AMERICA FALLEN ! 
 
 THE SEQUEL TO THE EUROPEAN WAR 
 
 J-BERNARDmKER 
 
BERKELEY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 BEQUEST 
 
 OF 
 ANITA D. S. BLAKE 
 

 2 /^Lfc^F^u^ 
 
 * 
 
AMERICA FALLEN ! 
 
AMERICA FALLEN! 
 
 The Sequel to the European War 
 
 By 
 
 J. BERNARD WALKER 
 
 EDITOR OF THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 
 
 New York 
 
 Dodd, Mead and Company 
 1915 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1915. BY 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 
W3 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 BY WAY of preface to the second edition, 
 the author wishes to make it clear that "Amer 
 ica Fallen" was written with the serious pur 
 pose of emphasizing the warnings which have 
 been uttered from year to year, both by the 
 Secretary of War and the Secretary of the 
 Navy. These warnings have dwelt upon the 
 insufficiency of our naval and military forces 
 to resist attack by a first-class power; and 
 "America Fallen" was written to embody 
 these facts as to our unpreparedness in the 
 form of a connected, dramatic narrative, 
 which would bring home to the public and its 
 Congress the urgent peril of the present con 
 ditions. 
 
 Since the publication of the first edition, the 
 work has received the strong endorsement of 
 naval and military men. From the many let 
 ters received the two following have been se 
 lected for publication : 
 
 Office of 
 
 THE ADMIRAL OF THE NAVY 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 June 23, 1915. 
 My dear Mr. Walker: 
 
 I have read your excellent book, "America 
 Fallen" with a great deal of interest, but I 
 cannot say with pleasure, as it describes a state 
 of affairs which might well exist if our conn- 
 
 664 
 
try is not prepared to maintain itself at peace 
 with the world. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 George Dewey. 
 Mr. J. Bernard Walker, 
 233 Broadway, 
 New York City. 
 
 Stamford, Conn. 
 
 June 25, 1915. 
 My dear Mr. Walker: 
 
 I have read your interesting book, "Amer 
 ica Fallen." Under your reasonable suppo 
 sition of a surprise invasion of our country 
 without a previous declaration of war, the 
 military operations you have outlined are per* 
 fectly feasible, and the outcome might easily 
 be as disastrous to the United States as you 
 have so graphically pictured. 
 
 I hope your work may be read so widely 
 and seriously that its lessons, together with 
 the evident lessons of the day, will result in 
 the adoption of an intelligent policy looking 
 toward national preparedness against war. 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Matthew E. Hanna. 
 Mr. J. Bernard Walker, Editor, 
 Scientific American, 
 New York City. 
 
 [Captain Matthew E. Hanna, United States Army, the 
 writer of the above letter, is the author of "Tactical Prin 
 ciples and Problems," the standard text-book on the sub 
 ject in use in the United States Army.] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE PEACE OF GENEVA . 3 
 
 II THE COUNCIL CHAMBER AT 
 
 POTSDAM IO 
 
 III AN UNDEFENDED TREASURE 
 
 LAND 26 
 
 IV EMBARKATION OF THE GER 
 MAN ARMY . . . . 32 
 V THE GERMAN FLEET SETS SAIL 40 
 VI THE CABINET MEETING AT 
 
 WASHINGTON . . . . 47 
 VII THE RAID OF THE SUBMARINES 66 
 VIII CAPTURE OF NEW YORK HAR 
 BOR DEFENCES .... 79 
 IX INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 88 
 X THE BOMBARDMENT OF NEW 
 
 YORK 101 
 
 XI THE CAPITULATION OF NKW 
 
 YORK 117 
 
 XII THE SURRENDER OF BOSTON . 124 
 v 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XIII THE CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 134 
 
 XIV SEEKING THE GERMAN FLEP;T . 149 
 XV THE BATTLE OF THE CARIB 
 BEAN 159 
 
 XVI REAPING THE WHIRLWIND . 177 
 XVII THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG 
 
 AND PEACE . . . .191 
 
AMERICA FALLEN! 
 
THE PEACE OF GENEVA 
 
 THE Treaty of Geneva, which brought to 
 a close the European War, was signed, on 
 March i, 1916, by the peace plenipoten 
 tiaries of no less than thirteen nations. 
 
 Throughout the spring, summer, and 
 winter of 1915, the titanic conflict, en 
 larged by the entry of over 3,000,000 
 troops of Italy and the Balkan States into 
 the theater of operations, swayed to and 
 fro across the blood-soaked soil of Europe, 
 with a ferocity and slaughter which sick 
 ened even the most hardened veterans of 
 the war. Weight of numbers and a crush 
 ing superiority in artillery drove the 
 armies of the Dual Monarchy back upon 
 Budapest and Vienna, held the redoubtable 
 Von Hindenberg within his own frontiers, 
 
4 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 and rolled the German armies in France 
 and Belgium slowly back to the Rhine and 
 the Dutch frontier. 
 
 Undismayed, and fighting against heavy 
 odds with a magnificent courage and stead 
 iness, Germany took up a seemingly im 
 pregnable position on the right bank of the 
 Rhine and marshaled her forces for a 
 strictly defensive campaign in 1916. Late 
 in November of 1915, however, when by 
 common consent the warring hosts on the 
 Western battle line had apparently settled 
 down for comparative rest and recupera 
 tion during the winter months in a quasi- 
 defensive, similar to that of 1915, Hol 
 land suddenly declaring war, entrenched 
 herself heavily on the German border, and 
 a vast Allied reserve army, entering Hol 
 land by the Belgian-Dutch border, and by 
 way of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, con 
 centrated to the east of the Rhine, drove 
 down in a resistless offensive into West- 
 
THE PEACE OF GENEVA 5 
 
 phalia, taking the German army in the 
 right flank and rear, and captured the 
 great centers of artillery and ammunition 
 supply in Essen and the surrounding dis 
 tricts. 
 
 Germany, realizing that, with the Krupp 
 and other factories in the hands of the 
 enemy, the war must end automatically, ac 
 cepted the friendly offices of the Swiss 
 Government and the peace conference 
 opened at Geneva. 
 
 And thus it came about that there gath 
 ered on the shores of the placid lake the 
 most momentous conclave in all the history 
 of the world. 
 
 Contrary to universal expectation the 
 deliberations moved forward with a swift 
 ness which, considering the enormous in 
 terests at stake, appeared to a nervously 
 apprehensive world simply incredible. And 
 herein was seen the advantage, costly 
 though it had been in blood and treasure, 
 
6 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 of carrying the gigantic struggle through 
 to an absolutely decisive issue. 
 
 The earlier deliberations, relative to the 
 readjustment of boundaries and territory, 
 moved rapidly to their expected results. 
 Russia, content with the possession of Con 
 stantinople, and the extension of her fron 
 tier to the Carpathians, agreed readily to 
 the re-creation of Poland as an autonomous 
 and " buffer " state between herself and 
 Germany. To Roumania was given 
 Transylvania on the condition, arranged 
 previously to her entrance into the war, 
 that she return to Bulgaria the territory 
 wrested from her during the second Bal 
 kan War, and Servia was enlarged by the 
 acquisition of Herzegovina and Bosnia. 
 The boundary between Italy and Austria 
 was rectified so as to restore to Italy her 
 lost provinces. France, as the reward of 
 the heroic struggle of her citizen soldiery, 
 regained possession of Alsace and Lor- 
 
THE PEACE OF GENEVA 7 
 
 raine. Japan was permitted to hold Kiao- 
 Chou and acquire from China the lease 
 formerly held by Germany, a pledge being 
 given for the maintenance of the " Open 
 Door " in that country. 
 
 So far, so good; but when it came to 
 the insistence by the Allies on an indemnity 
 of fifteen billion dollars, the first install 
 ments of which were to be paid into the 
 Belgian treasury, Germany presented an 
 adamantine front. And to the demands 
 of Great Britain that the German fleet be 
 reduced by the distribution of its major 
 units among the fleets of the Allies, she 
 retorted that if the transfer of so much as 
 a ship s launch to a foreign flag were again 
 suggested, Germany would withdraw at 
 once from the convention, and " would 
 fight it out until the last mark, the last 
 loaf of bread, and the last man was 
 gone ! " 
 
 The convention was adjourned for a 
 
8 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 week; and in view of the uncompromising 
 front presented by Germany and Great 
 Britain, and the probability of a con 
 tinuance of the war to the bitter end, the 
 world was thrown into a state of profound 
 despondency and foreboding. 
 
 The next session was marked by the 
 most dramatic incident of the whole con 
 ference. No sooner had the meeting been 
 declared open than the German pleni 
 potentiary abruptly announced that he had 
 received instructions from Berlin to state 
 that, if no more mention were made of the 
 dismemberment of her fleet, Germany 
 would agree to pay an indemnity to the 
 Allies of fifteen billion dollars, and give 
 the customary pledges therefor. 
 
 The curt announcement of Germany s 
 assumption of this stupendous obligation 
 produced, even in that well-poised as 
 sembly, a barely-checked murmur of as 
 tonishment. The British plenipotentiary 
 
THE PEACE OF GENEVA 9 
 
 asked for a three days adjournment. He 
 was instructed by his home government 
 to stand firm for the disruption of the 
 German navy; but on his cabling that it 
 was the unanimous opinion of the rest of 
 the Allies, that the assumption by Ger 
 many of this enormous indebtedness would 
 so far cripple her financially as to render 
 any material increase of her naval forces 
 impossible before the existing ships were 
 becoming obsolete, he was instructed to ac 
 cept the German conditions. 
 
 And so, on the ist of March, 1916, 
 the thirteen signatures which ended the 
 greatest moral and material tragedy in the 
 whole history of the world were appended 
 and peace settled over the stricken people 
 of Europe. 
 
 And, thereafter, men said to one an 
 other when they met : " How came it about 
 that Germany so suddenly agreed to pay 
 that fifteen-billion-dollar indemnity? " 
 
II 
 
 THE COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 
 
 ON the morning of the day following the 
 signing of the Peace of Geneva, Germany s 
 plenipotentiary, Count Von Buelow, en 
 tered the Council Chamber at Potsdam 
 punctually at the hour appointed. There 
 was gloom upon his face and weariness, 
 too; for throughout the night journey to 
 Berlin, the burden of that fifteen-billion- 
 dollar indemnity, which the Kaiser had 
 authorized him to impose upon stricken 
 Germany, had lain heavily upon his mind. 
 Heavy gloom sat also upon the faces of the 
 distinguished company around the council 
 board. Von Hollweg, the Imperial Chan 
 cellor was there, and the foreign secretary, 
 Von Jagow; Falkenhayn, also, the Chief of 
 the Great General Staff, and next to him, 
 
 10 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 1 1 
 
 Von Tirpitz, creator and controlling mind 
 of the German Navy. Present also was 
 the chief of the German Secret Service, and 
 last, but not least, the Chief of the German 
 Official Press Bureau. 
 
 Von Buelow had scarcely taken his seat 
 when the murmur of desultory conversa 
 tion suddenly ceased, and every man stiff 
 ened to the habitual pose of military and 
 state decorum, as the Kaiser entered and 
 strode to the head of the table. 
 
 Was he changed by the tragic happen 
 ings of the last twenty months? Yes, and 
 no. The hair had whitened, and the stu 
 pendous burden of responsibility had 
 bowed somewhat, as well it might, the 
 shoulders upon which it had borne so 
 heavily. But there was something in that 
 flashing blue eye, in the set of the lips, and 
 in the whole atmosphere of that ever-to-be- 
 remembered face, which showed that he 
 was still a Prussian of the Prussians, and 
 
12 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 that the indomitable spirit of the latest, 
 if not the last of the Hohenzollerns, 
 burned unquenched and unquenchable in 
 the soul of the man. 
 
 Obeying the scarcely perceptible wave 
 of his hand, the distinguished company 
 seated themselves with their Kaiser for a 
 council which, as subsequent events 
 proved with lightning-like rapidity, was 
 to be big with the fate, not this time of 
 Europe, but of the great Western Hemi 
 sphere. 
 
 And thus he spoke : 
 
 u The Day has come and gone and Ger 
 many has lost! What may have been and 
 what yet may be the purposes of an in 
 scrutable Providence neither you nor I can 
 tell. This much I do know, that if the 
 sword was thrust into our hands by the 
 Almighty for our own chastisement, it is 
 for us to bow our heads in submission. 
 That God sent us into battle for our own 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 13 
 
 permanent undoing, I do not believe. Our 
 beloved Fatherland has set up before the 
 eyes of the world a kultur too broad and 
 beneficent, and the influence of that kultur 
 upon the great world outside of Germany 
 has been too profound and will prove too 
 lasting, for God ever to contemplate the 
 fall and passing away of the great Ger 
 man Empire. As surely as gold is purified 
 by fire, so surely shall Germany emerge, 
 freed of all dross and with more splendid 
 potentialities for the future, out of this 
 seven-times heated furnace of the war. 
 
 " I ask you to consider that Germany has 
 passed through this supreme ordeal with 
 her vitality unimpaired and her military 
 prestige enhanced. I will even say that 
 she is the stronger for her territorial 
 losses. Alsace and Lorraine have ever 
 been a thorn in the side of Germany 
 the one impassable barrier to cordial rela 
 tions with our great French neighbor. 
 
14 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 whose good will, as you well know, it has 
 been my earnest endeavor to win. And 
 as for our lost colonial possessions, I, as 
 well as you, have long recognized that they 
 were too widely scattered, too little co 
 ordinated, to carry much military value; 
 moreover, as outlets for our expanding 
 population, they have failed of their pur 
 pose. 
 
 " Of the crime of Kiao-Chou I will say 
 no more than that Germany never forgets ! 
 
 " Has Germany, then, no future beyond 
 the seas? She has, most assuredly, and it 
 lies (would that we had recognized the 
 fact, and recognizing, acted upon it long 
 ago) in the Western Hemisphere, in the 
 southern half of the great American con 
 tinent. South America beckons the Ger 
 man colonist and calls to us for the further 
 exploitation of its abundant natural re 
 sources by that combination of German 
 science, capital, and organization, with 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 15 
 
 which our competitors have found it im 
 possible sucessfully to compete. 
 
 " But if, by purchase or by such means 
 as the time and circumstance may demand, 
 we are to found a colony or colonies in 
 South America, it will be necessary to clear 
 the air by disposing, once and for all, of 
 that curious fiction which has come to be 
 known as the Monroe Doctrine. The 
 peculiar claims set forth therein by the 
 United States have been described as the 
 most magnificent bluff in all history and, 
 so far, the most successful. But you and 
 I know, and it is known in all the chan 
 cellories of Europe, that the bravado has 
 been successful only by our sufferance, and 
 because the great problems of Europe, 
 for which the late war has been fought, 
 called for more pressing solution. 
 
 " I have spoken of the Monroe Doc 
 trine as a fiction perhaps I had better 
 have described it as composed of many fie- 
 
1 6 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 tions, not the least among which has been 
 the belief that back of this policy lay the 
 strength of the British fleet. I know not 
 with certainty how much of truth there has 
 been in that assumption; but, thanks to the 
 work of our plenipotentiary at Geneva, an 
 understanding, secret and supplementary 
 to the general treaty, was reached with the 
 British representative, by which, in con 
 sideration of our withdrawal from the 
 Euphrates Valley (which the collapse of 
 the Turkish Empire has rendered less at 
 tractive to German enterprise than it 
 was), Great Britain pledges herself to a 
 neutral attitude on the * Monroe Doctrine, 1 
 except so far as it affects her own North 
 American possessions. 
 
 " With the fleet of Great Britain elimi 
 nated as an element in the problem, it be 
 comes possible for Germany, as I shall 
 show you later, to achieve, through the 
 instrumentality of her fleet, a feat of arms 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 1 7 
 
 which, in a swift series of operations, shall 
 restore our naval and military prestige in 
 the eyes of the German people, demolish 
 for all time the * Monroe Doctrine, and 
 transfer from .the shoulders of Germany 
 to those of the United States of America 
 the burden of the fifteen-billion-dollar 
 indemnity, imposed upon us by the Treaty 
 to which, only yesterday, we appended our 
 signature. 
 
 " I have said that the war has added to 
 our military prestige I will go further 
 and say that, in the eyes of all the world, 
 and particularly among those who follow 
 the profession of arms, our military pres 
 tige has been immeasurably increased. 
 We set out to fight the two greatest mili 
 tary powers, next to ourselves; and alone 
 we would have crushed them utterly. As 
 the event has proved, Germany and Austria 
 found themselves confronted by the em 
 battled hosts of no less than ten nations, 
 
1 8 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Nevertheless, we carried the war into the 
 enemy s territory, and, so far as Ger 
 many is concerned, we presented an im 
 pregnable wall, which was finally pierced, 
 only by overwhelming numbers, and, 
 thanks largely to our American friends, by 
 a preponderance of artillery against which 
 even the indomitable soldiers of Germany 
 could not prevail. 
 
 " It is only by the mass of the German 
 people that these things are not well un 
 derstood. We, of the ruling class, you will 
 remember, told the people, brought up 
 as they were to believe in the absolute in 
 vincibility of the German army, that within 
 a month of the declaration of war we 
 should be in Paris and within two months 
 in St. Petersburg. Instead, they have seen 
 that army arrested, held fast, and finally 
 thrown back in defeat upon its own bor 
 ders. The Socialists of Germany, work 
 ing upon the minds of a defeated and dis- 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 19 
 
 couraged people, are laying the blame for 
 this disaster upon the shoulders of the 
 very class which has made Germany what 
 it is. We, it is, who have made the Ger 
 man Empire and given to it the only sys 
 tem of government which, bearing in 
 mind the century-long training and peculiar 
 temperament of its people, can maintain it 
 intact amid the powerful and jealous na 
 tions of Europe, and carry it forward to 
 the greater future that awaits it. 
 
 "The prestige of the army and navy and 
 the confidence of the people in its ruling 
 class can be restored only by some swift 
 and brilliant feat of arms and in view 
 of the rapidly augmenting strength of the 
 Socialistic upheaval, that feat of arms can 
 not be performed too soon. 
 
 " The United States, as you are well 
 aware, has recently reaffirmed the Mon 
 roe Doctrine by definite Congressional 
 action, forbidding the acquisition by any 
 
20 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 alien power of harbors or coaling stations 
 which are located within striking distance 
 of the Panama Canal, and which might 
 serve as a base for hostile operations in 
 the Caribbean. 
 
 That, gentlemen, is a clear and bold 
 I had almost said defiant expression of 
 one of the most important among the 
 great foreign policies which the United 
 States, since the period of the Spanish 
 War, has adopted and proclaimed to the 
 world in no unmeasured terms. In addi 
 tion to the Monroe Doctrine I have but 
 to refer to their championship of the 
 * Open Door in China, to the matter of 
 the exclusion of the Asiatics, and to the 
 construction and fortification of the Pan 
 ama Canal; which great work and the 
 Caribbean, as I foresee it, in the future 
 naval wars of the New World, will be 
 what Gibraltar and the Mediterranean 
 were to the contending navies of the eight- 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 2 1 
 
 eenth century. The ultimate entry of the 
 great republic of the Western Hemisphere 
 into the field of world politics was, of 
 course, inevitable ; but that this entrance 
 would be marked by the adoption of a line 
 of policies so bold as these, involving the 
 possibility, nay the certainty, of conflict 
 sooner or later with the great naval and 
 military powers of the world, I, for one, 
 was not prepared to believe. 
 
 " Had there been in the United States 
 that intimate and well-balanced relation 
 ship and co-operation between the diplo 
 matic and the naval and military services 
 which obtains in Germany, the growth of 
 these ambitious policies would have been 
 marked by a commensurate growth of the 
 military and naval forces of the country. 
 This co-operation, as you are well aware, 
 has been conspicuously absent. The 
 United States Congress, always fearful 
 and jealous of what it is pleased to term 
 
22 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 militarism/ has failed to listen to the 
 warnings of its military advisers; with 
 the result, to-day, that it is endeavor 
 ing to support a line of first-class in 
 ternational policies with a third-class 
 navy, and with military forces which are so 
 insignificant that, in the eyes of a first- 
 class military nation, they may be regarded 
 as practically negligible. The burden of 
 responsibility for these conditions lies not 
 upon the naval and military advisers of 
 Congress, but upon Congress itself; which, 
 as our ambassadors have from time to 
 time informed us, does not hesitate to play 
 politics with matters which involve the 
 very life and death of the nation itself. 
 
 " Should the blow which Germany, in the 
 hour of her dire need, is about to strike 
 against the United States lead that great 
 country to a realization of the necessity at 
 all times for proper naval and military pre 
 paredness, the regret which I and Ger- 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 23 
 
 many feel at having to break our friendly 
 relations with a country with which we 
 have always lived in perfect amity, will be 
 tempered by the thought that, out of her 
 temporary loss she will reap a future gain 
 of inestimable benefit. 
 
 " It is noteworthy that our swift descent 
 upon that great country could not be car 
 ried out with any reasonable hope of suc 
 cess, had the United States Congress but 
 given heed to the words of its first soldier- 
 president which were spoken, if my mem 
 ory serves me well, in his first annual ad 
 dress. To be prepared for war, said 
 Washington, is one of the most effectual 
 means of preserving peace. A free people 
 ought not only to be armed, but disci 
 plined; to which end a uniform and well- 
 digested plan is requisite. 
 
 The Kaiser ceased speaking and, turn 
 ing to the Foreign Secretary, he said: 
 " Von Jagow, have you had the necessary 
 
24 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 conversations with the Danish minister, 
 and have you requested him to be pres 
 ent?" 
 
 " The conversations were eminently sat 
 isfactory, your Majesty. The Danish 
 minister is in the anteroom and awaits 
 your commands," 
 
 " Send for him," said the Kaiser. 
 
 The Danish minister entered, and he 
 was no sooner seated than the Kaiser, 
 without any preliminaries, abruptly asked, 
 What sum do you name as the purchase 
 price of the island of St. Thomas in the 
 West Indies?" 
 
 " Twenty-five million dollars, your 
 Majesty," said the minister. 
 
 "We will give you that sum for the 
 island," said the Kaiser. " The only stip 
 ulation is that you shall pledge yourself to 
 secrecy, leaving it to Germany to announce, 
 at such time as may seem best, the transfer 
 of the island. Here are the necessary 
 
COUNCIL CHAMBER AT POTSDAM 25 
 
 papers, and if you will affix your signature 
 the transfer can be consummated here and 
 
 The Danish minister smiled, took the 
 pen, signed the documents, and, after the 
 customary felicitations, withdrew. 
 
Ill 
 
 AN UNDEFENDED TREASURE LAND 
 
 GENTLEMEN," said the Kaiser, as the 
 door closed upon the retiring Danish min 
 ister, " I have frequently said to you in 
 this council chamber that the future of 
 Germany lies upon the sea. To-day, in 
 spite of the enforced inaction of our fleet 
 during the war, I hold to that doctrine 
 with unshaken conviction. Hence I did 
 not hesitate, Von Buelow, to instruct you 
 to offer fifteen billion dollars as the price 
 of redeeming the fleet. 
 
 " If you ask me, as all Germany, doubt 
 less, is asking itself at this very hour, how 
 it will be possible for our stricken Father 
 land to discharge this enormous obligation, 
 I answer that not a single pfennig of this 
 indemnity shall be raised by the taxation 
 
AN UNDEFENDED TREASURE LAND 27 
 
 of my beloved people, or be paid out of 
 their national treasury. 
 
 " Gentlemen, you may rest assured that 
 when I authorized the acceptance of the 
 indemnity, I had already determined on 
 a plan by which this stupendous sum could 
 be realized without adding to the heavy 
 obligations which the war had already im 
 posed upon us." 
 
 Springing to his feet, the Kaiser swept 
 his outstretched arm to the westward, and 
 his voice took on that incisive staccato 
 which indicates in him the deepest feeling: 
 " On yonder side of the Atlantic lies an 
 undefended treasure land, fifty billions of 
 whose one hundred and fifty billions of 
 Wealth are to be found on the seaboard, 
 and within easy reach of an expeditionary 
 force and the guns of a hostile fleet. It is 
 my purpose that the German Navy, on 
 whose behalf I have assumed the indem 
 nity, shall be made the instrument for se- 
 
28 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 curing the means of payment. It will ap 
 peal to your sense of the fitness of things 
 that the United States, which has con 
 tributed so largely to our defeat, should 
 pay the costs of this war and that the navy 
 should play the part of collector. 
 
 " If it should be said that this descent 
 upon the coasts of the United States is a 
 premeditated attack upon a friendly power, 
 our reply will be, that, though the charge 
 is technically true, ethically it is false. 
 When that neutral country turned itself 
 into an arsenal for the supply of guns, 
 ammunition, and military stores and equip 
 ment to the enemies of Germany, it be 
 came in effect an active participant in our 
 overthrow. You, Von Falkenhayn, will 
 agree with me that the military supplies 
 furnished to the Allies by the United 
 States were of more value to them than 
 several army corps. It was the preponder 
 ance of artillery, due in large measure to 
 
AN UNDEFENDED TREASURE LAND 29 
 
 the purchases from America, that was the 
 ultimate cause of our loss of the war. 
 
 "Although it was technically correct and 
 in agreement with international law, the 
 material assistance rendered by the United 
 States was, I repeat, morally wrong; and 
 in sending my fleet to exact from that 
 country both the indemnity and the cost to 
 Germany of the war, or twenty billion dol 
 lars in all, I feel that I am performing no 
 more than an act of righteous retribution. 
 
 " The object of our expedition will be 
 greatly facilitated by the fact that the 
 dreadnought fleet of the United States, 
 consisting of ten ships, is now assembled 
 off Vera Cruz the Washington Govern 
 ment being still engaged in toying with the 
 Mexican situatidn by following out its 
 futile policy of Watchful waiting. 
 Equally favorable to our plan s is the fact 
 that the bulk of the effective regular force 
 of 30,000 men in the Continental United 
 
30 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 States is gathered on the Mexican border. 
 The pre-dreadnought fleet of the United 
 States, moreover, is being paraded, just 
 now, in the various ports of the Pacific 
 Coast. 
 
 " You, Von Tirpitz, will agree with me 
 that the prolonged inactivity of our fleet 
 in the North Sea and Baltic ports has ren 
 dered it desirable that the ships be at once 
 sent to sea for a series of maneuvers on a 
 grand scale, the operations to extend over 
 a series of weeks. 
 
 " After a grand review, which I shall 
 hold off Heligoland, the fleet will be dis 
 patched to the Atlantic, ostensibly for 
 these maneuvers, but actually for a descent 
 upon the coasts of the United States. 
 
 " From a rendezvous in the western At 
 lantic, the various divisions of the main 
 fleet will move to the selected points of 
 attack in accordance with the general plans 
 formulated several years ago as the result 
 
AN UNDEFENDED TREASURE LAND 31 
 
 of our academic study of the problem of 
 an invasion of the United States. The 
 modifications necessary for the present 
 enterprise will be such as are rendered 
 necessary by the present strength of our 
 fleet, the location and strength of the 
 enemy s forces, and by the imperative de 
 mand for secrecy, dispatch, and strict co 
 ordination as to time and place. 
 
 That, gentlemen, is the plan and April 
 i, 1916, will be Der Tag! " 
 
IV 
 
 EMBARKATION OF THE GERMAN ARMY 
 
 UPON the declaration of peace, the Ger 
 man Government announced that the mili 
 tary rule and censorship which had ob 
 tained throughout the war would be ex 
 tended to cover the few weeks which 
 would be required for the demobilization 
 of the German army. It was explained 
 that this course was adopted for the double 
 purpose of facilitating the orderly return 
 of the citizen-soldiers to their homes, and 
 of delaying any publication of the strength 
 of the German army in the field at the 
 close of the war, and of its total losses, 
 until such time as the government thought 
 best to make these facts public. 
 
 On the very day, March ist, of the sign- 
 32 
 
EMBARKATION OF GERMAN ARMY 33 
 
 ing of the Peace of Geneva, and in some 
 cases even while the ink of the signatories 
 was wet upon the paper, the great fleet of 
 German merchant ships which had been in 
 terned in foreign ports during the war 
 cast loose its moorings and set sail for the 
 Fatherland. Among the first of these 
 ships to start out from her pier and head 
 for the open sea was the great Hamburg- 
 American liner Vaterland, and as she 
 and the Kaiser Wilhelm II, of the North 
 German Lloyd, followed at intervals 
 by other ships of these two companies, 
 steamed down the North River, and out 
 through the Narrows, New York wished 
 them Godspeed on their homeward voyage 
 with the flying of flags, the dipping of en 
 signs by the shipping, and the prolonged 
 roar of a thousand steam whistles and 
 sirens. 
 
 Meanwhile in Germany all public traffic 
 over the railways was suspended and the 
 
34 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 huge task of returning some seven millions 
 of men to their homes was begun. 
 
 Not all of the troops, however, were 
 thus immediately redistributed to the 
 farms and factories and business houses of 
 Germany. A picked force of 200,000 
 veterans of the first line was diverted to 
 the leading German seaports on the North 
 Sea and the Baltic, and within a few days 
 after the close of the war 20,000 of these 
 troops, with the necessary artillery and 
 equipment, had been embarked upon cer 
 tain transports of moderate size and draft, 
 which, as soon as the troops were aboard, 
 pulled out into midstream and awaited 
 further orders. In every case the troops 
 went aboard at night, and during the oper 
 ation the cordon of secrecy drawn around 
 the various naval bases and ports at which 
 the embarkation took place was tightened. 
 
 While the loaded transports were await 
 ing their orders, the troops remained be- 
 
EMBARKATION OF GERMAN ARMY 35 
 
 low deck and only the regular working 
 force of the ship was visible. One by one, 
 and from widely separated harbors, these 
 ships slipped their moorings and put to 
 sea. Some by the way of the English 
 Channel and others following the route 
 around the north coast of Scotland and 
 Ireland, they proceeded at slow speed to 
 their appointed rendezvous in the western 
 Atlantic. 
 
 Each ship sailed at sundown, and dur 
 ing the first night out the color and band 
 ing of its smokestacks were changed to 
 that of some foreign ship of similar size 
 and contour, the corresponding foreign flag 
 being flown. Those that took the south 
 erly route regulated their speed so as to 
 pass through the straits of Dover at night; 
 those that laid their course around the 
 north of Scotland maintained a good off 
 ing, beyond signaling distance of the 
 coast guard and signal stations. As soon 
 
36 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 as it was well clear of the Channel and 
 the Irish coast, each ship, avoiding the 
 regular sailing routes, laid its course to the 
 westward. 
 
 Meanwhile the work of transforming 
 the largest and fastest of the German 
 ocean liners, headed by the Imperator 
 and her recently-completed sister ship, the 
 new Bismarck, into transports was being 
 rushed day and night by the largest work 
 ing force that could be crowded upon their 
 decks. The commodious, first-class state 
 rooms were stripped of their furniture 
 and galvanized-pipe folding berths were 
 fitted on each wall. The spacious saloons, 
 restaurants, palm gardens, etc., were sim 
 ilarly denuded of their furnishings and 
 fitted with berths. The wide promenade 
 decks were inclosed by canvas and fitted 
 with berthing accommodation. So vast is 
 the space available on the nine decks and 
 in the holds of these ships, which in peace 
 
EMBARKATION OF GERMAN ARMY 37 
 
 time can carry 5,000 souls, that when 
 the alterations were completed, it was 
 found that each of the three ships of the 
 Imperator class could carry 10,000 troops 
 with their full equipment. 
 
 The work of transforming the liners 
 that had been interned in the United 
 States began on the day they left New 
 York, and they were stripped and ready 
 for the shipyard workmen by the time, 
 reven days later, they reached the home 
 ports. With such efficiency and dispatch 
 was this work carried through that the 
 second expeditionary force of 50,000 men 
 was embarked and had sailed on or before 
 the 28th of March. The transports 
 carrying this force were vessels of : c rom 
 20 to 23 knots speed. Some of them sailed 
 boldly on advertised schedules, direct for 
 New York; the rest slipped away by night, 
 adopting the same ruses and secrecy as the 
 transports of the first expedition. They 
 
38 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 sailed at intervals during the last two 
 weeks of March, and the rate of steaming 
 was so adjusted as to bring the whole ex 
 pedition to New York, Boston, and Wash 
 ington between the ist and 3d of April. 
 
 The third army of 130,000 men, in 
 transports of from 14 to 19 knots speed 
 set sail on April ist, the faster ships of 
 the George Washington and America type 
 pushing on with all speed, and the slower 
 ships proceeding as a fleet under convoy 
 of the ten battleships of the Wittlesbach 
 and Kaiser Wilhelm II. classes. 
 
 And so it came about that, by employ 
 ing the full force of every naval and pri 
 vate shipyard in the country, Germany, 
 within the month, had embarked upon the 
 seas an army of invasion composed of 
 200,000 of the picked veteran troops of 
 the war, completely equipped with artil 
 lery, transport, and supplies. 
 
 And, thanks to the tightening of the 
 
EMBARKATION OF GERMAN ARMY 39 
 
 censorship and the patriotic silence of the 
 shipyard employees, not a whisper of what 
 was going on escaped to the outside world; 
 until on April ist the third expeditionary 
 force, convoyed by battleships, steamed 
 boldly out into the North Sea and laid its 
 course by way of the English Channel for 
 the coasts of America. 
 
THE GERMAN FLEET SETS SAIL 
 
 ON March I5th, there was published in 
 the leading Berlin papers, and repeated 
 throughout the world, the following official 
 announcement: "The restoration of peace, 
 the return of our valiant army, and the 
 fact that our navy has emerged from the 
 war with its strength unimpaired, will be 
 celebrated by a grand review of the whole 
 German fleet which will be held in the 
 Bight of Heligoland, in the presence of 
 the Kaiser. At the conclusion of the re 
 view, in order to afford the fleet an oppor 
 tunity, on an extended scale, for those ex 
 ercises on the high seas which have been 
 denied to it because of the overwhelming 
 strength of the enemy, it will set sail for 
 
 a series of grand maneuvers. 
 4 o 
 
THE GERMAN FLEET SETS SAIL 41 
 
 The operations will be based upon the 
 theory that a powerful enemy s fleet is ap 
 proaching the coast of Europe from the 
 westward for the purpose of finding, and, 
 if possible, destroying the German fleet. 
 Early information of this movement hav 
 ing reached the Admiralty, our fleet has 
 been dispatched to seek out and, if pos 
 sible, destroy the enemy (which has been 
 reported as somewhere in the mid-At 
 lantic) , before he shall have reached Euro 
 pean waters. Our forces will be about 
 equally divided into the attacking, or Red 
 fleet, and the defending, or Blue fleet. Im 
 mediately after the review, the Red fleet 
 will steam to the westward, and when it 
 has reached a designated position, will 
 commence its approach. Thirty-six hours 
 later the defending, or Blue fleet will be 
 dispatched to meet the enemy." 
 
 The morning of March i8th revealed, 
 drawn up under the lee of Heligoland, the 
 
42 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 greatest naval force that had ever assem 
 bled under the German flag. Anchored 
 in five long parallel lines, it covered many 
 square miles of the calm waters of the 
 Bight; and the ships, glistening in a new 
 coat of paint, showed up, under the bril 
 liant sun of that bright spring morning, 
 with all the picturesqueness and air of 
 gaiety befitting a great national pageant. 
 
 The first line, six miles in length, was 
 made up of dreadnoughts and battle- 
 cruisers, the second line of pre-dread- 
 nought battleships, the third of armored 
 cruisers and light cruisers, the fourth of 
 destroyers and seagoing submarines, and 
 the fifth of the auxiliaries. 
 
 Promptly at the hour of twelve, the 
 Kaiser, from the bridge of the Hohen- 
 zollern, opened the review, and as he 
 made his way up and down those far-flung 
 lines, ship after ship thundered forth its 
 volleys in honor of the man to whom, 
 
THE GERMAN FLEET SETS SAIL 43 
 
 despite the recent reverses of Germany, 
 the hearts of his people turned with faith 
 unshaken. 
 
 After the Hohenzollern had made the 
 circuit of the fleet, slue steamed a couple 
 of miles to the westward, and anchored. 
 Then the ships of the Red fleet, composed 
 of the eight dreadnoughts of the Thurin- 
 gen and Nassau classes, the battle-cruisers, 
 twelve light cruisers, and thirty seagoing 
 destroyers, weighed anchor and saluted the 
 Kaiser, as they steamed into the North 
 Sea on their way to the English Channel. 
 
 When the flagship had passed the 
 Hohenzollern, the admiral in command 
 of the fleet opened his sealed orders, which 
 read as follows: " As soon as it is clear of 
 the English Channel, the Red fleet, avoid 
 ing the customary steamship routes, will 
 proceed at slow speed to the Caribbean, 
 reaching a position 50 miles to the south 
 of the island of Hayti by April 5th. Here 
 
44 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 the Red fleet will await further orders, 
 which will reach it in due course by wire 
 less from the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Blue fleet." 
 
 Thirty-six hours after the sailing of 
 the Red fleet the Blue fleet set sail. It 
 consisted of the nine dreadnoughts of 
 the Koenig and Kaiser classes, the ar 
 mored cruisers, twelve light cruisers of 23 
 to 27 knots speed, forty destroyers, and 
 the whole of the thirty seagoing sub 
 marines. The sealed orders of the ad 
 miral read as follows: "After clearing the 
 English Channel, the Blue fleet will pro 
 ceed on a course midway between the fre 
 quented lines of steamship travel, until it 
 reaches the thirty-fifth parallel. It will 
 then proceed due west until it reaches a 
 point of rendezvous 250 miles from the 
 coast of the United States. Here it will 
 meet a fleet of transports carrying 20,000 
 troops. At the point of rendezvous the 
 
THE GERMAN FLEET SETS SAIL 45 
 
 six groups of submarines will replenish 
 their fuel tanks, and proceed to the respec 
 tive points of attack assigned to them at 
 such speeds as to bring them off the various 
 harbors at sundown on the night of March 
 3 1 st. During the night they will enter, 
 assume favorable positions for attack, 
 and, where conditions allow, will go to 
 sleep on the bottom until the dawn of 
 April ist. 
 
 "The transports willproceedin scattered 
 formation from the rendezvous to the 
 various points of landing, steaming at such 
 a speed that they will be off the coast and 
 within two hours steaming of the landing 
 places at sundown on March 3ist. 
 
 The battleship divisions will reach the 
 entrance to the harbors of the cities which 
 they are to lay under tribute at dawn on 
 April i st. They will remain outside the 
 extreme range of the coast fortifications 
 guns, and at a signal that our landing 
 
46 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 forces have possession of the forts, they 
 will enter and take position for bombard 
 ment of the cities." 
 
 And so, on March 20, 1916, in the 
 dark of a moonless night, the last ship of 
 the greatest naval raid ever planned in the 
 history of the world headed silently from 
 the Bight of Heligoland for the North 
 Sea and the coast of North America ! 
 
VI 
 
 THE CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 
 
 ON the morning of March 2Oth, there ap 
 peared in the morning papers of the United 
 States a dispatch from Berlin, stating that 
 negotiations were believed to be under way 
 between the governments of Germany and 
 Denmark, having in view the purchase by 
 Germany of the Danish island of St. 
 Thomas in the West Indies. " This move 
 ment," read the dispatch, " is the first step 
 in a policy of the German Empire of ac 
 quiring, by purchase, certain coaling and re 
 fitting stations for the use of its great 
 merchant marine, whose activities, released 
 by the Peace of Geneva, are once more in 
 full swing. Germany realizes and accepts 
 the new conditions which have been brought 
 about by the great war. For the future, 
 
 47 
 
48 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 the resources, energy, and skill of the Ger 
 man people will be directed less to naval 
 and military achievements and more than 
 ever to the upbuilding and enlargement of 
 her internal industries, the multiplication 
 of the ships of her merchant marine, and 
 the greater extension of her trade and 
 commerce in all the countries of the 
 world." 
 
 On the following morning there ap 
 peared in one of the leading New York 
 dailies the following letter from Washing 
 ton: " Had not yesterday s dispatch from 
 Berlin, stating that negotiations were under 
 way for the purchase by Germany of the 
 Danish West Indian Island of St. Thomas, 
 been given such unusually widespread pub 
 licity, the matter would not have attracted 
 the serious attention which is being devoted 
 to it in Washington. It is the general im 
 pression in well-informed circles in this city 
 that the tone of the dispatch and its world- 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 49 
 
 wide circulation bear the earmarks of the 
 German official press bureau. Were it not 
 for this, its moderate and pacific tone would 
 carry more conviction. Be that as it may, 
 the least that can be done is to take the as 
 surances of Germany s new point of view as 
 to her destiny at their face value. The 
 serious side of this matter for the Govern 
 ment of the United States, however, is not 
 the question as to what will be Germany s 
 future world policy, so much as the fact that 
 the suggested purchase of St. Thomas, 
 should it take place, would be a broad viola 
 tion of the principles of the Monroe Doc 
 trine, and a very direct challenge to the 
 reaffirmation by Congress of that Doc 
 trine, with particular respect to the waters 
 and, territory adjacent to the Panama 
 Canal and therefore within easy striking 
 distance of the same. It is stated in well- 
 informed quarters that our foreign office 
 has lost no time in directing its Ambassa- 
 
50 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 dor in Berlin to make the necessary official 
 inquiry and, if necessary, follow it up with 
 the strongest representations to the Ger 
 man Government." 
 
 On March 24th the representatives of 
 the leading papers throughout the country 
 were invited to meet the Secretary of State, 
 who wished to make a communication on the 
 subject of St. Thomas. They found him 
 in the very best of humor, and he stated 
 that he was pleased to tell them, that the 
 slight cloud which had settled down upon 
 the mutual relations of the United States 
 and Germany had been completely dis 
 pelled by the announcement of the Ger 
 man Government, that no negotiations of 
 any kind whatsoever were in progress for 
 the purchase of the Danish West India 
 Island of St. Thomas. 
 
 One week later the early editions of the 
 evening papers of March 3ist displayed in 
 full-face headlines the news, that the Ger- 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 5 1 
 
 man Government had announced that it had 
 purchased St. Thomas and that it proposed 
 to make of it one of the strongest naval 
 bases in the world. 
 
 At the call of the President, a meeting of 
 the Cabinet convened that night at the 
 White House at 9 P.M. In view of the 
 crisis, the members of the Cabinet arrived 
 early, eager to ascertain from the Secretary 
 o.f State the facts of the grave diplomatic 
 situation. From him they learned, infor 
 mally, that, having returned late that after 
 noon from lecturing in the West on " The 
 Perils of Militarism," he was able to find 
 time only for brief interviews with the Ger 
 man and the British Ambassadors. The 
 German Ambassador had informed him 
 that the dispatch published in the afternoon 
 papers was essentially correct. 
 
 The President entered, seated himself, 
 and at once asked the Secretary of State to 
 give the latest information available from 
 
52 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 his department. " I have to inform you, 
 sir, that the German Ambassador practi 
 cally confirms the Berlin dispatch, and that, 
 in my opinion, the island of St. Thomas is 
 at this hour the property of the German 
 Government." 
 
 " In that case, gentlemen," said the 
 President, " the situation is free from any 
 ambiguity. By the purchase of St. Thomas, 
 in the face of our recent protest, Germany 
 challenges one of the most vital policies of 
 the United States. The issues are clean- 
 cut; either Germany must abrogate this sale, 
 or we must abandon the Monroe Doc 
 trine, or the matter must be submitted to 
 the test of war." 
 
 " I am for peace," said the Secretary of 
 the Navy; u but I believe that our answer 
 to this affront should be a sharp ultimatum 
 offering to Germany the alternative of a 
 return of St. Thomas to Denmark or 
 war! Germany will never dare to fight us 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 53 
 
 over the Monroe Doctrine ; for she 
 knows that back of that policy lies not 
 only our own battle-fleet but that of Great 
 Britain as well." 
 
 " Can the Secretary of State give us any 
 definite assurance as to Great Britain s at 
 titude? " asked the President. 
 
 " I had a conversation with the British 
 Ambassador before coming to this meet 
 ing, relative to the attitude of Great Britain 
 in the event of hostilities. He stated that 
 he was advised by his government that the 
 failure of the United States Government 
 to make any protest against the violation of 
 Belgian neutrality, or against the strewing 
 of mines on the high seas, the bombardment 
 of peaceful villages and undefended coast 
 towns, and other violations of the humani 
 tarian laws of war, had so far estranged the 
 sympathies of the British nation that the 
 most its government could pledge itself to, 
 in the event of our becoming embroiled with 
 
54 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Germany over the Monroe Doctrine/ 
 was an attitude of strict neutrality." 
 
 Of all the men around that board the 
 President alone seemed to realize the tre 
 mendous significance of this announce 
 ment. He bowed his head in deep thought, 
 oblivious, for the time, to the discussion 
 among the members as to whether Ger 
 many, exhausted as she must be by the ter 
 rific struggle of the past twenty months, 
 would be willing and able to take up arms 
 almost before she had laid them down. 
 
 Suddenly, and with powerful emphasis, 
 the President said: 
 
 " Gentlemen, would it not be more sane 
 and more consistent with the dignity of the 
 Cabinet if, instead of indulging in specula 
 tion as to whether Germany would fight, we 
 find out definitely whether we are in a posi 
 tion to do so ourselves." Turning to the 
 Secretary of War and the Secretary of the 
 Navy, he said: "Send for the Chief of 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 5 5 
 
 Staff of the Army and the President of the 
 General Board of the Navy, and I will ask 
 for their expert opinion as to our prepared 
 ness for a conflict with the greatest mili 
 tary and second greatest naval power in 
 the world." 
 
 Immediately upon their entrance the 
 President said: " I have asked your attend 
 ance here, so that I may inform you that 
 the Secretary of State has learned that the 
 purchase of St. Thomas by Germany has 
 been accomplished, and that the British 
 Government has made it clear that, in the 
 event of war over this violation of the 
 1 Monroe Doctrine, it can pledge itself 
 only to an attitude of strict neutrality. The 
 questions have arisen, first, as to whether 
 Germany, in view of her defeat in the re 
 cent struggle, would be willing to risk an 
 other war; and, second, as to whether, if 
 she did, our naval and military forces are 
 in such a condition of strength and pre- 
 
56 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 paredness as to warrant our entertaining a 
 reasonable hope of carrying it to a suc 
 cessful issue." 
 
 The first to reply was the President of 
 the General Board of the Navy : " In a crisis 
 so serious as this I presume, Mr. President, 
 that you wish me to speak with absolute 
 candor and without reserve. There is no 
 reason to suppose that Germany has 
 emerged from this war exhausted and 
 broken down. Her main fleet having re 
 mained within her ports throughout the 
 war, is not only intact, but has been in 
 creased by the addition of several dread 
 noughts of the most modern design. Some 
 light cruisers also have been added, to 
 gether with a considerable number of sea 
 going destroyers and submarines of the 
 largest and latest type. So far as her main 
 fleet is concerned, there can be no doubt 
 that it is stronger and even better prepared 
 for battle than it was at the commencement 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 57 
 
 of the late war. With the menace of the 
 British fleet removed, Germany is free to 
 concentrate on our coast the whole strength 
 of her navy. The General Board has rea 
 son to believe that Germany several years 
 ago worked out a plan for the invasion of 
 the United States, and it is believed also 
 that, in the event of war, she would strike at 
 once with all her available forces. It would 
 be her object to overwhelm our fleet, ob 
 tain command of the sea, and land an ex 
 peditionary force, say, of 150,000 to 200,- 
 ooo men, which, if our fleet were destroyed, 
 she would be able to accomplish within ten 
 or twelve days from the commencement of 
 hostilities. The decisive action would have 
 to be fought between the dreadnought fleets 
 of the two nations, and, if we gave battle, 
 we should find ourselves opposed by a fight 
 ing line of double the strength of our own; 
 for Germany can oppose twenty dread 
 noughts to our ten, and judging from such 
 
58 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 naval actions as were fought in the late 
 war, in which both the gunnery and the 
 seamanship of the Germans were excellent, 
 there can be little doubt that with such 
 great odds against us, we should be de 
 feated. Had the Congress in past years 
 seen fit to listen to the warnings of the 
 Board, and built up a fleet sufficient for the 
 defence of the United States, we should 
 have been prepared at this hour to match 
 ship with ship and gun with gun. 
 
 " The seriousness of the situation is ag 
 gravated by the fact that all of the ships of 
 our pre-dreadnought classes in commission 
 are now distributed in the various ports of 
 the Pacific Coast, and therefore will not be 
 available to meet that swift attack which 
 the enemy would undoubtedly make imme 
 diately upon the declaration of war. This 
 division of the fleet was opposed to the very 
 first principles of naval strategy, and it 
 was done against the strongest protest of 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 59 
 
 this Board, backed by the judgment of 
 every naval officer of the service. Mr. 
 President, I have answered your question, 
 and I repeat, first, that the German Navy is 
 in a state of the highest preparedness and 
 efficiency; secondly, that despite the excel 
 lence of our ships and the high quality of 
 our officers and men, the relative weakness 
 of our navy and the wide dispersion of its 
 forces, to say nothing of the shortage of 
 men and officers and lack of adequate re 
 serves, would render a successful issue to 
 the war practically impossible." 
 
 The President of the General Board took 
 his seat amid a profound silence. 
 
 He was followed by the Chief of Staff 
 of the Army, who said: " In answer to 
 your first question, Mr. President, as to 
 whether Germany, having emerged from a 
 great war, would be ready to undertake an 
 other, I have this to say: that all history 
 teaches us that a nation never fights more 
 
60 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 readily and valiantly than immediately 
 after the close of a war in which it was 
 involved. In proof of this I would call 
 your attention to the fact that the North 
 showed no signs of being exhausted by the 
 Civil War in the sense of being unready 
 for further military effort. On the con 
 trary, it was the possession of a great army 
 of well-trained and veteran soldiers, amply 
 equipped and provided with all the muni 
 tions of war, that enabled her to assume an 
 uncompromising attitude to France over the 
 Mexican difficulty. So far from exhausting 
 Russia, the unsuccessful war which that 
 country waged against Japan redounded 
 greatly to her benefit; so much so, that 
 when the recent war opened, the morale of 
 her army was higher than ever before, and 
 in equipment, arms, and organization she 
 proved to be one of the great surprises of 
 that conflict. Even the little kingdom of 
 Servia fought first Turkey, then Bulgaria, 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 61 
 
 and finally, and with scarcely a spell of rest, 
 she waged the most remarkable campaign 
 of her history against a first-class military 
 power. 
 
 " In the event of the probable defeat of 
 our fleet due to scattered forces and the 
 overwhelming strength of the enemy, Ger 
 many would at once commence the invasion 
 of our territory. And the question which I 
 have been called here to answer is: what 
 would be our chances of successfully resist 
 ing such an invasion and driving the enemy 
 back to the sea? 
 
 We have at the present hour, within 
 the Continental United States, only about 
 30,000 men of the regular army, including 
 mobile troops, cavalry, infantry, and field 
 artillery; and we have about 16,000 men 
 manning the coast defences, which is about 
 one-half the necessary number. In the 
 militia of the United States, which totals 
 127,000 men and officers- on paper, only 
 
62 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 104,000 are actually mustered. Of these 
 104,000, only some 60,000 are ready for 
 immediate service in the field; so that our 
 total forces in the United States consist of 
 16,000 men scattered in the coast defences 
 throughout our Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific 
 Coast fortifications, which would not be 
 available for service in the field; 30,000 
 regulars and 60,000 militia. That is to 
 say, our mobile troops capable of taking 
 the field number only 90,000 men, and 
 these, we must remember, are scattered 
 from Maine to California and from Canada 
 to the Gulf. 
 
 " In the event of invasion by Germany in 
 great force, with a thoroughly equipped 
 army provided with the full complement of 
 field-guns, howitzers, and other necessary 
 equipment, the first contingent of which 
 expeditionary force might readily amount to 
 150,000 veterans of the late war, where 
 should we stand? It would be an optimistic 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 63 
 
 forecast for me to say that we could concen 
 trate these 90,000 men at any point on the 
 Atlantic Coast within thirty days of the 
 declaration of war. And when the con 
 centration had been made, the troops would 
 be without properly trained artillery and 
 cavalry organization, and without ammuni 
 tion trains; they would be hastily organized 
 and assembled for the first time in large 
 bodies; they would be unprepared to act 
 effectively as an army; and should these 
 troops be defeated, the country would have 
 back of them practically no reserve of men 
 and supplies. There is a shortage of men 
 and guns in the regular field artillery; we 
 possess less than half the needed militia 
 field batteries; and it would require three 
 months of training to render what we have 
 efficient. 
 
 " Practically all of our coast fortifica 
 tions can be taken in reverse. Many of them 
 to-day are manned only by a few com- 
 
64 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 panics, and it would be possible for the 
 enemy, by a night landing and surprise at 
 tack, to capture "the fortifications from the 
 rear, thus rendering it possible for the en 
 emy s fleet to enter our harbors and lay 
 our seacoast cities under tribute. With our 
 seacoast cities and fortifications in the 
 hands of the enemy, it would be possible 
 for him, having at hand unlimited trans 
 port, a vast army, and complete equipment, 
 to land in the first week of the war suffi 
 cient forces to capture all the arsenals, am 
 munition, supplies, and factories for the 
 manufacture of guns, rifles, and powder, 
 long before our widely-scattered mobile 
 army of 30,000 regulars and 60,000 militia 
 could be brought together, effectively to 
 stay his progress. Modern wars, Mr. 
 President, are machine-made, and without 
 the proper machinery war cannot be waged. 
 You, Mr. Secretary of State, have recently 
 affirmed that such is the patriotism of our 
 
CABINET MEETING AT WASHINGTON 65 
 
 people, that you could raise an army of one 
 million men between sun and sun; but I tell 
 you that your million men, without the 
 proper equipment of artillery and the other 
 machinery of war, would be but a mob one 
 million strong. Before I take my seat, Mr. 
 President, I shall make so bold as to suggest 
 to you in this hour of great peril (in which 
 I see you actually facing the very crisis and 
 conditions against which my predecessors in 
 office have warned the country and its Con 
 gress for many years past) , that the naval, 
 and particularly the military situation, is 
 such that, in his dealings with the German 
 Government, it would be advisable that 
 your Secretary of State should put on kid 
 gloves of the very softest texture." 
 
 And the Secretary of State did so. 
 
 But, six hours after that Cabinet meeting 
 closed, Germany declared war on the 
 United States, 
 
VII 
 
 THE RAID OF THE SUBMARINES 
 
 REPORT from the Commander of the Ger 
 man Submarine U-4O to the Commander- 
 in-Chief of the Imperial German Expedi 
 tionary Fleet at New York: 
 
 Flagship U-4O, 
 New York, 
 
 April i, 1916. 
 Commander-in-Chief, Imperial German 
 
 Expeditionary Fleet, New York. 
 
 Sir: I have the honor to report that, 
 following your instructions, my flotilla, con 
 sisting of U-4O, U-4i, and U-42, made 
 the entrance to the Ambrose Channel, 
 Port of New York, on the evening of 
 March 31, shortly after n P.M. No 
 moon, sky overcast. Proceeded at surface 
 at half speed, in line ahead; interval three 
 
 66 
 
THE RAID OF THE SUBMARINES 67 
 
 hundred yards; leading boats showing 
 hooded lights astern to preserve station. 
 
 At entrance to the Narrows flotilla sub 
 merged and proceeded at one-third speed, 
 reaching New York Navy Yard at 4:30 
 A.M., April i st. 
 
 I submit a rough sketch showing the 
 position of the drydocks and of the 
 enemy s vessels, and also the course fol 
 lowed by the boats of my flotilla. 
 
 In a conference held aboard our ten 
 der before reaching the American coast, I 
 arranged that U-4O should attack the sub 
 marines and destroyers; that U-4I should 
 torpedo the caisson gate of drydock A; 
 and that U-42 should destroy the gate of 
 drydock B. Each boat was to do such 
 other damage as the conditions would per 
 mit. U-4O and U-4I were to enter in line 
 ahead, and make the circuit of the basin; 
 U-42 was to back in and take position in 
 the middle of the basin. 
 
68 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Flagship U-4O led the way in at 4:45 
 A.M. Sighted dreadnought at C, a battle 
 ship in drydock A, three submarines 
 abreast at D, three destroyers at E, two 
 destroyers alongside pier at F, and a 
 battleship at G. On approaching the end 
 of basin, U-4O turned hard to port, stop 
 ping port motor, and as the enemy sub 
 marines and destroyers came on the bear 
 ing (See No. i on plan) discharged my 
 two bow torpedoes. Secured effective 
 hits. As I swung around, brought stern 
 tubes to bear on two destroyers at Pier F 
 (No. 2) and scored hits with two torpe 
 does. Then brought battleship on the 
 bearing (No. 3), and struck her on port 
 bow. 
 
 U-4I, following 200 yards astern, 
 swung around in my wake, and, upon 
 bringing gate of Dock A on the bearing, 
 discharged stern tubes and made a fair 
 hit (No. 4). To avoid being swept into 
 
Cv> 
 
 ^ 
 
 57- 
 
 x 
 
 >?/ 
 
 ,<N 
 
 ---x-3e 
 
 A>-^ ^^2 
 
 SKETCH SHOWING COURSE OF SUBMARINES IN THE 
 ATTACK ON BROOKLYN NAVY YARD. 
 
70 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 the dock by rush of water, port motor was 
 started; and, although U-4I was drawn 
 back almost to the entrance, she held her 
 own, and turning to port followed me out 
 of the basin. 
 
 Looking through periscope, I could see 
 the battleship (since ascertained to be the 
 Michigan), first lifted by the stern, then 
 swung around and swept to the inner 
 end of the dock. In my opinion, the ship 
 must be badly wrecked. 
 
 Meanwhile U-42 had backed into the 
 basin, and maneuvering so as to bring her 
 stern tubes to bear, made a fair hit on the 
 gate of Drydock B. Coming to the sur 
 face for better vision, her commander re 
 ports that, over the crest of the wave that 
 rushed into the dock, he was able to see 
 four submarines picked up from the floor 
 of the dock and dashed against its inner 
 end. As U-42 was leaving the basin, she 
 turned to starboard, bringing her stern 
 
THE RAID OF THE SUBMARINES 71 
 
 tubes to bear on a big dreadnought, since 
 ascertained to be the Pennsylvania, that 
 was completing construction alongside 
 wharf at C, and struck her with two tor 
 pedoes, one amidships and another on the 
 bow. As we passed down the East River, 
 we could see by the inclination of her masts 
 that she was heeling rapidly to starboard. 
 She is probably now on the bottom. 
 
 Our work being thus completed, we 
 came to the surface, proceeded to the 
 upper bay and joined the destroyer flotilla, 
 as directed. 
 
 I wish to commend to your favorable 
 attention the excellent work of my own 
 crew and of the commanders and crews of 
 U-4I and U-42, who carried out their in 
 structions with great dash and precision 
 and with complete success. 
 
 I have the honor to be 
 
 Yours obediently, 
 R. SCHLESINGER, LIEUTENANT, I. G. N. 
 
72 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Report from Commander W. Neumann 
 of the Submarine U-3O to the Commander- 
 in-Chief of the German Fleet at New 
 York: 
 
 Flagship U-3O, 
 Limon Bay, 
 
 Panama Canal Zone, 
 
 April i, 1916. 
 
 Commander-in-Chief, Imperial German 
 Expeditionary Fleet, New York. 
 Sir: I have the honor to report, that 
 following your instructions, my flotilla, 
 consisting of U-3O, U-3I, U-32, reached 
 Limon Bay, Panama Canal Zone, at night 
 fall, March 3ist, convoyed by the light 
 cruiser Rostock. At 3 A.M., April ist, pro 
 ceeded at the surface, under electric 
 motors, through the dredged entrance to 
 the canal, laying our course by the canal 
 range lights, which we found to be ex 
 cellently placed. When off Cristobal, 
 
THE RAID OF THE SUBMARINES 73 
 
 dropped U-32 for its attack on enemy sub 
 marine flotilla and proceeded cautiously. 
 It had previously been arranged that U-3O 
 should attack the easterly and U-3I the 
 westerly gates. Sighted Gatun locks; and, 
 as it was necessary to destroy both outer 
 gate and inner guard gate, U-3O and U-3i 
 each fired the four bow torpedoes in quick 
 succession. To make sure of destroying 
 the inner (guard) gates, we turned through 
 1 80 degrees so as to bring our stern tubes 
 to bear, when each boat fired two more 
 torpedoes.* 
 
 We then rose to the surface, coupled 
 up engines, and drove ahead at 18 knots. 
 As I approached Cristobal, saw several 
 columns of water rise from the docks, in 
 dicating that U-3i was attacking the 
 
 *The Panama Canal being wrecked and incapa 
 ble of operation, the pre-dreadnought fleet of the 
 U. S. Navy was now separated by 14,000 miles of 
 water from its main fleet. 
 
74 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 enemy submarine flotilla of five boats. 
 Passing the docks, I slowed down, and 
 awaited U-32, which I presently saw re 
 turning full speed at the surface, having 
 sunk the enemy as they lay moored at the 
 dock. Rejoined light cruiser Rostock, 
 whose commander informed me that, an 
 hour before dawn, a landing party had 
 surprised and captured the operating staff 
 of the new long-distance radio plant at 
 Colon, and after notifying Sayville Station 
 in our cipher of the capture, had de 
 stroyed the electrical plant, and returned 
 to the ship. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Yours obediently, 
 
 W. NEUMANN, LIEUTENANT, I. G. N. 
 
 Report in cipher from long-distance 
 naval radio station at Key West (cap 
 tured), by way of Sayville Station (cap 
 tured), to the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 
THE RAID OF THE SUBMARINES 75 
 
 German Expeditionary Fleet at New 
 York: 
 
 Light Cruiser, Graudenz, 
 
 Key West, 
 April i, 1916. 
 
 Commander-in-Chief, Imperial German 
 Fleet, New York. 
 
 Surprise attack by landing party on Key 
 West successful. Long-distance radio 
 plant captured. Losses small, strong re- 
 enforcements from transport now being 
 landed. Submarine attack followed cap 
 ture of radio. 
 
 Shall send message in the U. S. Navy 
 secret code, to the commander-in-chief of 
 the United States North Atlantic Fleet at 
 Vera Cruz tomorrow.* 
 
 LINK, CAPTAIN, I. G. N. 
 
 *The message sent by Captain Link was as fol 
 lows: "Germany has declared war on the United 
 States. Have information, German advance fleet is 
 following southern course for Caribbean; second 
 fleet on northern course for our Atlantic Coast. 
 
76 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Wireless report, via Sayville (captured), 
 to the Admiralty, German Imperial Navy, 
 Berlin. 
 
 Imperial German Expeditionary Fleet, 
 
 New York, 
 8 A.M., April i, 1916. 
 ADMIRALTY, Berlin. 
 
 Favored by calm weather, our subma 
 rine attack, which took place in the dusk of 
 early dawn, as planned, was everywhere 
 successful. At Boston, New York, Norfolk, 
 Charleston, Pensacola, and Cristobal, Pan 
 ama, the surprise was so complete, that all 
 enemy destroyers and submarines at those 
 points were either sunk or completely dis- 
 
 Proceed full speed for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to 
 take on coal and supplies. Find and destroy weaker 
 advance German fleet. Send disabled ships to 
 Hampton Roads, and proceed to Canal Zone, Pan 
 ama. Under cover of guns of fortifications, await 
 arrival of Third and Fourth Divisions of Atlantic 
 Fleet from Pacific, and proceed north in full 
 strength to engage second fleet of enemy." 
 
THE RAID OF THE SUBMARINES 77 
 
 abled. The gates at the Atlantic end of 
 the Gatun locks have been torpedoed, and 
 the Panama Canal put out of commission. 
 Information as to success at Panama 
 reached me from landing force at Colon, 
 which, after sending messages, destroyed 
 long-distance radio station there. An 
 other landing force captured long-dis 
 tance radio at Key West and sent 
 U. S. secret code message, directing U. S. 
 Atlantic fleet proceed Vera Cruz to Guan- 
 tanamo. Information regarding success at 
 Boston, Norfolk, Charleston, and Pensa- 
 cola was relayed to me by cruisers stationed 
 along coast for that purpose. Sayville Sta 
 tion captured early this A.M. by motorcycle 
 corps from landing force at New York. 
 My earlier report has given particulars of 
 the successful landing and operations of ex 
 peditionary force at this city. The situa 
 tion is developing very favorably. 
 
 During voyage of fleet across Atlantic, 
 
78 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 sighted only few ships, whose wireless was 
 put out of commission by our destroyers 
 with promise of full reparation. 
 BUCHNER, 
 
 Commander in-ChUf t 
 Imperial German Expeditionary Fleet. 
 
VIII 
 
 CAPTURE OF NEW YORK HARBOR 
 DEFENCES 
 
 SHORTLY before midnight, March 31, 
 1916, a couple of destroyers, there being 
 no moon, the sky overcast, and the night 
 intensely dark, sped swiftly through the 
 Ambrose Channel, and turning into the old 
 Swash Channel, cut the cable connecting 
 Sandy Hook with New York. While this 
 was being done, a boat was sent ashore 
 to cut the telegraph and telephone lines 
 between Sandy Hook and Seabright. 
 Soon afterwards two transports of mod 
 erate draught with all lights out, follow 
 ing the same course, headed in towards 
 the Shrewsbury River as far as the depth 
 of water would allow. The ships boats, 
 
 79 
 
8o AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 loaded with troops, were already swung 
 out on the davits ; and, within half an hour, 
 a force of 1,000 men was landed about 
 two miles below the fort and began its 
 silent march over the sandy neck of the 
 isthmus. As it approached the buildings 
 at the southern extremity of the fort, the 
 force was divided, one half proceeding 
 along the beach on the ocean side, the 
 other half advancing along the inner 
 beach. At the time agreed upon, i : 30 
 A.M., the expedition closed in with a rush 
 upon the garrison, which, consisting of 
 only a few companies and barely awakened 
 by the shots of the sentries, was quickly 
 overpowered. Before 2 A. M. Fort 
 Hancock was in the hands of the 
 enemy. 
 
 At 1 1 P.M. on the night of March 3ist, 
 three large ships with lights out moved 
 quietly into deep water anchorage between 
 Far Rockaway inlet and the entrance to 
 
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 NOTE 
 
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 BV LANOIN* roCI 
 
 ROUTES FOLLOWED BY EXPEDITION IN THE CAPTURE OF 
 NEW YORK S DEFENCES, 
 
82 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 the Ambrose Channel. They were sur 
 rounded by a cordon of destroyers. Had 
 any fisherman s boat been allowed to pass 
 the destroyers (which it was not), it 
 would have seen that all of the boats on 
 the transports were loaded with troops 
 and swung outboard ready for lowering. 
 The first boats to reach the water con 
 tained detachments of expert linemen 
 and engineers of the German Imperial 
 Army. They were towed by a ship s 
 launch to the deserted beach, fronting the 
 Brighton Beach Hotel, and, mounting 
 their bicycles, they scattered and headed 
 for the country lying back of Coney 
 Island and the various beach resorts. The 
 linemen cut all the telegraph and tele 
 phone lines leading to Brooklyn and New 
 York; the engineers removed a rail from 
 every trolley and elevated track leading 
 to the city. Part of this detachment cov 
 ered the highways leading from the Beach 
 
CAPTURE OF NEW YORK HARBOR 83 
 
 and turned back all late-returning auto 
 mobiles. 
 
 Meanwhile, under the cover of an im 
 penetrable darkness, a force of 4,000 men 
 was quietly landed in the ships boats, 
 which, in strings of half a dozen, were 
 towed by steam launches to the beach and 
 rowed ashore through the scarcely per 
 ceptible surf. The whole force had 
 landed shortly after midnight. Drawn up 
 in column of fours, it commenced a rapid 
 march on Fort Hamilton, some six miles 
 distant. 
 
 Realizing that there was a bare chance 
 that no warning had reached its garrison 
 of 600 men, the commander of the expedi 
 tion hurried forward a bicycle detachment, 
 300 strong, for a surprise attack. The 
 main body advanced by the road which 
 skirts the shore of Gravesend Bay. 
 When it was within three miles of the 
 fort, the distant roll of musketry fire 
 
84 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 showed that the garrison had been warned 
 and was offering a heavy resistance. Soon, 
 dispatch riders from the bicycle force 
 came back with the news that it had run 
 into a strong skirmish line, which the gar 
 rison had thrown out across the Bath 
 Beach road. The main body of troops 
 was now divided, a force of 1,000 being 
 sent across the Fort Hamilton road with 
 orders to advance from the north as soon 
 as the main attack was pressed home from 
 the south. 
 
 Despite the heroic resistance of the gar 
 rison, during which our regulars lived up 
 to the finest traditions of the United 
 States Army, the final rush of the German 
 veterans could not be denied, and by 3 :oo 
 A.M. Fort Hamilton was in the hands of 
 the enemy. 
 
 Leaving half of his force to hold the 
 fort and entrench the position on the land 
 side, the commander of the expedition. 
 
CAPTURE OF NEW YORK HARBOR 85 
 
 with i, 800 men, marched north by the 
 shore road in the direction of Bay Ridge. 
 
 Between two and three on the morning 
 of April ist, a strange thing happened 
 aboard the Staten Island ferryboat as it 
 was about to leave its landing at the Bat 
 tery. No sooner had the last passenger 
 for Manhattan stepped ashore than the 
 gates were closed, and two men entered 
 the pilot house, covered the captain with 
 their revolvers, and ordered him instantly 
 to pull out from the dock and head for 
 Staten Island. 
 
 " What are you fellows after, any 
 way? " asked the captain. " Money? " 
 
 " Not at all. We are officers of the 
 German Naval Reserve. War has been 
 declared by Germany against the United 
 States; Forts Hancock and Hamilton are 
 already in our possession; and," with a 
 smile, " by your kind permission we shall 
 make use of your boat to transfer troops 
 
86 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 for the capture of Fort Wadsworth. You 
 will be so good as to hand the wheel over 
 to me and take that chair, making your 
 self as comfortable in mind and body as 
 the exigencies of the present situation will 
 allow." 
 
 Commander Schultz, I. G. N., took the 
 wheel and headed the big ferryboat for the 
 Narrows. At the entrance he swung to 
 port, and made for the dock of the Cres 
 cent Athletic Club, on the Brooklyn side. 
 Not long thereafter was heard the tramp 
 of marching men on the shore road, lead 
 ing from Fort Hamilton, and in ten min 
 utes time the big ferryboat had backed 
 away from the pier with 1,800 men 
 aboard. The boat crossed the Narrows, 
 and, the tide being at the flood, was en 
 abled to push her nose up to the quaran 
 tine landing at Staten Island. But no 
 sooner was she made fast than the shore 
 line flashed with the rifle fire of the Wads- 
 
CAPTURE OF NEW YORK HARBOR 87 
 
 worth garrison, which had thrown out 
 scouting parties in all directions in antici 
 pation of attack. 
 
 The ferryboat backed quickly into mid 
 stream, while a flotilla of German destroy 
 ers searched the shore with a storm of 
 projectiles from their rapid-fire and ma 
 chine-guns. Under cover of this the de 
 barkation was effected. The German 
 force, i, 800 strong, deployed and moved 
 on the fort. Its garrison, consisting of 
 only 400 men, fought it out stubbornly 
 from building to building; but against such 
 odds the result was inevitable, and by 4:30 
 A.M. the last of the great defensive works 
 of New York Harbor was captured. 
 
 And thus it came about that by day 
 break of April ist the mighty seacoast 
 guns and the elaborate system of mortar 
 batteries, which constitute the defences of 
 New York, being utterly unprotected in 
 the rear, fell into the hands of the enemy. 
 
IX 
 
 INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 
 
 WITH the coming of the dawn of April 
 ist, the mantle of clouds which had helped 
 to obscure the fateful events of the night 
 broke and scattered before a fresh wind 
 out of the northwest. Over sea and land 
 and city the sun shone brilliantly in that 
 crystal-clear atmosphere, which is the sure 
 accompaniment of a northwest breeze. 
 
 And as the sun came up, there lifted 
 over the eastern horizon the van of a 
 stately column of warships the dread 
 nought fleet of the ImperialGermanNavy. 
 Into the Ambrose Channel they headed, 
 led by the Koenig, flagship of Admiral 
 Buchner, commander-in-chief of the Ger 
 man expeditionary fleet. Well off shore, 
 the Admiral had waited through the 
 
 88 
 
INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 89 
 
 night for the wireless message, telling him 
 that the capture of the defences of New 
 York had opened a safe passage for his 
 fleet into the upper bay. The message 
 came, as he knew it must, in due course; 
 and immediately signal \vas made for the 
 fleet to steam at full speed for the harbor 
 entrance. 
 
 Following the flagship, in single column, 
 were the dreadnoughts of the Koenlg and 
 Kaiser classes, making, with the Koenig, 
 nine in all; a division of armored cruisers, 
 headed by the Roon; and a division of 
 light cruisers. 
 
 Thrown out fanwise in the van of the 
 fleet and flanking it on each side in two 
 parallel columns were the destroyer flo 
 tillas. 
 
 When that stately line had swept 
 through the Narrows, signal was made 
 for half speed; and after hugging the 
 easterly side of the Channel, the flagship 
 
90 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 of each division of dreadnoughts turned 
 eight points to port and the fleet anchored. 
 They lay bow and stern, in two parallel 
 columns, 2,000 yards apart, with the star 
 board batteries bearing on the city of 
 New York. 
 
 Every ship was cleared for action; and 
 on each the battle-flags were flying. 
 
 Meanwhile on shore the engineer com 
 panies of the German troops in Forts Han 
 cock, Hamilton, and Wadsworth, after se 
 lecting the points of vantage for defence 
 of the landward approaches, had staked 
 out the trenches, and the Germans were 
 feverishly digging and fortifying against 
 attack. The 3-inch rapid-fire guns for pro 
 tecting the mine fields were unbolted from 
 their concrete foundations, and remounted 
 in selected positions on hastily-improvised 
 platforms. Also, the 3-inch landing guns 
 of the fleet were brought ashore in the 
 ships boats and wheeled into position. 
 
INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 91 
 
 The garrisons were strengthened by a 
 force of 2,000 marines, landed from the 
 fleet. 
 
 In short, within a few hours of occupa 
 tion, the enemy had provided our coast 
 fortifications with those organized de 
 fences, on the land side, which, had Con 
 gress given heed to the recommendations 
 of its military advisers, would have long 
 ago been completed and would have 
 served to hold the enemy at bay until re- 
 enforcements could have been brought up 
 in sufficient strength to drive him back to 
 the sea. 
 
 Scarcely had the flagship of Admiral 
 Buchner dropped her anchor, than a 
 launch, flying a white flag, left the ship, 
 steamed up the harbor, and landed at the 
 Battery. Captain Dornfeld of the Admi 
 ral s staff stepped ashore, strode through 
 the Park to a waiting automobile, and with 
 a slight nod of recognition to the chauf- 
 
92 AMER T CA FALLEN 
 
 feur,.took his seat, and was driven swiftly 
 to the City Hall. It was early for an 
 official call (9 A.M.), but the emissary 
 guessed rightly that the Mayor would be 
 in his off.ce. His name and mission gained 
 him instant audience. 
 
 Five minutes later a call went out from 
 the Mayor s office, requesting the instant 
 attendance of the heads of New York s 
 great banking houses and financial institu 
 tions. 
 
 When that distinguished company had 
 gathered the Mayor said: "Gentlemen, 
 it is my painful duty to announce to you 
 if indeed you are not aware of it already 
 that the fortifications protecting the ap 
 proaches to New York are in the hands of 
 a German expeditionary force, which, by 
 a surprise attack (following a declaration 
 of war by Germany, that reached the Sec 
 retary of State, at Washington, early this 
 morning), has obtained full possession. 
 
INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 93 
 
 A fleet of the enemy s dreadnoughts, nine 
 in number, has entered and is now cover 
 ing the city with its guns. 
 
 " I hold in my hands an ultimatum from 
 the Commander-in-Chief of the fleet, 
 which I will read to you : 
 
 Imperial German Expeditionary Fleet, 
 Upper Bay, New York Harbor, 
 
 April i, 1916. 
 To His HONOR THE MAYOR OF 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 Sir: I have the honor to inform you 
 that the German Government having de 
 clared war on the United States, a force 
 was landed and, early this morning, cap 
 tured all the fortifications covering the 
 approaches to New York. 
 
 The fleet under my command, consisting 
 of nine of the latest and most powerful 
 dreadnoughts of the German Imperial 
 Navy, is now anchored in the upper bay. 
 
94 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 The heavy guns of the fleet, ninety in all, 
 with an extreme range of fifteen miles, 
 command practically the whole of Greater 
 New York. 
 
 I am instructed by my Government to 
 demand of you a ransom of five billion 
 dollars, the bond for which, together with 
 a first payment of five hundred million 
 dollars in gold, must be delivered on board 
 the flagship, twenty-four hours after the 
 delivery of this ultimatum, that is to say, 
 by 9 A.M. on April 2d. Failing the receipt 
 of this at or before the hour named I shall 
 open fire on your city. 
 
 If, during the twenty-four hours covered 
 by the truce, any movement of troops, 
 either of the regular army or of the Na 
 tional Guard, takes place, I shall imme 
 diately commence bombardment. 
 
 I have the honor to be 
 BUCHNER, 
 
 Commander-in-Chief. 
 
INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 95 
 
 At the request of the Mayor, Captain 
 Dornfeld, bearer of the ultimatum, with 
 drew to the anteroom. 
 
 The first to speak was the Comptroller, 
 who said: " Obviously the thing to be done 
 is to ascertain what are the facts of the 
 military and naval situation. We should 
 send a request to Governor s Island for the 
 immediate attendance here of the Com 
 mander of the Department of the 
 East." 
 
 " That I have already done," said the 
 Mayor. " He was to return to-day from a 
 tour of inspection, and my secretary has 
 by this time, doubtless, met him. He 
 should be with us in a few minutes. Mean 
 while, gentlemen, what are you prepared 
 to do in this emergency? " 
 
 " I am satisfied," said one of the 
 Mayor s invited guests, who was famous 
 alike as a pacificist and philanthropist, 
 " that this whole thing is a colossal April 
 
96 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 fool s joke. It is so preposterous, in fact, 
 that it appeals to my Scotch sense of the 
 humorous or the canny I scarce know 
 
 which. Five bil Why, that is just 
 
 five times as much as my late friend Bis 
 marck demanded of the whole French 
 nation, to liquidate the cost of the war 
 of 1870. 
 
 " Five billions, and immediate payment 
 in gold of five hundred millions ! I cannot 
 believe, gentlemen, that this outrageous de 
 scent upon the shores of a friendly nation 
 is made with the consent of the great Ger 
 man people, or by command of my friend 
 the Kaiser. Why, I well remember that in 
 the course of an intimate talk with him 
 at Pots " 
 
 But this interesting personal reminis 
 cence was interrupted by the entrance of 
 Major-General Adams, to whom the 
 Mayor handed the ultimatum, without a 
 word. 
 
INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 97 
 
 After he had read the fateful document 
 the Mayor said: " General, we have asked 
 you to come here to tell us what are the 
 military and naval conditions, and what 
 the city can do to escape this dilemma ? " 
 
 " Mr. Mayor, the conditions are exactly 
 as stated in this paper, and New York 
 City can do nothing! The country is 
 confronted with a catastrophe for which 
 the indifference and neglect of the people 
 and its Congress are entirely to blame. 
 That the naval and military defences of 
 the United States were totally inadequate 
 has been known to naval and military men 
 for a generation past. Year after year 
 the General Staff and the General Board 
 of the Navy have warned the nation that 
 its unpreparedness was such that this very 
 disaster, which has now fallen upon us 
 like a thunderbolt, might come at any 
 hour. 
 
 " Briefly, let me tell you the conditions: 
 
98 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Your land defences are in the hands of the 
 enemy, our battleships are at Vera Cruz, 
 and the lesser units of the Navy, and par 
 ticularly the destroyers and submarines, 
 were sunk in our navy yards at daybreak. 
 The German fleet, freed from any menace 
 from forts, submarines, destroyers, or our 
 own battleship fleet, is in a position abso 
 lutely to destroy New York and take its 
 own time to do it. Our few scattered 
 regulars in the vicinity are concentrating 
 and the National Guard is assembling at 
 its armories. They might in time recapture 
 the forts though even this is doubtful; 
 for I learn that fresh transports are arriv 
 ing every hour and the landing of ree n- 
 forcements is proceeding. Moreover, ac 
 cording to this ultimatum, any further con 
 centration of our troops will bring on the 
 bombardment. 
 
 " Mr. Mayor, if you wish to save the 
 city, whose total value, I believe, Mr. 
 
INDEMNITY OR BOMBARDMENT 99 
 
 Comptroller s twenty billion dollars, there 
 is but one possible way to do it, and that 
 is for you gentlemen to devise at once the 
 ways and means for a cash payment in 
 gold of five hundred million dollars and 
 a guarantee of the balance of the five 
 billion dollars demanded. " 
 
 The General left the room. With his 
 departure the spirit of optimism began to 
 prevail and ultimately a committee was 
 appointed which decided to make a counter 
 proposal of one billion, with a cash pay 
 ment of fifty millions in gold. Mean 
 while the Federal Government gave orders 
 that no military demonstration should 
 be made for the next twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 This proposal was handed to Captain 
 Dornfeld, who promptly returned to the 
 flagship. 
 
 The afternoon and evening wore away; 
 but no answer came from the German 
 
ioo AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Admiral. " He is communicating with 
 Berlin," said the committee; " we shall 
 hear in the morning." 
 
 And they did from the throats of a 
 hundred guns! 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF NEW YORK 
 
 FROM his point of vantage, over 700 feet 
 in midair, Kennedy, the attendant on the 
 observation platform of the tower of the 
 Woolworth Building, might have swept 
 his eye over the grandest panoramic view 
 of a great city that it has ever been 
 granted to mortal eye to look upon. But 
 on that particular day, April 2d, and at 
 that particular hour, 9 A.M., he gazed 
 neither east, north, nor west. His face 
 was to the south, and his eye riveted upon 
 a group of dark-gray ships that stretched 
 in two parallel lines across the main ship 
 channel of the Upper Bay, somewhat to 
 the north of Robbin s Reef the German 
 dreadnoughts ! 
 
 He had read in the papers of the night 
 
 101 
 
io2 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 before about that absurd demand for five 
 billion dollars, and from the papers, also, 
 he knew that the city had made a counter 
 proposal of one billion. The morning ex 
 tras had told him that no reply had come 
 from the German Admiral, " who, doubt 
 less, was awaiting instructions from Ber 
 lin." He picked up a pair of field glasses 
 (an investment of his which had long ago 
 paid for itself, and was now a steady 
 source of income in tips from country 
 visitors to the tower) and sought out the 
 flagship. Yes, there she was at the head 
 of the first line, with the Admiral s flag fly 
 ing at the but what was that flash, keen 
 as the flash of a mirror in the sun ! Could 
 it be that and there came a crash, louder 
 than that of any thunderbolt from heaven, 
 and he was clutching wildly at the railing, 
 as the whole mass of the tower shuddered, 
 and then swayed for a few seconds like a 
 reed shaken by the wind. 
 
MAP SHOWING HOW GUNS OF GERMAN FLEET COVERCE 
 THE WHOLE OF MANHATTAN. 
 
104 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Driven by the instinct of flight, he 
 rushed around the platform to the north 
 side, and, looking down, saw that the 
 buildings were obscured by a cloud of 
 bricks, dust, and broken terra cotta, which 
 fell with a prolonged roar, like a fall of 
 Cyclopean hail, upon the roofs and pave 
 ment far below. Another crash ! Again 
 the tower staggered under the blow ! 
 
 He jumped for the elevator. Yes, it 
 was intact. A few floors down it stopped. 
 He managed to undo the door, crawled 
 out, and ran down the stairway. Three 
 flights below he stood dumfounded. The 
 stairs ended in space, and through a gap 
 ing hole, where the hollow-tile flooring 
 had been blasted entirely away, he saw 
 that the whole of two stories, with their 
 floors, outer walls, and inside partitions, 
 had been blown clear into space, leaving 
 the skeleton of the building columns, 
 floor beams, and braces stripped as clean 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF NEW YORK 105 
 
 of its brick and terra-cotta walls as it was 
 when the erecting gang had swung it into 
 place, a few years before. 
 
 The stairs were gone; the elevator 
 shafts also. There was nothing for him 
 but to return. If he could not go down, he 
 would go up. Odd to relate, fear was 
 giving place to curiosity. He heard the 
 roar of the 1 2-inch shells, as they hurtled 
 past the tower to fall upon the doomed 
 city, and the observation platform would 
 enable him to watch the stupendous spec 
 tacle of its destruction. 
 
 He gained the platform just in time to 
 see two shells, in quick succession, pass 
 through the top stories of the towering 
 Equitable Life Building, and blast two 
 gaping holes in the south wall. 
 
 The next mark was the beautiful tower 
 that crowned the Municipal Building. 
 The percussion fuses were functioning 
 with deadly precision; nothing wrong with 
 
106 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 these German shells. Just one hit and 
 the walls and columns of the tower had 
 been tumbled in a confused mass upon the 
 roof of the main building and into the 
 street below, leaving the twisted steel 
 skeleton stripped as bare as the trees in 
 midwinter. 
 
 And now it dawned upon Kennedy that 
 the Germans were shooting up the city 
 upon a predetermined plan, picking out the 
 principal buildings and putting a couple 
 of shots into the upper stories of each. In 
 rapid succession the Singer Tower, the 
 City Investing Building, the Adams Ex 
 press, and the new Western Union Build 
 ings were struck; and always the gaping 
 holes were blown out hundreds of feet in 
 midair, where the ruin was visible to the 
 surging mass of people that swarmed out, 
 like bees from a hive, into the streets 
 below. 
 
 And then the din of the alternating 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF NEW YORK 107 
 
 boom of guns and crash of bursting shells 
 ceased as suddenly as it began. Kennedy 
 turned his glasses on the fleet and saw a 
 couple of hydro-aeroplanes lifted by 
 cranes from the deck of an auxiliary ship 
 and placed in the water. They rose as 
 they advanced on the city, over which they 
 flew at an altitude of 1,500 feet. One of 
 them swung off at the Battery and began 
 to fly in a circular path. The other passed 
 on until it reached the Fifty-ninth Street 
 power station of the Subway, above which 
 it began to describe a path of the figure 
 eight. Kennedy turned his glasses upon 
 the fleet. One of the guns in No. i tur 
 ret of the flagship was being slowly ele 
 vated until it pointed well into the sky. 
 There was a flash a long, droning hum 
 and thirty seconds later he saw the shell 
 burst against a building north of the power 
 station. From the hydro-aeroplane above 
 there was dropped a puff of white smoke. 
 
loS AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Another flash and this time the shell 
 burst somewhat to the south of the station. 
 There followed two more puffs of smoke 
 from the plane. A few minutes later 
 every 1 2-inch gun on the ship rose to the 
 range and flashed forth its 86o-pound shell 
 loaded with deadly explosive. Kennedy 
 heard the salvo go roaring by miles up in 
 the air, and, lo ! the walls of the great 
 power station seemed to fall asunder and 
 a huge cloud of smoke and dust rose high 
 in the heavens. 
 
 The power station was utterly wrecked, 
 and every train in the Subway from the 
 Bronx to Brooklyn stopped with its terror- 
 stricken passengers in a darkness which 
 could be felt ! 
 
 Then the aviator sailed northeast and 
 began his fateful maneuvers above the 
 Seventy-sixth Street power station of the 
 Elevated Railways. The same routine 
 followed: two or three ranging shots; the 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF NEW YORK 109 
 
 dropping of smoke signals, which were 
 relayed by the plane at the Battery to the 
 ship; and, finally, the salvo. In a few 
 minutes every train on the Elevated was 
 out of commission. 
 
 North the aviator now sped, until he 
 was hovering like a remorseless fate above 
 the Ninety-first Street power station, which 
 runs the street-railway system of Man 
 hattan. The relay hydro-aeroplane moved 
 up to First Street. In ten minutes time a 
 salvo had found its mark, and Manhattan 
 was absolutely bereft of all means of 
 transportation. 
 
 That hive of busy workers known as 
 " the downtown district " received its 
 quota of the morning " rush " earlier than 
 usual on April 2d. * The optimistic tone 
 assumed by the New York press was re 
 flected among the citizens, who were sat- 
 
no AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 isfied that there would be at least a period 
 of negotiations preceding any bombard 
 ment, the result of which, it was not 
 doubted, would be a compromise. It was 
 curiosity which filled up the business offices 
 half an hour earlier than usual and 
 curiosity it was that carried the employees 
 by thousands to the roofs for a look at the 
 Kaiser s dreadnoughts. 
 
 But when that first 1 2-inch shell flashed 
 from the flagship, and went roaring over 
 head across the skies to burst in the Wool- 
 worth Tower, curiosity gave place to fear 
 and fear to panic. From the roof to the 
 floors below the fleeing crowd of clerks 
 and stenographers ran, shouting that the 
 Germans were bombarding the city. Every 
 office floor disgorged its occupants, and a 
 growing crowd rushed for the elevators 
 and filled the stairways. Out of the en 
 trance of every building there surged a hu 
 man flood, and the waters of this inunda- 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF NEW YORK 1 1 1 
 
 tion met and swirled in the side streets and 
 turned in increasing volume to Broad 
 way seeking a means of quick escape by 
 the Subway. In a few minutes the streets 
 were filled from building line to build 
 ing line with a frantic mob, so tightly 
 jammed that all movement ceased. Then, 
 as shell after shell burst far above, huge 
 masses of masonry came hurtling down 
 upon that hapless mob, killing and wound 
 ing the unfortunates where they stood, 
 held fast. And still the terror-stricken 
 pushed their way, with that fatal accumu 
 lation of pressure which marks a fleeing 
 mob, out of every office-building entrance; 
 the emerging mass acting with the cumula 
 tive effect of a hydraulic ram upon the 
 already compacted mass in the streets. 
 Under that fatal pressure the weak went 
 down, ribs were crushed in, breathing was 
 no longer possible. By the hundred, the 
 people died where they fell. 
 
ii2 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 And up from the streets of the city 
 there rose the prolonged wail of the 
 dying, answered from above by the 
 savage roar of the flying shells, and the 
 swish and clatter of the ever-falling 
 masonry. 
 
 There was a slight relief at each Sub 
 way entrance, into which the waters of 
 that stricken human flood twisted and gur 
 gled like water through a sink. And fur 
 ther relief was given on the outskirts of 
 the mob, where such of the police as had 
 not been engulfed, attacking from the side 
 streets, unloosened the fringe of the hor 
 ror, by reminding the terror-stricken that 
 the Elevated and the ferries afforded 
 other avenues of escape. 
 
 And then, as the gr^at power stations 
 fell beneath the salvos of the bombard 
 ment, and every wheel in New York s vast 
 system of transportation ceased to turn, 
 fear redoubled aad frantic horror began 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF NEW YORK 113 
 
 again to crush the life out of that hope- 
 abandoned mob. 
 
 And just at this very hour, as though the 
 anguish were not complete, the lawless 
 element in the city broke loose in every 
 quarter in a wild orgie of pillage and ar 
 son. From many a resort of crime and 
 infamy, the gunman, the safe-cracker, and 
 all the brood that hides from law and 
 order streamed forth to gather in the 
 spoil. The police, aye the whole ten thou 
 sand of them, swept off their feet by the 
 wild terror of Manhattan s millions, were 
 unable to co-operate for effective work. 
 Crime had found its millennium. Into the 
 jewelry stores, into the houses of the rich 
 on Fifth Avenue and the West Side, a 
 mob, armed and stopping at no crime of 
 violence, broke its way, gathering into grip 
 and handbag, or thrusting into* pocket at 
 each grasp, the ransom of a prince ! 
 
 The terror of the bombardment swept 
 
ii4 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 through the densely populated tenement- 
 house district like the rush of a prairie 
 fire, and at once there arose in a babel of 
 many tongues the universal cry: " To the 
 bridges; to the bridges!" And to the 
 bridges they swept, men, women, and chil 
 dren, Jew, Italian, Greek, and Russian, 
 bearded rabbi and toddling child, in a 
 wild stampede to put the river between 
 themselves and the bursting shells. East 
 ward to the bridges they surged, half a 
 million strong; the mob becoming denser 
 as it converged on the various approaches. 
 Overwhelmed by that human flood, 
 vehicular traffic stopped. Roadways and 
 footways, subway tracks and trolley tracks, 
 all were submerged. The Manhattan 
 Bridge, among others, in spite of its width 
 of 1 20 feet, was packed from rail to rail 
 with the fleeing host, and when the crush 
 was at its worst the inevitable happened. 
 Somewhere a fugitive slipped, a foot pass- 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF NEW YORK 1 1 5 
 
 ing between the railroad ties of the tracks 
 someone stayed to help more stum 
 bled ,and fell. The crowd behind, in 
 furiated by the delay, made a rush, throw 
 ing dow T n others in the van. Soon, there 
 was a mass of struggling, cursing human 
 ity wedged tight from rail to rail, prevent 
 ing down others in the van. Soon there 
 thousand behind stayed not their rush. 
 The crushing out of life that was happen 
 ing on lower Broadway was being repeated 
 150 feet above the East River. 
 
 And just then there sailed above the 
 bridge, high in air, a German hydro 
 aeroplane. The mob saw it and knew the 
 meaning of the dread portent. " God in 
 Heaven, they are going to shell the 
 bridge ! " And then the strange thing hap 
 pened. The crowd stopped its convulsive 
 struggle. Except for the down-trodden 
 and dying, silence fell on that multitude, 
 and, awestruck, they gazed skyward at the 
 
n6 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 harbinger of death and waited for his 
 messengers. 
 
 Then they came. A roar as of an ex 
 press train on the Elevated, and with a 
 blast of air that swept down upon the vic 
 tims, a 12-inch shell passed over the center 
 of the span. 
 
 But before signaling to correct the 
 range, the aviator planed down so as to 
 obtain a closer view of the bridge. With 
 amazement he saw that it was" swarming 
 from end to end with a helpless mass of 
 humanity. The purpose of the bombard 
 ment was to damage not destroy; and he 
 realized that if the shells of the Koenig 
 should cut the bridge cables, 50,000 souls 
 would be hurled to their death in the river 
 below ! 
 
 Hastily he rose and signaled to the 
 Koenig to cease fire. 
 
XI 
 
 THE CAPITULATION OF NEW YORK 
 
 IN response to the call of the Mayor, the 
 Committee representing the financial in 
 stitutions of the City met in his office 
 promptly at 9 A.M. on April 2d. A mem 
 ber was proposing that a wireless message 
 be dispatched to the German Admiral, 
 requesting an early answer to the Commit 
 tee s proposal of the day before, when the 
 boom of a heavy explosion shook the 
 building, and the Mayor, looking up 
 through the southwest window, quietly re 
 marked, " Gentlemen, the answer has 
 come ! " The Committee turned and saw 
 in the fair white northern face of the beau 
 tiful Woolworth Tower a yawning cavity 
 and, filling the air below, a mass of 
 
 falling debris! 
 
 117 
 
u8 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 The crisis had come, swift and appal 
 ling; and with a steady nerve and a quick- 
 thinking brain each man of that Commit 
 tee set himself to meet it. There was 
 much to do, and it must be done quickly. 
 First, as to that cash payment of half a 
 billion in gold. Was there that much gold 
 in the city? The question was quickly an 
 swered. In the sub-treasury was one 
 hundred and twenty million dollars; in the 
 banks and other depositories, four hun 
 dred and fifty million dollars, more or less. 
 Yes, the cash payment could be made 
 that very day, if demanded. And, as for 
 the other four-and-a-half billions, well, 
 New York, even with that financial burden 
 to carry, was better than a New York 
 thrown down by bombardment and rav 
 aged by a universal conflagration. 
 
 And so, while the cannon thundered and 
 the fleeing citizens surged past the City 
 Hall, seeking a way of escape by Subway, 
 
CAPITULATION OF NEW YORK 1 19 
 
 Elevated, or Bridge, those men seated in 
 the private office of the Mayor worked 
 out a plan for the salvation of the city. 
 
 At 10 A.M. a wireless message was 
 sent to the fleet anouncing the capitulation 
 of the city and the start of the Mayor, the 
 Comptroller, and Committee to confer 
 with the Admiral on board the Koenlg. 
 
 Guarded by a cordon of police, who 
 with difficulty had fought their way to the 
 City Hall, the Mayor and Committee were 
 escorted to the foot of Spruce Street on the 
 East River, where they boarded the patrol 
 boat of the Police Department and 
 steamed out to the Upper Bay. 
 
 The roar of the bombardment had 
 ceased, and save for a few shell holes in 
 the taller buildings, there was nothing 
 to indicate that, for one fell hour, Hell 
 had vented its fury upon their noble city. 
 
 Arrived at the gangway of the Koenlg, 
 the Mayor and his Committee were re- 
 
120 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 ceived by the executive officer with every 
 mark of distinction, and escorted to the 
 Admiral s quarters. 
 
 He was tall, blond, blue-eyed, affable, 
 and supremely ceremonious. Moreover, 
 he spoke most excellent English. 
 
 " He was sensible," he said, " of the 
 great honor conferred upon the German 
 Navy, upon the flagship, and upon himself, 
 by the presence on board of the Mayor of 
 the great commercial metropolis of the 
 Western Hemisphere, attended by so 
 many representatives of its leading finan 
 cial houses. 
 
 " He could have wished that this meet 
 ing had taken place under less distressing 
 circumstances; but well war is war, and 
 upon him, as one under authority, had 
 fallen the unhappy duty of bringing their 
 city to terms by force of arms." 
 
 Picking up a document from his table 
 he said: "The conditions on which I am 
 
CAPITULATION OF NEW YORK 1 2 1 
 
 instructed to cease all further naval at 
 tack on New York are as follows : 
 
 " I. The payment by the City of New 
 York of an indemnity of five billion 
 dollars. 
 
 " II. The payment of the first install 
 ment to be made in the form of five hun 
 dred million dollars in gold, the same to be 
 delivered within twenty-four hours of the 
 signing of this agreement. 
 
 " III. The surrender of the Custom 
 House, New York, and its occupation by 
 German forces until the payment of the 
 balance of the indemnity has been com 
 pleted. 
 
 u IV. The surrender of the Chelsea 
 steamship piers for the use of the German 
 troopships. 
 
 V. The surrender of all armories in 
 New York and Brooklyn for the use cf the 
 troops of the German Expeditionary 
 Force. 
 
122 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 " It is my wish, Mr. Mayor, that, for 
 the present, at least, you continue to ex 
 ercise full civil control of New York, un 
 der the rules of military occupation of my 
 government." 
 
 After very brief conference the articles 
 of capitulation were duly signed, and 
 shortly thereafter the Police Department 
 launch cast off from the gangway of the 
 Koenig and headed for Manhattan. 
 
 Silent and preoccupied, the group of 
 men on her upper deck gazed wistfully 
 upon the stately buildings of lower Man 
 hattan, which lifted their shell-scarred 
 summits far into the blue of that sunlit 
 April day. 
 
 " Well," said one of the party, " such 
 are the caprices of Fortune." 
 
 "Nay, sir," sharply retorted the Mayor, 
 " say rather that such are the fruits of 
 folly and criminal neglect! " 
 
CAPITULATION OF NEW YORK 1 23 
 
 That afternoon, closed and heavily 
 guarded motor vans began to make their 
 way from the banks of New York City 
 to a German transport at Pier No. i, the 
 Battery; and before noon of the day fol 
 lowing five hundred million dollars, or 
 about 1,000 tons, in gold, had been put 
 aboard, and the vessel, under heavy naval 
 escort, had sailed for a German port. 
 
XII 
 
 THE SURRENDER OF BOSTON 
 
 THE combined sea and land expedition for 
 the capture of Boston by a surprise attack 
 consisted of a division of dreadnoughts, 
 some destroyers, a flotilla of six sub 
 marines, and a landing force of 5,000 
 picked veterans of the European war. 
 
 The defences of Boston consisted of 
 seven forts. Two of these, Fort Heath 
 and Fort Banks, were built on the eastern 
 shore of the peninsula which incloses Bos 
 ton Harbor on the north. The others 
 were advantageously placed on five of the 
 islands which cover the approaches to the 
 harbor. Three of these, Forts Standish, 
 Warren, and Revere, formed the outer line 
 of defence; the inner line consisted of Forts 
 
 Strong and Andrews. They were heavily 
 124 
 
SURRENDER OF BOSTON 125 
 
 armed with 10- and 1 2-inch rifles the lat 
 ter having an extreme range of 13,000 
 yards. There were also some 1 2-inch 
 mortar batteries of approximately the same 
 range. 
 
 Although the range exceeded the effec 
 tive fighting range of any existing battle 
 ships at the time the forts were built, it was 
 far short of the range of naval guns in the 
 year 1916. Moreover, the Boston forts, 
 like those defending New York, were open 
 to attack from the rear. All of the guns 
 and mortars pointed seaward. Further 
 more, thanks to the parsimony of Congress, 
 the whole of these defences were under 
 manned, there being only 1,100 men dis 
 tributed among the seven forts. 
 
 The expedition timed its approach so 
 as to be within a few hours steaming of 
 the Massachusetts coast at sundown, March 
 31, where it divided, the four transports 
 carrying 5,000 men making for Salem, 
 
126 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 and the warships moving on Boston. The 
 submarines, having filled their fuel tanks 
 from the tender, pushed forward until they 
 reached the outer defences, when they sub 
 merged and, under cover of the dark, 
 worked their way carefully through the 
 channels, reaching Boston Navy Yard in 
 the early dawn. Here, at 4:30 A.M., they 
 torpedoed and sunk every ship in the yard, 
 sending to the bottom the armored cruiser 
 Brooklyn, the scout cruisers Chester and 
 Salem, the cruiser Chicago, the gunboat 
 Castine, and two or three smaller units. 
 The submarines then submerged to the bot 
 tom and went to sleep, awaiting develop 
 ments. 
 
 The transports, favored by an unusu 
 ally dark night, there being no moon, 
 reached Salem undetected. Debarkation 
 commenced at 2 A.M. The first troops to 
 be landed consisted of a bicycle corps, 1,500 
 strong, which immediately made a dash for 
 
SURRENDER OF BOSTON 127 
 
 Boston, twelve miles distant. Five hun 
 dred of these followed the shore road, and 
 at 4 A.M. rushed the garrison, 200 strong, 
 of Forts Heath and Banks, which they took 
 in reverse. The rest of the force, 1,000 
 strong, entered Boston, one half capturing 
 the Navy Yard, while the other, crossing 
 the Charles River, seized the large motor 
 fishing boats and other motor craft at the 
 docks and took them over to the Navy 
 Yard. 
 
 Meanwhile the debarkation of the bal 
 ance of the expeditionary force, 3,500 
 strong, was being effected. The troops 
 landed in light marching order, with two 
 days rations in their knapsacks, and ac 
 companied by strong batteries of machine- 
 guns. By daylight the column was on the 
 march, and at 8 A.M., after a sharp engage 
 ment in the suburbs, and almost within 
 sight of Bunker Hill, with such of the 
 militia as it was possible hastily to assem- 
 
128 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 ble, the enemy moved into the Navy Yard 
 and began to embark on the miscellaneous 
 craft which had been gathered there. 
 
 Meanwhile the German dreadnoughts 
 had moved in on the outer line of seacoast 
 defences. They anchored at a distance of 
 17,000 yards, or between 2,000 and 3,000 
 yards beyond the extreme range to which 
 the guns of the forts could carry. Ac 
 companying the fleet was an aeroplane 
 tender, and by the time the ships were ready 
 to open fire three aeroplanes were circling 
 above the outer forts Standish, Warren, 
 and Revere. 
 
 The calm sea and clear weather which 
 favored the operations of April ist along 
 the Atlantic Coast prevailed at Boston. 
 Vision was exceptionally good, and the 
 German gunners, being outside the range 
 of the forts and quite unmolested, and 
 being guided by aeroplane observation, 
 quickly got on the target, and placed their 
 
// 
 
 CHLSl*j 
 
 o 
 
 ,v,i 
 
 S 
 
 r.BANKS 
 
 CHARLES^ 
 NAVVY* 
 
 NoTt: 
 
 ROl/TE OF 
 LANOINS FORCE 
 
 MAP SHOWING HOW GERMANS BOMBARDED BOSTON FORT 
 
 FROM A POSITION OUTSIDE THE RANGE. 
 
 pF THEIR GUN. 
 
130 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 high explosive n-inch shells with deadly 
 accuracy. After half an hour of bombard 
 ment *a division of destroyers was sent in to 
 draw the fire of the forts by steaming 
 swiftly across their front at 10,000 yards 
 range. There was a vigorous reply from 
 Forts Warren, Strong, and Andrews, but 
 the fire from Forts Standish and Revere was 
 feeble. The bombardment continued for 
 another hour, the fire being directed chiefly 
 at the inner forts. 
 
 It was now 9 A.M. and shortly thereafter 
 one of the aeroplanes returned to report 
 that the motor-boat fleet, carrying the land 
 forces, had been descried moving down the 
 bay to take the forts in reverse. The signal 
 " cease fire " was made from the flagship, 
 and the garrisons, already decimated and 
 shaken up by shell fire, faced about to meet 
 the new attack. 
 
 The motor-boat fleet moved upon the 
 inner forts (Strong and Andrews) in two 
 
SURRENDER OF BOSTON 131 
 
 parallel columns, flanked on each wing by 
 three submarines, which, moving awash, 
 had broken out the 3-inch guns with which 
 they were armed. Under the cover of these 
 guns, which swept the landing with a storm 
 of shells, the German troops were landed, 
 and the garrison, consisting in each case of 
 only four companies, after a spirited re 
 sistance, was forced to surrender. The ex 
 pedition then moved on the three outer 
 forts, and as there was only a single 
 company in each, and half of these 
 had been killed or wounded by the 
 bombardment, they offered little or no 
 resistance. 
 
 As soon as the Admiral saw the German 
 flag flying over the forts, he moved into a 
 position from which he could cover the 
 whole of Boston with his guns. A launch, 
 bearing a flag of truce, left the flagship, 
 and within half an hour the city was con 
 fronted with an ultimatum, demanding the 
 
132 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 payment of three billion dollars, two hun 
 dred millions of which was to be delivered 
 aboard ship within twenty-four hours. The 
 custom house and the armories were to be 
 occupied immediately by German troops. 
 The Mayor was to remain in civil control, 
 under the rules of German military occupa 
 tion. Finally, the ultimatum stated that if 
 any movement of the regular or militia 
 forces, having in view the recapture of Bos 
 ton, took place, the fleet would open on the 
 city with all its guns. 
 
 The Mayor called a meeting of the lead 
 ing bankers and an effort was made to ob 
 tain a mitigation of the terms. The truce 
 was to expire at 2 P.M., April 2d; but on 
 learning that the bombardment of New 
 York had begun, the city at once capit 
 ulated. 
 
 That night one of the transports was 
 sent round from Salem, and by noon of 
 April 3d she had sailed for a German port 
 
SURRENDER OF BOSTON 133 
 
 with two hundred million dollars in her 
 hold. 
 
 On the afternoon of April 2d two Ger 
 man armored cruisers and two light cruis 
 ers arrived at Boston from New York, and 
 that evening the German Admiral, leaving 
 these ships, some destroyers, and the sub 
 marines to cover the city, sailed with his 
 division of dreadnoughts for New York. 
 
 On the evening of April 3d the dread 
 nought fleet of Admiral Buchner put to sea 
 and picked up the division from Boston, 
 and the fleet of thirteen dreadnoughts 
 sailed for the Caribbean. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 
 
 AT intervals during the morning of March 
 3 ist four large German merchant ships, 
 duly consigned to Baltimore for the avowed 
 purpose of rushing to that port certain or 
 ders for German goods which had been 
 delayed by the war, passed in through the 
 Capes, reported to the signal station, and 
 proceeded up the Chesapeake. In the upper 
 reaches of the Bay, after sundown, they 
 closed up; and about midnight they an 
 chored well aw r ay from the course followed 
 by shipping, and abreast a fine stretch of 
 sandy beach which lines the western shore 
 of the Bay, a few miles below Annapolis. 
 The sky was clouded and the night intensely 
 dark. 
 
 Two hours before midnight commenced 
 134 
 
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 135 
 
 the debarkation from these ships of a force 
 of 5,000 picked bicycle troops. Accom 
 panying them were several batteries of 
 machine-guns, bicycle-mounted and capable 
 of being quickly assembled. The first com 
 pany to land was told off to cut all tele 
 graph, telephone, and railway lines leading 
 to Washington. A small detachment from 
 this company, composed of fast riders, 
 more than one of whom, in past years, had 
 come over for the international races in 
 Madison Square, pushed on at full speed 
 for Washington, with instructions to mine 
 the tall towers of the Arlington long-dis 
 tance radio station, lay the wires, and be 
 prepared to wreck the plant as soon as the 
 expeditionary force reached the city. 
 
 Except for the machine-guns (each of 
 which was carried between a pair of tan 
 dems) the whole force was in the lightest 
 possible marching order, each man carrying 
 only two days rations and an extra supply 
 
136 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 of ammunition. As soon as the troops 
 landed, lamps were lit and they moved off 
 silently into the night. By 2 130 A.M. the 
 whole expedition was ashore. Just before 
 daybreak the bulk of the raiding force, 
 assembled on several roads leading into 
 Washington, made its rush for the capture 
 of the city. 
 
 Carefully planned though it was, the sur 
 prise was not complete. Willard Bronson, 
 a correspondent recently returned from 
 service at the front with the German army, 
 had run out on his motorcycle on the even 
 ing of March 3ist, to visit an old friend 
 who lived some fifteen miles, or halfway 
 from Washington, on the Annapolis road. 
 There was much to tell; and it was be 
 tween 2 and 3 A.M. when he left the 
 house and brought his machine around 
 from the stable. He was just about to 
 light up, when he paused, match in hand, 
 as the glare of a hundred lights shone 
 
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 137 
 
 down the road, and the van of the raid 
 ing force swept noiselessly by on the other 
 side of the heavy privet hedge separating 
 the lawn from the road. 
 
 " German mounted bicycle troops! Im 
 possible; absurd! " But Bronson had been 
 trained to clear thinking and quick action. 
 There flashed into his mind the startling 
 headlines of the afternoon papers, announc 
 ing the purchase of St. Thomas. 
 
 But this would be war before war was 
 declared. True; yet there was the prece 
 dent of Japan s attack on Port Arthur. 
 
 Bronson slipped quietly back to the house 
 and burst in upon his astonished host: 
 " Quick, tell me, is there any road by which 
 I can cut around into the main road any 
 path, cattle-track, anything on which a 
 wheel can turn? Don t stare at me like 
 that, man ! Here, come to the window see 
 those lights sweeping by ? It is the German 
 army moving on Washington. I must warn 
 
138 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 them the Government or they will make 
 a bag of the whole Cabinet before dawn ! " 
 
 "Yes; two fields away good grassland 
 you can ride there is a country road 
 which intersects the main road two miles 
 from here; but you must ride like the very 
 devil!" 
 
 With lamp alight he swept across the 
 first field good; the gate was open. The 
 gate to the road was shut cruel delay, 
 with the fate of a nation hanging on the 
 chance of a minute ! 
 
 Again he swung into the saddle, and, 
 thank God, the searchlight beam of his 
 lamp showed, straight and fair, a smooth, 
 though grass-grown, lane. Wide went the 
 throttle, and, ah! how he would have liked 
 to open the muffler too. Thirty, forty, fifty 
 miles an hour. The road swung gently 
 away to the left. Now it swung back 
 again, and there, abreast of him, through 
 the trees and across the fields, he could see 
 
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 139 
 
 the head of the raiding column. The lane 
 and the road were convergent. And now 
 he noticed that the leading lights were 
 stringing out. He was discovered; the 
 purr of his motor and the gleam of his 
 lamp had been noted, and they were sprint 
 ing to head him off. Open went his muffler, 
 and, head down, he, the modern Paul 
 Revere, swept into the main road, just one 
 hundred yards ahead of the leading troops. 
 With brake hard down and machine skid 
 ding over to the further ditch, fortune fa 
 vored his desperate dash, and he straight 
 ened out for Washington. 
 
 Behind, he heard the clash of falling bi 
 cycles. " Ah ! they have jumped from their 
 machines to take a long shot " and above 
 the roar of his motor he heard the crackle 
 of rifle fire. Zip, zip, zip, the bullets sang. 
 " I am going a good mile a minute now 
 
 they ll never get me Oh, H ! " Like 
 
 a blow from a baseball bat it struck him < 
 
1 40 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 right leg in the calf. " Too bad but I 
 can see the lights of Washington only a 
 few minutes, and I shall be at the tele 
 phone exchange. God, how it stings!" 
 He reached down and his hand felt the 
 gush of the warm blood. 
 
 The routine of work for the night force 
 at the central telephone exchange at Wash 
 ington, D. C., was suddenly broken at 3 130 
 A.M., April ist, when the door was labori 
 ously opened and a man, on all fours, 
 crawled into the room, dragging after him 
 a broken leg that left a smear of blood on 
 the floor. Propping himself on his hands, 
 he raised his face, white and twitching, and 
 shouted in a burst of staccato sentences: 
 " The Germans are coming landed at An 
 napolis here in half hour warn members 
 of Cabinet escape Union Station tell 
 garage send taxis each house quick, quick, 
 
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 141 
 
 for the love of our country the Presi 
 dent first, then the " 
 
 And with a groan he crumpled up and 
 lay as though dead before the gaping night 
 force. 
 
 Then the spell broke they rushed to the 
 fallen man. " Why, it s Bronson, the war 
 correspondent," said Murphy, " and if 
 Bronson says the Germans are coming, com 
 ing they are. For God s sake get busy." 
 
 And they did so to such good effect that, 
 as the enemy swept into the city in the early 
 dzvvn, there pulled out of the Union Sta 
 tic n, for Philadelphia, an express train, 
 bearing the members of the Cabinet and 
 their families, together with the ranking 
 official in the Departments of War, the 
 Navy, and Finance. 
 
 The seizure of the city was accom 
 plished with characteristic precision and 
 dispatch. Every company and detachment 
 had its objective. The advance force, 1,200 
 
142 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 strong, with 20 machine-guns, pushed on to 
 the Aqueduct bridge, crossed the Potomac, 
 and advanced on Fort Myer from the 
 north. 
 
 Another force of equal strength made 
 for the Long Bridge, crossed, and ap 
 proached the fort from the southeast. 
 
 Meanwhile the balance of the expedition 
 as it reached the city took possession of 
 the principal Government buildings. Five 
 companies seized the Treasury; five com 
 panies the State, War, and Navy building; 
 three companies took possession of the 
 Capitol; and a detachment seized the Arm 
 ory, capturing several machine-guns. Other 
 detachments seized the banks, the Union 
 Station, the Telephone Exchange, and the 
 offices of the Postal Telegraph and Western 
 Union. The balance of the troops, 1,000 
 strong, moved on the Washington Bar 
 racks. 
 
 Among the warnings sent out when Bron- 
 
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 143 
 
 son, the war correspondent, crawled into 
 the Telephone Exchange, were two to the 
 garrisons at Fort Myer and Washington 
 Barracks. 
 
 At the former the force consisted of 
 400 cavalry and 400 field artillery with 
 several batteries of field-guns. The garrison 
 of Washington Barracks consisted of about 
 600 men. The commanders of each post 
 decided to unite their forces on the left 
 bank of the Potomac, and the Fort Myer 
 garrison at once moved out, a cavalry screen 
 being thrown forward to seize the Long 
 Bridge. About a mile from the bridge they 
 ran into a strong skirmish line of the second 
 German force, and fell back on their main 
 body, which hastily entrenched itself, the 
 field batteries moving to take up a position 
 to the rear. While the batteries were tak 
 ing position, and before all the guns were 
 unlimbered, the first German force, which, 
 finding Fort Myer evacuated, had pushed 
 
H4 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 on with all speed, came up in the rear and 
 opened a murderous machine-gun and rifle 
 fire. 
 
 The cavalry wheeled and charged 
 straight at the guns. Such was the im 
 petus of their onrush, that those who sur 
 vived that decimating fire, some 200 in all, 
 broke through the first and second line be 
 fore they were brought down. Those of 
 the guns which could be brought into action 
 swept the enemy with shrapnel at close 
 range. Such an unequal contest could have 
 but one issue. The gun detachments with 
 ered under the pitiless hail of German bul 
 lets, and when the enemy charged home, 
 not a man was on his feet to dispute posses 
 sion of the guns. 
 
 Leaving their own and the American 
 wounded to be cared for by the stretcher- 
 bearers of Fort Myer garrison, the Ger 
 mans, now some 2,000 strong, mounted 
 and moved back to the city. Here, on learn- 
 
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 145 
 
 ing from dispatch riders that the force sent 
 to the Washington Barracks was heavily 
 engaged with the garrison in the neighbor 
 hood of the steamboat wharves, they swung 
 around to the south and took the enemy on 
 the right flank and rear. 
 
 An hour later the Barracks and the Army 
 War College were captured, and by noon of 
 April ist, the small American forces hav 
 ing been annihilated or captured, Wash 
 ington passed into the hands of the Ger 
 mans. 
 
 At dawn of the same day, the German 
 submarines, having passed in through the 
 Capes by night, sank or destroyed every 
 warship in the Norfolk yards, and at the 
 yards of the Newport News Shipbuilding 
 Company. Before the Germans had taken 
 possession of Washington, the news was 
 flashed from Philadelphia that a similar 
 submarine raid had resulted in the sinking 
 of the South Carolina and of the seven bat- 
 
146 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 tleships in reserve and in ordinary, at the 
 League Island Yard, namely, the Alabama, 
 Illinois, Kearsarge, Kentucky, Missouri, 
 Ohio, and Wisconsin. 
 
 At noon, April ist, the signal stations at 
 Cape Charles and Cape Henry reported 
 that a fleet of transports, flying the 
 German flag, was converging on the 
 entrance. 
 
 The rifle and mortar batteries at Fort 
 Monroe were instantly manned, and to the 
 amazement of all but the few who knew the 
 limitations of range, the fleet, in line ahead, 
 steamed boldly for that forbidden ground, 
 the main entrance to the Chesapeake, lying 
 to the south of the middle shoal. As the 
 fleet reached the, entrance it slowed down, 
 and using the lead, crept in, hugging closely 
 the southerly edge of the shoal. 
 
 And then Fort Monroe spoke. From 
 her batteries there roared forth a salvo, 
 which, twenty seconds later, struck the 
 
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON 147 
 
 water 13,000 yards away, sending up huge 
 geysers of water. The projectiles, ricochet- 
 ting in great sweeping arcs, finally died 
 down into the water some thousands of 
 yards beyond. 
 
 Then came the mortar-battery salvo. 
 Lifting their stubby barrels to an angle of 
 45 degrees they shot their 1 2-inch shells 
 skyward. Several miles they rose, and just 
 one minute after the discharge four 
 columns of water rose about 1,000 yards 
 from the ships. 
 
 " I knew it," said the captain of the lead 
 ing troopship, an officer of the German 
 naval reserve; " 18,000 yards is the ex 
 treme range of those bateries, and a study 
 of the chart convinced me that we could 
 just squeeze through." 
 
 And next day, April 3d, 5,000 German 
 infantry, together with the proper quota 
 of engineer corps, field batteries, signal and 
 medical corps, and the full equipment for a 
 
148 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 force of 10,000 men, were landed below 
 Annapolis and moved on to Washington. 
 
 And on April 3d two events of the first 
 magnitude occurred: the President of the 
 United States announced that, acting on the 
 advice of his military advisers, he had di 
 rected that the seat of Government be 
 moved to Pittsburg; and to Pittsburg came 
 a proposal from Germany to cease all mili 
 tary operations, upon the agreement by the 
 United States to pay an indemnity of twelve 
 billion dollars, an advance payment of one 
 billion dollars in gold to be made on the day 
 the indemnity bond was signed. 
 
XIV 
 
 SEEKING THE GERMAN FLEET 
 
 How it came about that I witnessed the 
 greatest naval battle of all history from 
 the fire-control platform of the flagship 
 Oklahoma is readily explained. In the 
 previous year I had offered for the consid 
 eration of the Navy Department a system 
 of " director firing," which had been re 
 jected on the ground that its mechanism 
 was too delicate to stand the shock of 
 battle. 
 
 The Department was developing a sys 
 tem of its own which gave great promise 
 of success; and, in recognition of my in 
 terest in the subject, I had been invited 
 to witness the final tests of the installation 
 during the spring target practice of the 
 
 Oklahoma. 
 
 149 
 
150 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 There are moments in one s life which 
 stand out with sharp definition amid the 
 crowded and more or less blurred mem 
 ories of the past. Among these I shall 
 ever reckon the breakfast hour, on the 
 morning of April ist, in the wardroom of 
 the Oklahoma, flagship of the United 
 States North Atlantic fleet, which was at 
 anchor, on that particular day, off Vera 
 Cruz. 
 
 The Mexican situation had reached one 
 of its ever-recurring crises, with the result 
 that the army had moved down to the 
 Mexican border and the fleet to this Mexi 
 can port. 
 
 The conversation in the wardroom 
 mess had been drifting along in a desultory 
 way, when an orderly entered with a re 
 quest for the presence of the executive offi 
 cer in the Admiral s cabin. In a few min 
 utes Commander Burnley returned, hold 
 ing in his hand a wireless message. There 
 
SEEKING THE GERMAN FLEET 1 5 1 
 
 was that in his face which caused a sudden 
 hush. 
 
 " I have here a radio message from 
 Washington by way of Key West," he 
 said, "which I will read: Germany has 
 declared war on the United States. Have 
 information German advance fleet is fol 
 lowing southern course for Caribbean; 
 second fleet on northern course for our At 
 lantic coast. Proceed full speed for Guan- 
 tanamo Bay, Cuba, to take on coal and 
 supplies. Find and destroy weaker ad 
 vance German fleet. Send injured ships to 
 Hampton Roads and proceed to Canal 
 Zone, Panama. Under cover of guns of 
 fortifications, await arrival of Third and 
 Fourth Divisions of Atlantic fleet from 
 Pacific, and proceed north in full strength 
 to engage second fleet of enemy. 
 
 The tidings that war had been declared 
 on the United States was flashed through 
 the fleet, and a hurry call was sent ashore 
 
152 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 for the return of the landing force of sea 
 men and marines. Ships that were coaling 
 cast off their colliers, and before noon the 
 fleet had sailed. 
 
 Shortly before midnight of April 5th 
 the Oklahoma led the way into Guan- 
 tanamo Bay, Cuba. The 6th was spent 
 in coaling, taking aboard full supplies of 
 stores and ammunition, and sending ashore 
 the boats and all superfluous ship s furni 
 ture. On the yth, shortly before dawn, 
 the fleet, stripped for action, had sailed to 
 the eastward, to " find and destroy the 
 enemy." 
 
 Overnight, Admiral Willard, Command- 
 er-in-Chief of our fleet, had thrown out to 
 the eastward a strong scouting force such 
 as it was strong in numbers, but utterly 
 inadequate for its purpose. It consisted 
 of the three armored cruisers Washington, 
 North Carolina, and Tennessee and four 
 divisions of destroyers. 
 
SEEKING THE GERMAN FLEET 153 
 
 The cruisers were powerful ships carry 
 ing four lO-inch and sixteen 6-inch guns, 
 and they were capable of breaking through 
 any screen of the German light cruisers of 
 the Karlsruhe type; but they would be 
 utterly at the mercy of the 28-knot battle- 
 cruisers possessed by Germany, their best 
 speed being only a little over 22 knots. 
 
 The destroyers, twenty in all, should 
 never have been dispatched on such service. 
 Their place was with the main fleet. Had 
 the recommendations of the General 
 Board been followed, we would have pos 
 sessed, on this disastrous day, a dozen 27- 
 knot scouts, and our main fleet, the first 
 line of defence of the United States against 
 invasion, would not have been left exposed 
 on both flanks to the destroyer attacks of 
 the enemy. 
 
 By the courtesy of the executive officer I 
 found myself on the forward fire-control 
 platform of the Oklahoma. As we cleared 
 
154 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 the entrance to Guantanamo Bay and 
 swung around to the eastward, from my 
 station, 120 feet above the sea, I gazed 
 with no little pride at the two divisions of 
 dreadnoughts strung out astern, ship be 
 yond ship at 5OO-yard intervals, in a stately 
 column which covered some three miles of 
 water. 
 
 Below me was the flagship, fresh from 
 the builders hands. Seen from above, she 
 looked wonderfully like those deck-plan 
 drawings which I had studied in the naval 
 annuals. Forward was the new type of 
 3-gun turret, with its long, lean 1 4-inch 
 guns looking for all the world like Brob- 
 dingnagian lead pencils. Abaft of it was 
 turret No. 2, with its pair of guns reach 
 ing clear across the roof of turret No. i. 
 Astern I looked down into the yawning 
 mouth of our huge single smokestack. 
 Not so much as a wraith of tell-tale smoke 
 drifted from its edge; merely the shimmer 
 
SEEKING THE GERMAN FLEET 1 5 5 
 
 of heated gases and I remembered that 
 the boilers below were oil burners. Imme 
 diately abaft the mainmast, another pair 
 of those beauties the 1 4-inch showed 
 from No. 3 turret, with their muzzles 
 poised a few feet above turret No. 4, from 
 which protruded three 14*5. Truly a noble 
 ship, her powers of offence, represented by 
 ten 14*5 and twenty-two 5*5, being matched 
 by the massive armor, 13^ to 18 inches 
 in thickness, the like of which was 
 to be found in no other navy of the 
 world. 
 
 Five hundred yards astern, with a white 
 feather of foam curling from her shapely 
 stem, was the Nevada, twin sister to the 
 flagship. Astern of her, at the same in 
 terval, were the New York and Texas, 
 carrying each a battery of ten 14*8 and 
 twenty-one 5*5. 
 
 A wonderful piece, that 14 the pet and 
 pride of the officers and men. Down at 
 
156 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Indian Head, it had passed its proving 
 tests triumphantly. Fifty-four feet long, 
 63 tons in weight, it had fired its 1,400- 
 pound shell with a velocity of 2,600 feet a 
 second and an energy of 65,000 foot-tons. 
 At a distance of 10,000 yards, the projec 
 tiles were capable of passing clean through 
 1 6 inches of Krupp armor. Elevated to 
 its limit of 15 degrees, the gun could place 
 a shell on a ship twelve miles distant. 
 
 And there were forty of these guns that 
 could speak at once, and twice a min 
 ute each, in the first four ships of our 
 line. 
 
 Astern of the Texas, I saw those stately 
 ships, the Arkansas and Wyoming, mount 
 ing, each, twelve 1 2-inch guns in its six tur 
 rets, with a battery of twenty-one 5-inch 
 rapid-firers to repel torpedo attack. 
 
 Seventh and eighth in line were the twin 
 sisters, Utah and Florida, each carrying 
 ten 12-inch guns and sixteen 5-inch. Last 
 
SEEKING THE GERMAN FLEET 1 5 7 
 
 in the line were the Delaware and North 
 Dakota, our earliest dreadnoughts, mount 
 ing ten i2 s and fourteen 5*5. 
 
 In displacement the ships varied from 
 the 20,000 tons of the Delaware to the 
 27,500 tons of the Oklahoma. The belt 
 armor was from n inches to 13^ inches 
 in thickness, and the maximum speed of 
 the fleet was 21 knots. 
 
 Every ship could fire its whole broad 
 side on either beam, and in every minute of 
 the coming engagement we would be able 
 to hurl at the enemy 110 tons of projec 
 tiles, every one of which, if it landed 
 squarely, would pass entirely through the 
 belt armor of the enemy and burst in the 
 interior of the ship. 
 
 Ship for ship and gun for gun, we knew 
 that we could crush that German fleet, 
 which, the radio had told us, was ap 
 proaching somewhere to the eastward. 
 
 But where was the enemv? In what 
 
15? AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 strength was he? And, most important 
 question of all, how did he shoot? 
 
 Before that sun, which I noted was just 
 showing the golden edge of his rim above 
 the horizon, had set, those questions had 
 received their answer amid the fruitless 
 heroism, the cataclysmic destruction, of 
 the greatest sea fight in naval history. 
 
XV 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 I REMEMBER it was while six bells were 
 striking that there came the following 
 radio call from one of our scouts, the ar 
 mored cruiser Washington: " Approaching 
 St. Nicholas," it said, " fog lifted, dis 
 closing screen of five battle-cruisers of the 
 enemy, steaming abreast, distance 20,000 
 yards, covering a column of ten ships, 
 apparently battleships. All are heading 
 west. Am returning full speed, 22 l / 2 
 knots." At 7:15 A.M. came another mes 
 sage: " Enemy, in chase, has opened fire 
 at 18,000 yards and is coming up fast." 
 And then the story came in quick sequence. 
 At 7 :3O : " Enemy at 15,000 yards is using 
 forward 12- and n-inch guns on all five 
 
 ships. Am replying with two after 10- 
 159 
 
160 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 inch." At 7:40: "Received two shells, 
 raking starboard battery." At 7 145 : 
 " Shell in boiler-room and two funnels 
 gone. Speed 15 knot3." At 7 155 : " Steer 
 ing gear gone after turret disabled- 
 heavy casualties am shot to pieces go 
 ing down by stern, colors flying sorry 
 cannot give details battleship fleet our 
 position is lat. -! " 
 
 A wireless call was sent for our de 
 stroyers to rejoin the fleet at full speed, 
 and the speed of the fleet was raised to 
 17 knots. 
 
 And then we saw them on the star 
 board bow. First the masts, with the flut 
 ter of the battle-flags discernible; then 
 the smokestacks, the turrets, the hulls, and, 
 yes ! the five battle-cruisers, which only a 
 brief hour before had sent the Washington 
 with her gallant company to the bottom. 
 
 And then, up over the horizon, sil 
 houetted sharply against the eastern sky, 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 161 
 
 there came, a mile or more astern, the van 
 of the battleship line one two three 
 eight in all : the German dreadnoughts. 
 And now the battle-cruisers began to swing 
 around, at full speed, in a wide turn to 
 port, following in the wake of their flag 
 ship, Derfflinger, until they had made a 
 turn of 1 6 points, and were heading to the 
 east. Simultaneously, each ship of the 
 two battleship divisions swung around, 
 with helm hard over, until it had turned 
 1 6 points. When the maneuver was com 
 pleted, the Germans were heading east in 
 two parallel columns, the battleship col 
 umn abreast of us at a distance of 16,000 
 yards, and the battle-cruisers some 5,000 
 yards off their starboard bow and 21,000 
 yards from our line. 
 
 In order to secure more of an offing 
 from the Cuban coast, and obtain ample 
 room for maneuvering, our Admiral sig 
 naled for every ship to turn four points 
 
1 62 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 to starboard; a maneuver which was in 
 stantly followed by the Germans. 
 
 " Ha, ha," laughed an ensign, who, with 
 his eye at the range-finder, was calling the 
 distances into a telephone mouthpiece, 
 " they don t want to come too close to our 
 i 4-inch guns; and as for the battle-cruisers, 
 they are going to stay out of the scrap al 
 together; for at over 20,000 yards their 
 n s can never reach us." 
 
 You are wrong there," said Lieuten 
 ant Carlisle, the spotter; "the German 
 batteries can elevate to 30 degrees, which 
 is just twice as much as we can. Their 
 n s have the advantage in range, carrying 
 up to 26,000 yards, as a matter of fact. 
 See that? They are trying a ranging shot 
 at 21,000 yards." 
 
 And, sure enough, there was a flash 
 from the forward turret of the Der- 
 fflinger, and thirty-five seconds later, with 
 a deep moaning roar, a shell passed over 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 163 
 
 our heads and dropped into the sea, five 
 hundred yards beyond the ship. 
 
 And now Admiral Willard, having ob 
 tained sufficient offing, brought his fleet 
 back into column again, ready for the great 
 trial of strength. 
 
 There was another flash from the Der- 
 fflinger, and half a minute later the shell 
 struck 300 yards to starboard of the Okla 
 homa. 
 
 " Good shooting," said the ensign, 
 " now for the salvo." 
 
 But it did not come not yet. Instead, 
 the leading ship of the German dread 
 nought column tried for range. The shell 
 struck 400 yards short. The next was 600 
 yards over. And then came the salvos. 
 From both ships there burst a flash of 
 flame, from the battle-cruiser first and, a 
 few seconds later, from the dreadnought 
 and the Oklahoma was the target of 
 each. 
 
164 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 With a crash that seemed to rend the 
 heavens, those twenty 1 2-inch shells 
 " straddled " our ship, one making a 
 square hit on our belt and the others strik 
 ing the sea on either beam, and sending 
 up vast columns of water that rose some 
 250 feet in the air, and fell like broken 
 waterspouts upon our decks. We on the 
 fire-control platform were drenched and 
 found ourselves standing over our boot- 
 tops in water. 
 
 But what of the Oklahoma? Had her 
 guns been silent? Far from it. 
 
 As soon as the German columns 
 straightened out after their turn to the 
 eastward, Ensign Brown at the range- 
 finder began to telephone the range to the 
 fire-control station below decks. u Sixteen 
 thousand five hundred yards; 16,200; 16,- 
 ooo; 15,500; 15,000." And looking over 
 the rail, I noted that the center gun in No. 
 i turret was lifting its muzzle. Then came 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 165 
 
 a snapping crash, a burst of flame, a drift 
 of light-brown smoke, and the 1,400- 
 pound shell was away on its flight. 
 Twenty seconds later a beautiful snow- 
 white column rose a little short of the Ger 
 man flagship and slightly astern. The 
 " spotter," his eyes glued to his glasses, 
 called into the mouthpiece of his telephone : 
 "Up 300; left 6." 
 
 Down to the central station below the 
 water-line went the message. The neces 
 sary corrections in the elevation of the 
 gun were there figured out and telephoned 
 to the sight-setter at the gun. Again a 
 shell sped to the mark. This time the 
 splash was beyond the ship and ahead. 
 " Down 200; right 3," called the spotter. 
 And now the necessary corrections being 
 made on every gun in the ship s battery, 
 the fire-control officer, holding the cross 
 hairs of his telescope on the German flag 
 ship, pressed a button and all the 1 4-inch 
 
1 66 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 guns in our battery let go together, and the 
 ten i,4OO-pound shells soared into the 
 heavens, visible for a few seconds to the 
 eye. There was a magnificent burst of 
 water at the German flagship, and, as it 
 fell away, through my glasses I could see 
 that her after smokestack was gone. The 
 ragged outline of her deck, moreover, 
 showed where the shells had burst inboard, 
 lifting the deck, and apparently jamming 
 the after turret. 
 
 And when the flagship had spoken, 
 every ship down our line burst forth in 
 flame and fury. The Germans fired with 
 greater frequency and the storm of their 
 shells, striking the water, raised such a 
 mass of broken spray that, at times, I 
 could see no farther than the second ship 
 astern. 
 
 The American ships fired with greater 
 deliberation, and, evidently, with greater 
 accuracy. Moreover, against a com- 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 167 
 
 bined broadside for the enemy dread 
 noughts of thirty-two I2 s and thirty-two 
 n s, we opposed a total broadside of 
 forty I4 s and sixty- four iz s. The fire 
 of the German battle-cruisers at 20,000 
 yards was too inaccurate to be much more 
 than annoying, although some deck hits 
 were made. 
 
 After ten minutes of furious fighting, 
 superior weight of metal began to tell. 
 The flagship Thuringcn, w r ith one smoke 
 stack gone and the after turret out of 
 action, began to slow down; finally drop 
 ping to the rear, leaving the Helgoland 
 to lead the line. Later, she picked up and 
 took station at the rear of the German 
 column. Then the Oldenburg, second in 
 line, took a sudden shear, and began to 
 circle, finally coming back on her own line 
 and cutting in between the Thuringen 
 (last in line) and the Posen. A 1 4-inch 
 shell striking fair on the conning tower 
 
1 68 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 had wrecked it and jammed her steering 
 wheel. Ultimately, she straightened out, 
 1,500 yards astern of the column, which 
 slowed down to cover her until she closed 
 up. 
 
 The first ship to be put out of action 
 was the Nassau, which succumbed to the 
 concentrated salvos of the four leading 
 ships of our line. Under the impact of 
 their 1 4-inch shells, it looked through our 
 glasses as though a whole section of her 
 side armor was driven bodily into the 
 ship. She dropped out of line mortally 
 hurt, and, heeling rapidly, capsized and 
 sank, fifteen minutes after the action 
 opened. 
 
 Our leading ships then concentrated on 
 the Helgoland and Ostfrlesland, first and 
 second in line ; and in order to cover them 
 the battle-cruisers, risking the penetration 
 of their belts by our 14*3, drew ahead clear 
 of the dreadnought line and closing in to 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 169 
 
 15,000 yards began to plant their salvos 
 on the Oklahoma and Nevada. 
 
 Their shells, falling at a steep angle, 
 were dropping on our decks; and it was 
 one of these that pierced the protective 
 deck of the Nevada, smashed her low pres 
 sure turbines, and threw this fine ship out 
 of the line. She stopped and drifted 
 astern. When I last saw her, she was blaz 
 ing away with her 5-inch batteries at a 
 swarm of German destroyers, which had 
 rushed in, like a crowd of angry terriers, 
 to get her with the torpedo. 
 
 The fight had now been on for half an 
 hour and we were asserting our superior 
 ity. The battle-cruiser Von der Tann had 
 been badly hit and was settling by the stern. 
 The fire from the German dreadnoughts 
 had perceptibly slackened, and the Thu- 
 rlngen, at the tail of the column, was again 
 in trouble with her steering-gear and had 
 fallen behind. Although our ships had 
 
1 70 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 been badly knocked about in their upper 
 works and some of the turrets had been 
 disabled, the water line was intact on every 
 ship. Victory was in sight, and we on the 
 fire-control platform were jubilantly slap 
 ping each other on the back, when, hap 
 pening to look landwards (we were now 
 clearing Cape Maysi, the extreme easterly 
 point of Cuba), I saw the leading ships of 
 a column of warships moving past the 
 point and bearing down diagonally upon 
 our port bow. 
 
 I touched the spotter on the shoul 
 der: " Carlisle, look at that; what is 
 it?" 
 
 He swung his glasses upon the fleet (it 
 was clear of the point by now). That, 
 my dear sir, is the other and stronger half 
 of the German fleet, four Koenigs and the 
 five Kaisers ." 
 
 " Good Heavens! Then we are in for 
 it." 
 
172 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 " In for a licking," my dear boy, " if 
 they can do as good shooting as our 
 friends over there," with a wave of the 
 hand to the starboard. 
 
 " But the radio from Key West told 
 us that this fleet was a thousand miles 
 north from here." 
 
 Carlisle was silent for a moment. "Did 
 you not think it strange that we should 
 have been able to communicate only with 
 Key West radio station not a word from 
 Colon or Arlington?" 
 
 " Yes, I had thought of that." 
 
 " Well, that second fleet coming out 
 from under the lee of Cuba has made 
 everything as clear as day to me. The 
 Germans have raided our coasts (why, 
 we may never live to know), seized Key 
 West, and, using our secret code (which 
 their confounded Intelligence Service has 
 undoubtedly gotten hold of), have led us, 
 in their own good time, and with true Ger- 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 173 
 
 man precision, into this trap. Just look at 
 that ! They are going to tee us." 
 
 And there we saw the four battle- 
 cruisers, going 28 knots, forge ahead of 
 the German column, and draw in, diag 
 onally, across our path. 
 
 By the time the second fleet of the 
 enemy had closed in to 12,000 yards and 
 opened fire, the cruiser division was zig 
 zagging across our course, 10,000 yards 
 ahead, and delivering a raking fire right 
 down our line, first letting fly to starboard, 
 then to port. 
 
 A hurricane of fire and steel smote the 
 head of the American line. By precon 
 certed plan, every ship of the enemy, from 
 starboard, from port, and from dead 
 ahead, concentrated on the Oklahoma. 
 Never had such a fury of shells stormed 
 upon ship or fortress as found and 
 searched out the American flagship. In 
 those brief minutes before she sank, all 
 
174 AiMERicA FALLEN 
 
 semblance of a ship had gone out of her. 
 The roar of bursting shells was continuous. 
 From side to side and from end to end 
 they tore through her quivering frame and 
 laughed at her dying agony. 
 
 And I am told that what happened to 
 her happened at the head of the surviving 
 line, until the last ship had gone, the 
 column melting away before that concen 
 trated fire like a bar of sealing wax before 
 a blowpipe. 
 
 I remember, as the noble ship keeled 
 swiftly over, how the fire-control platform 
 described a mighty arc through the air, 
 and flung us into the shell-lashed waters. 
 My last recollection of that holocaust is 
 of seeing the Arkansas, flashing from 
 stem to stern with the burst of high- 
 explosive shell as she swept by. Then a 
 shell fragment grazed my head. 
 
 The water, or I know not what, brought 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE CARIBBEAN 175 
 
 me to. Far in the distance the flash and 
 smoke and roar of battle marked where 
 the last American ship was being done to 
 death, the dear old flag flaunting its " no 
 surrender " message to the bitter end. 
 And then, as the sad vision and all vision 
 began to fade away, I heard sharp words 
 of command, and the swish of backing pro 
 pellers, and something jerked me violently 
 by the collar, and I was lying upon my 
 back, and a familiar voice was saying: 
 " Bless my soul, if it isn t Watson ! What 
 in the name of the unexpected and im 
 possible are you doing here? " 
 
 And I had been fished out of the water 
 by a boat hook and landed on the deck of 
 the U. S. destroyer Patterson; and there 
 was Commander Judson, whose guest I had 
 been on this very boat, during a never-to- 
 be-forgotten week of the summer ma 
 neuvers last year. 
 
 " I came down to witness director firing 
 
176 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 on the Oklahoma and well I saw it. 
 And you, what are you going to do? " 
 
 " Beat it for Hampton Roads, or any 
 other point where I can get in to tell the 
 good people of the United States, and their 
 good representatives in the halls of Con 
 gress, to what a pretty mess they have 
 brought their navy, as the result of 
 interference, parsimony, and neglect!" 
 
XVI 
 
 REAPING THE WHIRLWIND 
 
 THE plan of campaign for the invasion of 
 the United States, as formulated by the 
 Great General Staff at Berlin, comprised 
 three major operations: 
 
 I. To make a surprise attack upon the 
 coast by a raiding force, and capture 
 Washington and the principal seaboard 
 cities, harbors, and naval bases. 
 
 II. To destroy the enemy fleet and 
 obtain command of the sea % 
 
 III. By the instant seizure of all the ar 
 senals, gun factories, and powder works, 
 to prevent the development of the great 
 potential strength of the United States in 
 men capable of bearing arms. 
 
 So perfect was the preparation of Ger 
 many; so complete the unpreparedness of 
 
178 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 the great country against which she 
 launched her attack, that within a week of 
 the declaration of war her fleet had sunk 
 the enemy and was in undisputed command 
 of the sea, and her army had captured the 
 National Capital and the two leading sea 
 ports of the country. 
 
 At the very hour when the Mayor of 
 New York received the ultimatum of Ad 
 miral Buchner, there dropped anchor in 
 the Narrows the new 54,ooo-ton liner 
 Bismarck. It was her maiden voyage 
 (duly advertised), and she had on board 
 10,000 German troops with their full 
 equipment. The next day she was joined 
 by the Imperator and the Valerland, and 
 as soon as the signal " cease firing " had 
 been made from the Koenig, the three 
 great ships, carrying 30,000 troops, or as 
 many as the total regular mobile army in 
 the United States at that hour, steamed to 
 
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND 179 
 
 the Hoboken and Chelsea docks and began 
 the work of debarkation. Before night on 
 April zd, the German forces in New York, 
 including the garrisons at the forts, num 
 bered 35,000 men. 
 
 To Boston came the Cecilie, the Kaiser 
 Wilhelm II, and many another well- 
 remembered liner, crowded with men and 
 equipment. Night and day the soldiers 
 of the Kaiser poured down the gangways 
 of the ships, formed in column, marched 
 from the docks to the armories, and were 
 billeted throughout the cities. 
 
 And now, the need for secrecy being 
 removed, transports steamed boldly up 
 the Chesapeake, and Washington re 
 ceived its quota of the first reinforcements 
 from Germany. Here, the guns, horses, 
 transport wagons, etc., were placed on 
 pontoons for transport from ship to land 
 ing beach. 
 
 So excellent were the facilities for de- 
 
i So AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 barkation afforded by the possession of 
 New York and Boston, that by April 5th, 
 including the raiding force, two army 
 corps, or 80,000 troops, fully equipped and 
 ready for service in the field, had been 
 landed in America. 
 
 And thereafter during the next five days, 
 the faster ships of the transports which 
 sailed from Germany on April ist began 
 to arrive, warping into the piers at New 
 York and Boston, which had been vacated 
 by the earlier transports ; so that by April 
 loth the German forces in the United 
 States had been raised to 100,000 men. 
 
 Bold, indeed, was the strategy which 
 dared to send this army to sea in unarmed 
 transports, while the main fleet of the 
 enemy was still " in being," or intact upon 
 the high seas. Had not the great Mahan 
 and many another authority before him 
 laid it down, that before troops were em 
 barked the enemy fleet must be either 
 
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND 181 
 
 sunk or securely blockaded in its own 
 ports? True; but, "Other times, other 
 customs." The advent of the seagoing 
 submarine and of the wireless had intro 
 duced factors which had upset the old 
 formulas of war. 
 
 The possession by the enemy of a force 
 of seagoing submarines enabled them, at 
 one stroke, to clear the coasts of every hos 
 tile ship from Canada to the Panama 
 Canal; and the capture of the radio plants 
 and the possession by Germany of the 
 U. S. Navy Secret Code made it possible 
 to lure its main fleet into a position where 
 it could be overwhelmed by superior num 
 bers. 
 
 Finally, on April nth there appeared 
 off the American coast a great fleet of 45 
 transports, having on board 100,000 
 troops, and convoyed by the pre-dread- 
 nought ships of the Deutschland and 
 Witllesbach classes. It divided, the five 
 
1 82 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 Deutschlands convoying half of the force 
 to New York and the five Wittlesbachs 
 proceeding with the other half to the Dela 
 ware. The defences of the Delaware 
 having been already taken from the land 
 side, the fleet steamed up to Philadel 
 phia. 
 
 By the 1 4th of April, or just two weeks 
 after the declaration of war, an army of 
 200,000 of the picked veterans of the re 
 cent European conflict had been landed 
 on American shores and was prepared to 
 move into the interior for the subjugation 
 of the country. 
 
 And that was how it came about that 
 the United States the wealthiest and, po 
 tentially in its undeveloped wealth of men 
 and natural resources, the most powerful 
 country on earth found itself, in the 
 space of two eventful weeks, held fast in 
 the " mailed fist " of a foreign foe. 
 
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND 183 
 
 Having, lo ! these many years, " sown to 
 the wind " the seeds of pacificist delusion, 
 of political self-seeking, of amazing self- 
 sufficiency, and of fatuous neglect, she was 
 now to " reap the whirlwind " of disillu 
 sionment and humiliation in a profound 
 national disaster! 
 
 To describe in any detail the sequence 
 of the operations by which the German 
 Commander-in-Chief, within two weeks of 
 the opening of hostilities had captured all 
 the arsenals, and arms and powder works 
 lying between the coast and the Alle- 
 ghanies, would take a volume in itself. 
 That must be the work of the future his 
 torian. It will suffice for the present 
 purpose to sketch the mere outline of those 
 tragic events which came to be known 
 thereafter as The Great American De 
 bacle ! 
 
 Immediately upon the capture of Bos- 
 
184 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 ton, New York, and Washington, detach 
 ments were told off to seize the railway 
 yards and terminals, and to commandeer 
 such automobiles and motor trucks as 
 were best adapted to army transport. 
 This was done in each case on April ist, 
 and early on the same day strong flying 
 detachments, with numerous batteries of 
 machine-guns, were rushed out by rail and 
 by automobile to seize the bridges and 
 tunnels on the main lines of the New 
 Haven, the New York Central, and the 
 Pennsylvania systems. Every few hours 
 additional reinforcements were pushed 
 forward to strengthen and hold these 
 strategic points, until the several armies 
 of occupation could be brought up from 
 the coast by rail. 
 
 And on April 6th, the railroads being 
 securely held, the main advance began. 
 
 From Boston a force of 5,000 men was 
 thrown into Portsmouth, and three regi- 
 
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND 185 
 
 ments, comprising about 10,000 men, 
 moved down the coast, capturing the Fore 
 River Shipbuilding plant at Quincy, 
 Mass., where most of the United States 
 submarines are built, and seizing the Tor 
 pedo Station at Newport, R. I., the sub 
 marine engine works at Groton, and the 
 port of New London. 
 
 By way of the New Haven four-track 
 road, 15,000 troops moved from New 
 York into Connecticut, capturing, in succes 
 sion, Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, 
 and Springfield, Mass. This placed in pos 
 session of the enemy such important works 
 as those of the Union Metallic Cartridge 
 Company, the American & British Mfg. 
 Co. for making field-guns, the Winches 
 ter and Marlin works, the Colt works, 
 and, greatest disaster of all, the United 
 States Aresnal, where the rifles for the 
 Regular Army and the Organized Militia 
 are made. 
 
1 86 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 The army of invasion by way of the 
 Hudson River, 15,000 strong, moving by 
 the four-track road of the New York Cen 
 tral, captured lona Island, an important 
 shell and powder depot of the U. S. Navy, 
 and at Troy, N. Y., took possession of the 
 Government works for the manufacture of 
 heavy coast-defence guns and mortars. 
 Pushing on they soon had possession, at 
 Utica and Ilion, of the Remington and of 
 the Savage Small Arms works. 
 
 The invasion of New Jersey was effected 
 by a division (20,000 men). Strong de 
 tachments of this force seized the United 
 States Army Arsenal and Powder works 
 near Dover, and the Powder works of the 
 Du Pont Powder Company at Parlin, 
 Pompton Lakes, and other New Jersey 
 points. Another detachment moved 
 through Easton and took possession of the 
 Bethlehem Steel Works, one of the most 
 important gun and armor plants in the 
 
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND 187 
 
 world. The balance of the force, com 
 prising some 15,000 men, seized Philadel 
 phia, and took over the great shipbuild 
 ing yards of the Cramps at Philadelphia 
 and of the New York Shipbuilding Com 
 pany at Camden, N. J. Following this, 
 the Germans moved down on both sides 
 of the Delaware and captured, from the 
 land side, the fortifications on the river 
 guarding the approaches to Philadel 
 phia. 
 
 From Washington 7,000 troops moved 
 on Baltimore, and pushing on, occupied 
 Wilmington and the great powder works 
 of the Du Pont Powder Company at Car 
 ney Point. Fort Monroe was reduced by 
 bombardment, from a point beyond the 
 range of its guns, by the battleship fleet 
 which convoyed the second half of the 
 German Army; and when this had been ac 
 complished, the Norfolk Navy Yard and 
 the Newport News Shipyard were cap- 
 
1 88 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 tured by a force of 3,000 men from Wash 
 ington. 
 
 And thus, by April loth, the major 
 naval and military operations of the Ger 
 man plan of invasion had been completed. 
 The United States main fleet was sunk, 
 Washington and the principal seacoast 
 cities were captured, and the arsenals and 
 gun factories (with the exception of that at 
 Rock Island) for arming and supplying any 
 new armies which might be raised were in 
 German hands. 
 
 Eight billions of the twenty billions 
 which was the ultimate object of the inva 
 sion had been pledged. It now remained 
 to secure from the Federal Government 
 the twelve billion dollars, which had been 
 demanded as the price of peace and the 
 evacuation of United States territory. 
 
 Let it not be for one moment supposed 
 that while its territory was thus being out- 
 
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND 189 
 
 raged and overrun, the United States was 
 tamely submissive. The regular army, 
 alas ! except for the slender garrisons, was 
 concentrated thousands of miles away on 
 the Mexican border; but the moment the 
 news of the invasion was flashed inland, 
 orders were given for the mobilization of 
 the militia and every emergency measure 
 was taken to meet the invader. 
 
 But so quickly did he strike inland that 
 it was at once evident that any concentra 
 tion of troops in the East, in sufficient 
 strength for effectual resistance, was im 
 possible. Therefore, acting on the advice 
 of his Chief of Staff, the President sent 
 out an order for the retirement of all 
 forces, regular and militia, behind the 
 general line of the Alleghanies, and their 
 concentration at Pittsburg, the temporary 
 seat of Government. 
 
 And so, with smothered rage, the de 
 scendants of the men who fought at Lex- 
 
190 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 ington, Bunker. Hill, and Yorktown saw 
 the richest and most populous section of 
 their country handed over for occupation 
 by a foreign army; and the bitterness of 
 that hour was not assuaged by the thought 
 that this evacuation by the scatteredAmeri- 
 can troops was the only alternative to their 
 capture or absolute annihilation by the per 
 fectly organized army of occupation, back 
 of which, thanks to the absolute command 
 of the sea, lay the millions of the Kaiser s 
 army. 
 
 Bitter as gall, too, was the thought that, 
 if the country had listened to the oft- 
 repeated warnings of its military advisers, 
 the enemy could never have landed on 
 American soil, or, having done so, would 
 have been met by a quick concentration in 
 such superior strength as to drive him back 
 to his ships. 
 
XVII 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG AND PEACE 
 
 No answer having been received by the 
 Commander-in-Chief of the German 
 forces in America to the proposals for 
 warded to the United States Government 
 at Pittsburg, orders were given in Berlin 
 on April 3d for the immediate embarkation 
 of a third army of 100,000 men for the 
 seat of war. Also, instructions were for 
 warded to New York to move in full 
 strength on Pittsburg. 
 
 Forthwith, an army of 150,000 men be 
 gan to concentrate at Philadelphia 50,- 
 ooo men being considered amply sufficient 
 to hold the cities already captured. This 
 confidence was based on the absolutely re 
 liable data furnished to Berlin before the 
 
 war by the German Intelligence Service 
 191 
 
192 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 as to the total effectives (90,000 regular 
 and militia) in the country, and on the in 
 formation furnished from the same source 
 as to the complete evacuation of the At 
 lantic States by the United States military 
 forces and their concentration at Pitts- 
 burg. 
 
 Before the movement of troops dis 
 closed the plan of campaign, strong ad 
 vance forces were thrown forward to hold 
 the bridges on the line of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad across the Alleghanies. The 
 main force moved forward on April i6th 
 by rail and motor car, on parallel roads, 
 until it was halted at the great stone bridge 
 of the Pennsylvania Railroad across the 
 Susquehanna, near Harrisburg, three 
 arches of which had been blown up by the 
 United States Army Engineers. The Ger 
 mans ultimately crossed by temporary tres 
 tle bridging, and by a pontoon bridge, 
 which they threw across the river. Sharp 
 
THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG 193 
 
 fighting occurred between the American 
 rear guard and the advance screen of the 
 German Army at every point up the Juniata 
 Valley that offered strong positions for 
 defence. On April 2Oth and 2ist one of 
 the most glorious feats of arms in Ameri 
 can history was performed, when a united 
 force of 10,000 regulars and 15,000 mili 
 tia held the pass at the summit of the Alle- 
 ghanies for two days, throwing back the 
 van of the German advance, and being fin 
 ally dislodged only when massed batteries 
 of 400 guns caused them to retreat the 
 whole force getting away down the Cone- 
 maugh Valley with their artillery and 
 wounded. 
 
 The American Army, consisting of 
 28,000 regulars and 42,000 effectives of 
 the militia, with 30,000 partially trained 
 and ill-equipped militia in reserve, had 
 taken position for the defence of Pitts- 
 burg on the historic field of Braddock s 
 
194 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 defeat. The little army was strongly en 
 trenched; but in field artillery it was sadly 
 deficient, having only 180 field-guns, 
 where it should have had 350. There 
 was a similar shortage in machine-gun 
 batteries. 
 
 Against the Americans was deployed an 
 army which, in spite of the engagements in 
 crossing the mountains, still numbered 
 145,000 men of all arms. It was com 
 pletely equipped, and of the 7.7 centimeter 
 field-gun it possessed over 850, besides sev 
 eral batteries of 8.2-inch field howitzers. 
 
 It is not within the scope of this narra 
 tive to attempt any description of the Bat 
 tle of Braddock. Thanks to the skill with 
 which the American position was chosen, 
 the admirable advantage that was taken 
 of the terrain in laying out the trenches 
 and emplacing the batteries, and above all 
 the matchless courage and endurance with 
 which the American Armv clung to its 
 
THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG 195 
 
 position the onset of the German inva 
 sion was checked and its first rush broken 
 and thrown back in confusion upon the 
 main body. Only after two days of the 
 bloodiest charge and countercharge, and 
 when the whole mass of the German ar 
 tillery had blasted the American trenches 
 out of all semblance of earthworks, did the 
 remnant of the American forces fall back 
 on Pittsburg. After destroying all the 
 bridges the army fell back to take up a 
 strong defensive position along the west 
 bank of the Ohio. 
 
 The seat of government was transferred 
 to Cincinnati; and, within a few days, an 
 emissary arrived from the German Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, with the proposal that, 
 on the condition of the payment by the 
 Federal Government of twelve billion 
 dollars and its abandonment of the " Mon 
 roe Doctrine," the German Army would 
 be reembarked, leaving sufficient forces to 
 
196 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 hold the principal custom-houses on the At 
 lantic and Gulf Coast until the indemnity 
 was paid. 
 
 A council of war was called by the Presi 
 dent for the purpose of discussing the mili 
 tary situation. Present were the Cabinet, 
 the Chief of Staff of the Army, and the 
 President of the General Board of the 
 Navy. 
 
 The President of the United States, 
 whose poise, so far as any outward indica 
 tions might show, seemed to have been in 
 no wise disturbed by the stupendous 
 calamity which had overtaken the country, 
 said: 
 
 " The question as to whether it will be 
 the part of wisdom to accept the conditions 
 of the enemy, or carry on the war until he 
 is crushed and driven back to the sea, is a 
 naval and military one. There are two 
 questions, indeed, to be answered: Is there 
 any possibility of our defeating the enemy 
 
THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG 197 
 
 fleet and cutting off the German Army 
 from its base; and failing that, what are 
 the prospects of our raising an army or 
 armies of sufficient strength to defeat the 
 land forces of the enemy and drive him 
 back to the sea." 
 
 " So far as the naval situation is con 
 cerned," said the President of the General 
 Board, " the case is hopeless. It became 
 so on the fatal day when every dread 
 nought possessed by the American Navy 
 was sunk in the Caribbean. For, although, 
 in spite of the great odds against which we 
 fought (10 ships against 22), eight of the 
 enemy were sunk, they still have 14 ships 
 of the dreadnought class off our coast, be 
 sides 10 ships of the pre-dreadnought 
 class, to say nothing of strong divisions 
 and flotillas of cruisers, destroyers, and 
 submarines. Our own pre-dreadnought 
 fleet is in the Pacific, and, because of the 
 preponderance of the enemy in the At- 
 
198 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 lantic, it must remain there. We cannot 
 increase our naval strength; for all of our 
 navy yards and shipbuilding plants on the 
 Atlantic seaboard are in the hands of the 
 enemy. Whatever the duration of the war, 
 Mr. President, the command of the sea 
 will remain with the Germans; and they 
 will be free to bring over the whole 
 German Army, should they wish to do 
 
 so." 
 
 He was followed by the Chief of Staff, 
 who said: 
 
 " As to the military situation, Mr. Pres 
 ident, the conditions are easily stated. 
 
 " The enemy is in undisputed possession 
 of the richest, most valuable, and most 
 densely populated section of the United 
 States. He holds all that part of the 
 country north of the Potomac lying be 
 tween the Alleghanies and the Atlantic 
 Coast. Being in command of the sea and 
 possessing ample transport, he is free to 
 
THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG 199 
 
 land on our shores as many troops as he 
 may desire. His army can live off the 
 land. Having possession of the principal 
 ports of the country, he can collect those 
 revenues which have formed the greater 
 half of the revenues of the Federal Gov 
 ernment; and our Treasury will be de 
 pleted to just that extent. Therefore, if 
 we carry on the war, the cost of the war, 
 not merely to us but to the enemy, must 
 be borne by the United States. 
 
 The question of our ability to raise 
 and equip an army sufficient in numbers, 
 equipment, and training to enable us to 
 drive the enemy back to the sea depends, 
 primarily, upon the strength of the forces 
 which he may bring over. So great is the 
 prize for which Germany would contend 
 that she would match corps with corps, 
 army with army; and, supposing that no 
 European complications arise, it is conceiv 
 able that we should find ourselves con- 
 
200 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 fronted by the full strength of the German 
 Army or, say, including the first and second 
 reserves, by 4,000,000 men." 
 
 Here the Secretary of State interposed 
 to say : 
 
 " The President has only to send out a 
 call for volunteers, and out of our 100,- 
 000,000 citizens, 10,000,000 would spring 
 to arms before the sun had set." 
 
 " True, Mr. Secretary," said the Chief 
 of Staff, " but you must remember that se 
 curing the men is the simplest part of the 
 problem. Moreover, you must not forget 
 that the most populous portion of the 
 country is held by the enemy, and if he 
 can prevent it which he will not a single 
 volunteer will be available from the cap 
 tured territory. 
 
 " The problem, however, is not to get 
 the men, but the officers to lead them and 
 the rifles, uniforms, ammunition, and 
 above all the artillery, with which to equip 
 
THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG 201 
 
 them. Without these, your 10,000,000 
 men, Mr. Secretary, as I told you in Wash 
 ington, would be merely a mob, 10,000,- 
 ooo strong. 
 
 " Take the question of artillery alone. 
 Without it, to send an army to battle with 
 the superbly equipped German troops 
 would be to send the brave fellows to cer 
 tain slaughter. To equip an army of 
 4,000,000 men with field artillery alone 
 would call for 20,000 3-inch guns; and the 
 equipment with howitzers and machine- 
 guns, to say nothing of rifles and ammuni 
 tion of all kinds, would be on the same 
 scale. 
 
 " Where are we going to obtain all this 
 materiel? Practically all the arsenals, 
 depots, gunshops, rifle factories, and pow 
 der works of the United States lie in that 
 part of the country which is held by the 
 enemy. 
 
 "So the question of how long it would 
 
202 AMERICA FALLEN 
 
 take us to drive out the Germans is one not 
 of patriotism but of mechanics. If I could 
 tell you, offhand, Mr. President, how long 
 it would take to build, equip, and man the 
 factories necessary to manufacture the 
 rifles, field-guns, powder, uniforms, and 
 tentage for an army of one million, or two, 
 three, or four million men, as the case 
 might be, I could tell you how long 
 it would be before we were ready 
 to drive the enemy from our lost terri 
 tory. 
 
 " At a rough guess, I should say that it 
 would be not less than two and a half 
 years, and if he developed his full military 
 strength, it might be five or six." 
 
 The Chief of Staff paused, swept his 
 glance over the Cabinet, and resumed: 
 
 " If I may be allowed to state what 
 seems to me to be the wise course, the truly 
 patriotic course, in this crisis " 
 
 " Certainly," said the President. 
 
THE CAPTURE OF PITTSBURG 203 
 
 " I would suggest that the Government 
 pay this indemnity, and write it off on the 
 National Ledger as the cost of being 
 taught the great national duty of military 
 preparedness." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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