After this came "Verdun"—that conflict in which France won immortal glory and the German's attack upon the French fortress town of Verdun was successfully repulsed. The battle raged for four months, beginning in February, 1916. The German troops, with the German Crown Prince in command, captured two forts close to Verdun, but little by little the French troops drove them back, and finally, in command of General Nivelle, with General Petain looking after the defense of Verdun, the French, co-operating with the British, made an attack on the Somme, and the Germans were compelled to abandon the Verdun offensive. In the Verdun campaign the Germans lost more than 500,000 men, while the French lost not half the number.
Russia's conquest of Armenia was one of the features of 1916. The troops under General Brussiloff renewed their endeavors in Galicia and for several months made great progress; then Rumania entered the war and the Russian forces in Galicia slowed down. In Caucasus, however, Russian troops gained Erzerum, one of the Turk fortresses, and captured the seaport of Trebizond, practically gaining Armenia. Like the Germans in retreat from Flanders, the Turks practiced unspeakable horrors. Their cruelties were such as to almost exterminate the race.
The tragedy of the Balkans in 1916 was Rumania. With an army of more than half a million men, she entered the war with the approval of the Entente and entered Transylvania. But the Germans began a counter-attack in Dobrudja, and the Rumanians were compelled to withdraw some of their forces from Transylvania. The German commander then threw his forces across the remaining Rumanians and drove them across the border, after which he swung his own troops through the mountain passes into Rumania. The two German forces invading Rumania met at Bucharest, and the Rumanian capital was occupied.
Another fiasco was that of the British expeditionary force which was sent from India by way of the Persian Gulf and up the Tigris river to Bagdad. General Townsend succeeded in getting within 15 miles of Bagdad, but he was defeated by a superior Turkish force and compelled to fall back to Kut-el-Amara. Here his inadequate force, lacking medical and transport facilities, was fairly starved out before he was relieved. He was finally compelled to surrender the last week in April, 1916.
Little more than a year after the collapse of this expedition, however, the famous old city of Bagdad was captured by the English after a well-directed campaign under General Maude.
Italy, having begun active warfare with the Allies in 1915, waged war along the Austrian border, compelling the Austro-German forces to concentrate a larger body of troops for duty on the Italian frontier, and to that extent materially assisted the Allies. At the same time the Italians fought their way up over the mountains and won more than 500 square miles of territory and took nearly 90,000 prisoners.
The final alignment of the Greeks with the Allies marked the progress of affairs in the middle of 1917, when Constantine was forced from his throne in favor of his second son, and Venizelos was returned as Premier. But the entrance of the Greeks did not materially alter the situation.
The two most important events of 1917 were the entrance of America into the conflict and the revolt in Russia, which caused the abdication of the Czar and turned the great country into a republic. The ultimate in Russia's history is still to be written, but the change was fraught with disaster. The people let free, and unaccustomed to self-government, could not be controlled, and the army became demoralized.
The element which had been loyal to the Romanoffs refused to fight for liberty, and the Germans, taking advantage of the situation, drove the Russian troops back over the frontiers and gained all that the Russians had once taken in conflict. And out of this grew one of the most picturesque incidents of the entire war. Russian women and girls, filled with ideals and with a deep sense of the responsibilities which rested upon the nation, formed a corps, and, dressed in full military costume, went to the front and attacked the German troops. No soldiers of any nation have shown more heroism, or more capability, for the women faced the bullets, and, while they were being mowed down by the German guns, they urged their men to face the enemy and fight—fight—fight.
While there have been few of the picturesque battles on the seas, which the world has long regarded as a necessary adjunct to a successful war, the work of the British Navy has proved through the period of the conflict to be one of the most powerful and effective assets of the Allied forces. Through the operation of the British fleet, later augmented by an American war fleet, the German ships have been corked up in their home ports and chased from the seas.
The first naval battle of the war was an engagement between portions of the British squadron in the Pacific and a superior German force. The engagement occurred off the coast of Chili in November, 1915. Two British vessels were lost and a third badly damaged. However, a few months later, the German squadron, in command of Admiral von Spee, was met off the Falkland Islands by a second British squadron, and in the engagement four of the German vessels were sunk and a fifth damaged. This vessel was later sunk.
The most important naval engagement was the battle of Jutland in May, 1916, when Admiral Beatty met a German fleet in the North Sea. The German boats made a dash from the Kiel canal and engaged the British off the coast of Denmark. Both England and Germany claimed victory, the former declaring that Germany lost eighteen ships, while the German Government claimed that the British lost fifteen vessels. Berlin admitted a loss of 60,720 tons and 3966 men, while England conceded a loss of more than 114,000 tons and 5613 men. But the English fleet which engaged the German fighting ships was but a small portion of the force on guard outside of Helgoland and the Kiel Canal, and the effect was to keep the German navy from venturing forth again.
These are the main events which had punctuated the action of the world's fighting machines at the close of August, 1917, when America was preparing to thwart the German U-boats in their destruction of the world's shipping, and had under actual call to arms more than 1,000,000 men, a minor part of which had been safely landed in France.
In the three months prior to August the German underseas boats had sunk 464 vessels, or an average of 426,000 tons of shipping a month, while America, working with her fleets in conjunction with the British Navy to foil the submarine in its endeavors, was also building more than 12,000 cargo-carrying craft and submarine chasers with which to flood the traffic lanes of the sea.
Likewise, contracts had been awarded for 10,000 flying machines with which to drive the "eyes of the German army," as the air machines are called, from the heavens. Finally, as the Allies in the closing days of August were driving the German hordes back under avalanches of shells, 629,000 of the youth of America, called to fight under the conscript act, were preparing to move to camps in a dozen different sections of the country to train themselves for invading foreign countries and facing the brutal Teutons. Likewise, some 20,000 picked men were training to officer these civilian forces, and half a million men of the National Guards of the various States, formally mustered into the service of the country, were moving by orders of the Government to points whence they would find their way to the side of the loyal French soldiers and the sturdy English, Scotch, Canadian, Australian and virile Italian fighters.
The records of three years show that the American ambulance drivers; daring thousands of our countrymen who fought with the French and English because they believed the war was a just one, and without compulsion; scores of Red Cross nurses, and aviators who hunted the Teutons in the air, all Americans, have had their names written high in the roster of heroes. Americans have always been pioneers and history makers, and they are making history now.
With the approach of cold weather, and following months of intensive training under the direction of French and English soldiers, the American expeditionary forces began actual participation in the great world war as a unit. Previously their achievements were principally in connection with the French aviation corps and ambulance sections.
The first untoward incident involving America's forces on land or sea was the sinking of the transport Antilles on October 27, 1917, by a German submarine, when 67 men—officers, seamen and soldiers—were lost. The vessel was returning from a French port after having landed troops and supplies. This was the first loss sustained by the United States, and the event brought home the seriousness of the country's participation in the war as no previous event had done.
Almost immediately following this the world awoke one morning to learn that silently and unheralded the American soldiers had marched from their quarters in a French village to the "front" and in a slough of mud had entered the trenches, and for the first time in history United States troops launched shells against the forces of Germany.
The initial shot was fired by artillerists at the break of day on October 24, and America was formally made an active agent in the horrors of warfare on "No Man's Land." Ten days later the brave Americans, occupying a position in the trenches for instruction, early on the morning of Saturday, November 3, received their baptism of fire, and in the cause of Democracy 3 soldiers were killed, 5 wounded and 12 captured by the Boche forces.
Cut off from the main line of the Allied forces, the Americans were stormed under the protection of a heavy barrage fire by a German raiding party and engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter. The 20 Americans, with several French instructors, according to official report, were pitted against 210 picked Germans. A rain of shells from Boche guns was laid back of the American section so that there was no retreat. The lieutenant in command made a heroic attempt to reach the main fighting line, but was caught in the barrage fire and rendered unconscious from shell-shock.
Previously American scouts had captured a German prisoner—a mail runner; Lieutenant de Vere H. Harden, of the Signal Corps had been wounded by a bursting German shell, and a German gunner was reported killed by an American sharpshooter, as opening incidents of the skirmish.
And so at the beginning of November, 1917, with the whole United States giving support to the Government in subscribing upwards of five billions of dollars to the second Liberty Loan, and all forces working to conserve food, furnish men, ships, ammunition, clothing and supplies to her own troops and to her Allies, the world found America true to traditions, battling for the right and giving her best that liberty might endure and the burden of Prussianism be lifted from humanity.
United States Soldiers Inspired Allied Troops—Russian Government Collapses—Italian Army Fails—Allied War Council Formed—Foch Commands Allied Armies—Pershing Offers American Troops—Under Fire—U-Boat Bases Raided by British.
The influence exerted by the actual presence of the American troops on the western front was soon apparent. The spirits of the English, French and Canadian troops were raised and the presence of the Americans was heralded to the world as an evidence of complete unity on the part of the Allies that meant ultimate death to Kaiserism.
The advent of Uncle Sam's fighting men on the firing line had, however, one serious effect, viewed from the Allied standpoint. Germany realized that every day she delayed in making attack meant the strengthening of the Allied forces by the arrival of additional United States troops, and it was seen by the English and French leaders that the Kaiser would make an early drive to annihilate, if possible, the stubbornly resisting, though somewhat tired and weakened, lines opposing his brutal soldiery. Not for months, therefore, was it permitted the world to know anything about the numerical strength of the American troops sent into France.
Simultaneously with the action of American troops in entering the resisting line of Allied troops on the western front the Austro-German troops had swept into the Italian plains, capturing 100,000 prisoners and upward of 1,000 guns, taking several towns and compelling the retreat of the Second and Third Italian armies. The Italian forces were opposed by four times their number, but it was also said that the unity of the Italian forces was broken by the spreading of German propaganda.
The failure of some of the troops was shown in an official dispatch from Rome, in which it was stated:
"The failure to resist on the part of some units forming our second army, which in cowardice retired without fighting or surrendered to the enemy, allowed the Austro-German forces to break into our left wing on the Julian front. The valiant efforts of other troops did not enable them to prevent the enemy from advancing into the sacred soil of our fatherland. We now are withdrawing our line according to the plan prepared. All stores and depots in the evacuated places were destroyed."
These troops were compelled to fall back along a front almost 125 miles long and Undine, the Italian headquarters, was captured. Germany had found the weakest spot in the Italian line and occupied about 1,000 square miles of territory before General Cadorna's forces were able to establish a line of strong defense.
The retirement of the Italian troops was one of the most picturesque in the history of the war, and Germany made her gains at terrible cost.
The retirement was accompanied by shielding operations of the rear guard, which poured a deadly fire into the advancing columns and at the same time destroyed powder depots, arsenals and bridges with the double purpose of giving time for the withdrawal of the Italian heavy guns and of preventing military stores falling into the hands of the enemy.
The Germans encountered stubborn resistance on the Bainsizza plateau, and heaps of enemy dead marked the lines of their advance. Around Globo ridge a bersaglieri brigade, outnumbered five to one, held back the enemy while the main line had an opportunity to get its retreat in motion. In one of the mountain passes a small village commanding the pass was taken and retaken eight times during desperate artillery, infantry and hand-to-hand fighting.
Before the Italians were able to establish a line of resistance they were compelled to fall back to the Piave, and at some points to a much greater distance. Meantime the Allies rushed assistance to the retiring forces, and while the collapse of Cadorna's line was unfortunate, it had the effect of making it more obvious that there should be more unity of operation between the Allied forces.
Russia's republic, under the leadership of Premier Kerensky, collapsing at the same moment, intensified the seriousness of the Allied situation, and largely at the suggestion of America an Inter-Allied War Council was formed.
Premier Kerensky called upon the United States to help Russia bear the burdens of conflict until the forces could be reorganized by the new government. Almost immediately there was revolt in Petrograd, and the radicals under the leadership of Leon Trotsky, president of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council of Soldiers' and Workmen's Delegates, seized the telegraph wires, the State bank and Marie Palace, where the preliminary parliament had suspended proceedings in view of the situation.
The Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates assumed control of the City of Petrograd and Kerensky was compelled to flee. The Winter Palace was bombarded. A General Council of the Soldiers' and Workmen's Delegates announced the taking over of government authority:
"We plan to offer an immediate armistice of three months, during which elected representatives from all nations and not the diplomats are to settle the questions of peace," said Nikolai Lenine, the Maximalist leader, in a speech before the Workmen's and Soldiers' Congress today.
"We offer these terms," M. Lenine added, "but we are willing to consider any proposals for peace, no matter from which side. We offer a just peace, but will not accept unjust terms."
Meantime General Cadorna was relieved of command of the Italian armies and General Diaz put at the head of the Italian forces, while General Foch, chief of staff of the French War Ministry, and General Wilson, sub-chief of the British Staff, were made members of an Inter-Allied Military Committee serving with General Cadorna to straighten out the Italian situation. This was the first step looking to the unifying of the Allied forces which was brought about shortly thereafter by the formation of the Inter-Allied War Council at Versailles. It was chiefly at the suggestion of President Wilson that the War Council was called, the President issuing a stirring appeal in which he pointed out the necessity of unity of control, if the resources of the United States were to be of the greatest value to the Allied interests.
The Supreme War Council, which was made a permanent body, was composed of the Prime Minister and a member of the Government of each of the Great Powers whose armies were fighting at the front. Each Power delegated to the Supreme Council a permanent military representative whose function was to act as adviser to the Council. As the result of the deliberations of the War Council, and following the suggestion of General Pershing, General Foch was made Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies. General Foch was Commander of the French troops at Verdun and a recognized authority on military strategy.
While the problem of solving the military phases of the situation was being considered by the Allied War Council the Russian forces under Kerensky and those under Trotzky, known as the Bolsheviki, clashed again and again at Petrograd, Moscow and other points, and the hope of the Allies as to any help from Russia sank. Germany entered into a peace compact with Ukrainia, and the hand of the Kaiser was seen in the Russian situation when officers of the German Army were reported in Petrograd in conference with the representatives of the various Russian factions. Russia suggested a separate armistice, or a separate peace, against which both the U.S. and France protested.
The failure of the Russian Government to assume any degree of stability made it possible for the Germans to withdraw many troops and transfer them to the Italian and Western Fronts.
One result of the Allied War Council deliberations was to show the necessity of rapid action on the part of the United States and get troops into France so that they might take over a definite sector. While it was estimated that several hundred thousand Americans were in France, the necessity for a larger force was made apparent by the statement that 90 reserves are required for every 400 fighters on the line.
The first bitter attack in which American troops figured was when a company of United States engineers, caught between cross-fires, dropped their tools for rifles and joined the English troops in helping to repulse the Germans near Cambrai.
A notable event in the progress of the war was the declaration of war upon Austria by the U.S. on Dec. 8, 1917, Congress adopting a resolution of war with but one dissenting vote.
Events which brought the seriousness of the war home to America began at this point to occur rapidly. First the Torpedo Boat Destroyer Jacob Jones was sunk in the war zone when nearly 30 men were reported lost. This was followed shortly by a report to the War Department that 17 Americans caught in the cross-fire by the Germans at Cambrai were missing or killed. The report of the sinking of the Alcedo, a patrol boat, with the loss of several officers, was also received, as was that of the sinking of the U.S. Destroyer "Chauncey" rammed in a collision, when two officers and eighteen men were lost.
One of the high spots of the war and one of the notable events in the history of the world, was the surrender of the City of Jerusalem to the British on Saturday, December 8, 1917. Gen. Allenby entered the famed city and established his troops on the ancient Jerico Road.
The capture of Jerusalem by the British forces marked the end, with two brief interludes, of more than 1200 years' possession of the seat of the Christian religion by the Mohammedans. For 673 years the Holy City had been in disputed ownership of the Turks, the last Christian ruler of Jerusalem being the German Emperor, Frederick, whose short-lived domination lasted from 1229 to 1244.
Apart from its connection with the campaign being waged against Turkey by the British in Mesopotamia, the fall of Jerusalem marked the definite collapse of the long-protracted efforts of the Turks to capture the Suez Canal and invade Egypt. Almost the first move made by Turkey after her entrance into the war was a campaign against Egypt across the great desert of the Sinai Peninsula. In November, 1914, a Turkish army, variously estimated at from 75,000 to 250,000 men, marched on the Suez Canal and succeeded in reaching within striking distance of the great artificial waterway at several points. For several months bitter fighting took place, the canal being defended by an Anglo-Egyptian army aided by Australians and New Zealanders and French and British forces.
For the greater part of 1915 conflicting reports of the situation were received from the belligerents, but in December of that year definite information showed that the Turks had been driven back as far as El Arish, about eighty-five miles east of the canal. A lull occurred then which lasted for six months, and in June, 1916, the Turks again advanced as far at Katieh, about fifteen miles east of the canal. Here they were decisively defeated, losing more than 3000 prisoners and a great quantity of equipment.
Another period followed in which the situation was greatly confused through the vagueness and contradictory character of the official statements, but in December, 1916, the British stormed El Arish and a few days later severely defeated the Turks at Maghdabah, about sixty miles to the south on the same front. Two weeks later the invaders had been driven out of Egypt and the British forces crossed the border into Palestine. On March 7 they captured El Khulil, southeast of Gaza.
By November 22 the British had pushed within five miles of Jerusalem, on the northwest, and on December 7 General Allenby announced that he had taken Hebron. Jerusalem thus was virtually cut off on all sides but the east.
In sentimental and romantic aspect the capture of Jerusalem far exceeds even the fall of fable-crowned Bagdad. The modern City of Jerusalem contains about 60,000 inhabitants, and is the home of pestilence, filth and fevers, but in historic interest it naturally surpasses, to the Christian world, all other places in the world. Since the days when David wrested it from the hands of the Jebusites to make it the capital of the Jewish race Jerusalem has been the prize and prey of half the races of the world. It has passed successively into the hands of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs, Turks, the Crusaders, finally to fall before the descendants of that Richard the Lion-hearted who strove in vain for its possession more than 700 years ago.
Early in January, 1918, evidence was forthcoming that Germany was preparing to make a final drive on the Western Front to break through and capture some English and French channel ports before America could be of any great assistance to the Allied forces. As a result Great Britain determined to call 500,000 more men to hold the Huns, and Premier Lloyd George issued a stirring appeal to Labor affected by the Manpower Bill, which provided for the increase taken largely from the labor forces.
The German intent to launch an offensive was indicated by the withdrawal of German lines north of Italy when important defensive positions were abandoned, and dummy soldiers were left in trench to conceal movement to the rear. Warnings of a great submarine offensive on American boatlines to France, to be joined with a big drive on land, were received by Secretary of War Baker, and on February 2, the American troops occupying a sector of the Lorraine front in France faced the first big bombardment in what was preliminary to the most bitter drive Germany had attempted in four years of warfare.
True to their promise the German submarines started their portion of the offensive and sunk the U.S. troopship "Tuscania" a few days later off the coast of Ireland. The liner carried 2,179 U.S. troops of various divisions besides a crew of 200. The total number of persons lost was 113. The troops included engineers, members of the aero-squadron, and regulars.
The Tuscania was the first troopship to be sunk en route to France, though the Antilles was sunk in October, 1917. This boat, however, it must be noted, was returning from France. At this time 70 lives were lost. The comparatively small loss of life on the "Tuscania" was accepted as evidence of the efficient training and bravery of American troops under all conditions.
The Tuscania was torpedoed when entering what until that time were considered comparatively safe waters. The ships were within sight of land, which was just distinguishable in the dusk of evening when the torpedo hit the Tuscania amidships. This was at about 7 o'clock.
When the crash came the khaki-clad young heroes of the American army lined up as though on parade, and sang the "Star Spangled Banner" at the top of their voices as the Tuscania sank by inches under them. Across from them their British cousins of the crew came back with the echoing "God Save the King," which too cool-headed exponents of what occurred in a crisis of a sea disaster say accounts for the fact the Germans took only a toll of 113 lives out of the 2,397 souls on board the Cunarder when she met her fate.
If the singing man is a fighting man, he also is hopeful, and in the combination of fight and hope there came the baffling of the German attempt to reduce the American war forces by almost a full regiment. Taking stock after the disaster, the officers of both the army and navy praised the courage of the Americans as the chief reason for the saving of more than 90 per cent of the men on board.
No submarine was seen until the torpedo struck the Tuscania fairly amidships. A moment later another torpedo passed astern of the vessel. There was a terrific explosion, and it is believed most of the casualties were caused by this and by subsequent difficulties in lowering the boats.
The vessel immediately took a heavy list and the men were called to their lifeboat stations, but the list prevented the boats from being properly lowered, some of the upper-deck boats falling to the lower deck. Many of the men jumped into the water, and the difficulty in lowering the boats was responsible for many casualties.
The survivors of the Tuscania landed at points in Ireland were received with great honor in the various communities, and great tribute was paid to the surviving soldiers by the Mayor of Dublin.
The American troops on the Tuscania were part of the forces being hurried to France to hold the Germans in check, and at the time American troops were holding a sector with the French in Lorraine, northwest of Toul, while American artillery were supporting the French in Champagne. The date set for the big German drive was announced as January 28, and the fact that Germany made an open proclamation of the fact that they proposed to wage offensive warfare was somewhat puzzling to the minds of those studying the situation. Making her position more impregnable, Germany halted her armies in Russia upon the acceptance of peace terms by the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk, which were concluded on March 1, 1918, and daily the activities of the German forces on the Western Front grew in intensity. On March 6, in anticipation of the drive, it was for the first time publicly stated that 81,000 troops of American soldiers were holding an eight mile line on the Lorraine front, with three full divisions in the trenches. The gathering together of this force and other American troops in France drew Secretary of War Baker to the scene of activities. He was the first American Cabinet officer to cross the ocean after America entered the war.
Holland having proved herself unwilling to come to a satisfactory agreement at this time on the British-American demand regarding the use of ships, President Wilson ordered the seizure of all Dutch vessels within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States; the Allies ordered a similar seizure abroad. The President's proclamation authorized the navy to take over the vessels to be equipped and operated by the Navy Department and the Shipping Board. A total of 77 ships were added to the American Merchant Marine.
Holland's failure to act was on the propositions that the United States and the Allies should facilitate the importation into Holland of foodstuffs, and other commodities required to maintain her economic life, and that Holland should restore her Merchant Marine to a normal condition of activity.
On March 21 the greatest German offensive of the war actually began on a front 50 miles long, running west and southwest of Cambrai. The preliminary German bombardment covered a front from the River Serre below St. Quentin, and the River Scarpe east of Arras.
Field Marshal Haig's report from British headquarters in France described the German offensive as comprising an intense bombardment by the artillery and a powerful infantry attack on a front of more than fifty miles. Some of the British positions were penetrated, but the German losses were exceptionally heavy.
It was reported at the end of the first day that the fiercest battle of the world's history was in progress, and that 80,000 Germans were lost in battle; while Berlin reported the capture of 16,000 Allied prisoners and 200 guns.
The Associated Press correspondent reported that at least forty divisions of German soldiers were identified as actively participating in the attack. No such concentration of artillery had been seen since the war began. The enemy had 1,000 guns in one small sector—one for every twelve yards. The Germans in many sections attacked in three waves of infantry, followed up by shock troops. As a result they suffered very heavy casualties.
The German massed artillery was badly hammered by the British guns.
In the first stage of their offensive the Germans failed badly in the execution of their program, as was attested by captured documents showing what they planned to do in the early hours of their offensive.
By March 24 the attacks of the Germans had been redoubled, and it was estimated that more than 1,000,000 Huns had been thrown into the struggle against the British forces on which the attack was concentrated.
The most notable feature of the attack from the spectacular viewpoint was the bombardment of Paris by monster German cannon, located in the forest of St. Gobain, west of Laon, and approximately 76 miles away from Paris.
Though no official description of the big gun was ever given, it was stated by military authorities that it was approximately 100 feet in length, and that several were in use, and more being built by the Germans. At first the statement that a gun could shoot such a distance was doubted, but when 75 persons were killed in Paris and one of the shells hit a church doubt no longer existed. It also developed that the gun was originally an American invention, and that similar weapons were being built by the United States.
The use of the big gun was in the nature of a "side-issue" to bring terror to the French, and in line with the policy of frightfulness instituted by the German militarists. Its use was continued daily. Meantime the German hordes swept on marching in close formation into the very mouths of the rapid-fire guns and against the strongly fixed British lines.
For ten days the hostilities continued, without cessation, with fighting along a whole front such as had never been known before.
The Germans continued to hurl great forces of infantry into the conflict, depending largely on weight of numbers to overcome the increasing opposition offered by the heroically resisting British.
The battle on the historic ground about Longueval was perhaps the most spectacular of any along the front. It was a battle of machine gunners and infantry. The Germans were pursuing their tactics of working forward in massed formation, and the British rapid-firers' squads and riflemen reaped a horrid harvest from their positions on the high ground. Notwithstanding their terrible losses, the Germans kept coming on, filling in the places of those who had fallen and pressing their attack. The British artillery in the meantime poured in a perfect rain of shells on the enemy, carrying havoc into their ranks. In this section the Germans operated without the full support of their guns, because of their rapid advance.
A fierce engagement was also waged about Le Verguier, which the Germans captured, but not until the British infantry holding the place had fought to the last man and inflicted extremely heavy losses on the enemy. The British again fell back, this time to a line through Hervilly, just east of Roisel and Vermand.
The work of the British airmen during the battle was one of the brightest pages. Bitter battles in the air were fought by scores of aviators and the service proved fully its ability to smother the German airmen at a crucial time.
Within a few days it was stated that at least 130 German airplanes were brought down. This compilation of losses has reference to only one section of the battle front, comprising perhaps two-thirds of the line affected.
An official statement regarding British aerial operations said their airplanes were employed in bombing the enemy's troops and transport massed in the areas behind the battlefront, and in attacking them with machine-gun fire from low heights. Twenty-two tons of bombs were dropped in this work, and more than 100,000 rounds were fired from the machine guns.
By March 28 the German losses were estimated at 400,000. The forces of the Germans were almost overwhelming, the Kaiser sacrificing the manpower of his nation in a last desperate attack.
In consequence no greater stories of heroism have ever been told than are related of the English, French and American troops. The Germans were set for a drive against the English and French channel points with Amiens as an objective, with the idea of breaking through the British lines where they join the French.
The earnestness of the Americans in the situation was proclaimed to the world by the English and French, and General Pershing placed his name and that of his country and men high on the wall of fame by unselfishly offering to France at the most critical period the use of his entire force, to be disposed of and assigned wherever General Foch and his staff decided to use them. Within a few days thereafter the American troops which had been in training were marched in to relieve the stressed English and French.
Everywhere the raging battle was marked by spectacular features not the least of which were provided by a corps of thirty tanks, which waded into the German hordes near Ephey and other points, recovering positions which had been lost by the British.
Canadian armored motorcars also played an important part in checking the Huns, the cars armed with rapid-fire guns being rushed up to support weakening troops.
The progress of the Germans was halted on April 3, and in the following days the British regained several lost positions and the French made gains. But after a pause, during which several hundred thousand new troops were brought in, the Huns renewed the offensive, delivering an attack against the French near Montdidier on a front about 15 miles long. An attack along a front of similar length was made against the British on the Somme.
The first battalion of American troops answering to the call of the French for support reached the British front-line in France, on April 10, on the very anniversary of the entrance of the United States into the war, and within a few days the Americans began to bear the brunt of battle, holding the Germans like veterans.
The first big attack of the Germans launched directly against an American line occurred on April 30, in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneaux, below the Somme, where the Huns were repulsed with heavy losses. The German preliminary bombardment lasted two hours and then the infantry rushed forward, only to be driven back, leaving large numbers of dead on the ground in front of the American lines.
The German bombardment opened at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and was directed especially against the Americans, who were supported on the north and south by the French. The fire was intense and at the end of two hours the German commander sent forward three battalions of infantry. There was hand-to-hand fighting all along the line, as a result of which the enemy was thrust back, his dead and wounded lying on the ground in all directions. Five prisoners remained in American hands.
"Tell them back home that we are just beginning," said an American lad who was in the thick of the fight and severely wounded with shrapnel. "It was fine to see our men go at the Huns. All of us, who thought baseball was the great American game, have changed our minds. There is only one game to keep the American flag flying—that is, kill the Huns. I got several before they got me."
Details of the engagement show the Americans stuck to their guns while the Germans were placing liquid fire, gas and almost every other conceivable device of frightfulness on them. One of them, who lay wounded in an American hospital, had kept his machine gun going after the chief gunners had been killed two feet away and he himself had been wounded, thus protecting a turn in the road known as Dead Man's curve, over which some of the American couriers passed in the face of a concentrated enemy fire.
As indicating the violence of the offensive, French ambulance men who went through the famous battle of Verdun declared today that, comparatively speaking, the German artillery fire against the Americans was heavier than in any single engagement on the Verdun front at any time.
The German barrage began just before sunrise. In an attempt to put the American batteries out of action the Germans used an unusually large number of gas shells, but the American artillery replied vigorously, hurling hundreds of shells across the Teuton lines. Though successful in resisting the German attack, the Americans lost 183 men captured by the Huns, according to the British report.
Nothing in the history of naval warfare is more picturesque than the story of the raid made by English ships on the German submarine bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge, on the Belgian coast, on April 22. Obsolete cruisers filled with concrete were run aground and blown up in the harbors. An old submarine filled with explosives was used to blow up the piling beside the Mole at Zeebrugge.
One German destroyer was torpedoed, and the British lost a destroyer, two coastal motorboats and two launches.
A fortnight later the old cruiser Vindictive was taken into the submarine base at Ostend and sent to the bottom, blocking the channel, making the attack thoroughly effective.
Brilliant American Fighting Stops Hun Advance—French and British Inspired—Famous Marines Lead in Picturesque Attack—Halt Germans at Chateau-Thierry—Used Open Style Fighting—Thousands of Germans Slain—United States Troops in Siberia—New Conscription Bill Passed—Allied Successes on All Fronts.
All history contains no greater story of bravery and heroism than that which echoed around the world concerning the exploits of the American soldiery in France as the war entered its fifth year.
Casting aside all precedent, ignoring the practices which had been developed by the English, French and German commands during four years of stubborn fighting, a little force of Americans—barely a handful, led by the picturesque Marines—brought the Huns to a standstill in their drive upon Paris and turned the tide of war.
Once again history repeated itself, for the Germans were turned back at the beautiful river Marne, where the brave Americans and heroic French smashed their lines. The spectacular event in which the Americans participated was a mere incident of the great conflict raging across France, but the story must ever be one of the outstanding features of the war because of the effect it produced upon the whole situation.
In the struggle against the Huns the Belgian army had been reduced to its lowest ebb; the manpower of France and England had been sapped by constant call for reserves, and the Allied forces, while resisting and fighting heroically, were without reserves to draw upon to effect a decisive blow when the opportunity presented.
The German hordes had swept forward with hammer-like blows toward Paris in what was a continuation of the giant offensive started in March. The second movement was launched under the personal command of the German Crown Prince on May 27, and was directed against four divisions of the British troops and the Sixth French Army. Concentration was on a front stretching from Soissons to Rheims, a distance of about 30 miles.
The Huns were driving on the entire front, but the Crown Prince with crack troops was to have the honor for which he had long been striving—that of crossing the famous Marne and taking Paris. His troops had reached the river between Dormans and Chateau-Thierry at the very spot where the Third German Army had swept across the stream on August 25, 1914. Paris was less than 50 miles away.
Here and there at other points the Germans had been held by the French and English, but as part of the strategy of the French command the enemy had been permitted to advance at this point through lines which would cost him a terrible toll of lives. The French meantime were concentrating on the enemy's flank with the hope of breaking through and pocketing part of the Crown Prince's advancing forces.
Whatever the intent, the Germans were resisting the efforts to stop them. The question was, where would the advance end? The answer was furnished by America.
The enemy had attempted to broaden his Marne salient and had stretched as far south as Chateau-Thierry. It is supposed his purpose was to compel General Foch to meet shock with shock by throwing in his reserve forces, since the German advance had then almost reached shelling distance of Paris.
But the German command had not taken the Americans into their calculations, for here the Prussians met Uncle Sam's fighting men and their French supports and were smashed and thrown back.
Fighting in their own way, in the open, against superior forces, the Marines and troops of the National American Army fought their way to victory, routing the enemy and wresting from them positions absolutely necessary to their further advance.
Immense forces of Germans had been thrown into the fray when the American division, to which the Marines were attached, was ordered into the breach. The bulk of the forces, called to help halt the Huns, were hours away from the fighting front and were being brought up for the purpose of holding a secondary position where they would take up the fighting when the French fell back.
They had captured Cantigny after elaborate preparations under the direction of the French, but here there were no preparations. The American commanders wanted to attack the advancing enemy. The Allied leaders doubted the ability of the Americans to stop the Boche in open combat.
The American commanders pleaded to make war in their own way. Doubting, yet hopeful, the Allied commanders gave consent. The Americans were moved into position. There was no time for rest and they came forward under forced draft, so to speak. Infantry, machine gun companies and artillery swung into position and faced the enemy which aimed a blow at the line where it was supported by the French on the left.
The Boche hordes swarmed across fields. The American gunners raked them with hell's fire. The reputation of the Americans as sharpshooters and marksmen was sustained. Under the most stressful circumstances and while the French observers stood amazed, the Americans took careful aim and shot as though at rifle practice. Every possible shot was made to tell.
The Germans wavered, then halted under the withering fire of machine guns and rifle. On again they came, only to again be repulsed. The ground was strewn with their dead and wounded. Then they began to break and to crawl back to safer positions.
The enemy had been stopped but not driven. They had fallen back to strong positions, the names of which must go down in history as scenes of terrific fighting—Bouresches and Bois de Belleau—the latter a wooded, rocky parcel of land on which German machine guns were hidden—hundreds of them—while more than a thousand of the enemy's best men were concealed in the thicket and underbrush and in the rocky fissures.
The Americans drove into the wood and charged the stronghold. Sacrifice! Yes, hundreds of brave young Americans died fighting, but not in vain. American artillery swept the woods; little companies of men charged the enemy machine-gun nests, silencing the guns and killing the operators or taking them prisoners. There was no going forward in mass formation under barrage or protecting curtain of fire, but out in the open the Marines and infantrymen rushed on facing terrific fire.
Bois de Belleau was cleared of the Boche. Bouresches fell to the Americans. The capture of the town was a repetition of the taking of the first position. Machine guns protected the town everywhere. In cellar windows, doorways and on roofs the Germans had set up their weapons. But it was the old story—no hail of shot could stop the Americans. Almost without sleep, unable to bring up supplies, the Americans had fought four days with only canned foodstuffs to sustain them.
Stories of the fights are reminiscent of those in which American troops engaged the Indians on the plains in the frontier days. Indeed American Indians—children of the famous old Sioux and Chippewa tribes of Red Men—acted as scouts for Uncle Sam in many of his troops' activities in France, and the methods of the old Indian fighters proved too much for the Germans.
It is estimated that 7000 were killed or wounded by the Americans in this action, and that their prisoners numbered more than 1000. How privates took command of squads and continued to outbattle the enemy when officers were killed; how lone Americans or small groups of them captured squads of Huns or annihilated them, are common stories of heroism written into the official war records of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and sealed by medals of honor presented to young Americans or confirmed by official words of commendation.
Let the words of General Pershing in an official order to his troops on August 27, stand as part of the record:
"It fills me with pride to record in General Orders a tribute to the service achievements of the First and Third Corps, comprising the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second and Forty-second Divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces.
"You came to the battlefield at a crucial hour for the Allied cause. For almost four years the most formidable army the world has yet seen had pressed its invasion of France and stood threatening its capital. At no time has that army been more powerful and menacing than when, on July 15, it struck again to destroy in one great battle the brave men opposed to it and to enforce its brutal will upon the world and civilization.
"Three days later, in conjunction with our Allies, you counter-attacked. The Allied armies gained a brilliant victory that marks the turning point of the war. You did more than to give the Allies the support to which as a nation our faith was pledged.
"You proved that our altruism, our pacific spirit and our sense of justice have not blunted our virility or our courage.
"You have shown that American initiative and energy are as fit for the tasks of war as for the pursuits of peace. You have justly won unstinted praise from our Allies and the eternal gratitude of our countrymen.
"We have paid for successes with the lives of many of our brave comrades. We shall cherish their memory always and claim for our history and literature their bravery, achievement and sacrifice.
"This order will be read to all organizations at the first assembly formations following its receipt."
Aside from being largely responsible for stopping the Huns once again at the Marne, the exploits of the Americans filled the French and English with confidence, aroused their spirits and gave them renewed hope. Incidentally their efforts and methods made apparent the value of surprise attacks and quick blows in dealing with the stolid Huns.
The Allied commanders, quick to take advantage of the situation, gave the enemy no chance to consolidate their positions. The unified forces of Allies attacked with renewed energy all along the line, and the Huns were forced back with a sweep that astonished the world.
By September 1, the Germans had lost practically all that they had gained in their drive from March 21, and in many places they had been driven back across the famous Hindenburg line, the furthest point of retreat of the Germans in 1914, when they were forced back by General Joffre from the Marne, and dug themselves into pit and trench. Dozens of towns were taken and more than 120,000 prisoners were bagged.
Almost as spectacular in its effect on the minds of the French and English, as was the demonstration of American fighting, was the work accomplished in France in providing for the transportation and care of the incoming troops. Here great docks, storage plants, training camps, aviation schools, motor assembling plants, base hospitals and reclamation establishments and railroads, built in less than a year and still growing, represented an investment of $35,000,000 on the part of the United States Government in August, 1918.
Early in May the number of Americans in France was about 500,000. That this number should have been sent across the ocean within the space of one year after America entered the war was regarded as a distinct achievement, but by September it was officially announced that the number had increased to 1,500,000.
Some of these were sent to the Italian front to help in the drive against the Austrians, and about 15,000 troops from the Philippines were sent by the United States into Siberia to give moral support to the Czecho-Slovaks.
The decision to send troops to Siberia was by agreement with the Japanese, and followed a statement issued by the United States on August 4, in which it was stated that "military action was admissable in Russia only to render such protection and help as possible to the Czecho-Slovaks against armed Austrian and German prisoners who were attacking them, and to steady any efforts at self-government or self-defense in which the Russians themselves may be willing to accept assistance." It was stated that the troops were for guard duty, and under the agreement with Japan, the only other country in a position to act in Siberia, each nation sent a small force to Vladivostok.
The British, French and United States Governments gave recognition to the Czecho-Slovaks as an Allied nation—a geographical, political and military entity—with three armies, one in Siberia, one in Italy and one in France, where they had been fighting with the Allies to crush the Huns. The territory which the Czecho-Slovaks claim as their own to govern independently comprises Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slavonika, which lie between and are part of Austria-Hungary and Germany.
With the facilities for handling the troops abroad thoroughly organized and the obvious necessity for furnishing greater manpower to bring about an early defeat of Germany, the United States decided to increase the scope of its conscription and to raise an army of 3,000,000 for immediate service and adopted a new manpower bill which was passed by Congress the last week in August and signed by President Wilson on August 30.
The measure provided for the registration and drafting of all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 years, allowing for deferred classification of those engaged in essential work or having obligations which made it impossible for them to render active military service.
Not only the Allied successes on the western front, but also those on the Italian front and in the Balkans, where the French, Italians and Greeks in Albania, with a million troops, advanced against the Germans, Austrians and Turks, made apparent the necessity for further concentration of manpower.
While losing ground on the western front and rapidly being forced to the wall, Germany gave another spectacular twist to her military program by carrying the war to America's doors. With her submarines she sank nearly two score of ships, schooners, barges, tugs, and even a lightship, within a few miles of New York, Boston, Norfolk, Charleston and the Delaware Capes.
But while the U-boats were harassing, no effective assaults were made against the ships which carried American troops abroad. In this connection it should never be forgotten in the glamour of war that while America performed wonders in getting her soldiers overseas, England provided most of the ships, and that it was England's Navy which kept the German Navy in check while America's war vessels and destroyers convoyed the troopships and protected them from the submarines.
The German Empire Collapses—Foch's Strategy Wins—American Inspiration a Big Factor—Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria Quit War—Monarchs Fall—- Kaiser Abdicates and Flees Germany—Armistice Signed—November 11, Peace.
Then came the fall of autocracy—
Victory! Peace!
With a crash that echoed around the world the autocratic governmental structure builded by the Kaiser and his forebears gave way and came tumbling to the earth in ruins on Monday, November 11, 1918.
The most momentous event in ages had come to pass and victory was perched upon the banner of democracy.
Out of the sacrifice of millions of lives, the desolation of homes and countries, the expenditure of untold energy and incomprehensible billions of dollars in money, there came everlasting, glorious peace.
The great German Empire lay a wreck, given into the hands of the people for remaking, and the arrogant Emperor William Hohenzollern had fled into Holland, and his example was imitated by the Crown Prince.
The end came swiftly and with dramatic action. Beaten back by the Allied forces, which gathered strength and inspiration from the irresistible American troops, the German army weakened all along the line from Holland to the Swiss border. The press of power exerted against the German strongholds on every side was felt within the domains and produced internal strife and dissension which undermined and weakened the military organization. Taking full advantage of this situation, the Allied forces on every side quickened and intensified their blows.
The brilliant strategy of Marshal Foch, generalissimo of the Allied armies, brought defeat to the Germans in less than four months. After bringing to an end the German advance of March 21 to July 18 with the second battle of the Marne, he compelled a hurried retirement to the Hindenburg line with the evacuation of practically all the territory conquered by the Huns.
Finally, in what may be termed the last phase of the war, he absolutely demoralized the German forces. The thrust in this phase was started by the Anglo-Belgian forces in Flanders and the Franco-American armies in Lorraine on September 26.
The British also made a gigantic and brilliant drive between Cambrai and St. Quentin. The whole colossal defense system of the Germans was shattered and in less than three months more than 100,000 German prisoners and 5,000 guns were taken and 8,000 square miles of French and Belgian territory liberated.
Not only was there great victory on the west, but in Syria the British army broke the power of Turkey and liberated Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia. In Macedonia, too, an army made up of soldiers of many nations under a French command compelled the surrender of Bulgaria and her withdrawal, and swept the last vestige of German control from the Balkans.
On the Austrian front likewise the Italian army, strengthened and heartened by the presence of American and Allied forces, swept the Austrians before them in one of the most picturesque offensives of the war, capturing more than 300,000 prisoners and great quantities of guns and supplies.
This in brief is the way the German command was driven to a point of seeking peace to prevent the invasion of their territory.
The brilliant assaults of the various units and commands of the Allies at points along the entire 200 miles of western front will go down in history a wonderful military achievement.
One of the wonderful attacks was that of the American First Army under General Pershing, when St. Mihiel salient was annihilated. This salient for four years resisted all efforts to penetrate it and stood a guardian to great iron fields running through the Basin de Briey to the Belgian-Luxemburg frontier. It formed a strong outpost to the fortified city of Metz, with its twenty-eight forts, and made impossible the invasion of German Lorraine from the west.
The offensive of General Pershing was one of the most carefully planned of the war. More than 1,000 tanks were operated to open the way for the infantry and cavalry. A greater force of airplanes than were ever concentrated in a single attack menaced the Germans overhead and in a week the Americans encompassed a territory of 200 square miles and threatened the mining center and the forts of Metz, capturing 20,000 prisoners and hundreds of guns and great quantities of ammunition. Moreover, the Verdun-Nancy railway was released.
Support was brought to the Germans and they stubbornly resisted, but many points were gained and held by the Americans.
Another corps of the First American Army, in command of General Hunter Liggett, also made a brilliant attack between the Meuse and Aisne rivers east of Rheims on a front twenty miles long, where the crack Prussian Guards were routed. Here in one of the most bitterly contested battles of the closing days the Americans made an important advance, capturing half a dozen villages.
As at Chateau-Thierry, the Americans in the face of withering fire and against all the instruments of modern warfare handled by the best soldiers in Germany, fought their way through with a bravery that won for them the praises of the highest commands in the French and British armies, as well as from General Pershing.
At the very close of the struggle the Americans arose to the heights of sublime heroism in crossing the river Meuse, capturing the town of Dun and later the town of Sedan, famous as one of the scenes of bitter fighting in the Franco-Prussian War.
The Americans forced their way across a 160-foot river, a stretch of mud flats and a 60-foot canal in the face of terrible fire. Men who could swim breasted the stream carrying ropes, which were stretched from bank to bank and along which those who could not swim made their way over the river. Some crossed in collapsible boats, others on rafts and finally on pontoon and foot bridges, which were constructed under the enemy fire.
This difficult feat accomplished, the men waded through mud to the canal, fighting as they went, and again plunged into the water, swimming the canal, at the far side of which they were compelled to use grappling hooks and scaling irons to mount the perpendicular banks of the canal, along which were the resisting Germans. And finally, when the German Empire fell, famed Sedan was in the hands of the Americans. With the last forward movement they took possession of Stenay when hostilities ceased.
The part the American soldiers played in winning the war, merely as a matter of increased man power, is indicated by the fact that when the end came there were 2,900,000 men in the forces abroad.
The failure of the German submarine warfare and the ability of the British, French and American naval forces to protect troop ships and permit the landing of as high as 200,000 soldiers in France in a single month, had much to do with discouraging the German command.
The withdrawal of Bulgaria on September 27 and her unconditional surrender to the Allies was a distinct blow to Germany. The abdication of King Ferdinand in favor of Crown Prince Boris was shortly followed by the surrender and withdrawal of Turkey, which further weakened Germany's position, and peace offers were made by both Austria and by Germany.
Austria sought a separate peace, but Germany, seeing the handwriting on the wall, asked for an armistice through Prince Maximilian of Baden, who had succeeded Count Von Hertling as Chancellor. But while agreeing to accept as a basis of peace the points established by President Wilson as necessary to an agreement, Germany's military forces continued their ruthless and barbaric warfare.
President Wilson submitted a set of questions to the German Government to ascertain the sincerity and purpose of the request and finally brought the matter to an issue by declaring that nothing short of a complete surrender would suffice and that further negotiations must be taken up with the Allied command.
Meantime King Boris of Bulgaria abdicated and the Government was taken over by the people. This was followed by the surrender of Austria on November 8 and the abdication of the Emperor Charles.
Austria in her surrender agreed to the immediate suspension of hostilities, the demobilization of the army of Austro-Hungary and the withdrawal of all forces from the North Sea to Switzerland, the evacuation of all territories invaded, the evacuation of all German troops from Austro-Hungarian territory and the Italian and Balkan fronts, as well as the surrender of fifteen submarines and all German submarines in Austro-Hungarian territorial waters, together with thirty-four warships, and also the repatriation of all prisoners of war.
With her forces demoralized and Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria out of the war and her power broken in Russia, Germany was driven to the necessity of accepting terms submitted by the Allies as the basis of peace as outlined by President Wilson.
Thus came peace after fifty-two continuous months of fighting, in which it is estimated that nearly 10,000,000 were killed and that there were about 27,000,000 casualties, while $200,000,000 were expended by the combined nations.
America's casualties were 236,117, divided as follows: Killed and died of wounds, 36,154; died of disease, 14,811; died from unassigned causes, 2,204; wounded, 179,625; missing, 1,160, and prisoners, 2,163.
England by contrast had 658,665 killed, 2,032,122 wounded and 359,145 missing and prisoners during the four years, while Italy had about 1,600,000 casualties; France, 3,500,000; Belgium, 400,000; Rumania, 200,000, and Russia, 6,000,000. All told, twenty-eight nations, with a total population of approximately 1,600,000,000, or nearly eleven-twelfths of the human race, were involved in the world struggle at the close.