and the offensive plans of the 
 German High Command developed hi connection with 
 an extraordinary spy service in France, Belgium, Russia, 
 England and the United States, culminated hi a simultaneous 
 campaign on land and by sea, affecting these five nations. 
 
 AUGUST 1, 1914-AUGUST 1, 1915 
 
 Belgium and Northern France were overrun by a German 
 invading force under General von Kluck. The heroic effort of the 
 French army under General Joffre and a supreme strategic thrust at 
 the German center by General Foch turned back the German tide 
 at the battle of the Marne. The scientific diabolism of the German 
 High Command was revealed when poison gas was projected against 
 the Canadians at Ypres, torturing, blinding and killing thousands. 
 
 German terrorism on the high seas culminated in the sinking 
 of the Cunard liner Lusitania by a German submarine off the Irish 
 coast. Men, women and children to the number of 1,152 lost their 
 lives. Of these 102 were Americans. 
 
 German colonies in South Africa were invaded by British South 
 African troops under General Louis Botha, who during the Boer 
 War commanded a division against the British. The German 
 holdings at Tsing-Tau and in the Marshall Islands were seized by 
 Japan. 
 
 German cruisers that had raided sea-going commerce were 
 destroyed. The most noted of these was the Emden, which was 
 defeated and destroyed by the Australian cruiser Sydney off the 
 Cocos Islands. 
 
 German sea power was further humiliated in a running fight 
 off Helgoland hi which the battle cruiser Blucher was sunk and 
 hi a battle off the Falkland Islands in which three German cruisers 
 were destroyed. 
 
 684
 
 THE WAR BY YEARS 685 
 
 Italy entered the war on May 23, 1915, and invaded Austria on 
 a sixty-mile front. Russian forces, after early successes, were 
 defeated at Tannenburg by von Hindenburg, the outstanding 
 military genius on the German side. 
 
 The development of aircraft as an aid to artillery and as a 
 destructive force on its own account, was rapid, and the use of 
 machine guns and hand grenades hi trench operations became 
 general. 
 
 AUGUST 1, 1915-AUGUST 1, 1916 
 
 The tragic sea and land operations at the Dardanelles and 
 Gallipoli marked this year with red hi British history. Sir Douglas 
 Haig succeeded Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of British 
 forces hi France. The outstanding operation of the British forces 
 on the western front was the bloody battle of the Somme, beginning 
 July 1st, and continuing until the fall of 1915. The losses on both 
 sides in that titanic struggle staggered two continents. Especially 
 heroic were the attacks of the Canadians hi that great battle and 
 especially heavy were the losses in killed and wounded of the 
 Canadian regiments. They ranked hi magnitude with the depletion 
 that came to the Australian and New Zealand armies hi the fatal 
 Gallipoli campaign. 
 
 This year will be glorious forever in the annals of France 
 because of the heroic defense at Verdun. That battle tested to the 
 limit the offensive strength of the German machine and it was 
 found lacking in power to pierce the superhuman defense of the 
 heroic French forces under Petain and Nivelle. 
 
 Bulgaria entered the war on October 14, 1915, with a declaration 
 of war against helpless Serbia. Greece, torn by internal dissensions, 
 inclined first to one side, then to the other. The occupation of 
 Saloniki by French and British expeditionary forces finally swung 
 the archipelago to the Allies. 
 
 A British Mesopotamian force under General Townshend, 
 poorly equipped and unsupported, was cut off hi Kut-el-Amara, and 
 surrendered to the Turks on April 29, 1916. 
 
 The Italian forces under General Cadorna made a sensational 
 advance terminating in the capture of Gorizia. Portugal entered 
 the war on the side of the Allies after it had refused to give up to 
 Germany several German ships interned in Portuguese ports.
 
 686 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 An object lesson in German submarine possibilities was given 
 America when the Deutschland, a super-submarine cargo vessel, 
 arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 9, 1916. The Deutschland 
 later was converted into a naval submarine and re-visited American 
 shores, sinking a number of merchant vessels. It was one of the 
 German submarine fleet surrendered to the Allies in November, 1918. 
 
 Russia proved itself to be a military ineffective. German 
 armies under von Mackensen and von Hindenburg occupied Warsaw, 
 Brest-Litovsk, Lutsk, and Grodno. Grand Duke Nicholas was 
 removed from the command of the Russian armies and Czar 
 Nicholas assumed command. 
 
 Germany's pretensions to sea power ended with the battle of 
 Jutland, May 31, 1916, when its High Seas fleet fled after a running 
 fight with British cruisers and destroyers. Never, thereafter, 
 during the war did the German ships venture out of the Bight of 
 Helgoland. 
 
 AUGUST 1, 1916-AUGUST 1, 1917 
 
 This year was marked by two dramatic episodes. The first 
 of these was the sudden entrance and the equally sudden exit of 
 Roumania as a factor hi the World War. 
 
 The second was the appearance of the United States which 
 became the deciding factor in the war. 
 
 Roumania created enthusiasm hi Allied countries when it 
 declared war on Austria-Hungary August 27th. A sudden descent 
 by a Roumanian army into Transylvania on August 30th was 
 hailed as the harbinger of further successes. These hopes were 
 turned to ashes when von Mackensen headed an irresistible German 
 and Austrian rush which fairly inundated Roumania. The retreat 
 from Transylvania by the Roumanians was turned into a rout. 
 Bulgarian forces invaded the Dobrudja region of Roumania and 
 on November 28th the seat of the Roumanian^Government was 
 transferred from Bucharest, the capital, to Jassy Roumania ceased 
 to be a factor hi the war on December 6th, when Bucharest fell to 
 von Mackensen. Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary died 
 on November 22d, while Austrian hopes were at their highest. 
 
 America's appearance as a belligerent was forecast on January 
 31, 1917, when Germany announced its intention of sinking all 
 vessels in a blockade zone around the British Isles. Count
 
 THE WAR BY YEARS 687 
 
 von Bernstorff was handed his passports on February 3d, and 
 on April 2d President Wilson, in a remarkable address to Con- 
 gress, advised a declaration of war by the United States against 
 Germany. This was consummated by a formal vote of Congress 
 declaring war on April 6th. 
 
 This action by America was followed by the organization of a 
 Council of National Defense. Under this body the resources of the 
 nation were mobilized. The council was later virtually abandoned 
 as an organizing factor, its functions going to the War Industries 
 Board, presided over by Bernard Baruch; the Fuel Administration, 
 under Dr. Harry A. Garfield; the War Trade Board, with Vance C. 
 McCormick at its head; and other governmental bodies. George 
 Creel headed the Committee on Public Information. 
 
 Conscription was decided upon as the foundation of America's 
 war-making policy, and the training of officers and privates in great 
 training camps was commenced. Great shipping and aircraft 
 programs were formulated and the nation as a whole was placed 
 upon a war footing. 
 
 The Russian revolution beginning hi bread riots in Petrograd, 
 spread throughout that country, with the result that Russia dis- 
 appeared as one of the Entente Allies. 
 
 FROM AUGUST 1, 1917-NOVEMBER 11, 1918 
 
 America's might and efficiency were revealed in the speed 
 and thoroughness with which her military, naval and civilian 
 resources were mobilized and thrown into the conflict. Under the 
 supervision of the Chief of Staff, two million American soldiers 
 received the final touches in their military training and were trans- 
 ported safely overseas. They became the decisive factor in the 
 war during the summer and fall of 1918. To their glory be it 
 recorded they never retreated. Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihiel, 
 Siecheprey, Boureches Wood, Cantigny, Belleau Wood, the 
 Argonne, Sedan and Stenay are names that will rank in Ameri- 
 can history with Yorktown, New Orleans and Gettysburg. The 
 "land of dollars" became over night the "land of high ideals" to 
 the civilized world. Lightless nights in cities, restriction of the 
 use of gasoline on Sundays and daylight-saving legislation linked 
 civilians to soldiers in war effort. 
 
 Italy suffered a severe reverse beginning October 24, 1917,
 
 688 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 when the German forces rushed through a portion of the Italian 
 army that had been honey-combed with pro-German Socialistic 
 propaganda. 
 
 Canada again emblazoned its name in history through the 
 heroic capture of Passchendaele on November 6, 1917. 
 
 The Russian revolution turned to the Bolsheviki when Lenine 
 and Trotsky at the head of the Reds seized Petrograd on November 
 7th and deposed Alexander Kerensky, leader of the Moderate 
 Socialists. The Czar Nicholas was executed by the victorious 
 Bolsheviki and the Imperial family made captives. 
 
 The British Mesopotamian forces advanced into Palestine and 
 Mesopotamia, destroying the Turkish army under Ahmed Bey hi a 
 battle terminating September 29, 1917. General Stanley Maude, 
 the leader of the expedition, died in Mesopotamia November 18, 
 1917. 
 
 General Allenby commanding British and Arabian forces, 
 routed and destroyed three Turkish armies in Palestine, capturing 
 Jerusalem which had been held by the Turks for six hundred and 
 seventy three years. 
 
 The turning point of the war came on March 29, 1918, when 
 General Foch was chosen Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied 
 forces. This followed Germany's great drive on a fifty-mile front 
 from Arras to La Fere. Successive German thrusts were halted 
 by the Allied forces now strongly reinforced by Americans. 
 
 Foch, patiently biding his time, elected to halt the German 
 drive with Americans. The Marines of the United States forces 
 were given the post of honor, and at Chateau-Thierry the counter- 
 thrust of Foch was commenced by a complete defeat of the Prussian 
 Guard and other crack German regiments, by the untried soldiers 
 of America. 
 
 From Chateau-Thierry to the armistice which went into 
 effect at eleven o'clock on November llth was only a short span 
 of time, but hi it was compressed the humiliation of arrogant 
 Teutonic imperialism, the destruction of militaristic autocracy, 
 and the liberation of the world.
 
 CHAPTER LVII 
 BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE 
 
 GENERAL MARCH'S OWN STORY OP THE WORK OP THE MILITARY 
 
 INTELLIGENCE DIVISION OF THE WAR PLANS DIVISION OP THE 
 
 PURCHASE AND TRAFFIC DIVISION HOW MEN, MUNITIONS AND 
 SUPPLIES REACHED THE WESTERN FRONT. 
 
 IT IS important that a general summary of America's military 
 preparations, a detailed description of the operations behind 
 the battle line and a detailed chronology of America's principal 
 military operations in France during the year 1918 should 
 be presented to the reader. Such a summary is afforded by the 
 report of General Peyton C. March, Chief of Staff, United States 
 Army, for the last year of the war. Addressing the Secretary of 
 War, General March wrote in part: 
 
 The signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, has brought to a 
 successful conclusion the most remarkable achievement in the history of 
 all warfare. 
 
 The entry of the United States into the war on April 6, 1917, found 
 the Nation about as thoroughly unprepared for the great task which 
 was confronting it as any great nation which had ever engaged in war. 
 Starting from a minimum of organized strength, within this short period 
 of sixteen months the entire resources of the country in men, money, and 
 munitions have been placed under central control, and at the end of this 
 period the Nation was in its full stride and had accomplished, from a 
 military standpoint, what our enemy regarded as the impossible. The 
 most important single thing, perhaps, in this record of accomplishment, 
 was the immediate passage by Congress of the draft law, without which 
 it would have been impossible to have raised the men necessary for victory. 
 In organizing, training, and supplying the vast numbers of men made 
 available by the draft law very many changes have been made necessary 
 in the organization of the War Department and in the methods existing 
 therein which were inherited from the times of profound peace. 
 
 Shortly after my installation as Chief of Staff I adopted the principle 
 of interchange of the personnel of the various staff corps of the War 
 Department with men who had training in France, and in the application 
 of this principle placed as the heads of various bureaus officers selected on 
 
 689
 
 690 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 account of their ability and experience in the system of warfare as conducted 
 in France. 
 
 At this time, also, I found that the divisions organized in our armies 
 were still regarded as separate units, designated by different titles in 
 accordance with their origin. This made three different kinds of divisions 
 in the United States army the Regular army, the National Guard, and 
 National army divisions. All these distinctions were abolished and the 
 entire army consolidated into a United States army, without regard to the 
 source from which drawn. The source of supply of all replacements for 
 the various elements of the army, without regard to their origin, was 
 drafted men; and the titles had no significance whatever and were a 
 source of possible disturbance from the standpoint of military efficiency. 
 There was, in fact, no actual difference between these divisions with 
 respect to efficiency all have done high-grade work from whatever 
 source drawn. All have shown courage and capacity for quick absorption 
 of the fundamentals of modern military training and irresistible dash 
 and force in actual fighting. . . . 
 
 When I returned from France on March 1, 1918, I came back with the 
 belief that the most fundamental necessity, both for the American Expedi- 
 tionary Force and for the success of the allies, was that the shipment of 
 troops to France should be vastly increased and should have priority 
 over everything else; and as this policy became effective a study was 
 instituted looking to our putting in France, if that was possible, enough 
 men to bring the war to a conclusion in the shortest period possible. After 
 a study of the entire situation, including as accurate an estimate of the 
 potential strength of our allies on the western front and of the probable 
 German strength as was possible, I came to the conclusion that the war 
 might be .brought to an end in 1919, provided we were able to land in 
 France by June 30th of that year eighty American divisions of a strength 
 of 3,360,000 men. On July 18, 1918, 1 submitted to you a formal memoran- 
 dum, accompanied by a study of methods by which the men could be 
 obtained, the supplies procured, and an analysis of the shipping which 
 must be obtained in order to accomplish this very large military program. 
 This was accompanied by an estimate of the cost of the proposed program. 
 
 In this study I recommended to you the adoption, as the American 
 program, of eighty divisions in France and eighteen at home by June 30, 
 1919, based on a total strength of the American army of 4,850,000 men. 
 This was approved by you and by the President of the United States 
 and adopted as our formal military program. To carry this program 
 into effect required the adoption by Congress of a change in the draft 
 ages so as to include men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five 
 years, and also created a deficiency over the enormous appropriations 
 already made by Congress of some $7,000,000,000. The presentation of 
 the program to Congress, accompanied by the statement that this increase 
 in the army, if laws were passed by Congress which would make it effective, 
 would lead to success in 1919, produced prompt and favorable considera-
 
 Photo by International Film Senict. 
 
 THE SALVATION ARMY ON THE WESTERN FRONT 
 A shell-proof dugout used as a rest room for soldiers. 
 
 Press Illustrating Service. 
 
 THE Y. M. C. A. IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. sign beside the trench points the way to a d of 
 
 Irfan^etmous 1 ! 1 ^ ***** fOUnd the * Oris which -ad^S'sig^oTthe
 
 BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE 693 
 
 tion by that body. Up to the signing of the armistice troops were being 
 transported to France monthly in accordance with that program. The 
 results speak for themselves. . . . 
 
 During the year, the most important in the history of the country 
 both from a military and civil standpoint, there have been four heads 
 of the General Staff: Major-General Hugh L. Scott, from the outbreak of 
 the war until his retirement, September 22, 1917; General Tasker H. 
 Bliss, from that date until May 19, 1918; Major-General John Biddle, 
 Acting Chief of Staff at periods during the absence of General Bliss in 
 France, from October 29, 1917, to December 16, 1917, and from January 
 9, 1918, to March 3, 1918. I assumed the duties of Acting Chief of Staff 
 on March 4, 1918, became Chief of Staff May 20, 1918, and have con- 
 tinued on that duty since. 
 
 It was evident, as the war progressed, that the General Staff was 
 acting under an organization and in accordance with regulations which 
 were not only unsuited to the duties and responsibilities confronting it, 
 but were wholly out of date and were not suited to any General Staff 
 organization. Successive revisions of the orders under which the General 
 Staff was acting were made as events demanded, until the experience of 
 the year crystallized the organization of the General Staff into that set 
 forth in General Order No. 80 of the War Department. This order 
 divides the work of the General Staff into four primary divisions: 1. Opera- 
 tions; 2. Purchase, Storage, and Traffic; 3. Military Intelligence; 4. War 
 Plans. Each of these divisions is under the direction of a director, who 
 is Assistant Chief of Staff and is a general officer. 
 
 OPERATIONS DIVISION 
 
 The Operations Division is under the charge of Major-General Henry 
 Jervey, United States army, as Director of Operations and Assistant 
 Chief of Staff. This division is a consolidation of the former Operations 
 Committee and Equipment Committee, which pertained to the War 
 College under the previous organization. The Operations Division has 
 had charge of the increase in the personnel of the army during the year. 
 On June 30, 1917, the Regular army consisted of 250,357 officers and 
 enlisted men. On August 5, 1917, 379,323 officers and men of the National 
 Guard were drafted into the Federal service. There were a few special 
 drafts of small numbers of National Guardsmen into the Federal service 
 after August 5, 1917. During the period covered by this report this 
 division handled the calls into service of men obtained under the draft, 
 the organization of these men into divisions and units necessary for the 
 army, and turned over for shipment overseas up to November 8, 1918, 
 2,047,667 men. The grand total of men in the army from returns for the 
 period ending October 15th is 3,624,774. This force was organized into 
 divisions, the proper proportion of corps, army, and service of supply 
 troops, and of replacement camps and training centers for Infantry, Field 
 Artillery, and Machine Guns in the United States. Central officers'
 
 694 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 training schools were organized at each of the replacement camps. 
 Replacement camps and training centers for the various staff depart- 
 ments were also organized. Development battalions were organized at 
 all division camps and large posts and camps for the purpose of developing 
 men of poor physique and the instruction of illiterates and non-English- 
 speaking men of the draft. During the fiscal year 5,377,468 officers and 
 men were moved by railroad to and from the camps. 
 
 The Operations Division has during the year also handled all matters 
 connected with the adoption of new types of equipment, fixing allowances 
 for various units, the preparation of tables of equipment for them, and 
 the distribution and issue of equipment, and the determination of priorities 
 of such issue. 
 
 It has supervised and studied the needs of camps and construction 
 work therein, and this work in general has been characterized by marked 
 ability and devotion to duty. 
 
 PURCHASE, STORAGE AND TRAFFIC DIVISION 
 
 The Division of Purchase, Storage and Traffic is under the charge of 
 Major-General George W. Goethals, United States army, as Assistant 
 Chief of Staff and Director of Purchase, Storage and Traffic. This 
 division was organized by merging divisions previously created, and 
 which had been called "Storage and Traffic" and "Purchase and Supply." 
 The new division thus organized was subdivided into Embarkation Service, 
 Storage, Inland Traffic Service, and Purchase and Supply Branch. 
 
 Embarkation. At the outbreak of the war the Quartermaster's 
 Department had charge of the transportation of troops and supplies and 
 continued to exercise these functions until August 4, 1917, when they 
 were transferred to a separate division of the General Staff, specially 
 created for the purpose, and designated as the Embarkation Service. 
 As already noted, this was subsequently merged with the Storage and 
 Traffic Division. 
 
 Two primary ports of embarkation were established, one with head- 
 quarters at Hoboken, N. J., and the other at Newport News, Va., each 
 under the command of a general officer. 
 
 The Quartermaster's Department was operating a service to Panama 
 from New York, but with the shipment of troops to France a new condition 
 arose which was met only in part by taking over the Hoboken piers, 
 formerly owned by the Hamburg-American and North German Lloyd 
 steamship companies, and the magnitude of the undertaking necessitated 
 additional facilities. The situation at New York is complicated by the large 
 amount of general shipping using the port, the diversified interests, even 
 those of the government, and the complicated jurisdiction. An effort was 
 made to bring about such a consolidation and unification as to secure 
 greater co-operation with increased efficiency. To this end the War 
 Board for the Port of New York was established in November, 1917. 
 It was vested with full power and authority to make rules and regulations
 
 BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE 695 
 
 for operating the facilities of the port, to determine priorities, and to do 
 what was necessary to provide for the prompt and economical dispatch of 
 the business of the government in and about the port. Mr. Irving T. 
 Bush was selected as the board's representative, with the title of chief 
 executive officer. In addition to representing the board he was to arrange 
 for the co-operative use of piers, warehouses, lighterage, terminals, rail- 
 roads, trucking, and all other transportation facilities in and about the port. 
 
 In addition the need was felt for having a shipping expert closely 
 associated with the Embarkation Service, familiar with the facilities at 
 various ports, so that he could properly assign ships, select ships for the 
 cargo to be moved, and arrange for their loading. Mr. Joseph T. Lilly 
 was selected for this work and appointed director of embarkation. 
 
 In February, 1918, the available cargo ships were not sufficient to 
 carry the supplies needed for maintaining the troops overseas. To secure 
 the requisite additional tonnage necessitated taking ships from the existing 
 trade routes and determining from what imports and exports they could 
 best be spared without interference with those which were absolutely 
 necessary. This brought about a new situation which could be handled 
 only by those having a knowledge of the trades as well as the characteristics 
 of various ships serving them, since some of them were suitable for War 
 Department needs and some were not. It had happened that an advanta- 
 geous exchange of ships could have been made with the Allies by which 
 valuable time could have been saved in getting over cargo, but there was 
 lack of knowledge as well as lack of authority. The whole situation was 
 gone over at a conference between the Secretary of War and the chairman 
 of the Shipping Board, as a result of which the Shipping Control Com- 
 mittee was created, consisting of Mr. P. A. S. Franklin, chairman; Mr. 
 H. H. Raymond; and Sir Connop Guthrie, representative of the Allies' 
 shipping interests. The allocation and distribution of available tonnage, 
 as well as questions of exchange of ships, was vested in this committee. 
 So far as the work of the War Department was concerned the committee 
 was charged with the loading and unloading cargo, coaling, supplies, 
 repairs, and, except where vessels are commanded by the navy, of 
 inspection and manning. They also have charge of the management and 
 operation of docks, piers, slips, loading and discharging facilities under 
 the control of the department, or of any board, officers, or agency operating 
 such facilities, together with the direction and management of minor 
 craft to be used in connection with the handling of steamers and their 
 cargoes in port. The amount of cargo shipped overseas, the efficiency of 
 the loading, and the reduction of the time of stay in the ports attest to the 
 efficient manner in which the committee has operated, and it is not too 
 much to say that they are to be largely credited with the results that 
 have been accomplished. . . . 
 
 Expeditionary depots were operated at Boston, Mass.; Philadelphia, 
 Pa., and Baltimore, Md., primarily for the movement of freight. When 
 cargo ships having accommodations for troops were loaded at these ports
 
 696 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 troops for the available space were sent from the camps under the direction 
 of the commanding general at Hoboken; similarly shipments of troops 
 were made from Montreal, Canada, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, when 
 practicable. Cargo shipments were also made from other ports on the 
 Atlantic and Gulf coasts. 
 
 On May 25, 1918, the water transport branch of the Quartermaster's 
 Department was transferred and made a part of the Embarkation 
 Service. 
 
 In April conditions abroad necessitated the speeding up shipments 
 of troops, and brought to the service such transports as the British Govern- 
 ment could spare for the purpose, which have been continued in use. 
 The army transports are officered and manned by the navy, as is the 
 greater number of the cargo ships. The arrangements for transferring 
 ships to naval control as well as for convoys for troop and cargo ships are 
 handled through the Chief of Operations of the navy, who has given every 
 assistance. The way in which the work has been handled by the navy is 
 shown by the loss of no troop ships which were under their protection on 
 the eastbound trips. . . . 
 
 Inland Traffic. The inland traffic service was established on Jan- 
 uary 10, 1918. As the government had taken over all of the railroads, 
 the necessity for working in harmony with the organization that was 
 placed in charge was apparent, and the Railroad Administration was 
 requested to recommend a competent traffic man to handle the work. 
 This resulted in the selection and assignment of Mr. H. M. Adams as 
 chief of the section. He in turn secured his expert assistants through the 
 Railroad Administration. 
 
 At the time the section was formed approximately 15,000 carloads 
 of War Department property held in cars were congesting various 
 Atlantic ports. Steps were taken which relieved this condition and 
 brought about an orderly movement of the traffic when and in the quantities 
 desired. The value of the inland traffic service was soon demonstrated 
 and led to a reorganization, with authority to take over the transportation 
 organizations of the various bureaus of the War Department, both at 
 Washington and throughout the country, so that as now organized the 
 chief of the inland traffic service exercises direct control of the transporta- 
 tion of troops, of the supplies of and for the various bureaus of the War 
 Department, and for the contractors working for the several bureaus. This 
 control extends over the entire country through the medium of representa- 
 tives stationed at various traffic centers. 
 
 Working in conjunction with the Railroad Administration has resulted 
 hi minimizing the burdens of the carriers. The work has been performed 
 most efficiently. More than 5,000,000 troops have been moved from their 
 homes, from one camp to another, and from camps to the points of embarka- 
 tion within the period covered by this report. 
 
 Arrangements have been made by which this branch will take charge 
 of all express movements for the War Department, as well as the tracing
 
 BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE 697 
 
 of the movements of all War Department property, including the con- 
 tractors and others for the various bureaus. 
 
 Purchase arid Supply. The Purchase and Supply Branch is organized 
 into the following subsections: Supply Program, Purchase, Production, 
 Finance, and Emergency. 
 
 MILITARY INTELLIGENCE DIVISION 
 
 The Military Intelligence Division has as director Brigadier-General 
 Marlborough Churchill, United States army, Assistant Chief of Staff. 
 This division, which had been a branch, first of the War Plans Division 
 and then of the Executive Division of the General Staff, was separated 
 completely and made an independent division by general orders which 
 reorganized the General Staff, thus putting the Military Intelligence 
 Division on a par with similar services of general staffs of other nations 
 of the world. 
 
 The duties of the Military Intelligence Division consist, in general, 
 in the organization of the intelligence service, positive and negative, 
 including the collection and coordination of military information; the 
 supervision of the department intelligence officers and intelligence officers 
 at posts, stations, camps, and with commands in the field, in matters 
 relating to military intelligence; the direction of counter-espionage work; 
 the preparation of instruction in military intelligence work for the use of 
 our forces; the consideration of questions of policy promulgated by the 
 General Staff in all matters of military intelligence; the co-operation with 
 intelligence branches of the general staffs of other countries; the super- 
 vision of the training of officers for intelligence duty, the obtaining and 
 issuing of maps: and the disbursement of and accounting for intelligence 
 funds. 
 
 One of the important functions of the Director of the Military 
 Intelligence Division is that of coordinating the work of this service 
 with other intelligence agencies. Possible duplications of work and 
 investigation by the State Department, Treasury Department, Depart- 
 ment of Justice, Navy Department, War Trade Board, and the War 
 Department are avoided or adjusted at weekly conferences held at the 
 Department of Justice and attended by representatives of these depart- 
 ments who consider matters of common interest. For a similar purpose, 
 the Director of Military Intelligence is a member of the Fire Prevention 
 Committee, the War Industries Board, and the National Research Council. 
 
 For the purpose of securing close co-operation between the military 
 intelligence services of the nations associated in the war, the British and 
 French Governments were requested by the United States to send officers 
 to this country for liaison duty. These officers have been of great assistance 
 in accomplishing this end, because of their knowledge of the details of 
 intelligence work in Europe. 
 
 For the performance of the service for which the Military Intelligence 
 Division was developed, eight sections have been established, each deal-
 
 698 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 ing with its peculiar problems, and working in close liaison with its 
 fellows. . . . 
 
 It may not be amiss to call attention to the enthusiastic co-operation 
 which this division has consistently received from the various other 
 intelligence agencies, civilian and others. The American Protective 
 League, the Department of Justice, the Office of Naval Intelligence, 
 the Customs, the War Trade Intelligence have all co-operated in the 
 heartiest manner with each and every effort of the Military Intelligence 
 Division. Indeed, it is hardly saying too much to state that the success 
 of the Military Intelligence Division has in a very large measure been due 
 to the loyal assistance which it has received at all times from the various 
 agencies whose functions are similar to its own. 
 
 WAR PLANS DIVISION 
 
 The War Plans Division of the General Staff is under the direction of 
 Brigadier-General Lytle Brown, as Director and Assistant Chief of Staff. 
 A very large volume of work has been accomplished by this division 
 during the year. Exclusive of subjects pertaining to the historical branch, 
 the inventions section, and routine matters, 9,287 cases were handled by the 
 division during the year. 
 
 These included Studies as to policies for defense and the organization 
 of the military forces in general as published in Tables of Organization, 
 completed studies on the policy and plans for training the army in general, 
 training replacement troops, training cadres, training centers, training 
 schools, schools for senior and staff officers, and plans for physical recon- 
 struction and vocational training of wounded soldiers. 
 
 In addition, through the Training Section, the War Plans Division 
 has supervision of training in general and has kept in touch by inspections 
 by its officers with methods used and progress made. 
 
 The Legislative, Regulations, and Rules Branch of the War Plans 
 Division has handled numerous changes in Army Regulations and War 
 Department orders made necessary by the present emergency, and has 
 considered bills before Congress pertaining to the army. 
 
 The Historical Branch of the General Staff was organized March 5, 
 1918, to collect and compile the records pertaining to the war under the 
 approved policy, and satisfactory progress is being made. To June 30, 
 1918, 67,022 photographs and 2,590 feet of motion-picture film had been 
 received. 
 
 The Inventions Section was organized April 16, 1918. This section 
 has taken over from the different agencies of the government the pre- 
 liminary consideration of inventions and ideas of inventions of a military 
 nature, with a view to placing before the proper bureaus of the War 
 Department those having sufficient military value to warrant test and 
 development at the expense of the government. From April 16, 1918, 
 to June 30, 1918, 4,645 cases were handled, a number of which were of 
 exceptional merit and have already been put to use. . . .
 
 BEHIND AMERICA'S BATTLE LINE 699 
 
 The Chief of Staff has as his principal assistant Major-General Frank 
 Mclntyre, United States army, who acts as executive officer for the 
 General Staff and also for the Chief of Staff in his absence. 
 
 Beside the General Staff divisions which have been referred to in the 
 foregoing, there has been established in the General Staff a Morale Section, 
 under charge of Brigadier-General E. L. Munson, United States army, 
 which has for its object primarily the stimulation of morale throughout the 
 army, and maintaining a close connection and liaison with similar activities 
 in civil life. This section had only gotten fairly into operation before the 
 signing of the armistice, but had already shown its value as a military asset. 
 
 Another important addition to the organization of the General Staff 
 has been the establishment of a Personnel Section, under charge of 
 Brigadier-General P. P. Bishop, United States army. In this section has 
 been consolidated the handling of appointments, promotions, and com- 
 missions of the entire official personnel of the United States army. This 
 section has proved to be of the greatest value and has come to stay. . . . 
 
 The signing of the armistice has interrupted the conclusion of the 
 organization now under way for the consolidation of Procurement and 
 Storage under the Director of Purchase, Storage, and Traffic, but the 
 principle is sound from the standpoint of organization and extremely 
 economical in its results. . . . 
 
 The supply of officers for the very large military program has been 
 throughout one of the most important problems which confronted the 
 General Staff. I have alreadv indicated in the statement of the functions 
 of the Operations Division of the General Staff the organization of central 
 training camps for officers throughout the United States. When, however, 
 we embarked upon the final program of placing eighty divisions in France 
 and eighteen at home by June 30, 1919, which involved an army of approx- 
 imately 4,800,000, the problem of the supply of officers became so serious 
 that an understanding was obtained with the great mass of educational 
 institutions throughout the United States, resulting in the development of 
 the Student Army Training Corps. This scheme absorbed for military 
 purposes the academic plants of some 518 colleges and universities through- 
 out the country, and for vocational training in the army embraced some 
 eighty more. This corps was put under the charge of Brigadier-General 
 Robert I. Rees, United States army, and in its development we have had 
 the energetic co-operation of college presidents and responsible college 
 authorities throughout the entire United States. At the same time, in 
 order to increase the supply of officers, the course at West Point was cut 
 down to one year's intensive training, with the idea of placing at the 
 disposal of the government 1,000 officers a year graduated from that 
 extremely efficient plant rather than the graduation of about 200, which 
 had been the case previously throughout the war. 
 
 The separation of the Air Service from the Signal Corps, under the 
 provisions of the Overman bill, and the establishment of a Bureau of 
 Military Aeronautics, under Major-General William L. Kenly, United
 
 700 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 States army, and of a Bureau of Aircraft Production, under Mr. John D. 
 Ryan, marked an extremely important step forward in the development 
 of this portion of the Military Establishment. The armistice closes out 
 this matter with the two branches of the Air Service in a state of marked 
 efficiency and establishes unquestionably the necessity for the permanent 
 separation of the Air Service from the Signal Corps in the reorganization 
 of the army. 
 
 During this period another new agency created in the War Depart- 
 ment by Executive order was the office of the Chief of Field Artillery. 
 This office has been filled by Major-General William J. Snow, United 
 States army. This establishment was accompanied by the creation in the 
 American Expeditionary Force in France of the office of Chief of Artillery 
 on General Pershing's staff, having similar relation to all the artillery of the 
 Expeditionary Force which the Chief of Field Artillery has toward the 
 mobile artillery at home. The work of this office has been accompanied 
 by a marked increase in the efficiency of the training system in the various 
 Field Artillery camps, and the office itself has proved to be of distinct value. 
 
 I have directed the divisions of the General Staff concerned to study 
 and submit for your consideration a plan for the reorganization of our 
 army, which will take advantage of our experience in this war, which 
 has brought about many changes in organization of all arms of the service, 
 and has developed new arms not known when the war started. The 
 Air Service, the Tank Corps, the development of heavy mobile artillery, 
 the proper organization of divisions, corps, and armies, all will be set forth 
 in the scheme which will be submitted to you with the recommendation 
 that it be transmitted for the consideration of Congress. . . . 
 
 The conduct of the American troops in France, their progressive 
 development in military experience and ability, the fine staff work, and 
 the modesty and gallantry of the individual soldier is a matter of pride to 
 all Americans. General Pershing and his command have earned the 
 thanks of the American people. 
 
 The work of General Tasker H. Bliss as military representative of the 
 War Department with the American Section of the Supreme War Council 
 at Versailles has been of the greatest value to the War Department. 
 
 I cannot close this report without making of record the appreciation of 
 the War Department of the work of the many trained and patriotic officers 
 of the army whom the destiny of war did not call to France. These officers, 
 forced to remain behind in the United States by the imperative necessity 
 of having trained men to keep the machine moving, have kept up their 
 work with such intelligence, zeal, and devotion to duty as to show a high 
 order of patriotism. The officers and men who have not been able on 
 account of the armistice to be transported to France deserve also, with 
 their comrades in France, the thanks of the American people.
 
 CHAPTER LVII1 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY* 
 
 IMMEDIATELY upon receiving my orders I selected a small 
 staff and proceeded to Europe in order to become familiar with 
 conditions at the earliest possible moment. 
 
 The warmth of our reception in England and France was 
 only equaled by the readiness of the commanders-in-chief of the 
 veteran armies of the Allies and their staffs to place their experience 
 at our disposal. In consultation with them the most effective 
 means of co-operation of effort was considered. With French and 
 British armies at their maximum strength, and all efforts to dis- 
 possess the enemy from his firmly intrenched positions hi Belgium 
 and France failed, it was necessary to plan for an American force 
 adequate to turn the scale in favor of the Allies. Taking account of 
 the strength of the central powers at that tune, the immensity of 
 the problem which confronted us could hardly be overestimated. 
 The first requisite being an organization that could give intelligent 
 direction to effort, the formation of a General Staff occupied my 
 early attention. 
 
 GENERAL STAFF 
 
 A well-organized General Staff through which the commander 
 exercises his functions is essential to a successful modern army. 
 However capable our division, our battalion, and our companies 
 as such, success would be impossible without thoroughly coordi- 
 nated endeavor. A General Staff broadly organized and trained 
 for war had not hitherto existed in our army. Under the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, this staff must carry out the policy and direct 
 the details of administration, supply, preparation, and operations 
 of the army as a whole, with all special branches and bureaus 
 subject to its control. As models to aid us we had the veteran 
 French General Staff and the experience of the British who had 
 similarly formed an organization to meet the demands of a great 
 
 *From General Pershing's official report to the Secretary at War, November 20, 1918. 
 
 701
 
 702 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 army. By selecting from each the features best adapted to our 
 basic organization, and fortified by our own early experience in the 
 war, the development of our great General Staff system was 
 completed. 
 
 The General Staff is naturally divided into five groups, each 
 with its chief who is an assistant to the Chief of the General 
 Staff. G. 1 is in charge of organization and equipment of troops, 
 replacements, tonnage, priority of overseas shipment, the auxil- 
 iary welfare association and cognate subjects; G. 2 has censor- 
 ship, enemy intelligence, gathering and disseminating information, 
 preparation of maps, and all similar subjects; G. 3 is charged with 
 all strategic studies and plans, movement of troops, and the super- 
 vision of combat operations; G. 4 coordinates important questions 
 of supply, construction, transport arrangements for combat, and 
 of the operations of the service of supply, and of hospitalization 
 and the evacuation of the sick and wounded; G. 5 supervises the 
 various schools and has general direction and coordination of 
 education and training. 
 
 The first Chief of Staff was Col. (now Maj.-Gen.) James G. 
 Harbord, who was succeeded hi March, 1918, by Maj.-Gen. James 
 W. McAndrew. To these officers, to the deputy chief of staff, 
 and to the assistant chiefs of staff, who, as heads of sections, aided 
 them, great credit is due for the results obtained not only in perfect- 
 ing the General Staff organization but in applying correct principles 
 to the multiplicity of problems that have arisen. 
 
 ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING 
 
 After a thorough consideration of allied organizations it was 
 decided that our combat division should consist of four regiments 
 of infantry of 3,000 men, with three battalions to regiment and 
 four companies of 250 men each to a battalion, and of an artillery 
 brigade of three regiments, a machine-gun battalion, an engineer 
 regiment, a trench-mortar battery, a signal battalion, wagon trams, 
 and the headquarters staffs and military police. These, with 
 medical and other units, made a total of over 28,000 men, or 
 practically double the size of a French or German division. Each 
 corps would normally consist of six divisions four combat and one 
 depot and one replacement division and also two regiments of 
 cavalry, and each army of from three to five corps. With four divi-
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 703 
 
 sions fully trained, a corps could take over an American sector 
 with two divisions in line and two in reserve, with the depot and 
 replacement divisions prepared to fill the gaps in the ranks. 
 
 Our purpose was to prepare an integral American force, which 
 should be able to take the offensive hi every respect. Accord- 
 ingly, the development of a self-reliant infantry by thorough drill 
 hi the use of the rifle and in the tactics of open warfare was always 
 uppermost. The plan of training after arrival in France allowed 
 a division one month for acclimatization and instruction in small 
 units from battalions down, a second month in quiet trench sectors 
 by battalion, and a third month after it came out of the trenches 
 when it should be trained as a complete division in war of move- 
 ment. . . . 
 
 ARTILLERY, AIRPLANES, AND TANKS 
 
 Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries 
 necessary for its conduct in the modern sense. Among our most 
 important deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and 
 tanks. In order to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, 
 we accepted the offer of the French Government to provide us 
 with the necessary artillery equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty- 
 five millimeter howitzers, and one fifty-five G P F guns from their 
 own factories for thirty divisions. The wisdom of this course is 
 fully demonstrated by the fact that, although we soon began the 
 manufacture of these classes of guns at home, there were no guns 
 of the calibers mentioned manufactured in America on our front 
 at the date the armistice was signed. The only guns of these 
 types produced at home thus far received in France are 109 seventy- 
 five millimeter guns. 
 
 In aviation we were in the same situation, and here again the 
 French Government came to our aid until our own aviation program 
 should be under way. We obtained from the French the necessary 
 planes for training our personnel, and they have provided us with 
 a total of 2,676 pursuit, observation, and bombing planes. The 
 first airplanes received from home arrived in May, and altogether 
 we have received 1,379. The first American squadron completely 
 equipped by American production, including airplanes, crossed the 
 German lines on August 7, 1918. As to tanks, we were also com- 
 pelled to rely upon the French. Here, however, we were less fortu-
 
 704 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 nate, for the reason that the French production could barely meet 
 the requirements of their own armies. 
 
 It should be fully realized that the French Government has 
 always taken a most liberal attitude and has been most anxious to 
 give us every possible assistance in meeting our deficiencies in these 
 as well as in other respects. Our dependence upon France for 
 artillery, aviation, and tanks was, of course, due to the fact that 
 our industries had not been exclusively devoted to military pro- 
 duction. All. credit is due our own manufacturers for their efforts 
 to meet our requirements, as at the time the armistic was signed 
 we were able to look forward to the early supply of practically all 
 our necessities from our own factories. 
 
 The welfare of the troops touches my responsibility, as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief to the mothers and fathers and kindred of the 
 men who came to France in the impressionable period of youth. 
 They could not have the privilege accorded European soldiers 
 during their periods of leave of visiting their families and renewing 
 their home ties. Fully realizing that the standard of conduct that 
 should be established for them must have a permanent influence 
 in their lives and on the character of their future citizenship, the 
 Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian Association, Knights of 
 Columbus, the Salvation Army, and the Jewish Welfare Board, 
 as auxiliaries in this work, were encouraged in every possible way. 
 The fact that our soldiers, in a land of different customs and 
 language, have borne themselves in a manner in keeping with the 
 cause for which they fought, is due not only to the efforts in their 
 behalf but much more to other high ideals, their discipline, and 
 their innate sense of self-respect. It should be recorded, however, 
 that the members of these welfare societies have been untiring in 
 their desire to be of real service to our officers and men. The 
 patriotic devotion of these representative men and women has 
 given a new significance to the Golden Rule, and we owe to them a 
 debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. 
 
 COMBAT OPERATIONS 
 
 During our periods of training in the trenches some of our 
 divisions had engaged the enemy in local combats, the most impor- 
 tant of which was Seicheprey by the Twenty-sixth on April 20th, in 
 the Toul sector, but none had participated in action as a unit.
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 705 
 
 The First Division, which had passed through the preliminary 
 stages of training, had gone to the trenches for its first period of 
 instruction at the end of October and by March 21st, when the 
 German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions with 
 experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to any demands 
 of battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed was 
 such that our occupation of an American sector must be postponed. 
 
 On March 28th I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, 
 who had been agreed upon as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied 
 armies, all of our forces to be used as he might decide. At his 
 request the First division was transferred from the Toul sector to a 
 position in reserve at Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority 
 in numbers required prompt action, an agreement was reached at 
 the Abbeville conference of the Allied premiers and commanders and 
 myself on May 2d by which British shipping was to transport ten 
 American divisions to the British army area, where they were to 
 be trained and equipped, and additional British shipping was to be 
 provided for as many divisions as possible for use elsewhere. 
 
 On April 26th the First Division had gone into the line in 
 the Montdidier salient on the Picardy battle front. Tactics had 
 been suddenly revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our 
 men, confident of the results of their training, were eager for the 
 test. On the morning of May 28th this division attacked the 
 commanding German position in its front, taking with splendid 
 dash the town of Cantigny and all other objectives, which were 
 organized and held steadfastly against vicious counter-attacks and 
 galling artillery fire. Although local, this brilliant action had an 
 electrical effect, as it demonstrated our fighting qualities under 
 extreme battle conditions, and also that the enemy's troops were 
 not altogether invincible. 
 
 The Germans' Aisne offensive, which began on May 27th, 
 had advanced rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and 
 the Allies faced a crisis equally as grave as that of the Picardy 
 offensive in March. Again every available man was placed at 
 Marshal Foch's disposal, and the Third Division, which had just 
 come from its preliminary training in the trenches, was hurried to 
 the Marne. Its motorized machine-gun battalion preceded the 
 other units and successfully held the bridge-head at the Marne, 
 opposite Chateau-Thierry. The Second Division, in reserve near
 
 706 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport 
 to check the progress of the enemy toward Paris The division 
 attacked and retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches 
 and sturdily held its ground against the enemy's best guard divi- 
 sions. In the battle of Belleau Wood, which followed, our men 
 proved their superiority and gamed a strong tactical position, with 
 far greater loss to the enemy than to ourselves. On July 1st, 
 before the Second was relieved, it captured the village of Vaux 
 with most splendid precision. 
 
 Meanwhile our Second Corps, under Maj.-Gen. George W. 
 Read, had been organized for the command of our divisions with 
 the British, which were held back in training areas or assigned 
 to second-line defenses. Five of the ten divisions were withdrawn 
 from the British area hi June, three to relieve divisions in Lorraine 
 and the Vosges and two to the Paris area to join the group of 
 American divisions which stood between the city and any farther 
 advance of the enemy in that direction. 
 
 The great June-July troop movement from the States was 
 well under way, and, although these troops were to be given some 
 preHminary training before being put into action, their very pres- 
 ence warranted the use of all the older divisions in the confidence 
 that we did not lack reserves. Elements of the Forty-second 
 Division were in the line east of Rheims against the German 
 offensive of July 15th, and held their ground unflinchingly. On 
 the right flank of this offensive four companies of the Twenty-eighth 
 Division were in position in face of the advancing waves of the 
 German infantry. The Third Division was holding the bank of 
 the Marne from the bend east of the mouth of the Surmelin to the 
 west of Me*zy, opposite Chdteau-Thierry, where a large force of 
 German infantry sought to force a passage under support of powerful 
 artillery concentrations and under cover of smoke screens. A 
 single regiment of the Third wrote one of the most brilliant pages in 
 our military annals on this occasion. It prevented the crossing at 
 certain points on its front while, on either flank, the Germans, who 
 had gained a footing, pressed forward. Our men, firing in three 
 directions, met the German attacks with counter-attacks at critical 
 points and succeeded in throwing two German divisions into com- 
 plete confusion, capturing 600 prisoners. 
 
 The great force of the German Chateau-Thierry offensive
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 707 
 
 established the deep Marne salient, but the enemy was taking 
 chances, and the vulnerability of this pocket to attack might be 
 turned to his disadvantage. Seizing this opportunity to support 
 my conviction, every division with any sort of training was made 
 available for use m a counter-offensive. The place of honor hi the 
 thrust toward Soissons on July 18th was given to our First and 
 Second divisions in company with chosen French divisions. With- 
 out the usual brief warning of a preliminary bombardment, the 
 massed French and American artillery, firing by the map, laid down 
 its rolling barrage at dawn while the infantry began its charge. 
 The tactical handling of our troops under these trying conditions 
 was excellent throughout the action. The enemy brought up large 
 numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense both with 
 machine guns and artillery, but through five days' fighting the 
 First Division continued to advance until it had gained the heights 
 above Soissons and captured the village of Berzy-le-sec. The 
 Second Division took Beau Repaire farm and Vierzy hi a very 
 rapid advance and reached a position hi front of Tigny at the end 
 of its second day. These two divisions captured 7,000 prisoners 
 and over 100 pieces of artillery. 
 
 The Twenty-sixth Division, which, with a French division, 
 was under command of our First Corps, acted as a pivot of the 
 movement toward Soissons. On the 18th it took the village of 
 Torcy while the Third Division was crossing the Marne in pursuit 
 of the retiring enemy. The Twenty-sixth attacked again on the 
 21st, and the enemy withdrew past the Ch&teau-Thierry-Soissons 
 road. The Third Division, continuing its progress, took the 
 heights of Mont St. Pere and the villages of Charteves and Jaul- 
 gonne in the face of both machine-gun and artillery fire. 
 
 On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from Trugny 
 and Epieds, our Forty-second Division, which had been brought 
 over from the Champagne, relieved the Twenty-sixth and, fighting 
 its way through the Foret de Fere, overwhelmed the nest of machine 
 guns hi its path. By the 27th it had reached the Ourcq, whence 
 the Third and Fourth divisions were already advancing, while 
 the French divisions with which we were co-operating were moving 
 forward at other points. 
 
 The Third Division had made its advance into Roncheres 
 Wood on the 29th and was relieved for rest by a brigade of the
 
 708 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Thirty-second. The Forty-second and Thirty-second undertook 
 the task of conquering the heights beyond Cierges, the Forty-second 
 capturing Sergy and the Thirty-second capturing Hill 230, both 
 American divisions joining hi the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, 
 and thus the operation of reducing the salient was finished. Mean- 
 while the Forty-second was relieved by the Fourth at Ch6ry- 
 Chartreuve, and the Thirty-second by the Twenty-eighth, while 
 the Seventy-seventh Division took up a position on the Vesle. 
 The operations of these divisions on the Vesle were under the 
 Third Corps, Ma j. -Gen. Robert L. Bullard, commanding. 
 
 BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL 
 
 With the reduction of the Marne salient we could look forward 
 to the concentration of our divisions hi our own zone. In view of 
 the forthcoming operation against the St. Mihiel salient, which 
 had long been planned as our first offensive action on a large scale, 
 the First Army was organized on August 10th under my personal 
 command. While American units had held different divisional 
 and corps sectors along the western front, there had not been up to 
 this tune, for obvious reasons, a distinct American sector; but, in 
 view of the important parts the American forces were now to play, 
 it was necessary to take over a permanent portion of the line. 
 Accordingly, on August 30th, the line beginning at Port sur Seille, 
 east of the Moselle and extending to the west through St. Mihiel, 
 thence north to a point opposite Verdun, was placed under my com- 
 mand. The American sector was afterwards extended across tlo.3 
 Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, and included the 
 Second Colonial French, which held the point of the salient, and 
 the Seventeenth French Corps, which occupied the heights above 
 Verdun. 
 
 The preparation for a complicated operation against the for- 
 midable defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions 
 and of corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambu- 
 lances, the location of hospitals, and the molding together of all of 
 the elements of a great modern army with its own railheads, sup- 
 plied directly by our own Service of Supply. The concentration 
 for this operation, which was to be a surprise, involved the move- 
 ment, mostly at night, of approximately 600,000 troops, and 
 required for its success the most careful attention to every detail.
 
 Committee on Public Informal 
 
 THE AMERICAN COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN THE FIELD 
 
 vu^u ^^^ !.? 6116 1 John J - p ershing just after he had been decorated 
 Btar and Ribbon of the Legion of Honor of France, the highest decoration 
 ever awarded an American soldier. General Pershing was raised to a full general- 
 ship soon after his arrival in France, an honor which has previously been held 
 only by Washington, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan.
 
 NOTED AMERICAN GENERALS 
 
 General March is chief of staff of the American Army, Lieutenant- 
 Generala Liggett and Bullard commanded the First and Second Armies 
 respectively, and Major-Generals Wright and Read are corps commanders.
 
 The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and 
 army artillery, with its personnel, and we were confident from the 
 start of our superiority over the enemy in guns of all calibers. Our 
 heavy guns were able to reach Metz and to interfere seriously 
 with German rail movements. The French Independent Air Force 
 was placed under my command which, together with the British 
 bombing squadrons and our air forces, gave us the largest assembly 
 of aviation that had ever been engaged in one operation on the 
 western front. 
 
 From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at St. Mihiel 
 to the Moselle River the line was roughly forty miles long and sit- 
 uated on commanding ground greatly strengthened by artificial 
 defenses. Our First Corps (Eighty-second, Ninetieth, Fifth, and 
 Second divisions) under command of Major-General Hunter 
 Liggett, restrung its right on Pont-a-Mousson, with its left joining 
 our Third Corps (the Eighty-ninth, Forty-second, and First divi- 
 sions), under Major-General Joseph T. Dickma'n, hi line to Xivray, 
 were to swing in toward Vigneulles on the pivot of the Moselle 
 River for the initial assault. From Xivray to Mouilly the Second 
 Colonial French Corps was in line in the center and our Fifth Corps, 
 under command of Major-General George H. Cameron, with our 
 Twenty-sixth Division and a French division at the western base 
 of the salient, were to attack three difficult hills Les Eparges, 
 Combres, and Amaramthe. Our First Corps had in reserve the 
 Seventy-eighth Division, our Fourth Corps the Third Division 
 and our First Army the Thirty-fifth and Ninety-first Divisions, 
 with the Eightieth and Thirty-third available. It should be under- 
 stood that our corps organizations are very elastic, and that we 
 have at no tune had permanent assignments of divisions to corps. 
 
 After four hours' artillery preparation, the seven American 
 divisions in the front line advanced at 5 A. M., on September 12th, 
 assisted by a limited number of tanks manned partly by Americans 
 and partly by the French. These divisions, accompanied by groups 
 of wire cutters and others armed with bangalore torpedoes, went 
 through the successive bands of barbed wire that protected the 
 enemy's front line and support trenches, in irresistible waves on 
 schedule time, breaking down all defense of an enemy demoralized 
 by the great volume of our artillery fire and our sudden approach 
 out of the fog.
 
 712 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Our First Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our Fourth 
 Corps curved back to the southwest through Nonsard. The 
 Second Colonial French Corps made the slight advance required 
 of it on very difficult ground, and the Fifth Corps took its three 
 ridges and repulsed a counter-attack. A rapid march brought 
 reserve regiments of a division of the Fifth Corps into Vigneulles 
 in the early morning, where it linked up with patrols of our Fourth 
 Corps, closing the salient and forming a new line west of Thiaucourt 
 to Vigneulles and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre. At the cost of only 
 7,000 casualties, mostly light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and 
 443 guns, a great quantity of material, released the inhabitants of 
 many villages from enemy domination, and established our lines 
 in a position to threaten Metz. This signal success of the American 
 First Army in its first offensive was of prime importance. The 
 Allies found they had a formidable army to aid them, and the 
 enemy learned finally that he had one to reckon with. 
 
 MEUSE-AEGONNE OFFENSIVE, FIKST PHASE 
 
 On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient, much of 
 our corps and army artillery which had operated at St. Mihiel, 
 and our divisions hi reserve at other points, were already on the 
 move toward the area back of the line between the Meuse River 
 and the western edge of the forest of Argonne. With the exception 
 of St. Mihiel, the old German front line from Switzerland to the 
 east of Rheims was still intact. In the general attack all along the 
 line, the operation assigned the American army as the hinge of 
 this Allied offensive was directed toward the important railroad 
 communications of the German armies through Me"zie"res and Sedan. 
 The enemy must hold fast to this part of his lines or the withdrawal 
 of his forces with four years' accumulation of plants and material 
 would be dangerously imperiled. 
 
 The German army had as yet shown no demoralization and, 
 while the mass of its troops had suffered hi morale, its first-class 
 divisions, and notably its machine-gun defense, were exhibiting 
 remarkable tactical efficiency as well as courage. The German 
 General Staff was fully aware of the consequences of a success on 
 the Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that he would do everything hi 
 his power to oppose us, the action was planned with as much secrecy 
 as possible and was undertaken with the determination to use all
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 713 
 
 our divisions in forcing decision. We expected to draw the best 
 German divisions to our front and to consume them while the 
 enemy was held under grave apprehension lest our attack should 
 break his line, which it was our firm purpose to do. . . . 
 
 Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our left 
 embraced the Argonne Forest whose ravines, hills, and elaborate 
 defense screened by dense thickets had been generally considered 
 impregnable. Our order of battle from right to left was the Third 
 Corps from the Meuse to Malancourt, with the Thirty-third, 
 Eightieth, and Fourth divisions in line, and the Third Division as 
 corps reserve; the Fifth Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with 
 Seventy-ninth, Eighty-seventh, and Ninety-first divisions hi line, 
 and the Thirty-second in corps reserve; and the First Corps, from 
 Vauquois to Vienne le Chateau, with Thirty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, 
 and Seventy-seventh divisions in line, and the Ninety-second in 
 corps reserve. The army reserve consisted of the First, Twenty- 
 ninth, and Eighty-second divisions. 
 
 On the night of September 25th our troops quietly took the 
 place of the French who thinly held the line in this sector which 
 had long been inactive. In the attack which began on the 26th 
 we drove through the barbed wire entanglements and the sea of 
 shell craters across No Man's Land, mastering the first-line defenses. 
 Continuing on the 27th and 28th, against machine guns and artillery 
 of an increasing number of enemy reserve divisions, we penetrated 
 to a depth of from three to seven miles, and took the village of 
 Montfaucon and its commanding hill and Exermont, Gercourt, 
 Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry, Epinonville, Charpentry, 
 Very, and other villages. East of the Meuse one of our divisions, 
 which was with the Second Colonial French Corps, captured Marche- 
 ville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank of our 
 main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we had gained our 
 point of forcing the battle into the open and were prepared for the 
 enemy's reaction, which was bound to come as he had good roads 
 and ample railroad facilities for bringing up his artillery and 
 reserves. 
 
 In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to build 
 new roads across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair broken roads 
 beyond No Man's Land, and build bridges. Our gunners, with no 
 thought of sleep, put their shoulders to wheels and dragropes to
 
 714 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 bring their guns through the mire in support of the infantry, now 
 under the increasing fire of the enemy's artillery. Our attack had 
 taken the enemy by surprise, but, quickly recovering himself, he 
 began to fire counter-attacks hi strong force, supported by heavy 
 bombardments, with large quantities of gas. From September 28th 
 until October 4th we maintained the offensive against patches of 
 woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine guns, 
 and pushed forward our guns and transport, seizing strategical 
 points in preparation for further attacks. 
 
 OTHER UNITS WITH ALLIES 
 
 Other divisions attached to the Allied armies were doing their 
 part. It was the fortune of our Second Corps, composed of the 
 Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth divisions, which had remained with 
 the British, to have a place of honor hi co-operation with the Aus- 
 tralian Corps, on September 29th and October 1st, in the assault on 
 the Hindenburg line where the St. Quentin Canal passes through 
 a tunnel under a ridge. The Thirtieth Division speedily broke 
 through the main line of defense for all its objectives, while the 
 Twenty-seventh pushed on impetuously through the main line until 
 some of its elements reached Gouy. In the midst of the maze of 
 trenches and shell craters and under cross-fire from machine guns 
 the other elements fought desperately against odds. In this and in 
 later actions, from October 6th to October 19th, our Second Corps 
 captured over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over thirteen miles. 
 The spirit and aggressiveness of these divisions have been highly 
 praised by the British army commander under whom they served. 
 
 On October 2d to 9th our Second and Thirty-sixth divisions 
 were sent to assist the French hi an important attack against the 
 old German positions before Rheims. The Second conquered the 
 complicated defense works on their front against a persistent defense 
 worthy of the grimmest period of trench warfare and attacked the 
 strongly held wooded hill of Blanc Mont, which they captured in a 
 second assault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and skill. 
 This division then repulsed strong counter-attacks before the 
 village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took the town, forcing the 
 Germans to fall back from before Rheims and yield positions they 
 had held since September, 1914. On October 9th the Thirty-sixth 
 Division relieved the Second and, in its first experience under fire,
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 715 
 
 withstood very severe artillery bombardment and rapidly took up 
 the pursuit of the enemy, now retiring behind the Aisne. 
 
 MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, SECOND PHASE 
 
 The Allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of our men 
 in this crucial contest as the German command threw in more and 
 more first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady head- 
 way in the almost impenetrable and strongly held Argonne Forest, 
 for, despite this reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the 
 driving. Our aircraft was increasing in skill and numbers and 
 forcing the issue, and our infantry and artillery were improving 
 rapidly with each new experience. The replacements fresh from 
 home w T ere put into exhausted divisions with little time for training, 
 but they had the advantage of serving beside men who knew their 
 business and who had almost become veterans over night. The 
 enemy had taken every advantage of the terrain, which especially 
 favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine guns manned by 
 highly-trained veterans and by using his artillery at short ranges. 
 In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been 
 unable to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted 
 standards, but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and 
 the courage of our troops. 
 
 On October 4th the attack was renewed all along our front. 
 The Third Corps tilting to the left followed the Brieulles-Cunel 
 road; our Fifth Corps took Gesnes while the First Corps advanced 
 for over two miles along the irregular valley of the Aire River and 
 in the wooded hills of the Argonne that bordered the river, used by 
 the enemy with all his art and weapons of defense. This sort of 
 fighting continued against an enemy striving to hold every foot of 
 ground and whose very strong counter-attacks challenged us at 
 every point. On the 7th the First Corps captured Chatel-Che'hery 
 and continued along the river to Cornay. On the east of Meuse 
 sector one of the two divisions co-operating with the French 
 captured Consenvoye and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the 
 Fifth Corps, in its progress up the Aire, took Fle'ville, and the 
 Third Corps, which had continuous fighting against odds, was 
 working its way through Brieulles and Cunel. On the 10th we had 
 cleared the Argonne Forest of the enemy. 
 
 It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and on
 
 716 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 October 9th the immediate command of the First Army was turned 
 over to Lieutenant-General Hunter Liggett. The command of the 
 Second Army, whose divisions occupied a sector in the Woevre, 
 was given to Lieutenant-General Robert L. Bullard, who had been 
 commander of the First Division and then of the Third Corps. 
 Major-General Dickman was transferred to the command of the 
 First Corps, while the Fifth Corps was placed under Major-General 
 Charles P. Summerall, who had recently commanded the First 
 Division. Major-General John L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up 
 from regimental to division commander, was assigned to the Third 
 Corps. These four officers had been in France from the early days 
 of the expedition and had learned their lessons in the school of 
 practical warfare. 
 
 Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day by day 
 more prisoners, mostly survivors from machine-gun nests captured 
 hi fighting at close quarters. On October 18th there was very 
 fierce fighting in the Caures Woods east of the Meuse and hi the 
 Ormont Woods. On the 14th the First Corps took St. Juvin, and 
 the Fifth Corps, in hand-to-hand encounters, entered the formidable 
 Kriemhilde line, where the enemy had hoped to check us indefinitely. 
 Later the Fifth Corps penetrated further the Kriemhilde line, and 
 the First Corps took Champigneulles and the important town of 
 Grandpre. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the enemy, who 
 continued desperately to throw his best troops against us, thus weak- 
 ening his line in front of our Allies and making their advance less 
 difficult. 
 
 DIVISIONS IN BELGIUM 
 
 Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the battle, but 
 our Thirty-seventh and Ninety-first divisions were hastily with- 
 drawn from our front and dispatched to help the French army 
 in Belgium. Detraining hi the neighborhood of Ypres, these divi- 
 sions advanced by rapid stages to the fighting line and were assigned 
 to adjacent French corps. On October 31st, hi continuation of 
 the Flanders offensive, they attacked and methodically broke down 
 all enemy resistance. On November 3d the Thirty-seventh had 
 completed its mission hi dividing the enemy across the Escaut 
 River and firmly established itself along the east bank included in 
 the division zone of action. By a clever flanking movement troops
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 717 
 
 of the Ninety-first Division captured Spitaals Bosschen, a difficult 
 wood extending across the central part of the division sector, reached 
 the Escaut, and penetrated into the town of Audenarde. These 
 divisions received high commendation from their corps commanders 
 for their dash and energy. 
 
 MEUSE ARGONNE LAST PHASE 
 
 On the 23d the Third and Fifth corps pushed northward to the 
 level of Bantheville. While we continued to press forward and 
 throw back the enemy's violent counter-attacks with great loss to 
 him, a regrouping of our forces was under way for the final assault. 
 Evidences of loss of morale by the enemy gave our men more confi- 
 dence hi attack and more fortitude in enduring the fatigue of inces- 
 sant effort and the hardships of very inclement weather. 
 
 With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in 
 the Meuse-Argonne front was begun on November 1st. Our 
 increased artillery force acquitted itself magnificently in support 
 of the advance, and the enemy broke before the determined infantry, 
 which, by its persistent fighting of the past weeks and the dash 
 of this attack, had overcome his will to resist. The Third Corps 
 took Aincreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne, and the Fifth Corps 
 took Landres et St. Georges and pressed through successive lines 
 of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On the 2d the First Corps 
 joined in the movement, which now became an impetuous onslaught 
 that could not be stayed. 
 
 On the 3d advance troops surged forward hi pursuit, some by 
 motor trucks, while the artillery pressed along the country roads 
 close behind. The First Corps reached Authe and Chatillon-Sur- 
 Bar, the Fifth Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and the Third Corps Halles, 
 penetrating the enemy's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large 
 caliber guns had advanced and were skilfully brought into position 
 to fire upon the important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon, and 
 Conflans. Our Third Corps crossed the Meuse on the 5th and the 
 other corps, in the full confidence that the day was theirs, eagerly 
 cleared the way of machine guns as they swept northward, maintain- 
 ing complete coordination throughout. On the 6th, a division of 
 the First Corps reached a point on the Meuse opposite Sedan, 
 twenty-five miles from our line of departure. The strategical goal 
 which was our highest hope was gamed. We had cut the enemy's
 
 718 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 main line of communications, and nothing but surrender or an 
 armistice could save his army from complete disaster. 
 
 In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us hi the 
 Meuse-Argonne battle. Between September 26th and November 
 6th we took 26,059 prisoners and 468 guns on this front. Our 
 divisions engaged were the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, 
 Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-second, Thirty- 
 third, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, 
 Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-second, Eighty- 
 ninth, Ninetieth, and Ninety-first. Many of our divisions remained 
 in line for a length of tune that required nerves of steel, while others 
 were sent hi again after only a few days of rest. The First, Fifth, 
 Twenty-sixth, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, Eightieth, Eighty- 
 ninth, and Ninetieth were hi the line twice. Although some of the 
 divisions were fighting their first battle, they soon became equal 
 to the best. 
 
 OPERATIONS EAST OP THE METJSE 
 
 On the three days preceding November 10th, the Third, the 
 Second Colonial, and the Seventeenth French corps fought a dim- 
 cult struggle through the Meuse Hills south of Stenay and forced 
 the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile, my plans for further use 
 of the American forces contemplated an advance between the Meuse 
 and the- Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the First Army, 
 while, at the same tune, the Second Army should assure the offensive 
 toward the rich coal fields of Briey. These operations were to be 
 followed by an offensive toward Chateau-Salic s east of the Moselle, 
 thus isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the American front 
 had been ordered and that of the Second Army was in progress on 
 the morning of November llth, when instructions were received 
 that hostilities should cease at 11 o'clock A. M. 
 
 At this moment the line of the American sector, from right to 
 left, began at Port-Sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Van- 
 dieres and through the Woevre to Bezonvaux in the foothills of 
 the Meuse, thence along to the foothills and through the northern 
 edge of the Woevre forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the 
 Meuse connecting with the French under Sedan. . . .
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY 719 
 
 There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some 
 sanitary units with the Italian army and the organizations at Mur- 
 mansk, also including those en route from the States, approximately 
 2,053,347 men, less our losses. Of this total there are in France 
 1,338,169 combatant troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which 
 the infantry personnel of ten have been used as replacements, 
 leaving thirty divisions now in France organized into three armies 
 of three corps each. 
 
 The losses of the Americans up to November 18th are: Killed 
 and wounded, 36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 
 2,204; wounded, 179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We 
 have captured about 44,000 prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers 
 and trench mortars. . . . 
 
 Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers 
 of the line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under 
 hardships, their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled 
 with emotion which I am unable to express. Their deeds are im- 
 mortal, and they have earned the eternal gratitude of our country.
 
 CHAPTER LIX 
 PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAB 
 
 ON DECEMBER 2, 1918, just prior to sailing for Europe to 
 take part in the Peace Conference, President Wilson 
 addressed Congress, reviewing the work of the American 
 people, soldiers, sailors and civilians, hi the World War 
 which had been brought to a successful conclusion on November 
 llth. His speech, hi part, follows: 
 
 "The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfil 
 my constitutional duty to give to the Congress from tune to tune 
 information on the state of the Union has been so crowded with 
 great events, great processes and great results that I cannot hope 
 to give you an adequate picture of its transactions or of the far- 
 reaching changes which have been wrought hi the life of our Nation 
 and of the world. You have yourselves witnessed these things, as 
 I have. It is too soon to assess them; and we who stand hi the 
 midst of them and are part of them are less qualified than men of 
 another generation will be to say what they mean or even what 
 they have been. But some great outstanding facts are unmis- 
 takable and constitute hi a sense part of the public business with 
 which it is our duty to deal. To state them is to set the stage for 
 the legislative and executive action which must grow out of them 
 and which we have yet to shape and determine. 
 
 "A year ago we had sent 145,918 men overseas. Since then we 
 have sent 1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each month, the num- 
 ber hi fact rising in May last to 245,951, hi June to 278,760, hi 
 July to 307,182 and continuing to reach similar figures hi August 
 and September hi August 289,570 and hi September 257,438. 
 No such movement of troops ever took place before, across 3,000 
 miles of sea, followed by adequate equipment and supplies, and 
 carried safely through extraordinary dangers of attack, dangers 
 which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard against. 
 In all this movement only 758 men were lost by enemy attacks, 
 
 720
 
 PRESIDENT'S REVIEW OF THE WAR 721 
 
 630 of whom were upon a single English transport which was 
 sunk near the Orkney Islands. 
 
 "I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of 
 men and material. It is not invidious to say that back of it lay a 
 supporting organization of the industries of the country and of all 
 its productive activities more complete, more thorough hi method 
 and effective in results, more spirited and unanimous in purpose 
 and effort than any other great belligerent had ever been able to 
 effect. We profited greatly by the experience of the nations which 
 had already been engaged for nearly three years in the exigent 
 and exacting business, their every resource and every proficiency 
 taxed to the utmost. We were the pupils. But we learned quickly 
 and acted with a promptness and a readiness of co-operation that 
 justify our great pride that we were able to serve the world with 
 unparalleled energy and quick accomplishment. 
 
 "But it is not the physical scale and executive efficiency of 
 preparation, supply, equipment and dispatch that I would dwell 
 upon, but the mettle and quality of the officers and men we sent 
 over and of the sailors who kept the seas, and the spirit of the Nation 
 that stood behind them. No soldiers, or sailors, ever proved them- 
 selves more quickly ready for the test of battle or acquitted them- 
 selves with more splendid courage and achievement when put to 
 the test. Those of us who played some part in directing the great 
 processes by which the war was pushed irresistibly forward to 
 the final triumph may now forget all that and delight our thoughts 
 with the story of what our men did. Their officers understood the 
 grim and exacting task they had undertaken and performed with 
 audacity, efficiency and unhesitating courage that touch the story 
 of convoy and battle with imperishable distinction at every turn, 
 whether the enterprise were great or small from their chiefs, 
 Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest lieutenant; and their 
 men were worthy of them such men as hardly need to be com- 
 manded, and go to their terrible adventure blithely and with the 
 quick intelligence of those who know just what it is they would 
 accomplish. I am proud to be the fellow-countryman of men of 
 such stuff and valor. Those of us who stayed at home did our 
 duty; the war could not have been won or the gallant men who 
 fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise; but for 
 many a long day we shall think ourselves 'accursed we were not
 
 722 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 there, and hold our manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought ' 
 with these at St. Mihiel or Thierry. The memory of those days of 
 triumphant battle will go with these fortunate men to their graves; 
 and each will have his favorite memory. 'Old men forget; yet 
 all shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what feats 
 he did that day!' 
 
 "What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our 
 men went in force into the line of battle just at the critical moment, 
 and threw their fresh strength into the ranks of freedom in time to 
 turn the whole tide and sweep of the fateful struggle turn it 
 once for all, so that henceforth it was back, back, back for their 
 enemies, always back, never again forward! After that it was 
 only a scant four months before the commanders of the central 
 empires knew themselves beaten, and now their very empires are 
 in liquidation! 
 
 "And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the Nation was; 
 what unity of purpose, what untiring zeal! What elevation of 
 purpose ran through all its splendid display of strength, its untiring 
 accomplishment. I have said that those of us who stayed at home 
 to do the work of organization and supply will always wish that 
 we had been with the men whom we sustained by our labor; but 
 we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing to be here 
 in the midst of fine men who had turned aside from every private 
 interest of their own and devoted the whole of their trained capacity 
 to the tasks that supplied the sinews of the whole great under- 
 taking! The patriotism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing 
 devotion and distinguished capacity that marked their toilsome 
 labors, day after day, month after month, have made them fit 
 mates' and comrades of the men in the trenches and on the sea. 
 And not the men here in Washington only. They have but directed 
 the vast achievement. Throughout innumerable factories, upon 
 innumerable farms, hi the depths of coal mines and iron mines 
 and copper mines', wherever the stuffs of industry were to be 
 obtained and prepared, hi the shipyards, on the railways, at the 
 docks, on the sea, hi every labor that was needed to sustain the 
 battle lines men have vied with each other to do their part and 
 do it well. They can look any man-at-arms in the face, and say, 
 we also strove to win and gave the best that was in us to make our 
 fleets and armies sure of their triumph!
 
 PRESIDENT'S REVIEW OF THE WAR 723 
 
 "And what shall we say of the women of their instant intelli- 
 gence, quickening every task that they touched; their capacity for 
 organization and co-operation, which gave their action discipline 
 and enhanced the effectiveness of everything they attempted; 
 their aptitude at tasks to which they had never before set their 
 hands; their utter self-sacrificing alike in what they did and in 
 what they gave? Their contribution to the great result is beyond 
 appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals of American 
 womanhood. 
 
 "The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals 
 of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their 
 equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether 
 for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed 
 achievement would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of 
 justice. Besides the immense practical services they have ren- 
 dered, the women of the country have been the moving spirits hi the 
 systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted 
 to supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon 
 every front with food and everything else that we had that might 
 serve the common cause. The details of such a story can never be 
 fully written, but we carry them at our hearts and thank God that 
 we can say we are the kinsmen of such. 
 
 "And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every 
 sacrifice was made. It has come, come hi its completeness, and 
 with the pride and inspiration of these days of achievement quick 
 within us we turn to the tasks of peace again a peace secure against 
 the violence of irresponsible monarchs and ambitious military 
 coteries and made ready for a new order, for new foundations of 
 justice and fair dealing. 
 
 "We are about to give order and organization to this peace, not 
 only for ourselves, but for the other peoples of the world as well, 
 so far as they will suffer us to serve them. It is international justice 
 that we seek, not domestic safety merely. . . . 
 
 "So far as our domestic affairs are concerned the problem of OUT 
 return to peace is a problem of economic and industrial readjust- 
 ment. That problem is less serious for us than it may turn out to 
 be for the nations which have suffered the disarrangements and 
 the losses of war longer than we. Our people, moreover, do not 
 wait to be coached and led, They know their own business, are
 
 724 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 quick and resourceful at every readjustment, definite in purpose 
 and self-reliant in action. Any leading strings we might seek to 
 put them in would speedily become hopelessly tangled because they 
 would pay no attention to them and go their own way. All that 
 we can do as their legislative and executive servants is to mediate 
 the process of change here, there and elsewhere as we may. I have- 
 heard much counsel as to the plans that should be formed and 
 personally conducted to a happy consummation, but from no 
 quarter have I seen any general scheme of reconstruction emerge 
 which I thought it likely we could force our spirited businessmen 
 and self-reliant laborers to accept with due pliancy and obedience, 
 
 "While the war lasted we set up many agencies by which to 
 direct the industries of the country in the services it was necessary 
 for them to render, by which to make sure of an abundant supply of 
 the materials needed, by which to check undertakings that could for 
 the time be dispensed with and stimulate those that were most 
 serviceable in war, by which to gain for the purchasing departments 
 of the government a certain control over the prices of essential 
 articles and materials, by which to restrain trade with alien enemies, 
 make the most of the available shipping and systematize financial 
 transactions, both public and private, so that there would be no 
 unnecessary conflict or confusion by which, in short, to put 
 every material energy of the country in harness to draw the 
 common load and make of us one team in accomplishment of a 
 great task. 
 
 "But the moment we knew the armistice to have been signed we 
 took the harness off. Raw materials upon which the government 
 had kept its hand for fear there should not be enough for the 
 industries that supplied the armies have been released, and put into 
 the general market again Great industrial plants whose whole 
 output and machinery had been taken over for the uses of the 
 government have been set free to return to the uses to which they 
 were put before the war It has not been possible to remove so 
 readily or so quickly the control of foodstuffs and of shipping, 
 because the world has still to be fed from our granaries and the 
 ships are still needed to send supplies to our men oversea and to 
 bring the men back as fast as the disturbed conditions on the other 
 side of the water permit; but even there restraints are being 
 relaxed as much as possible, and more and more as the weeks go by.
 
 PRESIDENT'S REVIEW OF THE WAR 725 
 
 "Never before have there been agencies in existence in this 
 country which knew so much of the field of supply of labor, and of 
 industry as the War Industries Board, the War Trade Board, the 
 Labor Department, the Food Administration and the Fuel Adminis- 
 tration have known since then* labors became thoroughly systema- 
 tized; and they have not been isolated agencies; they have been 
 directed by men which represented the permanent departments of 
 the government and so have been the centers of unified and 
 co-operative action It has been the policy of the Executive, 
 therefore, since the armistice was assured (which is hi effect a 
 complete submission of the enemy) to put the knowledge of these 
 bodies at the disposal of the businessmen of the country and to 
 offer their intelligent mediation at every point and in every matter 
 where it was desired. It is surprising how fast the process of 
 return to a peace footing has moved in the three weeks since the 
 fighting stopped. It promises to outrun any inquiry that may 
 be instituted and any aid that may be offered. It will not be easy 
 to direct it any better than it will direct itself. The American busi- 
 ness man is of quick initiative. . . . 
 
 "I welcome this occasion to announce to the Congress my 
 purpose to join hi Paris the representatives of the governments 
 with which we have been associated in the war against the Central 
 Empires for the purpose of discussing with them the main features 
 of the treaty of peace. I realize the great inconveniences that will 
 attend my leaving the country, particularly at this time, but the 
 conclusion that it was my paramount duty to go has been forced 
 upon me by considerations which I hope will seem as conclusive to 
 you as they have seemed to me. 
 
 "The Allied governments have accepted the bases of peace 
 which I outlined to the Congress on the 8th of January last, as the 
 Central Empires also have, and very reasonably desire my personal 
 counsel in their interpretation and application, and it is highly 
 desirable that I should give it, hi order that the sincere desire of our 
 government to contribute without selfish purpose of any kind to 
 settlements that will be of common benefit to all the nations- con- 
 cerned may be made fully manifest. The peace settlements which 
 are now to be agreed upon are of transcendent importance both to 
 us and to the rest of the world, and I know of no business or interest 
 which should take precedence of them. The gallant men of our
 
 726 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 armed forces on land and sea have consciously fought for the ideals 
 which they knew to be the ideals of their country; I have sought to 
 express those ideals; they have accepted my statements of them as 
 the substance of their own thought and purpose, as the associated 
 governments have accepted them; I owe it to them to see to it, 
 so far as in me lies, that no false or mistaken interpretation is put 
 upon them, and no possible effort omitted to realize them. It is 
 now my duty to play my full part in making good what they offered 
 their life's blood to obtain. I can think of no call to service which 
 could transcend this. . . . 
 
 "May I not hope, gentlemen of the Congress, that in the delicate 
 tasks I shall have to perform on the other side of the sea in my 
 efforts truly and faithfully to interpret the principles and purposes 
 of the country we love, I may have the encouragement and the 
 added strength of your united support? I realize the magnitude 
 and difficulty of the duty I am undertaking. I am poignantly 
 aware of its grave responsibilities. I am the servant of the Nation. 
 I can have no private thought or purpose of my own hi performing 
 such an errand. I go to give the best that is hi me to the common 
 settlements which I must now assist hi arriving at in conference 
 with the other -working heads of the associated governments. I shall 
 count upon your friendly countenance and encouragement. I 
 shall not be inaccessible. The cables and the wireless will render 
 me available for any counsel or service you may desire of me, and 
 I shall be happy in the thought that I am constantly in touch with 
 the weighty matters of domestic policy with which we shall have to 
 deal. I shall make my absence as brief as possible and shall hope 
 to return with the happy assurance that it has been possible to 
 translate into action the great ideals for which America has striven."
 
 Harris & Swing. 
 
 WOODROW WILSON 
 
 President of the United States during the whole course of the war and Commander- 
 in-Chief of its army and navy. On November 11, 1918, he signalized the end of the 
 war iii a proclamation in which he said: "My Fellow-Countrymen: The armistice 
 was signed this morning. Everything for which America fought has been accomplished."
 
 Summarized Chronology of the War 
 
 1914 
 
 June 
 
 28. Assassination of Archduke Fran- 
 cis Ferdinand, heir to throne of Austria- 
 Hungary, and his wife at Sarajevo, 
 Bosnia. 
 
 July 
 
 28. Austria-Hungary declares war on 
 Serbia. 
 
 29. Russian mobilization ordered. 
 
 August 
 
 1. Germany declares war on Russia. 
 
 1. France orders mobilization. 
 
 2. Germany demands free passage 
 through Belgium. 
 
 3. Germany declares war on France. 
 
 3. Belgium rejects Germany's demand. 
 
 4. Germany at war with Belgium. 
 Troops under Gen. Von Kluck cross bor- 
 der. Halted at Liege. 
 
 4. Great Britain at war with Ger- 
 many. Kitchener becomes Secretary of 
 War. 
 
 5. President Wilson tenders good of- 
 fices of United States in interests of peace. 
 
 6. Austria-Hungary at war with Rus- 
 sia. 
 
 7. French forces invade Alsace. Gen. 
 Joffre in supreme command of French 
 army. 
 
 7. Montenegro at war with Austria. 
 
 7. Great Britain's Expeditionary 
 Force lands at Ostend, Calais and Dun- 
 kirk. 
 
 8. British seize German Togoland. 
 
 8. Serbia at war with Germany. 
 
 8. Portugal announces readiness to 
 stand by alliance with England. 
 
 11. German cruisers Ooeben and 
 Sreslau enter Dardanelles and are pur- 
 chased by Turkey. 
 
 12. Great Britain at war with Austria- 
 Hungary. 
 
 12. Montenegro at war with Germany. 
 
 17. Belgian capital removed from 
 Brussels to Antwerp. 
 
 19. Canadian Parliament authorizes 
 raising expeditionary force. 
 
 20. Germans occupy Brussels. 
 
 23. Japan at war with Germany. Be- 
 gins attack on Tsingtau. 
 
 24. Germans enter France near Lille. 
 
 25. Austria at war with Japan. 
 
 26. Louvain sacked and burned by 
 Germans. Viviani becomes premier of 
 France. 
 
 28. British fleet sinks three German 
 cruisers and two destroyers off Heligo- 
 land. 
 
 28. Austria declares war on Belgium. 
 
 29. Russians invest Konigsberg, Eust 
 Prussia. New Zealanders seize German 
 Samoa. 
 
 30. Amiens occupied by Germans. 
 
 31. Russian army of invasion in East 
 Prussia defeated at Tannenberg by Ger- 
 mans under Von Hindenburg. 
 
 31. St. Petersburg changed to Petro- 
 grad by imperial decree. 
 
 September 
 
 3. Paris placed in state of siege ; gov- 
 ernment transferred to Bordeaux. 
 
 3. Lemberg, Gallicia, occupied by Rus- 
 sians. 
 
 4. Germans occupy Rheims. 
 
 6-10. Battle of Marne. Von Kluck is 
 beaten by Gen. Joffre, and the German 
 army retreats from Paris to the Soissons- 
 Rheims line. 
 
 10. Emden, German cruiser, carries 
 out raids in Bay of Bengal. 
 
 14. French reoccupy Amiens and 
 Rheims. 
 
 19. British forces begin operations in 
 Southwest Africa. 
 
 20. Rheims cathedral shelled by Ger- 
 mans. 
 
 24. Allies occupy Peronne. 
 
 25. Australians seize German New 
 Guinea. 
 
 28. Anglo-French forces invade Ger- 
 man colony of Kamerun. 
 
 29. Antwerp bombardment begins. 
 
 October 
 
 2. British Admiralty announces inten- 
 tion to mine North Sea areas. 
 
 6. Japan seizes Marshall Islands in 
 Pacific. 
 
 9. Antwerp surrenders to Germans. 
 Government removed to Ostend. 
 
 13. British occupy Ypres. 
 
 14. Canadian Expeditionary Force of 
 32,000 men lands at Plymouth. 
 
 15. Germans occupy Ostend. Belgian 
 government removed to Havre, France. 
 
 November 
 
 1. Monmouth and Good Hope, British 
 cruisers, are sunk by German squadron 
 off Chile under command of Admiral Von 
 Spec. 
 
 729
 
 730 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 5. Great Britain and France declare 
 war on Turkey. 
 
 5. Cyprus annexed by Great Britain. 
 
 7. German garrison of Tsingtau sur- 
 renders to Japanese. 
 
 9. Emden, German cruiser, which had 
 carried out raiding operations for two 
 months, is destroyed by Australian cruiser 
 Sydney off the Cocos Islands, southwest 
 of Java. 
 
 16. Prohibition of sale of intoxicants 
 in Russia enforced. 
 
 27. Czernowitz, capital of Bukowina, 
 captured by Russians. 
 
 December 
 
 2. Belgrade occupied by Austrians. 
 
 3. Cracow bombarded by Russians. 
 
 8. Off the Falkland Isles, British 
 squadron under command of Rear- Admiral 
 Sturdee, sinks three of the German cruis- 
 ers which had destroyed the Good Hope 
 and Monmouth on Nov. 1. The Dresden 
 escapes. 
 
 14. Austrians evacuate Belgrade. 
 
 16. German squadron bombards Har- 
 tlepool, Scarborough and Whitby on east 
 coast of England. 
 
 23. Siege of Cracow raised. Russians 
 retire. 
 
 1915 
 
 January 
 
 24. British fleet puts to flight a Ger- 
 man squadron in North Sea and sinks the 
 battle cruiser Bliicher. 
 
 28. American bark, William P. Frye, 
 sunk by German cruiser in South Atlan- 
 tic. 
 
 February 
 
 10. Russians defeated by Germans in 
 Battle of Masurian Lakes. 
 
 18. German submarine "blockade" of 
 British Isles begins. 
 
 25. Allied fleet destroys outer forts of 
 Dardanelles. 
 
 March 
 
 2. Allied troops land at Kum-Kale, on 
 Asiatic side of Dardanelles. 
 
 10. British take Neuve Chapelle in 
 Flanders battle. 
 
 14. Dresden, German raiding cruiser, 
 is sunk by British squadron off the 
 Chilean coast. 
 
 22. Austrian fortress of Przmysl sur- 
 renders to Russians. 
 
 April 
 
 22. Poison gas first used by Germans 
 in attack on Canadians at Ypres, Belgium. 
 
 May 
 
 1. American steamer Chilflight torpe- 
 doed off Scilly Isles by German subma- 
 rine ; 3 lives lost. 
 
 2. British South Africa troops under 
 General Botha capture Otymbingue, Ger- 
 man Southwest Africa. 
 
 7. Germans capture Libau, Russian 
 Baltic port. 
 
 7. Lusitania, Cunard liner, sunk by 
 German submarine off Kinsale Head, 
 Irish coast, with loss of 1152 lives; 102 
 Americans. 
 
 23. Italy declares war on Austria- 
 Hungary and begins invasion on a 60- 
 mile front. 
 
 24. American steamer "NebrasTcan tor- 
 pedoed by German ^ submarine off Irish 
 coast, but reaches Liverpool in safety. 
 
 31. German Zeppelins bombard sub- 
 orbs of London. 
 
 June 
 
 1. Germany apologizes for attack on 
 Gulflight and offers reparation. 
 
 3. Austrians recapture Przmysl. 
 
 3. British forces operating on Tigris 
 capture Kut-el-Amara. 
 
 4-6. German aircraft bombs English 
 towns. 
 
 7. Bryan, TJ. S. Secretary of State, 
 resigns. 
 
 15. Allied aircraft bombs Karlsruhe, 
 Baden, in retaliation. 
 
 22. Lemberg recaptured by Austrians. 
 
 26. Montenegrins enter Scutari, Al- 
 bania. 
 
 July 
 
 9. German Southwest Africa surren- 
 ders to British South African troops un- 
 der Gen. Botha. 
 
 25. American steamer, Leelanaw, 
 Archangel to Belfast with flax, torpedoed 
 off Scotland. 
 
 31. Baden bombarded by French air- 
 craft. 
 
 August 
 
 5. Warsaw captured by Germans. 
 
 6. Ivangorod occupied by Austrians. 
 
 6. Gallipoli Peninsula campaign enters 
 a second stage with the debarkation of a 
 new force of British troops in Suvla Bay, 
 on the west of the peninsula. 
 
 8. Russians defeat German fleet of 
 9 battleships and 12 cruisers at entrance 
 of Gulf of Riga. 
 
 19. Arabic, White Star liner, sunk by 
 submarine off Fastnet; 44 lives lost; 2 
 Americans. 
 
 25. Brest-Litovsk, Russian fortress, 
 captured by Austro-Germans. 
 
 28. Italians reach Cima Cista, north- 
 east of Trent. 
 
 30. British submarine attacks Con- 
 stantinople and damages the Galata 
 Bridge. 
 
 31. Lutsk, Russian fortress, captured 
 by Austrians. 
 
 September 
 
 2. Grodno, Russian fortress, occupied 
 by Germans.
 
 SUMMARIZED CHRONOLOGY 
 
 731 
 
 6. Czar Nicholas of Russia assumes 
 command of Russian armies. Grand Duke 
 Nicholas is transferred to the Caucasus. 
 
 15. Pinsk occupied by Germans. 
 
 18. Vilna evacuated by Russia. 
 
 24. Lutsk recaptured by Russians. 
 
 25. Allies open offensive on western 
 front and occupy Lens. 
 
 27. Lutsk again falls to Germans. 
 
 October 
 
 5. Greece becomes political storm cen- 
 ter. Franco-British force lands at Salon- 
 ika and Greek ministry resigns. 
 
 9. Belgrade again occupied by Austro- 
 Germans. 
 
 11. Zaimis, new Greek premier, an- 
 nounces policy of armed neutrality. 
 
 12. Edith Cavell, English nurse, shot 
 by Germans for aiding British prisoners 
 to escape from Belgium. 
 
 13. London bombarded by Zeppelins ; 
 55 persons killed ; 114 injured. 
 
 14. Bulgaria at war with Serbia. 
 
 14. Italians capture Pregasina, on the 
 Trentino frontier. 
 
 15. Great Britain declares war on 
 Bulgaria. 
 
 17. France at war with Bulgaria. 
 
 18. Bulgarians cut the Nish-Salonika 
 railroad at Vranja. 
 
 19. Italy and Russia at war with 
 Bulgaria. 
 
 22. Uskub occupied by Bulgarians. 
 
 28. Pirot captured by Bulgarians. 
 
 29. Briand becomes premier of France, 
 succeeding Viviani. 
 
 November 
 
 5. Nish, Serbian war capital, captured 
 by Bulgarians. 
 
 9. Ancona, Italian liner, torpedoed in 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 17. Anglo-French war council holds 
 first meeting in Paris. 
 
 20. Novibazar occupied by German 
 troops. 
 
 22.-j-Ctesiphon, near Bagdad, captured 
 by British forces in Asia Minor. 
 
 23. Italians drive Austrians from posi- 
 tions on Carso Plateau. 
 
 24. Serbian government transferred to 
 Scutari, Albania. 
 
 December 
 
 1. British Mesopotamian forces retire 
 to Kut-el-AmanQ. 
 
 2. Monastir evacuated by Serbians. 
 
 4. Henry Ford, with large party of 
 peace advocates, sails for Europe on char- 
 tered steamer Oscar II, with the object of 
 ending the war. 
 
 13. Serbia in hands of enemy, Allied 
 forces abandoning last positions and re- 
 tiring across Greek frontier. 
 
 15. Gen. Sir Douglas Haig succeeds 
 Field Marshal Sir John French as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of British forces in 
 France. 
 
 20. Dardanelles expedition ends ; Brit- 
 ish troops begin withdrawal from posi- 
 tions on Suvla Bay and Gallipoli Penin- 
 sula. 
 
 22. Henry Ford leaves his peace party 
 at Christiania and returns to the United 
 States. 
 
 1916 
 
 January 
 
 11. Greek island of Corfu occupied by 
 French. 
 
 13. Cettinje, capital of Montenegro, 
 occupied by Austrians. 
 
 23. Scutari, Albania, taken by Aus- 
 trians. 
 
 29-31. German Zeppelins bomb Paris 
 and towns in England. 
 
 February 
 
 1. Appam, British liner, is brought 
 into Norfolk, Va., by German prize crew. 
 
 10. British conscription law goes into 
 effect. 
 
 16. Erzerum, in Turkish Armenia, 
 captured by Russians under Grand Duke 
 Nicholas. 
 
 19. Kamerun, German colony in 
 Africa, conquered by British forces. 
 
 21. Battle of Verdun begins. Germans 
 take Haumont. 
 
 25. Fort Douaumont falls to Germans 
 in Verdun battle. 
 
 27. Durazzo, Albania, occupied by 
 Austrians. 
 
 March 
 
 5. Moewe, German raider, reaches 
 home port after a cruise of several months. 
 
 9. Germany declares war on Portugal 
 on the latter's refusal to give up seized 
 ships. 
 
 15. Austria-Hungary at war with 
 Portugal. 
 
 24. Sussex, French cross-channel steam- 
 er, with many Americans aboard, sunk by 
 submarine off Dieppe. No Americans 
 lost. 
 
 31. Melancourt taken by Germans in 
 Verdun Battle. 
 
 April 
 
 18. Trebizond, Turkish Black S^a 
 port, captured by Russians. 
 
 19. President Wilson publicly warns 
 Germany not to pursue submarine policy. 
 
 20. Russian troops landed at Mar- 
 seilles for service on French front. 
 
 24. Irish rebellion begins in Dublin. 
 Republic declared. Patrick Pearse ;m- 
 nounced as first president. 
 
 29. British force of 9000 men, under
 
 732 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 Gen. Townshend, besieged in Kut-el- 
 Amara, surrenders to Turks. 
 
 30. Irish rebellion ends with uncondi- 
 tional surrender of Pearse and other lead- 
 ers, who are tried by court-martial and 
 executed. 
 
 May 
 
 8. Cymric, White Star liner, torpe- 
 doed off Irish coast. 
 
 14. Italian positions penetrated by 
 Austrians. 
 
 15. Vimy Ridge gained by British. 
 
 26. Bulgarians invade Greece and oc- 
 cupy forts on the Struma. 
 
 31. Jutla"(? naval battle; British and 
 German fleets engaged ; heavy losses on 
 both sides. 
 
 June 
 
 5. Kitchener, British Secretary of 
 War, loses his life when the cruiser 
 Hampshire, on which he was voyaging to 
 Russia, is sunk off the Orkney Islands, 
 gotlan;l. 
 
 6. Germans capture Fort Vaux in 
 Verdun attack. 
 
 8. Lutsk, Russian fortress, recaptured 
 from Germans. 
 
 17. Czernowitz, capital of Bukowina, 
 occupied by Russians. 
 
 21. Allies demand Greek demobiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 27. King Constantino orders demobili- 
 zat' u. of Greek army. 
 
 '/.'.-. Italians storm Monte Trappola, in 
 the Trentino district. 
 
 July 
 
 1. British and French attack north 
 ind south of the Somme. 
 
 9. Deutschland, German submarine 
 ireight boat, lands at Baltimore, Md. 
 
 14. British penetrate German second 
 line, using cavalry. 
 
 15. Longueval captured by British. 
 
 25. Pozteres occupied by British. 
 
 30. British and French advance be- 
 tween Delville Wood and the Somme. 
 
 August 
 
 3. French recapture Fleury. 
 
 9. Italians enter Goritzia. 
 
 10. Stanislau occupied by Russians. 
 
 25. Kayala, Greek seaport town, taken 
 by Bulgarians. 
 
 27. Roumania declares war on Austria- 
 Hungary. 
 
 28. Italy at war with Germany. 
 
 28. Germany at war with Roumania. 
 
 30. Roumanians advance into Tran- 
 sylvania. 
 
 31. Bulgaria at war with Roumania. 
 Turkey at war with Roumania. 
 
 September 
 
 2. Bulgarian forces invade Roumania 
 along the Dobrudja frontier. 
 
 13. Italians defeat Austrians on the 
 Carso. 
 
 15. British capture Flers, Courcelette, 
 and other German positions on western 
 front, using ' tanks.' 
 
 26. Combles and Thiepval captured by 
 British and French. 
 
 29. Roumanians begin retreat from 
 Transylvania. 
 
 October 
 
 24. Fort Douaumont recaptured by 
 French. 
 
 November 
 
 1. Deutschland, German merchant sub- 
 marine, arrives at New London, Conn., on 
 second voyage. 
 
 2. Fort Vaux evacuated by Germans. 
 
 7. Wood row Wilson re-elected Presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 13. British advance along the Ancre. 
 
 19. Monastir evacuated by Bulgarians 
 and Germans. 
 
 _21. Britannic, mammoth British hos- 
 pital ship, sunk by mine in Aegean Sea. 
 
 22. Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- 
 Hungary, dies. Succeeded by Charles I. 
 
 23. German warships bombard Eng- 
 lish coast. 
 
 28. Roumanian government is trans- 
 ferred to Jassy. 
 
 29. Minncwaska, Atlantic transport 
 liner, sunk by mine in Mediterranean. 
 
 December 
 
 1. Allied troops enter Athens to insist 
 upon surrender of Greek arms and muni- 
 tions. 
 
 6. Bucharest, capital of Roumania, 
 captured by Austro-Germans. 
 
 7. David Lloyd George succeeds As- 
 quith as premier of England. 
 
 15. French complete recapture of 
 
 round taken by Germans in Verdun 
 attle. 
 
 18. President Wilson makes peace 
 overtures to belligerents. 
 
 26. Germany replies to President's 
 note and suggests a peace conference. 
 
 30. French government on behalf of 
 Entente Allies replies to President Wil- 
 son's note and refuses to discuss peace 
 till Germany agrees to give ' restitution, 
 reparation and guarantees.' 
 
 1917 
 
 January 22. President Wilson suggests to the 
 
 1. Turkey declares its independence of belligerents a ' peace without victory.' 
 
 suzerainty of European powers. 31. Germany announces intention of 
 
 1. Ivernia, Cunard liner, is sunk in sinking all vessels in war zone around 
 
 Mediterranean. British Isles.
 
 SUMMARIZED CHRONOLOGY 
 
 733 
 
 February 
 
 3. United States severs diplomatic re- 
 lations with Germany. Count Von Bern- 
 storff is handed his passports. 
 
 7. California, Anchor liner, is sunk off 
 Irish coast. 
 
 13. Afric, White Star liner, sunk by 
 submarine. 
 
 17. British troops on the Ancre cap- 
 ture German positions. 
 
 25. Laconia, Cunard liner, sunk off 
 Irish coast. 
 
 26. Kut-el-Amara recaptured from 
 Turks by new British Mesopotamian ex- 
 pedition under command of Gen. Sir Stan- 
 ley Maude. 
 
 28. United States government makes 
 public a communication from Germany to 
 Mexico proposing an alliance, and offering 
 as a reward the return of Mexico's lost 
 territory in Texas, New Mexico and Ari- 
 zona. 
 
 28. Submarine campaign of Germans 
 results in the sinking of 134 vessels during 
 February. 
 
 March 
 
 3. British advance on Bapaume. 
 
 3. Mexico denies having received an 
 offer from Germany suggesting an alli- 
 ance. 
 
 8. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin dies. 
 
 10. Russian Czar suspends sittings of 
 the Duma. 
 
 11. Bagdad captured by British forces 
 under Gen. Maude. 
 
 11. Revolutionary movement starts in 
 Petrograd. 
 
 14. China breaks with Germany. 
 
 15. Czar Nicholas abdicates. Prince 
 Lvoff heads new cabinet. 
 
 17. Bapaume falls to British. Roye 
 and Lassigny occupied by French. 
 
 18. Peronne, Chaulnes, Nesle and 
 Noyon evacuated by Germans, who retire 
 on an 85-mile front. 
 
 18. City of Memphis, Illinois, and 
 Vigilancia, American ships, torpedoed. 
 
 19. Alexander Ribot becomes French 
 premier, succeeding Briand. 
 
 21. Healdton, American ship, bound 
 from Philadelphia to Rotterdam, sunk 
 without warning : 21 men lost. 
 
 26-31. British advance on Cambrai. 
 
 April 
 
 1. Aztec, American armed ship, sunk 
 in submarine zone. 
 
 5. Missourian, American steamer, sunk 
 in Mediterranean. 
 
 6. United States declares war on 
 Germany. 
 
 7. Cuba and Panama at war with 
 Germany. 
 
 8. Austria-Hungary breaks with Unit- 
 ed States. 
 
 9. Germans retreat before British on 
 long front. 
 
 9. Bolivia breaks with Germany. 
 
 13. Vimy, Givenehy, Bailleul and posi- 
 tions about Lens taken by Canadians. 
 
 20. Turkey breaks with United States. 
 
 May 
 
 9. Liberia breaks with Germany. 
 
 11. Russian Council of Workmen's 
 and Soldiers' Delegates demands peace 
 conference. 
 
 15. Gen. Petain succeeds Gen. Nivelle 
 as Commander-in-Chief of French armies. 
 Gen. Foch is appointed Chief of Staff. 
 
 16. Bullecourt captured by British in 
 the Arras battles. 
 
 17. Honduras breaks with Germany. 
 
 18. Conscription bill signed by Presi- 
 dent Wilson. 
 
 19. Nicaragua breaks with Germany. 
 
 22-26. Italians advance on the Carso. 
 
 June 
 
 4. Senator Root arrives in Russia at 
 head of commission appointed by Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 5. Registration day for new draft 
 army in United States. 
 
 7. Messines-Wytschaete ridge in Eng- 
 lish hands. 
 
 8. Gen. Perching, Commander-in-Chief 
 of American expeditionary force, arrives 
 in England en route to France. 
 
 18. Haiti breaks with Germany. 
 
 July 
 
 1. Russians begin offensive in Gallicia, 
 Kerensky, minister of war, leading in 
 person. 
 
 > 3. American expeditionary force ar- 
 rives in France. 
 
 6. Canadian House of Commons passes 
 Compulsory Military Service Bill. 
 
 12. King Constantino of Greece abdi- 
 cates in favor of his second son, Alex- 
 ander. 
 
 14. Bethmann-Hollweg, German Chan- 
 cellor, resigns ; succeeded by Dr. Georg 
 Michaelis. 
 
 16-23. Retreat of Russians on a front 
 of 155 miles. 
 
 20. Alexander Kerensky becomes Rus- 
 sian premier, succeeding Lvoff. 
 
 20. Drawing of draft numbers for 
 American conscript army begins. 
 
 22. Siam at war with Germany and 
 Austria. 
 
 24. Austro-Germans retake Stanislau. 
 
 31. Franco-British attack penetrates 
 German lines on a 20-mile front. 
 
 August 
 
 1. Pope Benedict XV makes plea for 
 peace on a basis of no annexation, no 
 indemnity. 
 
 3. Czernowitz captured by Austro- 
 Germans. 
 
 7. Liberia at war with Germany. 
 
 8. ^Canadian Conscription Bill passes 
 its third reading in Senate. 
 
 14. China at war with Germany and 
 Austria-Hungary. 
 
 15. St. Quentin Cathedral destroyed 
 by Germans. 
 
 15. Canadian troops capture Hill 70, 
 dominating Lens.
 
 734 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 19. Italians cross the Isonzo and take 
 Austrian positions. 
 
 28. Pope Benedict's peace plea rejected 
 by President Wilson. 
 
 September 
 
 3. Riga captured by Germans. 
 
 5. New American National Army be- 
 gins to assemble in the different canton- 
 ments. 
 
 7. MinneJiaha, Atlantic Transport lin- 
 er, sunk off Irish coast. 
 
 12. Argentine dismisses Von Luxburg, 
 German minister, on charges of improper 
 conduct made public by United States 
 government. 
 
 14. Paul Painlev6 becomes French 
 premier, succeeding Ribot. 
 
 16. Russia proclaimed a republic by 
 Kerensky. 
 
 20. Costa Rica breaks with Germany. 
 
 21. Gen. Tasker H. Bliss named Chief 
 of Staff of the United States Army. 
 
 25. Guynemer, famous French flier, 
 killed. 
 
 26. Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood and 
 Tower Hamlets, east of Ypres, taken by 
 British. 
 
 28. William D. Haywood, secretary, 
 and 100 members of the Industrial Work- 
 ers of the World arrested for sedition. 
 
 29. Turkish Mesopotamian army, un- 
 der Ahmed Bey, captured by British. 
 
 October 
 
 6. Peru and Uruguay break with Ger- 
 many. 
 
 9. Poelcapelle and other German posi- 
 tions captured in Franco-British attack. 
 
 12-16. Oesel and Dago, Russian islands 
 in Gulf of Riga, captured by Germans. 
 
 17. Antilles, American transport, west- 
 bound from France, sunk by submarine; 
 67 lost. 
 
 18. Moon Island, in the Gulf of Riga, 
 taken by Germans. 
 
 23. American troops in France fire 
 their first shot in trench warfare. 
 
 23. French advance northeast of Sois- 
 sons. 
 
 24. Austro-Germans begin great of- 
 fensive on Italian positions. 
 
 25. Italians retreat across the Isonzo 
 and evacuate the Bainsizza Plateau. 
 
 26. Brazil at war with Germany. 
 
 27. Goritzia recaptured by Austro- 
 Germans. 
 
 30. Michaelis, German Chancellor, re- 
 signs ; succeeded by Count George F. 
 von Hertling. 
 
 31. Italians retreat to the Taglia- 
 mento. 
 
 31. Beersheba, in Palestine, occupied 
 by British. 
 
 November 
 
 1. Germans abandon position on 
 Chemin des Dames. 
 
 3. Americans in trenches suffer 20 
 casualties in German attacks. 
 
 5. Italians abandon Tagliamento line 
 and retire on a 93-mile front in the Carnic 
 Alps. 
 
 6. Passchendaele captured by Cana- 
 dians. 
 
 6. British Mesopotamian forces reach 
 Tekrit, 100 miles northwest of Bagdad. 
 
 7. The Russian Bolsheviki, led by Le- 
 nine and Trotzsky, seize Petrograd and 
 depose Kerensky. 
 
 8. Gen. Diaz succeeds Gen. Cadorna 
 as Commander-in-Chief of Italian armies. 
 
 9. Italians retreat to the Piave. 
 . 10. Lenin e becomes Premier of Rus- 
 sia, succeeding Kerensky. 
 
 .15. Georges Clemenceau becomes Pre- 
 mier of France, succeeding Painlevl. 
 
 18. Major General Maude, captor of 
 Bagdad, dies in Mesopotamia. 
 
 21. Ribecourt, Flesquieres, Havrin- 
 cpurt, Marcoing and other German posi- 
 tions captured by British. 
 
 23. Italians repulse Germans on the 
 whole front from the Asiago Plateau to 
 the Brenta River. 
 
 24. Cambrai menaced by British, who 
 approach within three miles, capturing 
 Bourlou Wood. 
 
 December 
 
 1. German East Africa reported com- 
 pletely conquered. 
 
 1. Allies' Supreme War Council, rep- 
 resenting the United States, France, 
 Great Britain and Italy, holds first meet- 
 ing at Versailles. 
 
 3. Russian Bolsheviki arrange armi- 
 stice with Germans. 
 
 5. British retire from Bourlon Wood, 
 Graincourt and other positions west of 
 Cambrai. 
 
 6. Jacob Jones, American destroyer, 
 sunk by submarine in European waters. 
 
 6. Steamer Mont Blanc, loaded with 
 munitions, explodes in collision with the 
 Imo in Halifax harbor ; 1500 persons are 
 killed. 
 
 7. Finland declares independence. 
 
 8. Jerusalem, held by the Turks for 
 673 years, surrenders to British, under 
 Gen. Allenby. 
 
 8. Ecuador breaks with Germany. 
 
 10. Panama at war with Austria- 
 Hungary. 
 
 11. United States at war with Austria- 
 Hungary. 
 
 15. Armistice signed between Germany 
 and Russia at Brest-Litovsk. 
 
 17. Coalition government of Sir Rob- 
 ert Borden is returned and conscription 
 confirmed in Canada.
 
 SUMMARIZED CHRONOLOGY 
 
 735 
 
 1918 
 
 January 
 
 14. Premier Clemenceau orders arrest 
 of former Premier Caillaux on high trea- 
 son charge. 
 
 19. American troops take over sector 
 northwest of Toul. 
 
 29. Italians capture Monte di val 
 Belle. 
 
 February 
 
 1. Argentine Minister of War recalls 
 military attaches from Berlin and Vienna. 
 
 6. Tuscania, American transport, tor- 
 pedoed off coast of Ireland ; 101 lost. 
 
 22. American troops in Chemin des 
 Dames sector. 
 
 26. British hospital ship, Glenart Cas- 
 tle, torpedoed. 
 
 27. Japan proposes joint military op- 
 erations with Allies in Siberia. 
 
 March 
 
 1. Americans gain signal victory in 
 salient north of Toul. 
 
 3. Peace treaty between Bolshevik 
 government of Russia and the Central 
 Powers signed at Brest-Litovsk. 
 
 4. Treaty signed between Germany 
 and Finland. 
 
 5. Rumania signs preliminary treaty 
 of peace with Central Powers. 
 
 9. Russian capital moved from Petro- 
 grad to Moscow. 
 
 14. Russo-German peace treaty rati- 
 fied by All-Russian Congress of Soviets at 
 Moscow. 
 
 20. President Wilson orders all Hol- 
 land ships in American ports taken over. 
 
 21. Germans begin great drive on 50- 
 mile front from Arras to La Fere. Bom- 
 bardment of Paris by German long-range 
 gun from a distance of 76 miles. 
 
 24. Peronne, Ham and Chauny evacu- 
 ated by Allies. 
 
 25. Bapaume and Nesle occupied by 
 Germans. 
 
 29. General Foch chosen Commander- 
 in-Chief of all Allied forces. 
 
 April 
 
 5. Japanese forces landed at Vladi- 
 vostok. 
 
 9. Second German drive begun in 
 Flanders. 
 
 10. First German drive halted before 
 Amiens after maximum advance of 35 
 miles. 
 
 14. United States Senator Stone, of 
 Missouri, chairman of Committee on For- 
 eign Relations, dies. 
 
 15. rSecond German drive halted before 
 Ypres, after maximum advance of 10 
 miles. 
 
 16. Bolo Pasha, Levantine resident in 
 Paris, executed for treason. 
 
 21. Guatemala at war with Germany. 
 
 22. Baron\ Von Richthofen, premier 
 German flier, killed. 
 
 23. British naval forces raid Zeebrugge 
 in Belgium, German submarine base, and 
 block channel. 
 
 May 
 
 7. Nicaragua at war with Germany 
 and her allies. 
 
 19. Major Raoul Lufberry, famous 
 American aviator, killed. 
 
 24. Costa Rica at war with Germany 
 and Austria-Hungary. 
 
 27. Third German drive begins on 
 Aisne-Marne front of 30 miles between 
 Soissons and Rheitns. 
 
 28. Germans sweep on beyond the 
 Chemin des Dames and cross the Vesle at 
 Fismes. 
 
 28. Cantigny taken by Americans in 
 local attack. 
 
 29. Soissons evacuated by French. 
 
 31. Marne River crossed by Germans, 
 who reach Chateau Thierry, 40 miles 
 from Paris. 
 
 31. President Lincoln, American trans- 
 port, sunk. 
 
 June 
 
 2. Schooner Edward H. Cole torpe- 
 doed by submarine off American coast. 
 
 3-6. American marines and regulars 
 check advance of Germans at Chateau 
 Thierry and Neuilly after maximum ad- 
 vance of Germans of 32 miles. Beginning 
 of American co-operation on major scale. 
 
 9-14. German drive on Noyon-Mont- 
 didier front. Maximum advance, 5 miles. 
 
 15-24. Austrian drive on Italian front 
 ends in complete failure. 
 
 30. American troops in France, in all 
 departments of service, number 1,019,115. 
 
 July 
 
 1. Vaux taken by Americans. 
 
 3. Mohammed V, Sultan of Turkey, 
 dies. 
 
 10. Czecho-Slovaks, aided by Allies, 
 take control of a long stretch of the 
 Trans-Siberian Railway. 
 
 12. Berat, Austrian base in Albania, 
 captured by Italians. 
 
 15. Haiti at war with Germany. 
 
 15. Stonewall defense of Chateau 
 Thierry blocks new German drive on 
 Paris. 
 
 16. Nicholas Romanoff, ex-Czar of 
 Russia, executed at Yekaterinburg. 
 
 17. Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt, youngest 
 son of ex-President Roosevelt, killed in 
 aerial battle near Chateau Thierry. 
 
 18. French and Americans begin coun- 
 ter offensive on Marne-Aisne front. 
 
 19. San Diego, United States cruiser, 
 Bunk off Fire Island. 
 
 20. CarpatMa, Cunard liner, used ns 
 transport, torpedoed off Irish coast. It 
 was the Carpathia that saved most of the 
 survivors of the Titanie in April, 1912. 
 
 20. Justicia, giant liner used as troop- 
 ship, is sunk off Irish coast.
 
 736 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 
 
 21. German submarine sinks three 
 barges off Cape Cod. 
 
 23. French take Oulchy-le-Chateau 
 and drive the Germans back ten miles be- 
 tween the Aisne and the Marne. 
 
 30. A Hi pa astride the Ourcq; Ger- 
 mans in full retreat to the Vesle. 
 
 August 
 
 1. Sergeant Joyce Kilmer, American 
 poet and critic, aged 31, dies in battle. 
 
 2. French troops recapture Soissons. 
 
 3. President Wilson announces new 
 policy regarding Russia and agrees to co- 
 operate with Great Britain, France and 
 Japan in sending forces to Murmansk, 
 Archangel and Vladivostok. 
 
 3. Allies sweep on between Soissons 
 and Rheims, driving the enemy from his 
 base at Fismes and capturing the entire 
 Aisne-Vesle front. 
 
 7. Franco-American troops cross the 
 Vesle. 
 
 8. New Allied drive begun by Field- 
 Marshal Haig in Picardy, penetrating 
 enemy front 14 miles. 
 
 10. Montdidier recaptured. 
 
 13. Lassigny massif taken by French. 
 
 15. Canadians capture Damery and 
 Parvillers, northwest of Roye. 
 
 29. Noyon and Bapaume fall in new 
 Allied advance. 
 
 September 
 
 1. Australians take Peronne. 
 
 1. Americans fight for the first time on 
 Belgian SOL! and capture Voormezeele. 
 
 11. Germans are driven back to the 
 Hindenburg line which they held in No- 
 vember, 1917. 
 
 12. Registration day for new draft 
 army of men between 18 and 45 in the 
 United States. 
 
 13. Americans begin vigorous offense 
 in St. Mihiel Sector on 40-mile front. 
 
 14. St. Mihiel recaptured from Ger- 
 mans. General Pershing announces en- 
 tire St. Mihiel salient erased, liberating 
 more than 150 square miles of French ter- 
 ritory which had been in German hands 
 since 1914. 
 
 20. Nazareth occuped by British forces 
 in Palestine under Gen. Allenby. 
 
 23. Bulgarian armies flee before com- 
 bined attacks of British, Greek, Serbian, 
 Italian and French. 
 
 25. British take 40,000 prisoners in 
 Palestine offensive. 
 
 26. Strumnitza, Bulgaria, occupied by 
 Allies. 
 
 27. Franco-Americans in drive from 
 Rheims to Verdun take 30,000 prisoners. 
 
 28. Belgians attack enemy from Ypres 
 to North Sea, gaining four miles. 
 
 29. Bulgaria surrenders to General 
 d'Esperey, the Allied commander. 
 
 30. British-Belgian advance reaches 
 Roulers. 
 
 October 
 
 1. St. Quentin, cornerstone of Hinden- 
 burg line, captured. 
 
 1. Damascus occupied by British in 
 Palestine campaign. 
 
 2. Lens evacuated by Germans. 
 
 3. Albania cleared of Austrians by 
 Italians. 
 
 4. Ferdinand, king of Bulgaria, abdi- 
 cates ; Boris succeeds. 
 
 5. Prince Maximilian, new German 
 Chancellor, pleads with President Wilson 
 to ask Allies for armistice. 
 
 7. Berry-au-Bac taken by French. 
 
 8. President Wilson asks whether 
 German Chancellor speaks for people or 
 war lords. 
 
 9. Cambrai in Allied hands. 
 
 10. Leinster, passenger steamer, sunk 
 in Irish Channel by submarine ; 480 lives 
 lost ; final German atrocity at sea. 
 
 11. Americans advance through Ar- 
 gonne forest. 
 
 12. German foreign secretary, Solf, 
 says plea for armistice is made in name 
 of German people; agrees to evacuate all 
 foreign soil. 
 
 12. Nish, in Serbia, occupied by Allies. 
 
 13. Laon and La Fere abandoned by 
 Germans. 
 
 13. Grandpre captured by Americans 
 after four days' battle. 
 
 14. President Wilson refers Germans 
 to General Foch for armistice terms. 
 
 16. Lille entered by British patrols. 
 
 17. Ostend, German submarine base, 
 taken by land and sea forces. 
 
 17. Douai falls to Allies. 
 
 19. Bruges and Zeebrugge taken by 
 Belgians and British. 
 
 25. Beginning of terrific Italian drive 
 which nets 50,000 prisoners in five days. 
 
 31. Turkey surrenders ; armistice 
 takes effect at noon ; conditions include 
 free passage of Dardanelles. 
 
 November 
 
 1. Clery-le-Grand captured by Ameri- 
 can troops of First Army. 
 
 3. Americans sweep ahead on 50-mile 
 front above Verdun ; enemy in full retreat. 
 
 3. Official reports announce capture of 
 362,350 Germans since July 15. 
 
 3. Austria surrenders, signing armi- 
 stice with Italy at 3 P. M. after 500,000 
 prisoners had been taken. 
 
 4. Americans advance beyond Stenaj 
 and strike at Sedan. 
 
 7. American Rainbow Division and 
 parts of First Division enter suburbs of 
 Sedan. 
 
 8. Heights south of Sedan seifmany 
 Americans. 
 
 9. Maubeuge captured by Allgj r 
 
 10. Canadians take Mons 
 ible advance. 
 
 11. Germany surrenders 1 
 takes effect at 11 A. M. 
 hoisted on Sedan front.
 
 eigu 
 
 15.- 
 Ypres, . 
 miles. 
 
 16. Bo, 
 Paris, execu 
 
 21. Guatt 
 
 22. Baron 
 German flier, i>
 
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