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Title: Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights
Author: Kelly Miller
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[Illustration: KELLY MILLER, A.M., LL.D.
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University, Washington
D.C.]
KELLY MILLER'S HISTORY
OF
The World War
FOR
Human Rights
An Intensely Human and Brilliant Account of the World War; Why America
Entered the Conflict; What the Allies Fought For; And a Thrilling
Account of the Important Part Taken by the Negro in the Tragic Defeat of
Germany; The Downfall of Autocracy, and Complete Victory for the Cause
of Righteousness and Freedom.
INCLUDING
A Wonderful Array of Striking Pictures Made from Recent Official
Photographs, Illustrating and Describing the New and Awful Devices Used
in the Horrible Methods of Modern Warfare, together with Remarkable
Pictures of the Negro in Action in Both Army and Navy.
BY
KELLY MILLER, A.M., LL.D.
The Well-Known and Popular Author of "Race Adjustment," "Out of the
House of Bondage" and "The Disgrace of Democracy."
ALSO
Important Contribution by JOHN J. PERSHING, the Famous General,
FREDERICK DRINKER, the Noted War Correspondent, and E.A. ALLEN, Author
of "The History of Civilization."
Copyright, 1919
By
A. JENKINS
Copyright, 1919
By
O. KELLER
THE NEGRO'S PART IN THE WAR
BY PROFESSOR KELLY MILLER, THE WELL-KNOWN THINKER AND WRITER.
This treatise will set forth the black man's part in the world's war
with the logical sequence of facts and the brilliant power of statement
for which the author is famous. The mere announcement that the author of
"Race Adjustment," "Out of the House of Bondage," and "The Disgrace of
Democracy" is to present a history of the Negro in the great world
conflict, is sufficient to arouse expectancy among the wide circle of
readers who eagerly await anything that flows from his pen.
In this treatise, Professor Miller will trace briefly, but with
consuming interest, the relation of the Negro to the great wars of the
past. He will point out the never-failing fount of loyalty and
patriotism which characterizes the black man's nature, and will show
that the Negro has never been a hireling, but has always been
characterized by that moral energy which actuates all true heroism.
The conduct of the Negro in the present struggle will be set forth with
a brilliant and pointed pen. The idea of three hundred thousand American
Negroes crossing three thousand miles of sea to fight against autocracy
of the German crown constitutes the most interesting chapter in the
history of this modern crusade against an unholy cause. The valor and
heroism of the Afro-American contingent were second to none according to
the unanimous testimony of those who were in command of this high
enterprise.
The story of Negro officers in command of troops of their own color will
prove the wisdom of a policy entered upon with much distrust and
misgiving. It is just here that Professor Miller reaches the high-water
mark. Here is a story never told before, because the world has never
before witnessed Negro officers in large numbers participating in the
directive side of war waged on the high level of modern science and
system.
Professor Miller's treatise carries its own prophecy. He logically
enough forecasts the future of the race in glowing colors as the result
of his loyal and patriotic conduct in this great world epoch.
The author wisely queries: "When, hereafter, the Negro asks for his
rights as an American citizen, where can the American be found with the
heart or the hardihood to say him, Nay?"
The work will be profusely illustrated.
PUBLISHERS.
March 27, 1919.
GENERAL PREFACE
While the underlying causes of the greatest war in all history must be
traced far back into the centuries, the one great object of the conflict
which was precipitated by the assassination of the Archduke Francis
Ferdinand of Austria, in Bosnia, at the end of June, 1914, is the
ultimate determination as to whether imperialism as exemplified in the
government of Germany shall rule the world, or whether democracy shall
reign.
Whenever men or nations disregard those principles which society has
laid down for their conduct in modern civilized life, and obligation and
duty are forgotten in the desire for self-advancement, conflict results.
Since the days of Athens and Sparta the world's greatest wars have in
the main been conflicts of ideals--democracy being arrayed against
oligarchy--men fighting for individual rights as against militarism and
military domination.
In the World War, which terminated with the signing of the armistice,
November 11, 1918, which painted the green fields of France and Belgium
red with blood, and swept nations into the most significant and bitter
struggle in all history, the fight was against the Imperial Government
of Germany, by men and nations who claim that humanity the world over
has rights that must be observed.
Germany has brought upon herself the destruction of her government by
ruthlessly trampling upon her neighbors and assuming that "might is
right."
The Imperial Government, led by the House of Hohenzollern, was suffering
from an exaggerated ego. Her trouble was psychological. The men who
study the strange workings and twists of the human mind which land some
men in the institutions for the criminal insane, agree that when any man
becomes obsessed with an idea and "rides a hobby" to the exclusion of
all else, he loses his balance and develops an obliquity of view which
makes him a dangerous creature.
Germany was obsessed with the spirit of militarism and almost everything
else had been sacrificed to this idol. The very first appearance of
Germans in history is as a warlike people. The earliest German
literature is of folk-tales about war heroes, and these stories tell of
the manly virtues of the heroes.
It is true that there are many scientists, poets, and musicians among
the Germans, but their warlike side must never be forgotten. The entire
race is imbued with the military spirit, the influence reaching to every
phase of national life. All that was best in the nation was raised to
its highest efficiency through military training, but in the
accomplishment of its purposes the House of Hohenzollern, which is
responsible for the development of the national fighting arm, neglected
much and produced millions of creatures who are but human machines,
taught to obey orders without consideration as to the effect their acts
might produce, whether right or wrong.
In their criticisms of the Prussian militarism the world democracies
defined militarism as an arrogant, or exclusive, professional military
spirit, developed by training and environment until it became despotic,
and assumed superiority over rational motives and deliberations.
This attitude was reflected in the conduct of the Kaiser, who, as
illustrative of the point, is quoted at the dedication of the monument
to Prince Frederick Charles at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891, as having
said, "We would rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and our
forty-two millions inhabitants on the field of battle than surrender a
single stone of what my father and Prince Charles Frederick gained."
His speeches were filled with similar bombastic and extravagant
expressions which were the subject of international comment for many
years. Other countries besides Germany have maintained great armies, but
their maintenance has been but an incidental part of the general
business of the nation and there was no submerging of the spirit which
seeks and demands appropriate public ideals in government and action. So
that while other elements have always tended to produce friction between
neighboring countries, it was adamant, stubborn, military Prussianism
which asserted itself in the middle of 1914 and set the world afire.
Enough is known at this writing to show that the cost in lives, money,
morals and weakening of humanity as a whole, is staggering, and yet the
whole truth can not be realized for years to come. In our own great
struggle, which had for its object the liberation of the Negro, the
scars which our country received have not yet been entirely eliminated.
Portions of the country devastated by the soldiers still bear the marks
of the invasion, but what was lost in money and material things was made
up by the welding together of the two sections of the country. The Union
was made a concrete, humanitarian body of citizens. The battle was for
the right and liberty triumphed. And by the defeat of Germany liberty
again triumphs and the world is made a safe place in which to live.
And just as America fought for liberty in the stirring days of 1776, and
her peoples fought one another in the trying days of 1861-65, so America
was drawn into the World's War that the principles of liberty, for which
she has ever stood, might be perpetuated throughout the world, and that
an international peace might be established, which has for its purposes
the ending of such convulsions as have shaken the world since August,
1914, since the first shots were fired in fair Belgium by German
invaders.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
CIVILIZATION AT ISSUE--THE GERMAN EMPIRE--CHARACTER OF WILLIAM II--THE
GREAT CONSPIRACY--THE WAR BY YEARS--UNITED STATES IN THE WAR--TWO
HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE--THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY--THE
DEMOCRATIC CLOSE OF THE WAR 17
CHAPTER II
GEN. PERSHING'S OWN STORY
ORGANIZATION OF HIS GENERAL STAFF--TRAINING IN FRANCE--IN THE AISNE
OFFENSIVE--AT CHATEAU THIERRY--THE ST MIHEIL SALIENT--MEUSE-ARGONNE,
FIRST PHASE--THE BATTLE IN THE FOREST--SUMMARY 49
CHAPTER III
PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR
TROOP MOVEMENT DURING THE YEAR--TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS--SPLENDID
SPIRIT OF THE NATION--RESUME THE WORK OF PEACE--OUTLINE OF WORK IN
PARIS--SUPPORT OF NATION URGED 79
CHAPTER IV
THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME
TEUTON FIND IN A MURDER THE EXCUSE FOR WAR--GERMANY INSPIRED BY
AMBITIONS FOR WORLD CONTROL--THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY A
FACTOR--THE UNDERLYING MOTIVES 89
CHAPTER V
WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR
THE IRON HAND OF PRUSSIANISM--THE ARROGANT HOHENZOLLERN
ATTITUDE--SECRETARY LANE TELLS WHY WE FIGHT--BROKEN PLEDGES--LAWS
VIOLATED--PRUSSIANISM THE CHILD OF BARBARITY--GERMANY'S PLANS FOR A
WORLD EMPIRE 97
CHAPTER VI
THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD
GERMANY'S BARBARITY--THE DEVASTATION OF BELGIUM--HUMAN FIENDS--FIREBRAND
AND TORCH--RAPE AND PILLAGE--THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN--WANTON
DESTRUCTION--OFFICIAL PROOF 113
CHAPTER VII
THE SLINKING SUBMARINE
A VORACIOUS SEA MONSTER--THE RUTHLESS DESTRUCTIVE POLICY OF
GERMANY--STARVATION OF NATIONS THE GOAL--HOW THE SUBMARINES
OPERATE--SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 135
CHAPTER VIII
THWARTING THE U-BOAT
NETS TO ENTANGLE THE SEA SHARKS OF WAR--"CHASERS" OR "SKIMMING DISH"
BOATS--"BLIMPS" AND SEAPLANES--HUNTING THE SUBMARINE WITH "LANCE" BOMB
AND GUN--A SAILOR'S DESCRIPTION 154
CHAPTER IX
THE EYES OF BATTLE
AEROPLANES AND AIRSHIPS--THEY SPY THE MOVEMENTS OF FORCESON LAND OR
SEA--LEAD DISASTROUS BOMB ATTACKS--VALUABLE IN "SPOTTING"
SUBMARINES--THE BOMBARDMENT AT MESSINES RIDGE 170
CHAPTER X
WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES
CHEMISTRY A DEMON OF DESTRUCTION--POISON GAS BOMBS--GAS MASKS--HAND
GRENADES--MORTARS--"TANKS"--FEUDAL "BATTERING RAMS"--STEEL
HELMETS--STRANGE BULLETS--MOTOR PLOWS--REAL DOGS OF WAR 185
CHAPTER XI
WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS
THE TERRIBLE RAPID-FIRE GUN--ARMORED AUTOMOBILES AND AUTOMOBILE
ARTILLERY--HOWITZERS--MOUNTED FORTS--ARMORED TRAINS--OBSERVATION
TOWERS--WIRELESS APPARATUS--THE ARMY PANTRY 205
CHAPTER XII
THE WORLD'S ARMIES
THE EFFICIENT GERMAN ORGANIZATION--THE LANDWEHR AND LANDSTURM--GENERAL
FORMS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATION--THE BRAVE FRENCH TROOPS--THE PICTURESQUE
ITALIAN SOLDIERY--THE PEACE AND WAR STRENGTH--AVAILABLE FIGHTING
MEN--FORTIFICATIONS 224
CHAPTER XIII
THE WORLD'S NAVIES
GERMANY'S SEA STRENGTH--GREAT BRITAIN'S IMMENSE WAR FLEET--IMMENSE
FIGHTING CRAFT--THE UNITED STATES' NEW BATTLE CRUISERS--THE FASTEST AND
BIGGEST OCEAN FIGHTING SHIPS--THE PICTURESQUE MARINES: THE SOLDIERS OF
THE SEA 243
CHAPTER XIV
THE NATIONS AT WAR
UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS--HOW THE WAR FLAMES SPREAD--A SCORE OF
COUNTRIES INVOLVED--THE POINTS OF CONTACT--PICTURESQUE AND RUGGED
BULGARIA, ROUMANIA, SERVIA, GREECE, ITALY AND HISTORIC SOUTHEAST EUROPE
259
CHAPTER XV
MODERN WAR METHODS
INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE AS AGAINST MASS MOVEMENTS--TRENCH WARFARE A GAME
OF HIDE AND SEEK--RATS AND DISEASE--SURGERY'S TRIUMPHS--CHANGED
TACTICS--ITALIAN MOUNTAIN FIGHTING 281
CHAPTER XVI
WOMAN AND THE WAR
SHE HAS WON "HER PLACE IN THE SUN"--RICH AND POOR IN THE MUNITIONS
FACTORIES--NURSE AND AMBULANCE DRIVER--KHAKI AND TROUSERS--ORGANIZER AND
FARMER--HEROES IN THE STRESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES--DYING MEN'S WORK FOR
MEN--EVEN A "BOBBIE" 298
CHAPTER XVII
THE TERRIBLE PRICE
A NATION OF MEN DESTROYED--MILLIONS IN SHIPPING AND COMMERCE
DESTROYED--WORLD'S MAPS CHANGED--BILLIONS IN MONEY--IMMENSE
DEBTS--NATION'S WEALTH--THE UNITED STATES A GREAT PROVIDER 316
CHAPTER XVIII
THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR
WOODROW WILSON, THE CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY--THE EGOTISTICAL KAISER--THE
GERMAN CROWN PRINCE--BRITAIN'S MONARCH--CONSTANTINE WHO QUIT RATHER THAN
FIGHT GERMANY--PRESIDENT POINCARE--AND OTHER NATIONAL HEADS 328
CHAPTER XIX
THE WAR'S WHO'S WHO
STRIKING FIGURES IN THE CONFLICT--JOFFRE, THE HERO OF MARNE--NIVELLE,
THE FRENCH COMMANDER--SIR DOUGLAS HAIG--THE KAISER'S
CHANCELLOR--VENIZELOS--"BLACK JACK" PERSHING 344
CHAPTER XX
CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR
SUBSTITUTES FOR COTTON--NITRATES PRODUCED FROM AIR--YEAST A REAL
SUBSTITUTE FOR BEEF--SEAWEED MADE TO GIVE UP POTASH--A GANGRENE
PREVENTATIVE--SODA MADE OUT OF SALT WATER--AMERICA CHEMICALLY
INDEPENDENT 361
CHAPTER XXI
OUR NEIGHBORING ALLY
CANADA'S RECRUITING--RAISE 33,000 TROOPS IN TWO MONTHS--FIRST
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO CROSS ATLANTIC--BRAVERY AT YPRES AND
LENS--MEETING DIFFICULT PROBLEMS--QUEBEC AROUSED BY CONSCRIPTION 371
CHAPTER XXII
THE HEROIC ANZAC
FORCES THAT STIRRED THE WORLD IN THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN--FAMOUS AS
SAPPERS--THE BLASTING OF MESSINES RIDGE--TWO YEARS TUNNELLING--30,000
GERMANS BLOWN TO ATOMS--1,000,000 POUNDS OF EXPLOSIVES USED--TROOPS THAT
WERE TRANSPORTED 11,000 MILES 390
CHAPTER XXIII
AMERICA STEPS IN
PRESIDENT WILSON'S FAMOUS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS--THE WAR RESOLUTION--APRIL
6, 1917, SEES THE UNITED STATES AT WAR--REVIEW OF THE NEGOTIATIONS
BETWEEN GERMANY AND AMERICA--THE U-BOAT RESTRICTED ZONE ANNOUNCEMENT OF
GERMANY--PREMIER LLOYD GEORGE ON AMERICA IN THE CONFLICT 399
CHAPTER XXIV
UNCLE SAM TAKES HOLD
MAKES WORLD'S BIGGEST WAR LOAN--SEIZE GERMAN SHIPS--INTRIGUE
EXPOSED--GENERAL PERSHING AND STAFF IN EUROPE--THE NAVY ON DUTY IN NORTH
SEA--FIRST UNITED STATES TROOPS REACH FRANCE--GERMANY'S ATTEMPTS TO SINK
TROOP SHIPS THWARTED BY NAVY'S GUNS 427
CHAPTER XXV
A GERMAN CRISIS
THE DOWNFALL OF BETHMANN-HOLLWEG--THE CROWN PRINCE IN THE LIME
LIGHT--HOLLWEG'S UNIQUE CAREER--DR. GEORG MICHAELIS APPOINTED
CHANCELLOR--THE KAISER AND HOW HE GETS HIS IMMENSE POWER 444
CHAPTER XXVI
UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS
PRESIDENT WILSON PUTS EMBARGO ON FOOD SHIPMENTS--SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES
FURNISHING SUPPLIES TO GERMANY INSPIRES ORDER--THE DIFFICULT POSITION OF
NORWAY, DENMARK, HOLLAND AND SWITZERLAND 452
CHAPTER XXVII
THE ACTIONS OF THE WAR
FROM BOSNIA TO FLANDERS--MARNE THE TURNING POINT OF THE CONFLICT--THE
CONQUESTS OF SERVIA AND RUMANIA--THE FALL OF BAGDAD--RUSSIA'S WOMEN
SOLDIERS--AMERICA'S CONSCRIPTS 463
CHAPTER XXVIII
AMERICAN FORCES BECOME FACTOR
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 473
CHAPTER XXIX
AMERICANS TURN WAR'S TIDE
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 489
CHAPTER XXX
VICTORY--PEACE
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 497
THE NEGRO IN THE WORLD WAR 507
[Illustration: WOUNDED AMERICAN SOLDIERS ENTERTAINING THEMSELVES.
During the period of convalescence the wounded were well cared for. They
earned and deserved the best possible treatment and care.]
[Illustration: FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, CHEERS NEGRO VETERANS.
The 369th Colored Infantry acclaimed by thousands upon their return from
France. Their record is one of the bravest of any organization in the
war.]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE WOUNDED AND HIS MOTHER.
A member of the famous 369th Colored Infantry, who was wounded in the
fighting, and his proud mother. He sacrificed a leg for the cause of
righteousness and World Peace.]
[Illustration: CHEERFULLY DOING THE WORK REQUIRED.
Transporting tan bark, to be used in connection with tanning leather. No
slackers. The colored women did willingly and efficiently their part in
helping win the war.]
[Illustration: NEGRO SOLDIERS LOOKING FOR THE ENEMY.
Negro troops from many parts of the world were engaged in the war. It
has been estimated that as many as 700,000 Negro soldiers were in the
French Army alone.]
[Illustration: ENTERTAINING CONVALESCENT AMERICAN SOLDIERS AT AUTHEIL.
Negro musicians were in great demand in France. This picture shows
Lieut. Europe's noted colored band.]
[Illustration: THE BAND IN La BOURBOULE, FRANCE.
The arrival of the colored musicians created great excitement. This band
heralded the coming of soldiers to rest up.]
[Illustration: A SNIPER AT WORK.
This papier-mache camouflage, made to imitate a dead horse, furnished
good protection for the sharpshooter.]
[Illustration: SENEGALIANS ON THE SOMME FRONT.]
[Illustration: FRENCH ZOUAVES TAKEN PRISONERS BY GERMANS.
They were formerly artists in a Paris cafe-concert.]
[Illustration: WOUNDED COLORED SOLDIERS ON THE MACEDONIAN FRONT.
They were with the ambulance X.A., and the major surgeon is distributing
cigarettes.]
[Illustration: Private Henry Johnson
Private Needham Roberts
Of the New York National Guards (now the 369th) who have been decorated
by the French for routing 24 Germans and preventing the carrying out of
a well-developed plan to assail one of the most important points of
resistance on the American front. They have been awarded the War Cross
by the French.]
[Illustration: COLORED SOLDIERS BUILDING ROADS "OVER THERE."]
[Illustration: COLORED SOLDIERS IN THE TRENCHES "OVER THERE."
(Note the tin hats.)]
[Illustration: HOTEL BOOKER T. WASHINGTON "OVER THERE."
The Negro Soldiers are surely fighting for Democracy. It is coming to
them by leaps and bounds.]
[Illustration: COLORED SOLDIERS LEAVING AN AMERICAN PORT FOR "OVER
THERE."
(See them dancing on the right.)]
The Late Major Walker, of the First Colored Battalion, District of
Columbia National Guard
[Illustration:
The late Major James E. Walker was born in Virginia, September 7, 1874.
He was educated in the public schools of Washington, D.C., and was
graduated from the M. Street High School in 1893, and the Miner Normal
School in 1894. For twenty-four years he was in the public school
service, and since 1899 was supervising principal. In 1896 he was made
Lieutenant in the First Separate Battalion of the National Guard of the
District of Columbia. In 1909 he was made Captain and in 1912, through
competitive examination, was commissioned Major. His command was called
out to guard the White House, and while on this duty Major Walker's
health became impaired. He was sent to the U.S. Hospital at Fort Bayard,
New Mexico, for treatment, where he died April 4, 1918.]
[Illustration: THE FIGHTING U.S.A. MARINE BRIGADE IN BELLEAU WOOD.
Here the Germans were not only stopped in their march toward Paris, but
"knocked out." The furious and fast fighting of the Marines proved their
superiority. The Hun was badly beaten. The soldier applying the bayonet
is an American Negro.]
[Illustration: AFRICAN TROOPS IN FRANCE. THEY FOUGHT FOR THE ALLIES.
A war dance, relieving the monotony and for the benefit of British and
French troops. These colored soldiers gave a good account of
themselves.]
[Illustration: KAMERAD! KAMERAD!
Three colored Canadians imitating the Germans, whom they captured in
this dugout near the Canal du Nord, as they put up their hands and
shouted "Kamerad"!]
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
CIVILIZATION AT ISSUE--THE GERMAN EMPIRE--CHARACTER OF WILLIAM II--THE
GREAT CONSPIRACY--THE WAR BY YEARS--UNITED STATES IN THE WAR--TWO
HUNDRED FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE--THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY--THE DEMOCRATIC
CLOSE OF THE WAR.
The World War, terminated by the signing of the armistice November 11,
1918, was attended with more far-reaching changes than any war known to
history, and is destined to so profoundly influence civilization that we
see in it the beginning of a new age. Somewhat similar wars in the past
were the campaigns of Alexander; the wars that overthrew the Roman
Empire and the Napoleonic wars of a previous century; but this one war
surpasses them all, measured by any scale that can be applied to
military operations. It was truly a World War, thus in a class by
itself. Beginning in Central Europe, twenty-eight nations--nearly all of
the important nations of the world--with a total population of about
1,600,000,000--or eleven-twelfths of the human race--became involved. It
cost 10,000,000 human lives, 17,000,000 more suffered bodily injury; the
money cost was about $200,000,000,000, but who can measure the cost in
untold suffering caused by ruined homes and wrecked lives that attended
it? Or who can measure the property loss, considering that the fairest
provinces of Europe were swept with the bezom of destruction?
Rightly to judge the real significance of such a world struggle, we must
consider conditions that made it possible; study the issue involved
stripped of all misleading statements; review its course and weigh the
nature of the profound changes--geographical, political and
economic--that resulted. We shall find that this war was the
culmination of century-old causes; that two rival theories of
government--impossible to longer co-exist--met in deadly conflict; and
that civilization itself was the stake at issue. We shall see that
beyond the wreck of empires and troubled days of reconstruction now upon
us--through it all approaches a wonderful new age. Autocracy has
crumbled; a higher form of democracy will arise and in peaceful days to
come the nations of the world will rapidly advance in all that
constitutes national well-being.
THE GERMAN STATES.
The early history of Germany is a confused panorama of a thousand years,
during which time Central Europe was a country of numerous separate
states, many of them at times coming together as a more or less closely
knit confederacy under the lead of a powerful state, only to fall apart
into a mass of confused units at a later date. It is interesting to
learn that among the Teutonic knights of that early time, none was more
noted than Count Thassilo Von Zollern who founded the house of
Hohenzollern, that played such an ambitious role in European history,
the house whose downfall was one of the dramatic results of the war.
THE RISE OF PRUSSIA.
At its height the German Empire consisted of a union of twenty-five
Germanic states of various grades and the Reichland of Alsace-Lorraine
under the leadership of Prussia, by far the most important state of the
Empire. The foundation of Prussia's greatness was laid by Frederick the
Great in 1763 when he tore Silesia from Austria in an entirely
unprovoked war. He wished to enlarge the bounds of Prussia, he coveted
Silesia, so he took it. In that deed of spoliation we see manifested the
spirit that has animated official Germany since that date. Not only is
the House of Hohenzollern descended from the Robber Knights of old, but
the same is true of the military caste of Germany generally. Recent
centuries have cast only a thin veneer of modern thought over
essentially medieval conceptions of national rights and duties.
THE DAYS OF BISMARCK.
For a century after the reign of Frederick, Prussia remained the most
prominent Germanic state in Europe. Then we come to the days of
Bismarck. He is regarded as a remarkable statesman. He himself delighted
to be known as the man of "Blood and Iron." Judging from his acts his
one motive in life was to advance the power and influence of Prussia. In
the decade 1860-1870 he instigated three wars,--with Denmark in 1864,
with Austria in 1866, with France in 1870,--not one of which was
justifiable. The war with France was occasioned by deliberately changing
the wording of a telegram--in itself friendly--from the King of Prussia
to Napoleon III, knowing it would result in war. All were short wars,
all resulted in victory for Prussia and consequent increase in
territory. Under the glamour of the great victory over France in 1871
came the formation of the German Empire.
THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
Thus there suddenly arose in Central Europe, in the place of the weak
confederation of earlier years, one empire of great actual strength,
generously endowed as regards territory, and at the head of that empire
was a state that alone of modern states most resembles Rome of early
centuries, that ruled the Mediterranean world, imposing on the conquered
people of that section her language, her laws and her customs. Like her
great prototype, we now know that official Prussia regarded all she had
accomplished to the formation of the empire as simply a station reached
in a career of progress which was to end in a World empire as greatly
surpassing that of Rome in her palmy days as the world of the twentieth
century surpasses the known world of Roman times.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMPIRE.
The empire enjoyed a brief span of national life. In less than fifty
years it ceased to exist, a republic of an uncertain nature takes its
place. To outward appearances the development of the empire was a
brilliant one. A colonial empire was established--mostly in
Africa--nearly five times as great in area as the home empire; she had
large possessions in the Pacific and had gained a foothold in China. The
rich potash and iron deposits of Alsace increased her wealth and
marvelously built up her industries and she became one of the greatest
manufacturing nations of modern times. Her population doubled, her
foreign trade increased four fold, her shipping grew by leaps and
bounds. Her army became so perfected that it was acknowledged to be the
greatest military machine the world had ever seen; she was building a
navy that threatened the supremacy of England on the sea.
BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF SAND.
In spite of this brilliant development, the empire rested on a
foundation of sand. You will never understand the World War unless you
grasp this thought and its justification. The government was autocratic,
though under the form of a constitutional government. The entire
military class in Germany held to theories of government, of national
rights and wrongs that belonged to the middle ages. Theories of
state-craft which the world long since outgrew were proclaimed and
taught, and enforced by every means at command of the government, the
military class, the professors, scientists and theologians of Germany.
Education and religion were state controlled. As a consequence, every
German child from his cradle to his grave was under the influence of
state officials and never allowed to forget reverence for the kaiser,
the glorious military record of Germany, German supremacy in every
department of culture. Such a government was hopelessly behind modern
ideas.
WILLIAM II.
William II was the third emperor of Germany,--also the last. His reign
began, in pomp and ceremony, June 15, 1888, it ended in the darkness and
gloom of night, shortly before the signing of the armistice, November
11, 1918. Other reigns have been longer in duration; none surpassed his
in deeds. When his reign began he said he would lead his people to
"shining days." He did so; but "shining days" ended in despairing night.
Personally, William II was an able man, but he was not well balanced. In
the early days of his reign, Bismarck confided to a friend that it would
some day be necessary for Germany to confine William II in an insane
asylum. We must remember his lineage, his long line of ancestors dating
back to the Robber Knights of the Middle Ages, all used to the exercise
of autocratic power. Medieval conceptions were his by inheritance. He
believed he was divinely commissioned to rule Germany; he said so in his
speeches. He believed he was a man of destiny who was to advance Germany
to the zenith of earthly greatness; he himself, not someone else,
asserted this. He asserted that while Napoleon failed in his great
scheme of conquest, he, by God's help, would succeed. Every prominent
military leader in Germany applauded such beliefs. He said that when he
contemplated the paintings of his ancestors, and the military chiefs of
Germany, who advanced the insignificant Mark of Brandenburg to the rank
of the most powerful state in Europe, they seemed to reproach him for
not being active in similar work. But we now know that he was not idle.
ACTIVITIES IN WHICH HE WAS INTERESTED.
One year after the accession of William II he paid a spectacular visit
to "his friend" (as he called him) Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey, the
head of one of the most cruel, licentious, incompetent, blood-thirsty
governments that ever cursed the world; greeted him with a kiss, put on
a Turkish uniform (fez and all), and assured the Mohammedan world that
he was henceforth their friend. The ignorant Turks actually supposed he
had become a Mohammedan and native papers spoke of him as "His Islamic
Holiness." In the light of history, the meaning of all this is so clear
that he who runs may read, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, need
not err therein. This visit was repeated in 1898. For more than twenty
years every effort was made to extend German influence in Turkey,
because that country with its minerals, its oils, its wonderfully strong
strategical location was vital to the success of a vast scheme of
conquest official Germany with William II as leader was contemplating.
PAN-GERMANISM.
Two years after his accession, there was organized the Pan-Germanic
League. This League soon attracted to its ranks the entire class of
Prussian Junkers, virtually all the military class, and a galaxy of
writers and speakers. The purpose of the league was to foster in the
minds of German people the idea that it was their privilege, right and
duty to extend the power, influence and political dominance of Germany
to all parts of the world, peacefully if possible, otherwise by the
sword. This doctrine was taught openly and boldly in Germany in books
and pamphlets and by means of lectures with such frankness and fullness
of details that the world at large laughed at it as an exuberant dream
of fanatics. Intellectual, military, and official Germany was in
earnest. Her generals wrote books illustrated with maps showing the
stages of world conquest; her professors patiently explained how
necessary all this was to Germany's future; while her theologians
pointed out it was God's will. But the world at large, except uneasy
France, slept on.
OUTWORKINGS OF THE PLOT.
It was this vision that fired the imagination of William II. He was to
be the Augustus of this greater Roman Empire; over virtually all the
earth the House of Hohenzollern was to exercise despotic sway. Then
began preparation for the World's War. With characteristic German
thoroughness and patience the plans were laid. Thoroughness, since they
embraced every conceivable means that would enhance their prospect of
victory, her military leaders, scientists and statesmen were all busy.
Patience, since they realized there was much to do. Many years were
needed and Germany refused to be hurried. She carefully attended to
every means calculated to increase the commerce and industry of the
empire, but with it all--underlying it all--were activities devoted to
preparation for world conquest. Building for world empire, Germany could
afford to take time.
PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED.
Time was needed to solve the military problems involved. A nation
aspiring to territory extending from Hamburg to Bagdad must firmly
control the Balkan States. That meant that Austria must become, in
effect, a German province; Serbia must be crushed; Bulgaria must become
an ally; and Turkey must be brought under control. In 1913, two of these
desired results were attained. Turkey was to a surprising degree under
the military and economic control of Germany. Austria had become such a
close ally that she might almost be styled a vassal of Germany. She
faithfully carried out the wishes of Germany in 1908 when she annexed
the Serbian states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a step she felt safe in
taking since (the Kaiser's own words) behind her was the "shining sword
of Germany." It were tedious to enlarge on this point. Let it suffice to
say that in 1914 Germany felt herself ready for the conflict. Enormous
supplies of guns, of a caliber before unthought of, and apparently
inexhaustible supplies of ammunition had been prepared; strategic
railroads had been built by which armies and supplies could be hurried
to desired points; the Kiel Canal had been completed; her navy had
assumed threatening proportions; her army, greatly enlarged, was in
perfect readiness.
THE REAL CAUSES OF THE WAR.
The real cause of the war is now disclosed. It is not necessary to
discuss other possible causes. The pistol shot at Serajevo was the
occasion, not the cause of the war. The simple fact is that on one
pretext or another war would have come anyway, simply because Germany
was ready. In 1913 the speakers of the Pan-German League were going to
and fro in Germany making public speeches on all possible occasions,
warning the people to be ready, telling them "There was the smell of
blood in the air," that the wrath of God was about to be visited upon
the nations that would hem Germany in. We now know from official sources
that Germany was eager for war in the fateful days of July 1914, when
France and England were almost begging for peace. All this is made
exceedingly clear in the secret memoirs of Prince Lichnowski, German
ambassador to England, the published statements of the premier of
Bavaria, also those of the Prince of Monaco, and the records of the
Potsdam council over which the Kaiser presided, secretly convened one
week after the murder of the Prince. There were present the generals,
diplomats and bankers of Germany.
DECISION FOR WAR.
The matter of possible war was carefully considered. To the earnest
question of the emperor, all present assured him that the interests they
represented were ready, with the exception of the financiers who desired
two weeks' time in which to make financial arrangements for the coming
storm. This was given them, and the council adjourned. The emperor, to
divert suspicion, hurried off on a yachting trip while the financiers
immediately commenced disposing of their foreign securities. The stock
markets of London, Paris, and New York during that interval of time bear
eloquent testimony to the truth of these assertions. Two weeks and three
days after the council adjourned, Austria sent her ultimatum to Serbia.
The truth of these statements is vouched for by Henry Morgenthau,
American ambassador to Turkey.
Thus were unleashed the dogs of war. For four long years they rioted in
blood. To advance dynastic ambitions and national greed, millions of
Armenian Christians were tortured, outraged and murdered; hapless
Belgians were ravished and put to the sword, their cities made charnal
heaps; millions of men--the fairest sons of many lands--gave up their
lives, and anguished hearts sobbed out their grief in desolated homes,
while generations to come will feel the crushing financial burdens this
struggle has entailed with its heritage of woe.
We must now gain a general view of the events of the war. Every
well-informed man or woman feels the necessity of such outline
knowledge. It was not only the greatest war in history, but it was our
war. Our liberties were threatened. Rivers and hamlets of France are
invested with new interest. There, our American boys are sleeping; they
died that our Republic might live. We may regard the annals of other
wars with languid interest; those of this war grip our hearts, our
breath comes quicker as we read; we experience a glow of patriotic
pride. We shall let each year of the war tell its story. Of necessity we
can only record the main events, the peaks of each year's achievements.
EVENTS OF 1914.
A state of war was declared to exist in Germany, July 31, 1914. Four
days later Germany had mobilized five large armies with full supplies on
the extended line from Metz northward along the eastern boundary of
France--a distance of about 130 miles. That mobilization was a wonderful
exhibition of military efficiency. From Verdun to Paris, slightly
southwest, is also about 130 miles.
The German plan of campaign may be crudely stated as follows: Regard
that extended line as a flail ready to fall, hinged near Verdun, moved
in a circle until the northern tip, under command of Von Kluck, should
fall with all the energy Germany could put into the blow on Paris. In
the meantime, the other armies would crush back, outflank, defeat, and
capture the small British and hastily mobilized French armies that
confronted them along the entire line. It was believed that a short
campaign would crush France, over-awe Great Britain, and end the war in
the West. It was thought that six weeks would be ample to accomplish
this result.
BELGIAN RESISTANCE.
Germany expected that at the most a day or so would see Belgian
resistance broken and the dash on Paris begun. It was not safe to start
such a forward rush with Belgium unconquered. This was the first of
many, many mistakes made by Germany. It required two weeks to break down
this resistance. Thus the northern end of the flail was held and
movement along the entire line was slowed down or suspended. The
unexpected delay saved France. Let us remember this when we read the
story of Belgium's martyrdom, a story written in blood. Then began the
fulfillment of the threat of William II to the Prince of Monaco "the
world will see what it never dreamed of." And truly the world never
dreamed of the terrible scenes that attended the sack of Louvain (August
26). Not until after the situation in Belgium had been given a bloody
setting did the first dash on Paris begin (August 23).
RETREAT TO THE MARNE.
We are now approaching the "Miracle of the Marne." The line of German
armies along the eastern frontier of France were confronted by the
forces of France, hastily mobilized during the delay occasioned by the
heroic but pathetically futile resistance of Belgium. The first English
army had also assumed a position before the menacing rush of the German
forces. The only thing the Allies could do was to retreat. This
movement, directed by General Joffre, was a remarkably able one. His
plan was to give ground before the advance without risking a decisive
battle until he could rearrange his forces and gain a favorable
position. Only with difficulty was the retreat saved from becoming a
great disaster when the British army was defeated at Mons-Charleroi
(August 21-3). Apparently, the German forces were carrying everything
before them as the retreat continued. The flail, swinging from Metz to
Belgium, was falling with crushing effect along the entire front, the
movement being very rapid at the western but slow at the eastern end. It
was centered at Verdun because it was not safe to leave that fortress
unconquered in the rear.
THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE.
The Marne is a small river in France, gently coursing from the
water-shed south of Verdun to the Seine near Paris, its general course
convex to the north. It will hereafter rank as one of the storied rivers
of history, the scene of mighty battles, where the red tide of German
success ebbed in its flow. The night of September 4, the German armies
were in position along this river in an irregularly curved line slightly
convex to the south from a point only twenty-five miles east of Paris to
Verdun, one hundred and twenty-five miles, slightly to the northeast.
The evening of that day, General Joffre issued orders for a general
attack all along the line. His message to the French Senate was couched
in words of deep meaning,--he had made, he said, the best disposition
possible. France could only await in hope the outcome. The battle that
began the next day continued for one week and ended with a victory for
the Allies as the German armies were forced back everywhere, a varying
distance, to a line of defense prepared back of the Aisne River, to the
north and east. This was a marvelous result. Just as the world was
waiting with bated breath to hear of the fall of Paris, it heard
instead, that the German army was in retreat. It was truly a miracle.
Why not see in it proof that a Power infinitely greater than that of man
was directing events?
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE BATTLE.
The battle front covered a distance of about 125 miles. The forces
engaged numbered about 1,500,000 men. Thus this battle far exceeds in
magnitude the battle of Mukden, previously considered the greatest
battle of modern times; while the great battle of Waterloo was an
insignificant skirmish in comparison. It is of further interest to learn
that Allied success was largely the result of the use of flying machines
for scouting purposes, which enabled General Joffre to take instant
advantage of tactical mistakes of General Von Kluck. The results were
commensurate with the immensity of the struggle. Paris was saved; the
first period of the war in the west was ended; Germany was rudely
awakened from her dream of easy conquest.
THE BATTLE OF TANNENBERG.
The success of the Allies in the west was in a measure offset by
Teutonic victories in the east. When the invasion of Belgium began,
Russia made immediate efforts to counteract by invasion of East Prussia.
She was successful to the extent of drawing to that section a number of
army corps that would otherwise have taken part in the Marne campaign.
These movements culminated in the battle of Tannenberg, commencing
August 26, 1914. Tannenberg is nearly one hundred miles southeast of
Konigsburg. This was the battle that gave General Von Hindenburg his
fame. He was a native of East Prussia, and acquainted with the country,
but had lived in retirement for some years. Appointed to command, he
made such a skillful disposition of his troops that the Russian army was
virtually annihilated, less than one corps escaped by headlong flight.
According to German authority, 70,000 Russians were captured. General
Von Hindenburg was acclaimed the greatest soldier of the day, and was
immediately appointed field marshal in command of all the German forces
in the east.
EVENTS OF 1915.
The year 1915 was one of meager results, the advantages remaining on the
side of the Central Powers, with this understanding, however: The Allies
were growing stronger because Great Britain was making rapid progress in
marshaling her resources for war. On the west front, the long, irregular
line of trenches, from Switzerland on the south to Ostend on the North
Sea, marking the German retreat after the battle of the Marne, remained
without substantial change. Do not understand there were no battles
along that extended line. Almost daily there were conflicts that in
former wars would have been given a place among the world's great
battles. They are scarcely worth mentioning in the annals of this war.
Back and forth across that narrow line surged the red tide without
decisive changes in position. There were attacks and counter-attacks of
the most sanguinary nature near Calais. The first instance of the use of
gas in war occurred in these battles, at the second battle of Ypres,
April 23, 1915.
ON THE EAST FRONT.
In spite of the great reverse at Tannenberg, Russia was not defeated.
Her armies in Galicia (Northeastern Hungary) were winning important
battles. A determined effort was made in 1915 by Germany to crush Russia
and thus retire her from the war. For days at a time, on the railroads
of East Germany, double headed trains were passing every fifteen
minutes, loaded with troops and munitions withdrawn from the western
front which accounts for the comparative quiet in that section, which in
turn gave Great Britain time to prepare in earnest. And so it was that
during a large part of 1915 Russia had to withstand the shock of war.
Russian soldiers were brave; her generals able, but the whole official
life was more or less corrupt.
The poison of German propaganda was at work. Her ammunition was totally
insufficient. Immense supplies made in France according to
specifications furnished by high officials in Russia did not fit the
guns they were intended to serve. There were already signs of the
approaching utter collapse of Russia as a world power, then more than a
year distant in time. In spite of these drawbacks we read of brilliant
but futile efforts of her poorly equipped army to stem the tide of
Teutonic success that soon began.
Before the close of the year Poland was entirely overrun by German
forces. It seemed for a time as if Petrograd itself must fall. In short,
it was thought that Russia was crushed. Then it was that the Kaiser
wrote to his sister, the Queen of Greece, "having crushed Russia, the
rest of Europe will soon tremble before me." But when 1915 ended a line
of trenches from Riga on the north to Czernowitz on the south still
guarded the frontiers of Russia.
THE DARDANELLES CAMPAIGN.
This campaign began in December, 1914, and continued during 1915. It was
an effort on the part of the Allies to force the Dardanelles, capture
Constantinople, and inflict a crushing blow on Turkey. This effort was a
dismal failure for the Allies, but had all the effect of a decisive
victory for Turkey and her allies. The fact that the attack was failing
had considerable to do with inducing Bulgaria to enter the war on the
side of Germany. The immediate result of this step on the part of
Bulgaria was the complete crushing of Serbia (October 6-December 2),
and this in turn made possible full and free railroad transportation
between Germany on the north and Turkey on the south. The net result was
to greatly strengthen the Teutonic allies. The conduct of Turkey in the
war was marked by most atrocious treatment of the Armenians. Belgium on
the north, Armenia on the south, are blood-stained chapters in the
annals of war.
EVENTS OF 1916.
Apparently believing that Russia was so badly crippled that she could
not again peril Austria-Hungary or wrest Poland from the grasp of
Germany, the latter country gathered her available resources for a
decisive, crushing blow in France. We have several times mentioned
Verdun. It is well to study its location on the map, about 130 miles
slightly north of east of Paris. It is a city of great historic
interest, beautifully located in the Meuse valley with its approach
defended by low-lying ranges of hills through which lead numerous
defiles. At this city, more than a thousand years ago, was concluded the
celebrated treaty of Verdun that settled the disputes between the
grandsons of Charlemagne, and this constitutes a landmark in the early
history of France.
It was Verdun that held back the southern end of the flail wherewith
France was to be crushed in 1914; in the battle of the Marne it held the
eastern or left wing of the long German line, which could not advance
and leave Verdun unsubdued in the rear. The German Crown Prince was in
command near Verdun. His ideal was Napoleon. His private library
contained nearly everything ever written about that great general. He
was exceedingly anxious to pose as the conqueror of France. To
strengthen his dynasty, the Kaiser was also anxious that his son should
take a prominent part. Accordingly it was planned to gather an enormous
army under his command, overwhelm Verdun and smash through to Paris.
Thus Prince Wilhelm would be enrolled among the great commanders of
history. Von Hindenburg was opposed to this plan, he wanted to finish up
his work so happily begun in Russia. But the Crown Prince had his way;
and immense supplies of guns, ammunition, and men were withdrawn from
the eastern front and massed at Verdun.
THE GREAT BATTLE OF VERDUN.
The annals of history record no battle approaching in duration,
artillery fire, and awful sacrifice than the battle that enveloped
Verdun for six months, beginning February 21, 1916. Other battles have
been fought along more extended fronts and thus engaged larger numbers
of troops; but none ever presented in a more acute form the issue of
national life or death. The stand of the heroic Greeks at Thermopylae
denying passage to the hosts of Persia was not more vital to the cause
of civilization than this storied defense of Verdun. The reflective
writer can but notice that in every campaign of the war, when further
success of the German armies meant victory, it was as if an unseen Power
decreed "thus far and no further." It was so at Verdun. The French
soldier, calmly going to death, chanting "They shall not pass," did not
die in vain.
THE BATTLE ITSELF.
The French were taken somewhat by surprise as they had not expected such
an early attack or that its fury would break at Verdun. Of course it was
known that a great force was being assembled, but no one dreamed of the
enormous concentration of guns of all kinds that were made. They
literally cumbered the ground and the shells assembled were in keeping.
The German generals were so confident of success that foreign
correspondents were invited to be present to witness the resistless
onslaught. The evening before the attack began there was a banquet at
the German headquarters, the Kaiser and all his notable generals (but
not Von Hindenburg) were present. The toast was "After four days,
Verdun; then Paris." They estimated that it would take possibly three
weeks to accomplish their ends. Evidently among the uninvited and unseen
guests were Defeat and Death.
The attack that commenced the next day lasted with but slight
interruptions until October. It is interesting to remark that more shot
and shell were used in this battle than the total used during the four
years of the Civil War in America on both sides. Verdun itself was
reduced to ruins. Considerable portions of the fortified area to the
north of Verdun were captured, including the important forts Douamont
and Vaux, but the entire attack failed. The minor successes achieved
were won with an appalling loss of life and were easily retaken by the
French later in the fall. Verdun was renamed by the German soldiers as
"The Grave," and such it truly was to the hopes of victory and peace
that inspired the toast at the Verdun banquet.
CONQUEST OF ROUMANIA.
Roumania is one of the Balkan States. Her entry into the second Balkan
war in 1913 was one of the decisive factors against Bulgaria. After the
entry of Bulgaria into the World War in 1915 the pressure became very
strong on Roumania by Russia to come into the war on the side of the
Allies. The summer of 1916 Russia had reorganized her forces, and the
war in the west was going against Germany at Verdun and along the Somme.
This was deemed an opportune time for Roumania to enter the war and so,
with no principles at stake, Roumania declared war on Austria, August
27, 1916. The response of Germany and Bulgaria to this new menace was
prompt and decisive. Before the end of the year Roumania was crushed,
the capital city, Bucharest, was taken. Roumania was not at all prepared
to wage war on the scale this war had assumed, but the immediate cause
of her easy conquest was the failure of Russia to keep her promises of
assistance. Russia, undermined by German intrigue, with traitors at
court, was already tottering to her fall.
EVENTS OF 1917.
The year 1917 witnessed startling changes in the grouping of the
belligerent powers. The three largest republics in the world--China,
Brazil, and the United States,--were drawn into the war on the side of
the Entente Allies. Other small nations, members of the Pan-American
Union, joined with the United States in this action. Other South
American nations showed their sympathy with the United States by
severing diplomatic relations with Germany. In Europe, Greece made a
formal declaration of war July 2, 1917. Thus all of the Balkan States
were finally involved. To complete the record, we must note that Siam in
Asia and Liberia in Africa also joined the Entente Allies. Never before
in history had there been such an alignment of nations for purposes of
war. It was significant of one thing,--growing resentment against what
had long been recognized as the criminal ambitions of Germany to
dominate the world.
THE UNITED STATES IN WAR.
April 6, 1917, will hereafter be one of the most important dates in the
annals of this republic. Then it was that Congress in a joint resolution
declared a state of war existed between the United States and Germany,
and authorized the President to employ the naval and military power of
our country to carry on the war and pledged all our resources to that
end. We can now see that the hidden currents of national destiny were
tending in an irresistible way to war on the part of the United States.
Every consideration of national safety and every principle that we hold
dear, demanded that we should respond to the call of the President to
arms. Then commenced the wonderful preparations for war on the part of
the United States. Official Germany in conversation with Minister
Gerard, before the rupture of diplomatic relations, laughed to scorn the
thought that the United States could render any military aid worth
considering to her allies. Germany in the fall of 1917 was not laughing.
THE COLLAPSE OF RUSSIA.
The collapse of Russia was the second great event of 1917. It was the
result of a long train of causes. Let it suffice to say that treachery
in high places backed by German propaganda, had undermined the
government. March 15, 1917, the storm broke. The utter overthrow of
autocratic rule in Russia was one of those explosive outbreaks, but few
of which have occurred in history. In a single day the old order of
government passed away never to return in Russia. It was a revolution as
thoroughgoing as its prototype, the French revolution of 1789, and it
soon developed equal scenes of horror. After some months of struggle,
the government of Russia passed under the control of the Bolsheviki and
anarchy followed, outdoing the scenes of the French commune. The
immediate effect on the war was to retire Russia from the conflict, thus
releasing a large army and its supplies for service elsewhere.
THE ITALIAN REVERSE.
Having achieved such signal successes in the east, Russia and Roumania
being both disposed of, the German leaders planned a campaign designed
to crush Italy. In the summer of 1917 the Italian front was along the
Isonza River in Austrian territory. The test of Italian endurance was at
hand. A great force of Austrians and Germans was assembled along the
river. As was usual in all Teutonic drives, endeavors were made by
propaganda work to break down the morale of the Italian troops. This
effort consisted in spreading fearsome accounts of the crushing nature
of the blow about to fall, the folly of further resistance, and the
advantages to be gained by accepting the generous terms of peace their
true friends--their former allies--were ready to grant. This effort had
an effect, but Italy was not Russia.
The drive began October 24th. It was a very pronounced Teutonic success,
though the great object of the drive was not achieved. In three weeks'
time the Italians were forced back from the Isonza to the Piava River
line; nearly 200,000 soldiers had been captured, together with immense
supplies of all kinds. But yet Italy was not crushed, the German forces
were firmly held along the Piava. We should reflect that in the World
War millions were engaged and the loss of one or even two hundred
thousand men did not mean the end of the war.
EVENTS OF 1918.
The Allies could only hope to defend their position on the west front
against the impending offensive on the part of Germany, for which
preparations on a vast scale were being made, until reinforcements from
the United States could reach them sufficient to enable them to take the
offensive in their turn. Germany hastened its preparations through the
winter months of 1917-18, for they knew they must win a decisive victory
to crush the armies of France and England before the United States could
give efficient assistance. It was a race between America and Germany,
and America won. With the assistance of the British and French merchant
marine and such shipping as could be procured at home the American
forces were landed in France in the most astonishing numbers ever
recorded. The fears of Germany, the hopes of the Allies were alike
exceeded by the forces sent across the ocean. The first of July, 1918,
there were one million American soldiers in France. They came just in
time to avert disaster.
GERMAN OFFENSIVE IN 1918.
The initiative was with Germany, and the German command selected the
British army in position along the Scarpe River, north of Cambria, to
the Oise River--a distance of sixty miles--as the object of the first
drive. The assault began the morning of March 21, 1918. Along the entire
front the artillery fire that opened the drive was on the scale never
before approached in war. More than one million men, the choicest troops
of Germany, were ready to assault the British lines and they came on,
wave after wave, and Germany came perilously near success in her efforts
to break through the British lines. The British were driven back beyond
the lines of the battle of the Somme in 1916, important towns were
captured, but their lines still held. The first phase of the great
battle--known in history as the battle of Picardy--was a defeat to
German hopes.
WHEN THE AMERICANS CAME.
From the opening of the great offense of March 21, 1918, to the signing
of the armistice, November 11, 1918, there were few days when there were
not battles raging at several places along the west front extending
from near Metz in a prolonged sweep, west to Rheims, thence in an
irregular curved line convex toward Paris curving to the North Sea near
Dixmude approximately 250 miles in length. There were days and weeks
when battles of great intensity raged at certain sections, then died
away in that vicinity to break in fury elsewhere. Organized efforts on a
large scale in certain directions were called drives. Until July the
initiative was with Germany, that is to say the Allies were on the
defensive. They were waiting for reinforcements from America. Germany
was making desperate efforts to win a decisive victory and force peace
on their terms before effective aid could arrive.
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE.
At this point try to realize what these statements imply. We do not
grasp their meaning. A battle front of two hundred and fifty miles! And
along that line at least ten million men were facing each other with
other millions in reserve. Trench lines were strung along most of the
front. Not simply one line of trenches, but several, with connecting
trenches, the opposing lines being at places only a few hundred yards
apart. As the struggle continued, however, it became more and more a war
in the open.
This series of struggles are undoubtedly the greatest exertion of
military power in the history of the world. Never before had such masses
of munitions been used; never before had scientific knowledge been so
drawn on in the service of war. Thousands of airplanes were patrolling
the air, sometimes scouting, sometimes dropping bombs on hostile troops
or on hostile stores, sometimes flying low, firing their machine guns
into the faces of marching troops. Thousands upon thousands of great
guns were sending enormous projectiles, which made great pits wherever
they fell. Swarms of machine guns were pouring their bullets like water
from a hose upon charging soldiers. It was an inferno such as Dante
never dreamed of. The Fifteen Decisive Battles of history of which we
have heard--all put together,--were exceeded day after day in the summer
of 1918 when Germany was making her last desperate effort. Thus for
weeks the red tide of war ebbed and flowed, while civilization trembled
in the balance.
UNIFIED COMMAND.
It was clearly seen by the Allied leaders that appointing a
generalissimo to command all their forces was a necessity. This command
was given to General Ferdinand Foch, who had won fame in the battle of
the Marne and who was recognized as one of the greatest strategists of
the day. Events soon demonstrated the wisdom of this step. No general
ever commanded such armies as he. Napoleon, Von Moltke, Grant and Lee
were great generals, but everything connected with this war was on a
scale never before approached, and we can say that the qualities of
leadership displayed by Marshal Foch were necessarily on a higher plane
of action--and we can say this without in the least detracting from the
just fame of other Allied commanders--as Pershing, Haig, Allenby, Diaz
and others. When the war opened, Germany had much to say about her
unconquerable army; her generals were supposed to be superior in a
military way to any others. The war showed that other soldiers were just
as brave, other generals just as able. The fetish of German military
invincibility was early overthrown.
AMERICAN ASSISTANCE.
No American can read the story of the part America took in the war
without experiencing a glow of patriotic feeling. Every Allied nation
can say the same thing. We came late into the struggle, but no nation in
history ever made such wonderful preparation for war as did our country
in the eighteen months that elapsed from the declaration of war to the
signing of the armistice. Our preparations in France, representing only
a part of our total effort, were on such an enormous scale, that neutral
nations--as Sweden and Spain--sent trusted officials to investigate if
it were possibly true that America was making such colossal
preparations; could it be that men by the hundreds of thousands were
disembarking on European soil every week? Were such forces drilled? Were
supplies sent them? It was almost unbelievable. Surely, it must be
American brag. They came, they saw, they departed convinced but in
bewildered wonderment. It was the slowly growing realization of what
this preparation meant that spurred Germany on during the early summer
of 1918. But it was too late. Already the handwriting of defeat was
outlining in letters of fire on the wall.
AGAIN THE MARNE.
May 27, 1918, the Germans opened a drive towards Paris. It resulted in a
deep bulge in the line from Rheims west to Soissons, once more the
German line in that section had reached the Marne. It was a time of
great anxiety in the Allied world. The German tide was rolling on about
seven miles a day toward Paris about fifty miles distant to the
southwest. The German commanders felt sure of success and were talking
about the "strong German peace" they would enforce. The war minister
assured the Reichstag that they must exact at least $50,000,000,000 as
indemnity, while their economic writers devised an elaborate plan
whereby all the trade of the world was to pay tribute to Germany. It
was another case of "Thus far and no farther."
CHATEAU THIERRY.
Chateau Thierry was a thriving city, about 6,000 in population, on the
Marne River, approximately 50 miles northeast of Paris. It is in a
fertile valley. There amid fields of ripening wheat the advancing troops
of Germany were suddenly confronted by American marines, hurried to the
scene of action in motor driven vehicles of all descriptions from Paris.
The forces that faced them, bent on forcing a passage to Paris were
composed of the best Prussian guards and shock troops. They felt
perfectly confident they could drive the Americans back. But the
amateurs went into the battle (the afternoon of June 2) as calmly as if
going to drill on the parade ground. Instead of being driven from the
field they repulsed the seasoned veterans of Germany. It was at a cruel
loss to themselves, 1,600 dead, 2,500 wounded out of 8,000 that came
from Paris on that journey of victory and death; but they never
faltered. This was not a battle of great dimensions but it is among the
most important battles of the war. It saved Paris; but that is not all.
When the news of that battle was flashed up and down the west front, not
an Allied force but was thrilled, enthused, given new courage; the
message that the Americans had stopped the Germans at Chateau Thierry,
electrified Paris. Strong men wept as they realized that the forces of
the Great Republic, able and brave, stood between France and the
ravening wolf of Germany.
OTHER VICTORIES.
In the limited space at our command we can only give a general
description of the remaining weeks of warfare in which American forces
participated. Before advancing at Chateau Thierry the Germans had
fortified their position in Belleau Woods which they had previously
occupied. In the black recesses of this woods they established nest
after nest of machine guns and in the jungle of matted underbrush, of
vines, of heavy foliage they had placed themselves in a position they
believed impregnable. The battle of Chateau Thierry was not rendered
secure until the Germans were driven from Belleau Woods. And so for the
next three weeks the battle of Belleau Woods raged. Fighting day after
day without relief, without sleep, often without water, and for days
without hot rations, the marines met and defeated the best divisions
Germany could throw into the line. According to official decree in
France the name of that woods is now "Woods of the American Brigade." In
September, came the wonderful work of reducing the St. Mihiel salient to
the south and to the east of Verdun, a German wedge that had withstood
every effort to drive it back for four years. We can only mention the
series of battles that took place in the Forest of the Argonne. When the
armistice was declared American forces had fought their way to Sedan.
That was the place that witnessed the deep humiliation of France in the
war of 1870 with which the German Empire began. Germany was only saved
from a deeper humiliation near Sedan in this war that ended that empire,
by the prompt signing of the armistice.
THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY.
We must notice even in a hurried review of the war the downfall of
Turkey, the release of ancient Mesopotamia, Palestine, and large parts
of Asia Minor, and freeing the ancient Christian nation of Armenia from
the dreadful despotism of Turkish misrule. It is impossible to go into
the details of the successive movements leading to this happy result.
The forces of Great Britain, under command of General Maud, later
General Allenby, must be given the credit. We must not forget that
Mesopotamia was the cradle land of early civilization. There are the
plains of Shinar, there are the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh. Now, that
Turkish rule has been overthrown, we may look to see that entire country
once more a scene of smiling fertility.
And consider the case of Palestine, the land of Biblical history, the
home of Abraham, and the scene of Old Testament activities; finally
there is the land forever hallowed by the ministrations of Jesus of
Nazareth. It was the goal of the religious wars of the Crusades. For
more than six centuries it groaned under Turkish misrule. The tide of
British success began in 1917. In December of that year (9th) Jerusalem
was taken by the British forces under command of General Allenby. During
1918 all Palestine was freed. September 20, 1918, Nazareth, the boyhood
home of Jesus, was taken. The future of Palestine with its wealth of
Biblical history is a wonderful theme for contemplation. Given the
blessings of a twentieth century government there is no reason why
Palestine should not once more become a land "flowing with milk and
honey."
THE APPROACHING END.
The ending of the war was almost as dramatically sudden as its
beginning. As late as July 15, 1918, according to statements of German
leaders, they still believed they were to be successful; less than four
months later at Senlis, France, their representatives signed an
armistice, the terms of which were the most drastic and humiliating ever
inflicted on a prominent nation; while the Kaiser and Crown Prince had
fled for safety to Holland, a nation they had asserted existed only by
the long sufferance of Germany. Before the fatal day (November 11,
1918) of the armistice--like the falling of a house of cards--had
occurred a succession of abject surrenders, as one by one of the nations
composing the Teutonic Alliance had fallen before the crushing blows of
the Entente forces.
The middle of July the great German offensive was held. It was expected
by the German leaders that, as in the past, there would now ensue a
period of comparative quiet along the west front during which Germany
could rearrange her forces, perhaps to open an attack elsewhere. Marshal
Foch--ably seconded by General Pershing and General Haig--thought
differently. There were one million American soldiers on the fighting
line, other millions were coming, Great Britain had thrown into France
her reserve army held in England to meet unforeseen emergencies. Then
was the time to begin a counter-attack. Accordingly, just as a German
official was explaining to the Reichstag that General Foch had no
reserves to withstand a fresh onslaught that Germany would soon
begin,--the blow fell. A great counter-attack was initiated by the
French and Americans along the Marne-Aisne front July 18, 1918.
THE ALLIES TAKE THE INITIATIVE.
From that day to the signing of the armistice the initiative remained
with General Foch. Up and down the long line, now here, now there; the
British and Belgians on the north, the French and Americans on the
south, first one, then the other, then together, the Allies drove
forward with hammer blows on the yielding German armies. That subtle
force, so hard to define, the morale of the invaders, was broken down.
Their confidence was gone. They knew they were defeated. The one hope of
their leaders was to get safely back to Germany, and soon a general
retreat was in progress. But to remove armies aggregating several
million men, with guns and supplies, from a contracted area, in the face
of a victorious and aggressive enemy, without the retreat degenerating
into a rout is almost impossible; it requires generalship of highest
order. Day by day the remorseless jaws of the Allied military machine,
hinged to the north of the Aisne,--British and Belgian forces on the
north, French in the center, Americans on the south and east,--were
closing, and when the American forces fought their way through the
Argonne to Sedan (forty miles northeast of Rheims) the case was
hopeless. Only the armistice saved Germany from the humiliation of a
surrender, on a scale vastly greater than the surrender of the French
armies near that same point in 1870.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE TEUTONIC ALLIES.
With Germany herself falling, it is not strange that the nations leagued
with her also went down to defeat. They had been almost forced into the
war by Germany; not one of them could carry on a war when deprived of
counsel and help from Germany. Only the threat of force kept Austria in
the war. As the counter-attack in France gained in force, as the retreat
continued, it was recognized on all hands that the end was approaching.
The will to war--the morale--was completely broken down; and so on every
side the Allied forces gained great victories with surprising ease.
Bulgaria was the first nation to surrender. This was the conclusion of a
succession of great victories beginning September 16, 1918, ending by
the surrender ten days later. The case with Turkey was hopeless after
Bulgaria fell. No reinforcements or supplies could reach them from
Germany. The English forces under General Allenby were carrying
everything before them. Turkey surrendered October 31, 1918.
Austria-Hungary was the third power to surrender. This came as the
culmination of one of the greatest drives of the war.
GREAT ITALIAN VICTORY.
In 1917--as we have seen,--Italy suffered a great reverse, losing
200,000 soldiers and immense supplies. In August, 1918, Austria renewed
the attack. In his proclamation to his soldiers, the Austrian commander
bade them remember "the white bread, the fat cattle, the wine" and
supplies they had won the year before. Surely as great rewards awaited
them this time, and learned professors assured them and the entire
nation that they belonged to a "conquering superior race" and so could
be confident of further victory. The drive was a "hunger offensive" on
the part of hard-pressed Austria. It was a dismal failure. It is
interesting to know that American airplanes, piloted by Americans,
rendered great assistance in repulsing this attack. Then came the
counter-attack. In this drive American forces assisted. The drive began
October 27th; it was attended by a series of most astonishing victories.
The drive culminated in the abject surrender of Austria, November 3,
1918. The victories can only be explained by the fact that the morale of
the Austrian troops had completely broken down, more than 500,000
prisoners being taken, together with enormous supplies.
THE GERMAN ARMISTICE.
With their armies perilously near rout on the western front, with a
great military disaster confronting them, with everyone of her allies
forced to surrender, with revolution threatening at home, there was
nothing left for Germany to do but to make the best terms possible.
Their commissioners met General Foch at Senlis and the drastic
armistice terms were signed at 5 o'clock, Paris time, the morning of
November 11, 1918, and the last shots in the war were fired at 11
o'clock, that forenoon, Paris time. The war had lasted (from the date of
the declaration of war on Serbia) four years, three months and thirteen
days. On subsequent pages we shall consider more in detail this
skeletonized story, study the enormous political, geographic and
economic changes it has necessitated, and mentally view the new age in
history at hand.
[Illustration: PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON.
President Wilson's latest photograph.]
[Illustration: GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING.
This is the latest and best photograph of General Pershing.]
[Illustration: MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH.
This is the latest photograph of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Supreme
Commander of the Allied Armies, as he appears since the termination of
the war. A comparison of this photograph with earlier ones shows the
effect of the war on the famous general.]
[Illustration: Showing the actual drafting by the Allied
Plenipotentiaries of the armistice terms which ended the great world
war. Left side of table from left to right: second man, General di
Robilant; Italian Foreign Minister Sonnino; Italian Premier Orlando;
Colonel Edward H. House; General Tasker H. Bliss; next man unknown;
Greek Premier Venizelos, and Serbian Minister Vesnitch. Right side of
the table from left to right: Admiral Wemyss (with back turned); General
Sir Henry Wilson; Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig; General Sackville
West; Andrew Bonar Law; British Premier Lloyd George; French Premier
Georges Clemenceau, and French Foreign Minister, Stephen Pichon.]
[Illustration: SENLIS, FRANCE, WHERE THE ARMISTICE WAS SIGNED.
Amid the ruins wrought by the Huns the envoys of Germany signed the
truce terms that victoriously ended the struggle for democracy.]
[Illustration: FAMOUS FIGHTERS--"THE BLACK WATCH."
Some of the best fighters in the British Army, resting by the roadside
after having driven the Germans back in the "Fight of the Woods," near
Rheims.]
[Illustration: CLERKS IN NAVY DEPARTMENT.
Washington, D.C.]
[Illustration: FIRST COLORED BATTALION, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, NATIONAL
GUARD.
On Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., Parading the National Capital
before going to France.]
[Illustration: SERGT. HENRY JOHNSON, OF ALBANY, N.Y., THE OUTSTANDING
HERO.
Single-handed he routed 36 Huns, killing 4 of them and wounding the
remainder. When his ammunition ran out he used a bolo knife. Sergt.
Johnson, of the 369th Colored Infantry (old 15th of N.Y.), was the first
man in his regiment to win the French War Cross.]
[Illustration: GROUP OF 369TH COLORED INFANTRY WITH THEIR WAR CROSSES.
One hundred and sixty-nine men of this regiment (old 15th N.Y.) won
valor medals. They were nicknamed "Hell Fighters." Top--Fred Rogers.
Lower row--George Chapman, Lawrence McVey, Isaac Freeman. Upper row--Wm.
Bunn, Herbert Mills, Hugh Hamilton, Clarence Johnson.]
[Illustration: COL. HAYWARD AND GROUP OF REAL FIGHTERS.
All winners of the Croix de Guerre. When a French general gave orders to
retire, Col. Hayward replied: "My men never retire: they go forward or
die, and we are going through here or hell. We don't go back."]
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT ROBERT S. CAMPBELL, U.S. ARMY.
The first man in the 92nd American Division (Negroes) to receive the
distinguished service cross for bravery in the fighting in the Argonne.
He was a member of Co. I, 368th Infantry.]
[Illustration: GUARDING THE FLAG.
The flag of the old 15th (decorated by the French) and Old Glory.]
[Illustration: AT THE Y.M.C.A. ON FRENCH FRONT.
This group of soldiers is being served at a "Y" tent.]
[Illustration: NEGRO SOLDIERS ON THE MARCH IN FRANCE.
Along this beautiful stream it was tramp, tramp, tramp the soldiers were
marching on to do their duty and help bring the victory which meant
"World Peace."]
[Illustration: HOME AGAIN. OH, HOW JOYFUL!
Back from France, and what a grand reception awaited them! Conquering
heroes on the battlefield and the warmth and enthusiasm over their
homecoming are beyond words to describe.]
CHAPTER II.
GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STORY OF THE VICTORIOUS AMERICAN ARMY
ORGANIZATION OF HIS GENERAL STAFF--TRAINING IN FRANCE--IN THE AISNE
OFFENSIVE--AT CHATEAU THIERRY--THE ST. MIHIEL SALIENT--MEUSE-ARGONNE,
FIRST PHASE--THE BATTLE IN THE FOREST--SUMMARY.
This is a brief summary of the organization and operations of the
American Expeditionary Force from May 26, 1917, until the signing of the
armistice, November 11, 1918. Immediately upon receiving my orders I
selected a small staff and proceeded to Europe in order to become
familiar with conditions at the earliest possible moment.
The warmth of our reception in England and France was only equaled by
the readiness of the commanders in chief of the veteran armies of the
Allies and their staffs to place their experience at our disposal. In
consultation with them the most effective means of co-operation of
effort was considered. With French and British armies at their maximum
strength, and all efforts to dispossess the enemy from his firmly
intrenched positions in Belgium and France failed, it was necessary to
plan for an American force adequate to turn the scale in favor of the
Allies. Taking account of the strength of the Central Powers at that
time, the immensity of the problem which confronted us could hardly be
over-estimated. The first requisite being an organization that could
give intelligent direction to effort, the formation of a General Staff
occupied my early attention.
ORGANIZATION OF GENERAL STAFF.
A well organized General Staff through which the commander exercises his
functions is essential to a successful modern army. However capable our
division, our battalion, and our companies as such, success would be
impossible without thoroughly co-ordinated endeavor. A General Staff
broadly organized and trained for war had not hitherto existed in our
army. Under the Commander-in-Chief, this staff must carry out the policy
and direct the details of administration, supply, preparation, and
operations of the army as a whole, with all special branches and bureaus
subject to its control. As models to aid us we had the veteran French
General Staff and the experience of the British who had similarly formed
an organization to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting from
each the features best adapted to our basic organization, and fortified
by our own early experience in the war, the development of our great
General Staff system was completed.
The General Staff is naturally divided into five groups, each with its
chief who is an assistant to the Chief of the General Staff. G.1 is in
charge of organization and equipment of troops, replacements, tonnage,
priority of overseas shipment, the auxiliary welfare association and
cognate subjects; G.2 has censorship, enemy intelligence, gathering and
disseminating information, preparation of maps, and all similar
subjects; G.3 is charged with all strategic studies and plans, movement
of troops, and the supervision of combat operations; G.4 co-ordinates
important questions of supply, construction, transport arrangements for
combat, and of the operations of the service of supply, and of
hospitalization and the evacuation of the sick and wounded; G.5
supervises the various schools and has general direction and
co-ordination of education and training.
The first Chief of Staff was Colonel (now Major-General) James G.
Harbord, who was succeeded in May, 1918, by Major-General James W.
McAndrew. To these officers, to the deputy Chief of Staff, and to the
assistant Chiefs of Staff, who, as heads of sections, aided them, great
credit is due for the results obtained not only in perfecting the
General Staff organization but in applying correct principles to the
multiplicity of problems that have arisen.
ORGANIZATION OF THE FORCES.
After a thorough consideration of Allied organizations it was decided
that our combat division should consist of four regiments of infantry of
3,000 men, with three battalions to a regiment and four companies of 250
men each to a battalion, and of an artillery brigade of three regiments,
a machine gun battalion, an engineer regiment, a trench-mortar battery,
a signal battalion, wagon trains, and the headquarters staffs and
military police. These, with medical and other units, made a total of
over 28,000 men, or practically double the size of a French or German
division. Each corps would normally consist of six divisions--four
combat and one depot and one replacement division--and also two
regiments of cavalry, and each army of from three to five corps. With
four divisions fully trained, a corps could take over an American sector
with two divisions in line and two in reserve, with the depot and
replacement divisions prepared to fill the gaps in the ranks.
Our purpose was to prepare an integral American force which should be
able to take the offensive in every respect. Accordingly, the
development of a self-reliant infantry by thorough drill in the use of
the rifle and in the tactics of open warfare was always uppermost. The
plan of training after arrival in France allowed a division one month
for acclimatization and instruction in small units from battalions down,
a second month in quiet trench sectors by battalions, and a third month
after it came out of the trenches when it should be trained as a
complete division in war of movement.
SCHOOLS OF INSTRUCTION.
Very early a system of schools was outlined and started, which should
have the advantage of instruction by officers direct from the front. At
the great school center at Langres, one of the first to be organized,
was the staff school, where the principles of general staff work, as
laid down in our own organization, were taught to carefully selected
officers. Men in the ranks, who had shown qualities of leadership, were
sent to the school of candidates for commissions. A school of the line
taught younger officers the principles of leadership, tactics, and the
use of the different weapons. In the artillery school, at Saumur, young
officers were taught the fundamental principles of modern artillery;
while at Issoudun an immense plant was built for training cadets in
aviation. These and other schools, with their well-considered
curriculums for training in every branch of our organization, were
co-ordinated in a manner best to develop an efficient army out of
willing and industrious young men, many of whom had not before known
even the rudiments of military technique. Both Marshal Haig and General
Petain placed officers and men at our disposal for instructional
purposes, and we are deeply indebted for the opportunities given to
profit by their veteran experience.
AMERICAN ZONE.
The eventual place the American army should take on the western front
was to a large extent influenced by the vital question of communication
and supply. The northern ports of France were crowded by the British
armies' shipping and supplies while the southern ports, though
otherwise at our service, had not adequate port facilities for our
purposes and these we should have to build. The already overtaxed
railway system behind the active front in northern France would not be
available for us as lines of supply and those leading from the southern
ports of northeastern France would be unequal to our needs without much
new construction. Practically all warehouses, supply depots and
regulating stations must be provided by fresh constructions. While
France offered us such material as she had to spare after a drain of
three years, enormous quantities of material had to be brought across
the Atlantic.
VAST PREPARATIONS NECESSARY.
With such a problem any temporization or lack of definiteness in making
plans might cause failure even with victory within our grasp. Moreover,
broad plans commensurate with our national purpose and resources would
bring conviction of our power to every soldier in the front line, to the
nations associated with us in the war, and to the enemy. The tonnage for
material for necessary construction for the supply of an army of three
and perhaps four million men would require a mammoth program of
shipbuilding at home, and miles of dock construction in France, with a
corresponding large project for additional railways and for storage
depots.
All these considerations led to the inevitable conclusion that if we
were to handle and supply the great forces deemed essential to win the
war we must utilize the southern ports of France--Bordeaux, La Pallice,
St. Nazaire, and Brest--and the comparatively unused railway systems
leading therefrom to the northeast. Generally speaking, then, this would
contemplate the use of our forces against the enemy somewhere in that
direction, but the great depots of supply must be centrally located,
preferably in the area included by Tours, Bourges, and Chateauroux, so
that our armies could be supplied with equal facility wherever they
might be serving on the western front.
SKILLED HELP.
To build up such a system there were talented men in the Regular Army,
but more experts were necessary than the army could furnish. Thanks to
the patriotic spirit of our people at home, there came from civil life
men trained for every sort of work involved in building and managing the
organization necessary to handle and transport such an army and keep it
supplied. With such assistance the construction and general development
of our plans have kept pace with the growth of the forces, and the
Service of Supply is now able to discharge from ships and move 45,000
tons daily, besides transporting troops and material in the conduct of
active operations.
WORK OF THE DEPARTMENTS.
As to organization, all the administrative and supply services, except
the Adjutant General's, Inspector General's, and Judge Advocates
General's Departments which remain at general headquarters, have been
transferred to the headquarters of the services of supplies at Tours
under a commanding general responsible to the commander-in-chief for
supply of the armies. The Chief Quartermaster, Chief Surgeon, Chief
Signal Officer, Chief of Ordnance, Chief of Air Service, Chief of
Chemical Warfare, the general purchasing agent in all that pertains to
questions of procurement and supply, the Provost Marshal General in the
maintenance of order in general, the Director General of Transportation
in all that affects such matters, and the Chief Engineer in all matters
of administration and supply, are subordinate to the Commanding General
of the Service of Supply, who, assisted by a staff especially organized
for the purpose, is charged with the administrative co-ordination of all
these services.
TRANSPORTATION AND ENGINEER'S DEPARTMENT.
The transportation department under the Service of Supply directs the
operation, maintenance, and construction of railways, the operation of
terminals, the unloading of ships, and transportation of material to
warehouses or to the front. Its functions make necessary the most
intimate relationship between our organization and that of the French,
with the practical result that our transportation department has been
able to improve materially the operations of railways generally.
Constantly laboring under a shortage of rolling stock, the
transportation department has nevertheless been able by efficient
management to meet every emergency.
The Engineer Corps is charged with all construction, including light
railways and roads. It has planned and constructed the many projects
required, the most important of which are the new wharves at Bordeaux
and Nantes, and the immense storage depots at La Pallice, Montoir, and
Gievres, besides innumerable hospitals and barracks in various ports of
France. These projects have all been carried on by phases keeping pace
with our needs. The Forestry Service under the Engineer Corps has cut
the greater part of the timber and railway ties required.
PURCHASES IN EUROPE.
To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due to lack of shipping,
the representatives of the different supply departments were constantly
in search of available material and supplies in Europe. In order to
co-ordinate these purchases and to prevent competition between our
departments, a general purchasing agency was created early in our
experience to co-ordinate our purchases and, if possible, induce our
Allies to apply the principle among the Allied armies. While there was
no authority for the general use of appropriations, this was met by
grouping the purchasing representatives of the different departments
under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions
and purchases. Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally
successful, and all purchases for the Allied armies are now on an
equitable and co-operative basis. Indeed, it may be said that the work
of this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and business-like.
ARTILLERY, AIRPLANES AND TANKS.
Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries necessary
for its conduct in the modern sense. Among our most important
deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and tanks. In order
to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer
of the French Government to provide us with the necessary artillery
equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five millimeter howitzers, and
one-fifty-five GPF guns from their own factories for thirty divisions.
The wisdom of this course is fully demonstrated by the fact that,
although we soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at home,
there were no guns of the calibers mentioned manufactured in America on
our front at the date the armistice was signed. The only guns of these
types produced at home thus far received in France are 109 seventy-five
millimeter guns.
In aviation we were in the same situation, and here again the French
Government came to our aid until our own aviation program should be
under way. We obtained from the French the necessary planes for
training our personnel, and they have provided us with a total of 2,676
pursuit, observation, and bombing planes. The first airplanes received
from home arrived in May, and altogether we have received 1,379. The
first American squadron completely equipped by American production,
including airplanes, crossed the German lines on August 7, 1918. As to
tanks, we were also compelled to rely upon the French. Here, however, we
were less fortunate, for the reason that the French production could
barely meet the requirements of their own armies.
OUR OBLIGATIONS TO FRANCE.
It should be fully realized that the French Government has always taken
a most liberal attitude and has been most anxious to give us every
possible assistance in meeting our deficiencies in these as well as in
other respects. Our dependence upon France for artillery, aviation, and
tanks was, of course, due to the fact that our industries had not been
exclusively devoted to military production. All credit is due our own
manufacturers for their efforts to meet our requirements, as at the time
the armistice was signed we were able to look forward to the early
supply of practically all our necessities from our own factories.
CAMP WELFARE WORK.
The welfare of the troops touches my responsibility as
Commander-in-Chief to the mothers and fathers and kindred of the men who
came to France in the impressionable period of youth. They could not
have the privilege accorded European soldiers during their periods of
leave of visiting their families and renewing their home ties. Fully
realizing that the standard of conduct that should be established for
them must have a permanent influence in their lives and on the
character of their future citizenship, the Red Cross, the Young Men's
Christian Association, Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, and the
Jewish Welfare Board, as auxiliaries in this work, were encouraged in
every possible way. The fact that our soldiers, in a land of different
customs and language, have borne themselves in a manner in keeping with
the cause for which they fought, is due not only to the efforts in their
behalf but much more to other high ideals, their discipline, and their
innate sense of self-respect. It should be recorded, however, that the
members of these welfare societies have been untiring in their desire to
be of real service to our officers and men. The patriotic devotion of
these representative men and women has given a new significance to the
Golden Rule, and we owe to them a debt of gratitude that can never be
repaid.
COMBAT OPERATIONS.
During our periods of training in the trenches some of our divisions had
engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was
Seicheprey by the Twenty-sixth on April 20, in the Toul sector, but none
had participated in action as a unit. The First Division, which had
passed through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the
trenches for its first period of instruction at the end of October and
by March 21, when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four
divisions with experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to
any demands of battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed
was such that our occupation of an American sector must be postponed.
TROOPS PLACED UNDER MARSHAL FOCH.
On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch who had been agreed
upon as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies, all of our forces to
be used as he might decide. At his request the First Division was
transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at Chaumont en
Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt action, an
agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the Allied premiers
and commanders and myself on May 2 by which British shipping was to
transport ten American divisions to the British army area, where they
were to be trained and equipped, and additional British shipping was to
be provided for as many divisions as possible for use elsewhere.
THE CANTIGNY OPERATIONS.
On April 26 the First Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier
salient on the Picardy battlefront. Tactics had been suddenly
revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our men, confident of the
results of their training, were eager for the test. On the morning of
May 28 this division attacked the commanding German position in its
front, taking with splendid dash the town of Cantigny and all other
objectives, which were organized and held steadfastly against vicious
counter-attacks and galling artillery fire. Although local, this
brilliant action had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our
fighting qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that the
enemy's troops were not altogether invincible.
THE GERMAN AISNE OFFENSIVE.
The Germans' Aisne offensive, which began on May 27, had advanced
rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis
equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every
available man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the Third
Division, which had just come from its preliminary training in the
trenches, was hurried to the Marne. Its motorized machine gun battalion
preceded the other units and successfully held the bridgehead at the
Marne, opposite Chateau-Thierry. The Second Division, in reserve near
Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport to
check the progress of the enemy toward Paris. The Division attacked and
retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its
ground against the enemy's best guard divisions. In the battle of
Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their superiority and
gained a strong tactical position, with far greater loss to the enemy
than to ourselves. On July 1, before the Second was relieved, it
captured the village of Vaux with most splendid precision.
Meanwhile our Second Corps, under Maj. Gen. George W. Read, had been
organized for the command of our divisions with the British, which were
held back in training areas or assigned to second-line defenses. Five of
the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area in June, three to
relieve divisions in Lorraine and the Vosges and two to the Paris area
to join the group of American divisions which stood between the city and
any farther advance of the enemy in that direction.
OPERATIONS NEAR RHEIMS.
The great June-July troop movement from the States was well under way,
and, although these troops were to be given some preliminary training
before being put into action, their very presence warranted the use of
all the older divisions in the confidence that we did not lack reserves.
Elements of the Forty-second Division were in the line east of Rheims
against the German offensive of July 15, and held their ground
unflinchingly. On the right flank of this offensive four companies of
the Twenty-eighth Division were in position in face of the advancing
waves of the German infantry. The Third Division was holding the bank of
the Marne from the bend east of the mouth of the Surmelin to the west of
Mezy, opposite Chateau-Thierry, where a large force of German infantry
sought to force a passage under support of powerful artillery
concentrations and under cover of smoke screens. A single regiment of
the Third wrote one of the most brilliant pages in our military annals
on this occasion. It prevented the crossing at certain points on its
front while, on either flank, the Germans, who had gained a footing,
pressed forward. Our men, firing in three directions, met the German
attacks with counter-attacks at critical points and succeeded in
throwing two German divisions into complete confusion, capturing 600
prisoners.
BEGINNING OF THE COUNTER ATTACK.
The great force of the German Chateau-Thierry offensive established the
deep Marne salient, but the enemy was taking chances, and the
vulnerability of this pocket to attack might be turned to his
disadvantage. Seizing this opportunity to support my conviction, every
division with any sort of training was made available for use in a
counter offensive. The place of honor in the thrust toward Soissons on
July 18 was given to our First and Second Divisions in company with
chosen French divisions. Without the usual brief warning of a
preliminary bombardment, the massed French and American artillery,
firing by the map, laid down its rolling barrage at dawn while the
infantry began its charge. The tactical handling of our troops under
these trying conditions was excellent throughout the action. The enemy
brought up large numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense both
with machine guns and artillery, but through five days' fighting the
First Division continued to advance until it had gained the heights
above Soissons and captured the village of Berzy-le-sec. The Second
Division took Beau Repaire farm and Vierzy in a very rapid advance and
reached a position in front of Tigny at the end of its second day. These
two divisions captured 7,000 prisoners and over 100 pieces of artillery.
THE SOISSONS ATTACK.
The Twenty-sixth Division, which, with a French division, was under
command of our First Corps, acted as a pivot of the movement toward
Soissons. On the 18th it took the village of Torcy, while the Third
Division was crossing the Marne in pursuit of the retiring enemy. The
Twenty-sixth attacked again on the 21st, and the enemy withdrew past the
Chateau-Thierry-Soissons road. The Third Division, continuing its
progress, took the heights of Mont St. Pere and the villages of
Charteves and Jaulgonne in the face of both machine gun and artillery
fire.
On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from Trugny and Epieds,
our Forty-second Division, which had been brought over from the
Champagne, relieved the Twenty-sixth and, fighting its way through the
Foret de Fere, overwhelmed the nest of machine guns in its path. By the
27th it had reached the Ourcq, whence the Third and Fourth Divisions
were already advancing, while the French divisions with which we were
co-operating were moving forward at other points.
The Third Division had made its advance into Roncheres Wood on the 29th
and was relieved for rest by a brigade of the Thirty-second. The
Forty-second and Thirty-second undertook the task of conquering the
heights beyond Cierges, the Forty-second capturing Sergy and the
Thirty-second capturing Hill 230, both American divisions joining in
the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, and thus the operation of
reducing the salient was finished. Meanwhile the Forty-second was
relieved by the Fourth at Chery-Chartreuve, and the Thirty-second by the
Twenty-eighth, while the Seventy-seventh Division took up a position on
the Vesle. The operations of these divisions on the Vesle were under the
Third Corps, Maj. Gen. Robert L. Bullard, commanding.
BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL.
With the reduction of the Marne salient we could look forward to the
concentration of our divisions in our own zone. In view of the
forthcoming operation against the St. Mihiel salient, which had long
been planned as our first offensive action on a large scale, the First
Army was organized on August 10 under my personal command. While
American units had held different divisional and corps sectors along the
western front, there had not been up to this time, for obvious reasons,
a distinct American sector; but, in view of the important parts the
American forces were now to play, it was necessary to take over a
permanent portion of the line. Accordingly, on August 30, the line
beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the Moselle and extending to the
west through St. Mihiel, thence north to a point opposite Verdun, was
placed under my command. The American sector was afterwards extended
across the Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, and included
the Second Colonial French, which held the point of the salient, and the
Seventeenth French Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun.
PREPARATION FOR THE ATTACK.
The preparation for a complicated operation against the formidable
defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions and of
corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the
location of hospitals, and the molding together of all of the elements
of a great modern army with its own railheads, supplied directly by our
own Service of Supply. The concentration for this operation, which was
to be a surprise, involved the movement, mostly at night, of
approximately 600,000 troops, and required for its success the most
careful attention to every detail.
The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and army
artillery, with its personnel, and we were confident from the start of
our superiority over the enemy in guns of all calibers. Our heavy guns
were able to reach Metz and to interfere seriously with German rail
movements. The French Independent Air Force was placed under my command
which, together with the British bombing squadrons and our air forces,
gave us the largest assembly of aviation that had ever been engaged in
one operation on the western front.
LOCATION OF THE TROOPS.
From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at St. Mihiel to the
Moselle River the line was roughly forty miles long and situated on
commanding ground greatly strengthened by artificial defenses. Our First
Corps (Eighty-second, Ninetieth, Fifth, and Second Divisions), under
command of Maj. Gen. Hunter Liggett, restrung its right on
Pont-a-Mouson, with its left joining our Third Corps (the Eighty-ninth,
Forty-second, and First Divisions), under Maj. Gen. Joseph T. Dickman,
in line to Xivray, were to swing in toward Vigneulles on the pivot of
the Moselle River for the initial assault. From Xivray to Mouilly the
Second Colonial French Corps was in line in the center and our Fifth
Corps, under command of Maj. Gen. George H. Cameron, with our
Twenty-sixth Division and a French division at the western base of the
salient, were to attack three difficult hills--Les Eparges, Combres, and
Amaramthe. Our First Corps had in reserve the Seventy-eighth Division,
our Fourth Corps the Third Division, and our First Army the Thirty-fifth
and Ninety-first Divisions, with the Eightieth and Thirty-third
available. It should be understood that our corps organizations are very
elastic, and that we have at no time had permanent assignments of
divisions to corps.
MOVEMENT OF THE TROOPS.
After four hours' artillery preparation, the seven American divisions in
the front line advanced at 5 A.M. on September 12, assisted by a limited
number of tanks manned partly by Americans and partly by the French.
These divisions, accompanied by groups of wire cutters and others armed
with bangalore torpedoes, went through the successive bands of barbed
wire that protected the enemy's front line and support trenches, in
irresistible waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense of an
enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery fire and our
sudden approach out of the fog.
Our First Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our Fourth Corps curved
back to the southwest through Nonsard. The Second Colonial French Corps
made the slight advance required of it on very difficult ground, and the
Fifth Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counter-attack. A rapid
march brought reserve regiments of a division of the Fifth Corps into
Vigneulles in the early morning, where it linked up with patrols of our
Fourth Corps, closing the salient and forming a new line west of
Thiaucourt to Vigneulles and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre. At the cost of
only 7,000 casualties, mostly light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and
443 guns, a great quantity of material, released the inhabitants of many
villages from enemy domination, and established our lines in a position
to threaten Metz. This signal success of the American First Army in its
first offensive was of prime importance. The Allies found they had a
formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned finally that he had
one to reckon with.
PREPARATION FOR THE ARGONNE OFFENSIVE.
On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient, much of our corps
and army artillery which had operated at St. Mihiel and our divisions in
reserve at other points, were already on the move toward the area back
of the line between the Meuse River and the western edge of the forest
of Argonne. With the exception of St. Mihiel, the old German front line
from Switzerland to the east of Rheims was still intact. In the general
attack all along the line, the operation assigned the American army as
the hinge of this Allied offensive was directed toward the important
railroad communications of the German armies through Mezieres and Sedan.
The enemy must hold fast to this part of his lines or the withdrawal of
his forces with four years' accumulation of plants and material would be
dangerously imperiled.
The German army had as yet shown no demoralization and, while the mass
of its troops had suffered in morale, its first-class divisions and
notably its machine gun defense were exhibiting remarkable tactical
efficiency as well as courage. The German General Staff was fully aware
of the consequences of a success on the Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that
he would do everything in his power to oppose us, the action was planned
with as much secrecy as possible and was undertaken with the
determination to use all our divisions in forcing a decision. We
expected to draw the best German divisions to our front and to consume
them while the enemy was held under grave apprehension lest our attack
should break his line, which it was our firm purpose to do.
LINE OF BATTLE.
Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our left embraced the
Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense screened by
dense thickets had been generally considered impregnable. Our order of
battle from right to left was the Third Corps from the Meuse to
Malancourt, with the Thirty-third, Eightieth, and Fourth Divisions in
line, and the Third Division as corps reserve; the Fifth Corps from
Malancourt to Vauquois, with Seventy-ninth, Eighty-seventh, and
Ninety-first Divisions in line, and the Thirty-second in corps reserve;
and the First Corps, from Vauquois to Vienne le Chateau, with
Thirty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, and Seventy-seventh Divisions in line, and
the Ninety-second in corps reserve. The army reserve consisted of the
First, Twenty-ninth, and Eighty-second Divisions.
BATTLE OPERATIONS.
On the night of September 25 our troops quietly took the place of the
French who thinly held the line in this sector which had long been
inactive. In the attack, which began on the 26th, we drove through the
barbed wire entanglements and the sea of shell craters across No Man's
Land, mastering all the first line defenses. Continuing on the 27th and
28th, against machine guns and artillery of an increasing number of
enemy reserve divisions, we penetrated to a depth of from three to seven
miles, and took the village of Montfaucon and its commanding hill and
Exermont, Gercourt, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry, Epinionville,
Charpentry, Very, and other villages. East of the Meuse one of our
divisions, which was with the Second Colonial French Corps, captured
Marcheville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank of our
main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we had gained our point of
forcing the battle into the open and were prepared for the enemy's
reaction, which was bound to come, as he had good roads and ample
railroad facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves.
GREAT DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME.
In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to build new roads
across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair broken roads beyond No Man's
Land, and build bridges. Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put
their shoulders to wheels and dragropes to bring their guns through the
mire in support of the infantry, now under the increasing fire of the
enemy's artillery. Our attack had taken the enemy by surprise, but,
quickly recovering himself, he began to fire counter-attacks in strong
force, supported by heavy bombardments, with large quantities of gas.
From September 28 until October 4 we maintained the offensive against
patches of woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine
guns, and pushed forward our guns and transports, seizing strategical
points in preparation for further attacks.
OTHER UNITS WITH ALLIES.
Other divisions attached to the Allied armies were doing their part. It
was the fortune of our Second Corps, composed of the Twenty-seventh and
Thirtieth Divisions, which had remained with the British, to have a
place of honor in co-operation with the Australian Corps on September
29 and October 1 in the assault on the Hindenburg Line where the St.
Quentin Canal passes through a tunnel under a ridge. The Thirtieth
Division speedily broke through the main line of defense for all its
objectives, while the Twenty-seventh pushed on impetuously through the
main line until some of its elements reached Gouy. In the midst of the
maze of trenches and shell craters and under cross-fire from machine
guns the other elements fought desperately against odds. In this and in
later actions, from October 6 to October 19, our Second Corps captured
over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over 13 miles. The spirit and
aggressiveness of these divisions have been highly praised by the
British army commander under whom they served.
OPERATIONS NEAR RHEIMS.
On October 2-9 our Second and Thirty-sixth Divisions were sent to assist
the French in an important attack against the old German positions
before Rheims. The Second conquered the complicated defense works on
their front against a persistent defense worthy of the grimmest period
of trench warfare and attacked the strongly held wooded hill of Blanc
Mont, which they captured in a second assault, sweeping over it with
consummate dash and skill. This division then repulsed strong
counter-attacks before the village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took
the town, forcing the Germans to fall back from before Rheims and yield
positions they had held since September, 1914. On October 9 the
Thirty-sixth Division relieved the Second and, in its first experience
under fire, withstood very severe artillery bombardment and rapidly took
up the pursuit of the enemy, now retiring behind the Aisne.
RESULTS OF AMERICAN OPERATIONS.
The Allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of our men in this
crucial contest as the German command threw in more and more
first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady headway in the
almost impenetrable and strongly held Argonne Forest, for, despite this
reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the driving. Our aircraft
was increasing in skill and numbers and forcing the issue, and our
infantry and artillery were improving rapidly with each new experience.
The replacements fresh from home were put into exhausted divisions with
little time for training, but they had the advantage of serving beside
men who knew their business and who had almost become veterans
overnight. The enemy had taken every advantage of the terrain, which
especially favored the defense by a prodigal use of machine guns manned
by highly trained veterans and by using his artillery at short ranges.
In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable
to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards,
but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of
our troops.
PROGRESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
On October 4 the attack was renewed all along our front. The Third Corps
tilting to the left followed the Brieulles-Cunel road; our Fifth Corps
took Gesnes, while the First Corps advanced for over two miles along the
irregular valley of the Aire River and in the wooded hills of the
Argonne that bordered the river, used by the enemy with all his art and
weapons of defense. This sort of fighting continued against an enemy
striving to hold every foot of ground and whose very strong
counter-attacks challenged us at every point. On the 7th the First Corps
captured Chatel-Chehery and continued along the river to Cornay. On the
east of Meuse sector one of the two divisions co-operating with the
French captured Consenvoye and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the Fifth
Corps, in its progress up the Aire, took Fleville, and the Third Corps,
which had continuous fighting against odds, was working its way through
Brieulles and Cunel. On the 10th we had cleared the Argonne Forest of
the enemy.
FORMATION OF SECOND ARMY.
It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and on October 9 the
immediate command of the First Army was turned over to Lieut. Gen.
Hunter Liggett. The command of the Second Army, whose divisions occupied
a sector in the Woevre, was given to Lieut. Gen. Robert L. Bullard, who
had been commander of the First Division and then of the Third Corps.
Major General Dickman was transferred to the command of the First Corps,
while the Fifth Corps was placed under Maj. Gen. Charles P. Summerall,
who had recently commanded the First Division. Maj. Gen. John L. Hines,
who had gone rapidly up from regimental to division commander, was
assigned to the Third Corps. These four officers had been in France from
the early days of the expedition and had learned their lessons in the
school of practical warfare.
Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day by day more
prisoners, mostly survivors from machine gun nests captured in fighting
at close quarters. On October 18 there was very fierce fighting in the
Caures Woods east of the Meuse and in the Ormont Woods. On the 14th the
First Corps took St. Juvin, and the Fifth Corps, in hand-to-hand
encounters, entered the formidable Kriemhilde Line, where the enemy had
hoped to check us indefinitely. Later the Fifth Corps penetrated further
the Kriemhilde Line, and the First Corps took Champigneulles and the
important town of Grandpre. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the
enemy, who continued desperately to throw his best troops against us,
thus weakening his line in front of our Allies and making their advance
less difficult.
AMERICANS IN BELGIUM.
Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the battle, but our
Thirty-seventh and Ninety-first Divisions were hastily withdrawn from
our front and dispatched to help the French army in Belgium. Detraining
in the neighborhood of Ypres, these divisions advanced by rapid stages
to the fighting line and were assigned to adjacent French corps. On
October 31, in continuation of the Flanders offensive, they attacked and
methodically broke down all enemy resistance. On November 3 the
Thirty-seventh had completed its mission in dividing the enemy across
the Escaut River and firmly established itself along the east bank
included in the division zone of action. By a clever flanking movement,
troops of the Ninety-first Division captured Spitaals Bosschen, a
difficult wood extending across the central part of the division sector,
reached the Escaut, and penetrated into the town of Audenarde. These
divisions received high commendation from their corps commanders for
their dash and energy.
REGROUPING FOR FINAL ASSAULT.
On the 23d the Third and Fifth Corps pushed northward to the level of
Bantheville. While we continued to press forward and throw back the
enemy's violent counter-attacks with great loss to him, a regrouping of
our forces was under way for the final assault. Evidence of loss of
morale by the enemy gave our men more confidence in attack and more
fortitude in enduring the fatigue of incessant effort and the hardships
of very inclement weather.
With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in the
Meuse-Argonne front was begun on November 1. Our increased artillery
force acquitted itself magnificently in support of the advance, and the
enemy broke before the determined infantry, which, by its persistent
fighting of the past weeks and the dash of this attack, had overcome his
will to resist. The Third Corps took Aincreville, Doulcon, and
Andevanne, and the Fifth Corps took Landres et St. Georges and pressed
through successive lines of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On
the 2d the First Corps joined in the movement, which now became an
impetuous onslaught that could not be stayed.
SUCCESSFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT.
On the 3d advance troops surged forward in pursuit, some by motor
trucks, while the artillery pressed along the country roads close
behind. The First Corps reached Authe and Chatillon-Sur-Bar, the Fifth
Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and the Third Corps Halles, penetrating the
enemy's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large caliber guns had
advanced and were skillfully brought into position to fire upon the
important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon, and Conflans. Our Third Corps
crossed the Meuse on the 5th and the other corps, in the full confidence
that the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the way of machine guns as they
swept northward, maintaining complete co-ordination throughout. On the
6th, a division of the First Corps reached a point on the Meuse opposite
Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line of departure. The strategical
goal which was our highest hope was gained. We had cut the enemy's main
line of communications and nothing but surrender or an armistice could
save his army from complete disaster.
TROOPS ENGAGED.
In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us an the
Meuse-Argonne battle. Between September 26 and November 6 we took
26,059 prisoners and 468 guns on this front. Our divisions engaged were
the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth,
Twenty-ninth, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-seventh,
Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Eightieth,
Eighty-second, Eighty-ninth, Ninetieth, and Ninety-first. Many of our
divisions remained in line for a length of time that required nerves of
steel, while others were sent in again after only a few days of rest.
The First, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh,
Eightieth, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth were in the line twice. Although
some of the divisions were fighting their first battle, they soon became
equal to the best.
OPERATIONS EAST OF THE MEUSE.
On the three days preceding November 10, the Third, the Second Colonial,
and the Seventeenth French Corps fought a difficult struggle through the
Meuse Hills south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain.
Meanwhile, my plans for further use of the American forces contemplated
an advance between the Meuse and the Moselle in the direction of Longwy
by the First Army, while, at the same time, the Second Army should
assure the offensive toward the rich iron fields of Briey. These
operations were to be followed by an offensive toward Chateau-Salins
east of the Moselle, thus isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the
American front had been ordered and that of the Second Army was in
progress on the morning of November 11, when instructions were received
that hostilities should cease at 11 o'clock A.M.
At this moment the line of the American sector, from right to left,
began at Port-Sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Vandieres and
through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence
along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre
forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting with
the French under Sedan.
RELATIONS WITH THE ALLIES.
Co-operation among the Allies has at all times been most cordial. A far
greater effort has been put forth by the Allied armies and staffs to
assist us than could have been expected. The French Government and army
have always stood ready to furnish us with supplies, equipment, and
transportation, and to aid us in every way. In the towns and hamlets
wherever our troops have been stationed or billeted the French people
have everywhere received them more as relatives and intimate friends
than as soldiers of a foreign army. For these things words are quite
inadequate to express our gratitude. There can be no doubt that the
relations growing out of our associations here assure a permanent
friendship between the two peoples. Although we have not been so
intimately associated with the people of Great Britain, yet their troops
and ours when thrown together have always warmly fraternized. The
reception of those of our forces who have passed through England and of
those who have been stationed there has always been enthusiastic.
Altogether it has been deeply impressed upon us that the ties of
language and blood bring the British and ourselves together completely
and inseparably.
STRENGTH.
There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some sanitary
units with the Italian army and the organizations at Murmansk, also
including those en route from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men,
less our losses. Of this total, there are in France 1,338,169 combatant
troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the infantry personnel of
ten have been used as replacements, leaving 30 divisions now in France
organized into three armies of three corps each.
The losses of the Americans up to November 18 are: Killed and wounded,
36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 2,204; wounded,
179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44,000
prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers and trench mortars.
WARM APPRECIATION.
The duties of the General Staff, as well as those of the army and corps
staffs, have been very ably performed. Especially is this true when we
consider the new and difficult problems with which they have been
confronted. This body of officers, both as individuals and as an
organization, have, I believe, no superiors in professional ability, in
efficiency, or in loyalty.
Nothing that we have in France better reflects the efficiency and
devotion to duty of Americans in general than the Service of Supply,
whose personnel is thoroughly imbued with a patriotic desire to do its
full duty. They have at all times fully appreciated their responsibility
to the rest of the army and the results produced have been most
gratifying.
SPECIAL WORK OF DEPARTMENTS.
Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for the general
effectiveness of its work both in hospital and at the front. Embracing
men of high professional attainments, and splendid women devoted to
their calling and untiring in their efforts, this department has made a
new record for medical and sanitary proficiency.
The Quartermaster Department has had difficult and various tasks, but
it has more than met all demands that have been made upon it. Its
management and its personnel have been exceptionally efficient and
deserve every possible commendation.
SPLENDID TECHNICAL SERVICE.
As to the more technical services, the able personnel of the Ordnance
Department in France has splendidly fulfilled its functions, both in
procurement and in forwarding the immense quantities of ordnance
required. The officers and men and the young women of the Signal Corps
have performed their duties with a large conception of the problem and
with a devoted and patriotic spirit to which the perfection of our
communications daily testify. While the Engineer Corps has been referred
to in another part of this report, it should be further stated that the
work has required large vision and high professional skill, and great
credit is due their personnel for the high proficiency that they have
constantly maintained.
Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting ability and have
left a record of courageous deeds that will ever remain a brilliant page
in the annals of our army. While the Tank Corps has had limited
opportunities its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible
occasion and has shown courage of the highest order.
The Adjutant General's Department has been directed with a systematic
thoroughness and excellence that surpassed any previous work of its
kind. The Inspector General's Department has risen to the highest
standards and throughout has ably assisted commanders in the enforcement
of discipline. The able personnel of the Judge Advocate General's
Department has solved with judgment and wisdom the multitude of
difficult legal problems, many of them involving questions of great
international importance.
TRIBUTE TO THE PERSONNEL OF THE VARIOUS BRANCHES.
It would be impossible in this brief preliminary report to do justice to
the personnel of all the different branches of this organization which I
shall cover in detail in a later report.
The navy in European waters has at all times most cordially aided the
army, and it is most gratifying to report that there has never before
been such perfect co-operation between these two branches of the
service.
As to Americans in Europe not in the military services, it is the
greatest pleasure to say that, both in official and in private life,
they are intensely patriotic and loyal, and have been invariably
sympathetic and helpful to the army.
Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the
line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships,
their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion
which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have
earned the eternal gratitude of our country.
CHAPTER III.
PRESIDENT WILSON'S REVIEW OF THE WAR.
TROOP MOVEMENT DURING THE YEAR--TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS--SPLENDID
SPIRIT OF THE NATION--RESUME THE WORK OF PEACE--OUTLINE OF WORK IN
PARIS--SUPPORT OF NATION URGED.
On December 2, 1918, just prior to sailing for Europe to take part in
the Peace Conference, President Wilson addressed Congress, reviewing the
work of the American people, soldiers, sailors and civilians, in the
World War which had been brought to a successful conclusion on November
11th. His speech, in part, follows:
"The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfill my
constitutional duty to give to the Congress from time to time
information on the state of the Union has been so crowded with great
events, great processes and great results that I can not hope to give
you an adequate picture of its transactions or of the far-reaching
changes which have been wrought in the life of our Nation and of the
world. You have yourselves witnessed these things, as I have. It is too
soon to assess them; and we who stand in the midst of them and are part
of them are less qualified than men of another generation will be to say
what they mean or even what they have been. But some great outstanding
facts are unmistakable and constitute in a sense part of the public
business with which it is our duty to deal. To state them is to set the
stage for the legislative and executive action which must grow out of
them and which we have yet to shape and determine.
TROOP MOVEMENT DURING THE YEAR.
"A year ago we had sent 145,918 men overseas. Since then we have sent
1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each month, the number in fact rising
in May last to 245,951, in June to 278,760, in July to 307,182 and
continuing to reach similar figures in August and September--in August
289,570 and in September 257,438. No such movement of troops ever took
place before, across 3,000 miles of sea, followed by adequate equipment
and supplies, and carried safely through extraordinary dangers of
attack, dangers which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to
guard against. In all this movement only 758 men were lost by enemy
attacks, 630 of whom were upon a single English transport which was sunk
near the Orkney Islands.
"I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of men and
material. It is not invidious to say that back of it lay a supporting
organization of the industries of the country and of all its productive
activities more complete, more thorough in method and effective in
results, more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort than any
other great belligerent had ever been able to effect. We profited
greatly by the experience of the nations which had already been engaged
for nearly three years in the exigent and exacting business, their every
resource and every proficiency taxed to the utmost. We were the pupils.
But we learned quickly and acted with a promptness and a readiness of
co-operation that justify our great pride that we were able to serve the
world with unparalleled energy and quick accomplishment.
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHED IN A VILLAGE IN GERMANY.
A member of the 369th (old 15th N.Y.) brought this picture back with
him. He is wearing the smile which tells the story. The war is over.]
[Illustration: LIEUT. "JIMMY" EUROPE AND HIS FAMOUS BAND.
This band was hailed with enthusiasm by the French. Five kettle drums in
this band were presented by the French as a mark of esteem. Another
drum, beaten by Willie Webb, of Louisville, Ky., was a trophy left by
the Germans when they retreated.]
[Illustration: GETTING READY FOR THEIR DAILY BATH.
Negro troops in a transport going over. No inconvenience marred their
good cheer.]
[Illustration: IN LINE FOR REVIEW.
Members of the 15th Infantry being reviewed. A sturdy and determined
line of fighting men.]
[Illustration: A QUARTETTE WHICH GAVE GOOD ENTERTAINMENT.
These colored members of the 301st Stevedore Regiment were attached to
the 23rd Engineers in France.]
[Illustration: LINED UP AND READY FOR ACTION.
Members of the 15th Infantry. Note the serious and determined expression
in their faces. They mean business and will obey orders.]
[Illustration: AT THE SIGNAL BOX READY TO SOUND THE GAS ALARM.
These men had a great responsibility placed upon them. The sounding of
the Gas Alarm quickly and accurately, when gas was detected, meant
saving the lives of many men.]
[Illustration: BOTH WORKING FOR THE Y.M.C.A.
Mr. Kelly and his colored driver at work during the last German
offensive.]
[Illustration: BAPTIZING NEGRO SOLDIERS AT CAMP GORDON.
A religious and very effective scene. These Christian men had faith and
confidence in their religion.]
[Illustration: COLORED TROOPS IN PUERTO RICO.
A brilliant Fourth of July parade through Allen Street, San Juan, Puerto
Rico.]
[Illustration: NEGRO SHARPSHOOTERS.]
[Illustration: NEGRO CHILDREN WEAVING CLOTH.
Recently photographed in Kamerun, the last of the German provinces in
Africa to surrender to the Allies. Illustrating child labor at the
lowest possible cost.]
[Illustration: AFRICAN NEGROES IN KAMERUN, SHOWING NATIVE HEADDRESS.
These pictures were photographed in Fumban, the largest and most densely
populated section of Kamerun, one of Germany's colonies in Africa
captured by the Allies.]
[Illustration: NATIVE CHILDREN SPINNING COTTON IN KAMERUN, AFRICA.
Kamerun was the last German province in Africa to hold out against the
Allies. This picture was taken by the Allies since they captured the
Colony. The natives were never before photographed.]
[Illustration: Africa and the World Democracy
HOW AFRICA WAS DIVIDED UP AMONG THE NATIONS OF EUROPE BEFORE THE WAR]
_Area_
_Country_ _Sq. Miles_ _Populat'n_
British Empire 3,700,000 52,325,000
France 4,641,000 29,577,000
Germany 931,000 13,420,000
Portugal 749,000 8,244,000
Italy 593,000 1,579,000
Belgium (Belgian Congo) 909,000 15,000,000
Spain 88,000 660,000
INDEPENDENT STATES
Abyssinia 432,000 8,000,000
Liberia 40,000 1,800,000
[Illustration: AFRICAN TROOPS BEING TRAINED IN FRANCE.
These husky fighters are bound to deliver the goods.]
TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN SOLDIERS.
"But it is not the physical scale and executive efficiency of
preparation, supply, equipment and dispatch that I would dwell upon, but
the mettle and quality of the officers and men we sent over and of the
sailors who kept the seas, and the spirit of the Nation that stood
behind them. No soldiers, or sailors, ever proved themselves more
quickly ready for the test of battle or acquitted themselves with more
splendid courage and achievement when put to the test. Those of us who
played some part in directing the great processes by which the war was
pushed irresistibly forward to the final triumph may now forget all that
and delight our thoughts with the story of what our men did. Their
officers understood the grim and exacting task they had undertaken and
performed with audacity, efficiency, and unhesitating courage that touch
the story of convoy and battle with imperishable distinction at every
turn, whether the enterprise were great or small--from their chiefs,
Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest lieutenant; and their men were
worthy of them--such men as hardly need to be commanded, and go to their
terrible adventure blithely and with the quick intelligence of those who
know just what it is they would accomplish. I am proud to be the
fellow-countryman of men of such stuff and valor. Those of us who stayed
at home did our duty; the war could not have been won or the gallant men
who fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise; but for many
a long day we shall think ourselves 'accursed we were not there, and
hold our manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought' with these at St.
Mihiel or Thierry. The memory of those days of triumphant battle will go
with these fortunate men to their graves; and each will have his
favorite memory. 'Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but he'll
remember with advantages what feats he did that day!'
"What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went
in force into the line of battle just at the critical moment, and threw
their fresh strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole
tide and sweep of the fateful struggle--turn it once for all, so that
henceforth it was back, back, back for their enemies, always back, never
again forward! After that it was only a scant four months before the
commanders of the Central empires knew themselves beaten, and now their
very empires are in liquidation!
SPLENDID SPIRIT OF THE NATION.
"And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the Nation was; what unity
of purpose, what untiring zeal! What elevation of purpose ran through
all its splendid display of strength, its untiring accomplishment. I
have said that those of us who stayed at home to do the work of
organization and supply will always wish that we had been with the men
whom we sustained by our labor; but we can never be ashamed. It has been
an inspiring thing to be here in the midst of fine men who had turned
aside from every private interest of their own and devoted the whole of
their trained capacity to the tasks that supplied the sinews of the
whole great undertaking! The patriotism, the unselfishness, the
thoroughgoing devotion and distinguished capacity that marked their
toilsome labors, day after day, month after month, have made them fit
mates and comrades of the men in the trenches and on the sea. And not
the men here in Washington only. They have but directed the vast
achievement. Throughout innumerable factories, upon innumerable farms,
in the depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, wherever
the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in the
shipyards, on the railways, at the docks, on the sea, in every labor
that was needed to sustain the battle lines men have vied with each
other to do their part and do it well. They can look any man-at-arms in
the face, and say, we also strove to win and gave the best that was in
us to make our fleets and armies sure of their triumph!
PATRIOTIC WOMEN OF AMERICA.
"And what shall we say of the women--of their instant intelligence,
quickening every task that they touched; their capacity for
organization and co-operation, which gave their action discipline and
enhanced the effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude
at tasks to which they had never before set their hands; their utter
self-sacrificing alike in what they did and in what they gave? Their
contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a
new luster to the annals of American womanhood.
"The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in
political rights, as they have proved themselves their equals in every
field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for
their country. These great days of completed achievement would be sadly
marred were we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense
practical services they have rendered, the women of the country have
been the moving spirits in the systematic economies by which our people
have voluntarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples of the world
and the armies upon every front with food and everything else that we
had that might serve the common cause. The details of such a story can
never be fully written, but we carry them in our hearts and thank God
that we can say we are the kinsmen of such.
RESUME THE WORK OF PEACE.
"And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every sacrifice was
made. It has come, come in its completeness, and with the pride and
inspiration of these days of achievement quick within us we turn to the
tasks of peace again--a peace secure against the violence of
irresponsible monarchs and ambitious military coteries and made ready
for a new order, for new foundations of justice and fair dealing.
"We are about to give order and organization to this peace, not only
for ourselves, but for the other peoples of the world as well, so far as
they will suffer us to serve them. It is international justice that we
seek, not domestic safety merely....
"So far as our domestic affairs are concerned the problem of our return
to peace is a problem of economic and industrial readjustment. That
problem is less serious for us than it may turn out to be for the
nations which have suffered the disarrangements and the losses of war
longer than we. Our people, moreover, do not wait to be coached and led.
They know their own business, are quick and resourceful at every
readjustment, definite in purpose and self-reliant in action. Any
leading strings we might seek to put them in would speedily become
hopelessly tangled because they would pay no attention to them and go
their own way. All that we can do as their legislative and executive
servants is to mediate the process of change here, there and elsewhere
as we may. I have heard much counsel as to the plans that should be
formed and personally conducted to a happy consummation, but from no
quarter have I seen any general scheme of reconstruction emerge which I
thought it likely we could force our spirited business men and
self-reliant laborers to accept with due pliancy and obedience.
ORGANIZATION FOR WAR.
"While the war lasted we set up many agencies by which to direct the
industries of the country in the services it was necessary for them to
render, by which to make sure of an abundant supply of the materials
needed, by which to check undertakings that could for the time be
dispensed with and stimulate those that were most serviceable in war, by
which to gain for the purchasing departments of the government a certain
control over the prices of essential articles and materials, by which
to restrain trade with alien enemies, make the most of the available
shipping and systematize financial transactions, both public and
private, so that there would be no unnecessary conflict or confusion--by
which, in short, to put every material energy of the country in harness
to draw the common load and make of us one team in accomplishment of a
great task.
"But the moment we knew the armistice to have been signed we took the
harness off. Raw materials upon which the government had kept its hand
for fear there should not be enough for the industries that supplied the
armies have been released, and put into the general market again. Great
industrial plants whose whole output and machinery had been taken over
for the uses of the government have been set free to return to the uses
to which they were put before the war. It has not been possible to
remove so readily or so quickly the control of foodstuffs and of
shipping, because the world has still to be fed from our granaries and
the ships are still needed to send supplies to our men oversea and to
bring the men back as fast as the disturbed conditions on the other side
of the water permit; but even there restraints are being relaxed as much
as possible, and more and more as the weeks go by.
"Never before have there been agencies in existence in this country
which knew so much of the field of supply of labor, and of industry as
the War Industries Board, the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the
Food Administration and the Fuel Administration have known since their
labors became thoroughly systematized; and they have not been isolated
agencies; they have been directed by men which represented the permanent
departments of the government and so have been the centers of unified
and co-operative action. It has been the policy of the Executive,
therefore, since the armistice was assured (which is in effect a
complete submission of the enemy) to put the knowledge of these bodies
at the disposal of the business men of the country and to offer their
intelligent mediation at every point and in every matter where it was
desired. It is surprising how fast the process of return to a peace
footing has moved in the three weeks since the fighting stopped. It
promises to outrun any inquiry that may be instituted and any aid that
may be offered. It will not be easy to direct it any better than it will
direct itself. The American business man is of quick initiative....
OUTLINE OF WORK IN PARIS.
"I welcome this occasion to announce to the Congress my purpose to join
in Paris the representatives of the governments with which we have been
associated in the war against the Central Empires for the purpose of
discussing with them the main features of the treaty of peace. I realize
the great inconveniences that will attend my leaving the country,
particularly at this time, but the conclusion that it was my paramount
duty to go has been forced upon me by considerations which I hope will
seem as conclusive to you as they have seemed to me.
"The Allied governments have accepted the bases of peace which I
outlined to the Congress on the 8th of January last, as the Central
Empires also have, and very reasonably desire my personal counsel in
their interpretation and application, and it is highly desirable that I
should give it, in order that the sincere desire of our government to
contribute without selfish purpose of any kind to settlements that will
be of common benefit to all the nations concerned may be made fully
manifest. The peace settlements which are now to be agreed upon are of
transcendent importance both to us and to the rest of the world, and I
know of no business or interest which should take precedence of them.
The gallant men of our armed forces on land and sea have consciously
fought for the ideals which they knew to be the ideals of their country;
I have sought to express those ideals; they have accepted my statements
of them as the substance of their own thought and purpose, as the
associated governments have accepted them; I owe it to them to see to
it, so far as in me lies, that no false or mistaken interpretation is
put upon them, and no possible effort omitted to realize them. It is now
my duty to play my full part in making good what they offered their
life's blood to obtain. I can think of no call to service which could
transcend this....
SUPPORT OF NATION URGED.
"May I not hope, gentlemen of the Congress, that in the delicate tasks I
shall have to perform on the other side of the sea in my efforts truly
and faithfully to interpret the principles and purposes of the country
we love, I may have the encouragement and the added strength of your
united support? I realize the magnitude and difficulty of the duty I am
undertaking. I am poignantly aware of its grave responsibilities. I am
the servant of the Nation. I can have no private thought or purpose of
my own in performing such an errand. I go to give the best that is in me
to the common settlements which I must now assist in arriving at in
conference with the other working heads of the associated governments. I
shall count upon your friendly countenance and encouragement. I shall
not be inaccessible. The cables and the wireless will render me
available for any counsel or service you may desire of me, and I shall
be happy in the thought that I am constantly in touch with the weighty
matters of domestic policy with which we shall have to deal. I shall
make my absence as brief as possible and shall hope to return with the
happy assurance that it has been possible to translate into action the
great ideals for which America has striven."
PRESIDENT WILSON'S DIPLOMATIC MISSION.
In accordance with this message, President Wilson broke the traditions
of more than a century, and took upon himself the deep responsibility of
a diplomatic mission. He went as the representative of one of the great
belligerent powers to confer with the premiers and leading diplomats of
Europe to frame, not only a peace of justice to terminate the World War,
but--if possible--to organize a League of Nations, henceforth making
such cataclysms an impossibility.
CHAPTER IV.
THE FLASH THAT SET THE WORLD AFLAME.
TEUTONS FIND IN A MURDER THE EXCUSE FOR WAR--GERMANY INSPIRED BY AMBITIONS
FOR WORLD CONTROL--THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY A FACTOR--THE
UNDERLYING MOTIVES.
The assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir apparent to
the throne of Austria, together with his wife, in Bosnia, during the
last days of June, 1914, is commonly regarded as the blow which forged
the chain that bound the European powers in bloody warfare. The tragedy
was the signal for putting on the world stage the greatest war play of
all times.
When Austria, regarding the murder of the Archduke as a National
affront, precipitated the conflict which has convulsed the universe, she
marked the way easy for Imperial Germany to put into effect a
long-contemplated plan for territorial expansion, and to wage a warfare
so insidious, so brutal and so ruthless in its character as to amaze the
civilized world.
Word-pictures were drawn, so to speak, of a mighty nation striving to
burst iron bands that were slowly strangling her, and her perfectly
natural wish to find outlets for her rapidly growing population and
commerce. Germany sought to obtain "a place in the sun," to use one of
the Kaiser's most unfortunate expressions, and the world soon found that
the "place" included the territory embracing a few ports on the English
channel, with control of Holland and Belgium, Poland, the Balkan
countries, a big slice of Asia Minor, Egypt, English and French colonies
in Africa, not to mention remote possibilities.
Germany's ambitions may have been laudable, but her methods of trying to
satisfy these ambitions were not such as to either gain for her the
"solar warmth" which she sought to win, or gain for her the friendship
of the nations of the civilized world. The drama which Germany directed
moved swiftly in this wise:
Austria claimed that Servia, as a Nation, was responsible for the
assassination of the Archduke in Bosnia. She sent an ultimatum to
Belgrade, making demands which the Servians could not admit. Thereupon
Austria declared war and moved across the Danube with her army.
THE FOUR GROUPS.
Austria's attack threatened to disturb the balance of power, because at
the time the continent was divided into four groups: The close alliance
of the central powers--Germany, Austria and Italy--referred to as the
Triple Alliance or Dreibund; the Triple Entente, or understanding
between Great Britain, France and Russia; the smaller group whose
neutrality and integrity had been guaranteed, or at least
recognized--Belgium, Denmark, Holland and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,
sandwiched in between Germany, France and Belgium, together with
Switzerland. The fourth group included the Balkan nations: Bulgaria,
Servia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey and Roumania, all drawn close to
Russia; Norway and Sweden, and the Iberian nations, Spain and Portugal.
The increase in the power of one of these groups would at any time have
been sufficient to precipitate a war, but in the movement of Austria
against Servia there entered a racial element. There was a threatened
drawing of another Slavonic peoples into the Teutonic system. Besides
this, the action let loose the flood of militarism which civilization
had been holding in check.
With this situation in mind, it is easy to understand how Germany could
precipitate a world conflict by attempting to keep open the way to the
near East, and controlling the markets as against Britain, France and
Russia. Back of all this was the question of commercial supremacy,
Germany showing her intention of keeping the way open to the near East
and dominating the markets as against Britain, France and Russia.
Russia could not stand by and see one of her Slavonic wards crushed, and
France, which held the Russian national debt, prepared to support her
debtor, whereupon Germany, threatened on both sides, struck. In doing so
the Kaiser ignored the rights of the small neutral states, invaded
Belgium and brought his armies within threatening distance of England.
France prepared to defend her country against Germany, and England,
alarmed by the move of Germany and sympathizing with Belgium, struck
back to avert the disaster which she felt must follow the German
movement, which had been threatening for years.
REGARDED EACH OTHER WITH SUSPICION.
All attempts to maintain a balance of power between the European
countries were from time to time jeopardized by various developments.
The elements in the continental group struggled against each other, and
the Nations, while seemingly at rest, regarded each other with
suspicion. One of the underlying forces that the world knew must at some
time be felt was of racial origin. The historical explanations of the
war would involve the retelling of almost everything that has happened
in Europe for more than a century.
But it is necessary to the long train of evil consequences which have
followed the interference of other powers in the settlement of affairs
between Russia and Turkey after the war of 1877, when Russia was
victorious. Russia and Turkey had agreed upon a large Bulgaria and an
enlarged and independent Servia, but at the Berlin Congress, which
Austria had taken the initiative in calling, Austria showed that she
wished to have as much as possible of this Christian territory of
Southeastern Europe kept under the domination or nominal authority of
Turkey. Austria feared Russia's influence with the new countries of
Servia, Roumania, Bulgaria and Montenegro, and therefore she desired to
have this territory remain Turkish by influence, to the end that she
might some day acquire part or all of it for herself.
One of the articles of the agreement of Berlin turned Bosnia and
Herzegovina over to Austria for temporary occupation and management.
Austria was a trustee of the country which lies between Servia and the
Adriatic sea, and while Austria's management was efficient, Servia
looked forward to the time when a union could be effected with Bosnia,
which would provide Servia with an outlet to the sea.
THE SERVIANS EMBITTERED.
But when Russia fell humiliated by the Japanese and the Young Turks
reformed their government, and there was prospect that the Turks might
demand the evacuation of Bosnia by Austria, the powers that had engaged
in the Berlin treaty were informed that Austria had decided to make
Bosnia and Herzegovina a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The
Servians were embittered, because this stood in the way of their
attaining their ideals, and their country was landlocked.
With this bitterness rankling in her national breast, Servia joined
forces with Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro to drive the Turks out of
Europe. The larger powers, including Austria, tried to prevent the
action, but the heroic Balkan struggle is a matter of history. Servia
was to have secured as a share of the conquered territory a portion of
Albania, on the Adriatic. This would have compensated her for the loss
of Bosnia, but the great powers, led by Austria, stepped in, and a plan
was devised of making Albania an independent state or principality, with
a German prince to rule over it.
The Servians were bitter, and both Servia and Greece demanded of
Bulgaria portions of the territory acquired in the war and which had
originally been assigned to Bulgaria as her share. Bulgaria stood upon
her technical rights and precipitated the last Balkan war, which was
really made possible, or probable, by the Austrian policy. When the war
was concluded Servia had acquired more territory to the south, but she
remained a landlocked country, with Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania
stretching between her and the Adriatic sea.
This was the situation when the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand
and his wife occurred in Bosnia. The Archduke was, in effect, a joint
ruler with the Emperor Franz Joseph, who was nearly 84 years of age, and
the entire world realized that great events were likely to follow the
killing of the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The murder
was committed by a young Servian fanatic, and Austria determined to hold
Servia responsible for the murder, and therefore presented her
now-famous ultimatum.
NO CAUSE FOR WAR.
Students of history hold that if there had been a proper respect for the
commendable desire of the Christian peoples in European Turkey to throw
off the Turkish yoke and become self-governing states, there would have
been no cause for war, so far as relates to Servia and the situation
which precipitated the conflict. There would have been developed a
series of peaceful and progressive countries of the non-military type of
Denmark, Sweden and Holland.
A wiser treatment of the Balkan problem might have averted the war, but
it could not have set aside racial differences, nor could it have ended
the curse of militarism or set at rest the distrust and fear which it
promotes.
The end of European militarism might have come about, however, through a
better understanding between Germany and France. This might have been
arrived at years ago if Germany had opened the Alsace-Lorraine question,
and had rearranged the boundary line between the two countries so that
the French-speaking communities lost in the Franco-Prussian war be ceded
back to France. The cost of maintaining the feud over Alsace-Lorraine
has been a burden to both France and Germany, and the progress which
Germany has made in world affairs, despite the burden of militarism
which she has earned, is one of the marvels of the century. And the
situation compelled France to maintain a defensive military organization
which was as great a burden to her and barrier to world peace as the
military burden of Germany.
STRAIN BETWEEN GERMANY AND RUSSIA.
Whether Germany conspired to bring on the war so that she could wage a
campaign of aggression has not yet been made clear, but the strain
between Germany and Russia had been growing for some time, and the
assassination of the Teutonic heir, Francis Ferdinand, by a ward of
Russia, created an occasion which gave Germany an opportunity to fight,
without being compelled to directly precipitate the conflict. Russia
could do naught else but come to the aid of Servia, and Germany by
reason of her alliance with Austria must aid the latter country.
Germany anticipated the entry of Italy into the conflict as the third
member of the Triple Alliance, but Italy did not regard Germany's action
as defensive and declined to aid Austria. Germany had made overtures to
Great Britain, but England had an understanding with France, which was
in the nature of a limited alliance, and Germany might have kept England
out of the struggle; but Germany proceeded with a plan to invade France
by way of Belgium, which was in violation of international agreement
establishing Belgium's neutrality and independence. Germany had nothing
to gain by choosing the Belgium route, for the fact is that even had the
Belgian government approved the movement, there must have been a French
counter-movement, which would have made Belgium the theatre of war just
the same.
Pan-Germanism has been described as one of the underlying motives in the
world war, and Pan-Slavism has always opposed Pan-Germanism.
Pan-Germanism is described as a well-defined policy or movement which
seeks the common welfare of the Germanic peoples of all Europe and the
advance of Teutonic culture, while Pan-Slavism, represented by Russia,
seeks in the main the uniting of all the Slavonic folk for common
welfare. The contact between these two has always been seething, and the
racial differences made burdensome the arbitrary alignment and political
geography arranged by the Berlin Congress.
OUTLETS TO THE WORLD'S MARKET.
The commercial side, however, was a big factor, for Germany sought world
markets for its products. In the near East are the grain fields of
Mesopotamia, and in the far East are the vast markets of India and
China. The great banking and financial interests of Europe have been
seeking the conquest of Asia for nearly half a century. German capital
built railroads through Asia Minor, but English capital controls the
Suez Canal. Russia welded the Balkan states until the Slavonic wedge
from the Black sea to the Adriatic barred Germany's way to the Orient.
England threatened the Kaiser's expansion on the sea; while Russia, on
one side, with France her strong ally, closed the Germans in on opposite
sides. So Germany must have outlets to the world markets.
The religious element was also a factor in the affairs of Europe, for
the territory has been divided into four large religious groups for
centuries. Moslems counted several millions of Turks, Bosnians and
Albanians in Europe, the Protestants among the Germans, English, Swiss
and Hungarians number about 100,000,000, while the Roman Catholics in
all the Latin countries, Southern Germany, Croatia, Albania, Bohemia,
and in Russian Austria and Russian Poland are about 180,000,000. The
Greek Catholics in Russia, the Balkan countries and a few provinces in
the Austrian Empire number more than 110,000,000.
The differences in religion have precipitated many European struggles,
but for more than a century the countries have been forced to assume an
attitude of tolerance, so that churches other than those established by
the State have thrived; But just what influence religions may have had
in the various incidents of the war it is difficult to determine.
The outstanding fact is that but for the arrogant, militaristic policy
of Imperial Germany, the differences between nations might have been
settled, and almost indescribable horrors of the war would never have
been experienced.
CHAPTER V.
WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.
THE IRON HAND OF PRUSSIANISM--THE ARROGANT HOHENZOLLERN
ATTITUDE--SECRETARY LANE TELLS WHY WE FIGHT--BROKEN PLEDGES--LAWS
VIOLATED--PRUSSIANISM THE CHILD OF BARBARITY--GERMANY'S PLANS FOR A
WORLD EMPIRE.
Not merely to prevent Germany from opening avenues of commerce to the
seas nor to throttle the ambitions of the Kaiser was America drawn into
the vortex of war with France, England, Russia, Belgium, Italy and other
nations; but that the iron hand of Prussianism, as exemplified in the
conduct of the German Government, might be lifted from the shoulders of
men, and the world given that measure of peace and security which modern
civilization demands.
Germany by her ruthless submarine warfare brought desolation to many
American homes. She sank without a pang of conscience the great
transatlantic steamship Lusitania, and, while pretending friendship for
the United States and pleading no intent to disregard American rights,
broke her own pledges and repeated her overt acts, ignoring
international law and the rights of all neutrals at sea.
She began her outlawry by the invasion of Belgium, which was followed by
conduct on the part of the German forces which clearly marked them
descendants of the "wolf tribes" of feudal days, fighting with the motto
before them of, "To the victor belong the spoils."
But all of Germany's diabolical acts involving the peace and security of
America and American citizens might have been the subject of
international adjudication but for the arrogance of the ruling forces of
the Teutons. In a broad sense, Prussianism is credited with
responsibility for the devastating war and for the policy which drew
America into the conflict.
The country, led by President Woodrow Wilson, who temporized to an
extent that for a time made him the subject of bitter criticism, found
that war was being forced upon it by an autocratic and ambitious German
Government--that of the Hohenzollern dynasty--which possessed an insane
ambition to dominate the earth, leaving to America no alternative but to
borrow the piratical terrorism of Imperialistic Germany, with temporary
abandonment of its own constitutional free government, and join the
Allies to defend it.
In the sense which Prussianism or militarism is here used it denotes a
mental attitude or view. It is a condition of mind which is partisan,
exaggerated and egotistical, and is developed by environment and
training. Just as the professional spirit in any other occupation leads
to an exhibition of exaggerated importance, the despotic doctrine of
militarism assumes superiority over rational motives and deliberations.
Everything must be sacrificed to perpetuate and maintain the honor and
prestige of the military.
WHAT MILITARISM IS.
What that militarism is and what it has done to America, and to the
whole world, is best summed up in the words of Secretary Lane, of the
Department of the Interior, at Washington, who in an address before the
Home Club of the Department on June 4, 1917, just when America was
beginning to send forces to Europe, said:
"America is at war in self-defense and because she could not keep out;
she is at war to save herself with the rest of the world from the nation
that has linked itself with the Turk and adopted the methods of Mahomet,
setting itself to make the world bow before policies backed by the
organized and scientific military system.
"Why are we fighting Germany? The brief answer is that ours is a war of
self-defense. We did not wish to fight Germany. She made the attack upon
us; not on our shores, but on our ships, our lives, our rights, our
future. For two years and more we held to a neutrality that made us
apologists for things which outraged man's common sense of fair play and
humanity.
"At each new offense--the invasion of Belgium, the killing of civilian
Belgians, the attacks on Scarborough and other defenseless towns, the
laying of mines in neutral waters, the fencing off of the seas--and on
and on through the months, we said:
"'This is war--archaic, uncivilized war, but war. All rules have been
thrown away; all nobility; man has come down to the primitive brute. And
while we cannot justify, we cannot intervene. It is not our war.'
IN WAR TO DEFEND RIGHTS.
"Then why are we in? Because we could not keep out. The invasion of
Belgium, which opened the war, led to the invasion of the United States
by slow, steady, logical steps. Our sympathies evolved into a conviction
of self-interest. Our love of fair play ripened into alarm at our own
peril.
"We talked in the language and in the spirit of good faith and
sincerity, as honest men should talk, until we discovered that our talk
was construed as cowardice. And Mexico was called upon to cow us.
"We talked as men would talk who cared alone for peace and the
advancement of their own material interests, until we discovered that we
were thought to be a nation of mere moneymakers, devoid of all
character--until, indeed, we were told that we could not walk the
highways of the world without permission of a Prussian soldier, that our
ships might not sail without wearing a striped uniform of humiliation
upon a narrow path of national subservience.
"We talked as men talk who hope for honest agreement, not for war, until
we found that the treaty torn to pieces at Liege was but the symbol of a
policy that made agreements worthless against a purpose that knew no
word but success.
"And so we came into this war for ourselves. It is a war to save
America, to preserve self-respect, to justify our right to live as we
have lived, not as some one else wishes us to live. In the name of
freedom we challenge with ships and men, money and an undaunted spirit,
that word 'verboten' which Germany has written upon the sea and upon the
land.
"For America is not the name of so much territory. It is a living
spirit, born in travail, grown in the rough school of bitter
experiences, a living spirit which has purpose and pride and conscience,
knows why it wishes to live and to what end, knows how it comes to be
respected of the world, and hopes to retain that respect by living on
with the light of Lincoln's love of man as its old and new testaments.
AMERICA MUST LIVE.
"It is more precious that this America should live than that we
Americans should live. And this America as we now see has been
challenged from the first of this war by the strong arm of a power that
has no sympathy with our purpose, and will not hesitate to destroy us if
the law that we respect, the rights that are to us sacred, or the spirit
that we have, stand across her set will to make this world bow before
her policies, backed by her organized and scientific military system.
The world of Christ--a neglected but not a rejected Christ--has come
again face to face with the world of Mahomet, who willed to win by
force.
"With this background of history and in this sense, then, we fight
Germany:
"Because of Belgium--invaded, outraged, enslaved, impoverished Belgium.
We cannot forget Liege, Louvain and Cardinal Mercier. Translated into
terms of American history these names stand for Bunker Hill, Lexington
and Patrick Henry.
"Because of France--invaded, desecrated France, a million of whose
heroic sons have died to save the land of Lafayette. Glorious, golden
France, the preserver of the arts, the land of noble spirit. The first
land to follow our lead into republican liberty.
"Because of England--from whom came the laws, traditions, standards of
life and inherent love of liberty which we call Anglo-Saxon
civilization. We defeated her once upon the land and once upon sea. But
Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Canada are free because of what we
did. And they are with us in the fight for the freedom of the seas.
"Because of Russia--new Russia. She must not be overwhelmed now. Not
now, surely, when she is just born into freedom. Her peasants must have
their chance; they must go to school to Washington, to Jefferson and to
Lincoln, until they know their way about in this new, strange world, of
government by the popular will; and
"Because of other peoples, with their rising hope that the world may be
freed from government by the soldier.
GERMANY'S CRIMES AGAINST US.
"We are fighting Germany because she sought to terrorize us and then to
fool us. We could not believe that Germany would do what she said she
would do upon the seas.
"We still hear the piteous cries of children coming up out of the sea
where the Lusitania went down. And Germany has never asked forgiveness
of the world.
"We saw the Sussex sunk, crowded with the sons and daughters of neutral
nations.
"We saw ship after ship sent to the bottom--ships of mercy bound out of
America for the Belgian starving; ships carrying the Red Cross and laden
with the wounded of all nations; ships carrying food and clothing to
friendly, harmless, terrorized peoples; ships flying the Stars and
Stripes--sent to the bottom hundreds of miles from shore, manned by
American seamen, murdered against all law, without warning.
"We believed Germany's promise that she would respect the neutral flag
and the rights of neutrals, and we held our anger and outrage in check.
But now we see that she was holding us off with fair promises until she
could build her huge fleet of submarines. For when spring came she blew
her promise into the air, just as at the beginning she had torn up that
'scrap of paper.' Then we saw clearly that there was but one law for
Germany, her will to rule.
"We are fighting Germany because she violated our confidence. Paid
German spies filled our cities. Officials of her Government, received as
the guests of this nation, lived with us to bribe and terrorize, defying
our law and the law of nations.
"We are fighting Germany because while we were yet her friends--the only
great power that still held hands off--she sent the Zimmermann note
calling to her aid Mexico, our southern neighbor, and hoping to lure
Japan, our western neighbor, into war against this nation of peace.
GOVERNMENT THAT HAS NO CONSCIENCE.
"The nation that would do these things proclaims the gospel that
government has no conscience. And this doctrine cannot live, or else
democracy must die! For the nations of the world must keep faith. There
can be no living for us in a world where the State has no conscience, no
reverence for the things of the spirit, no respect for international
law, no mercy for those who fall before its force. What an unordered
world! Anarchy! The anarchy of the rival wolf packs!
"We are fighting Germany because in this war feudalism is making its
last stand against oncoming democracy. We see it now. This is a war
against an old spirit, an ancient, outworn spirit. It is a war against
feudalism--the right of the castle on the hill to rule the village
below. It is a war of democracy--the right of all to be their own
masters. Let Germany be feudal if she will! But she must not spread her
system over a world that has outgrown it. Feudalism plus science,
thirteenth century plus twentieth; this is the religion of the mistaken
Germany that has linked itself with the Turk; that has, too, adopted the
method of Mahomet: 'The State has no conscience,' 'the State can do no
wrong.' With the spirit of the fanatic, she believes this gospel and
that it is her duty to spread it by force.
"With poison gas that makes living a hell, with submarines that sneak
through the seas to slyly murder non-combatants, with dirigibles that
bombard men and women while they sleep, with a perfected system of
terrorization that the modern world first heard of when German troops
entered China, German feudalism is making war upon mankind.
LIVE IN HAUNTED TERROR.
"Let this old spirit of evil have its way and no man will live in
America without paying toll to it, in manhood and in money. This spirit
might demand Canada from a defeated, navyless England, and then our
dream of peace on the north would be at an end. We would live, as France
has lived for forty years, in haunting terror.
"America speaks for the world in fighting Germany. Mark on a map those
countries which are Germany's allies, and you will mark but four,
running from the Baltic through Austria and Bulgaria to Turkey. All the
other nations, the whole globe around, are in arms against her or are
unable to move. There is deep meaning in this.
"We fight with the world for an honest world, in which nations keep
their word; for a world in which nations do not live by swagger or by
threat; for a world in which men think of the ways in which they can
conquer the common cruelties of nature instead of inventing more
horrible cruelties to inflict upon the spirit and body of man; for a
world in which the ambition or the philosophy of a few shall not make
miserable all mankind; for a world in which the man is held more
precious than the machine, the system or the State."
In his denunciations of the Imperial German Government President Wilson
and his advisers have indicted the House of Hohenzollern, of which
Emperor Wilhelm is the head, and which has developed the unbending
military spirit which has resulted in Germany being counted an outcast
among the nations of the world.
America, it must be noted, has no antipathy for the Germans as a race,
but modern civilization opposes that form of Government which has
permitted the cruel characteristics of the "wolf tribes" of feudal times
to be carried down through the generations, and capitalized by the
Imperial powers to bring terror to the hearts of all who do not bow to
the iron hand of the Kaiser and his ilk.
GERMANY A WARLIKE RACE.
The thing from which this Prussianism--this militarism--grew is easily
traceable down the German ages. The very first appearance of the Germans
in history is as a warlike race. The earliest German literature is
composed of folk tales about war heroes--their ideals and manly virtues.
And this ideal in one form or another, under varying circumstances and
conditions, persisted throughout the centuries.
It is not merely that military service has been compulsory in Germany,
but that almost everything else has been subjugated to the development
of the army. While Germany has given to the world a generous quota of
scientists, industrial geniuses, musicians and poets, the whole race is
imbued with the warlike spirit and its influence is manifest in every
phase of national life. Practically all that is best in the nation in
the way of efficiency has been inspired or may be traced to the military
discipline to which the people have been subjected for years. They have
been created human machines, trained to obey orders and to perform the
services to which they are assigned without protest and without
question.
The history of Germany began with Henry, the Fowler, about A.D. 929,
who was essentially the first sovereign. He developed the system of
margraves or wardens to guard the frontiers of the kingdom, fortified
his towns and required every ninth man to take up arms for his country.
Robbers were forced to become soldiers or be hanged, and as lawlessness
was rampant there was no dearth of material to fill up the ranks of the
army.
The margraves, or military leaders under them, grew in importance and
influence until the offices tended to become hereditary. Gradually the
country was divided into principalities, each of which maintained a
force of arms. This limited form of military rule maintained for several
centuries of troublesome times, or until about 1412, when Emperor
Sigismund appointed Burgrave Frederick, of Nuremberg, "Stratt-halter,"
or vice-regent.
BIRTH OF THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
This appointment marked the establishment of the Hohenzollerns in
Brandenburg, and, in fine, fixes the birth of the military spirit in
Germany.
Other princes of the German Reich maintained armies, but the
Hohenzollerns were destined to imprint upon the nation the military
ideal. In the beginning history says that Burgrave Frederick tried all
the arts of peace, but it was only with the army of Franks and some
artillery that he was able to batter down the castles of the robber
lords and bring order into Brandenburg.
Thomas Carlyle gives a list of twelve electors who strove in turn to
consolidate the power of Prussia, so that when Frederick the Great
became King of Prussia he found much of the work done. Among the rulers
of these strenuous days to whom the Kaiser Wilhelm may point as having
handed down to him the warlike spirit are Kurfuerst Joachim I, of
Brandenburg (1529), who introduced Roman law and established a supreme
court for all the provinces at Berlin; Kurfuerst Joachim II, of
Brandenburg (1542), whom history describes as an unscrupulous despot,
fond of luxury and display, and who changed his religion because it was
an advantage politically for him to do so; Margrave Georg Frederick von
Ansbach (1564), who caused the eyes of sixty peasants to be bored out
upon winning the Peasants' war, and Kurfuerst Frederick William der
Grosse, of Brandenburg (1652), known as the "Great Elector," a fighter,
who had two clearly defined aims: to build up agriculture and maintain a
big army.
For years the Hohenzollerns and their aides were fighting unfriendly
neighbors and quarrelsome princes, and when after the lapse of time the
Thirty Years' War finally turned Germany into a field of blood, the
Great Elector emerged from the strife with the support of about 25,000
well drilled soldiers, and freed his country from foreign foes.
HELD EUROPE AT HIS MERCY.
The establishment of the power of the Junkers--the autocrats of
Prussianism--is credited to Frederick the Great, who was the great
drillmaster who organized the Prussian army on lines of efficiency and
economy. It is related that Frederick, afterward "The Great," was taken
from his women teachers at the age of seven years and subjected to rigid
military discipline. He commanded a company of cadets, composed of the
sons of nobles who were compelled to drill for him, and at the age of
fourteen he was a captain in the Potsdam Guards, and when, in 1740, he
became king, he took the army and held all Europe at his mercy. His
successor, Frederick William II, was incapable, and the French
revolution found Germany in a state of discord.
When Frederick William III acceded to the throne in 1797 he started to
reorganize the army. Frederick William I had divided the country into
districts, or cantons, and here began the system of compulsory military
training. All males born were enrolled and liable to service when of
age. The army was recruited by districts and every district had its
regiment, though later exemptions were allowed. Under Frederick William
III, Scharnhorst, a Hanoverian, was the military reorganizer, and he
began the work with the slogan "All dwellers of the State are born
defenders of the same."
Instead of depending for its development on king, the army was directed
by genius of best men developed by the system. After the formation of
the German Empire in 1871, which placed the king of Prussia at its head,
the Constitution of the German Empire made every German a member of the
active army for seven years. Service with colors three years and with
the reserve four. In 1875 there were eighteen army corps, of which
twelve were Prussian. The strength by law in 1874 was 400,000.
PEACE STRENGTH INCREASED.
In 1881 the established peace strength was increased by thirty-four
battalions of infantry, forty batteries of field artillery and other
forces, and in 1886 Bismarck, recognizing the power of Prussianism and
its military influence, was compelled to dissolve the Reichstag, but
after the election in 1887 thirty-one other battalions and twenty-four
batteries were added. Two complete army corps were added in 1890, and in
1893 the color service, or length of time when reservists were subject
to duty under colors only, was decreased by two years, bringing the
peace strength up to more than half a million and the reservists up to
4,000,000. Step by step the strength of the military force was increased
until after the adoption of the law of 1913, when provision was made for
699 battalions of infantry; 633 batteries of field artillery; 44
battalions of engineers; 55 battalions of garrison artillery; 31
battalions of communications and 26 battalions of train troops--a grand
total of 870,000 actually in service in peace strength.
The German Empire is composed of twenty-six states--Prussia, Bavaria,
Wurttemberg, Baden, Saxony, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
Mecklenburg-Sterlitz, Oldenburg, Brunswick, Saxe-Weimer-Eisnach,
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Waldeck, Lippe,
Schaumburg-Lippe, Reuss (elder line), Reuss (younger line), Anhalt,
Schwarz-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck
and Reichsland--the Alsace-Lorraine. The area is less than that of the
State of Texas while the population according to the most recent
statistics is about 65,000,000.
Every male person between the ages of eighteen and forty-five is liable
for military service. Reservists under the rules in force when the war
started were subject to two musters annually and two periods of training
not to exceed eight weeks in duration.
EGOTISTICAL AND EXAGGERATED UTTERANCES.
That the present Emperor is imbued with the harsh military spirit of his
ancestors is illustrated by his many egotistical and exaggerated
utterances. In dedicating the monument of Prince Frederick Charles at
Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891, he is quoted as having said:
"We would rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and our 42,000,000
inhabitants on the field of battle than surrender a single stone of what
my father and Prince Frederick gained." The thrills which such
expressions arouse are born of an inveterate emotional habit, and are
responsible for the obliquity of view and conduct which has made Germany
an outcast among civilized nations.
But Germany was not satisfied with what she had obtained by her
crusading. Developments of the war prove conclusively that the Kaiser
has followed out the blood and iron politico-economic methods of
Bismarck for the development of Prussian power and that while at times
Germany has been reported to be maneuvering for peace, her peace moves
have in reality been war moves, and that a truce would only give the
Imperial Government time in which to further Prussianize and prepare
for a greater world war the territory to the southeast which she has
conquered under the guise of a friendly alliance.
It will be recalled that President Wilson declared that "America must
fight until the world is made safe for democracy." This declaration
refers immediately to the plans which Germany had developed for its
conquest. Based upon reports received by agents of the United States, of
England, of France and other countries, Germany aimed to form a
consolidation of an impregnable military and economic unit stretching
from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, cutting Europe permanently in
half, controlling the Dardanelles, the Agean and the Baltic, and
eventually forming the backbone of a Prussian world empire.
LEAGUE AT WORK SINCE 1911.
In her southeastern conquests, it is apparent, Germany followed almost
in toto the long established plan of the Pan-German League, whose
propaganda had been regarded outside of Germany as the harmless activity
of extremists, too radical to be taken seriously. Coupled with this
plan, as an instrument of economic consolidation, the German officials
used with only slight modification the system of customs union expansion
which aided Prussia in former years to extend her domination over the
other German States now making up the empire.
As early as 1911 the Pan-German League is said to have circulated a
definite propaganda of conquest, with printed appeals containing maps of
a greater Germany, whose sway from Hamburg to Constantinople and then
southeastward through Asiatic Turkey was marked out by boundaries very
coincident with the military lines held today, under German officers, by
the troops of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. Adhesion of
the German Government itself to such a plan was not suspected by the
other Powers, although the propagandists were permitted to continue
their activities unhindered and to spread their appeals in a country of
strict press supervision. How closely the German Government did adhere
to the plan in reality has been demonstrated clearly by the course of
the war.
Following the footsteps of Bismarck, who used the Franco-Prussian war
alliance to bring Baden, Bavaria and Wurttemburg into the German
confederacy and then into the German Empire, Emperor William chose war
as the means of establishing the broad pathway to the southeast which
was essential for realization of the dream of a great Germany.
VERGE OF DISSOLUTION.
The subjugation of Austria-Hungary, which would have presented a
different task under ordinary conditions, became in these circumstances
comparatively very simple. A polyglot combination of States, having
little in common and apparently held together only by the decaying
genius of the aged Emperor Franz Joseph, the dual monarchy was regarded
everywhere as on the verge of dissolution. Her helplessness before
Russia's army became apparent early in the war, and the eagerness with
which Germany seized the opportunity thus presented is pointed to as
emphasizing the far-sightedness of the German plans.
Austria-Hungary's submission is declared to be complete, both in a
military and economic sense. The German officers commanding her armies,
abetted by industrial agents, scattered throughout the country by
Germany, hold the Austrian and Hungarian population in a union which
neither the hardships of war, the death of the Emperor nor the
inspiration of the outside influences, such as the Russian revolution,
can break.
Bulgaria's declaration of war on the side of Germany was actuated by a
German diplomatic coup, which in itself is regarded now as further
evidence that a clear road through to the Dardanelles was considered in
Berlin as a primary and imperative purpose of the war.
In the case of Turkey, German domination is even more complete than in
Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. Not only have German officers led in
defending Turkish territory and in eradicating inharmonious elements,
such as the Armenians and Syrians, but German industrial organizations
have taken a firm grip on Turkish industry and a large delegation of
German professors have been spreading German kultur among the
population.
The developments threw a new light on many events before the war. Among
them the long-unexplained declaration of Emperor William at Damascus in
1898 that all Mohammedans might confidently regard the German Emperor as
"their friend forever." There also is a complete understanding now of
Germany's eagerness to obtain, in 1899, a concession for the Bagdad
railroad, an artery of communication now indispensable to the German
operations.
These are the things and conditions to which the Allies referred when in
replying to one of President Wilson's peace notes they declared that war
must accomplish the "liberation of Italians, of Slavs, of Rumanians and
of Tzecho-Slovacs from foreign domination; the enfranchisement of
populations subject to the bloody tyranny of the Turk; the expulsion
from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, and the restoration of Servia,
Montenegro and Rumania."
America entered the war to fight for Democracy. On the surface the
United States pledged itself to protect its ships and make secure the
lives of its citizens on the highways of the world, but the principles
for which the manhood of the country were called to fight have been
summarized as follows:
That the nations of the world shall co-operate and not compete. The
paradox of history is that every struggle leads to firmer unity. Wars
cemented France, unified the British Empire, consolidated the American
Union.
That national armaments be limited to purposes of internal police, no
nation be allowed to have a force sufficient to be a menace to general
peace, and a League of Peace be formed which shall have at its hand
sufficient armed power to compel order among the States.
That nations be governed by the people that compose them, and for the
benefit of those people, and not of a ruling class.
That every nation be governed with an eye to the welfare of the whole
world as well as to its own prosperity or glory, and patriotism properly
subjected to humanity.
That the power of government be dissociated from advancing the profits
of capital, and made always to mean the welfare of labor.
That security of life, freedom of worship and opinion, and liberty of
movement be assured to all men everywhere.
That no munitions or instruments of death be manufactured except under
control of the International Council of the World.
That the seas be free to all.
That tariffs be adjusted with a view to the general welfare and not as
measures of national rivalry.
That railways, telegraph, and telephone lines, and all other common and
necessary means of intercommunication be eventually nationalized.
That every human being in a country be conscripted to devote a certain
part of his or her life to national service.
That both labor unions and combinations of capital be under strict
government control, so that no irresponsible group may conspire against
the commonwealth.
That every child receive training to equip him or her for self-support
and intelligent citizenship.
That woman shall enjoy every right of citizenship.
That the civil shall always have precedence over the military authority.
And that the right of free speech, of a free press, and of assembly
shall remain inviolate.
CHAPTER VI.
THE THINGS THAT MADE MEN MAD.
GERMANY'S BARBARITY--THE DEVASTATION OF BELGIUM--HUMAN FIENDS--FIREBRAND
AND TORCH--RAPE AND PILLAGE--THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN--WANTON
DESTRUCTION--OFFICIAL PROOF.
The conduct of Germany in ignoring international treaties and invading
Belgium first aroused the antagonism of the United States and the rest
of the civilized world, and furnished the primary glimpse of how
Imperialism made light of human rights. What the Kaiser and his arrogant
followers did is fully set forth in the report which a special envoy,
appointed by King Albert of Belgium, laid before President Wilson on
September 16, 1914.
The mission consisted of Henry Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice;
Messrs. de Sadeleer, Hymans and Vandervelde, Ministers of State, and
Count Louis de Lichtervelde, serving as secretary of the mission. On
being received by President Wilson, Mr. de Wiart, for the mission,
outlined for the world and for America, the situation in part as
follows:
"His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, has charged us with a special
mission to the President of the United States. Let me say how much we
feel ourselves honored to have been called upon to express the
sentiments of our King and of our whole nation to the illustrious
statesman whom the American people have called to the highest dignity of
the commonwealth.
"Ever since her independence was first established, Belgium has been
declared neutral in perpetuity. This neutrality, guaranteed by the
Powers, has recently been violated by one of them. Had we consented to
abandon our neutrality for the benefit of one of the belligerents, we
would have betrayed our obligations toward the others. And it was the
sense of our international obligations as well as that of our dignity
and honor that has driven us to resistance.
"The consequences suffered by the Belgian nation were not confined
purely to the harm occasioned by the forced march of the invading army.
This army not only seized a great portion of our territory, but it
committed incredible acts of violence, the nature of which is contrary
to the laws of nations.
"Peaceful inhabitants were massacred, defenseless women and children
were outraged; open and undefended towns were destroyed; historical and
religious monuments were reduced to dust and the famous library of the
University of Louvain was given to the flames.
"Our government has appointed a Judicial Commission to make an official
investigation, so as to thoroughly and impartially examine the facts and
to determine the responsibility thereof, and I will have the honor,
Excellency, to hand over to you the proceedings of the inquiry.
THE UNITED STATES' ATTITUDE.
"In this frightful holocaust which is sweeping over Europe, the United
States has adopted a neutral attitude.
"And it is for this reason that your country, standing apart from either
one of the belligerents, is in the best position to judge, without bias
or partiality, the conditions under which the war is being waged.
"It is at the request, even at the initiative of the United States, that
all civilized nations have formulated and adopted at the Hague a law
regulating the laws and usages of war.
"We refuse to believe that war has abolished the family of civilized
powers, or the regulation to which they have freely consented.
"The American people has always displayed its respect for justice, its
search for progress and an instinctive attachment for the laws of
humanity. Therefore, it has won a moral influence which is recognized by
the entire world. It is for this reason that Belgium, bound as she is to
you by ties of commerce and increasing friendship, turns to the American
people at this time to let you know the real truth of the present
situation. Resolved to continue unflinching defence of its sovereignty
and independence, it deems it a duty to bring to the attention of the
civilized world the innumerable grave breaches of rights of mankind, of
which she has been a victim.
"At the very moment we were leaving Belgium, the King recalled to us his
trip to the United States and the vivid and strong impression your
powerful and virile civilization left upon his mind. Our faith in your
fairness, our confidence in your justice, in your spirit of generosity
and sympathy, all these have dictated our present mission."
THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE.
In the report handed to President Wilson, the preface sets forth that
the committee appointed to investigate the conduct of the German
invaders, and all of the surrounding circumstances, consisted of Messrs.
Cattier, professor at the Brussels University; Nys, counselor of the
Brussels Court of Appeals; Verhaegen, counselor of the Brussels Court of
Appeals; Wodon, professor at the Brussels University; Secretary, Mr.
Gillard, Director of the Department of Justice. Afterwards, when the
invasion made it necessary to transfer the seat of the government from
Brussels to Antwerp, a sub-committee was appointed there, consisting of
Mr. Cooreman, Minister of State; Members, Count Goblet d'Aviella,
Minister of State, Vice President of the Senate; Messrs. Ryckmans,
Senator; Strauss, Alderman of the City of Antwerp; Van Cutsem, Honorary
President of the Law Court of Antwerp. Secretaries, Chevalier Ernst de
Bunswyck, Chief Secretary of the Belgian Minister of Justice; Mr. Orts,
Counselor of the Legation.
In brief the report submits first, that in violation of the perpetual
treaty of June 26, 1831, Germany notified Belgium that France was about
to march upon Germany, and that Germany proposed to frustrate such a
move by sending its soldiers through Belgium; that the German government
had no intention of making war against Belgium, and that if Belgium
made no opposition it would evacuate Belgium after hostilities ceased,
and during the period the German forces were in the country, would buy
everything needed for its army. Belgium replied that it had assurance
from France that France had no intention of invading Belgium, and that
if France attempted to pass through Belgium would oppose such an act
with force. It informed the German Imperial Government that it would
similarly oppose any move on the part of Germany to pass through.
Nevertheless Germany proceeded at once through Belgium. Quoting articles
from the Hague treaty, the commission's report reads:
THE DAYS OF BARBARISM.
"In the days of barbarism, the population of a territory occupied by the
enemy was deprived of all judicial capacity. At that time," as Ghering
writes ironically, "'the enemy was absolutely deprived of rights;
everything he owned belonged to the gallant warrior who had wrenched it
away from him. One had merely to lose it.'
"In our days the rules of warfare clearly establish the difference
between the property of the government of the territory occupied and the
property of individuals. While the present doctrine allows the conqueror
to seize, in a general way, everything in the way of movable property
belonging to the State, it obliges him, on the other hand, to respect
the property of individuals, corporations and public provincial
administrations.
"The Hague Convention, signed October 18, 1897, by all the civilized
States, among others by Germany, contains the following stipulations
regarding laws and customs of warfare on land:
"'Art. 46. The honor and right of the family, the life of the individual
and private property, as well as religious convictions and the exercise
of worship, must be respected. Private property cannot be confiscated.
"'Art. 47. Pillaging is formally prohibited.
"'Art. 53. When occupying territory, the army can only seize cash as
well as funds and securities belonging entirely to the State; also
depots of arms, ways and means of transportation, warehouses and
provisions, and in a general way all movable property belonging to the
State and liable to be used for warlike operations.
"'Art. 56. Property of municipalities, property of establishments
consecrated to worship, to charity and instruction; to art and science,
even though belonging to the State, will be treated as private
property.'
"In defiance of these conventional rules, voluntarily and solemnly
accepted by Germany, she has committed, from the beginning of her
invasion of Belgian soil, numerous attacks upon private property."
GERMAN CUPIDITY.
At Hasselt, the report shows that on August 12, 1914, the Germans
confiscated the funds of the branch of the National Bank, which amounted
to 2,075,000 francs. At Liege, on entering the city, they forcibly
seized the funds of a branch of the same bank, amounting to 4,000,000
francs. Moreover, upon finding at that branch bundles of bank notes of
5-franc denomination, representing an amount of 400,000 francs, and
which were not yet signed, they forced a printer to sign those bank
notes by means of a rubber stamp, which they had also seized, and
afterwards put the notes in circulation. The bank, it is explained, was
a shareholders' corporation, the capital having been obtained by
subscription from private parties and was in no wise an institution of
the State.
The enormity of this offence is made apparent by the fact that in the
war of 1870, when the Prussians entered Rheims in the Franco-Prussian
war, and they wanted to confiscate the funds of the branch of the
National Bank of France, Crown Prince Frederick ordered that funds which
were found at the bank could not be seized so long as they were not used
for the maintenance of the French army, it having been contended by
directors of the institution that the bank was not a State, but a
private bank. But more than this Germany levied supplies from every
Belgian city and tried to levy upon the city of Brussels the sum of
50,000,000 francs and the province of Brabant 450,000,000 francs.
TREATY OBLIGATIONS.
Categorically, the violation and disregard of every phase of the Hague
treaty is described. In spite of the strict provision that undefended
cities, villages and dwellings are not to be bombarded, and where
bombardment is necessary the commanding officer of the attacking party
must warn the authorities that such bombardment is to take place, German
aeroplanes and dirigibles bombarded relentlessly from the beginning. In
Antwerp a Zeppelin threw explosive bombs at the Royal Palace, but the
missiles went astray, demolishing private residences, killing eight
persons and injuring many. Servants were killed in their beds in one
private house when the bombs tore away the top of the building.
"In the Place du Poids Public a bomb fell on the pavement. Fragments
scattered all over the place. Not a house facing the square was
untouched. A policeman was cut to pieces, all that was found of him
being a leg covered with a few rags of his uniform. Five other persons
who opened their windows were blown to atoms. The bed-rooms of two
houses facing one another were visited. In the first there were three
corpses. Blood was scattered all over the place. The floor was covered
with fragments of windows and with blood-soaked underwear. On the
ceiling and walls, parts of intestines and brains were visible. In the
other house two old persons had been killed while looking down upon the
street. Later Antwerp was bombarded, as was Heyst-op-den-Berg and the
city of Malines, which was undefended, and where there was not a Belgian
soldier. At Malines the batteries fired shell after shell in the
direction of the Cathedral of Saint Rombault, a beautiful edifice, which
was hit many times and badly damaged, though there was no military
reason for the assault as the town was practically abandoned."
The commission turned over to President Wilson explosive bullets used by
the Germans at Werchter, and submitted briefs from physicians who
treated wounds made by the explosive bullets.
DETAILED ATROCITIES OUTLINED.
A few details of the atrocities are outlined as follows:
"German cavalry, occupying the village of Linsmeau, were attacked by
some Belgian infantry and two Gendarmes. A German officer was killed by
our troops during the fight, and subsequently buried at the request of
the Belgian officer in command. None of the civilian population took
part in the fight. Nevertheless, the village was invaded at dusk on
August 10 by a strong force of German cavalry, artillery and machine
guns. In spite of the assurance given by the Burgomaster that none of
the peasants had taken part in the previous fighting two farms and six
outlying houses were destroyed by gunfire and burned. All the male
population were compelled to come forward and hand over what they
possessed. No recently discharged firearms were found, but the invaders
divided the peasants into three groups. Those in one group were bound
and eleven of them placed in a ditch, whither they were afterward found
dead, their skulls fractured by the butts of German rifles.
"During the night of August 10, German cavalry entered Velm in great
numbers; the inhabitants were asleep. The Germans, without provocation,
fired upon Mr. Deglimme-Gever's house, broke into it, destroyed
furniture, looted money, burned barns, hay, corn stacks, farm
implements, six oxen, and the contents of the farmyard. They carried off
Mme. Deglimme half-naked, to a place two miles away. She was then let go
and was fired upon as she fled, without being hit. Her husband was
carried away in another direction."
Farmer Jeff Dierckx, of Neerhespen, bears witness to the following acts
of cruelty committed by German cavalry at Orsmael Neerhespen, on August
10, 11 and 12:
SHOCKING BARBARITIES.
"An old man of the latter village had his arm sliced in three
longitudinal cuts; he was then hanged head downward and burned alive.
Young girls have been raped and little children outraged at Orsmael,
where several inhabitants suffered mutilations too horrible to describe.
A Belgian soldier belonging to a battalion of cyclist carbineers who had
been wounded and made prisoner was hanged, while another who was tending
his comrade was bound to a telegraph pole and shot."
The sacking of Louvain, which was one of the vile acts of the Germans
during the early days of the war, is described briefly in the report of
the commission as follows:
"The Germans entered Louvain on Wednesday, August 19, after having set
fire to the towns through which they passed.
"From the moment of their having entered the city of Louvain, the
Germans requisitioned lodgings and victuals for their troops. They
entered every private bank of the city and took over the bank funds.
German soldiers broke the doors of houses abandoned by their
inhabitants, pillaged them and indulged in orgies.
"The German authorities took hostages; the mayor of the city, Senator
Vander Kelen, the Vice Rector of the Catholic University, the Dean of
the City; magistrates and aldermen were also detained. All arms down to
fencing foils had been handed over to the town administration and
deposited by the said authorities in the Church of St. Peter.
"In the neighboring village, Corbeck-Loo, a young matron, 22 years old,
whose husband was in the army, was surprised on Wednesday, August 19,
with several of her relatives, by a band of German soldiers. The persons
who accompanied her were locked in an abandoned house, while she was
taken into another house, where she was successively violated by five
soldiers.
LUSTFUL CRUELTY OF THE GERMANS.
"In the same village, on Thursday, August 20, German soldiers were
searching a house where a young girl of 16 lived with her parents. They
carried her into an abandoned house and, while some of them kept the
father and mother off, others went into the house, the cellar of which
was open, and forced the young woman to drink. Afterwards they carried
her out on the lawn in front of the house and violated her successively.
She continued to resist and they pierced her breast with bayonets.
Having been abandoned by the soldiers after their abominable attacks,
the girl was carried off by her parents, and the following day, owing to
the gravity of her condition, she was administered the last rites of the
church by the priest of the parish and carried to the hospital at
Louvain."
Upon entering villages occupied by the Germans after they were driven
back to Louvain, the report says the Belgian soldiers found that the
German soldiers had sacked, ravaged and set fire to the villages
everywhere, taking with them and driving before them all the male
inhabitants. "Upon entering Hofstade, the Belgian soldiers found the
corpse of an old woman who had been killed by bayonet thrusts; she still
held in her hand the needle with which she was sewing when attacked; one
mother and her son, aged about 15 years, lay there pierced with bayonet
wounds; one man was found hung.
"In Sempst, a neighboring village, were found corpses of two men
partially burned. One of them was found with legs cut off to the knees;
the other was minus his arms and legs. A workman had been pierced with
bayonets, afterward while he was still living the Germans soaked him
with petroleum and locked him in a house which they set on fire. An old
man and his son had been killed by sabre cuts; a cyclist had been killed
by bullets; a woman coming out of her house had been stricken down in
the same manner."
A LAME EXCUSE OFFERED.
Concerning the sacking of Louvain itself, the report says that one
detachment of the Germans met another detachment while in full flight
from the Belgian soldiers, and attacked one another. This was the basis
for the pretext that they had been attacked by the citizenry of Louvain
and was responsible for the bombardment of the city. The bombarding
lasted until 10 o'clock at night, and afterward the German soldiers set
fire to the city.
"The houses which had not taken fire were entered by German soldiers,
who were throwing fire grenades, some of which seem to have been
provided for the occasion. The largest part of the city of Louvain,
especially the quarters of 'Ville Haute,' comprising the modern houses,
the Cathedral of St. Peter, the University Halls, with the whole library
of the University with its manuscripts, its collections, the largest
part of the scientific institutions and the town theatre were at the
moment being consumed by flames.
"The commission deems it necessary, in the midst of these horrors, to
insist on the crime of lese-humanity which the deliberate annihilation
of an academic library--a library which was one of the treasures of our
time--constitutes.
"Numerous corpses of civilians covered the streets and squares. On the
routes from Louvain to Tirlemont alone one witness testifies to having
seen more than fifty of them. On the threshold of houses were found
burnt corpses of people, who, surprised in their cellars by the fire,
had tried to escape and fell into the heap of live embers. The suburbs
of Louvain were given up to the same fate. It can be said that the whole
region between Malines and Louvain and most of the suburbs of Louvain
have been devastated and destroyed.
BASE INDIGNITIES TO CLERGYMEN.
"A group of 75 persons, among whom were several notables of the city,
such as Father Coloboet and a Spanish priest, and also an American
priest, were conducted, during the morning of Wednesday, August 26, to
the square in front of the station. The men were brutally separated from
their wives and children, after having received the most abominable
treatment after repeated threats of being shot, and were driven in front
of the German troops as far as the village of Campenhout. They were
locked, during the night, in the church. The following day, at 4
o'clock, a German officer came to tell them that they might all confess
themselves and that they would be shot half an hour later. When,
finally, they were released, the report continues, they were recaptured
by another German brigade and compelled to march to Malines, where they
were finally liberated.
"An eye witness testified that he met nothing except burned villages,
crazed peasants, lifting to each comer their arms, as mark of
submission. From each house was hanging a white flag, even from those
that had been set on fire, and rags of them were found hanging from the
ruins. The fire began a little above the American College, and the city
is entirely destroyed, with the exception of the town hall and the
depot. Today the fire continues and the Germans, instead of trying to
stop it--seem rather to maintain it by throwing straw into the flames,
as I have myself seen behind the Hotel de Ville. The Cathedral and the
theatre have been destroyed and fallen in, and also the library. The
town resembles an old city in ruins, in the midst of which drunken
soldiers are circulating, carrying around bottles of wine and liquor;
the officers themselves being installed in arm chairs, sitting around
tables and drinking like their own men.
"In the streets dead horses are decaying, horses which are completely
inflated, and the smell of the fire and the decaying animals is such
that it has followed me for a long time."
And the policy which developed such outrageous conduct on the part of
the Kaiser's soldiers in the early days of the war, against which
Belgium protested to the world, inspired brutal acts, ruthlessness and
cruelty at every stage and during every period of the war. Nowhere is
there written a single line which tells of the humanitarian acts of the
German soldiers. Those who fight against them acknowledge their stoical
bravery, the efficiency of the army, the navy and the people as a whole,
but there is no reflection of refined instincts in any of the acts of
Germany or the Germans.
THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S REPORT.
Of those conditions which existed in Belgium when the German soldiers
overran the country, America's own minister to the devastated country,
Brand Whitlock, sent a report to the State Department in the beginning
of 1917, when President Wilson was protesting against the treatment
accorded the helpless people of Belgium by the Germans.
Mr. Whitlock tells how the Germans determined to put the Belgians thrown
out of employment to work for them. "In August," says the report,
dealing with the treatment of the helpless Belgians, "Von Hindenburg was
appointed supreme commander. He is said to have criticised Von Bissing's
policy as too mild, and there was a quarrel; Von Bissing went to Berlin
to protest, threatened to resign, but did not. He returned, and a German
official said that Belgium would now be subjected to a more terrible
regime, would learn what war was. The prophecy has been vindicated.
"The deportations began in October in the Etape, at Ghent and at
Bruges. The policy spread; the rich industrial districts at Hainaut, the
mines and steel works about Charleroi were next attacked, and they
seized men in Brabant, even in Brussels, despite some indications and
even predictions of the civil authorities that the policy was about to
be abandoned.
"As by one of the ironies of life the winter has been more excessively
cold than Belgium has ever known it and while many of those who
presented themselves were adequately protected against the cold, many of
them were without overcoats. The men, shivering from cold and fear, the
parting from weeping wives and children, the barrels of brutal Uhlans,
all this made the scene a pitiable and distressing one.
RAGE, TERROR AND DESPAIR.
"The rage, the terror and despair excited by this measure all over
Belgium were beyond anything we had witnessed since the day the Germans
poured into Brussels. The delegates of the commission for relief in
Belgium, returning to Brussels, told the most distressing stories of the
scenes of cruelty and sorrow attending the seizures. And daily, hourly
almost, since that time, appalling stories have been related by Belgians
coming to the legation. It is impossible for us to verify them, first
because it is necessary for us to exercise all possible tact in dealing
with the subject at all, and secondly because there is no means of
communication between the Occupations Gebiet and the Etappey Gebiet.
"I am constantly in receipt of reports from all over Belgium that tend
to bear the stories one constantly hears of brutality and cruelty. A
number of men sent back to Mons are said to be in a dying condition,
many of them tubercular. At Molines and at Antwerp returned men have
died, their friends asserting that they have been victims of neglect and
cruelty, of cold, of exposure, of hunger.
"I have had requests from the burgomasters of ten communes asking that
permission be obtained to send to the deported men in Germany packages
of food similar to those that are being sent to prisoners of war. Thus
far the German authorities have refused to permit this except in special
instances, and returning Belgians claim that even when such packages are
received they are used by the camp authorities only as another means of
coercing them to sign the agreements to work.
A MORTAL BLOW TO BELGIANS.
"By the deportation of Belgians to work in Germany," says Mr. Whitlock's
report, "they have dealt a mortal blow to any prospect they may ever
have had of being tolerated by the population of Flanders; in tearing
away from nearly every humble home in the land a husband and a father or
a son and brother; they have lighted a fire of hatred that will never go
out; they have brought home to every heart in the land, in a way that
will impress its horror indelibly on the memory of three generations, a
realization of what German methods mean, not as with the early
atrocities in the heat of passion and the first lust of war, but by one
of those deeds that make one despair of the future of the human race, a
deed coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and
systematically executed, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said
to have wept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German
officers are now said to be ashamed."
And if these acts were not sufficient to convince the world that Germany
"is without the pale" so far as civilized warfare is concerned her
conduct in wantonly destroying property in Flanders while in retreat
could permit of no other conclusion.
After the violation of Belgium and the destruction of the Lusitania and
the adoption of the policy of sinking neutral ships on sight for
military advantage, or "necessity," why shouldn't the soldiers pollute
wells, kill trees, carry off the girls, smash the household furniture
not worth taking away and smear the pictures on the wall, just for
revenge or in the sheer lust of destruction?
It makes no difference, so far as the principles of humanity are
concerned, whether the German army is in victory or suffering defeat,
advancing or retreating. The treatment accorded the evacuated cities of
the Somme district was foretold by the treatment of the cities occupied
early in the war. Here is the wording of an order posted during the
victorious invasion of Belgium:
"Order--To the people of Liege. The population of Andenne, after making
a display of peaceful intentions toward our troops, attacked them in the
most treacherous manner. With my authority the general commanding these
troops has reduced the town to ashes and has had 110 persons shot. I
bring this fact to the knowledge of the people of Liege in order that
they may know what fate to expect should they adopt a similar attitude.
GENERAL VON BULOW.
Liege, Aug. 22, 1914."
CRUEL EXTREME OF PUNISHMENT.
And yet this order showed only a cruel extreme of punishment where some
punishment was to be expected. It was left for the retreating Germans of
1917 to destroy, without provocation and without purpose, motived by
revenge and obsessed by the Nietschean doctrine of "spare not."
Before Bapaume was evacuated it was deliberately converted into a mass
of muck. There is no Bapaume now. It is perfectly understandable that
the retreating soldiers should destroy their trenches and put up the
question, "Tommy, how do you like your new trenches?" But why smear
filth over the photograph of three little girls, a family treasure? All
around Bapaume the villages were looted and the night the deliverers
entered the destroyers made the sky lurid with the fires of towns and
hamlets. Some 300 in the evacuated region were burned.
At Nesle, Roye and Ham there was not time enough to destroy everything.
The house of a doctor at Nesle, a specially attractive home, was not
blown down for strategic purposes, but some soldiers did find time to
drive axes through the mahogany panels of the beds and smash the clocks
and mirrors. They were angry at being compelled to leave the house.
Villages like Cressy, near Nesle, where a shell never fell in the course
of the war, have been completely destroyed.
PERONNE A HOPELESS RUIN.
There is not a habitable house left in Peronne. The sixteenth century
church of St. Jean is but a relic. W. Beach Thomas wrote after the
retreat that nothing was left that was valuable enough to be worth
collection by a penny tinker or a rag-and-bone merchant. Foul what you
cannot have, was the motto.
The famous ruins of the Feudal Castle of Coucy, one of the finest relics
of architecture of its period, was wantonly blown up by the Germans on
retreat. It was built in the thirteenth century by Enguerrand III and
passed to the French crown in 1498, and was one of the great historic
landmarks of Northern France.
Coucy was one of the noblest relics of the Middle Ages, respected by the
most barbarous wars of the past, whose donjon (greatest in all Europe)
dates almost from Charlemagne, harmless, time-wrecked, illustrious
Coucy!
To give an idea of Coucy's importance, the French, in their first
astonishment and sorrow, proposed to make reprisals on Hindenburg,
should it take ten years. Of course, they will not; it is not their way.
Coucy is a mountain of blasted stones. Shoun Kelly, American, owned one
of the outer towers of the great castle and the story of its ownership
is the American antithesis of German ravage. Americans were always
faithful tourists to Coucy; but among them, one loved more than all the
glorious old ruin and its story which began with Enguerrand, the Sire
of Coucy, in the year 1210. This was the late Edmund Kelly, of New York
and Paris, international lawyer and for many years counsel of the
American Embassy in Paris. He meditated on the motto of old Enguerrand:
"I am not king, nor prince, nor duke, nor even count: I am the Sire of
Coucy!" In fact, the Sire made a record for standing off local kings.
"He was a good American ahead of his time," said Lawyer Kelly; and he
took to reading up the ancient chronicles, how Enguerrand's descendants
stood off royalty for some 200 years, until finally bought out by the
wealthy Louis of Orleans, and all the later glories of the place.
Mazarin dismantled Coucy, but left it standing in its beauty; and Lawyer
Kelly discovered it to be a State museum, impossible to be purchased, in
these latter days, even by a millionaire. Not being one, he preferred it
so, loving Coucy more than ever, the cultured American did the next best
thing.
A LITTLE TOWN REDUCED.
The little town, once so rich, had dwindled since Mazarin. On the castle
side stood two massive towers of the inner defense, belonging to the
town. Mr. Kelly asked Mayor and department legislature to make a price
on the nearest. As soon as he had bought his tower, he used loving care
restoring it. He pierced windows through walls 16 feet thick. He built
rooms in three stories, furnishing them in massive antique style. The
tower roof was his shady terrace, covered with a little grove of
century-old trees! From it he dominated Coucy. All its soul of beauty
lay beneath his view.
All was systematically blown up, the town, the towers, the castle, by
retreating Germans in their rage. Just masses of crumbled stones. The
German papers boast that it took 28 tons of high explosives, and any one
can see, this hour, the plain of Coucy covered with a white layer of
powdered limestone, for miles around.
What for? To clear a battlefield, they say. It is not true. Nothing is
cleared. The masses of crumbled stone remained, when they fled their
"battlefield."
The donjon was very high. It stood on a kind of bluff or elevation,
overlooking the country, and before the days of aeroplanes it might have
been used for observation. The donjon walls were 16 yards thick, not
feet, but yards! No other tower in Europe had those dimensions. They
tell a story about Mazarin. He deemed so strong a place, so near to
Paris, might be dangerous to the Crown; so he dismantled Coucy
militarily, without destroying its architectural beauty. The donjon
worried him in those days when artillery could make no impression on its
massive thickness. So Mazarin put 16 barrels of powder inside the tower,
and set them off. The tower just converted itself into gun barrel! The
powder blew out all the stories and the roof--shot them up like a gun
pointed at the sky! But the tower stood, exactly as before.
OF MASSIVE ARCHITECTURE.
The masonry was admittedly the heaviest achieved by the Middle Ages.
From the donjon extended three great vaulted halls. Massive buildings
continued. There was a Gothic chapel, a Tribunal Hall, the Hall of the
Nine Peers (whose statues remained), the Hall of the Nine Countesses
(whose medallion-portraits were carved on the monumental chimney). There
was a Romanesque chapel (relic from Charlemagne, like the original
donjon), the separate Fortified Chateau of the Chatelain (the Sire's
First Officer), and so on, and so on.
The retreating Germans have not only blown up Coucy, but that other
priceless relic, the Tower of the Grand Constable and the entire
historic Chateau of Ham, and equally the Castle of Peronne, a jewel of
beauty--all in one corner of the Vallois! On the smoking wreck of
Peronne, they left a humorous placard:
"Nicht aergen! Tur wundern! Don't be angry, just wonder!" Noyon and
Peronne are sacked and ruined. At Chauny 1800 houses out of 2500 were
deliberately burned, and at a distance they bombarded the remainder,
full of old folks and children whom they had parked there. All the
public buildings, churches, hospitals and poorhouse were blown up. Three
hundred towns and villages were burning at one time in this small
section of the Cradle of France. Hindenburg was at Roisel when they
rounded up the populations, went through their pockets for their money
(giving "receipts"), took their clothes off their backs (so that all the
American relief agencies in Paris were overwhelmed with telegrams of
appeal) and burgled all the safes in banks and business houses before
setting fire to the town and blowing up the main street!
ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLE OF WAR.
The German official communique said that it was "all done uniquely
according to the technical principles of modern war." At Berlin they
caused an American correspondent to cable these words to his papers:
"The enemy will find great difficulty to take shelter on a battlefield
where everything has been completely razed. We regret the destruction of
a beautiful region of France, but it was necessary to transform it into
a clear field of battle before we quit it."
They blew up the precious Romanesque Church of Tracy-le-Val (which dates
before the Gothic). The church was situated in the midst of the great
forest of Laigue; they blew up the church--and left the forest standing!
No battlefield was cleared, but they hacked the bark to kill great noble
trees by thousands. They made no effort to clear the forest; but weeping
old French peasants told how half a German regiment was occupied three
days in barking trees to prevent the sap from mounting. The crushed
pearl of architecture lies in a dying forest.
At Le Novion, torch in hand, they burned 223 houses; but all the gutted
walls are standing.
What technical principles of war command the wholesale destruction of
young fruit trees? In 20 orchards, by count, in sweet Leury (hidden at
the bottom of a valley) every peach, plum, apricot and pear tree has
been assassinated--hacked and standing, when the trunks are thick, and
sprawling, severed by one blow of a sharp hatchet, young trees from the
thickness of your wrists to your thumb. The French, with loving care,
trained peach and pear trees against sunny walls, as if they were
grapevines. The slender trunks are cut--and the garden walls left
standing.
DESECRATION OF TREES.
The soldiers spared neither the orchards nor the single trees that took
a generation to grow, and would have borne fruit for generations to
come. Reapers and binders and other farming machines were collected and
broken to pieces. One might see a measure of advantage that the
deliverers would gain from these things if not destroyed, but it is an
awful war doctrine that refuses to discriminate between the immediate
and the eventual, the direct and the indirect, the important and the
negligible advantage that would impoverish posterity to get a dime in
cash. No military advantage is sufficient motive for such wanton
ravishment. It is military fanaticism.
Ambassador Sharp, after a 100-mile trip through the evacuated territory,
declared that never before in the history of the world had there been
such a thorough destruction by either a vanquished or victorious army.
One thing alone was left, after the red-brick villages had been turned
into heaps and the murdered fruit trees into black fagots, on the hill
outside of St. Quentin. This was the log hut and shooting box of the
Kaiser's son, Eitel Friederick. Its white-barked beech was unburnt, its
glass windows unbroken, its inside adornments unlooted, the tables and
chairs of its terrace beer garden remained. All around the works of man
and God were destroyed. The contrast made this destroyer's lodge a sort
of boast of his destruction.
The shocking ruin to human life in the evacuated region is of even
greater moment. The half-starved civilians of Bapaume were forced to
make trenches there and later for the defense of Cambrai also. All men
and boys strong enough to work were taken along with the retreating
forces. Near Peronne some hundreds of old men, women and children were
found locked in a barn. One woman pathetically asked of an English
officer, "Are you many?" And he was able to answer, "We are two millions
now," and see her anxiety turned to relief and joy. Children who had
been slowly starving for a year wandered about the ruins of their homes,
but soon found reasons for smiling at the soldiers who had rescued them.
NEITHER MEAT NOR MILK.
These children had had no meat for months and no milk for a year and had
almost forgotten the taste of butter. They probably never received a
quarter of the rations Americans sent. Girls were compelled to attend
the market gardens, and then the Germans took all the produce. The
region was desolated and left inhabited by women and children moribund
with misery and starvation.
At Noyon, where the Germans had concentrated 10,000 Belgian refugees,
they promised to leave the American Relief Committee with sufficient
supplies to feed them. But the last patrols completely sacked the
American relief storehouses of all eatables and then dynamited the
building. And it was from this place that fifty young women, from 18 to
25 years of age, were taken by the officers. Their distracted mothers
were told that they were to be used as "officers' servants."
At Ham, when a mother of six children, seeing her husband and two eldest
daughters being carried away, remonstrated, she was told that as an
alternative she might find their bodies in a canal in the rear of the
house.
Nothing could be more significant of the Government's attitude than the
incident told by James W. Gerard. The people of a town were imprisoned
or fined for their conduct toward a delayed train of Canadian prisoners.
When he heard it he thought that at last the Government was going to put
a stop to the maltreatment of prisoners. But he learned on investigation
that the townsfolk had been punished for giving a little food and drink
to the starving and fainting prisoners.
And yet the most singularly brutal phase of this destruction of nature
and wealth and art and life is the German defense of it. War is always
hell and most of the awful things in this war have had their
counterparts in other conflicts, though the Teutonic element has brought
some peculiar refinements of cussedness and has given a thoroughness and
"pep" and "kick" to the war business.
BETTER PREPARED NEXT TIME.
German writers, instead of making excuses for turning the nation into a
war machine for forty years, complain that Germany was not prepared as
she should have been and would be better prepared next time. Her
professors do not regret that the soldiers at the front are so
unrestrained in cruelty, but urge that they are too soft and kind to
make effective war. The German correspondents all write enthusiastically
of the devastation of the country they are leaving and of the desert
created by German genius. Editors speak of the mercy which tempered the
necessary hardness towards this once beautiful stretch of country and
its inhabitants. The destruction of property which can serve no military
purpose is defended on the ground that it is legitimate from a strategic
point of view.
This all amounts to saying everything must give way to the
considerations of war. It is taking the argument in the fable of the
wolf and the lamb as serious philosophy and accepting the position of
the wolf. They fail entirely to see the humor of the fable, and hence
the fallacy of the wolf's argument.
The greatest hope of civilization, which trembled for a time before the
spectre of German barbarity, is that frightfulness cannot endure the
long and full test. The great initial advantages are more than offset by
new opponents. The gain of the invasion of Belgium was canceled by
England coming into the war. The advantage against England of the U-boat
campaign was more than canceled by the entrance of the United States in
the war.
Irvin Cobb says that the trouble with the Germans is that they are not
"good sports and lack a sense of humor. It is impossible to conceive of
a group of German officers playing football or baseball or cricket and
abiding by the rules of the game. If Barbara Frietchie had said to a
Prussian Stonewall Jackson, 'Shoot, if you must, my gray old head,' he'd
have done it as a matter of course."
CHAPTER VII.
THE SLINKING SUBMARINE.
A VORACIOUS SEA MONSTER--THE RUTHLESS DESTRUCTIVE POLICY OF
GERMANY--STARVATION OF NATIONS THE GOAL--HOW THE SUBMARINES
OPERATE--SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.
Almost the entire story of the world war is written around the
development of the submarine. One can scarcely think of the terrible
conflict without bringing to mind the wonderful "underseas" boat which
has made infamous Germany famous. The truth is that, in so far as
America is concerned, the conflict was precipitated by the ruthless
submarine warfare which Germany waged as part of her plan to starve out
England, France, Belgium--and all nations which opposed her.
The slinking submarine proved an efficient instrument, whose activities
clearly indicated the diabolical intent and purpose of Germany to make
the whole world suffer, if necessary, to the end that she might gain her
point and perpetuate the Hohenzollern dynasty. It was not so much that
her submarines wrought havoc--for death and disaster stalk always with
war--but the methods by which Germany waged their warfare and
disregarded all the rules which had been laid down for the guidance of
civilized countries at war proved conclusively that even the innocent
could expect no quarter from her.
The story of the sinking of the brave ocean steamship Lusitania on May
7, 1915, contains in its brief recital a typical illustration of
Germany's lack of humanitarian instincts. The vessel, torpedoed off the
coast of Ireland, went to the bottom of the ocean, carrying to death
more than 1150 persons, many of them prominent Americans. With an
audaciousness which has no counterpart in the history of civilized
warfare, German agents in the United States had caused advertisements
to be printed in the public press, warning citizens against sailing on
the vessel, and advised that she was in danger of being destroyed.
The world stood aghast and believed it impossible that Germany should
carry out her threat, but they were soon to be disillusioned. Because
the handsome vessel passed through a zone of the seas which the Teuton
war lords declared blockaded, they sent a torpedo from an underseas boat
into her bowels. The horrors of that event are still fresh in the minds
of millions. No such ruthless and wanton destruction of innocent human
beings had been accomplished by a so-called civilization at war.
THE DUTIES OF WAR CAST ASIDE.
Articles of The Hague agreement defining the rights and duties of
nations at war, and which Germany had accepted, were thrust aside and
disregarded by Imperial Germany. The Hohenzollern dynasty was above
rules and regulations. International law and the rights of
non-combatants at sea were as nothing. That all nations had agreed that
the enemy ship must give the captain of the vessel attacked opportunity
to land innocent passengers was forgotten. There had not been a word of
warning.
And Germany, and the adherents of the Imperial Government, expressing
regret that Americans should have been sacrificed, professed deep sorrow
on one hand and on the other shouted with glee. America protested
vigorously, quoting the laws and demanding that Germany recognize
them--not merely that she leave American vessels alone--and give
assurance that no such further acts would be committed.
Contending that the sinking of the ship was justifiable, in the
exigencies of war, Germany ceased for a short time her wanton sinking of
boats without warning. For almost a year her underseas crafts had been
preying upon the small British coasting vessels, and sunk hundreds of
fishing boats, trawlers and steamships. England's mercantile marine was
the object of the Teuton's attacks, and no one had anticipated any
danger to Americans or American interests.
Germany had no reasons for desiring to attack American boats and she
promised to mend her ways. There followed a brief period in which no
vessels were sunk on which were Americans, and then without warning the
campaign against all vessels was renewed. A dozen were sunk on which
were American seamen or non-combatant passengers, none of whom was given
warning or time to land before a torpedo sent the boat to the bottom of
the ocean. Threats on the part of President Wilson to take action
against Germany finally brought another cessation.
GROWING DISTRESS AND AMAZEMENT.
"The sinking of the British passenger steamship Fabala and other German
acts constitute a series of events which the Government of the United
States has observed with growing concern, distress and amazement," said
President Wilson in a note on the submarine warfare. "This Government
cannot admit the adoption of such measures or such a warning of danger
as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of American shipmasters
or American citizens, bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant
ships of belligerent nationality. It must hold the Imperial German
Government to a strict accountability for any infringement of those
rights, international or incidental.
"The objection to their present method of attack lies in the practical
impossibility of employing submarines in the destruction of commerce
without disregarding those rules of fairness, reason, justice and
humanity which all modern opinions regard as imperative.
"American citizens act within their indisputable rights in taking their
ships and traveling wherever their legitimate business calls them upon
the high seas.
"No warning that an unlawful and an inhuman act will be committed can
possibly be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act, or as an
abatement of the responsibility for its commission. * * *
"The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the
United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the performance
of its sacred duty or the inalienable rights of the United States and
its citizens, and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment."
WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION OF VESSELS.
Apparently Germany modified her submarine policy for a period of upward
of a year, or until in February, 1917, when to the astonished world she
threw aside all pretense and declared her intention of destroying any
vessel which attempted to cross or sailed into a zone which she
established along the English coast and around English and French ports.
America's further protests availed not; her citizens, many of them, went
to the bottom of the seas, and some of them suffered almost unbelievable
cruelties or neglect, when the captain of a German sea raider with some
humanitarian instincts permitted these innocent passengers or seamen to
be rescued from the torpedoed vessels on which they were.
Even the Red Cross vessels and Belgian relief ships carrying supplies
and food to the maimed or sick at war and the starving children of
Belgium did not escape the torpedo from the submarine. English hospital
ships were attacked, and men unable to protect themselves were subjected
to danger because the Germans feared that something might be carried on
the boat which would prove valuable to the Allied forces in making war.
Dozens--even hundreds of vessels of all sorts--were sunk from week to
week. Food and supplies for the Allied forces were destroyed, until both
England and France were threatened with starvation.
All this was the work of the submarine.
One smiled twenty-five years ago when he read that highly imaginative
story of Jules Verne, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and
wondered if it would ever be possible for man to create such a marvelous
underseas craft as that which the famous French writer described. Today
the imaginative detail of the submarine which the novelist described has
been crystallized, and the world has learned that dreams sometimes come
true.
Marvelous things have been developed by the war which is involving the
peace and security of the world, but no single device has had such an
effect upon the warfare and upon the methods of waging it as the
diabolical submarine, which, like an assassin in the night, sneaks upon
the great ships along the water highways of the world and sends them
with their human freight to the bottom of the ocean.
TORPEDO'S DEADLY WORK.
A giant cigar-shaped missile, whose nose is pointed with guncotton and
filled with high explosives--and which the world knows as the
torpedo--launches forth from the submarine, and speeding under the drive
of a propeller at the stern steers its way into the side of the
battleship or great steamship. The torpedo plunges into the bowels of
the vessel. There is a tremendous explosion, and the water-tight
compartments of the vessel are torn open; the boat fills, and the pride
of the seas is no more.
Had the vessel's master and her crew any warning? No; unless the
vigilant officer on the bridge should note a thin pole with a hooked end
projecting above the surface of the ocean some miles away, and turning
his glasses upon it discover that it is the "eye" of a submarine--the
periscope--which is protruding above the surface. Then he may turn his
larger vessel and ram the submarine, or change the course of his craft
so that the torpedo launched by the submarine will miss its mark, or
perhaps expert gunners may turn the muzzles of their rapid-fire guns
upon the underseas craft and riddle it before it can get far enough
below the surface of the water to make the attack upon it futile.
EFFICIENCY OF THE SUBMARINE.
The enormous inroads on the world's shipping made by German submarines
during the war shows the efficiency of this diabolical device. In the
first two years and a half of the war statistics were compiled to show
that more than 10 per cent of the world's merchant marine was destroyed
by Germany's underseas craft of the U-boat type. Incidentally, the name
U-boat as applied to submarines developed because Germany, instead of
naming these slinking boats, as is the custom with surface-cruising
vessels, painted upon the conning tower or nose of the craft the letter
U, representing the word "underseas," coupled with the numeral denoting
the number of the boat. Thus those who sail the ocean highways came to
recognize the fact that a conning tower or low, sharp-nosed craft
bearing the mystic characters U-9 was a German underseas boat No. 9.
The statistical records at the end of April, 1917, showed that nearly
3000 vessels of almost 5,000,000 gross tons were destroyed by the
U-boats in the war. More than half of the vessels sunk belonged to
England. Norway and France were the next greatest sufferers from the
submarine warfare. In one week after Germany announced her intention to
give no quarter, but to sink any vessel which came within the range of
the U-boat torpedoes, the toll of ships lost was more than 400,000 tons.
At the beginning of the war the submarine was to all intents and
purposes a novelty--a boat of recognized possibilities, but existing
very largely in the experimental stage. Its use was very largely ignored
by naval men, although it was conceded that when properly developed it
would prove a wonderful agency of destruction. The proud commanders of
the great battleships, with their 10, 12 and 14 inch guns, which sent
great shells miles across the ocean, looked down upon the little
underseas boat, and applied to it the sobriquet of "tin sardine."
But the "tin sardine" has grown up, and the commander of the monster war
vessel is at the mercy of the little craft which he ridiculed. A short
time ago Holland, the American inventor of the modern submarine, died of
a broken heart. His type was necessarily an experimental one. He built
five boats before he was able to sell one to the United States
Government, and this latter one, after being bought by a junk dealer,
who intended to break it up for its metals, was finally rescued from
such an inglorious end by the city of New York, which has placed it in
her municipal museum.
PRINCIPLE OF THE SUBMARINE.
Germany has developed the highest type of submarines, which she has used
to the fullest advantage. The principle of the submarine is that of a
floating bottle. An empty bottle, as every one knows, will float on the
surface, but submerges as soon as it is filled with water. The submarine
has, as part of its constructive features, a number of compartments
which, as they are filled or emptied of water, enables the craft to
submerge or rise.
At the bow and stern, respectively, there are two horizontal rudders,
and as these are manipulated at various angles so the bow points either
upward or downward, and with a steady gliding motion the submarine
slides under or is brought to the surface.
This, in brief, is the story of the submarine. Its history is another
matter; its radius of action and results achieved one of the marvels of
the ages. A long-sheathed body, the shape of a cigar with the butt end
to the fore, the inside filled with machinery and compactness the order
of the day, might be regarded as a fair description from a physical
standpoint. It has spread terror to all corners of the earth, and,
taken in proportion to its size and steaming radius, may well be said to
be the superior of the super-dreadnought.
The manner in which the submarine is operated is difficult to describe.
It leads a sort of dual existence. When cruising along the surface
"awash," it is propelled like a motorboat, the power being provided by a
gasoline engine; but when it dives or submerges it is operated
underwater by electric motors, and the steering, pumping, handling,
loading and firing of the torpedoes is done pneumatically and
electrically. The interior of the submarine is a marvel of mechanical
complexity and scientific detail. There are gauges to show the water
pressure, to indicate the speed, to show the depth; sensitive devices by
which the commander can tell of the approach of vessels; wheels, cranks,
levers and instruments which are used in driving and controlling this
almost human mechanical agency of the seafighter.
SUBMARINE AN ANOMALY IN WARFARE.
The submarine is the sudden and amazing problem of the naval world.
While naval men assert with confidence that it can never win the mastery
of the seas, in the same breath they will admit that it may easily
prevent the older and better known types of ships from establishing the
mastery that was once theirs. It is an anomaly in warfare.
Many are the tales of horror told by survivors of ships which have been
torpedoed by the undersea boats of the Teutons. The lordly Lusitania, on
board of which were some of the leading lights of literature and some of
the world's wealthy men, was sent to the bottom without the least
warning. Neutral shipping has been devastated, and men, women and
children have been murdered by the hand of the Kaiser, as exemplified in
the lurking submarine.
One of the dastardly tragedies of the war was the sinking of the Lars
Kruse, a ship flying the Danish flag and which had been chartered by
the Belgian Relief Commission. This was sunk in the early part of
February, 1917, and the crew of nineteen men, together with the captain
and other officers, with the exception of the first mate and Axel
Moeller, the first engineer, perished in the bitter cold sea. No warning
was given by the attacking submarine; indeed, no sight of it was had by
the crew. Delivering its torpedo as it lay submerged, it silently stole
away into the night after the murders had been done.
In the maritime court in Copenhagen Mr. Moeller tells of the sinking of
the ship. Dressed as the regulations of the German autocrat demanded,
with the balloon, flag and bunting displayed at each of the mastheads,
together with other marks of identification, the ship was steaming along
in the bright moonlight when she was struck, according to the testimony
of the engineer.
SHIP NOT STRUCK BY A MINE.
The fact that the ship was hit near the fourth hatch alone combats the
theory that she was struck by a mine. In this latter case the mine would
have struck her nearer the bow. The ship was near the mouth of the
English channel when hit. In an instant she started to settle, and the
crew at once lowered away the single lifeboat.
The boat had hardly started over the side, however, before the ship
lurched, and with a mighty heave went down stern first. She seemed to
turn a back somersault, according to the engineer, and because of the
fact that the lifeboat was not clear it was dragged under. The men
succeeded in cutting the ropes, however, and the lifeboat came to the
surface, although bottom side up. Engineer Moeller was struck on the
head as the boat came to the surface, but, although he was momentarily
stunned, the icy water quickly revived him.
Striking out for the lifeboat, the engineer soon had a tight grip on her
side. A man struggling in the water grasped his wrist, but by a quick
movement he wrenched himself free, and then, climbing upon the boat,
reached out and caught the man by the hand. Then began a slow struggle
to get him aboard, but the men were unequal to the task, and the man in
the water sank. Part of the skin and flesh of his hand remained in the
fingers of Moeller, showing the desperation with which he had clung to
the man's hand.
Three other men, who were fast becoming exhausted, were assisted upon
the boat, where they lay sprawled across its bottom. Four others were in
the water, making a total of seven who were alive.
Water and air were freezing cold, and Moeller, who was in the water,
together with three others, held to the gunwales with stiffened fingers.
Within the hour one of the sailors gave up the struggle, and with a
farewell to the others slid quietly into the depths.
PASSENGERS' AGONIZING SUFFERINGS.
Finally Moeller climbed upon the upturned boat, where he lay listening
to the shrieks of his companions. He said that their cries were most
pitiful. The cabin boy was the next victim. He cried pitifully for a
time, but finally became silent and slid into the water. One after
another, the men died of exposure and slipped into the peaceful sea.
After a time the only persons remaining, besides the third mate, were
the two who had thrown themselves across the bottom of the boat. Finally
one of them gave up the struggle, and the other, in an effort to combat
the cold, pulled the clothes from his dead body and wrapped them about
himself. The boat settled a little, and finally both were corpses, lying
with feet and hands dipping into the sea. The engineer said that he did
not have the heart to push their bodies into the water, although he knew
they were dead.
Finally the third mate was the only other man alive. The clothes of the
engineer were frozen fast to his body, and he felt that he was dying of
cold. The third mate started to get a sort of bluish black from the
cold, and with a gasping cry he attempted to sit up straight. Then
reason left him, and for a couple of hours he shouted and shrieked, and,
as the sun began to streak the sky and dawn brought slight comfort, the
demented man raved and swore.
Then a flash of reason seemed to return to him and he spoke to Moeller.
"I'm going," he said. "Give my love to my wife."
The man had been married just before starting on this ill-fated voyage.
With this farewell message on his lips he died. When Moeller returned to
his home he found that it was impossible to deliver the message to the
wife of the dead man, because of the fact that worry had driven her
insane.
TROUSERS USED AS SIGNAL.
Shortly after the death of his companion Moeller saw the smoke of a
steamer on the horizon. Summoning all his strength, he tore the trousers
from the limbs of one of the dead men, and, using them as a means of
signaling, swung them about his head to attract attention. As the
engineer made every effort to attract the attention of those aboard the
steamship, he saw a sneaking submarine slowly edging toward her. This
made him shout all the louder, thinking thereby to warn the captain of
the ship of his danger. His efforts were vain, however, and in a short
time the ship had gone to the bottom and the crew was adrift in the
lifeboats. The sunken ship proved to be a Russian steamer.
In his efforts to attract the attention of the intended victim of the
U-boat, the drifting man had attracted the attention of the captain of
the submarine, and it was this boat to which his cold-stiffened body was
hauled a few minutes later. It was a time before his numb body could be
thawed out.
Seeming to know from which ship he had been cast off, the engineer was
closely questioned by the captain of the submarine. As the captain
talked he made motions, as though to shut out from before his eyes a
horrible sight. He told Moeller afterwards that the most horrible sight
he had ever seen was the overturned boat with the two corpses laying on
it, and the lone man signaling for help. The victim was black from cold,
and his legs were rubbed by members of the crew. Port wine was given
him, and later food and coffee.
Then the captain continued his questioning. He knew the name of the boat
on which Moeller had been engineer, and from his intimate knowledge of
the sinking of her, the engineer felt sure it was his submarine that had
done the work.
SUBMARINE TOWS RUSSIAN SHIP.
Turning his attention to the lifeboats of the Russian ship which he had
just torpedoed, the captain of the submarine promised to tow them to the
French coast. He had been towing them but two hours, however, when he
came below and told Moeller that he had sighted a French destroyer, and
that he would have to make his escape. He gave the engineer his choice
of staying on the submarine, in which case it would be fourteen days
before he touched port, after which he was promised his freedom, or the
privilege of getting aboard one of the lifeboats, and taking his chances
of rescue by the destroyer.
Electing to take his chances in the lifeboat, Moeller was fitted out
with new clothing, the outfit being topped off with a fur-lined
overcoat. It turned out, however, that the captain had taken this
clothing from the stores of the Russian steamer before sinking her, and
the engineer learned when he got into the lifeboat that he was wearing
the greatcoat of one of the shivering Russians.
Just before submerging the U-boat set off a couple of red-light bombs,
for the purpose of attracting the attention of the crew of the
destroyer, and submerged. The drifters were picked up by the destroyer,
which steamed for France. The captain of the U-boat had promised Moeller
that he would not attack the destroyer, although he had been trailing
her for two weeks. The U-boat was sunk before she reached port, and all
perished.
An American importer who, because of his German name and the intimate
relations he enjoyed with certain important men in Berlin, had been
taken to the hearts of some of the leaders, became a factor in
pro-German activities in Cuba. He was taken into the confidences of many
of the officials and learned the plans of the Tirpitz group.
Deciding that his allegiance was American, he returned to the United
States. In his possession were many of the inner secrets of the German
Government, and these were given to the officials in Washington. His
information with reference to the submarine has been of great value to
the government.
For the sake of convenience we will call the man Johann Schmidt. This is
his story:
THE U-BOAT TYPE OF SUBMERSIBLE.
Germany's most successful and highly developed class of submarine has
been, of course, the U-boat type of submersible. These are the terrors
of the sea which have succeeded in crossing the Atlantic, and have been
developed both as the fighting and as the commercial U-boat.
Herr Schmidt reported that Germany was constructing submarines 25 per
cent larger than anything the United States had ever seen or heard of.
His information was to the effect that Germany had a building capacity
for ten submarines a week. The ability to produce these boats with such
rapidity is due to the process of standardization--the practice of
modern efficiency which has made it possible for American factories to
turn out such big quantities of automobiles in a limited period.
All parts of the German U-boats are made in standard sizes and from the
same original pattern. Consequently, these parts are turned out by
machinery in replica, and the building of the finished boats is merely a
matter of assembling them at points to which the various parts have been
shipped. The Diesel oil engine, which is regarded as the ideal
power-producing engine for submarines, has been developed to its highest
state of efficiency by Germany, and is made at the famous Krupp gun
works, the great engine works in Augsburg, Emden and Nuremburg, and
other less well-known places in Germany.
It has been estimated that Germany has anywhere from 250 to 500
submarines, and it is said that the aim is to produce 1000 of these
craft, to absolutely destroy the commerce of the seas and starve into
submission England and France.
HOW SUBMARINES WORK.
According to Herr Schmidt, the submarines work in groups of four.
Because of the limited capacity of the boats for carrying provisions,
supplies and fuel, it is necessary for them to have supply bases, to
which they can return and secure torpedoes. In operation each group
consists of four submarines, traveling along in a diamond-shaped
formation, one in front, one on either flank and one in rear. Eight
miles separate the boats. The leading submarine carries the extra
gasoline and supplies and acts as a scoutship; she sights a vessel,
reports its speed and direction and then submerges--her task is done.
The two torpedo carriers on either flank immediately change their
courses so as to converge on the prey, and they arrive one on either
side of her--they get her in between them. The boat in the rear keeps
them informed as to the doomed ship's progress, and submerges at the
last moment. She carries the extra crews for the fighting pair. The
U-boats are fairly well protected against the onslaught of the light
torpedo-boat destroyers and chasers, because the decks are protected by
several feet of water at almost all times, while the commanding tower is
covered with from two to three inches of the best steel armor plate.
It is related that at the outset of the U-boat menace, England ordered
its commanding officers to ram the U-boats on sight. The length to which
the Germans will go in an effort to win is illustrated by the fact that,
in consequence of this order, a Von Tirpitz council presented this
answer: Attacking submarines were equipped with explosive mines
containing 300 to 400 pounds of nitroglycerin or guncotton. To the top
of this mine was fastened a fake periscope. This devilish device was
attached to the submarine by a light cable, and towed along the surface
of the water 1000 feet or more behind the submarine. The result that
would follow any attempt on the part of a commander to run down one of
these decoys is readily imagined.
DESCRIPTION OF A PERISCOPE.
The periscope is distinctly a submarine device which is worthy of brief
description. It is, in effect, a long tube, with an elbow joint at the
top and a similar one at the bottom. At the elbow joints at both ends
are arranged reflectors. The reflector in the upper end catches the
object which comes within the range of vision, and reflects the image
down the tube to the mirror at the lower elbow, where the pilot sees it.
The principle of the periscope is the same as that of the "busybody,"
familiar to householders, and which is placed on the sill of an upper
window, so that a person inside the house may see who is at the front
door.
The Germans have recently devised a new form of periscope, designed to
make the device invisible to the lookout of approaching boats. This
device consists of two mirrors, put together like a "Y" lying on its
side, the wide part in front. These skim through the waves and converge
the image upon the low periscope's lens, which shoots the light down the
tube to the receiving apparatus below. When looked at from a distance
the mirrors reflect the surface of the sea, so that a lookout sees
nothing but the waves as they are reflected in the mirror.
The Germans use the bottom of the sea as regular "land" for their supply
bases, and when the submarines go to the surface it is precisely like an
aeroplane mounting the air. The submarine fleet boasts also of "mother
boats." They lie on the bottom of the ocean, in designated places, and
rise at night to hand out their supplies. Crews are changed and tired
men go back to the bottom to rest up, while fresher comrades take their
places.
So, too, the submarine, with its ability to rest on the bottom of the
sea, has become an efficient boat for mine laying. The mine layers work
from the undersea boats without fear of disturbance, the divers walking
out from the submarines to the floor of the sea without being seen or
without ever coming to the surface.
TALES OF REMARKABLE EXPLOITS.
American citizens landed from vessels sunk by German submarines tell
remarkable tales of the strenuous exploits of the U-boats. In one case
three undersea boats appeared simultaneously alongside the ship, one
being a submarine cruiser, 800 feet long, and the others old-fashioned
submarines, with a length of about 120 feet.
In another case a German submarine wore an elaborate disguise of a
fishing boat. This submarine carried a gun which had a range of nearly
five miles.
In at least two cases the crews of vessels sunk by submarines were
rescued from open boats by passing ships, only to suffer a repetition of
disaster when the ship on which they had taken refuge fell prey to an
underwater boat.
A seaman from Pensacola, who was a member of the crew of a Swedish
sailing vessel, said:
"We were almost within sight of land late in the afternoon when we
observed a Norwegian sailing vessel in an encounter with a submarine
eight miles away. Apprehending that our turn would come next, we
prepared a lifeboat. A 300-foot submarine came up to us in due course
and fired three warning shots from its heavy gun.
"We pulled our boat over to the lifeboat from the Norwegian ship
previously sunk, and a dozen hours later were picked up by a British
steamer. We had only a brief stay on the British boat, as she was
torpedoed the same morning. After a few hours in the boats we were found
by a British patrol and landed."
A Baltimore seaman from a Danish sailing vessel said:
THE SHIP ABANDONED.
"We abandoned ship in response to three shots from a submarine.
Thereupon the submarine fired twenty-two shots into the hull of the
ship, sinking her. We tried to speak with the submarine commander, but
he told us he was in a hurry, as he had to attend to a Norwegian bark
which was waiting a short distance off.
"We pulled for the nearest land, and all our twenty-five men got ashore
safe, although both lifeboats were badly smashed up in the surf as we
were beaching them."
A Philadelphian described the manner in which his steamer escaped being
sunk.
"We were attacked by a submarine disguised as a fishing vessel," he
said. "She opened fire on us at five miles, sending fifteen shots at us,
and smashing our wireless. She pursued us for an hour. We did not use
our gun. Finally a British patrol boat appeared. The submarine
submerged, disguise and all, presenting a ludicrous sight as the
carefully prepared equipment simulating a fishing boat sank beneath the
waves."
The captain of an American sailing ship which was sunk said:
"Submarines are lying along the sea lanes in regular nests. They keep
well under the water most of the time, coming up now and then for
periscopic observations, or on hearing the approach of merchant craft,
which often can be identified readily by the sound of the engines. By
thus conserving fuel the submarines are able to remain away from their
base a long time, and also they find means of renewing their stores from
ships which they sink.
"The U-boat which sank us had been out for six weeks. She had one
British captain on board. She renewed all her supplies from our boat and
took all the nautical instruments. The submarine gave us a sharp signal
to halt, with a shell from a distance of two miles. It was good
marksmanship. The shot hit the ship squarely, but caused no casualties.
We stopped and took to the boats. The submarine came up in leisurely
fashion, sank the ship with bombs and passed the time of day with our
boats. She had a crew of thirty-seven, and was 250 feet long."
"We were picked up by a Norwegian sailing vessel, on which we spent six
days. She was then attacked by a 120-foot submarine. We all took to the
Norwegian's boats. The submarine commander declined to look at the
Norwegian captain's papers. We had another twenty-four hours in open
boats, and then were picked up by a British patrol and landed."
CHAPTER VIII.
THWARTING THE U-BOAT.
NETS TO ENTANGLE THE SEA SHARKS OF WAR--"CHASERS" OR "SKIMMING-DISH"
BOATS--"BLIMPS" AND SEAPLANES--HUNTING THE SUBMARINE WITH "LANCE," BOMB
AND GUN--A SAILOR'S DESCRIPTION.
The advantage which Germany gained by the development of what has been
termed the super-submarine placed the other nations where it became
absolutely necessary for them to concentrate their energies in an effort
to counteract the devastation which the U-boats brought upon the seas.
England tried first to protect the English channel and many of its ports
with mines, floating bombs and submarine nets, and while the latter
served as barriers which prevented the submarines penetrating into some
of the important waters and harbors, they could act merely in a
protective sense.
The submarine net is a specially devised net with heavy iron or wire
meshes, similar to a fishing net. These nets--miles in length--were born
of the nets originally devised to sweep harbors clear of mines. They are
carried between two boats described as trawlers, which are a form of
sea-going tug with powerful engines, that can draw a heavy load. A heavy
cable runs from trawler to trawler, and from this the chain net is
suspended in the water. It is heavily weighted at the bottom so as to
hold it in a perpendicular position. The trawlers steaming along, side
by side, sweep up with the net anything which may be placed in the water
for the purpose of blowing up or injuring vessels.
The submarine nets in some places have been anchored to form a regular
barrier against the passage of submarine boats, and in this way were
effective, but their use could in no way restrict the underseas boats in
their work upon the open seas.
The most effective plan of overcoming the dire consequences of the
U-boat warfare was found, therefore, to lie in the use of submarine
chasers and airships, the two operating together in conjunction with the
battleships, cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers.
The submarine chaser is a light-draught, high-powered, skimming-dish
type of husky motorboat, mounting rapid-fire, 3 or 4-inch guns. In order
to prove effective against the submarine it is necessary to have many of
these boats, and it is a matter of particular interest that the
marvelous resources of the United States at the time of her entrance
into the war enabled her to immediately begin a campaign for the
construction of chasers, which would be able to guard the seas in the
channels of traffic and along the ports into which the submarine might
attempt to sneak.
NO EXPERT NAVAL KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.
The operation of the chaser does not require the degree of technical
skill and knowledge of naval strategy required in the handling of ships
of the naval type. A fleet of chasers is manned largely by naval
reserves, who have a certain amount of training, but who are neither
navigators nor experts in naval affairs. The operations are, however,
directed by the naval authorities.
The submarine chaser is effective because it draws very little water,
has high speed, can be quickly turned and diverted from its course and
does not present any great depth of hull at which the submarine can fire
a torpedo. It would be possible for a torpedo to pass under a chaser
without hitting it--if the submarine cared to waste such an expensive
weapon on so small an adversary. When the submarine attempts to come to
the surface and use the rapid-fire gun with which she is armed she is at
a disadvantage, because it takes her several minutes to emerge.
Additional time is required to swing the gun up through its automatic
hatch while the men scramble to the deck to man it.
The chaser, with a speed of approximately 35 to 40 miles an hour, will
travel somewhere between a mile and a half to two miles in this period.
Its gun has been ready from the start, and the chaser has had half a
dozen shots or so with only a single hit needed to put the submarine out
of commission. Even if the submarine is at the surface and has her gun
mounted ready for action, she is at a disadvantage with the chaser. The
chaser, taking advantage of her speed and small size, goes skimming
across the water at the rate of 40 miles an hour, and it takes a mighty
fine gunner to be able to hit a small craft, going in a zigzag course
over the water at such speed.
The chaser may continue to circle the submarine awaiting her opportunity
which will of necessity come when the U-boat attempts to submerge. The
submarine must go through the regular form of running back her gun, and
battening down the water-tight hatches, before she can submerge, and the
latter process again takes several minutes. Therefore while the
submarine is preparing to dip, the chaser can run upon her and let loose
the fire from its rapid-fire gun.
A POOR SURFACE FIGHTER.
The submarine, by very virtue of the qualities which make it a good
submarine, is a poor boat for surface fighting. It can carry no very
heavy armament, and it is not heavily armored. The problem of stowing
away all the heavy machinery, supplies, torpedoes and devices necessary
for her operations and maneuvering has presented about all the
difficulties the constructors have been able to handle. The highest
speed of the submarine is not in excess of 20 miles an hour. The
submarine must be light and easy to handle. It gains in steadiness and
certainty of operation with increased size, but it loses in capacity for
quick and delicate maneuvering.
In addition the submarine has what is termed a strategic vulnerability.
A shot which might mean nothing more serious than a hole in the side to
a surface boat would end the submarine's usefulness for underseas work
and convert her into a helpless hulk of surface craft.
The submarine is an easy quarry for a chaser, for even when submerged
and moving along, the U-boat creates a distinct wave on the surface of
the water which can be followed by the chaser. The little boats are just
what their name implies--chasers--and besides having the qualities
already described they may conceal themselves behind large steamers, and
when the submarine in preparing to launch a torpedo makes its presence
known the chaser may speed from its hiding place and drive the underseas
craft away, even if it does not succeed in injuring it.
OPERATING IN CONNECTION WITH AN AEROPLANE.
The chasers also have a special facility of operation in connection with
the aeroplane or seaplane, principally because of their high speed; and
next to the chaser the aeroplane is one of the submarine's worst
enemies. Used in conjunction with the regular torpedo boat destroyers of
the navy, the chaser and the aeroplane promise in future wars to
minimize the effectiveness of the underseas craft. This is proven by the
fact that immediately after the United States naval forces joined those
of the Allies in European waters, the disasters resultant upon submarine
attacks were greatly reduced. The speedy destroyers, while not actually
sinking many submarines, by their vigilance prevented the submarine from
operating.
Large types of the chasers ordered in this country by the Russian
Government are 72 feet long by 11 feet 3 inches wide and draw 3 feet 3
inches of water. Each boat carries three of the 8-cylinder 6-3/4 x 7-3/4
Duesenberg, 350 to 400 horsepower motors. The boats carry an 18-inch
torpedo tube amidships and a 47-millimetre rapid-fire gun on the forward
deck. They are controlled from the bridge deck with a sheltered cabin
for the quartermaster, with controls from either the shelter or bridge
deck. They have a guaranteed speed of twenty-eight knots.
Deck arrangements consist of the following: A hatch to the fo'castle,
followed by; the emplacement for the rapid-fire gun. Following this is
the steering shelter containing duplicate controls, &c., for the engine
room and for the steering. Immediately aft of the steering shelter is
the bridge deck, located on top of the engine room trunk house. The
entire after half of the vessel is a clear sweep of deck with the
exception of a booby hatch to crews' quarters well aft.
The boats are arranged for wireless with foremast and jigger mast. Rail
stanchions in the way of the torpedo tube are hinged down, giving clear
sweep to the tube for firing purposes.
PROVISION FOR OFFICERS AND CREW.
Below decks ample space has been provided for the crew and officers. The
forepeak is arranged for chain lockers and bosun's gear lockers,
followed by ship's galley, which has two pipe berths. Next to the galley
is located the officers' cabin and wireless room, which is entered by a
hatch from the steering shelter. This cabin accommodates two officers
and includes lavatory, officers' desks, wireless desk and folding mess
table.
Next aft is the machinery space, in which are located the three eight
cylinder Duesenberg motors, a three k.w. universal lighting set, the
necessary oil tanks, batteries and a work bench. The next compartment
contains fuel tanks, with 1300 gallons capacity. Aft of this compartment
is located the crew's quarters, berthing eight men, with lavatory
attached. The hull is divided into six water-tight compartments by steel
bulkheads.
The hull is of wooden construction, as developed for this service by the
builders.
The 72-footers develop a speed of twenty-eight knots and have a cruising
radius exceeding 1200 miles. The design of the hull is the concave
bottom, square bilge type, developed for this particular service. It
furnishes a steady gun platform, which, with the necessary speed, is
the most vital feature of a submarine chaser.
The demand for speed and stability was borne out by the experience of
the Russian and Italian navies in their active work and no consideration
at all is given propositions from these two countries which do not range
well about twenty-five knots.
Exceptional success was attained by the Russian Black Sea and by the
Italian high speed fleets in actual use and their demand for exceptional
speed was based on experience.
It is a well known fact that the Russian government was successful in
patrolling its shores and in protecting its harbors and shipping. The
Italian government also was exceptionally successful in maintaining its
mercantile fleet in comparative safety and in protecting its harbors
against the offensive work of enemy submarines. The entire Italian fleet
of submarine chasers consists of high speed, high powered motor patrol
boats, most of which were equipped with American made motors.
CATALOGUED AS "PATROL BOATS."
In a general way the "chasers" are catalogued in naval circles as
"patrol boats." England has thousands of them, ranging from motorboats
to naval auxiliaries, raking the English Channel, the North Sea and the
waters all about the British Isles. As a rule the boats work in groups
of five or six, one boat serving as a flagship--and often there is a
"blimp" attached to the fleet. The armament of these small vessels is
distinctive. Each carries, besides a deck gun, a "depth charge," half a
dozen lance bombs and arms for each member of the crew. The deck gun
fires a shell that weighs about thirteen pounds.
The "depth charge" is a submarine bomb, so constructed that it is
discharged at any determined depth of water when thrown overboard. If
the water is 100 feet deep the bomb will explode at that depth. The
bombs are used to drop in places where the submarine has been located
or is expected of lurking in the bottom of the sea. While the exploding
bomb may not strike the underseas boat it will create havoc on board the
underwater craft if discharged in close proximity, the extra water
pressure exerted causing disarrangement of the delicate mechanism, if
not rendering the boat unfit for service.
Some of the patrol boats of the English have been armed with "lance
bombs." These are bombs of highly explosive character which are fastened
to the end of a long pole or staff. They are used just as a harpoon is
used when by chance a submarine may emerge from the water in too close
proximity to the chaser. It is not of record that any U-boats have been
sunk with these strange javelins, but official reports show that the
boats are armed with them for emergencies.
CHASER TROUBLES THE SUBMARINE.
What with dragging bombs through the water, and setting traps and nests
for the submarines, the chasers make great trouble for the underseas
craft, but the ingenious Germans are constantly on the alert, and it has
been proved that in one or two instances at least the submarines cut
their way through the heavy chain nets which were set to catch them near
Havre. It was said that the submarine was provided with steel knives or
wire cutters, and shears operated by electricity or pneumatic pressure,
which enabled the boat to cut its way through the barrier of chains and
wires.
As a means of visualizing the operations of the "chaser" and giving some
idea of the excitement which attends the attempt to run down the
underseas craft, the following description by an English sailor is
interesting. The chase occurred off the Isle of Wight:
"Offshore a short distance was a patrol boat lying very low and flying
distress signals. We had run over to her and learned that about an hour
before the periscope of a submarine had been stuck up not far from her,
then the craft had submerged, appeared again about a mile away, and
fired four shots, which let in enough water slowly to sink the patrol,
which before the war had been nothing but a dirty little trawler.
"Finding the crew of the patrol could take care of themselves in their
small boats and learning that the submarine had run over to the
westward, where we knew chain net traps to be laid, we circled in that
direction.
"Our powerful motors thrummed evenly. The water seemed to part ahead of
us, and the gunners squinted along the surface, looking for the glimpse
of a periscope or the first sign of the hull of the U-boat if she should
be proceeding awash.
CREW THRILLED WITH JOY.
"Suddenly, off to the west, we made out her periscope. Intense joy
thrilled our little crew. She was inshore from us. She was between our
circular course and the chain nets--in the trap. The periscope we had
seen might be a dummy, for a submarine frequently casts loose a phoney
periscope to draw fire, but, at any rate, she must have been between us
and the nets if she cut it loose.
"Presently, probably after a look around, the periscope suddenly
disappeared, and we knew it was a real one with a German U-boat on the
end of it. Like a flock of falcons we were swooping down on the prey.
"Abruptly the lead boat comes to a dead stop and lists heavily to
starboard. Evidently something is wrong. We see men crawl out over the
stern and fish around with boat hooks and poles. Cold as it is, one man
goes overboard and remains under water so long we could not believe he
would come up alive. The boat had fouled the chain nets.
"Circling round in an ever smaller radius, we search the water for a
periscope, a shadow, or the conventional 'streak of dirty grease' or
'line of bubbles.'
"All of us have towing torpedoes out. These are bombs on long cables
which are towed astern and sink to a certain specified depth. If the
cable fouls anything at all, as the boat goes ahead, the bomb pulls up
to it, and, when it bumps, it explodes.
"We are in line. Suddenly there is a crash and a roar just ahead of us.
I am thrown off my feet. Barrels of water splash down into our cockpit
and roll off the decks. The bow lifts itself clean for a second. I think
that the submarine has blown us up. Perhaps I am dead already.
"Then we settle down again, and except for a scared look on the faces of
a couple of men and rather nervous, forced jests on the lips of others,
we are plowing ahead just as before.
"Nothing has happened except the towing torpedo of the boat in front of
us in the line fouled a submerged spar, or a bit of wreckage, and
exploded right under our bow. 'If we had been a few yards closer we
would never have been there any more.'
FOULS A SUBMERGED SPAR.
"As we realized what had happened, our tongues were loosened, and, if
the crew of the boat ahead could have heard what we said about them, we
would have lost their friendship most assuredly.
"Way inshore, after a circling chase of perhaps twenty minutes, the
submarine came up. She was in such shallow water that she probably was
having trouble in operating submerged. She was gone then.
"What followed was very business-like. It illustrates the attitude the
British have come to take toward the submarines because of their
flagrant violations of every form of international law and decency. It
is the attitude which any country, obliged to fight against them, will
assume. To the British mind, submarines must be exterminated, just as
one would exterminate a nest of poisonous vipers, or a nest of hornets.
People ask me how many submarines are being captured now. Very few! Many
are destroyed, but few captured.
"No sooner did the hull of the submarine show itself than we began to
hammer her with our three-inch guns. She opened fire, but her shots went
wild, and, in a few seconds, she disappeared.
"As fast as we could, we ran over to where she had gone down. If the
principles which obtain on land, in the air or in the navy at large,
existed in submarine warfare, we would have gone over to see if we could
rescue any of the wounded, but it was a U-boat and we simply made sure
that there was nothing left of the craft.
"About where she went down, a quantity of gas and air bubbles were
rising, and the dirty patch of oil was once more in evidence. That was a
pretty certain sign the career of one U-boat was at an end, for the sea
must have been pouring into her, and even though all her crew did not
drown, once the salt water reached the storage batteries, the chloride
would do the work.
WERE TAKING NO CHANCES.
"But we are taking no chances. We circle round and round the spot and
drop depth bombs--deadly machines. These are powerful explosives which
are set so they will detonate at a certain depth. We first sounded the
bottom and then set our bombs for ten fathoms. Suddenly I hear a cry
from the boat behind us. One of the crew reaches out, grabs the collar
of a man who has just dropped a depth bomb over the stern and yanks him
unceremoniously into the cockpit. At a glance I see what has happened.
"The engineer has stalled his motor--just as the bomb was let go. It
sinks slowly, and there is a slight momentum left in the
submarine-chaser. We hold our breath and watch in suspense, expecting
any second to see our comrades hurled into the air among a mushroom of
water and splinters.
"There is no way to help them. Suddenly there is a muffled roar, a
column of water rises to what seems a hundred feet, and falls back,
drenching every one who is near it. But our comrades are unhurt. The
momentum of their boat has carried them just far enough to save them
from being blown to atoms. That is the second narrow escape for our
little squadron in this chase after a single submarine.
"But our work is done. There is no doubt now about the fate of the
U-boat. It is not necessary for one of the depth bombs actually to come
in contact with the submerged craft to destroy it. When under water, a
submarine's rigidity is multiplied. Its elasticity is next to nothing.
An explosion as powerful as that of a depth bomb near it, is almost
certain to cripple it if not destroy it. It is the same principle as
that which kills fish in a pond when dynamite is exploded beneath the
surface of the water. The shock is sufficient to kill the men in the
U-boat, and so we glide along homeward, secure in the knowledge that
even if our gunfire did not finish the enemy, the bombs have done the
work. On the surface, we notice swarms of dead fish."
THE HAWK-EYED AEROPLANE.
The last wrinkle developed for submarine hunting was the aeroplane. Like
a fish-hawk it can see its prey beneath the water by flying high in air.
Another step just a bit in advance of aeroplane scouting for submarines
is the use of a small dirigible for the same purpose. But the cleverest
development of the aeroplane-submarine idea involved the use of
seaplanes for the purpose of launching submarine torpedoes at enemy
ships.
Here's how this is practiced. As most folks know, the seaplane differs
from the land-flying craft in that it rides on floats instead of wheels.
These floats permit the seaplane to come to rest on the waves, and to
launch itself again. Between these floats, which resemble a pair of
broad home-made sleds, may be slung a torpedo. The same type of missile,
this, that is used by the submarine and the destroyer--a long,
cigar-shaped cylinder, operated by compressed air driving a propeller,
and equipped with a warhead filled with guncotton. The torpedo is held
by slings, delicately adjusted so that they can be released in an
instant.
The great seaplane, swinging the missile of death between its giant
floats, climbs the skies in search of an enemy ship. From a distance of
miles, perhaps, the seaplane looks like a gull. To the observer in the
plane, however, sweeping the horizon with his binoculars, a ship is
plainly and easily seen.
NOT TO BE OUT-DISTANCED.
Off in the distance is spied a ship suspected of being an enemy
transport. It isn't hard to determine--the ship cannot steam away from
them, no matter how swift its engines. A seaplane can go so fast that it
makes the fastest torpedo boat destroyer look as if it were standing
still. The attacked transport may try to bring its anti-aircraft guns to
bear, if luckily it is equipped with them. Failing this, the soldiers
will man the decks with their rifles ready. Then there is a duel of
skill and daring between the men on the cruiser and the lone fighters in
the seaplane.
The seaplane must swoop sufficiently close to the water to release the
torpedo and let it drop without damage. And this must be done from a
sufficient distance to safeguard the seaplane from the vessel's guns.
The superior speed and mobility of the seaplane gives it a great
advantage over the ship attacked.
Another of the weapons or instruments of warfare devised largely for use
in destroying the evil submarine is the "blimp." This is nothing more
nor less than a small dirigible balloon, hundreds of which the United
States government started to build when it entered the war.
The blimp is an aerial sea-scout. Its principal employment is for
observation. It is a watcher of enemy movements on the water. But it is
also serviceable for attack, and especially for assailing submarines.
The British used blimps for the latter purpose, and to great advantage.
The dirigible sausage-balloon, when a submarine is descried, can hover
over it (as an aeroplane cannot), remaining as nearly stationary as may
be desired, and waiting for an opportunity to drop a bomb with accurate
aim.
If the submarine be under water, and its presence betrayed by the
peculiar surface-ripple that marks its wake, a bomb with a delay-action
fuse can be dropped upon it, the projectile not exploding until it
reaches a depth of fifty feet or so. In case the first bomb does not
score a hit, there are others to follow, with better luck perhaps.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE "BLIMP."
Thus, it will be seen that the blimp is an important auxiliary of the
flying-machine in the pursuit of the submarines. Both together, in this
exciting sport, supplement the swift power-boats called
"submarine-chasers."
For some time the Navy Department has trained enlisted men and officers
for this work, chiefly at a Gulf port, where a school--it is no war
secret--of aviation and ballooning has been maintained. Six officers and
40 men are required for each coast station.
The Navy Department adopted for the blimp a standardized pattern, with
definite published specifications, in accordance with which contractors
turned them out in numbers. It is a sausage-shaped balloon 160 feet
long, with a great diameter of 31-1/2 feet, and containing, when
inflated, 77,000 cubic feet of hydrogen gas.
The fabric of the "envelope"--that is to say, of the gas-bag--is coated
both outside and inside with rubber. It is required that the balloon
shall not lose more than 1 per cent of its gas-content in 24 hours. When
inflated it must be able to carry (including its own weight) a total of
5275 pounds.
If the "Zeppelin" be excepted, the blimp is the most highly-developed
and scientific heavier-than-air flying machine ever devised. It has a
cruising speed of 35 miles an hour, but at a pinch can travel ten miles
an hour faster. At the "cruising" rate, it carries enough gasoline to
keep going for sixteen hours; at 45 miles, its load of "petrol" will
suffice for ten hours.
Even the best war balloons of a few years ago were at the mercy of the
winds. It is not so with the blimp. Barring storms, it is able to
navigate the air as it wishes. It can rise safely to an altitude of a
mile and a half. To furnish fuel for its engine of 100 horsepower it
carries, in two tanks, 100 gallons of gasoline.
DESCRIPTION OF THE "BLIMP."
In effect, the blimp is a combination of balloon and aeroplane. Like the
latter, it is provided with "skids" (resembling sled runners and made of
ash wood), or sometimes with bicycle wheels, for safe landing on terra
firma. When designed for sea scouting, floats--cylinders of waterproof
fabric stuffed with vegetable fibre--are attached to the skids, or to
the wheels, so that the airship, in calm weather, may be able to rest,
like a sea bird, on the waves, if desired.
The blimp's balloon envelope must contain two smaller balloons, together
holding 19,250 feet of hydrogen gas. The idea, of course, is that if
anything happens to the major balloon--puncturing by gunfire or by other
mishap--the "balloonets" inside of it will keep the machine afloat.
The wingless aeroplane is suspended from the balloon by cables of
galvanized wire. There is a special arrangement by which the
"pilot"--the man who steers and operates the airship--can at any time
measure the pressure of hydrogen in the balloon, thus knowing what he
has to count on in the way of carrying power.
The front part of the blimp's car is occupied by the engine and
radiator, behind which is a bulkhead of sheet steel. In the rear of this
bulkhead sits the pilot, and behind him the "observer," who makes
sketches and takes notes of anything important that he sees. Behind the
observer are the tanks for fuel oil and 300 gallons of water ballast.
The body of the car is covered with aeroplane linen, save for the
engine, which is sheathed with sheet aluminum.
In order to hold whatever position in the air may be desired, the blimp
is equipped with two horizontal fins and three vertical fins. Not every
blimp, that is to say, but the pattern approved and required of
contractors by the Navy Department. These fins are made of wood and
light steel tubing, reinforced with wire, covered with aeroplane linen
rubber painted and finished with varnish.
THE "BLIMP" WELL EQUIPPED.
There are also two horizontal rudders and two vertical rudders, for
steering up and down or sidewise. They work on ball bearings. A blimp,
one should understand, is a fish in the ocean of air, a swimmer--just as
the aeroplane is a flyer, like the bird.
The blimp's "car" carries an electric storage battery to furnish lights.
The same battery energizes a searchlight for night scouting. A wireless
apparatus, for transmitting information to the shore station, is part of
the equipment.
The blimp, as already stated, is a sea scout. It is meant to be operated
from a base on shore--which base is in constant communication by
telegraph and wireless with the great radio stations that are strung all
along our coasts at intervals of 200 miles. These stations, in turn, are
in communication with the huge wireless outfit at Arlington (across the
Potomac from Washington), whose "antennae," uplifted on tall steel
towers, receive instantaneous war news from half the world.
Thus if (just for illustration) a blimp spies a hostile submarine, the
news is instantly transmitted to the Navy Department. The department
orders its "chasers" and warplanes nearest to the scene to go after the
undersea boat. Within a few minutes the pursuit has started, and the
U-boat finds itself in much the same situation as a fox hunted by
hounds. In this case, however, the hounds are in the air, as well as
"quartering" the aqueous terrain.
The United States' blimps are modeled on European patterns. But they are
to have special improvements of their own. To make sure of their
efficiency and structural correctness, each contractor, in offering bids
to furnish them, was required to exhibit a model, exactly like the
sausage balloons he proposed to make, but of toy size--one-thirtieth the
length of the full-sized, completely equipped aerial sea scout.
CHAPTER IX.
THE EYES OF BATTLE.
AEROPLANES AND AIRSHIPS--THEY SPY THE MOVEMENTS OF FORCES ON LAND OR
SEA--LEAD DISASTROUS BOMB ATTACKS--VALUABLE IN "SPOTTING"
SUBMARINES--THE BOMBARDMENT AT MESSINES RIDGE.
Just as the submarine has revolutionized warfare on the seas and
presented new problems for the naval experts to solve, so the aircraft
of the last decade has had its effect upon the operation of land forces.
Probably the aeroplane and the dirigible balloon have had a greater
influence on the conduct of battles and military campaigns as a whole
than any other device utilized in connection with the war.
It is significant, too, that just as America produced the first
submarine, and then failed as a nation to develop it to its highest
state of efficiency for military use, so American inventors were
pioneers in the construction and successful operation of aeroplanes, or
airplanes, which were first developed to their greatest efficiency and
utility by the French and Germans.
Some of the most striking events of the war centre around the use of the
airplanes or dirigibles, and aside from the picturesqueness and
thrilling atmosphere that seem to surround their use, the operator of
the aircraft has proved himself one of the most valuable servants in
modern warfare. He has reduced the proudest cavalry to second place in
the matter of reconnoissance, and has rendered services which have
heretofore been impossible.
The airman sails out over the lines of battle, so far above the earth
when necessary as to be out of range of the most powerful guns, and with
glasses looks down upon the whole country. His machine, whether it be a
dirigible balloon or airplane, is equipped with a wireless telegraph
instrument with which he is able to send brief messages back to his own
line or military headquarters. He can and does mark the changed
positions of the contending forces, note the entrenchments and
reinforcements, follow movements, and last but not least, as was
noticeable in one of the desperate attacks upon the German position in
June, 1917, swoop down upon the enemy, attack the lines and forces with
bombs, and rain bullets upon them from rapid-fire guns.
No longer can the enemy mask its heavy batteries or conceal them beneath
earthen mounds, plant them in corners of the forests or in clumps of
bushes without their being located. The "eyes of the sky," as the planes
are now termed, can spy them out. And when the airman has communicated
to his military commanders the positions of the opposing batteries, he
acts as a director in instructing the friendly gunners in finding the
range and cleaning out the enemy.
THE AIR SCOUT'S USEFULNESS.
The air scout can detect the enemy's lines of communication and raid it
with bomb attacks. Even when the land forces cannot reach the enemy with
gunfire he can rain missiles of all sorts upon them. Sometimes the
airman flies over the enemy lines and drops glittering tinsel or bright
metal devices, which falling to the ground serve as marks for the
artillerymen in finding the range.
Where the cavalry scout or creeping scout of days gone by could never
have proved successful, the airman has easily accomplished his purpose.
He has carried messages from one frontier to another in hours, when it
would have taken days for a scout on horseback or on foot to have
rendered the service, if they could have accomplished it at all. He has
eliminated distance.
Trench warfare developed in the world-war in a way that has never before
been deemed necessary or possible, but the miles of trenches which
conceal the men from the fire of the enemy are plainly visible to the
airmen. And armed with cameras having powerful telescopic lenses they
can photograph the entire scene and send to their own military
headquarters not mere indicated plans of the battle lines, but exact
photographs.
The war has shown conclusively that once the formation of the battle
line has been decided upon it is, in a measure, a fixture. It may be
subject to rearrangement, but this is when the force of battle demands,
or for strategic purposes, but such an arrangement requires a great deal
of time and much work. The battle fronts on the borders of France and
Belgium have ranged from 100 to nearly 300 miles in length, with nearly
3,000,000 strung out in opposing lines along the entire distance.
LIKE AN IMMENSE GRIDIRON.
The ground has been dug up and trenched until the surface of the earth
looks like an immense gridiron. The soldiers almost live within the
trenches and dugouts beneath the ground. Telephone and telegraph wires
run through the trenches and even railroad tracks are laid so that small
engines go whirring through the ditches like "dinky" locomotives in a
coal mine.
And the "eyes in the skies" make it possible for the commanders to know
each other's strength and the disposition of the forces at all times.
Particularly has the air scout proved valuable in enabling commanders to
execute their final orders without grievous error. There is danger of
possible misjudgment because of the great length of the firing lines.
The airmen verify positions and make last minute reports, taking minutes
to perform services that cavalry forces or other scouting parties would
have taken hours or days to render.
Operated in conjunction with cavalry scouts, and motor and cycle squads,
the airplane is a destruction-directing and defensive force. And it was
the large fleet of aircraft that aided Germany in making such rapid
advance in its drive toward Paris in the early days of the war. The
scouts reconnoitering in the early dawn were able to report the
situation and give the commanders time to move their forces before the
Belgians and French were aware of what was being done.
Germany had probably the largest fleet of airplanes at the beginning of
the conflict and is said to have possessed upward of 500, of various
sorts, and this does not include the famous Zeppelins or dirigible
balloons. She also had something like two dozen factories which could
turn out flying machines, and had been at work on the development of her
aircraft long enough to have her patterns and methods of manufacture
somewhat, if not entirely standardized. During the third year of the war
it was estimated that she had more than quadrupled her force of flying
machines.
GERMANY'S PREPAREDNESS.
Germany's preparedness in this as well as in other directions was what
enabled her to obtain such a tremendous advantage in the beginning of
the war. Later England and France concentrated on the development of
aeroplane squads or corps, and when the United States entered the war
one of the first detachments sent into France consisted of 100 aviators.
How rapidly the aeroplane forces were developed is indicated by the
statement made in the beginning of 1916 that the air forces of the
Allies were represented by 3380 aeroplanes of various types and 64
dirigible balloons, while Austria and Germany had 2000 aeroplanes and 70
dirigibles.
The dirigibles--the type of airship commonly referred to as
Zeppelins--have the advantage over the heavier-than-air machines of
being almost silent in their operations, while at the same time they can
remain for a longer time suspended in air over a camp or battleground
without being detected. The Zeppelin is the development of the old
balloon, made, however, in a conical shape with a long basket or car
attached. They are driven by propellers similar to those used with
aeroplanes, but as the power generated by the engines is merely used to
drive the machines and has nothing to do with maintaining their position
in the air, the motors do not have to be so powerful. They are steered
by rudders.
Some of the largest Zeppelins which have been leading factors in night
raids conducted by the Germans on London and English coast resorts are
capable of maintaining a speed of 60 miles an hour. One of these immense
Zeppelins was reported to have covered 1300 miles in less than forty
hours, covering the German borders, and still keeping in touch with its
base. The Zeppelins, because of their large size, can carry large
quantities of bombs, wireless apparatus, signals and electric
searchlights. They can rise to a height that places them fairly beyond
the range of the aerial guns used for fighting the air forces of the
army.
MANY KINDS OF BOMBS.
The bombs used are as diversified as the crafts on which they are
carried. The French aviators at one time dropped long steel billets or
arrows which had swedged heads and sharpened points. These missiles,
dropped from the height of a thousand feet or more, attained a velocity
and force which made them dangerous weapons of the minor sort.
The bombs, in the main, however, consist of jacketed shells containing
high explosives, some of which are constructed on what is called the
delayed-action principle. Such bombs explode after penetrating the fort
or object which they strike, instead of going off by contact. Germany is
said to have developed some of these that were of such size and power as
to penetrate an armored ship. As much as 50 pounds of explosives or
chemicals is declared to have been carried in some of the larger ones.
The big dirigibles mount machine guns of superior range. Some of them
have been armored to an extent, and to make them less easily detected
they have been painted tints and colors to harmonize with the clouds and
sky. Special kinds of gas have been used to fill the envelopes or bags,
and instead of one large bag they consist of a series of bags enclosed
in an envelope or casing, so that if a bullet would penetrate the
envelope it would only destroy one of the gas bags, and not cause the
whole thing to collapse.
Besides having proved of great value in the land campaigns, the aircraft
has shown itself to be one of the most effective devices of warfare for
use against the submarine, and all manner of naval craft. From the
heavens they can see the submarine under the water, and as either the
dirigible or the aeroplane can develop a speed greater than that of any
battleship or cruiser, it is not difficult for it to soar over the
vessel and drop bombs upon it. Even gas bombs have been used in the
raids by the aircraft.
ACCURACY THE GREAT DIFFICULTY.
The difficulty in the use of bombs has been in accurately directing the
death-dealing devices when the airship or aeroplane is in motion. To
assist in this work aerial range finders have been devised. These are
constructed on the principle of the finder on a camera, with graded
scale markings to indicate the allowance that must be made for speed and
motion. Complete apparatus has been built up for launching the
projectiles from the large dirigibles, and to insure the missiles
traveling properly vanes have been attached to some of them.
In a test made under the auspices of the French Government and the
Aerial Club of France, a few years ago, one of the bomb-launching
machines on an aeroplane scored eleven bull's-eye shots in a target ten
yards in diameter, from an altitude of more than 2000 feet, while the
aeroplane was going at a speed of more than 65 miles an hour.
Though there has not been any widespread use of the plan the air has
been "mined" in an experimental way to protect certain sections against
night raids by the airmen. Mining the air consists of locating small
balloons over an area, each balloon being attached to the other with
wires. The small balloons have attached to them explosive bombs which
would destroy the larger aircraft if it was to run into this nest of air
vessels in the dark.
Reverting to the use of aircraft in naval warfare it may be said that to
the aeroplane the relatively fast fleet is virtually stationary. About
the only case parallel to the aeroplane looking over the hill and down
on concealed enemy positions would be in rising above the smoke screen
thrown out by destroyers.
THE SMOKE SCREEN.
The smoke screen, by the way, which has been used by the British with
marked success in many instances, is an American invention. The low,
swift craft are equipped with special oil burners which throw off dense
volumes of heavy smoke, which float low over the surface of the water,
concealing the maneuvers of the larger boats and protecting them from
the skill of enemy gunners. Its effectiveness, of course, is influenced
by the direction and strength of the wind. Used generously by small
craft convoying a ship through a submarine area, it should be of great
value.
A battleship can see about as far as it can shoot, anyhow. Except for
smoke screen, or the famous "low visibility," which means foggy weather
or darkness, no enemy within range can be concealed.
What the fleet commander wants to know is how those enemy vessels beyond
the horizon, which may be within range of his guns tomorrow, the day
after, or next week, may be distributed, and how many of them there are.
This is where the speed of the airplane comes in.
A machine which can travel 100 miles an hour covers a thousand miles in
10 hours. Locating an approaching enemy fleet this distance away, it
brings back the news of the approach in 10 hours. It takes the fleet,
traveling at 15 miles an hour, two days and 18 hours to cover this
distance. The aeroplane can beat it by two days and eight hours.
But the aeroplane flying high enough to give it the widest practical
range of vision is able to see only over a path 75 miles wide under the
most favorable weather conditions. Haze will cut this down considerably.
This means that for anything like complete scouting work a fleet must be
equipped with a large number of them.
PROPORTION OF FIGHTING PLANES.
Then, too, there must be a generous proportion of fighting planes to
spread out in a very wide circle beyond the fleet. It will be
appreciated that this circle must be a mighty wide one if the enemy
planes be kept far enough away to prevent their counting the number and
type of ships in the command. There is required also a large detail to
guard against the submarines. While an aeroplane can see quite deep in
the sea, this penetrating vision is limited to the water directly
beneath it. It can see straight down in the water, but not off to the
side at an angle.
If such a thing is possible, air control at sea is more important than
over the land, and of first value is the fighting plane. In this
connection there is an aeroplane gun which works well. It is a
double-ender. That is, there is a breech in the middle, and the two ends
are muzzles. In air fighting it is seconds and fractions of seconds that
count, and the advantage of this gun lies in that it can be fired in
opposite directions, thus cutting down the length of the arc through
which it has to be swung to be brought to bear on the enemy.
Of exceptional value to the United States navy is the super-American
type of planes which the Curtiss factories have developed and which have
done such wonderful service for the British. In this type the fuselage
is entirely enclosed, built with a hull much along the lines of the
motorboat or hydroplane. The 'plane may thus come to rest safely in the
open sea.
It weighs nearly 6000 pounds and can carry a useful load of more than
2000 pounds. The boat is slung well below the planes, eight feet below
the lower one, which has a span of 66 feet. Eight feet above this is the
upper plane, which overlaps the lower plane by 13 feet on each side. The
complete span of the upper plane is 92 feet. It can carry six to eight
men, if necessary, altogether a huge, sturdy, dependable machine with
two powerful motors.
And what was done to give America the equipment of 'planes which we
needed?
RESOURCES AT GOVERNMENT'S COMMAND.
Fifteen aeroplane manufacturers, with a combined capital of $30,000,000
and a total capacity of 175 machines a week, organized and placed all
their resources at the command of the government. The organization
provided for the interchange of ideas and plans and for the
standardization of manufacture, which resulted in a material increase in
output.
One hundred and seventy-five machines a week should give us, in a year,
9100. And there are other conditions which may modify the estimate both
favorably and unfavorably. There is, for instance, a limit to the amount
of seasoned lumber available in this country of the peculiar type and
quality needed for airplane construction. Provision must be made for the
future in this respect. All-steel machines have been made and used in
Europe to some extent, but no metal alloy has been developed which is
likely to take the place of wood in general construction. The
manufacturers developed some interesting things along these lines which
were not given to the public.
In the Spring of 1917 the fighting in the air took on an entirely new
interest abroad, because of the German policy of painting their machines
most grotesque patterns. They seemed to have taken this idea from the
old American Indian custom of painting their faces to frighten their
opponents, or else the fancies of the German airmen were allowed to run
riot with vivid color effects.
British pilots daily brought home from over the lines new reports of
fantastic creations encountered amid the clouds. The gayest feathered
songsters that came north with the Spring did not rival the variegated
hues of the harlequin birds that rose daily from the German airdromes.
The coming of this fantastic order of things in the air was first
heralded by a squadron of scarlet German planes. It then was noticed
that some of the enemy machines were striped about the body like
yellowjackets.
GAUDY TASTES OF AIRMEN.
Nothing appeared too gaudy to meet the tastes of the enemy airmen, who
seemed to have been given carte blanche with the paint brush. There were
green planes with yellow noses, silver planes with gold noses,
khaki-colored planes with greenish-gray wings, planes with red bodies,
green wings and yellow stripes, planes with red bodies and wings of
green on top of blue, planes with light blue bodies and red wings.
Virtually all the gaudiest machines were in red body effects, with every
possible combination of colors for their wings. Some had one green wing
and one white; some had green wings tipped with various colors.
One of the most fantastic met had a scarlet body, brown tail and
reddish-brown wings, with white maltese crosses against a bright green
background. One machine looked like a pear flying through the air. It
had a pear-shaped tail and was painted a ruddy brown, just like a large
ripe fruit. One of the piebald squadrons encountered was made up of
white, red and green machines. There still were others palpably painted
for what became known as "camouflage" purposes, as guns, wagons and
tents often are painted to blend with the landscape and thus avoid
detection.
This lavish use of paint, however, did not reduce the heavy daily loss
inflicted on the Germans by the British flyers. But it must not be
imagined that the Germans did not put up a stalwart fight. Just as their
resistance was strengthened on land, so it was increased in the air.
Just as the Germans threw in new divisions of infantry and new batteries
of artillery to check the Allies' offensive, so they sent aloft hundreds
of new machines to contest for the mastery of the air, an important
phase of modern war.
The manner in which the British flying corps dominated the air during
the battle of Messines Ridge in June, 1917, and completely smothered the
German aviation service for the time being is one of the most thrilling
and remarkable stories of the entire war.
Hundreds of British planes were well behind the German lines when the
battle broke into its fury at dawn. They had stolen over during the
darker intervals of the brief night when the moon was hidden by storm
clouds. Other hundreds went aloft with the first faint streaks of coming
day and, guided by the flashes of the guns, flew into the thick of the
fighting.
COMBED BY MACHINE GUNS.
During the night British machines combed enemy railway stations, trains,
ammunition dumps and troops coming up on the march. Others hovered above
German airdromes and circled low among airplane sheds and fired hundreds
of rounds from machine guns into them and prevented the enemy machines
from coming out. Later in the day, while the fighting was most intense,
British airmen dropped about three tons of bombs on the German flying
grounds as a further deterrent, which proved highly effective.
In addition to shutting the German airmen out of any early participation
in the battle, the British airplanes were in a large degree responsible
for the fact that the Germans could not launch a counter-attack of
appreciable strength until forty hours after the battle for the ridge
began and every bit of ground desired by the British in this particular
operation had been taken and secured.
Far back of the German lines the British planes searched out troops in
every hamlet, town and village. In several places they saw them
gathering or marching in the main streets, whereupon they flew down low
at times and opened a fire which scattered the gray-clad soldiers in all
directions. All pilots report that their accurate fire had a most
demoralizing effect upon the hostile troops. Convoys and ammunition and
supply columns were attacked while on the march and the disorganized men
left their teams and automobiles on the roads while they sought shelter
in nearby ditches.
AIRPLANES ATTACK TROOPS.
Airplanes attacked troops in the support trenches and sent them
scurrying to the cover of their dugouts. One pilot made so many of these
attacks that he finally ran out of ammunition, but he delivered his last
stroke by letting go his signal rockets at a platoon of soldiers who,
evidently mistaking this for some particularly horrible new style of war
frightfulness, fled in all directions.
German troops were fired upon in the more distant back areas as they
were entraining for the front. Many of the enemy retreating from the
British attack and hiding in shell holes were seen by the low-flying
airmen and pelted with bullets.
One British pilot patrolled a road for half an hour before he saw
anything to shoot at. Then a German military automobile with three
officers sitting in the back seat came along. The Britisher dived at
them from a height of three hundred feet, firing at them as they came.
He flew so low eventually that the wheels of his under carriage barely
missed the automobile, which swerved into a ditch while going at about
forty miles an hour and crashed into a tree.
This same pilot later came across an active field gun battery and
charged it, scattering the gun crew and hitting a number of them. Still
further along he attacked a column of Germans marching in fours. The
column broke when he opened fire, scattering to both sides of the road.
At no time during his stay inside the German lines was this pilot more
than 500 feet from the ground.
ON CONTACT PATROL WORK.
Large numbers of British machines were on contact patrol work, flying
low over the advancing lines of infantry, constantly watching their
movements, their progress, any temporary reverse, any attempt to form
counter-attacks and all the while sending detailed reports back to corps
and army headquarters.
Of the fourteen planes lost during the day of the battle, a majority
were those contact machines. They had to fly through a frightful storm
of their own as well as the enemy's artillery fire, and they succumbed
to chance blows from these exploding missiles.
Late on the day of the battle, when the enemy machines had finally
arrived from more distant airdromes, there was some good fighting in the
air, some of it at close quarters with collisions barely avoided. Twenty
enemy machines were accounted for in the fighting, some flopping about
until they broke up in the air and others being driven down on their
noses in yellow buttercup fields so far back of the fighting line that
no shell had ever marred the symmetry of the landscape.
Some of the most marvelous work was done by artillery airships. One
squadron of these alone, acting with several batteries of British
heavies, succeeded in silencing seventy-two German batteries before six
o'clock on the morning of the attack which began at 3.10 o'clock in the
morning. These planes also directed the firing on the enemy's guns en
route to the front, some of the big weapons being drawn by caterpillar
tractors. Wherever a thousand or more troops were observed forming for
possible counter-attacks the artillery planes directed "shoots" upon
them.
So complete was the British domination of the air along the front of
attack that not a single one of the British artillery observing
aeroplanes was lost during the week that the intense bombardment was
going on. During the battle British aeroplanes also attacked and
silenced a number of enemy machine-gun positions.
The growth of the aeroplane industry has developed as many makes of
machines as there are makes of automobiles, but in a general way
aeroplanes are divided into four classes--monoplanes, biplanes,
triplanes and hydroplanes. About 90 per cent of all designs are
monoplanes and biplanes, and the types are distinguished by their single
set of wings or planes or the double planes or wings. Both types have
their advantages in use, the biplane being regarded as more stable for
certain scouting purposes than the monoplane. It can carry heavier
weights--has greater lifting power--but is not capable of as great speed
or as easily maneuvered.
MACHINE ON PRACTICAL BASIS.
The War has placed the machine on an intensely practical basis. The
manufacturers have learned that machines constructed along certain lines
will travel at such and such a speed and have a certain lifting
capacity, will rise under a particular speed and may be expected to do
certain things under certain circumstances, but with all the advance
which has been made in the construction of the air machines, the
designers do not yet understand all the "factors" that enter into the
"why" of the case.
The makers have, however, succeeded in standardizing their machines to a
degree. The story of how the aeroplane flies is a highly technical and
scientific one, but the basic principle is the reaction of air and an
inclined surface in motion. It might be likened to a stone skipping
across the surface of a pond, if the imagination can conceive of the
water as being air. It is simplicity itself to drive an inclined plane
against the air with such force that the impact will produce a lifting
power. In raising an ordinary kite, for instance, the boy runs into the
teeth of the wind. His kite is so attached to a string as to stand at an
angle, and as he runs the pressure against the air drives the kite
upward. In the aeroplane the propellers drive the machine into the air
with such force that the planes, standing at an angle, guide the machine
upward.
There are innumerable problems to be solved--those of buoyancy, delicacy
of balance and many others--but the designers themselves have not been
able to determine upon a precise formula for their solution. It is
sufficient that the aeroplane has reached a degree of practicability in
construction and use which insures its permanent existence, and has
given the military and the naval forces one of the greatest agencies in
the world for protecting themselves and watching their enemies.
CHAPTER X.
WAR'S STRANGE DEVICES.
CHEMISTRY A DEMON OF DESTRUCTION--POISON GAS BOMBS--GAS MASKS--HAND
GRENADES--MORTARS--"TANKS"--FEUDAL "BATTERING RAMS"--STEEL
HELMETS--STRANGE BULLETS--MOTOR PLOWS--REAL DOGS OF WAR.
Things new and passing strange--thousands of them--have been brought
into being by the great world war. Human minds have developed things
undreamed of by science or fiction--things that a few years ago would
have been considered too strange and fantastic for even the professional
romancer to weave into the tissues of his stories.
Every known science has been called upon to produce its quota of new
things which might be used for the destruction or the protection of men
at war. The wonders of chemistry have always lent descriptive
inspiration to the pen of writers, but mankind to get a vivid conception
of the horrors of chemistry has had to wait for the great world war.
The conflict which has involved the entire world might almost be termed
a warfare of chemists. Without their diabolical products, ranging all
the way from high explosives to poison gases, it would have few of the
characteristics of ultra-frightfulness that render it unique in the
history of international struggles.
But of all the instruments of destruction used in this war, there is
none more horrifying than the so-called "incendiary bomb," which sets
instant fire to whatever it touches and which spreads flame in a manner
so terrific that three or four such gravity-projectiles dropped from an
aeroplane burned up the whole of a peaceful Dutch village in a few
minutes.
Now, what is the fearsome stuff with which such bombs are loaded? A new
chemical compound? Not at all. What they contain is simply the mixture
of two of the most harmless things in the world--oxide of iron (which
is simply iron rust) and powdered aluminum.
When these two innocent substances are mixed together the result is a
compound truly infernal in its potentialities for mischief. It is not an
explosive but if set on fire it burns with an intensity that is
positively appalling. Nothing will put it out; no quantity of water has
any effect upon the raging flames it engenders.
This is the material used for loading incendiary bombs. It is ignited in
such projectiles by a mercury-fulminate cap that sets off a fuse
containing powdered magnesium--the stuff photographers employ for
flashlights.
THIN SHELLS OF STEEL.
These bombs are thin shells of steel or iron--mere containers for the
mixture before described. They are so contrived that the fuse is
instantly ignited when they strike.
Whereupon the shell is melted by the heat generated within it and a
flood of fiercely burning metal is scattered in all directions. All of
this seems rather extraordinary, and it is worth explaining.
Oxygen has an affinity for iron, readily combining with the
latter--which is the reason why iron is liable to rust. This rust is a
chemical compound of iron and oxygen; in other words, oxide of iron. But
oxygen has a much greater affinity for aluminum. And so, when the two
metals are powdered and mixed together and heat is applied the oxygen
flies out of the iron rust and combines with the aluminum.
The process is started in the bomb by the burning magnesium. And then
the oxygen passes out of the iron and into the aluminum so rapidly that
an enormously high temperature is developed. It runs up to 3500 or 4000
degrees Fahrenheit--which means, of course, a tremendous combustion. The
mixture of aluminum and iron burns like so much tinder--though such a
way of putting it is absurdly feeble.
The present war has been conspicuously marked by reversions to ancient
methods of fighting. In this line the incendiary bomb offers an
excellent illustration. It is in effect merely an adaptation of an idea
utilized by the Saracens--we should call them Turks nowadays--in their
warfare with the Crusaders of the Middle Ages.
DREAD INSTRUMENT OF WAR.
The instrument of war most dreaded by the Crusaders, as they found it in
the hands of the Turks, was the incendiary bomb--a projectile that flew
through the air "like a fiery dragon" as they described it, and set fire
to whatever it touched. Sometimes it was provided with iron barbs, by
which it clung to buildings.
This was one of the ways in which the Saracens employed the celebrated
"Greek fire"--an inflammable compound that is understood to have been a
mixture of petroleum, saltpeter and pitch. The chief horror of it, from
the Crusaders' point of view, was that it was unquenchable. Mere water
had no effect upon it. Hence they were sure that it must be of
diabolical origin.
But the up-to-date incendiary bomb is a great improvement on its
original of the Middle Ages. The modern contrivance is thoroughly
scientific, and it does its destructive business with certainty and
dispatch.
No less effective are the gas bombs which were introduced by the German
soldiers at Rheims, and which when exploding near the trenches occupied
by the French and English threw off vapors and poisonous gases which
killed or overwhelmed thousands of brave men. These devices used in
violation of all rules of civilized warfare sent hundreds to the
hospitals. Seventy-five victims were taken at one time from the trenches
to the hospital at Zuydcoote, north of Dunkirk, where it was found that
some of those who had inhaled the fumes turned a violet tinge.
Altogether it was estimated that from 3000 to 5000 men were affected by
the gas fumes in this first onslaught and at least 10 per cent of those
who were overcome succumbed to the deadly fumes. Many of those who
inhaled the poisons expectorated blood and for days afterward were
racked by terrible coughing. In many cases fever developed in a few days
ending with pneumonia. When the men were not sufficiently poisoned to
cause death they were so affected that their usefulness as soldiers was
ended for all time. The poison made them confirmed invalids.
INTRODUCTION OF GAS MASK.
Naturally human ingenuity was called into play to protect men against
the poisons and the gas mask came into being. These were of many types.
The early creations consisted primarily of a nose and mouth covering
with a receptacle for inclosing a sponge or gauze soaked with a chemical
which possessed the power to neutralize the gas fumes. Such devices have
been used by fire fighters in large cities the world over where the men
battling to save buildings have been compelled to enter smoke-filled
rooms and cellars. Other types which have proven more effective are
designed after the fashion of the diving apparatus, and having a small
tank of compressed oxygen with feeding tubes running to the mask. The
oxygen combines with the contaminated air breathed through absorbent
cotton or sponge and provides the wearer with the proportion of oxygen
necessary to existence. And even the horses have been provided with such
masks.
But to go back to bombs. All through France and Belgium, and wherever
the Prussian soldiers found their way, there was evidence of the use of
hand grenades which were thrown against the sides of or into buildings
to set them in flames. Some of these devices, made of sheet metal, were
in their action similar to the "Fourth of July torpedoes" familiar to
every American school boy. When thrown they exploded throwing oil and
chemicals over walls and floors. Some of them seem to have been loaded
with bullets and were in effect hand shrapnel.
Then there developed from the primary use of these nefarious weapons the
recognized hand grenade, which is actually hand-shrapnel, plied by men
at close quarters. Thousands of these have been thrown by the armies in
their charges on the trenches. And then, to offset the use of these
devices in the offensive, there came into being also the smoke bombs.
These when exploding throw up great clouds of black smoke which hang
over everything.
EFFECTIVE IN A HUNDRED WAYS.
The use of such bombs has proved effective in a hundred ways. They have
been used to create a perfect shield of smoke to conceal the movements
of troops, or prevent the enemy from finding the range with their long
distance guns. Similarly bombs which contained burning chemicals have
been used to hold in check the approaching enemy forces.
Half way between the great gun and the hand grenade stand among war
weapons the trench mortars. The first of these were used by the Japanese
in their war with Russia. The Japanese mortars were mere logs hollowed
out and strengthened by wrappings of bamboo rope. The projectiles fired
from these were empty provision tins filled with high explosives, scraps
of metal, bits of stone or whatever, in the emergency, could be found to
fill them.
The mortars are pitched at an angle and the projectiles are shot with a
skyrocket effect, to land in the trenches or camp of the enemy. The
Germans developed the idea and the perfected mortars are of steel, and
capable of throwing bombs weighing several hundred pounds.
And then the great moving fort which has been called "the tank!" Those
snorting, fire-spitting dragons which were depicted for us in childhood
can scarcely bring to our mind a greater element of the fanciful, the
horrible, and the powerful than the steel hulks which came into being in
this war under the name of "tanks."
We see them in our mind's eye spitting fire as they crossed No Man's
Land, amid the smoke and dust of bursting shells. Keeping steadily on
their courses they dived into huge craters made by exploding shells;
stretched themselves across trenches, brushed trees and boulders aside,
and kept steadily on their courses. German wire entanglements were as so
many pieces of string before their huge frames. Nothing deterred them.
They moved forward into the face of the enemy, reaching the first line
of German trenches. There the soulless devices sat complacently astride
the trenches, and turning their guns along the ditches swept them in
both directions.
THE TANK DEFIES ALL OBSTACLES.
The tanks which were introduced by the English, move along on revolving
platforms, so to speak. These platforms enable the tank to overcome all
obstacles as the caterpillar tread is curved up in the arc of a huge
circle at the front which gives the vehicle its wonderful tractive
powers. This large curvature acts as a huge wheel with a tremendously
long leverage equal to the radius of the circlet or the spokes of the
imaginary wheel of the same diameter. Only that portion of the assumed
wheel which would come in contact with the ground acts as the lever, and
it is just this portion that is reproduced in the front end of a
caterpillar belt.
Although varying in size and details, all tanks have the common
characteristic of being divided into three main compartments between the
two side caterpillar frames. The first is the observation compartment in
which the driver and his helper are perched high above the ground to
direct the movements of the huge steel beast.
In the middle is the ammunition room from which the guns carried in the
two side turrets are fed. At the rear is the engine room. From two or
four gasoline engines are used--these driving the rear axle and its
integral sprockets over which the caterpillars run. The latter run an
idler pulley or sprockets at the extreme front ends and are supported by
means of rollers attached to the upper portion of the frame on each side
when passing over the top. This movement of the caterpillar belts is
exactly analogous to that of the ordinary variety of garden insect with
the same name which similarly lays down his own track by humping his
back continuously and regardless of the land surface.
The tanks are steered by a pair of small ordinary wheels at the rear.
These are supported in a pivot on a frame extended from the rear. They
are merely for steering, and support none of the weight of the tank
except when bridging wide trenches or dips in the surface. Steering can
be accomplished by making one caterpillar go faster than the other by
manipulating clutches on the driving mechanism.
TANK'S "CATERPILLAR" FEATURE.
The "caterpillar" feature of the tank had its origin in the caterpillar
belts or shoes which were first used on the great field guns and
mortars--those tremendous weapons which shoot bombs and shells weighing
tons and containing 500 or more pounds of guncotton or explosive which
on contact is discharged, rending everything for yards around.
These guns, as well as the smaller field guns, have had attached to them
great shields of steel behind which the gunners stand, so that they are
protected against the old-fashioned sharpshooters whose duty it was to
pick off the gunners.
The caterpillar or wheel belts on the big guns consist of flat blocks,
or shoes, wider than the tires of the wheels. They are hinged and
fastened together so as to form a great chain, and when placed on the
wheels present broad surfaces to the ground and keep the gun carriages
from sinking into the soft earth. With a set of these shoes a heavy gun
can be drawn over soft and irregular ground, which would be almost
impassable where the gun is mounted on wheels of ordinary width.
Before these belts were devised it was necessary for every gun crew to
carry a supply of beams, jackscrews and devices to be used in
extricating the heavy guns when they got fast in the mud. Now every gun
has these belts which can be put on or detached in a few minutes.
Paradoxically, this is the day of the big gun's greatest effectiveness,
and the day of its greatest limitations. The war has taught us more in
two years about gunnery and the effect of various types of ordnance
under varying conditions than could have been learned in twenty years of
theoretical research--for actual experience proves where theoretical
research merely gives ground on which to base an opinion.
NATIONAL RESOURCES TO DISLODGE A MAN.
One of the things that we have learned is that when man takes unto
himself the humble pick and shovel and proceeds to dig a hole for
himself in the ground, we can get him out of that hole only by drawing
on the combined resources of a nation, by constructing one of the most
complex and expensive instruments in the world, and with it hurling at
man dug-in a projectile weighing a good part of a ton.
The blunder, perhaps unavoidable, which stands out with equal emphasis
among the preliminary preparations of all the nations engaged in the
struggle was the underestimation of the artillery power required for the
conduct of a successful military campaign under modern conditions of
warfare. It was an underestimation so great that in the light of
developments it will some day prove ridiculous.
At the opening of the war two opposed theories of artillery
effectiveness were held by the combatants. The French swore by the
medium calibre, rapid-fire, low-trajectory field piece. The Teutons had
devoted their best efforts to the development of guns so big that their
opponents were tempted, before they learned better, to regard them as
too unwieldy for effective field service. Both were right, the French in
the full sense and intention of the term, the Teutons by pure accident.
It should be explained here that the word Teuton is used advisedly, for
in reality it is to the Austrians before the Germans that the
development of the 11-inch and bigger field gun, with its special
carriage and caterpillar-tread wheels owes its existence. It was
Austrian guns and Austrian gunners that first made the heavy artillery
of the Teuton armies famous.
The French field piece performed all that was expected of it, but it was
handicapped by unforeseen conditions of warfare. The heavy Teuton guns
performed their mission in the very introductory stages of the war, then
failed, and later, by the irony of fate, proved to be the very things
required when the unforeseen war conditions developed.
A WONDERFUL GUN.
The Germans and Austrians believed that they could develop a big gun
which could be given sufficient mobility for use in the field, and with
commendable and methodical application they proceeded to do so. The
theory was, first, that it could batter down any permanent
fortifications that man could build, and when it was pitted against the
concrete ramparts of Liege and Namur it blew them out of existence in a
few hours. The Teutons had scored, and scored so heavily that the Allies
barely escaped the fate the Germans had prepared for them in an
overwhelming sweep on Paris. That they did escape this fate is no doubt
in a large measure due to the fact that the second effectiveness claimed
by the Teutons for their heavy ordnance failed in its full
accomplishment. Used in open fighting, the great explosive shells hurled
by these guns did not do the damage expected to the wide, open firing
lines of the Allies, nor did they produce the moral effect expected. The
great shells tore tremendous craters in the ground, from which the
force of the explosion was expended upward in a sort of cone-shape,
shooting above the heads of any troops in the vicinity except those
immediately adjacent to the explosion. In the meantime the field pieces
of the French, with their extreme mobility and rapidity of fire, were
scattering death and destruction with their straight shrapnel fire in
the solid formations which were so popular with the Germans in the early
stages of the war, and which today they do not seem to be able to drop
entirely.
So far the French piece did all expected of it. The German piece had
proved its ability only to blow up permanent fortifications, and this
was nullified immediately by the action of the French in abandoning the
concrete shelters and moving their own guns into newly and
quickly-constructed trench forts.
A THING UNDREAMED OF.
But the thing that neither side had dreamed of was the settling down of
the war on the west front into an eternal line of opposing trenches to
face each other for years. That it did so was due to the monumental
blunders on the part of the German staff in allowing itself to be
outmaneuvered and beaten back from the gates of Paris by numerically
inferior forces, and still further outmaneuvered in the extension of the
lines northward in that famous series of flanking movements which
finally reached the sea.
It was their success in driving the German army to earth when it was
stronger than they were that saved the Allies, and gave them the
breathing time required in which to further their preparations and train
new troops, and likewise it is this same mode of trench warfare which
has made their task so difficult when they have taken the offensive.
Against ordinary trench lines, as known in the early stages of the war,
the French field pieces were more effective than the heavy cannon of the
Teutons, just as they had been in the open. Shooting in flat trajectory
across the trench, and exploding just above it, the shrapnel scattered
more death downward than the heavy projectile could scatter upward after
it had buried itself in the soft earth.
But with the continuous line of trenches stretching from Switzerland to
the sea, with consequent impossibility of out-flanking, demonstrated by
the Germans to their sorrow in repeated repulses of their drives to cut
through to Calais, each side felt justified in replying to the artillery
of the other by digging deeper and more permanently, with many feet of
shelter overhead. This ended the effectiveness of shrapnel except for
the repulse of attacks, and again the heavy guns swung into the position
of pre-eminence.
A SITUATION ALMOST BEYOND CONTROL.
It was at this stage, however, that both sides realized how totally
inadequate the supply of these heavy guns and ammunition was to cope
with the situation. While the heavy gun was more effective in blasting
out the enemy from his dugouts than the field piece, it required many
times the artillery power which either side possessed to handle the job.
Then commenced the race of the ammunition and gun factories to turn out
their products by the ton where they had been turned out by the pound
before; a race in which the Allies took and held the lead.
With the greatly increased number of heavy guns it became possible to
develop the famous curtain of barrage fire, also known as drum fire,
with this type of ordnance, as well as with shrapnel.
It is with this form of attack that the Allies blasted their way slowly
but steadily through the strongest networks of trenches which the
Germans were able to build.
Along a given section of the front, or rather just behind it, the guns
were placed singly or in pairs, widely scattered, some close to the line
and some well back from it, all concealed as far as possible from enemy
aviators. There were also many dummy batteries, so that if the enemy
air scout saw a gun or group of guns, he had no way of telling whether
they were real or imitation.
In such an instance before the actual advance of the troops the fire of
all these guns is concentrated along parallel lines to the enemy
trenches, first, second and sometimes third. Each gun has its work
mapped out for it in advance on a map covered with tiny squares. The
actual point may be well beyond view of the gunners. The shell is landed
in its appointed square solely on mathematical calculation. The
commander of each gun knows, for instance, that he must fire into this,
that or the other square for so many minutes or hours, and exactly at a
given minute change his fire to another source.
RAIN OF SHELLS LIKE STREAMS OF WATER.
In effect on the enemy a continuous rain of shells, comparable to
streams of water from hundreds of hoses is poured in a line right down
the trench. At the same time a parallel line of fire is concentrated at
a given distance back of the enemy's first trench and in front of the
second, or in it. This means that the troops in the first line must not
only take their bombardment without hope of retreat or escape, but that
it is impossible to get reinforcements to them through the second
curtain.
When it is calculated that the first line has been destroyed or
demoralized, the troops leap from their trenches and advance strictly
according to schedule over the ground between the opposing trenches.
Their arrival at the enemy's first trench is timed to the second, and
just as they are on the verge of plunging into their own curtain of fire
this latter is gradually thrown forward, forming a screen between the
newly captured trench and the enemy's second line. This means two
curtains of fire through which the enemy would have to advance to
counter-attack.
Time is given to rout out what remains of the enemy from the first line
dugouts, and then the troops advance again. In the meantime the curtain
of fire has preceded them as before, moving up to the line of drum fire
which has been playing on the second line of trenches or just in front
of it. If any of the enemy have attempted to flee before the attack from
the first line they are caught between these two barrages which are
gradually brought together.
When the first and second lines of fire have been brought together they
are poured with redoubled fury into the second line of the enemy
trenches, and then moved forward again just as the advancing troops
reach this line.
DEPENDING ON LOCAL CONDITIONS.
The performance is made continuous so far as possible under the
conditions peculiar to the given section in which the attack is being
made. Sometimes it is possible to advance over three, four or five
trenches in a single attack. At others it is as much as can be
accomplished to capture one, which must be consolidated before further
advance is made. It depends on the strength of the trenches, the nature
of the ground, the distance apart that they are, and, of course, the
amount of artillery fire which the enemy is able to concentrate in
return.
When a sufficient advance has been made, it also becomes necessary to
suspend operations for a time while the guns behind the lines are moved
forward to new positions.
This is always the period of the counter-attack in force by the enemy,
who seizes the opportunity when a certain proportion of the artillery is
unable to fire because it is being moved. And it is during this period
that the infantry have to do their hardest fighting, which consists, not
in making the advance over no-man's land to the enemy trench, but in
holding that trench afterward when the bringing up of their own
artillery behind them to more advanced positions robs them of some of
the support of the drum fire.
Still another factor of delay at this period is the time required by
the air scouts to find the rearranged positions of the enemy guns after
the advance, for these must be taken care of also before a new advance
can be made.
An explanation of this form of attack shows why news dispatches have
told first of an advance of the British, followed by a period of quiet,
during which an attack by the French in some other section of the line
was in progress. Then suddenly the scene of action switched back to the
British lines again while the French were consolidating their new
positions preparatory to pushing the general advance a step farther.
GERMAN EQUIVOCATION.
It also explains just what has happened when the Germans state that the
"enemy penetrated our first trenches in a small sector, but his attack
broke down before our second line." When the next attack is ready, of
course, the former second German line is referred to as the "first," and
so, on paper, as far as the uninitiated are concerned, the German
publicity office is able to build up a continuous series of enemy
attacks which "break down," and somehow never, never "penetrate our
invincible line." Actually an advance of this nature is extremely slow,
but it is sure, and it is made at the expense of tons upon tons of
ammunition rather than at the expense of lives, for ammunition can be
made faster than soldiers.
Even the old battering ram of feudal times with which the ancestors of
Kaiser William used to knock down the castles of the baron robbers has
been approximated by his warring tribes. With the retreat of the German
troops from Flanders the Allied forces found crude battering rams such
as have been shown in the stirring "movies" when the ancient warriors
stormed the gates of the city.
One of such devices was in the form of an upright frame made of heavy
timbers. An immense log was suspended from the cross-piece by a heavy
chain. An iron band circled one end of the log which was used for
battering purposes and at the opposite end were handles, used by the
operators in their nefarious work. The ram was used to batter in the
doors of houses which had been locked or barricaded against the German
soldiers. In their most destructive moods, it is charged that they used
these devices to destroy the standing walls of houses and cottages after
they had been gutted by fire. The Germans would not permit even so much
as a wall to stand which might be used by the poor peasant in
rehabilitating himself and building a new home.
NEW METHOD OF WARFARE.
The new method of warfare, with men working in trenches and dugouts and
millions of shells breaking over head, while missiles rain all about,
necessitated the development of some device to protect the heads of the
fighters. Therefore the steel helmet.
It has been shown that, due to trench warfare, about seventy-five per
cent of the wounded on the western front had been hit with shrapnel or
pieces of shell traveling at a low velocity and therefore had torn
wounds and in many cases smashed bones. About three per cent of the
wounds were in the head and about fifteen per cent in the face or neck.
This led to the adoption by the French of a steel helmet called after
its inventor, Adrian. The helmets were first used in May, 1915. That
their use is justified is shown by statistics. Among fifty-five cases of
head wounds, forty-two happened to soldiers without helmets.
Twenty-three of these had fractured skulls, while the remaining nineteen
had bad scalp wounds. Of the thirteen who wore helmets, not one had a
skull fracture. Five had slight wounds only, while none of those who had
worn a helmet died. Quite a number of those who had not did.
In the Academy of Medicine Dr. Roussey brought up the point that due to
the helmet the number of cases of sudden death from wounds in the head
had been so decreased that the number of wounded with head injuries
treated in the hospitals had materially increased.
The French helmet proved such a success that Belgium, Serbia, Russia and
Roumania equipped their troops with the same model. The French helmet
has a bursting bomb as insignia on its front and is light blue or khaki
color, depending on whether it is worn by the metropolitan, the French
home army or the French colonial army.
THE BELGIAN HELMET.
The Belgian helmet is khaki-colored, with the Belgian lion on the front;
the Italian, greenish blue, with no insignia; the Serbian,
khaki-colored, with the Serbian coat of arms; the Russian,
khaki-colored, with the Russian coat of arms, and the Roumanian,
blue-gray, with the Roumanian coat of arms.
The French have made more than 12,000,000 helmets, using about 12,000
tons of steel. In other words, a ton of steel will make 1,000 helmets.
The British also equipped their troops with a steel helmet, which has no
ridge running from front to rear, as has the Adrian, no decorations, and
a rather wide brim, which runs all the way round. It is of a khaki
color.
The Germans issued to a certain number of their men, generally those
most exposed in trench fighting, a steel helmet considerably heavier
than any of the allied helmets. It has a much higher crown, and comes
down more over the eyes and the sides and back of the head.
All these helmets are supported by means of a leather skull cap inside,
which fitting closely to the head, distributes the weight over the whole
of the skull, instead of simply around the edge of it, as is the case
with ordinary headgear.
Of course, these helmets will not protect against high velocity
projectiles. However, as they do protect the wearer from low velocity
projectiles, and as these are, because of infection, often as fatal as
severe wounds, it can easily be seen how much good has been
accomplished.
A French writer in La Nature shows that 332 out of 479 abnormal wounds
were caused by shrapnel and pieces of shell having a low velocity.
In 13 out of 15 cases of lung wounds, the projectiles did not have
velocity enough to completely traverse the body and come out.
In 71 cases of joint wounds, 66 were due to low velocity shrapnel and
only 5 to high velocity bullets. Practically every one of these wounds
could have been prevented by breast and body pieces and knee and elbow
caps of armor.
LOW VELOCITY MOST EFFECTIVE.
As for every man who afterward dies from a wound made by a high velocity
bullet there are about ten who die from wounds made by the low velocity
shrapnel and shell fragments, the importance is seen of protection
against these low velocity wounds if it can be had.
The wearing of armor means the lessening of the mobility of the soldier.
In the open field lessening of mobility means a decrease in efficiency,
which cannot be tolerated. However, in trench warfare the mobility of
the individual does not count for so much, as even during an attack he
does not have to go far, and generally does it at a walk in the rear of
the barrage fire of his own artillery.
Efficiency in warfare, as indicated by the keeping of such records, has
set the brains of the world at work, and armor is used to a limited
degree for the protection of men in greatly exposed fronts or open
positions.
The Japanese in modern times were first to resort to the forerunner of
armor. They used shields of steel and in the siege of Port Arthur such
shields were strapped to the front of the body. The Germans in the
charges have frequently used double shields, advancing in groups of four
behind a steel protector carried by two men, leaving the other two free
to fire at the enemy through port holes in the armor shields.
None of the armors has, however, proved its resistance to the high
velocity bullets which the powerful field guns rain against it.
Experiments are being made continuously along these lines, and Guy Otis
Brewster, of New Jersey, has developed a bullet-proof jacket and
headgear which it is said approximates perfection.
In the presence of ordinance officers from the Picatinny Arsenal he
invited an expert military marksman to fire at him from a distance of 60
yards. A Springfield rifle was used, with regulation ammunition. The
steel bullet had a velocity of 2740 feet a second. Only one shot was
fired, but it failed to penetrate the armor.
COMPOSITION A SECRET.
The composition of the latter is a secret, beyond the fact that it
consists in part of steel. Jacket and headgear weigh 30 pounds; but the
material is so flexible that the soldier wearing such an outfit can
kneel, lie down, rise and run, charge from the trenches, use the
bayonet, or throw hand grenades, without impediment to his movements.
It has been denied that dum-dum bullets, placed under ban by all
civilized nations, have been used by the Germans, but there is no doubt
that explosive bullets have been used. The report of the Belgian
Commission, which investigated the horrors when the Germans first
invaded King Albert's country, contains testimony which proves
conclusively that such missiles were used. These bullets were, in
effect, small shells containing an explosive chemical which was set off
by contact. Photographs taken of wounds show the effect which these
bullets produced.
More than that, the Russians charged that along the northern frontier
the Germans fired glass bullets, although there is nothing to sustain
the belief that such missiles were generally used. The dum-dum bullet
is a soft-nosed missile which, when it strikes a bone, flattens out and
splatters, creating a jagged wound which it is almost impossible to
treat or heal. The Germans, in ordinary, use a steel jacketed bullet
which possesses high penetrative powers, while the French at the
beginning of the war were using the ordinary lead bullet.
AN AMERICAN BULLET.
Among the recent developments is a bullet which had its origin in one of
the United States arsenals for manufacturing ammunition. This is a steel
bullet covered with lead. The effect of such a combination on the
penetrating quality of the bullet may be readily understood by anyone
who has ever tried the experiment of driving an ordinary needle into a
board through a cork. If the cork is placed on the board and the needle
pressed down through the cork until it touches the board, a powerful
blow from a hammer will force the needle into the board without
breaking. In the application of this principle to the manufacture of the
bullet, experiments proved that the soft lead acted as a guide or
sustainer which permitted the inner steel to penetrate without
deviation.
And just as these oddities of warfare have been created to meet arising
situations, others have been created to care for the sick and
injured--those who have fallen victims of the agencies of destruction.
Who ever heard of a sand sled?
Such sleds have been used effectively on the Eastern fronts to carry
wounded soldiers to the hospitals. They are long, staunchly constructed
sleds similar to those used on the farms in America for hauling plows,
cultivators and other agricultural implements across the fields which
have been furrowed.
The sleds have broad runners which do not sink into the sands and can be
drawn easily. In winter these same sleds have served to haul the wounded
and sick over miles of snow and ice on the Russian frontier.
Then, though it is not a weapon of offense, there is the tractor plow
which works at night. It is a war device to the extent that as England's
need for food has been great and constant the tractor plow has been used
to solve the problem of working the ground. On the estate of Sir Arthur
Lee, the director-general of food production in England, great
agricultural motors equipped with acetylene searchlights were kept at
work in the fields day and night.
Dogs too have been ushered into the arena. No longer may the old English
expression, "Let Slip the Dogs of War," be regarded as a mere figure of
speech. The war dogs, and particularly the animals used by the Red Cross
on the battlefields, have assumed a regular status in the armies of the
world. In the European armies are thousands of dogs which have been
trained to act as messengers or spies, or to seek out on the
battlefields the wounded. The Germans use a canine commonly known as
"Boxers." These animals are a cross between the German mastiff and the
English bulldog, and on the fields of Europe they have proved to be
"kings" among the Red Cross dogs. The animals are first taught to
distinguish between the uniforms of the soldiers of their own country
and those of the enemy. Then they learn that the principal business in
life for them is to find and aid wounded soldiers.
The animals are trained to search without barking and to return to
headquarters and urge their trainers to follow them with stretcher
bearers. Sometimes the dogs bring back such an article as a cap, tobacco
pouch or handkerchief. The dogs of the Red Cross carry on their collars
a pouch containing a first aid kit, by means of which a wounded soldier
may staunch the flow of blood or help himself until assistance arrives.
It is reported that one of these dogs rescued fifty men on the Somme
battlefield in France. The animal known as Filax of Lewanno, is a
typical German sheepdog. Such dogs weigh from 50 to 65 pounds and are
very powerful, but the Irish terriers and Airedales have also been
trained to do effective work, as have the Great Danes and St. Bernards.
CHAPTER XI
WONDERFUL WAR WEAPONS.
THE TERRIBLE RAPID-FIRE GUN--ARMORED AUTOMOBILES AND AUTOMOBILE
ARTILLERY--HOWITZERS--MOUNTED FORTS--ARMORED TRAINS--OBSERVATION
TOWERS--WIRELESS APPARATUS--THE ARMY PANTRY.
It is a long step from the old, smooth bore, flintlock rifle of the
Revolutionary days to the modern magazine gun, with its long-pointed
cartridges; and it is almost as great a step from the crude iron cannons
and smooth bore mortars of the Civil War, with their canister and grape
shot, down to the huge, 42 centimeter guns which have boomed their way
through France and Belgium.
The patriotic citizen who is unfitted for military service no longer
sits at home and aids the armed forces of his country by melting pewter
spoons into bullets, or cutting patches of cloth to serve as wads to
pack down into the muzzle of guns. The powder horn and the bullet mould
are devices of the past. The whole world working in the old-fashioned
way could not have in the course of the "war-of-nations" made sufficient
bullets to supply the forces for a single week.
Those who must sacrifice in the stress of war now turn their silverware
and precious metals into nuggets that may be sold to produce revenue, so
that the armed forces may purchase the machine-made cartridges and
weapons required to fight the enemy.
Modern warfare has developed the climax in armament and the world has
learned more within the last few years about the devilish instruments of
destruction which human ingenuity has devised than was known in all the
ages before. Since Germany and Austria were the first into
action--actually precipitated the great conflict--and as by their years
of preparation they were ready for the emergency, it best serves the
purposes of those who seek enlightenment on the subject of armaments
and weapons to deal with the equipment of the Teuton forces.
Other nations--England, France and the United States in
particular--have, in some directions, surpassed the Germans in
developing efficient weapons, but in the main, when Germany plunged into
the war, she had all around what was conceded to be the best equipment
that science and mechanics could supply.
INFANTRY AND FIELD ARTILLERY.
While stories told of the awful havoc wrought by the German siege guns
in reducing the forts and fortifications in France and Belgium are true,
it is also true that the bulwark of the military organization is the
infantry and field artillery. The big guns may level the forts and
reduce them to powder, driving off the opposing forces, but the infantry
must advance and the small arms and rapid-fire guns must keep the
opposing forces from resuming the position which they had abandoned.
The difficulty of handling the big guns has always been a problem,
except in fortifications and at fixed points of defense, and it has only
been within a few years that a solution of the trouble has been found.
The solution lay in the use of tractors, or the tractor principle, which
every person familiar with farming and the "traction engine" can
recognize.
Germany and Austria, as in many other matters, solved the problem by
building mortars for field service which outclassed the heaviest
artillery of the old type, and mounting them on tractors. It would
require a team of probably forty horses to pull one of the German
42-centimeter guns over the rough ground, and then a relay would be
required every few hours. An immense number of horses would be required
and the transportation would be slow, and not certain at best.
Early in the war Austria sent to the front a battery of 80-centimeter
howitzers, and from the famous Krupp gun works there were 21 and
28-centimeter howitzers. Later came the 42-centimeter guns, which are
classed as automobile field artillery. These are the weapons which
leveled the forts at Liege and were used to bombard Fort Maubeuge.
The immense howitzers, with their caterpillar wheels, are taken apart
and transported to the scene of action in sections, or units. An
automobile tractor carries the artillery crew and tools and furnishes
the motive power. The second car carries the platform and turntable on
which the gun is mounted, and the third hauls the barrel, or gun proper.
THE MOVING OF HEAVY WEAPONS.
The weapons can be moved anywhere, though they weigh as much as forty
tons in some cases. Sometimes it is necessary to build special roads
where fields must be crossed, but on the highways there is little
trouble. The big howitzers are built on the principle of the large
caliber guns used on battleships--that is, there is a system of recoil
springs and air cushions to take up the shock when the gun is fired, so
that the terrific energy, when the charge is exploded, shall not be
borne by the breech of the gun. The howitzers can be turned in any
direction, and the gearing attached to the mounting is such that the
barrels can be pitched at any angle.
Such guns fire an explosive shell weighing from 500 to 1000 pounds, and
because of their form of construction--they have shorter barrels than
the naval guns--which reduces the surface of the barrel subject to
erosion, they are longer lived than the long guns. The endurance of the
guns is a factor because it is difficult to get repairs for such great
weapons on the field of battle.
At the outbreak the contending forces are said to have had 4,000 guns in
the field artillery. Among the devices of interest identified with the
artillery is the armored automobile, which has been described as the
"cavalry" of motor driven artillery. The advent of the armored
automobile in the war changed many features of campaigning and helped to
revolutionize military methods. The armored automobile is an ordinary
chassis with a body made of chilled steel.
Many types have been devised, including turreted automobile, mounting
one or two rapid fire guns which can be turned in any direction. The
armored motors have high-powered engines, and the chassis chosen for
these new instruments of war are of the heaviest types. Some have been
constructed especially for the purpose. One of these, used by the
Germans, had a "barbette" top, which looked like the shell of a
tortoise, fitted down over the chassis. Guns protruded from holes in the
front, back and sides.
VALUE OF ARMORED CARS.
The armored cars have proved extremely valuable for scouting purposes.
They can sneak through and complete scouting where mounted men would be
detected, and besides, are better able to protect themselves against
attack. The cars also possess the ability to speed away out of range of
enemy detachments.
The army officer, too, has taken to the armored automobile, and put
aside his horse. You cannot kill an automobile; and the armor laughs at
the bullets from small caliber guns. The officers can, with the
high-speed armored cars, travel from one end of a line to the other and
in a few hours make surveys and complete observations which would take
days were horses used.
Very few of the light-armored cars used by the officers are armed, the
attache or aide of the officer carrying a rifle. Some of the armored
cars used for scouting and by the officers have, in the case of Germany,
been provided with sharp knives attached to the front of the machine.
These are steel blades vertically attached to the frame and hood, and
are designed to cut wires which the enemy may have stretched across
highways or passages to hinder progress.
The armored covering on some of these cars is little more than a steel
box, with "port" holes all around. There is no hoop dome or cupola, and
the men are supposed to protect themselves by keeping their heads below
the sides of the box. Besides the driver, some of the cars carry two or
three men, who are further protected against the bullets of the enemy
and the chance missile from the sharpshooter by steel headpieces or
helmets.
The Belgians have a type of car of heavy design, equipped with huge
headlights, as well as a searchlight to operate at night. The car has a
rapid fire gun mounted in a cupola-formed revolving turret. In the
matter of automobiles in the army, Italy outranked Germany at the
beginning of the war. While Germany had Mercedes and Opel trucks,
mounting five to seven rapid fire guns, which, with their steel armor
and solid tire disc wheels, were actually miniature forts, the Italians
had more formidable mounted creations of the same sort.
ITALY'S SINGULAR POSITION.
As a matter of fact, Italy's position in regard to motors is unique
among the other countries in the war. Not only are the transportation
conditions different, but the motorcar industry in the country is on a
different basis. It is said to have been the only one of the countries
which was able to meet the demand put upon it for motors without going
into some other land to augment its supply. Italy did not buy a single
American motor vehicle for war purposes. There are cars of foreign makes
in the army and with the Red Cross, but these vehicles were in the
country--purchased for private use--when the war broke out and were
requisitioned.
The big guns of the army are handled by motor tractors, 95 per cent of
the army mail service is motorcar service and 95 per cent of the
drinking water for the fighting forces is delivered by motortruck.
Profiting by the lessons of the other countries called to war, Italy had
time in which to prepare for emergencies, and when the order for
mobilizing forces was issued the motorcar factories were speeded up and
the workers were permitted to stay on the job, instead of being called
out to fill up the ranks of the army.
Compared with the resources of America, the Italian motor industry is
not large; but the product is uniform and practically all of the
factories are conveniently located for distributing the machines to the
army on the frontier and readily providing repairs and parts. The
physical conditions of the country necessitated the use of certain types
of trucks and motors and the dropping of some of the practices of other
countries in motor usage.
The rugged, irregular country, with its narrow roads, makes
impracticable the use of trucks larger than three and one-half tons, and
"trailers," largely employed by the French, German and Belgian armies,
were found not satisfactory. What is described as the Isotta Fraschini
heavy model armored artillery car of Italy is considered one of the most
effective of the "motor forts" or "land cruisers" developed during the
war.
THE WHEELED FORT.
The wheeled fort has a battery of four rapid fire guns and a revolving
turret. Besides being full armored and turreted, the car has steel
wheels of the disc type, and is as formidable in appearance as it has
proven in practice. France has a type of the completely enclosed armored
motorcar which affords its crew unobstructed view on all sides through
lattice panels. Even the windshield is made on this plan. This car also
has a revolving turret and carries a 5-centimeter rapid fire gun and
possesses high speed.
All of the powers have armored automobiles, and in Germany, England and
France the exigencies of conflict impelled the Governments to
practically commandeer all of the automobiles in the countries for war
purposes. Many of these cars were turned into armored cars of the
lighter type, and the number of such automobiles in use runs far into
the thousands. The United States has not made much fuss about it, but
has had armored cars in the regular army for several years.
The experience gained in the campaign in Europe indicates that the
military authorities believe the high-powered, speedy cars, clad with
armor of medium weight and mounting one or two machine guns, are the
most valuable of all the "sheathed" cars. They can appear suddenly,
maintain a withering fire for a short period and then disappear
suddenly.
As an instance of what the armored car accomplishes, it is recited that
when the German troops sought to invade the Belgian town of Alost a
detachment was sent through the streets in armored cars. The houses were
barricaded and the Germans feared snipers. There were no snipers when
the motorcars returned. More than a thousand Belgians were mowed down in
the streets by the rapid fire guns of the armored cars.
IMPORTANCE OF THE AUTOMOBILE.
Evidence of how greatly the automobile is appreciated in its relation to
the modern army service is found in the fact that when America entered
the war and began the mobilization of its forces and resources, the
Quartermaster at Chicago was ordered to obtain bids for the delivery of
35,000 motortrucks of one and one-half tons capacity and 35,000 trucks
of three tons capacity. Bids were also asked on 1000 five-passenger
automobiles, 1000 runabouts, 1000 automobiles, in price ranging from
$1500 to $2000, several hundred motortrucks of half, three-quarter and
one ton capacity and 5000 motorcycles, and the same number of
motorcycles with auxiliary passenger capacity, or side cars.
The motortruck, too, in modern warfare is a shoeshop. The care of the
feet is an important matter in the army, and the men, besides being
provided with good footwear, must have that footwear kept in serviceable
and comfortable condition. It is some job to keep the shoes of half a
million or more men in repair, and the United States Quartermaster
Department, in connection with their mobilization, included in its
equipment portable motor-power machines to nail on half soles for troops
in garrison and campaign. Such a machine will nail on a pair of soles in
five minutes. It weighs but 27 pounds and can be transported with the
troops on a motorcar, and may be used anywhere to keep the shoes in
serviceable shape until the troops can reach permanent camps, where new
footwear can be provided.
FRANCE'S TRANSPORTATION RESOURCES.
At the outset of the war France is said to have had 100,000 passenger
cars, 25,000 motorbuses, taxicabs and motorcycles and 10,000 motortrucks
available for military use, and was able to give the various departments
of her military organization excellent transportation service. Besides
this, she had squads of automobile aeroplane cannon, and about 84
12-centimeter and 15 5-centimeter Rimailho howitzers of the armored
artillery type. Russia is said to have been weak in automobile
equipment, having less than a thousand trucks in the Empire available
for military use; but this number was rapidly increased, upward of half
a thousand having been purchased within a short time.
Austria and Germany together are said to have had something like 1500
trucks and about 20,000 passenger cars available for army use. At the
start Germany alone had 250 armored automobiles, several score of
searchlight automobiles, or night scout cars, probably 8000 motorcycles
and more than 500 motor-driven field guns, besides the big tractors used
to draw the heavy howitzers. Aside from this, practically all the motor
vehicles in the country were commandeered, numbering upward of 75,000.
While they are stationary devices, the forts which were stormed by the
Germans at Liege and Antwerp are properly part of the military equipment
used in the war. These forts, known as turret forts, are described on
preliminary inspection as looking like a row of huge tortoise or turtle
shells rising a few feet above the ground. The shell is, however, a
shell of chilled steel. Through it the guns protrude and are operated
very much like the guns on a battleship, the turret revolving. Under the
dome are vaults and the compartments of concrete, containing the
mechanism for moving the turrets, operating the guns, lifting the big
shells and handling the ammunition generally.
The fortifications, which at Antwerp included nine intrenched sections,
were regarded as almost impregnable; but when they were built there were
no such field guns as the famous 42-centimeter guns which the Germans
brought to the attack. The forts themselves had no guns larger than a
7-inch caliber.
FRANCE'S ARMORED FIGHTING MACHINES.
In the matter of movable guns, the French and Germans both had them
mounted on armored trains. One such train used by the French included
armored locomotive, flat cars on which were mounted the guns in
"barbettes," or steel turrets, and completely protected armored cars,
used to transport troops or detachments of men.
A feature of the train was the observation tower. It was mounted upon
what would ordinarily be the cab of the locomotive. Such towers have in
one form or another become very common in the war. One type resembles
the motortruck ladder and platform devices used by the man who repairs
electric lights and wires in our city streets. Another is patterned
after the hook and ladder truck of the fire department. The tower, or
ladder, is raised after the fashion of the ladders in fighting a fire. A
couple of soldiers turn a crank, and the ladders are raised to a
perpendicular position and extended high into the air on the sliding or
telescope principle.
The German and Austrian engineers also utilize observation ladders of a
less complicated mechanical nature. In use, and with a soldier perched
on top of them, they remind one of the toy devices with which we played
as children, using the slotted acrobats to do wonderful things atop the
"ladders." The ladders are carried in short sections, which may be
fastened together in a variety of ways, but a good idea of the manner in
which the ladders are used may be obtained if you can imagine a letter Y
made of ladders and turned upside down, with a soldier standing on top
of it.
THE IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVATIONS.
And making observations is a highly important matter in modern warfare;
more important than it was in the old days. The long-range guns are
aimed and their fire directed by observation and calculation. The gunner
cannot see the target he is required to hit. His job is a mechanical
one--perhaps it would be better to say scientific--for he must read
mathematical calculations and interpret them into accurate gun action.
The guns may be on one side of a hill and the enemy on the other, and
they may be miles apart, yet the gunner must be able to get the range.
His efforts are directed by observers in aeroplanes or balloons, and the
range is established by calculations, so that the gunner must be
proficient in geometry, trigonometry and mathematics generally.
Not all the great guns in the war when it started were owned by the
Germans, for England had 100-ton Armstrong pieces which were capable of
hurling a 2,200-pound projectile; but it was the modification of the
design of the large caliber guns and the method of mounting them, which
permitted them to be drawn wherever needed, that gave Germany such an
advantage.
Most of the big guns are in the navy--on the huge dreadnoughts and
battleships--and therefore the fortifications at Helgoland, which are
designed to resist the bombardment of the heaviest naval guns, must be
regarded as equipment. Helgoland is the protecting fort of Germany's
most vulnerable point. It is the Gibraltar of Germany, and protects the
entrance to the Kiel Canal from the North Sea. If the British could get
past the fortifications to the Kiel Canal, it could establish a close-in
blockade which would render Germany helpless in a short time.
Helgoland is an island fortress in the North Sea, in the center of which
is a mortar battery mounting 11-inch and 16-inch guns, capable of
puncturing the decks of the battleship which comes within range; and
these batteries have a range of from six to eight miles. The batteries
are ranged in tiers, one above the other, to a height of almost 180 feet
above the sea level, the heavy guns and pieces being placed below and
the lighter ordnance in the upper tiers. The guns range from 17.7-inch
caliber down to 8.2-inch. Germany calls Helgoland the "fortress
impregnable," and the developments of the war seem to indicate that the
description fits.
SMALL GUNS OF VARIED INTERESTS.
In the smaller guns used in warfare there are many varieties of
interest. The United States prior to and with their entrance into war,
particularly during the period of the trouble along the Mexican border,
experimented with almost every known make of rapid fire machine and
field gun, and there was for a time much criticism because the
government did not adopt for army use the Lewis gun, which was adopted
by some of the foreign countries.
The German army rifle carried by all the infantry is of the Mauser type,
first introduced in 1888 and gradually improved until 1898. The weapon,
because of the adoption of the improved model in 1898, has come to be
known as the "ninety-eight gun." It is a quick-firing weapon, from which
20 to 30 shots a minute may be projected by the soldier. The gun is
universally used and has a caliber of 7.9 millimeters, which provides
for the use of the smallest bullet which will work sufficient injury on
the enemy to make its use profitable.
Experience in the Russian-Japanese war proved to the military
authorities that the use of a smaller caliber was not advisable. It was
found that the smaller bullet could, and in many cases did, pass through
a man's body without actually rendering him useless, and that in a large
percentage of cases--more than one-third--the wounded were back with
their troops within a few months.
In the United States all of the forces are now provided with standard
arms or weapons. The army, the Marine Corps and the organized militia of
the States, absorbed into the body proper of national troops, have the
same firearms--the same service rifles, the same machine guns and field
guns and the same automatic pistols. One kind of cartridge--containing a
cylindro-conical bullet of copper-nickel, with a lead core--serves for
all rifles and for the machine guns as well.
OLD FLINTLOCK IN WAR.
Many people, perhaps, will be surprised to learn that the Mexican war
was fought mainly with the antiquated flintlock muskets. When the
trigger was pulled the flint came down hard upon a piece of steel, and
the resulting spark was thrown into the "pan," igniting a pinch of
powder. The fire ran into the powder charge and the gun went off. Round
balls were used, and the loading was done with the help of a ramrod.
There were already percussion rifles in those days, but General Winfield
Scott, who bossed the Mexican war, declared that he would have nothing
to do with those new-fangled weapons. The old smooth-bore flintlock was
good enough for him. In truth, the percussion gun of that period was not
as reliable as might have been wished. The cap was liable to get wet and
to fail to go off, whereas a good flint could be counted upon to yield a
spark every time.
It was not until 1858 that the percussion rifle, still a muzzle-loader,
was generally used by the United States army. The Springfield, which was
the first breech-loader (one cartridge inserted at a time) came along
in 1870. In 1892 it was replaced by the first of our magazine rifles,
the Krag, and simultaneously we adopted smokeless powder, a European
invention.
The regulation United States service rifle is a great improvement on the
Krag. It is loaded with "clips," holding five cartridges each. The
velocity of the bullet is greater, and the accuracy and rapidity of fire
are superior.
FIGHTING RANGE 800 YARDS.
In the Mexican war the ordinary fighting range, with the smooth-bore
flintlock, was about 250 yards. In the Civil War, with the percussion
muzzle-loader, it was 350 to 400 yards. With the new service rifle, the
fighting range is 700 to 800 yards, and the infantryman is able to fire
at least twenty times as many shots in a given number of minutes as was
possible fifty years ago.
The field artilleryman carries no rifle, but is provided with a
45-caliber automatic pistol and twenty-one cartridges. The men who
compose the machine-gun platoons have no rifles, but each one of them is
armed with the same sort of service pistol and a bolo. The latter is a
weapon new to our army, adopted as a result of military experience in
the Philippines. It is in effect a machete (a sugar cane chopping
knife), shortened and made heavier. At close quarters it is a formidable
weapon.
The bolo embodies the best principles of the various razor-edged
fighting blades of the Filipinos, and was first adopted as a side arm of
the Marine Corps officers. The bolo, which is much heavier than an
ordinary sword, measures 24 inches from tip of handle to tip of blade,
and is forged from a piece of file steel.
For many years the Marine Corps, except upon dress occasions, has had no
cutting weapon. It is not strange, therefore, that many of the officers
of the corps, while on duty in the Philippines, adopted for use in the
field that weapon of the Moro tribesmen.
The introduction of the bolo as the field arm of the Marine Corps--the
sword having given place to the pistol several years ago in this branch
of the service--robs the time-tried and traditional Mameluke saber of
the corps of the distinction of being the only cutting weapon in the
equipment of this division of the Government's sea fighters.
The Mamelukes are inseparably associated with the military history of
Egypt, the first country in which a regular military organization was
established, and a country in which the fighting element was the most
honored and powerful of all classes. This type of blade was adopted by
our Marine Corps in 1825, and later by the officers of the Royal Horse
Artillery of England.
Until recently the allowance of machine guns in our army has been two to
a regiment, but abroad four to six are used.
AUTOMATIC MACHINE RIFLES.
These guns are automatic machine rifles, firing ordinary rifle
cartridges, which (in the Benet-Mercie weapon, a French invention which
we have adopted) are supplied in brass clips of thirty. A small part of
the gas generated by the explosion of the individual cartridge operates
the mechanism, discharging the bullet, throwing out the empty shell and
making ready for the next shot.
A machine gun is designed to enable one man to fire the equivalent of a
volley, or series of volleys, discharged by an entire platoon (one-third
of a company) of infantrymen. As at present developed, it represents a
step toward the evolution of a shoulder-rifle that will throw a
continuous stream of bullets.
The latest government rifle--the weapons of the individual soldiers--are
manufactured at the Springfield (Mass.) Armory, which is the
government's great small-arms factory, and at the Rock Island (Ill.)
Arsenal--the facilities of the latter having hitherto been held in
reserve for emergency purposes. The rifle cartridges are turned out at
the Frankford Arsenal, in Philadelphia, and at private plants in Lowell,
New Haven, Bridgeport and Cincinnati. These concerns and another near
St. Louis also make the cartridges for the automatic pistols.
At the outbreak of the world war we had 150 batteries of light field
guns and 45 batteries of heavy artillery (four guns to each battery),
including cannon provided for by Congress, and since then delivered.
There was an inadequate supply of ammunition for the heavy guns.
MUNITION SUPPLY AUGMENTED.
The ammunition supply was immediately augmented and field guns of
various calibers turned out as fast as possible, including 9-inch
howitzers.
A 3-inch field gun fires projectiles weighing 15 pounds, with a muzzle
velocity of 1700 feet per second.
A 4.7-inch field gun fires projectiles weighing 60 pounds, with the same
velocity.
A 6-inch howitzer fires projectiles weighing 120 pounds, with a muzzle
velocity of 900 feet per second.
The principal difference between the field gun and the howitzer is that
the latter can be pointed at a high angle, to assail infantry protected
by intrenchments, or for other purposes.
While reference has been made to siege guns, which were used by the
Germans in their attacks on the Belgian and French forts, the fact is
that the large caliber mortars and howitzers are what wrought the havoc.
The large caliber howitzers and mortars throw shells containing huge
charges of explosives, and are more adaptable in their application than
the ordinary siege guns or cannons.
One novelty which had not been used up to the entrance of the United
States into the war is a device invented by a Los Angeles man, which
makes a "periscope gun" of any ordinary service piece.
In trench warfare, as developed abroad, the periscope has been used by
the men in the trenches to observe the movements of the opposing forces
and watch for scouts without exposing themselves to the fire of
"snipers" or sharpshooters, who are always looking for a head or mark to
aim at.
The new device comprises two mirrors attached to the gun by a metal
frame in such manner that one mirror is above the range of vision and
reflects the image to be fired at upon the other mirror below the stock
or butt of the gun. The attachment enables the soldier sitting in a
trench or shelter to accurately aim his gun and conveniently shoot while
his head is kept below the safety line, or top of the parapet, or
properly built trench.
THE TRENCH PERISCOPE.
With this attachment, approved by the United States Ordnance Department,
a rifleman, from his concealed point of vantage, can survey a 30-foot
field at 200 yards. The attachment can be removed at will and the metal
bars and parts can be easily carried. The device adds about one and
one-half pounds to the weight of the gun.
In the same category with the aeroplane, the automobile, the submarine,
the torpedo, in their effect upon the method of waging modern warfare
are the telephone and the wireless telegraph. There were no telephones
and no wireless instruments in the days of our own Civil War, and the
stories related of the bravery and astuteness displayed by orderlies,
messengers and scouts of those days will not be repeated.
Today the army carries a complete telephone system and wonderful
wireless apparatus. The commander sits in his headquarters and
communicates with his officers in all parts of the field, reaching
points miles distant. Wires are strung through trenches, along fences
and wherever needed, and telephone "booths" are set up wherever it is
found necessary. Switchboards are mounted on motor cars and encased in
armor plate. The "repair" wagons are motor vehicles, and lines cut or
destroyed are quickly repaired or replaced.
Aerial stations for the wireless are carried, and are of many varieties.
Some of them are similar to the observation towers and ladders. The
French army regulations provide for wireless service between the general
staff headquarters and the army corps, connecting these with the heavy
cavalry divisions and lines of communication. The wireless companies in
the French army are made up of 10 officers and 293 men.
Nearly all of the other nations have patterned their wireless companies
after the French. The company carries 302 miles of wire and cable and
about 96 sets of instruments. The rate of operation is more than 400
words a minute. The mast for the aerial station is made in sections, on
the telescope plan, and can be erected by a trio of men in a few
minutes. The whole outfit for a station weighs about 750 pounds and the
range of service is about 200 miles.
"KNAPSACK" STATIONS.
There are, in addition to the field stations, "knapsack" stations, which
are divided into sections so that four soldiers can carry an outfit. The
sections weigh about 20 pounds each. The small station set up with this
apparatus has a range of from 5 to 10 miles and in service replaces the
orderlies and such visual signs and signalling, as was used before the
wireless came into existence. Such an outfit can forward more
information in a few minutes than a whole squadron of orderlies could
riding at full speed.
The aeroplanes carrying a wireless outfit can communicate with the field
stations, and have rendered wonderful service on the battlefields. The
cavalry also carry wireless outfits, and in the Allied armies the second
regiment of every cavalry brigade has a wireless detachment of 4
troopers, 1 cyclist and 3 horses, besides a wagon. There is also a
division with tools and material for both destroying and repairing
lines.
The French army also has automobile wireless stations. The automobile
outfit is complete in every particular and is not augmented. It carries
its own crew and has a traveling radius of several hundred miles. The
car containing the station is completely enclosed and the walls are
deadened so that the noise made by the apparatus may not betray the
presence of the station to the enemy scouts.
The practical application of portable wireless outfits to military usage
is probably less than four years old, but the portables can transmit
messages over a radius of 200 to 250 miles. Expressed in technical
terms, the portable stations have a capacity of about 200 mile
wave-lengths.
The one weakness of the wireless is that the enemy can purloin secrets,
though adroitness in manipulation can overcome some of this difficulty.
A WORD ABOUT "HEAVY ARTILLERY."
It would not do to mention armaments and weapons without a word about
the "heavy artillery" of the commissary department, for this branch of
the army service is represented by formidable field kitchens, which are
again carried on trucks or motor cars. The officers' field kitchen
follows the advance of the officers to the field of action. Some of
these kitchens, particularly those of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince in
the German army, are described as almost luxurious. They contain
complete equipment--range, bake-oven, pantry, ice-box, china closet and
every device needed for preparing a complete meal.
Supplies are hurried after the troops in motor trucks from stations
where the supplies are delivered by rail and soups and sturdy meals are
prepared which were lacking in the campaigns through which the soldiers
of the Civil War passed. The pioneer mobile military field kitchen which
has been the subject of widespread comment was developed by the German
army.
It consists of a four-wheeled vehicle drawn by two horses, though
motors have supplanted the horses in some cases. The front carriage is
detachable from the rear and is actually a separate contrivance. On the
rear truck is a 200-quart copper, double, or jacketed vat. Also a
70-quart coffee tank. Both receptacles have separate fireboxes and ash
pits. One section carries extra rations for the men, the daily quota of
provisions, extra rations for horses, folding canvas water pails and
utensils.
The actual food is cooked within the vat or caldron inside the water
jacket, so that the heat does not come in contact with the food direct,
thus preventing burning. The food will cook slowly for hours when once
the water is heated, and will remain hot for a long time. The men can
get water in an emergency and hot coffee is always ready for the
sentries and men on guard duty to carry with them at night. Of course a
bottle of the thermos type is used by these men so that they can have
hot coffee when on the line of duty. The kitchen outfits are complete
and so arranged that they can be rushed over rough ground without
spilling their contents.
Electric flash lights, batteries for setting off dynamite and other
explosives used for blowing out trenches and other fortifications,
searchlights, mirror signaling devices, illuminating bombs, which are
shot high in the air to explode and illuminate the field for hundreds of
yards, signal bombs, and many ingenious contraptions never dreamed of
are part of the army's equipment used on the battlefields of the
greatest war that the world has ever known.
CHAPTER XII.
THE WORLD'S ARMIES.
THE EFFICIENT GERMAN ORGANIZATION--THE LANDWEHR AND LANDSTURM--GENERAL
FORMS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATION--THE BRAVE FRENCH TROOPS--THE PICTURESQUE
ITALIAN SOLDIERY--THE PEACE AND WAR STRENGTH--AVAILABLE FIGHTING
MEN--FORTIFICATIONS.
No one scoffs at the military organization which Germany has developed
through the years--yes, almost centuries--of moulding and training, for
Germany has proved herself efficient, even if egotistical and
domineering. She built up what at the beginning of the war was
recognized as the most powerful, most efficient and well balanced
military organization the world has ever known. And it was not an army
in the sense that America has been taught to think of armies. It was a
trained nation for war--a nation armed--rather than a small, compact
fighting machine.
The strength of the German army on October 1, 1913, has been given in
fairly authentic reports as 790,788 men and 157,916 horses. Of the men
30,253 were officers and 2,483 sanitary officers. There were 104,377
non-commissioned officers and 641,811 common soldiers. The general
divisions were 515,216 infantry and 85,593 cavalry, 126,042 artillery,
and the rest in the general service, including the commissary and
quartermasters' departments, as these are known in America. The
estimated army on a war footing is more than four times this number and
approximates about 4,000,000, while the entire available force was given
at probably 8,000,000.
The infantry is designated as the main body of the army. The infantrymen
carry the "98" gun, already referred to, which is an improved Mauser,
and the non-commissioned officers and ambulance drivers carry revolvers.
There are several classes of infantrymen, a distinction being made
between the sharpshooters, and some of the others, variously known as
grenadiers, musketeers and fusileers.
The cavalry is armed with lance, saber and carbine. There are
distinctions in this branch of the service, too, among the cavalry units
being cuirassiers, hussars, uhlans and dragoons. The field artillery
carries batteries of cannon and light howitzer, and the drivers are
armed with a sword and revolver. The cannoneers have a short knife or
dagger as well as the revolver.
The communication troops are what parallel the engineers in the United
States army. They build the roads, put up the telegraph lines and
telephone service, construct bridges and make the travel possible.
STRENGTH OF GERMAN ARMY.
While the full strength of the German army is given at 4,000,000 on a
war footing, the total availables from the nation's reserve is double
that sum. These forces are gathered from three sources: the first line,
with an estimated strength of 1,750,000; the Landwehr 1,800,000, and the
Landsturm 4,500,000.
All who enter the service pass into the Landsturm after 19 years and
remain until they are 45. The cavalry service is three years with the
colors and four years in the army reserve. The horse artillery are
subject to the same service, while those in other branches serve two
years with the colors and five with the army reserve. The soldier passes
from the army reserve into what is described as the Landwehr, where
artillerymen and cavalrymen remain three years; those of other branches
of the military five years. The soldier passes from the first division
or class of Landwehr to the second, where he remains until his 39th
birthday.
The Landsturm of the first class includes those between the ages of 17
and 39, who have not reached the age of service, and those who have not
been called into active service because the ranks were full and there
was no room for them in the regular army. The second class includes
those who have passed through the other branches and whose ages are
between 39 and 45.
There is a wide difference between the military organizations of the
different countries. Whereas the United States army regiment
approximates 1500 men, the German army regiment contains almost 3000. In
the German army six battalions form an infantry regiment. Two regiments
form a brigade, two brigades a division, and two divisions an army
corps. There are 10 divisions composed of 3 brigades each, but of course
the whole organization was augmented when war broke out. Adding the
necessary auxiliary troops, viz: an artillery brigade of 12 batteries
composed of 6 guns each--or 4 in the case of the horse Batteries--a
regiment of cavalry of 4 squadrons, an engineer battalion, sanitary
troops, etc., a German 3-brigade division at war strength numbers about
21,000, and an army corps--to which are further attached 4 batteries of
howitzers and a battalion of rifles--about 43,000 combatants. The
cavalry division is composed of 3 brigades of 2 regiments each and 2 or
3 batteries of horse artillery, a total of 24 squadrons and 8 to 12
guns.
In a general way it may here be interpolated that the organization of an
army is given in the military manuals as follows:
INFANTRY.
A squad is 8 men under the command of a corporal.
A section is 16 men under the command of a sergeant.
A platoon is from 50 to 75 men under a lieutenant.
A company is 3 platoons, 200 to 250 men, under a captain.
A battalion is 4 or more companies under a major.
A regiment is 3 or more battalions under a colonel, or a
lieutenant-colonel.
A brigade is 2 or 3 regiments under a brigadier-general.
A division is 2 or more brigades under a major-general.
An army corps is 2 or more divisions, supplemented by cavalry,
artillery, engineers, etc., under a major-general or lieutenant-general.
CAVALRY.
A section is 8 men under a corporal.
A platoon is 36 to 50 men under a lieutenant, or junior captain.
A troop is 3 to 4 platoons, 125 to 150 men, under a captain.
A squadron is 3 troops under a senior captain, or a major.
A regiment is 4 to 6 squadrons under a colonel.
A brigade is 3 regiments under a brigadier-general.
A division is 2 or 3 brigades under a major-general.
ARTILLERY.
A battery is 130 to 180 men, with 4 to 8 guns, under a captain.
A group or battalion is 3 or 4 batteries under a major.
A regiment is 3 or 4 groups (battalions) under a colonel.
When regiments are combined into brigades, brigades into divisions, and
divisions into army corps, cavalry, artillery, and certain other
auxiliary troops, such as engineers, signal corps, aeroplane corps,
etc., are joined with them in such proportions as has been found
necessary. Every unit, from the company up, has its own supply and
ammunition wagons, field hospitals, etc.
THE UNITED STATES ARMY.
Prior to 1915 the regular United States army was a mere police body as
compared with the armed forces of other countries. It was concededly
highly efficient, but for the purpose of entering into conflict with
such forces as those presented by Germany, France and some of the other
European countries it was admittedly inadequate.
The entire force consisted of 5,004 officers and 92,658 men. The forces
were divided into 15 regiments of cavalry and 765 officers and 14,148
men; 6 regiments of field artillery, with 252 officers and 5,513 men;
the coast artillery with 715 officers and 19,019 men, and 30 regiments
of infantry, with 1,530 officers and 35,008 men. The Philippine scouts
had 182 officers and 5,733 men; the Military Academy 7 officers and
6,266 men and the Porto Rico regiment of infantry with 32 officers and
591 men.
The signal corps had 106 officers and 1,472 men, and the engineer corps
237 officers and 1,942 men. There were also about 6000 recruits in the
various branches of the service under training.
The marine corps, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, had
346 officers and 9,921 enlisted men.
THE REGULAR ARMY.
The regular army was supplemented by the National Guards of the various
States which had 7,578 regiments with 9,103 commissioned officers and
123,105 enlisted men, or a total organization of 132,208. The "reserve
militia," which was in fact little more than a name, consisted of the
availables for service between the ages of 18 and 45 years, and
estimated on the basis of population, numbered about 20,000,000.
Before there was any real indication that the country would become
actively involved in the world war steps were taken to reorganize and
develop an efficient army, and under the Act which became effective on
July 1, 1916, and which provides for the establishment of basic units
for the army, the War Department orders and regulations fixed the basis
of the organization as follows:
Sixty-four infantry regiments, 25 cavalry regiments, 21 regiments of
artillery, a coast army corps, the brigade division, army corps, and
army headquarters, with their detachments and troops. A general staff
corps, adjutant general's department, inspector general department,
judge advocate general department, quartermaster corps, medical
department, corps of engineers, and ordnance department, signal corps,
officers of the bureau of insular affairs, militia bureau and detached
officers.
The law specifies that the total armed force shall include the regular
army, volunteer army, officers' reserve corps, enlisted reserve corps,
and the National Guard of the various States, subject to call for duty
within the borders of the United States.
The reorganization of the army was being effected at the time Uncle Sam
was called to fight for humanity, and only an approximation of the
condition can be made, for about two-thirds of the National Guard had
been taken into the regular service incident to the trouble with Mexico,
when the Guardsmen were summoned to the border to protect the country,
and recruiting was proceeding in all branches of the service to bring
all the regiments up to a war footing.
UNITS ON WAR FOOTING.
The various units, on a war footing, are: Infantry regiment, 1,800 men;
cavalry regiment, 1,250 men; field artillery, light regiment, 1,150;
field artillery, horse regiment, 1,150; field artillery, heavy regiment,
1,240; field artillery, mountain regiment, 1,100; engineers, pioneer
battalion, 490; engineers, pioneer battalion, mounted, 270; engineers,
pontoon battalion, 500; signal troops, field battalion, 160; signal
troops, field (cavalry) battalion, 170; signal troops, aero squadron, 90
men. Trains--infantry division: ammunition, 260; supply, 190; sanitary,
530; engineer, 10. Cavalry: ammunition, 60; supply, 220; sanitary, 300.
A division of infantry consists of 3 brigades of infantry, 1 cavalry
regiment, 1 artillery brigade, 1 regiment of engineers, 1 field signal
battalion, 1 aero squad, 1 ammunition train, 1 supply train, 1
engineer's train and 1 sanitary train, and comprises approximately
22,000 men and 7,500 horses and mules, and 900 vehicles, including guns.
The latter figures are, however, changed by reason of the introduction
of motor trucks, and automobiles, there being a consequent reduction in
the number of horses and mules and a slight increase in the number of
men.
A cavalry division consists of 3 cavalry brigades, 1 regiment of field
artillery, 1 battalion of mounted engineers, 1 field signal battery,
mounted; 1 aero squadron, 1 ammunition, 1 supply, 1 engineer and 1
sanitary train.
A brigade, in the main, consists of three regiments, the infantry having
5,500 men, cavalry brigade 2,500 and artillery brigade 2,500 men.
Under the reorganization plan the United States army would have about
293,000 in the service, but with the advent of the country's entrance
into the conflict of world powers Congress passed the Conscription bill
authorizing the drafting, for military purposes, all young men between
the ages of 21 and 31 in the country.
MILLIONS NOT IN THE COUNTRY'S SERVICE.
The registration of those subject to call under this bill showed that
there were about 11,000,000 men in the country, not in the army, navy or
supporting branches, available. The bill designed to produce, within a
year from the time of the signing of the law by President Wilson, of a
national army of more than 1,000,000 trained and equipped men, backed by
a reserve of men and supplies and by an additional 500,000 under
training.
Meantime the State authorities were authorized to fill up the National
Guard units and regiments to full war strength, so that with the regular
army there would be a total of 622,954--293,000 regular and 329,954
guardsmen, to be taken over by the War Department. This was the physical
state of the army when the country found it necessary to ship men into
France to assist the Allies in their fight against the German and
Austrian forces, and General Pershing was sent to command the American
troops.
The United States army and all of the military branches are armed with
the Springfield magazine rifle, which holds five cartridges. It shoots a
pointed bullet of tin and lead and is of .30 inch caliber. The Colt
automatic pistol is used as the service weapon by officers and those
requiring this sort of arm. It is a .45 caliber pistol with a magazine
holding seven cartridges, which can be fired successively by simply
holding the trigger back.
THE FRENCH ARMY.
Military spirit in France has had an almost incredible resurrection
within the past few years. The increase in the standing army of Germany
was watched closely, and as new units were added to the standing army of
the latter country France retaliated by lengthening the term of military
service from two to three years. This accomplished practically the same
purpose without causing a ripple of excitement, and as France determined
to recover her lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine her fight is to the
limit of her endurance.
There were, at the outbreak of war, 869,403 men in the National Army of
France, which was composed of the Metropolitan army, having a total of
753,403 men, of the Colonial army, numbering 116,000 men. These figures
do not include the personnel of the Gendarmerie, or military police,
which numbered 25,000 men.
Military service is compulsory in France and all males between the ages
of 20 and 48 years must serve three years in the army, the only cause
for exemption being physical disability. Following the active service
the soldier passes to the reserve for 11 years, after which he is seven
years in the Territorial army and seven years in the Territorial
reserve. The training in the active reserve consists of two periods of
training and maneuvers which last for four weeks each, in the
Territorial army one period of two weeks, and in the Territorial
reserve, no fixed period. There are more than 2,000 reservists per
battalion produced by the length of the reserve service, and when the
troops are mobilized the active units can be easily maintained at full
war strength. The number available in this way gives enough men for each
battalion and regiment in the field with enough men left over for
routine home guard work.
FRENCH MILITARY DIVISIONS.
There are two infantry regiments, composed of from six to eight
battalions, to the brigade, in the French army, with two brigades to a
division and two divisions to an army corps. A field artillery regiment,
consisting of nine batteries of four guns each, is attached to each
division. With nine field and three howitzer batteries and six
reinforcing batteries added under mobilization, each corps on a war
footing has 144 guns. There is also added to every army corps in the
field one cavalry brigade of two regiments, one cavalry battalion,
engineer companies and sanitary and service troops. The cavalry
divisions are composed of three brigades of two regiments each--together
with three batteries of horse artillery. There is in an army corps, when
mobilized, approximately 33,000 combatants, and in a cavalry division
4,700 men. An aeronautical corps in the French army consists of 334
aeroplanes and 14 dirigibles.
In the Reserve army at the time of mobilization there were two divisions
in each region, corresponding to those in the active army. When they
were mobilized the 36 reserve divisions contained virtually the same
organization and strength as the troops of the line. There were a large
number of troops for garrisoning the various fortresses when the
regional regiments, engineers and foot artillery were utilized for this
work.
The Territorial army also consists of 36 divisions and garrison troops.
When the remaining men of the Reserve and Territorial armies were
summoned to the depots they were available to maintain the field army at
full strength.
In the French field army there were 20 army corps, a brigade consisting
of 14 battalions, and 10 divisions of cavalry, when war was declared.
When this was raised to its full war strength the active army numbered
1,009,000 men, the reserves and depots 1,600,000, the Territorial army
818,000, and the Territorial Reserve 451,000, a grand total of 3,878,000
soldiers. At this critical time, therefore, France had at her command
about 5,000,000 trained men.
Lebel magazine rifles of .315 inches caliber are used by the infantry,
while the cavalry uses the Lebel carbine. The field piece is a
rapid-fire gun of 7.5 centimeters, or 2.95 inches, of the model of 1907,
and is provided with a shield for the protection of the gunners. A
howitzer of 12 or 15.5 centimeters is the type used by the French army.
The French artillery is generally admitted to be in a class by itself,
and the commissariat is excelled by none other. The infantry is most
deceptive in appearance, but the ability of the French to march and
attack has never been surpassed.
THE RUSSIAN ARMY.
There are 1,284,000 men in the Russian army in times of peace, while the
war strength is 5,962,306. The young man of Russia is compelled to enter
the army at the age of 20 years, the military service being compulsory
and universal, terminating at the age of 43 years. The period of service
in the active army is three years in the case of the infantry and
artillery, and four years in other branches of the service. The soldier
then passes to the reserve, where he serves for 14 or 15 years, during
which period he receives two trainings of six weeks each. After 18 years
in the active and reserve armies he is transferred to the Territorial
army for five years. There also exists a modified system of volunteers
for one year who supply the bulk of officers required for the reserve
upon mobilization.
The Russian army is divided into three forces, the army, of the
European Russia, the army of the Caucasus and the Asiatic army. There
are 1,000 men in a Russian battalion, 4 battalions constituting a
regiment, 2 regiments a brigade and 2 brigades a division.
RUSSIAN FIELD BATTERIES.
The field batteries are composed of 8 guns, the horse batteries of 6.
The ordinary army corps is made up of 2 divisions, a howitzer division
and one battalion of sappers, and has a fighting strength of
approximately 32,000 men. The rifle brigades form separate organizations
of 8 battalions with 3 batteries attached. The Cossacks, who hold their
lands by military tenure, are liable to service for life, and provide
their own equipment and horses. At 19 their training begins; at 21 they
enter the active regiment of their district; at 25 they go into what is
termed the "second category" regiment, and at 29 the "third category"
regiment, followed by 5 years in the reserve. After 25 years of age,
their training is 3 weeks yearly. In European Russia the field army
consists of the Imperial Guard and Grenadier Corps, 27 line army corps
and 20 cavalry divisions; in the Caucasus of 3 army corps and 4 cavalry
divisions. The Asiatic army is composed of Russians with a few Turkoman
irregular horse, and is mainly stationed in East Siberia. Since the
Russian-Japanese war these forces have been increased and reorganized
into a strong army which, at the outbreak, was capable of mobilizing,
together with auxiliary troops, more than 200,000 men.
The small-arm of the infantry is the "3-line" rifle of the 1901 model.
It has a magazine holding five cartridges, a caliber of .299 inches, a
muzzle velocity of 2,035 foot seconds, and is sighted to 3,000 yards.
The arm of the cavalry and Cossacks has a barrel 2-3/4 inches shorter,
but uses the same ammunition, and is provided with a bayonet which no
other mounted troops use. The field piece is a Krupp rapid-fire,
shielded gun, of the 1902 model, with a muzzle velocity of 1,950 foot
seconds, the shell weighing 13-1/2 pounds.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARIAN ARMY.
There are 472,716 men in the army of Austria-Hungary during times of
peace, with a war strength of 1,360,000 soldiers. Military service is
universal and compulsory, beginning at the age of 19 years, and ending
at the age of 43 years. The term of service in the common or active arm
of the service is for two years in the case of the infantry and three
years in the cavalry and horse artillery.
There is a Landwehr, or first reserve, in which the term of service is
10 years in the infantry, and seven for the cavalry or horse artillery,
which service is followed by that in the Landsturm, or second reserve,
in which the soldier serves until his forty-second birthday. Hungary
possesses a separate and distinct Landwehr and Landsturm, which
constitute the Hungarian National army. There is also a supplementary
reserve intended to maintain the units of the common army at full
strength.
The Empire is divided into 16 army corps districts, each presumed to
furnish a complete army corps of two divisions to the active army. Every
infantry division is composed of two brigades of 8 battalions each, 1
artillery brigade and 10 batteries of six guns, a regiment of cavalry,
and a rifle battalion. The army corps also contains a regiment of field
artillery or howitzers, a pioneer battalion and a pontoon company, and
numbers about 34,000 combatants.
There are 6 permanent cavalry divisions, each made up of 2 brigades--24
squadrons, 3 batteries of horse artillery and a machine-gun detachment
numbering about 4,000 men. It is estimated that the war strength is,
active army, 1,360,000; Austrian Landwehr, 240,000; Hungarian Landwehr,
220,000; Landsturm, 2,000,000 and reserve of 500,000, or a grand total
of 4,300,000.
The infantry carries the Mannlicher magazine rifle, .315-caliber and a
cavalry carbine of the same make. The field gun is a Krupp which uses a
14-1/2-pound shrapnel and the field howitzer is a 10.5 centimeter piece
which fires a 30-pound shell. The Hungarian cavalry is accounted fine,
but the main force is not regarded as efficient as the German or French.
THE ITALIAN ARMY.
The army of Italy on a peace footing is only about 250,860 men,
exclusive of the troops in Africa, but the country is able to mobilize a
large force, and some of its branches of service are the most efficient
in the world. Service is compulsory and general, beginning at the age of
20 years. After two years in the standing army there are six years in
the reserve, four years in what is known as the mobile militia and seven
years in the territorial militia.
There is compulsory training in both the reserve and the territorial
militia, ranging from two weeks to six weeks. In organization each
division of the army consists of 2 brigades composed of 2 regiments,
comprising 3 battalions, together with a regiment of field artillery,
with 5 batteries. The division has a war strength of 14,156 officers and
men and 30 guns. The cavalry division comprises 2 brigades of 4
regiments and 2 horse batteries. Each army corps has two divisions in
which are included a regiment of field artillery, 3 heavy batteries, a
regiment of cavalry and one of light infantry.
There is available for army service the military police, known as the
Carabinieri, besides the aeronautical corps, with half a dozen or more
companies, 30 aeroplanes and a dozen airships. There are also the
frontier troops organized for defense of the mountains, and which troops
waged heroic and picturesque warfare in the mountain passes. There are
in these troops 8 regiments of Alpine infantry, comprising 26
battalions, and 2 regiments of 36 mountain batteries.
The army strength approximates 2,600,000, made up of 700,000 active
army, 400,000 mobile militia, which is the second line of defense, and
the territorial militia, about 1,500,000. The infantry is armed with a
magazine rifle of 6.5 millimeters caliber known as the Mannlicher
Carcano, but up to the beginning of the war the territorials used a
different type.
GREAT BRITAIN'S ARMY.
The military establishment of Great Britain consists of the Regular army
and the Territorial army, aside from the Indian army and the local
forces in the various colonies. These armies are recruited from youth
between the ages of 18 and 25 years, who are recruited by voluntary
enlistment. The enlistment period is for 12 years, although it can be
prolonged under certain circumstances to 21 years.
Three to nine years is the period with the colors, and the remainder of
the enlistment is with the Army Reserve. Many men elect to serve seven
years with the colors and five with the reserve. Recruits are subjected
to five months' training, and each year are called out for six weeks,
supplemented by six days' musketry practice for the infantry.
The Home army consists of 9,740 officers and 172,610 men, the Army
Reserve of 147,000 and the Special Reserve of 80,120, and the
Territorial army of 313,485, a total of 724,955 men. Raised to war
strength, these forces would number 29,330 officers, 772,000 men and
2,072 guns, the batteries being of six guns, except the heavy batteries
and those of the Territorial army, which have four. During the Boer War
England put more than 1,000,000 men in the field.
The United Kingdom is divided into seven "commands," and the London
district, all of which include from two to three territorial divisions,
and one to four territorial cavalry brigades, in addition to detachments
of varying size from the Regular army. Two nearly full divisions are
stationed at Aldershot and in Ireland, one complete division in the
Southern and one in the Eastern "command." There are also six aeroplane
squadrons, each with 18 aeroplanes.
The Lee-Enfield rifle, caliber .303, is the arm of the infantry and
cavalry. In the Regular army the field artillery has an 18-pounder
Armstrong gun, the horse artillery a 13-pounder, the field howitzers are
40-pounders, and the heavy batteries are armed with 60-pounders.
The Territorial army was organized along the lines of the American
militia, and could scarcely be expected to distinguish itself when
pitted against the German regulars.
BELGIAN ARMY PEACE FOOTING.
The Belgian army peace footing is 3,542 officers and 44,061 men, with a
war strength estimated at from 300,000 to 350,000. The infantry is armed
with the Mauser rifle, the artillery with a shielded Krupp quick-fire
piece of 7.5-centimeter caliber.
In 1913 the Netherlands had in its standing army 1,543 officers and
21,412 men and 152 guns. On a war footing it could probably be raised to
270,000 men. The small arm is the Mannlicher rifle and carbine, the
field gun is the same as that of Belgium.
Servia has 10 divisions, divided into 4 army corps. The peace footing is
160,000, and the war strength about 380,000. The rifle is the Mauser
model of 1899, and the field piece a quick-firing gun of the French
Schneider-Canet system.
Bulgaria has a peace army of about 3,900 officers and 56,000 men. It is
armed with the Mannlicher magazine rifle, the Mannlicher carbine, the
Schneider quick-fire gun and a light Krupp for the mountain batteries.
On a war footing the country musters 4 army corps and 550,000 men.
Roumania's army is about 5,460 officers and 98,000 men. On a war footing
it has 5 army corps and 580,000 men. The infantry uses the Mannlicher
magazine rifle and the cavalry the Mannlicher carbine. The field and
horse batteries are armed with the Krupp quick-fire gun of the model of
1903.
In 1912 Greece had a peace establishment of 1,952 officers and 23,268
men, but the recent war has caused her to augment them to 3 army corps,
and her war footing is not far from 250,000 men. The infantry is armed
with the Mannlicher-Schonauer rifle of the 1903 model and the field
artillery with Schneider-Canet quick-fire guns.
Japan has a peace strength of 250,000 men, with a reserve of 1,250,000,
and a total war strength of 1,500,000 men, out of a total available
force capable of fighting of approximately 8,239,372 men.
SPAIN'S STANDING ARMY.
The standing army of Spain is 132,000 men. The reserves are estimated at
1,050,000, and the total war strength at 1,182,000. The total available
unorganized force is 2,889,197 men.
The army of Denmark on a peace footing is 13,725 men, with a reserve of
71,609. The total war strength is a little more than 85,000 men, and the
total fighting population is approximately 470,000.
Sweden has a peace strength in excess of 75,000 men, and a reserve of
more than 500,000, giving an estimated war strength of 600,000 men. The
total available unorganized force is about 500,000.
Norway has a standing army a little larger than that of Denmark--about
18,000 men--with 90,000 reserves, giving a total war strength of about
110,000 men. The unorganized force available is about 360,000 men.
Portugal has a peace strength of 30,000 men, with a reserve of 225,000,
making a total war strength of more than one-quarter of a million. The
unorganized fighting material is more than 800,000.
Turkey, which reorganized its forces within recent years, has a peace
strength of 210,000 men, about 800,000 reserves, giving a war strength
of over a million, and has a total available unorganized force to call
upon of more than 3,000,000.
The little army of Montenegro is a permanent body of about 35,000 men.
There are no trained reserve forces, but there is an available fighting
population of 68,000, outside of the army, to call upon.
CHINA'S MILITARY RESOURCES.
Recent events throw some doubt on the figures regarding China's military
resources, but the last available figures credited the great Republic of
the East with a force of 400,000 men, augmented by 300,000 reserves.
With this total war strength of 700,000 soldiers, estimates of the
available unorganized fighting material reaches the stupendous figure of
63,000,000.
Brazil has a peace strength of 33,000, with more than 500,000 reserves,
with more than 4,000,000 unorganized available material.
As relating to the armed strength of the nations abroad, some reference
to the system of fortifications which protect the various countries is
interesting at this point. Following years--in fact, centuries--of
study, Central Europe has been strongly fortified with a system of
embattlements which have reached the limits of human ingenuity.
In the east of France, along the frontier where France, Switzerland and
Germany meet, there are the first-class fortresses of Belfort, Epinal,
Toul and Verdun in the first line, reinforced by Besancon, Dijon,
Langres, Rheims, La Fere and Maubeuge in the second line, with smaller
fortifications close to the German frontier at Remirement, Luneville,
Nancy and other points. Along the Italian frontier the fortresses are
situated at Grenoble, Briancon and Nice, with Lyons in the rear. There
are strong forts at all naval harbors, the defense of Paris consisting
of 97 bastions, 17 old forts and 38 forts of an advanced type, the
whole forming entrenched camps at Versailles and St. Denis.
On that line of the German frontier which faces France there are the
fortresses of Neu-Breisach, Strassburg, Metz and Diedenhofen, in the
first line, with Rastatt, Bitsch and Saarlouis in the second line, and
Germershein in the rear. Situated opposite Luxemburg is Mainz, with
Coblentz and Cologne opposite Belgium and Wesel opposite Holland.
All along the northern coast, from Wilhelmshafen to Memmel, the German
coast is strongly fortified. Memmel is the pivot point of the northern
and eastern frontier, the latter frontier being protected by Konigsberg
and Allenstein, of the first line, and Danzig, Dirschau, Graudenz, Thorn
and the Vistula Passages, of the second line. South of this point are
Posen, Glogau and Breslau, which face Poland, while beginning at Neisse
the strong defense against Austria consists of fortifications at Glatz,
Ingolstadt and Ulm, the approaches to Berlin being guarded by Magdeburg,
Spandau and Kustrin.
POLISH QUADRILATERAL.
Along the line of the Russian frontier which guard that country from
attacks by the Germans are the fortresses of Libau, on the Baltic;
Kovna, Ossovets and Ust-Dvinsk, in the Vilna district, and in Poland
there are situated Novo-Georgievsk, Warsaw and Ivangorod, on the
Vistula, and Brest-Litovsk, on the Bug--four strongholds known as the
Polish Quadrilateral. Guarding Petrograd are the smaller fortifications
of Kronstadt and Viborg, with Sweaborg midway down the Gulf of Finland
near Helsingfors. Sebastopol and Kertch, in the Crimea, and Otchokov,
near Odessa, are the fortifications which guard the Black Sea.
Along the Austrian frontier are the strong embattlements of Cracow and
Przemysl, on the road to Lemberg in Galicia. These forts face Poland. In
Hungary there are Gyula-Fehervar and Arad, on the Maros River, and which
guard the approach from the angle of Roumania. On her frontier facing
Servia there are Alt-Orsova and Peterwardein, on the Danube, and
Sarajevo, in Bosnia, with Temesvar and Komorn blocking the approach to
Vienna from the southeast. On the Adriatic are Cattaro, on the edge of
Montenegro, and the naval arsenals of Pola and Trieste. All the Alpine
passes of the Tyrol are fortified, but neither Vienna nor Budapest has
any defenses.
The fortifications of Italy, aside from those on her coasts, extend in a
line from Venice, through Verona, Mantua and Piacenza to Alessandria and
Casale, which face the French frontier.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WORLD'S NAVIES.
GERMANY'S SEA STRENGTH--GREAT BRITAIN'S IMMENSE WAR FLEET--IMMENSE
FIGHTING CRAFT--THE UNITED STATES' NEW BATTLE CRUISERS--THE FASTEST AND
BIGGEST OCEAN FIGHTING SHIPS--THE PICTURESQUE MARINES: THE SOLDIERS OF
THE SEA.
Just as Germany at the outset of the war had the most efficient and,
broadly speaking, the greatest army in the world, so England had the
greatest navy in the world. As a matter of fact, Great Britain's
domination of the seas was very largely responsible for the development
of the super-submarine by Germany, and the putting into effect of the
submarine warfare which proved so disastrous to the Allies. This for the
reason that Germany, having sought for means to offset Great Britain's
power and control of the seas, turned to the underseas craft.
Up to the accession of Emperor William II--the Kaiser--Germany's navy
was little more than a joke. In 1848 the National Parliament voted six
million thalers for the creation of a fleet, and some boats were
constructed. But the attempts to weld Germany, then little more than a
federation, into a nation having failed, the fleet was put up at
auction, and actually sold in 1852. Prussia, a separate state, had
started a fleet of her own and purchased the German boats.
This fleet, just before the American Civil War, consisted of four
cruisers, carrying 28 cannon, and one cruiser having 17 cannon, besides
which there were 21 "cannon boats," carrying two and three cannons each.
The Prussian fleet merged into the North German Confederation in 1867,
and in turn became part of the fleet of the new German Empire in 1871.
In the war with France the German fleet played no part. There were one
or two clashes between French and German small boats, but that was all.
Even the successful outcome of the war did not inspire Germany to build
up a navy. Plans for the greater navy were first outlined about 1882,
but for a period of seven years not a battleship was built,
concentration being placed upon the torpedo boat. The idea of developing
the torpedo boat fleet belong to the present Grand Admiral von Tirpitz,
then a young officer. The fleet became the best in the world, but its
usefulness was soon checked by the new inventions, searchlights, gatling
guns, etc.
Germany's fleet legislation of 1898 for the first time looked ahead and
established rules for future building. The Spanish-American and the Boer
wars disquieted Germany, and about 1900 the fleet was doubled by
legislation. In 1906 the campaign of submarines, torpedo boats and
greater battleships began. Part of the program required that 12 torpedo
boats be built each year. Additional legislation for the construction of
cruisers and battleships was effected in 1908, and in 1912, until at the
beginning of the war, Germany had 38 ships of the line, 14 armored
cruisers, 38 protected cruisers, 224 torpedo boats and 30 submarines.
There were no torpedo-boat destroyers, the small cruisers taking their
places. The naval organization contained 73,000 officers and men. The
largest boats are the dreadnoughts, which are divided into several
classes. One of the last of these built by Germany was the Derfflinger,
which had a displacement of 28,000 tons.
The personnel of the German navy prior to the war was 79,197 officers
and men.
THE BRITISH NAVY.
Because of the fact that the territory of Great Britain is scattered
over the face of the globe and that it is necessary to use the highways
of the sea for reaching her various possessions, the navy of that
country is undoubtedly the greatest collection of fighting ships ever
gathered together under one flag.
In order to take care of her population of 1,625,000,000 she has
gathered together a navy consisting of 60 modern battleships, 9 battle
cruisers, 34 armored cruisers, 17 heavy protected cruisers, 70 light
cruisers, 232 destroyers, 59 torpedo boats of the latest type, 75
submarines, together with 50 sea-going auxiliaries of the fleet, which
are used as mother ships to destroyers, mine-layers, distilling ships,
oil ships, repair and hospital ships, with 145,000 officers and men.
The first group, completed between 1895 and 1898, includes six
battleships, all of 14,900 tons displacement, 12,000 horsepower and
2,000 tons coal capacity. The speed is 17.5 knots, the armor belt being
from 10 to 14 inches at the big guns and with a mean armor belt of 9
inches. The armament consists of 4 12-inch guns, 12 6-inch rapid fire,
16 3-inch rapid fire, 12 3-pounder rapid fire, 2 light rapid fire and 2
machine guns. They have one torpedo tube above water and two under
water.
MONSTERS OF THE SEA.
A later group of six was built in 1900 and 1902. These monsters of the
sea are of 12,950 tons displacement, 13,500 horsepower and have 2,300
tons coal capacity. They have a speed of 18.25 knots, 6 inches of armor
belt and from 8 to 12 inches protection for her big guns. The armament
consists of 4 12-inch rapid fire guns, 12 6-inch rapid fire, 10 3-inch
rapid fire and 2 light rapid fire and 2 machine guns. There are four
torpedo tubes.
Gradually England developed larger and larger vessels from this point,
increasing the displacement in each group from 16,350 tons in 1906 to
20,000 in 1911, and finally to 25,700, when the Queen Elizabeth and
Warspite were completed in 1915. These boats--England's
super-dreadnoughts--are of 58,000 horsepower (turbine), 4,000 tons oil
capacity. They have a speed of 25 knots, 13.5 inches of armor belt and
from 8 to 13.5 inches protection for the big guns. The armament consists
of 8 15-inch, 16 6-inch and 12 3-inch rapid fire guns. They have five
torpedo tubes. There were 150,609 officers and men in the navy when
England entered the war.
THE FRENCH NAVY.
At the beginning of the war the French navy ranked fourth among the
navies of the world. She had 18 battleships of the older types, and
which ranged in date of launching from 1894 to 1909. There were building
at that time eight ships of about 23,095 tons displacement. Although
France had no battle cruisers, she had 19 armored cruisers. The heavier
of these ships had a designed speed of 23 knots, and carried from 2100
to 2300 tons of coal. Their main batteries consisted of 2 7.6-inch rapid
fire and 8 6.4-inch rapid fire guns.
Two protected cruisers, the D'Entrecasteaux and the Guichen, and 10
light cruisers of no fighting importance completed the list of French
ships.
France was, however, strong, so far as numbers go, in destroyers,
torpedo boats and submarines, there being 84 destroyers, with
displacements of 276 to 804 tons and speeds of 28 and 31 knots. She
possessed 135 torpedo boats and 78 submarines, but many of these were of
small size. One hundred and one of her torpedo boats had displacements
of about 95 tons, and 20 of the submarines had displacements of 67 tons.
Of the submarines, there were 33 which had a displacement of 390 tons, 2
of 410 tons, 6 of 550 tons, 2 of 785 tons and 7 of 830 tons. This
displacement, which was surface, is usually 70 per cent of the
submerged. The larger submarines carry from six to eight torpedo tubes.
In the early part of 1916 the French Government had 12 submarines
building, these latter having surface displacement of 520 tons and
having Diesel motors of 2000 horsepower. The speed of these submarines
is 17-1/2 knots on the surface and 8 knots submerged.
Attached to the French fleet are 16 auxiliaries, used as mine-layers,
submarine destroyers and aeroplane mother ships, of from 300 to 7,898
tons.
There were 61,240 officers and men in the navy of France when war was
declared.
THE RUSSIAN NAVY.
With the ending of the Russo-Japanese war the Russian navy was given an
overhauling. There were but three of the old battleships of the Russian
navy left after this fateful struggle, these being the Tri Sviatitelia,
the Panteleimon and the Czarevitch. The Russian Government labored
diligently to build up her navy, and is still doing her utmost to
readjust that branch of her service.
With the outbreak of the great war she had six armored cruisers, none of
which was in the Black Sea. These averaged in tonnage from 7,900 to
15,170 tons displacement. There were eight cruisers of from 3,100 to
6,700 tons, and of no fighting value whatever.
Russia had but 14 torpedo boats, all small and of little value. She had
a fairly good fleet of destroyers and submarines, having 91 of the
former and 55 submarines.
There were 36,000 officers and men in the service when hostilities
opened.
THE AUSTRIAN NAVY.
When the war was declared Austria, Germany's supporter, had nine
battleships ready. These were completed since 1905, as follows: In 1906
and 1907 there were finished three battleships which displaced 10,433
tons, had 14,000 horsepower and 1315 tons coal capacity. They had a
speed of 19.25 knots, 6 to 8.25 inches of side armor and 9.5 inches
protection for the big guns. The armament consisted of 4 9.4-inch, 12
7.6-inch rapid fire, 14 3-inch rapid fire and 16 smaller guns. They had
two torpedo tubes.
In 1910 three other ships were added to the navy. These were slightly
larger than those described just above, having a displacement of 14,268
tons, with engines of 20,000 horsepower. They had three torpedo tubes.
Three ships of 20,000 tons displacement were launched in 1912 and 1913.
They had a speed of 20 knots and four torpedo tubes. Three other
battleships had been built up until 1906, and these, together with 10
light cruisers, were in the Austrian navy at the breaking out of
hostilities.
The torpedo boat destroyers, of which there were 18, must not be
forgotten. Twelve of these were of 384 tons, capable of making 28-1/2
knots. These carried 4 12-pounders and 2 21-inch torpedo tubes. They
were built for oil fuel.
There were six submarines in this navy, these being of moderate size,
ranging from 216 to 235 tons displacement on the surface.
THE JAPANESE NAVY.
There were 9 first-class battleships in the Japanese navy at the
beginning of the world war. Of battle cruisers there were 5, while of
the older battleships 13 were ready for orders. Twelve first-class
cruisers were ready for duty, and there were 9 second-class cruisers and
9 third-class cruisers. Of gunboats there were 5, 60 destroyers, 37
torpedo boats and 15 submarines. The personnel of the Japanese navy
consisted of 47,000 officers and men.
THE ITALIAN NAVY.
Italy was ready for her part on the seas with 7 first-class battleships,
8 of the older type, 9 first-class cruisers, 5 second-class cruisers, 10
third-class cruisers, 5 gunboats, 46 destroyers, 75 torpedo boats and 20
submarines. There were 36,000 officers and men to handle these ships.
THE TURKISH NAVY.
When hostilities were declared Turkey had a navy consisting of 2
first-class battleships, 3 battleships of an older type, 2 first-class
cruisers, 2 second-class cruisers, 4 third-class cruisers, 8 gunboats, 2
monitors, 10 destroyers and 8 torpedo boats. The officers and men in the
Turkish navy numbered 30,000.
THE UNITED STATES NAVY.
The United States navy, which has made an enviable reputation for itself
wherever and whenever the boats and men have been engaged, ranked third
at the beginning of the war. While not of the heaviest type, the boats
were of the most improved models, and maintained on a basis that
justified the belief that they would stand up in the face of the
severest opposition.
There were 12 modern battleships, 30 of an older type, 10 armored
cruisers, 5 first-class cruisers, 4 second-class cruisers, 16
third-class cruisers, 30 gunboats, 9 monitors, 74 destroyers, 19 torpedo
boats and 73 submarines, manned by 55,389 officers and men. The
California, Idaho, Arizona, Mississippi and Pennsylvania are the latest
battleships of the navy, and are of the super-dreadnought type. All of
these battleships have a displacement of more than 31,000 tons, and have
the most complete equipment that it is possible to command. The
batteries consist of 4 13-inch and 14 6-inch guns, 4 6-pounders,
together with 4 21-inch torpedo tubes. There is a variation in the
batteries, but all have approximately the same kind of armament.
One of these huge vessels is about 625 feet long, and has a speed of
from 21 to 23 knots. The Pennsylvania, one of the largest, is of 31,500
horsepower, and cost approximately $7,250,000. In addition to this,
Congress had authorized the construction of what is designed to be the
supreme type of fighting vessel. The plans for these vessels call for
the construction of vessels approximately 875 feet long and nearly 90
feet wide. Some idea of what enormous vessels these must be may be
gained when it is seen that the cruisers are 250 feet longer than the
super-dreadnought.
The battle cruisers have six decks, extending from end to end, and are
so extensive that they almost constitute a battlefront.
This comparison to a battlefront on land becomes interesting when
consideration of it is further pursued. There are even railroads to
fetch ammunition to the guns, though they run vertically instead of
horizontally. The general headquarters is in the conning tower, to which
all lines of "field communication" lead--telegraphs, telephones, etc.
The "observation posts," for directing and correcting the range and aim
of artillery, are at the tops of the two wire "bird-cage" masts. This
work is helped (as on land) by kite balloons and aeroplanes, which, as
part of its fighting equipment, the battle cruiser carries. To blind the
enemy ships, under suitable circumstances, the big guns create a
"barrage" of water, by directing their fire at the sea in front of the
hostile vessels, throwing over them a mass of spray.
AMPLE PROVISION FOR THE WOUNDED.
On board the battle cruiser is a fully equipped field hospital,
supplemented by battle dressing stations near the guns, for the
emergency treatment of the wounded. To the musicians of the ship's band
is assigned the duty of carrying wounded men to the dressing stations
and the hospital, the latter being on one of the lower decks, beneath
the water level.
The battle cruiser, built long and narrow, has a great speed. The four
monster propellers are driven by electricity, which is generated by
engines fed with fuel oil. The speed attained is 35 knots an hour, which
means the same speed as a train traveling at the rate of 40 miles an
hour, since the sea mile, or knot, is longer than the land mile.
In order to obtain this enormous speed it was necessary for the
designers of the battle cruisers to sacrifice armor protection. The
armor on these ships is but an eight-inch belt. The real object of the
battle cruiser is to use its superior speed and overwhelming gun power
to overtake and destroy the enemy's ships of the second line, the
auxiliaries and scouts.
Each of these vessels has a displacement of 34,800 tons--meaning, in
plain language, that they weigh that much, hence displace that much
water when launched. The biggest British battle cruiser, which is the
largest battle cruiser afloat, is the British Tiger, which has a
displacement of 28,500 tons, and is less in length by 150 feet than
these mighty battle cruisers. The Tiger is much less formidably armed,
carrying eight 13 1/2-inch guns. The largest German battle cruiser is
the Derfflinger, of 26,200 tons, and armed with eight 12-inch rifles.
Our latest commissioned dreadnought, the Arizona, has engines of 31,400
horsepower. The engines of that monster passenger steamship, the
ill-fated Lusitania, were of 70,000 horsepower. Those of the Tiger boast
120,000 horsepower. But each of our six battle cruisers has 180,000
horsepower to drive her through the water.
HUGE FIGHTING CRAFT.
These huge fighting craft are the most expensive ships ever built. Each
of them cost about $20,000,000, the money outlay being something like
$16,500,000, exclusive of armor and guns. And for each battle cruiser
must be provided, in the way of personnel, 1,153 enlisted men, 64
marines and 58 officers.
While the American Navy had but 55,389 men when the war opened it was
quickly increased, and under the Army bill, which provided for the
reorganization and increasing of the land forces, the naval forces were
also increased.
The bill increasing the authorized enlisted strength of the navy to
150,000 did not provide for any additional officers above the rank of
lieutenant. The increase in the enlisted force amounts to 57,000, the
authorized strength at the time of the law's passage being 93,000. Based
on the increase, the allowance of officers would be 747 lieutenants and
954 lieutenants junior grade and ensigns.
The increase in the enlisted strength of the Marine Corps from 17,400 to
30,000, or by 12,600, also gives an additional allowance of 504
officers to the corps, which, under the bill, are distributed among the
grades of major, captain, first lieutenant and second lieutenant.
The Marine Corps is one of the most picturesque military organizations
in the world. There is, probably, no other such body of trained
soldiery. While they are under the control of the Navy Department, they
can be detached from that branch of the service and assigned for duty
with any other branch of the military forces of the country.
POLICEMEN OF THE SEA.
They are the policemen of the sea; they are artillerymen, infantrymen,
cavalry, engineers, and soldiers, first, last and all the time. They are
the first troops in action, and there is no restriction as to the kind
of military duty they are called upon to perform.
The Marines served on shore and on board vessels of the navy throughout
the Revolutionary War, two battalions having been authorized by the
Continental Congress November 10, 1775. The present organization really
dates from July, 1798, when Congress passed an act approving the
establishment of an organization to be known as the Marine Corps,
consisting of 1 major, 4 captains, 16 first lieutenants, 12 second
lieutenants, 48 sergeants, 48 corporals, 32 drums and fifes and 720
privates.
Every one of the 15,000 men who composed the more than a century old
Marine Corps when the war broke out was ready and on his toes when the
call for action came. There was nothing in the way of scientific
preparedness that got by them. In the matter of trench helmets, for
instance, when it was time for the American nation to come to the front
in the great world war, the Marines had a helmet so much of an
improvement on the one used by the Allies that there was no comparison.
Armored motorcars, likewise, of the most improved type, belonged to the
Marine Corps when the call for action came. These cars are capable of
making 45 miles an hour, and there were plenty of them for service in
the Marine Corps. Some interesting equipment never used before the big
war composed part of the quartermasters' stores in the Marine Corps.
It's a marvel what these chaps can do with a big naval gun--one of those
big brutes which are bolted down to the deck of a warship. It doesn't
look like a thing to be picked up and carted around the country. That's
precisely what the heavy artillery companies do, however. It takes them
but a few minutes to sling one of these five-inchers over the side of a
ship, land it, and take it wherever it is needed. They do this with the
aid of a single-spar derrick, some little narrow-gauge trucks and a
portable narrow-gauge railroad.
TRANSPORTATION OF BIG GUN.
The method is to lay down the railroad--it can be done very swiftly by
men carefully trained in the art of laying tracks over all kinds of
ground--put the gun and its mount, with a specially prepared base of
extremely heavy timbers, on the tracks, and trundle it to the place
where it is needed to pour a rapid fire into the enemy.
Here a pit has been dug, in which is laid down the heavy timber base,
riveted together with heavy steel bolts. Then it is well packed with
dirt and stone, and the gun carriage made fast ingeniously. The
single-stick derrick has been erected alongside, guyed out in four
directions with heavy ropes, which are made fast to the ground by means
of "dead men," and manipulated by very live gangs of husky marines. A
chain block of powerful type is used to pick up the gun carriage and put
it in place, and afterwards to swing the gun into its sockets on the
carriage.
Later the breech locks and sights are added, and the big five-inch,
40-caliber naval gun is ready to go into action. These big and heavy
guns, suitable for long range work with high explosive shells, can be
taken a quarter of a mile or so from the ship which carried them, over
rough ground, set up and put in operation in a few days' time.
But the heavy artillery base is only one of the Marines' work. They have
big howitzers, of the more modern type, most of which are kept at
Annapolis, where they can be loaded aboard ship in short order. Men and
machines can be mobilized at the strategic points in a very short time.
EVERY MAN'S SERVICE.
The Marine service is unique in many respects. For one thing, it is
every man's service. The proportion of officers who have risen from the
ranks or who have been commissioned from civilian life is higher in the
Marine Corps than in either the Army or the Navy. This, of course, makes
for democracy in the corps. An enlisted man, who does not wait until he
is too far up in the 20's to enlist, has a very fair chance of earning
his commission. Another thing--and this is of prime importance to the
ambitious fellow--promotion goes by merit. In the army and navy the
young officer is promoted by seniority.
Things are a bit different in the Marine Corps. In this organization a
man doesn't absolutely have to wait for his number to come around. If he
distinguishes himself above his fellows, he may be promoted without much
regard for age or length of service. He goes up as he is able to, by his
active ability and his readiness to work hard and effectively for Uncle
Sam. There are advocates, of course, of both systems. There are merits
which both systems can justly claim. But it goes without saying that
this possibility of promotion keeps everybody in the Marine Corps on the
jump.
Even the enlisted men who are too old to get commissions have something
to work for. Not very long since Congress authorized the appointment of
"warrant officers" in the Marine Corps. The Navy had this grade for many
years. It is new in the Marine Corps, and is an added incentive to hard
work.
Another incentive--and perhaps the strongest one--that draws young
fellows of the up-and-doing sort into the Marine Corps is that of active
service. The Marines boast that they are always on the job; that no
matter how peaceful the time, the Marines are sure to see "something
stirring" right along. It is a saying--and a true one--in the Marine
Corps that every marine who has served the ordinary enlistment in the
corps since the Spanish-American war has smelt powder. Ever since the
fuss with Spain the marines have been covering themselves with glory. In
that little war of 1898 the Marines were the first to land in Cuba. They
held Guantanamo for three months. In 1890 they saw service in the
Philippines; the next year in China. In 1902 the Marines took part in
the fighting against Aguinaldo, the wily Filipino leader. In 1903 they
put down the rebellion in Panama, captured Colon and opened up the
Panama railroad. In 1906 they helped quiet the uprising of that summer
in Cuba. They were in Nicaragua in 1909. From 1911 to 1913 they did more
duty in Cuba, with a whirl in Nicaragua again in 1912. They helped hold
Vera Cruz for three months in 1914. Next year they went to Haiti, where
they have been moderately busy from time to time since. Santo Domingo
saw them in 1916.
AN UNAPPROACHABLE RECORD.
Neither the army nor the navy can claim anything to beat it--you
couldn't tell a marine that the rival branches of the service can claim
anything to equal it. And as for the modern implements of warfare--the
European armies have no advantage over the marines for testing out new
devices. They had armored cars, for instance, as far back as 1906; they
began to use motor trucks for military purposes as early as 1909. Every
marine expedition is equipped with its quota of armored trucks. They
would as soon think of voyaging over the seas to put down an incipient
revolution without their armored cars and motor trucks as they would of
going to meet the enemy without their rifle.
There used to be an old joke about "Horse Marines." A sailorman on a
horse is an incongruous thing--a sight to make you hold your sides. But
the marines are not plain sailormen. They are "soldier and sailor, too,"
and as soldiers they have turned the joke on the old saw about "horse
marines." There are "horse marines" these days, and mighty good cavalry
they make.
The marine can ride with the best of the cavalrymen. And in the fracas
in Domingo there were two cavalry companies of marines organized.
THE MANY-SIDED MARINE.
It takes a bit longer to make an efficient marine than to make an
infantryman. This because the marine is a man of many specialties. He
is, of course, in season and out of season, an international policeman.
That's his job in time of peace. But when he fares abroad to fight his
country's battles he may be called upon to do almost any kind of work.
He may be an artilleryman; a signalman; an airman. He may be, and
usually is, anything that his country needs at that particular time. And
he is trained to meet the emergency.
The new recruit, in ordinary times, is sent for his first instruction to
Port Royal, down in Georgia. There he has nothing to do but drill,
drill, drill, until he can do the infantry evolutions in his sleep. He
learns to drill, he learns to keep clean--the Marines are something of a
dandy corps--and he learns to take care of himself no matter what
happens. He is taught to be a soldier and a man. He learns to walk
straight, shoot straight, think straight. And then he goes for a spell
to sea--for after all, he needs sea legs as well as land legs.
But these two tricks of duty by no means end the marine's schooling.
When he has become an efficient all-around man he may specialize. He
may, if he chooses, go into the signal corps and learn the multitude of
details connected with this ultramodern arm of the service. He learns to
send messages by every possible means. He learns to operate a radio.
And, it might be mentioned in passing, the Marine Corps is equipped with
the very finest of radio apparatus. They have big trucks which carry the
outfit and supply the power for either sending radio messages or
operating huge electric searchlights. Or he may go into aviation.
[Illustration: INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES BEFORE THE WAR.
This map shows the boundary lines between nations as they were at the
beginning of the war, as also the coast lines of Europe. The latter are
brought out in bold relief.]
CHAPTER XIV.
THE NATIONS AT WAR.
UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS--HOW THE WAR FLAMES SPREAD--A SCORE OF COUNTRIES
INVOLVED--THE POINTS OF CONTACT--PICTURESQUE AND RUGGED BULGARIA,
ROUMANIA, SERVIA, GREECE, ITALY AND HISTORIC SOUTHEAST EUROPE.
The real history of the greatest war of all times is the history of the
entire world, touching every phase of existence in a manner that has
never been approximated by any other conflict. The motives and
ramifications are so great that it is almost impossible for the human
mind to grasp the significance of many things of importance which, at a
glance, seem to be but incidents.
The world looked on expectantly when the war started, because there was
a general knowledge of the conditions existing in Europe and the
undercurrent was felt by students of international affairs. But that
Russia would revolt and the Czar abdicate, as he did in March, 1917, and
the iron-ruled country would set up a government of its own--would join
the circle of democracies--was not even hinted at. Neither was it
intimated that Constantine I, King of Greece, would abdicate in favor of
his son, Prince Alexander, as he did in the following June, under
pressure, because of his sympathy for Germany.
Neither was there a suspicion that the fire started by the flash of a
pistol and the bursting of a bomb in Bosnia would spread until sixteen
countries were arrayed against Germany and Austria, supported by the
Bulgarians and the Turks. And to these must be added the entrance into
the conflict of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, possessions of Great
Britain, and smaller possessions of other countries. The flames swept
over the face of the earth in this fashion:
Starting with the movement of Austria against Servia, after the
assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, there lined up as a
consequence of the alliances formed between the powers, the countries
referred to in preceding chapters. The triple alliance was originally an
agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, to strengthen
their positions, and the Triple Entente consisted of agreements between
France, England and Russia.
INVASION OF BELGIUM.
Briefly, the invasion of Belgium by Germany, and her ambitions in the
southeast, where Russia had what amounted to protectorate relations,
drew first France, England and Russia into the strife, and step by step
there became involved nation after nation. The steps, marked by the
declarations of war, were as follows: On July 28, 1914, Austria declared
war on Servia, and on August 1 Germany made the declaration against
Russia. Next Germany turned upon France, on the third day of August, and
also on Belgium, whereupon, on the following day, Great Britain declared
war on Germany; a day later Austria-Hungary issued the mandate against
Russia, and two days later, or on August 8, Montenegro declared war on
Austria. Austria accepted the challenge, and then Servia took up the
cudgel against Germany. France made formal declaration of war on
Austria-Hungary and by the end of August Montenegro had declared against
Germany; Great Britain on Austria; Japan on Germany; Austria on Japan;
Austria on Belgium. Later, or early in November, Russia declared herself
against Turkey, as did France and Great Britain.
For six months the battle raged and the rest of the world regarded the
result with grave concern until in May of 1915 Italy, having renounced
her alliance with Germany and Austria, declared war first on Austria,
then on Turkey. In the fall of 1915 Servia took up arms against
Bulgaria, as did Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia. Then Germany
declared against Portugal, whose government replied in kind; Austria
followed Germany in the alignment and finally, in August, 1916, there
were exchanges of sharp "courtesies"--the complete severance of all
diplomatic relations and open warfare--between Roumania and
Austria-Hungary; then between Bulgaria and Roumania, with the consequent
alignment of the Central Powers. Italy had also made her declaration
against Germany specific. So for nine months the war waged with terrible
bitterness until on April 6, the United States, by the proclamation of
President Wilson, was finally at war with Germany.
IN THE NATURE OF MERE FORMALITIES.
These steps were, in many instances, in the nature of formalities, for
the relationships of some of the countries involved placed them in the
position of practically being at war before formal announcement was
made. The position then, was that Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey
were supported by Bulgaria, who was anxious to get redress for having
been cheated out of what she regarded as her rightful possessions in the
settlement of the Balkan war question. Those aligned on the other side
were England, France, Russia, Montenegro, Italy, Belgium (which had been
making defensive warfare in keeping with her desire to be true to her
neutral pledges); Servia, Roumania, Japan, Portugal, the United States,
the little principality of Monaco, which is best known as the seat of
Monte Carlo, the great gambling center of Europe, and San Marino, a
similar "patch" on the map of Europe. Brazil, Guatemala, and the little
Republic of Cuba also aligned themselves against Germany in support of
the Allies, though there was no actual engagement of their forces. Thus
there could be counted as at war against the Central Powers in June,
1917, sixteen countries.
Most interesting of all the countries involved were those belonging to
the Balkan group and centering in southeastern Europe. The Balkan
nations, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, with Greece, paved the way for
their entrance into the conflict when they formed an alliance, in 1912,
for common protection, particularly for the enforcement of one of the
provisions of the Berlin Treaty, guaranteeing local government to the
Bulgar and Serbian colonies in Macedonia. Montenegro began war on Turkey
in October, and Bulgaria, Servia and Greece joined and drove the Turks
out of many of their strongholds.
[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF GERMANY AND THE STATES FORMING THE EMPIRE.
This drawing shows the location of the twenty-five States which were
included within the boundaries of the German Empire at the beginning of
the war.]
"COMIC OPERA" SOLDIERS.
In a month of fighting the little countries, in the picturesque
southeastern section, whose soldiers have been depicted as "comic opera"
soldiers, had rent Turkey; Greece had captured the famous Macedonian
city of Salonica, once known as Thessalonica, where was located the
church in which was addressed St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians;
while the Servians had captured Monastir, one of the most important
centers in Macedonia, and the Bulgarians had driven the Turks almost to
the famed city of Constantinople. The Servian soldiers finally marched
to the Adriatic sea, and Albania raised a flag of its own and asked
Austria-Hungary and Italy to recognize its independence and grant it
protection.
Within little more than two months Turkey had been deprived of the
greater portion of her possessions in Europe and a treaty of peace was
signed between the allied countries and the Turks. By this agreement
Albania became in effect a suzerainty, protected by Austria. But the
agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy--the Triple
Entente--gave those countries a combined power which, when it came to
fixing the terms of peace, left the small allied countries of victory at
a disadvantage, and while Montenegro and Greece gained some territory,
as did Servia, Bulgaria lost what she had gained in the war. Turkey lost
90 per cent of her Empire in Europe, which so aroused the country that
the rising of the young Turks followed and the government was
reorganized. The enforced terms of settlement, however, set the little
countries at each other's throats.
The field of the Balkan battles is the very center of the world's
history. Along the Adriatic, Ionian and Agean seas are lands and
territories peopled with races that mark their ancestry back to the very
darkest ages. The protected country of Albania, with its rocky surface,
numbers among its peoples descendants of the Arnauts, whose very origin
is a mystery. They were present before the days of Greece and Rome. The
Ottoman Turks, the Bulgars from the plains of the Volga and the Ural
Mountains, the Serbs, the Roumanians, Russians, Italians, the Slavs,
Tartars.
A REGION OF MOUNTAINS.
Albania is a mountainous region along the Adriatic coast, peopled with
descendants of the ancients who maintain their characteristics. They are
said to be descendants of the Pelasgian races, which inhabited the
territory before the Greeks builded their Athens.
The Albanians are wild, daring mountaineers, and though the people have,
to all intents and purposes, been under Turkish rule for centuries, they
have never recognized the sovereignty of the Sultan. It was originally
part of the Turkish Empire in Europe, having been taken by Turkey, in
1467, and is a fertile, but wild country.
The same picturesque people that make up the population of Albania
constitute the populace of the little country of Montenegro, which was
once part of the Turkish possession. Montenegro contained about 3486
square miles of territory before its acquisitions in the Balkan wars.
Aided by Russia, the country obtained its independence from Turkey in
1878, and in 1910 became a kingdom. Its present area is about 5650
square miles and the population 520,000. The capital is Cettinje.
Bulgaria was also once a part of the Turkish possessions, and under the
Treaty of Berlin, in 1878, became a suzerainty. It is a famous pastoral
country, inhabited by a people for years held under the Ottoman heel.
They are racially Turanians, and kin of the Tartar and Huns, who came
into their present fertile country from the vast plains of eastern
Russia. They made their way thither more than a thousand years ago, and
battling at the very gates of Constantinople, by their fierce crusades,
secured the grants from the Byzantine Empire of the territory, which
constitutes the Bulgaria of today. The population is nearly 5,000,000,
and the country contains about 43,000 square miles.
WHY ITALY ENTERED THE WAR.
Italy's reasons for entering the war, aside from her demands for
territory, in exchange for continuance of neutrality, have to do with
matters of years gone by, when she began the struggle for her liberation
from the Austrian domination. Italy desired, among other things, to
acquire Trentino, Goritz, and other adjacent territory controlled by
Austria, but Italian in every attribute. Trentino is a rocky region, and
strategically valuable to the country possessing it, which was proved by
the terrible struggle which the Italians were forced to make in their
attacks against the Austrian forces.
The city of Trent is the capital of Trentino, famous in history, and the
seat of the long church council in 1545-46. It was in turn controlled by
Roman, Goth, Hun, Lombard and Holy Roman Empire. It is the site of many
historic buildings, notably the cathedral of Trent, which is a fine
example of Lombard architecture, and the church of Santa Maria Maggorie,
where the famous Council of the Roman Catholic Church was held. There
are old towers, and libraries rich in manuscripts.
Trentino is famous for its mountain passes, over which the Italians have
been compelled to drag their heavy artillery and implements of war. The
Alpini, the mountaineer soldiers of Italy, are among the most
picturesque in the world. They have scaled the almost perpendicular
faces of the Alps, climbing from crag to crag with their bodies roped
together, dragging machine guns in pieces strapped to their shoulders.
Tolmino, Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia, Avlona, the prime harbor of Albania
(seized by Italy in the fall of 1916). These are little spots in the
territory logically Italian, which Italy covets.
[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF THE AUSTRIA-HUNGARY EMPIRE.
Drawn and engraved especially to show the Provinces comprising the
Empire, and their locations as they were at the beginning of the war.
This is a country of many nationalities and languages.]
DIVIDED INTO SIXTEEN DEPARTMENTS.
Italy, since its consolidation into one kingdom in 1870, has been
divided into sixteen departments comprising sixty-nine provinces. The
country has a total area of 110,623 square miles, and a population of a
little more than 35,000,000. The Roman Catholic Church is irrevocably
linked to the history of Italy and Rome, its capital, marked the
farthest advance of civilization in the ancient days. It possesses four
distinct zones, ranging from the almost arctic cold of the mountain
belts to an almost tropical heat in the southern lowlands. It is one of
the picturesque countries of the world, a center of art, industry and
travel.
Servia, which is separated from Austria-Hungary by the Danube, is of
precisely the same character as the other rich, mountainous region. The
country was subjugated by the Turks, who retained possession of it until
1717. Austria then wrested control from the Turks, and held it until
1791, when Turkey again dominated it. In 1805 the Servians revolted, and
secured temporary independence, only to again come under the Ottoman
rule. Again it secured freedom in 1815, and by the Treaty of Paris,
independent existence was secured for it. Turkey became only a nominal
authority. It became a kingdom in 1882, after having become absolutely
independent with the Berlin Treaty.
The people are Slavonic, and kin to the Croats of ancient history. They
are described as having come from Poland and Galicia, moving down the
Danube, into what is the present kingdom. In the fourteenth century the
Servian empire comprised the whole Balkan peninsula, from Greece to
Poland, and from the Black Sea to the Adriatic. But Servia warred with
Turkey, and her troops were defeated in the great battle at Kossovo, and
the Ottoman power became supreme. The country has an area of about
34,000 square miles and a population of 4,600,000.
LITTLE BOSNIA'S FUTURE.
Bosnia, where was assassinated the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, of
Austria, was a Turkish province, west of Servia, and under the treaty of
Berlin was to be administered for an undefined period by the Austrian
government. The little section contains about 16,000 square miles and
has a population of about 1,750,000, largely of Slavonic origin. They
are partly Mohammedans, partly Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics. In
the middle ages Bosnia belonged to the Eastern Empire. Later it became a
separate kingdom, dependent upon Hungary, only to be conquered by the
Turks. It is the mountainous, rugged country of the Julian and Dinaric
Alps, but has many fertile valleys, and is well watered by the river
Save, and its numerous tributaries.
Greece, the modern kingdom, is one of the countries that for centuries
were politically included within the limits of the Turkish Empire. In
its present form it represents but a portion of that country, famous in
history, as the Greece of the Ancients--that classic land which holds
the most conspicuous place in the pages of ancient history--but still it
is inclusive of the greatest names belonging to the glorious past. It is
the country of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes and Argos. It is
separated from Turkey by a winding boundary, extending from the Gulf of
Arta on the west to the Gulf of Salonica on the east.
The earliest settlers were the Pelasgi, who were in course of time
replaced by the Hellenes. They, in turn, were succeeded by the
Phoenicians, who swayed the country. Athens, Sparta, Thebes and Corinth
came into existence and became the centers of political government, of
the most progressive advancement in civilization. Civil discords brought
on first the Peloponnesian War, about 434 B.C., and made them prey to
the Macedonians. Successively invaded by Goths, Vandals and Normans the
country came into the possession of the Turks in 1481, though for two
centuries the power of the Turk was questioned by the Venetians. Revolt
was had from the Ottoman yoke in 1821, and independence was secured by
the interference of foreign powers after the defeat of the Turk at the
Navarino, in 1827. Through the succeeding years it has been a protected
monarchy.
ONE OF THE BALKAN GROUP.
Roumania, the largest of the Balkan group, lying between Russia on the
north, and Bulgaria on the south, is the home of the Gacians,
descendants of the warlike tribes who for years held their own against
Greek and Roman. After the fall of Rome the province became a melting
pot, through which the hordes of invaders, passing from Russia to Asia,
were in a sense made one people. The Goths, the Huns, the Lombards, the
Bulgars and the Magyars traversed the region, leaving many settlers. It
became divided into two provinces, Moldavia and Wallachia, known as the
Danubian provinces.
Both provinces were conquered by the Turks in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, and under Peter the Great the Russians attempted
the conquest of the provinces. In 1859 the two provinces were united
under a prince whose independence both Turkey and Russia recognized, and
in 1881 the country declared itself a kingdom. The province of Wallachia
derives its name from the people who early settled there, the Wallachs.
The Roumanians claim descent from Vlachi, a colony of Romans, who
settled in Thrace, and, in the twelfth century, emigrated to the Danube.
The name Roumania is derived from the word Roman, the country having
originally been "the Land of the Roumani." Roumania has a population of
about 7,600,000 and comprises 64,000 square miles.
Macedonia, famous country of Greece in the time of Philip, father of
Alexander the Great, embraced the entire region from the Scardian
Mountains to Thessaly, and from the Epirus and Illyria to the river
Nestos, taking in what is now part of Salonica. It was reduced by the
Persians and subsequently Alexander the Great made it the nucleus of a
vast and powerful empire along with Greece. Ultimately it passed under
Roman sway, until it was ceded, in 1913, to Greece.
AN OBJECT OF CONTENTION.
Alsace-Lorraine is worthy of note, as comprising one of the territories
which for centuries have been the cause of conflict between Germany and
France. It is pointed to as the physical evidence of the humiliation of
France at the hands of the Germans, in 1870, and has for nearly one-half
a century been a German imperial territory. The surrender of Alsace and
part of Lorraine was made the principal condition of peace on the
settlement of the war of 1870. Bismarck, it is said, might have been
content with a language boundary, taking only that portion of the
country in which lived those who spoke the German tongue.
For strategic purposes, however, Alsace and Lorraine, with the exception
of one district, were taken. The strip of country was to be governed by
the power of the German Emperor until the constitution of the German
Empire was established. Many of the inhabitants opposed the Prussian
domination, and a vote was taken on who would declare themselves Germans
and remain in the territory, or French and leave. More than 40,000 left
the country and went into France.
The German language was made compulsory in the schools, the courts and
the legislative body. The French never forgot their loss, and revenge
for that loss has been a subject of consideration in their foreign
policy ever since the war of 1871. Alsace and Lorraine contain about
5600 square miles, and together have a population of about two million.
About 85 per cent of the people speak German.
[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF TURKEY IN ASIA.
A country where civilization was first born and which is now undergoing
a new birth of a new civilization. The location of the Garden of Eden
was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The drawing shows the
country which is mentioned largely in Bible history.]
PICTURESQUE TURKEY.
Turkey, one of the picturesque and ancient countries which is aligned
with the Germans, is a Mohammedan state of the Ottoman Empire in
southeastern Europe and western Asia, whose holdings in Europe have been
steadily decreasing, especially during recent years. The immediate
possessions of Turkey, or those directly under the Sultan's rule at the
time this country became involved in the great world war, extended from
Montenegro, Bosnia, Servia and eastern Roumelia on the north, to the
Agean Sea and Greece on the south, and from the Black Sea to the
Adriatic, the Straits of Otranto and the Ionic Sea. In September, 1911,
the Italian government sent a long list of claims made by Italy against
Turkey for economic and commercial discrimination against Italian
commerce, and the person of Italian citizens all over the world. A reply
was demanded within twenty-four hours, and failing to receive a reply
considered satisfactory, Italy immediately sent warships to Tripoli,
bombarded and captured the city. This meant that Turkey has lost one of
her most important seaports, consequently weakening her position.
The immediate possessions of Turkey in Europe, at this time, had an area
of 65,350 square miles, with a population of 6,200,000. In Asia Turkey
had possessions of 693,610 square miles, with a population of
16,900,000, while in Africa about 398,000 square miles belonged to the
Turkish Empire, on which lived 1,000,000 persons. This gave Turkey an
area of about 1,157,860 square miles, with a population of 24,100,000. A
number of islands in the Agean Sea belong to Turkey, and Egypt is also
nominally part of the kingdom of the Sultan.
[Illustration: A DASTARDLY CRIME WHICH AUTOCRACY CANNOT DENY.
Aerial photograph by a British pilot showing four huts of a British
hospital in France, in which were helpless men who were blown to bits.
All plainly shown in the foreground.]
[Illustration: A BRITISH TOMMY ON WAY TO TRENCHES.
This photograph shows a soldier crossing through a trench--which is
camouflaged. The screen prevents his being seen.]
[Illustration: AN ATTACK BY AMERICANS.
Company H and Company K of the 336th Infantry, 82nd Division are
advancing on enemy positions in France and driving them out while the
307th Engineers of the 82nd Division are clearing the way by blowing up
wire entanglements.]
[Illustration: GENERAL BULLARD.]
[Illustration: GENERAL LIGGETT.]
[Illustration: GENERAL DICKMAN.
American Army Commanders who out-generaled the Germans. They were well
supported by the fearless and determined fighters, the U.S.A. troops.]
[Illustration: A RELIGIOUS MEETING ON THE FIELD.
American, British, French, Belgian and Portuguese troops are represented
in this gathering of defenders of Liberty listening to a sermon on the
western front.]
[Illustration: THE HOLY LAND AND THE WAR.
Christmas Day at Bethlehem. Latin procession to the Church of
Nativity.]
[Illustration: FIGHTING IN PALESTINE EAST OF THE JORDAN.
Infantry were in the act of occupying an important hill when they were
met with a strong counter-attack. The timely arrival of machine guns and
supports the situation.]
[Illustration: SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY
MID-EUROPEAN NATIONS.
Professor H.A. Miller, Director; Thos. Naroshevitshius (Lithuaniana);
Christos Vassilkaki (Unredeemed Greeks); Christo Dako (Albanians);
Charles Tomazolli (Italian Irredentists); Nicholas Ceglinsky (Ukranian);
Dr. Hinko Ninkovich (Jugoslavs); T.M. Helinski (Poles); Dr. T.G. Masaryk
(Prime Minister of Cezhoslovakia); G. Pasdermadjian (Armenians); Capt.
Vasile Solca (Roumanians): Gregory Zsatkovich (Uhro-Rusins); Ittamar
Ban-Avi (Zionists). Signed Independence Hall, Phila, Oct. 26.]
[Illustration: GENERAL ALLENBY.
One of the notable events in the history of the war was the surrender of
Jerusalem to the British Army under the command of General Allenby.]
[Illustration: GENERAL TOWNSHEND.
The British officer who was taken prisoner at Kut-el-Amara, and who
afterwards became the peace negotiator.]
[Illustration: OFFICE OF A FIELD CASHIER.
This spot was formerly one of the pillbox strongholds of the famous
switch in the Hindenburg line. It was afterwards run by the Canadians.]
[Illustration: Negro Band of the 814th Infantry Leaving the Celtic After
Her Arrival.]
[Illustration: 8th Reg., FRENCH WAR-CROSS WINNERS.
Top Row: 1st-Lieut. Hurd, Lieut-Col. Duncane, Major White, Capt.
Crawford, 1st-Lieut. Warfield and Capt. Smith. Bottom Row: Capt. Allen,
Lieut. Browning, Capt. Warner and 1st-Lieut. Tisdale.]
[Illustration: Captain John H. Patton, 370th U.S. Infantry (formerly 8th
Illinois Infantry).
Regimental Adjutant to September 11, 1918. Commanding 2nd Battalion from
September 11, 1918 to December 17, 1918. Saint Mihiel Sector from June
21, 1918 to July 3, 1918. Argonne Forest from July 16, 1918, to August
15, 1918. Battles for Mont des Signes September 16 to September 30,
1918. Oise-Aisne offensive September 30 to November 11, 1918. Awarded
the French Croix de Guerre (Division Citation for meritorious service
covering the period September 11 to November 11, 1918.)]
[Illustration: Homecoming of 370th (old 8th Regiment), parade passing
the reviewing stand, Michigan ave., opposite Art Institute, Chicago Ill.
Line of march broken by the great mass of people eager to march with the
soldiers, the greatest gathering ever assembled on Chicago's great
boulevard.]
[Illustration: Officers of the 370th (old Illinois 8th Regiment)
Reading left to right: 2nd-Lieut. Lawson Price, 2nd-Lieut. L.W. Stearls,
2nd-Lieut. Ed. White, 2nd-Lieut. Eliass F.E. Williams, 1st-Lieut. Oaso
Browning, Capt. Louis B. Johnson, 1st-Lieut. Frank Bates and 1st-Lieut.
Binga Desmond.]
[Illustration: Left to right: Col. Franklin Dennison, Col. J. Roberts
and Lieut. Col. Otis B. Duncan of 370th (old Illinois 8th Regiment).]
The population is a motley assortment of races, nationalities and
creeds. About 38 per cent being Ottomans or Turks. The Slavic and Rouman
races come next in importance, then the Arabs, the remaining population
consisting of Moors, Druses, Kurds, Tartars, Albanians, Circassians,
Syrians, Armenians, and Greeks, besides Jews and Gypsies.
PHOENIX OF THE GREEK EMPIRE.
The Ottoman Empire arose from the ruins of the old Greek Empire, early
in the fifteenth century, Constantinople being made its capital in 1453,
after its capture by Mohammed II. At the accession of Mohammed IV, in
1648, the Turkish Empire was at the zenith of its power. Internal
corruption caused loss of power, and in 1774, a large slice of territory
was ceded to Russia. In 1821 Greece became independent. The Crimean War,
in 1854-56, checked Russia for a while, but in 1875 the people of
Herzegovina rebelled. A year later the Servians and Montenegrins
revolted, and in 1877 Russia began hostile operations in both parts of
the Turkish Empire. At this time Roumania declared her independence.
After the fall of Kars and of Plevna, the Turkish resistance completely
collapsed, and in 1878 Turkey was compelled to agree to the Treaty of
San Stefano.
Within the year the Treaty of Berlin declared Roumania, Servia and
Montenegro independent; Roumanian Bessarabia was ceded to Russia,
Austria was empowered to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Bulgaria was
made a principality. The main events in the history of the Ottoman
Empire since the Treaty of Berlin were the French invasion of Tunis in
1881, the Treaty with Greece, executed under pressure of the Great
Powers in 1881, by which Greece obtained Thessaly and a strip of Epirus;
the occupation of Egypt by Great Britain in 1882; the revolution of
Philippopolis in 1885, by which eastern Roumelia became united with
Bulgaria. In 1908 Bulgaria declared its independence and the Young Turk
Party extorted a constitution and a parliament from Abdul-Hamud II, who
was deposed in 1909 by the unanimous vote of the national assembly.
Mohammed V, eldest brother of the deposed Sultan succeeded to the
throne.
Russia, "the Great Bear," whose part in the war brought on internal
strife and revolution which robbed Czar Nicholas of his throne, traces
its history back for more than ten centuries, when the Norse invaded the
territory and founded Veliki Novgorod, for many years one of the chief
Russian cities. The Norse, to use the modern vernacular, "put Russia on
the map" when the Russian army fought its way to the very walls of
Constantinople. Much of the early history of the country is legendary,
and one of the famous stories is that after Igor, who commanded the
great armies, was put to death by rebellious subjects, his widow sought
out the territory where her husband had lost his life and pretending to
make peace with them, requested every householder to give her a pigeon.
WINGED FIREBRANDS.
When they gladly complied with her request she sent the tame birds back
home with flaming firebrands tied to their tails, and they entered their
lofts or rests and started fires which destroyed the city of Korosten.
The ascendancy of the Romanoff dynasty, which maintained in Russia
through the centuries, was established through the atrocities of Ivan
the Terrible, who is said to have absolutely destroyed the descendants
of the Rurik, the first Norse chieftain. Ivan the Terrible was the first
Czar of Russia. He conquered Servia and his domestic infamies and
intrigues are among the historical scandals of the country.
Through every reign in Russian history there ran stories of terrible
crime, cruelties, infamies, immoralities and degradation. Following the
death of Ivan the Terrible came Fedor, one of his sons, who was a
weakling in the hands of the Duma of five, one of whom was Boris
Godounoff. Fedor reigned but a few years, and Godounoff was elected
Czar. He was ambitious, and was founder of the system of serfdom, and
also of the Russian State Church, and like many of the other rulers of
Russia, met death through infamy, supposedly having been poisoned.
[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF THE BALKAN STATES.
This drawing shows the boundary lines as they were at the beginning of
the war. It also shows the location of the principal city of each
country. This part of the world has always been of great importance
since the earliest history of man and nations--a continuous struggle
between nations to control this gateway into southwestern Asia.]
BASE IMPOSTER SLAIN.
Boris Godounoff was succeeded by his son Feodor, but he was seized by a
pretender, and with his mother, thrown into prison, where they were
murdered. The discovery of the plot, which was laid at the door of the
King of Poland, produced an uprising and Czar Dimitry the Impostor was
slain. Vasili Shouyskie, leader of the mob that slew Dimitry, was
proclaimed Czar, but pretenders sprang up, and one of these, who posed
as a false Dimitry, invaded Russia from Poland, and established a rival
imperial court at Toushin, and some of the Russian cities swore
allegiance to him.
Vasili Shouyskie held out at Moscow, and after a time Dimitry's cause
failed, whereupon Sigsmund, of Poland, invaded Russia, and put forward
his son Vladislav. Vasili, roused to anger, committed acts which
provoked Moscow, and in 1610 he was compelled to abdicate, and a council
of nobles was formed to run the government until a Czar could be chosen.
Vladislav was finally selected, but Feodor Romanoff sought to prevent
his being crowned. There was a period of anarchy, cities were burned,
and chaos was complete.
The dignitaries of the church and state finally set to work and
supported the candidacy of Mikhial Feodorovitch Romanoff, who was the
first Romanoff Czar. He reorganized the empire, and reigned for
thirty-three years. His successor, Alexis, the direct heir, reigned for
thirty-one years, and cultivated friendly relations with Ukraine and the
Cossack country. He was followed by Feodor II, and then came Peter the
Great. There were two claimants to the throne, Ivan and Peter, both sons
of Alexis by separate wives, and the difficulty was settled by letting
the two reign jointly under the regency of Sophia, a sister of Ivan.
When Ivan died Peter assumed the reins, and it was he who gave Russia a
frontage on the Black Sea, and on the Baltic, and built St. Petersburg.
He did much for the development of Russia, creating a navy and a
merchantile marine.
Catherine the First, his widow, followed him in reign, and at her death,
Peter II occupied the center of the stage. At his death there was chaos
again and counter claims. Anna of Courtland, a daughter of Ivan, brother
of Peter the Great, was finally elected sovereign, but she was a mere
puppet, vesting her authority in a High Council.
FAMILY'S WRETCHED CAREER.
During her reign her lover, named Biren, held sway and distinguished
himself by sending thousands of political exiles to Siberia. At the
death of Anna, Ivan IV, her grandnephew, reigned, but was deposed and
sent to prison for life, while Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Peter the
Great, succeeded him. She permitted the government to be run on
comparatively honest lines by favorites, and while they ruled she drank
herself to death.
Her nephew, Peter III, succeeded her. He was incompetent and a tool in
the Prussian hands. His wife was a German princess, and led a movement
which ended in his being deposed, imprisoned and murdered.
Catherine, widow of the murdered Peter, succeeded. She was known as
Catherine the Great, and is credited with having been the most infamous
of women in all history. Catherine was succeeded by Paul, who was
assassinated by his own courtiers when he was on the point of joining
Napoleon Bonaparte in his conquest of India.
His son was Alexander I, who added Finland and Poland to Russia, and
founded the Holy Alliance. He was followed by his son Nicholas, who
ruled for 30 years, and crushed the Poles and Hungarians, but died of a
broken heart in the Crimean War.
Next came Alexander II, who gained fame as liberator of the serfs, and
died the victim of a Nihilist bomb thrower. Alexander III succeeded him,
and then came Nicholas II, the last Czar, whose reign lasted 22 years.
The beginning of the end was marked by the request of the workingmen in
1905 for an increase in civil rights. They were fired upon, and there
was general disorder, until the Czar proclaimed a constitution, and
established a Duma, or national parliament, which met for the first time
in 1906.
BETRAYAL OF RUSSIA'S MILITARY PLANS.
The outbreak of the war was marked by the personal decree of the Czar to
change the name of the capital, St. Petersburg, to Petrograd, but his
evident intent to eliminate evidences of German influence did not stop
the betrayal of Russia's military plans by German spys within the court
circles, and it was charged that supplies were withheld from the Russian
army by those within the charmed circle, who were friendly to Germany.
Russia was a party to the Franco-Russian and Anglo-Russian agreement,
which constituted the basis of the Triple Entente, but conditions were
such that the soldiers refused to fight, and the situation culminated in
the uprising which ended with the abdication of the Czar, in behalf of
his brother, who, however, declined to accept the throne, unless he
should be elected by the votes of the Russian people. The Duma thereupon
decided to organize a republican form of government, and so the Russian
Republic came into being in March, 1917.
Spain, a fertile country in the southwestern part of Europe, has played
a prominent part in the development of the world. She has a coastline
extending nearly 1500 miles, and there are about 200,000 square miles
included in her territory. The coastlands and the southern section of
the country are especially rich in fruits and agriculture. Although
watered by many rivers, the land, for the most part, is artificially
irrigated.
Up until 1898 Spain held possession of magnificent colonies in Cuba and
Porto Rico and the Philippines, but now her colonial possessions are
confined to a strip on the west coast of the Sahara, and the island of
Fernando Po, with some smaller possessions on the Guinea coast in
Africa. Their total area is about 434,000 square miles, the total
population being 10,000,000.
SPAIN, PAST AND PRESENT.
Spain formerly composed the ancient provinces of New and Old Castile,
Leon, Asturias, Galicia, Estremadura, Andalusia, Aragon, Murcia,
Valencia, Catalonia, Navarre and the Basque Provinces. These, since
1834, have been divided into 49 provinces. The capital of Spain is
Madrid, and the present constitution dates from 1876. There is a
Congress, which is composed of deputies, each one representing 50,000 of
the population.
The Roman Catholic faith is the established form of religion, and the
priesthood possesses considerable wealth and power, although the
dominant influence once possessed has been curtailed of recent years.
The peace strength of the army is about 83,000, and what navy she has is
practically new, as the Spanish navy was annihilated in the war with the
United States in 1898.
During recent years the republican tendencies among the people have
found vent in socialism. The Spanish socialist leaders belong mostly to
the intellectuals, and here again is the weakness of the movement,
whether considered as a means of giving Spain a republic or of
liberating her political system under monarchical form. Some of the
intellectual leaders among the socialists headed straight for
philosophic anarchy, while others expended their energies in building
castles in the clouds.
The substantial socialism of the recent period was, however, based on
the workingmen's movement. Before the outbreak of the great war the
tendency was to affiliate with the groups in other countries of Europe
which advocated socialism as an international creed. But when the German
socialists placed their country above internationalism, and the French
socialists did the same, and the Italian socialists joined in the
agitation to force the government into war to get back territory lost to
Austria, the international basis of Spanish socialism disappeared.
CHAPTER XV.
MODERN WAR METHODS.
INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE AS AGAINST MASS MOVEMENTS--TRENCH WARFARE A GAME
OF HIDE AND SEEK--RATS AND DISEASE--SURGERY'S TRIUMPHS--CHANGED
TACTICS--ITALIAN MOUNTAIN FIGHTING.
Warfare such as carried on in the Great World War is so different from
that of any other of the great wars which the world has seen, that it
might be described as a method of fighting distinctively unique.
Undoubtedly, more ancient methods, and even ancient weapons, have been
employed than were used in any of the wars which have changed, from time
to time, the boundary lines of nations. The fighting of mass against
mass has been practically obliterated, and modern evolutions where the
plan is man to man have developed a mode of fighting where terrible
execution has resulted.
Undoubtedly this means of fighting has developed the personal initiative
of the soldiers, and the modern fighting machine of the nations is of a
high standard, which, together with death-dealing weapons, has resulted
in terrible havoc. Massed movements, such as carried on in the War of
the Rebellion, have been practically done away with, and although there
have been long and costly sieges, they have been carried on by tedious
trench fighting, airships, hand grenades, and massive shells fired from
guns of great caliber, and with a range which is really marvellous.
Shells are fired, shrapnel in some cases, explosive shells in others,
which are timed to the second, so that when fired from guns many miles
from the objective point, they explode at a measured distance from the
earth. They are exploded within a gauged distance of the target, and the
execution is done over a measured area. On the shells are indicators.
Within the shrapnel shells are hundreds of small shot. As the shell
explodes the shots are scattered over the enemy, and death and
destruction are unavoidable.
With bomb shells, fired from guns of the largest caliber, there are also
indicators which are timed to the second. The range and time of
explosion previously figured out by officers, the shell explodes where
it is intended that it shall, and the work of the great explosive is
done with resultant damage.
WAR'S MANY DEVELOPMENTS.
The war has developed many of the new methods of fighting and revived
many of the old means of warfare. Cavalry has not been as active in the
relation in the great war as in any of the wars of comparatively recent
date, because of the extensive trench warfare which has formed so much
of the fighting plan. Fighting has been a question of trench raids, and
barrage fire, followed by the infantry charge through shell holes. The
impression brought home to the modern observer is that the older
recognized methods of warfare are gone for good.
The thing which war changed in the work of the cavalryman is in the
nature of an addition, rather than a subtraction from his duties and the
training he must have. The day of cavalry--as cavalry and nothing
else--has passed. For today the cavalryman must be familiar not only
with the sword, lance and revolver, but with the rifle as well. It has
been demonstrated that such long periods of trench warfare may develop
that it becomes necessary for him to dismount and make himself valuable
in the scheme of military economy by fighting as infantry until such
time as the enemy line is broken and he can again take to his horse and
the work of harrying the retreating foe.
The war has been full of surprising results as regards cavalry. It was
popularly supposed that in facing such terrible modern weapons as the
repeating rifle of long range, the machine gun and the automatic field
pieces which have become so well known as the French "75s," any body of
cavalry which attempted to charge the enemy would be annihilated.
CAVALRY'S SUCCESSFUL CHARGES.
Yet all through the early stages of the war one reads of desperate, and,
what is more to the point, successful charges made by British cavalry
against batteries of German field pieces. There was one instance in
France, just back of the Belgian frontier, where a charge of British
lancers against a German battery, which had a commanding position, saved
the day for a greatly-outnumbered allied detachment, which was
conducting that most difficult of all maneuvers, a rear guard action,
covering the retreat of the body of the army. The charge of the lancers
took the Germans so by surprise, and was executed with such speed, that
despite the heavy fire they poured into the advancing horsemen the
latter were at work among them with spear and saber before
reinforcements could be brought up. Then the cavalry, dismounting and
unslinging their carbines, defended the position with such tenacity that
the German advance was delayed several hours, sufficient for the rest of
the allied forces to make good its withdrawal and the consolidation of
the new lines chosen for defense.
This idea of cavalry serving in the double role of infantry and cavalry
is a distinctly American development, a trick which the Federal and
Confederate armies taught the world during the Civil War, and of which
the British made excellent use in South Africa against the Boers. The
fact which this war has established, however, is that the older use of
cavalry, in the charge against infantry, artillery and even entrenched
positions is still of great value. The idea had developed from the
tactics so largely employed in the Civil War of using the cavalry as
mounted infantry, that the increased deadliness of modern weapons would
make this use of cavalry the sole use.
Now, however, it seems that not even the lance is to be discounted.
Given the opportunity to reach his objective, the lance becomes a
terrible weapon in the hands of the horseman. In hand-to-hand fighting
the man with the rifle and bayonet has some chance against the mounted
man with the saber. While fighting upward from a lower level he has a
pretty long reach, and the advantage of being completely in control of
his own movements, whereas even the most expert horseman cannot control
the step and movement of his mount as well as a man can control his own.
Barring fire, however, the infantryman has no chance against the lance,
with the speed and momentum of the mounted man behind it.
So, for this reason, though they are cumbersome weapons under ordinary
circumstances, and make a detachment equipped with them much more likely
to be seen, lances were retained by many of the British cavalry
regiments, just as the German Uhlans retained them.
CAVALRY'S IMPORTANT SERVICE.
One of the most important services which cavalry fulfills in modern
warfare is that of drawing the enemy's fire at the time his positions
are being approached. This is done to obtain some idea of his force and
the disposition of his guns.
Cavalry detachments are sent scurrying across the front, as though
threatening an attack, deliberately furnishing a mark for the enemy
gunners that this object of ascertaining his strength may be attained.
The more ordinary work of scouting, advance guard work, and riding wide
on the flanks of an advancing force are parts of the cavalryman's work
which are more familiar.
In the European conflict with tremendous concentration of troops and
continued occupation of the same territory the foraging feature of
cavalry work disappeared. It is no longer possible for an army to "live
on the country as it goes." Food and supplies must be brought up from
depots in the rear through an entirely separate and specialized
department of the military organization, which does its work with a
celerity certainly undreamed of in former days, even as late as our own
war with Spain.
In the modern campaign trenches have been developed to such an extent
that it is really marvellous how the soldiers live, and to what an
extent the "underground fortresses" have been used for living as well as
fighting purposes.
In a letter written by a French soldier who took part in a successful
raid upon a German trench, he adequately describes the luxuries enjoyed
by the German soldiers in the front line trenches in the Marne. The
letter was written by a youth who had been wounded in the fight, and was
mailed in April, 1917.
LUXURIOUS DUGOUTS.
"We are now living in German lines and dugouts--a magnificent work we
have just now taken--cement and steel are used with profusion, and
electricity in every dugout, even in their front lines. Unharmed
casements and machine guns in cemented shelters and light railways and
immense reserves of food--thousands of bottles of claret.
"But also, at the middle of each staircase, in the wall, a box with
about seventy pounds of cheddite--to blow the shelter up in case of
retreat. They knew they might have to go back, as they are doing now.
America will gain victory, as until the present moment only the bravery
of our soldiers can put them back, with much exertion and frequent loss.
"Our men are magnificent in spite of death. We hope your help may be
quick and decisive. I think your flying corps especially may be useful,
the more as yesterday, with four fellows, I was run through the field,
and in a destroyed trench by a German Albatross shooting a machine gun,
and flying very low, he missed us quite near. On the other hand, we have
just a few days hence seen a sausage balloon destroyed by our men.
Anyhow your help may be decisive.
"I believe your joy is great about the Russian revolution. At home they
are happy, too--only let us hope the Russian army may attack this
summer--to help us.
"I need not tell you the impression made by your American decision here.
We now know victory is sure. Let us hope it may be this year--though you
may easily guess such is not my belief--next year.
"I hope my next letter be sent from farther in the German lines--perhaps
from a place they have not had time to destroy."
Shorn of all technicalities, the plain method of warfare which has
developed as the result of the trench building is that each force
establishes lines along miles of front with trenches in rows, one after
the other, at measured intervals. The soldiers are thus "entrenched."
One force seeks to drive the other from its position.
MANY DEADLY DEVICES.
The force of batteries is directed against the entrenchments, hand
grenades, bombs, shells, gases and every device which has fallen to the
use of armies is projected at the ditches in which are hidden the enemy
soldiers. When, by the concentration of attack the trenches are
destroyed or the soldiers driven from their first position, the opposing
force has gained if it has succeeded in advancing its own soldiers to
occupy and reconstruct the trenches or defences from which the enemy was
driven.
The soldiers carry, in addition to the ordinary weapons, a trench spade,
and in most cases large knives, which are used to cut away brush or dig
in the earth when emergency demands. The close confinement in the
trenches tends to develop disease, and the sanitary force of the modern
army is a thing that was undreamed of in the olden days. More men died
from disease during the Civil War than were killed by bullets or in
hand-to-hand encounter.
The percentage of those who die from camp fever has been reduced to a
minimum. Napoleon said that armies travel on their stomachs, but the
European War and the Russian-Japanese War have proven, as did our
campaigns in Cuba and Mexico, that soldiers live by reason of the health
which they are permitted to maintain. Some idea of the conditions which
developed in the trenches may be gained from a study of the various
hospital reports, and investigations which have been made by physicians.
INFECTED WITH ASIATIC JAUNDICE.
Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research,
completed a series of experiments which showed that apparently healthy
wild rats in the European war zone became infected with Weil's disease,
or "infectious jaundice," common in Asia. Weil's disease is
characterized by sudden onsets of malaise, often intense muscular pain,
high fever for several days, followed by jaundice, frequently
accompanied by complications. It becomes more virulent as it is
successively transmitted from one victim to another. This is supposed to
explain the much greater mortality, about 38 per cent. in Japan, as
compared with from 2 to 3 per cent. among European soldiers.
The study of the disease was made possible by the successful importation
from Japan and Flanders of guinea pigs and rats which had been
inoculated with the causative organism in those two countries.
Experiments previously made showed that the germ of the disease was
carried in the kidneys of a large percentage of apparently healthy wild
rats caught near the districts where the disease had been epidemic.
Experiments in Europe demonstrated the presence of the germ in rats not
only near the infected zones, but also in 
Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights / Miller, Kelly, 1863-1939