UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LIBRARY THE GIFT OF EDWARD S. ROWADE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/sourcerecordsofg02newy BINDING Vol. II The binding design on this volume is an authorized facsimile of the original art binding on the official Belgian copy of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which was signed by King Albert and Foreign Minister Hymans, and deposited in the Archives of the Belgian Government. SOURCE RECORDS OF THE GREAT WAR A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE SOURCE RECORD OF THE WORLD'S GREAT WAR, EMPHASIZING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS. AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE ACTUAL WORDS OF THE CHIEF OFFICIALS AND MOST EMINENT LEADERS NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL NON-SECTARIAN PRESENTING DOCUMENTS FROM GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES AND OTHER AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES. WITH OUTLINE NARRATIVES, INDICES. CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING ON SOCIO- LOGICAL MOVEMENTS AND INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL ACTIVITIES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D. DIRECTING EDITOR WALTER F. AUSTIN, LL.M. With a staff of specialists VOLUME II i^ational Alumni Copyright, 1923, National Alumni Printed in U. S. A. CONTENTS VOLUME 11—1914 The Red Dawning of "Der Tag" PAGE An Outline Narrative of The First German Dash for World-Victory . . xiii CHARLES F. HORNE I Austria Devastates Serbia {July 2Q-Aug. 25) The Serb Victory of the Jadar .... I VLADISLAV SAVIC. Serbian Scholar and Soldier. WOISLAV PETROVITCH, Serbian Diplomat. PROF. R. A. REISS, of the University of Lausanne, a Swiss Neutral. GENERAL KROBATIN, Austrian Minister of War. II Britain Asserts Control of the Seas {July 2g) The First Naval Moves and the Blockade of German Commerce ...... 20 JOHN LEYLAND, Editor of the British Navy Gazette. COUNT VON REVENTLOW, the leading Pan-German author. M. SAINT-BRICE, press representatvie of the French Government. III The Assault on Liege {Aug. 4-Aug. Jj) Belgium Amazes the World by Her Resistance . 37 EVERARD WYRALL. British publicist. GENERAL LEMAN, Belgian commander at Liege. GERMAN AND BELGIAN LETTERS, by participants. VON BSTHMANN-HOLLWEG, German Chancellor in 1914. IV Belgium's Agony Germany Officially Adopts a Policy of Suppression . 51 BRAND WHITLOCK, U. S. Minister to Belgium in 1914. GENERAL VON BISSING, Germany's Governor of Belgium. WILLIAM HOHENZOLLERN, the former Kaiser. JOHANNES JORGENSEN, a Danish neutral and noted author. MAJOR GENERAL DISFORTH, a Hamburg Pan-German. A GERMAN DESERTER, from the Invading Army. V Turkey Lends Support to Germany {A ug. id) She Shelters the Fleeing German Warships . . 93 HENRY MORGENTHAU, U. S. Ambassador to Turkey in 1914. BARON GUILLAUME, Belgian Envoy in Turkey in 1914. vii 1 O 1> i. 'i viii CONTENTS FAGB VI The French Invade A Isace and Lorraine {A ug, 7-20) Germany Wins the Battle of Lorraine . . .108 GEORGE FERRIS, former Secretary to the Anglo-German Friend- ship League. GENERAL VON STEINACKER, German semi-official historian. VII The "Battle of the Frontiers" {Aug. 20-Sept. 5) And the Retreat to the Marne . . . .118 MARSHAL JOSEPH JOFFRE, French Commander-in-Chief. GENERAL SIR JOHN FRENCH, British Commander in France. CAPTAIN HEINRICH HUEBNER, German participant. GENERAL VON STEINACKER, German semi-official historian. VIII The Destruction of Louvain {Aug. 25-27) The Culmination of German" Militarism" . . 150 LEON VAN DER ESSEN, Prof, of History at Louvain University. GOTTLIEB VON JAGOW, German Minister of State in 1914. MANUEL GAMARRA, a South American dwelling in Louvain. IX Tannenburg, Russia's First Disaster {Aug. 26- Sept. i) Invasion of East Prussia and its Repulse . .170 GABRIEL HANOTAUX, member of the French Academy, French Minister of Foreign Affairs. GENERAL VON HINDENBURG, the German Commander. GENERAL BASIL GOURKO, Russia's Chief of Staff. X Russia Crushes the Austrians {Aug. 26-Sept. 2) The Lemberg Defeat Reduces Austria to German Vassalage . . . . . .190 ERNEST VIZETELLY, standard authority on Austria. PRINCESS CATHARINE RADZIWILL, of Russia. XI The Abandonment of Paris {Sept. f) Withdrawal of the French Government to Bordeaux 198 GENERAL GALLIENI, Military Commander of Paris. GEORGE PERRIS, Secretary Anglo-German Friendship League. XII The Turning of the Tide {Sept. 1-7) The Attack on Eastern France Broken at the Grand Couronne ..... 2og MAURICE BARRES, of the French Academy. COUNT CHARLES DE SOUZA, the noted miliUry authority. COLONEL FROBENIUS, German Staff-officer. GOMEZ CARILLO, a renowned Spanish writer. CONTENTS ix PAGE XIII The Battle of the Ourcq {Sept. 5-8) The " Taxicab Jrmy that Saved Paris" . . 226 GENERAL CLERGERIE, Chief of Staff to Gen. Galligni in de- fending Paris. LOUIS MADELIN, French historian. GENERAL VOL MOLTKE, head of the German High Staff. GENERAL VON KLUCK, the German Commander. XIV The Marne {Sept. 6-Ji) The Battle that Saved France .... 248 LOUIS MADELIN, French historian. JOSEPH REINACH, summarizing the German View. GENERAL SIR JOHN FRENCH, the British Commander. MARSHAL JOSEPH JOFFRE, the French Commander. RAYMOND POINCARE, President of France. XV The German Rally on the Aisne {Sept. 12-20) The Beginning of Trench W arfare . . . 283 COLONEL E. D. SWINTON, Intelligence Officer, British Staff. COLONEL FROBENIUS, German Staff-officer. GERMAN LETTERS, from the Battlefield. XVI The Submarine' s First Triumph {Sept. 22) Three British Warships Sunk by a Solitary U~Boat 295 LIEUTENANT OTTO WEDDIGEN, Captain of the Submarine. COMMANDER BERTRAM NICHOLSON, senior surviving British officer. XVII Capture of Antwerp, " The Impregnable Fortress" 304 SIR A. CONAN DOYLE, the noted British author. WINSTON CHURCHILL, British Minister of Naval affairs. COMMANDER DE GERLACHE DE GOMMERV. Belgian soldier and statesman. GENERAL VON FALKENHAYN, German Chief of Staff. GUSTAV FELLER, German historian. XVIII Battle of the Yser {Oct. 16-30) Belgium Opens Her Dykes to Save a Fragment of Her Territory ..... 324 CARTON DE WIART, Belgium's Minister of Justice. MARSHAL JOSEPH JOFFRE. GENERAL VON FALKENHAYN. German Chief of Staff. XIX Ypres: the Struggle for the English Channel {Oct. 26-Nov. 15) Germany Almost Reverses the Marne Decision 337 FRENCH OFFICIAL ANNIVERSARY REVIEW. A. N. HILDITCH, British publicist. COLONEL E. D. SWINTON, of the British Staff. GUSTAV FELLER. German historian. XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI CONTENTS PAGE Canada Rushes to Britain s Aid {Oct-Dec.) The Largest Armada that Had Ever Crossed the Ocean ...... 361 SIR MAX AITKEN, British Member of Parliament. Germany Loses Her African Possessions iOcU- Dec.) Botha Crushes the Revolt in South Africa . 370 FRANK A. MUM BY, of the British Royal Historical Society. DR. OTTO KARSTEDT, German official investigator. Turkey Declares War {Oct. 2q) She Seeks to Draw All Mohammedans into a "Holy War" . . . \ .391 MEHMED V, Sultan of Turkey. ESSAD EFFENDI, Sheik-ul-Islam, or head of the Moslem faith. PROF. STEPHEN DUGGAN, American authority on the Balkan regions. The Capture of Tsing-tau {Nov. f) Japan Expels Germany from the Far East . 40.:' COUNT OKUMA, Prime Minister of Japan. BARON KATO, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs. A. N. HILDITCH, British publicist. ADMIRAL SCHLIEPER, German naval authority. Failure of the German Advance on Warsaw {Nov. ig-Dec. 6) Poland is Ground Between the Millstones . . 416 GRANVILLE FORTESCUE, British war-correspondent in Russia. MARSHAL VON HINDENBURG, the German Commander. PRINCESS BARIATINSKY. of Russia. Kragujevatz, Serbia's Last Victory {Dec. 3-15) The Reconquest of Belgrade . . . ' . 430 ROBERT LAFFAN, Chaplain in the Serbian Army. MME. MARINCOVICH. wife of a Serbian Cabinet Minister. BU1.GARIAN OFFICIAL BULLETIN. The Sea Fights in the Southern Ocean {Nov. i and Dec. 8) Britain Drives the Germans from the High Seas 439 PROF. W. MACNEiLE DIXON, of the University of Glasgow. REAR-ADMIRAL FOSS, German naval critic. ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME II PACE The Marne (page 237) .... Frontispiece Painting by Georges Weiss. Der Tag 37 Official German Photograph. The Ill-fated Churchill Expedition . . . .293 Official British Photograph. The Serbian Retreat , . . . , . .417 Painting by Richard Assmann. 1914 THE RED DAWNING OF " DER TAG " AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF THE FIRST GERMAN DASH FOR WORLD VICTORY AND ITS REPULSE BY CHARLES F. HORNE THE chief impression which must ever remain to mankind from the opening months of the Great War, is of the tre- mendous power and horror of the attack, and the yet more tremendous courage and endurance of the resistance. "Der Tag," the day the German chiefs had so long planned, dawned with a red awfulness of flame and blood such as no man may picture to others, and no future generation can re- vision from our words. Germany in assault was the most stupendous engine of destruction which has swept over the Earth since the days of ancient, cataclysmic deluge. Yet at first the world of civilization remained blind to the full extent of the threatening annihilation. Mankind took three years to become fully roused, and to gather its full powers into triumphant resistance. Those who met the first shock of the disaster suffered most. Belgians, Serbians, French and British, the full grief of mourning descended first upon these. Yet they did not break beneath the agony. Even when their suffering was sharpest, they remained firm to fight. That is where Ger- many miscalculated, where her fell design broke down. She underestimated the heroism of the human soul. She thought men had been weakened by the easy living which civilization had brought, had degenerated as once they did in old pagan days under the Roman "peace." And instead Germany found men had grown strong, unspeakably, unbelievably strong, uplifted by the higher ideals which the Christian civilization had taught. xiii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF When the German autocracy thus let loose its tremen- dous forces against bewildered Europe, the German High Military Staff did but follow plans long and carefully pre- pared. They had decided to burst upon the world as "super- men," that is, men made superhumanly strong by discard- ing every other impulse and desire, and concentrating abso- lutely on their one purpose, victory. They became mon- sters, unhampered in their trickery by the sense of honor which binds most men to their plighted word, unrestrained in their devastation by those principles of morality which set limits to the brute savagery of ordinary mortals. So far as might be, these self-admired leaders tried to make their soldiers as "hard" as themselves. This explains the sickening horror of those first months of the War, so unbe- lievable that even now comfortable people who did not per- sonally rush into the struggle and face the actual presence of its brutalities, cannot help a secret feeling that these must have become exaggerated in the telling. The strategy of any contest consists largely of outrea- soning your opponent, of judging correctly the scope of his attack while so organizing your own as to assail him from an unguarded angle. In the mighty strategic contest of the Great War, Germany won the first points, because her op- ponents had expected that this war would be fought like others of recent days, with at least some outward respect for International Law and Christian doctrine. Germany escaped the entire scope of the AUies' judging, by having cast aside every such restriction. Her leaders attempted to disguise this "superhuman" or super-bestial attitude by raising noisy outcry against their opponents as breakers of the rules of civilized war. They accused the Allies of ignoring not only the established rules but also several others, which Germany invented on the moment and declared the Allies should have followed. But the German rush on Belgium soon made clear, to most of the horrified onlookers, the frenzied sav- agery of the German attitude, though not as yet the world- wide scope of the German purpose.^ *See § IV, "Belgium's Agony," by Whitlock, Von Bissing, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH What happened was, in its briefest outline, as follows: Germany, France and Great Britain had each guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium. No foreign soldier was to be allowed to march across this supposedly happy little oasis, so nobly sheltered from the storms of war. Hence the French au- thorities, always anticipating that the German deluge would sweep upon them some day, reckoned that the assault could only come along the border where the two lands actually touched, the long disputed frontier of the Rhine lands, Al- sace and Lorraine. To bar this obvious line of attack, France built behind this eastern frontier mighty fortifications at Verdun and elsewhere, adding to these year after year, until she believed her defenses absolutely secure. Her northern border, where Belgium and Luxemburg intervened between herself and Germany, she left unguarded, not wholly, but comparatively so. She did not trust too blindly to Germany's plighted word; what she trusted was Germany's political common sense. A German attack on Belgium was almost openly equivalent to an attack on England, a preparatory step toward crossing the English Channel. Surely Ger- many, having a war with France on her hands, would not be so reckless as to challenge Britain at the same moment! Yet that is exactly what Germany did. For the sake of seizing the Belgian lands and attacking France from the weakest side, Germany defied Britain. And the whole Brit- ish public, and the British colonials as well,'^ recognized the challenge. With the sturdiness of the great British brother- hood, they accepted the War as their own. That unprotected northern frontier, with the tragic rav- aging which ensued both in Belgium and in northern France, that was the price France paid for the British alliance. It was the means by which she convinced* the world of the Nietzschean character of her foe. The unguarded border led Germany on to a full revelation of the falsity which ruled in her high places, the stupidity which was spreading in the low, and the brutality so ready to leap forth in all. The German strategists hoped to go through Belgium ^See § XX, "Canada Rushes to Britain's A.id," by Aitken. xvi AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF and then crush France utterly, in such swift time that un- ready Britain would be unable to interfere, and would then accept the accomplished fact. As for Russia, they counted on her confusion and cumbrous slowness, weaknesses which their own agents in high Russian office would increase. They believed Russia would not have her troops assembled until after France was broken. Austria was to crush Serbia in similar swift fashion; and the triumphant Central Powers were then to offer peace to their remaining foes, while hold- ing fast to the desolated regions they had made their own. With the purpose and direction of the first assault thus un- derstood, let us look to the weight of the enormous force which was to drive the blow. THE STRENGTH OF THE OPPOSING FORCES The Great War went back to ancient days in more than one impressive feature, and most markedly in this, that it was waged not merely by the small class of professional fighters, such as had constituted the armies of preceding centuries. The German Government from the first, and the others very rapidly as the necessity compelled, summoned their entire people to help, if not in fighting, then in making munitions or in other ways. This was indeed a "War of Nations." Germany possessed over seventy million people, which meant ultimately an army of perhaps nine million soldiers; and her leaders had managed to rouse the populace almost unanimously to a temper most effective for victory. The people actually believed their "fatherland" was being at- tacked. They also believed themselves to be glorious and their foes despicable. They were as confident as they were angry, fiercely pleased to have been assailed, so that they could prove their power. Moreover, they were to show themselves in the end as stubborn and endurant as they were fierce and eager. Their ally, Austria, held sway over fifty million people; but these were by no means so united or so formidable as the German millions. Most of Austria's subjects were of alien races, some of them more inclined to fight against than THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xvii with her. She did her utmost. She drove all her peoples into war work, plunged them into utter starvation, and slaughtered thousands who refused to fight. She raised by violent compulsion some five million troops. But often these had to be employed for police duty at home rather than conquest abroad, and only a few of the most favored regi- ments showed anything like the German energy and effi- ciency. Later, from her Turkish alliance, Germany gath- ered another million and a half of valiant fighters, but she had always to supply them with German officers. From Bulgaria she gained half a million. In all she thus con- trolled some sixteen million fighting men, half of them being of excellent material, and perhaps five millions being imme- diately ready to be hurled into the attack. Opposed to this enormous force, the only country really prepared for war, as Germany and Austria were prepared, was France. France with less than forty million people against Germany's seventy millions ! That meant for France an ultimate army of five million, with an immediate fighting force of only about two million. Russia, her military ally most nearly ready for the fray, could perhaps ultimately have raised twelve million fighting men, patriots resolute and val- iant enough, man for man, to have matched either French or Germans. But as Russia had never munitions for any- thing like her numbers, and as she never did succeed in training and bringing forward all her people, her armies were often little better than half-armed mobs, a fair match perhaps for the unwilling Austrians, but wholly outclassed by Germany's well equipped troops. German artillery swept away the helpless Russians by the thousands. As to France's other allies, the Serbian soldiers were staunch and hardy as any in the world, but there were less than half a million of them all told. Britain's control of the seas was one of the finally decisive factors in the rescue of civilization;^ but the immediate shock of battle had to be met on land, and Britain had only the relatively tiny army of one hundred thousand men to dispatch to France's aid. * See § II, "Britain Asserts Control of the Seas," by Leyland, Re- ventlow, etc. xviii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF As the years passed she raised from her forty million Brit- ish and Irish population an army of four milHon, and from her colonies a million more. Belgium from her eight mil- lion people might possibly have raised a million men to fight ; but Belgium was so immediately stricken down that she prob- ably never put into the field more than two hundred thou- sand. Thus for the first phase of the titanic warfare, there were on the Eastern front some two million Austrians and half a million Germans matched against a roughly equal number of Russians and Serbs. On the West, three mil- lion Germans hurled themselves against two million French- men supported by some scattered forces of Britons and Bel- gians. Not all of these multi-millions of humanity could meet in any one engagement. They were spread out along many frontiers and important transport lines. But, though we must thus deduct heavily from our estimate of the num- bers meeting in the actual clash of battle, the mighty fact remains that never since earth began have men fought with anything like such giant forces, such destructive engines of death, or such enormous slaughter. Napoleon at his height of power never commanded more than five hundred thou- sand soldiers and never brought nearly that many into a single battle. Waterloo and Gettysburg were fought by less than a hundred thousand men on either side. Only in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 did there begin to be any ap- proach to armies such as those of the Great War; and even the masses of 1905 gave but a faint suggestion of the stu- pendous force with which Germany was to assail the world and with which the desperate world was to rally and hurl her back. "There were giants in those days," THE OPENING MOVES OF WAR The actual fighting began in the last days of July. Aus- tria, immediately after declaring war on Serbia, began bom- barding the latter's capital, Belgrade. This lay just south of Austria's domains, separated from them by the broad Danube River, across which the powerful Austrian cannon easily hurled their shells. It was an old-fashioned bombard- THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xix ment, slow and ratlier casual, conveying no hint of how different and how terrible was to be the later cannonading of the Great War. To the bombardment the Serbians, being deficient in artillery, made no adequate reply. Then an Aus- trian army gathered along the Danube and made some rather desultory attempts at crossing, scarcely more than feints. They were easily repulsed. Obviously this was little more than a pretense of war. Austria having made good her threat of attacking Serbia, was waiting to see whether Europe would submit, and espe- cially whether Russia would come to Serbia's aid. If so, the main Austrian mobilization would have to be, not along the Danube, but along her own northern and eastern fron- tiers where the Russians dwelt. She might have to post- pone the promised chastisement of Serbia. Russia did mobilize, and with unexpected rapidity, so that by mid-August, two weeks after war began, the main Aus- trian forces were fully occupied against Russia. Perhaps, therefore, it would have been wiser for the Austrian generals to have remained merely on the defensive against Serbia. The Austrian subject nations, however, had been so ve- hemently assured both of Serbia's guilt and of her approach- jfng punishment, that for political purposes Austria felt pledged to an invasion. Hence, beginning about August loth, an army of a quarter of a million Austrian troops, mainly Hungarians because Hungary was most bitter in its hatred of Serbia, forced their way across the Serbian border.^ Austria's chief military secret in preparing for this war had been the building of enormous guns, far more power- ful than the rest of the world suspected her of possessing. Hence it was to her artillery that she chiefly trusted through- out. She reckoned now that her Hungarians plus her artil- lery would more than match any equal number of the sturdy Serb mountaineers. The latter, however, shrewdly withdrew into the mountains before the Austrian advance, until the artillery had become hopelessly mired in Serbian mud ; then the mountaineers swept down upon the foe in repeated charges, broke them at last, and sent them fleeing back to * See § I, "Austria Devastates Serbia," by Savic, Petrovitch, etc XX AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF Austrian territory. This first great conflict of the Great War is called the Battle of the Jadar (yad-ar') River. It lasted for several days (August i8th-22nd), involved a quarter million men on each side, and ended in a complete Serbian victory^ — a triumph for the Allies. The Serbs had established beyond question their worth to Allied Europe, their power and courage as a fighting race. Austria explained matters to her peoples by announcing that she had never intended more than a "punishing expe- dition" into Serbia, that this punishment had been accom- plished, and her armies therefore had withdrawn. She neglected to include the fact that the withdrawal had been in any way hastened by the blows of the Serbian army. As for the punishment, it had been inflicted on the invaded dis- trict with even more barbaric savagery than that which at the same time was astounding and horrifying the western world in the German assault on Belgium. THE RUSH THROUGH BELGIUM Turn now to that assault on Belgium, the opening of the main campaign of the War. In the east Germany was but passive at first, was only holding back the attack. It was in the west that she had decided to win the contest swiftly by crushing France with all possible haste. Hence the ad- vance upon Belgium was begun even before war was de- clared upon France. In previous years the Germans had built "strategic" railways which ran straight to Belgium's border and stopped there, railways having very little use in peace but of enormous value for her long-laid war plan. By these roads she hurled great armies into Belgium, cross- ing the frontier on August 3rd.^ For this invasion the German army leaders offered an excuse. They said to the Belgians, France has already sent soldiers into your country, and thus broken the interna- tional promise of sparing you; hence we must meet her in the same way. This accusation against France was wholly untrue. As our previous volume has shown, France 'See § III, "The Assault on Liege," by Leman, Bethmann-Holl- weg, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xxi withheld her troops everywhere at an obvious distance be- hind her own frontiers. In fact, the German Chancellor soon uttered a franker statement of the true German view. He announced to his parliament that Germany had delib- erately wronged Belgium, because that was the easiest way — indeed, he implied it was the only way — by which Ger- many could win the war. Thus spoke the "superman!" Whatever was of value for Germany was to be done, no matter what crimes it involved, what treachery, or what robbery and massacre of the unoffending Belgians. Of course, not all Germans concurred in this policy of falsehood. The vast majority of the people, and presumably many of the officials themselves, believed religiously every statement issued by their government. They had worked themselves into that state of emotional hypnosis in which a person can believe anything he wishes to believe. Their whole course during the first months of the war reveals them as a people who had thus lost their power of reasoning, monomaniacs obsessed with the idea that they were always right and their foes wholly evil and to be destroyed. It is not possible for other human beings to live with monoma- niacs who have thus rejected their human brotherhood and become pledged to self-worship and to slaughter. The diaries kept by German soldiers at the front form most revealing reading on this point. Every writer repeats the tales of atrocious and unprovoked assaults by Belgian civilians. Not one has really encountered such a case him- self ; all have simply heard and believed the rumors. Only one or two of the diarists have bothered to investigate in- dividual stories, and they have found these unproven; yet they continue to believe. Some of the writers regret the horrors everywhere perpetrated by their comrades in re- venge, but to not one does it occur that the torture of a friend of yours gives not the slightest reason or justification for your torturing another and quite innocent person, that the two facts are in truth wholly unrelated — except by your own unreasoning fury. • There can be little question to-day that the German Gov- ernment had deliberately worked its soldiers up to this pitch xxii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF of frenzy, so as to make them fit instruments for its policy of severity. The German leaders who seized Belgium meant to keep Belgium, had always planned to do so, and meant to rule the surviving Belgian population as a wholly crushed and submissive peasant people. Germany did not want another Poland or another Alsace, grumbling in con- stant protest. Hence the daring and desperate resistance of the Belgian Government and the Belgian army probably did but little to aggravate the desolation which would in any case have been at some stage inflicted upon the helpless popu- lace.^ The first large organized resistance of the Belgian army occurred some twenty miles behind their frontier. When the invading Germans reached the city of Liege (Lee-a-zh), the third largest in Belgium, they found its fortifications hastily manned for resistance. They assailed the line of forts promptly and boldly, rushing forward in masses, just as they had rushed upon and overwhelmed the French in 1870. Their opening tactics were thus the same as half a century before. But man'si defensive weapons had de- veloped enormously in that half century. Such a rush of human bodies was impossible against the machine guns and other firearms of to-day. The Germans learned this slowly and at heavy cost. They were held back at Liege from August 4th until about August 14th; and they only battered their way on^ ward then because they borrowed the huge guns or "how- itzers" made by their Austrian allies. Liege was supposed to be a fortress of the highest grade; but the new monster guns easily wiped the Belgian forts out of existence. The Austrian howitzers and the Belgian machine guns thus fur- nished the first two examples of the increasing deadliness of warfare, of the human insect's increasing physical little- ness and helplessness in the midst of his own terrible in- ventions. Liege marked the only large or temporarily successful re- sistance of the Belgian army without French or British assistance. There were several minor engagements; but * See § VIII, "The Destruction of Louvain," by Essen, Von Jagow, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xxiii the main body of the Belgians fell back to their still more celebrated city fortress, Antwerp, the center and citadel of their coimtry. Their capital, Brussels, they abandoned to the Germans, who entered it on August 20th. For the mo- ment the German commanders contented themselves with this. They left northern and western Belgivim untouched, while they swept southward along the open road to France. FRANCE IN HER HOUR OF TRIAL Meanwhile, what of the French? Their troops had been swiftly marshaled along that eastern or German border where they expected the attack. They were less prompt of mobilization than the Germans, who had planned the mo- ment of assault. Yet the French were marvelously prompt in this enormous work of gathering an entire nation into arms. Within four days they were prepared, and began a tentative invasion into Alsace. They were at first merely feeling out the Germans. Was there a huge force of en- emies in Alsace as well as at Liege ? Was the German blow to fall upon two sides at once? Finding Alsace but thinly guarded, the advance grew bolder. A considerable portion of the former French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine was reoccupied, amid the rejoicing welcome of the inhabitants. A striking contrast this to the German invasion and de- struction in neutral Belgium ! In Alsace a populace whose majority were German both by birth and ancestry and who were at least nominally enemies to the French, were treated with every kindness and encouragment.^ An increasing rush of German troops soon met and checked this French advance. The first large Franco-Ger- man battle of the war was fought here on German territory on August 2 1st not far from Metz. The Germans call it the battle of Lorraine, though the French have called it the "First Battle of Nancy," taking the name from their own metropolis nearest to the region, the city in which General Joffre (zhof) had established his headquarters. The con- test resulted in decided defeat for the Frenchmen. They retreated in disorder, and were only savd from worse by * See § VI, "The French Invade Alsace," by Ferris, Steinacker, etc. xxiv AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF the steadiness of one corps thenceforth known as the Iron- sides. The commander of this division, who thus first won distinction among French generals, was he who was after- ward to win the main distinction of the War, General Foch (Fosh). In one way this first battle of Nancy was but a part of the "Battle of the Frontiers," the series of huge engage- ments waged wherever the advancing French and German armies met.^ The French were shifting their line of de- fense rapidly from the east to the threatened north. Some of their troops crossed the Belgian frontier by August 15th, when they helped the Belgians drive the enemy back from the Belgian city of Dinant (De-nahn'). The French troops that crossed the border in this region did not, however, advance far before they met the main German forces. Every- where the French advance guards were pushed back. The opening stroke of this widespread frontier battle may be as- signed to August 20th, when the great German howitzers, having been securely planted before Namur (Na-meer'), began their bombardment of that last Belgian frontier for- tress. Namur was a fortified city as powerful as Liege ; and the Allies had counted considerably on its resistance. But it proved helpless before the mighty guns; and by August 23rd the remainder of its Belgian garrison retreated into France to escape capture. On August 22nd the general battle be- gan. Its chief and decisive moment occurred when the Ger- mans forced their way across the Meuse (muse) River, flowing from Dinant to Namur. This compelled a general retreat of the French in the east, and meanwhile they were being forced back from Charleroi (shar-le-rwah) in the western area. We may well speak of each of these move- ments as a great battle in itself. To their number we must add one still further west at Mons, where the western ex- treme of the French defense line was being hurriedly occu- pied by the first British troops who had hastened to the continent, that "first hundred thousand" under Sir John French. These fell back from Mons on August 24th, being * See § VII, "The Battle of the Frontiers," by Jofifre, Steinacker, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH the last of the defending line to be withdrawn from Belgium. Now came the retreat to the Marne. French strate- gists tell us that General Jofifre had never wished to send his troops to the northern frontier. Belgium's heroic re- sistance had compelled France in honor to hasten to the res- cue. Now the rescue had failed, and Joffre resumed his original purpose. He was resolved to retreat until his still gathering forces could be all prepared, and could meet the Germans under the best possible conditions. Hence ensued wild and terrifying days for Western Eu- rope. The little British force had the farthest to retreat and had been the last to start. Again and again it seemed as though the Britons must be engulfed in the onrushing wave of Germans under General von Kluck. Moreover, the German troops carried into France the same systematic grimness which they had shown in Belgium. They marched, they fought, they rioted with the strength of delirium. They were drunken with the pride of conquest and the plundered liquors of France. The world grew sick with a mingling of disgust and fear. By September ist von Kluck's advance was threatening Paris. Must this great metropolis also be abandoned to ravage? The French Government heroically refused to order Joffre to alter his plan of retreat. If Paris must be sacrificed, it must. On September 3rd the Government officially withdrew from the capital and established its masses of clerks and counselors at Bordeaux.^ Then came the dramatic moment of the German army's change of direction. If the French could abandon the rich prize of Paris, so also could the Germans. Instead of spend- ing time and men on its besiegement, von Kluck turned sud- denly away from the capital and moved eastward to join the other German armies in their pursuit of the still retreating French. But that retreat now ceased. South of the Marne River, in a great arc swinging from Paris southeast and then north- east till it reached Verdun and then swung southeast again into Alsace, the French nation had turned at bay, to begin * See § XI. "The Abandonment of Paris," by Gallieni, etc. xxvi AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF the mighty Battle of the Marne, the battle that saved France, and so perhaps saved the world. ^ THE REPULSE OF THE GERMAN RUSH This stupendotts struggle may be best grasped by noting its three successive phases. The first, which is commonly spoken of as a separate battle, occurred along the Alsace frontier beyond Verdun. Here, where the French had been beaten back from German territory in the first battle of Nancy, there gradually increased from about August 25th a second and far greater battle of Nancy. This was an at- tempt by the Germans, commanded by Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, to break through the eastern frontier defenses and march in behind the main French army which was retreating from the north. The Germans planned thus to cut off the French army from its supplies and encircle it in a vast de- struction, like that in which the French armies in 1870 had been similarly encompassed. The last week of August was spent around Nancy in par- tial attack and counter-attack, the grouping of forces for the main assault. Then for another entire week, from Sep- tember 1st to 7th, the Germans conducted a tremendous ar- tillery attack. Under cover of this they hurled corps after corps of infantry against the French positions, often ad- vancing in dense masses as at Liege. But the French had also a special gun which they had invented for this war, the "75." which worked far more rapidly and more ac- curately than any other. With the 75's and with the bayo- net the French drove back each charge, however desperate. The assailants perished in countless thousands, and in vain ; autocracy had never been more spendthrift of its "cannon- fodder." This defense of the hills, called the Grand Cou- ronne of Nancy, was the real turning of the tide, the break- ing point of the first great German rush which had so nearly annihilated France.^ While the struggle on the Grand Couronne was still at. issue, von Kluck made that famous turn aside from Paris, sweeping across the front of its defenders. These, under ' See § XIV, "The Marne," by Madelin, Reinach, French, etc. ' See § XII, "The Turning of the Tide," by Barres, De Souza, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xxvii General Maunoury, attacked him as he passed, and so on September 5th began the second phase of the Mame battle. This phase, from the river which here separated the foes, is often called the Battle of the Ourcq (oork). It was in itself a mighty four-day battle. Von Kluck, caught ha flank, re- versed his southward march and fought magnificently. He endeavored to flank Maunoury in turn; and he almost suc- ceeded. At a critical moment the troops inside of Paris came pouring out in taxicabs to Maunoury's aid ; and again it was von Kluck's flank which was threatened. The Brit- ish now turned upon him also. By September 7th they had fought their way back across the Marne, retracing the last steps of their stubborn backward battle. By September 9th von Kluck, menaced on three fronts, withdrew from the Ourcq River in hurried retreat.^ Meanwhile, on September 6th, General Joffre began the third phase of the Marne battle, the great main struggle of the central armies. Matters were going well for him on either wing, before Nancy and before Paris. But what could victories at both extremes avail, if the main German forces broke through his line in the center? If they thus separated his two wings, they could encircle each and cut off its sup- plies. Here in the center were massed the armies of the Prussian Crown Prince, the Saxons under von Hansen, the Wurtembergers under their own Duke, and another Prus- sian army under von Bulow. For four days the havoc was awful. The French were almost exhausted. In the very center of their line stood an army commanded by General Foch. On September 9th, Foch had used the last of his reserves. He summoned his men for one final effort and — smashed through the German line. It had been weakened even more than his own, weak- ened partly because von Kluck's retreat in the west had forced the other German armies to spread troops in that direction to protect themselves. So now the German center had given way instead of the French. The troops of Foch and others pushed into the gap. To escape being caught in their own trap, the German armies, still fighting fiercely * See § XIII, "Battle of the Ourcq," by Cleigerie, Von Kluck, etc xxviii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF both to left and right, were compelled to withdraw. The Crown Prince was the last to give to his own regiments the reluctant order to retreat. Thus ended the first campaign of the War. It might even, despite all the four terrible years that followed, be called the decisive campaign. The first German plan for victory, the rush which was to have overwhelmed France immediately, had failed. Germany had now to face the consequences of her leaders' policy of falsehood and ferocity. She was a self-convicted criminal, abhorred by the public sentiment of all the world. She was not, and never could be, the victorious dictator she had hoped to become, able to defy with contemptuous arrogance the world sentiment against her. The French, however, overestimated the victory of the Marne. They hoped to send the foe fleeing in disorder back to Germany. In this they failed. The German colossus was only checked, not overthrown. Its armies withdrew across the Aisne (an) River, a retreat of over forty miles in some places ; but there in a position of great . natural strength they turned at bay.^ The British, pursuing eagerly after von Kluck, had here perhaps their hardest fighting and suffered their severest losses. The French were more cautious ; but soon all realized that the German retreat was at an end. To the early hand to hand fighting along the Aisne, there soon succeeded artillery duels. Both sides managed to drag forward their deadliest guns. Then came the digging of trenches for protection, then the raiding of trenches, and then their defense by building wire entangle- ments. The old style warfare gave place to the new. Gen- erals had learned at awful cost the impossibility of a direct frontal attack as against modern firearms. The strategic movements which next followed have been well called the "Race to the Sea," though it was at first a;i unconscious race. Hopeless of driving the Germans from the Aisne by direct assault, Joffre drew troops away from that eastern line where the Germans had been so easily held back at the Grand Couronne; and the soldiers thus gath- 'See § XV, "The German Rally on the Aisne," by Swinton, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xxix ered he sent to the west end of his Hne, planning to turn the German flank. The Germans responded with a similar movement to outflank this new French force. Another army of French was then sent to flank these Germans and another German army followed in its turn. Battle after battle en- sued; and the trench line, which already extended east and west from Alsace almost to Paris, now began to push north- ward from near Paris, reaching ever onward toward the northern sea. Marching troops covered in reverse order al- most exactly the course which the British and von Kluck had followed in the retreat on Paris. GERMANY BEGINS A NEW CAMPAIGN This opened the second phase of the Great War in the west. Foiled in her first rush, Germany now planned to seize all the northern coast of France and Belgium and thus keep the British out of the land war, locked in their island home, while southern France could be crushed in a more leisurely grip. Here again the German effort was stu- pendous and almost successful. And here again the re- sistance was brilliant, desperate, and at its very last extremity was just sufficient to hold off the exhausted foe. The Germans first turned their attention once more to helpless Belgium. They set themselves to seize such portions of the land as they had before passed by. This of course was a second and more open breaking of their assurance that they only sought a passageway through Belgium, and would afterward "right the wrong" thus done her. Frankly as conquerors now, they brought up their huge guns against Antwerp. With ridiculovis ease they battered to pieces its celebrated, but in our day hopelessly outclassed, fortifications. They soon captured the city ; and its fall made them mas- ters of all northern Belgium.^ Only a little strip of seacoast, extending from the west of Antwerp to the French border, remained outside their possession. Along this the little remnant of the Belgian army retreated, still fighting, until close to the French border at the mouth of the Yser (e-ser) River they met the French ^ See § XVII, "Capture of Antwerp," by Doyle, Falkenhayn, etc XXX AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF and British troops, who were once more advancing to aid them. Here was fought the Battle of the Yser, a strange, weird conflict, amid sand dunes and flowing tides, with the British warships scraping along the beaches to join in the fight. It ended only when the Belgians threw open their dykes and flooded the Yser plain, turning it to an inland gulf upon whose shallow waters tossed the dead bodies of uncounted thousands of the contestants.'^ Human life was held cheap indeed in those desperate days, unthinkably cheap. Autocracy wrung from its sub- jects all they had; and Democracy gave as copiously of its best. The richest blood of all the world, the blood of young manhood glorious in its fire and strength, was poured out in torrents. And Europe pays! Pays in that she must plod on now in later generations with the labor and the guidance chiefly of the "second-rates," those who through some weak- ness were not strong enough to fight. The toll of lives was at its heaviest further southward along the Yser, where French and British fought against the invaders the first great Battle of Ypres (eep'r). In the course of the "race for the sea" the little British army of General French had been withdrawn from its trenches along the Aisne and sent back to the north to fight, almost where it had begun its campaign, on the Belgian border. It now filled the last gap in the defenses which stretched from Paris to the northern sea ; and its defense centered around Ypres, the only Belgian city of any size that was still uncap tured. After Ypres had been destroyed by German guns, the only town remaining in the tiny unconquered corner of Belgium behind the Yser was Fumes (feern), a little place of about six thousand inhabitants. The Germans tauntingly called the Belgian ruler "the king of Furnes." But their utmost efforts never succeeded in depriving the Belgians of the solace of holding that one free strip of their otherwise cap- tured land. Ypres had now to bear the main brunt of this second great German effort for victory. For over a month, from late October until late November, the battle continued with * See § XVIII, "Battle of the Yser," by De Wiart and Joffre. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH scxxi endless cannonade and almost daily assaults. On October 31st both the British and French lines were on the verge of giving way. All their reserves had been exhausted; and the story is told of a mad scraping together of a last force of "irregulars," of cooks and clerks and wagon-drivers and stafif officers, who were rushed forward together in one final effort at resistance. But again as at the Marne, the Germans, even more exhausted than their foes, were the first to give way. Again, as at the Marne, the world was saved by a margin so narrow that the victory must be ac- counted as the work of God rather than of men.^ After that the Allies' line was strengthened by new troops, and grew ever stronger. The repeated German as- saults were more and more hopeless and more reckless, and frightfully costly of German life. In the main assault on the Grand Couronne at Nancy and now again at Ypres, the German Emperor is said to have come in person to witness and encourage his soldiers in the great final advance which was to mark the day of Germany's decisive victory. But on both occasions he had to witness instead the terrible miseries of defeat. Germany had indeed conquered harmless Bel- gium, and she held about one-tenth the territory of France; but in all its main purposes her carefully prepared assault on western Europe in 19 14 had resulted in complete failure, had been as costly to her in human life as it was morally disgraceful. GERMAN SUCCESSES IN THE EAST On Germany's eastern frontier, on the contrary, she ac- complished her purpose, though that purpose, as we have already seen, was merely defensive. She meant to hold Rus- sia in check while concentrating her own strength in the west. This she accomplished by leaving the eastern war mainly to Austria ; and she thereby achieved a further and ultimately larger profit. Austria, in her straining effort at a task far beyond her muddled strength, broke down so completely that she became thereafter, as the German lead- ers had expected, their helpless vassal. She was dependent * See § XIX, "Ypres : the Struggle for the Channel Ports," by Hil- ditch, etc. xxxii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF on them for her very existence, a mere tool in their crafty hands, to be wielded for their profit, at their will.'^ At first, however, Russia gave Germany some uneasy moments. Her mobilization, so much more rapid than had been expected, was followed by a prompt invasion of Ger- many's border province. East Prussia. This advance was made on no such vast scale as the struggle in the west ; per- haps four hundred thousand poorly-armed Russians were engaged. Russia thus began vigorously an old-fashioned war such as Russia understood. But the Germans, being unready, could not resist even this inefficient force. The small defensive armies of Prussians fell back defeated; and a fugitive populace began streaming toward Berlin. One cannot but admire the steadiness of the German rulers under this shock to their excited and overconfident people. There was much talk in early days of the Germans having met this Russian invasion by a hurried shifting of troops from the western front, thus weakening their forces there so as to cause the western defeat. We know now that they did nothing of the sort. They sternly entrusted the east to its own defenders, gathered for it a few more troops, never so numerous as the Russians, and then took their most important step by sending to command in the east a retired general disliked by the authorities, but known to be a master of his art, von Hindenburg, a typical German commander, strong, patient, merciless. The Russians were advancing in two armies. Von Hin- denburg outmaneuvered the first one, defeated and utterly annihilated it in the Battle of Tannenberg.^ The second he drove in retreat back across the frontier. Later, when another Russian invasion was attempted, he defeated this almost as completely in the Battle of the Mazurian Lakes. AUSTRIA IN TROUBLE Much as these East Prussian invasions startled the popu- lace of Berlin, and much as their defeat uplifted the repute of von Hindenburg, they were by no means the principal * See § X, "Russia Crushes the Austrians," by Vizetelly and Radziwill. " See § IX, "Tannenberg, Russia's First Disaster," by Hanotaux, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xxxiii movements on the eastern front. The main Russian army was engaged not upon the German but upon the Austrian border. Here, where the Russian possessions in Poland joined those of the Austrians in Galicia, armies amounting to two miUion men on either side engaged in a widespread campaign. In numbers this huge contest probably equaled that in the west, but not in the power of the fighting forces. The Austrian attack was sharp at first, but was soon flung back ; and the Russians were invading Galicia. There was a series of battles culminating September 2nd at Lemberg, the Galician capital. Here the Austrian resistance broke utterly. The main army was put to flight, and all of Ga- licia except the strong fortress city of Przemysl (pra-meel) was abandoned to the Russians. Przemysl was left isolated to withstand a siege, though the Russians had no such guns as had made the Belgian fortresses crumble before the Ger- mans, so the siege promised to be one of the olden style, lasting as these sometimes did for months or years. Except for the defense of Przemysl, Austria's rout was complete. Her main armies did not halt until they reached the security of the Carpathian Mountains, a huge barrier of rocky, snow-crowned peaks which separated the eastern Austrian province of Galicia from the more central domain of Hungary. Now it was that Germany came to the aid of sore- stricken Austria. Von Hindenburg, having achieved his first victory at Tannenberg, made a sudden attack upon Russian Poland. So boldly and swiftly did he advance that he soon threatened the capital, Warsaw; and the ravage inflicted by his troops in Poland was far more widespread than any the Russians had visited upon East Prussia. The Ger- man advance accomplished its object. The Russian armies, abandoning their further invasion of Austria, hurried back to defend their own land from the terrible Hindenburg. The first invasion was little more than a raid, from which Hindenburg hastily retreated. In late November, however, he came on again. ^ The battle of Ypres was over in the *See § XXIV, "Failure of the German Advance on Warsaw," by Fortescue, Hindenburg, etc. xxxiv AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF west; Germany had abandoned all hope of victory there. Her faith now turned to the east. What could the great Hindenburg accomplish for her there? The ever-gathering new troops were now sent to him until he had an army indeed. Slowly, heavily Hindenburg battered his way through the now assembled and multitudinous armies of the Russians. He drew their entire attention, giving Austria opportunity to rally, and even to attempt another Serbian campaign. Throughout November and far into December the Germans fought on in Poland, facing a winter cold more terrible than the foe. We speak of winter conditions in the trenches of the west as having been almost too painful and exhaustive for human beings to endure. But bad as were the western winter trenches, the sufferings in the east were still worse — and the German forces resisted them. The Russians were somewhat more inured against the cold. At length even Hindenburg admitted that the limit of human power had been passed. He withdrew a grimly depleted army from this first assault on Warsaw. Austria had also failed in her repeated attack on Serbia; being badly defeated at Kragujevatz.^ So that the first six months of the war now ended in a sort of general lull. The depth of winter rendered any large campaigning well-nigh impossible. Both sides could rest and take stock of the past, while straining every effort to gather fresh forces for the coming spring. Germany had won one decisive battle at Tannenberg and she had won control of Belgium, of a considerable sec- tion of France and of a part of ravaged Poland. But she had lost an enormous number of her best troops; she had seen her plan of conquest completely checked by the Allies in the great defensive battles of the Marne and Ypres and Warsaw ; and her ally Austria had been beaten to the earth at Lemberg, as also by the despised Serbians at the Jadar and Kragujevatz. »See § XXV, "Kragujevatz, Serbia's Last Victory," by Laffan, Marincovich, etc. THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH xxxv THE SPREADING OF THE WAR To offset these heavy blows, Germany had secured an- other and a useful ally, Turkey, which formally entered the war upon her side in November.^ German intrigue had ensnared Turkey in this war in which she had no real interest, and in which, as her wiser leaders foresaw, she would become the victim whether Germany won or lost.^ The aid of Turkey enabled the Germans to strike their first great blow for the throttling of Russia. She was now cut off from receiving supplies by either the Black Sea or the Baltic, the south or the north. Only the bleak Arctic port of Archangel remained open to her in Europe. Her sore- pressed allies could lend her little help ; and Russia had shown no aptitude for creating her own munitions of war. Her armies, always inclined to degenerate into excited mobs, were soon to become wholly of this type, patriotic but incapable. In the world beyond Europe, affairs had gone far worse for Germany. But this she had expected. Even before Turkey joined her, Japan had joined the Allies.' Japan lent her friends none of the land forces they so sorely needed for the European fight; but her navy, added to that of Brit- ain, completed the Ally supremacy over all the oceans, islands and far unpeopled coast lines of the world. Japan promptly besieged and captured the German territory in China, and then the Japanese ships seized one by one the German island colonies in the Pacific. Australia also did her part in cap- turing these. In Africa also there was genuine and at times bitter war, the British and French colonies against the German.^ The Germans could get no help from home; the Allies could count on it to an ever-increasing extent. South Africa with its Dutch Boers, where Germany had hoped for a re- bellion in her favor, remained loyal to Britain. A few em- bers of revolt were soon stamped out; and before the end of the year Germany's only remaining colony was East Africa. ' See § XXII, "Turkey Declares War," by Sultan Mehmed, etc. ' See § V, "Turkey Lends Germany Support," by Morgenthau, etc. ' See § XXIII, "Capture of Tsing-tau," by Okuma, Schlieper, etc. * See § XXI, "Germany Loses African Possessions," by Karstedt, etc. xxxvi THE FIRST GERMAN RUSH There the jungle depths enabled the Germans and their negro subjects to continue resistance for more than two years, but never with any prospect of ultimate success. They only hoped to hold out until the European War was over; and in this they failed. On the oceans, as we have already seen, Britain's prompt gathering of her fleets had given her command. A few German commerce raiders managed to slip out from this port or that, and plunder Allied shipping for a while. But each raider sooner or later was run to earth by the keen British pursuit. Even Germany's war-fleet in Asiatic waters could lend only a momentary spectacular interest to the one- sided struggle.^ This fleet, cutting away from its Asiatic base and threatened destruction by Japan, fled to the coast of South America. Here, off the Chilian shore, it attacked and destroyed two smaller British warships. Next, how- ever, it stumbled on a British squadron which far outclassed it; and so it too perished. Its defeat was called the battle of the Falkland Islands. In European waters Germany kept her main fleet safe in harbor and fell back, for vengeance, on her submarines. With these she achieved one startling success, when a single U-boat sank three British warships in one brief attack.^ But here, as in the land war, new weapons of attack were soon met by new methods of defense. The submarines never again achieved so startling a success; and the battle- ships continued as of old the masters of the ocean. Not until a later period did Germany in her desperation find a new way of breaking international law by directing her U-boats to the destruction of unarmed merchant ships and neutrals. Thereby she opened a new era of the War. But during 19 14 she accepted her defeat at sea. She was accustomed to waiting for time to ripen her revenges; and she hoped to settle her accounts with Britain fully, when the German victory had been won on land. ' See § XXVI, "The Sea-Fights in the Southern Ocean," by Dixon and Admiral Foss. ' See § XVI, "The Submarine's First Triumph," by Weddigen, etc. AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA THE SERB VICTORY OF THE JADAR JULY 29TH-AUGUST 23RD VLADISLAV SAVIC WOISLAV PETROVITCH PROF. R. A. REISS GENERAL KROBATIN The first actual breaking of the world's peace in the Great War began on the Austrian frontier. Having declared war on Serbia on July 28th, the Austrians next day began an immediate though not very severe bombardment of the Serbian capital, Belgrade. This ancient fortress city has been famous for centuries, in song and story, as civilization's outpost against the invading Turks. It was, however, wholly unfitted to resist an assault from the North and West, the Christian regions which it had so long defended. Especially was it helpless against the huge modern artillery in which Austria had spe- cialized. Hence the Serbs promptly removed their seat of govern- ment to the more sheltered city of Nish, deep in the heart of the country. Along the northern frontier Serbia was separated from the many Austro-Hungarian lands by the great Danube River; and along this for a week there continued a sort of casual fighting. Shots were fired from either bank; small expeditions dashed across and hastily withdrew. Then, about the tenth of August, the Austrians began a determined invasion in force, not along the Danube, but on Ser- bia's northwestern frontier, separated from the Austrian lands by two lesser rivers, the Drina and the Save, tributaries of the mighty Danube. In this wild and mountainous Serbian region, there followed the first great pitched battle of the war between equal forces, one of those stupendous battles continued day after day along lines so ex- tended that defeat on one field might well be counterbalanced by victory on another, many miles away. The Serbians finally crushed the center of the Austrian front and drove it into flight down the Jadar River, a little stream flowing from the heart of Serbia through the huge Tzer Mountain ridge and on down to the Drina River on the boundary. The contending armies in this first of the decisive monster battles of the war numbered at least a quarter million on cither side. The first Austrian invasion thus ended in complete defeat, a great triumph for the Serbs. Their chant of joy is here voiced by two of their best known patriotic writers, Savic, the soldier and scholar, who took part in the fighting, and Petrovitch, the diplomatic repre- sentative of Serbia in Britain. The official Austrian view of the defeat is given by the Austrian Minister of War. W.. VOL. II.— 1. I 2 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA Unhappily a grimmer thing remains to, tell, for which we draw upon the pen of a neutral, Prof. Reiss of the Swiss university of Lausanne. War in the East has ever been a thing of hideous bru- talities; but the savageries with which the Central Powers made the Great War so horrible in its opening phases were encouraged by an officially manufactured hatred for which we know no parallel. The Austro-Hungarian authorities here commanded, and the Hungarian troops inflicted torture and shame and death upon the unresisting. They called their attack a "punishing" expedition ; and they "punished" with no regard to age or sex or guilt. This is not a "war-propa- ganda" statement. It is what the sober voice of History must say for all the future. Read here the evidence, presented in its mildest form and practically uncontroverted from Austrian sources. c. F. H. BY VLADISLAV SAVIC AUSTRIA-HUNGARY declared war, but hesitated to open hostilities. She was unprepared or unable to imi- tate the example of Germany in her violent advance into Belgium, and thus she lost some precious moments which perhaps compromised her whole Serbian campaign. Blinded by their overwhelming conceit, the Austro-Hungarian gen- erals could not imagine that Serbia would dare to resist. They planned to occupy Belgrade, to hang a few hundred in- fluential citizens, and thus quench their thirst for revenge by inflicting upon Serbia a moral and material punishment. They expected vaguely that the war might end in this way. It was this that saved Serbia for the moment. Had Austria-Hungary attempted to imitate the German onrush through Belgium, Serbia's position would have been seriously compromised, for her greatest danger would have been a quick, resolute advance of the Austro-Hungarian troops already massed on her frontiers. Fortunately, nothing of the kind happened. During the first week, the Austro-Hungarian forces confined themselves to incessant but irresolute and feeble attempts to cross the Save and take Belgrade, but every time they were repulsed with great losses. This gave time and instilled new courage into the whole Serbian army. Within two weeks, the Ser- bian army was concentrated, full of confidence, ready to fight an army haif a million strong. The Serbian army consisted of troops of the first ban, men from 20 to 30 years of age, the second ban from 31 to AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA 3 37 years, the third ban from 38 to 45, and, lastly, the troops of the national defense, men from 45 to 55 and from 17 to 20 years of age. The mobihzing being general, Serbia was able to meet Austria at once with an active army 350,000 strong. The number of available men was greater, but Ser- bia was short of rifles, and many thousands of troops were armed and included in the active army some weeks later after some 120,000 rifles had been sent from Russia. The newly annexed provinces were represented by some thousands of young recruits who had only had about five months of military service when war broke out, but who im- mediately gave proof of their valor and dashing bravery. Two weeks later, exasperated by the Serbian stubborn- ness at Belgrade, the Austro-Hungarian generals quite abandoned the idea of taking Belgrade by costly frontal at- tacks, and so they concentrated large forces, 250,000 strong, in the northwest corner of Serbia. They crossed simultane- ously the rivers Drina and Save, and spread their army over a front sixty miles long. They advanced proudly into Ser- bia, confident that the occupation of that country was a mat- ter of two weeks. But already some serious and bitter fight- ing had taken place round Shabatz, with the troops who were defending that town and the passage of the Save. The Serbians withdrew, and, rallying their forces, met the en- emy on the eastern slopes of the Tzer Mountain. The Aus- tro-Hungarian left wing resting on the river Save and the right wing on the Drina could not be turned, but the Serbs made a fine coup, by dashing with unexpected impetuosity against the center. In a very hot battle lasting several days (the 1 8th to the 22nd of August) they beat the Austro-Hun- garian center and occupied the ridge of the Tzer Mountain. A wedge was driven into the Austro-Hungarian forces cut- ting them into two parts, which were beaten one after an- other in engagements lasting ten days. This Serbian vic- tory, known as the Battle of the Jadar River, was the first serious defeat of the Teutonic armies, and marked the turn- ing point in checking the tide of German militarism. This victory was due to General Stepanovic, who is known in th§ Serbian army as "one who never lost a battle." / 4 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA The advantages of this victory were twofold. The Ser- bians were able to hold on their frontiers large Austrian forces which could have been employed more advantageously elsewhere, and the moral effect of the victory was enormous. This little Serbia, of which Austro-Hungarians spoke with contempt, won the first general battle on a European front ; and her success, thrilling through the hearts of the soldiers of the Allies, contributed to the Russian advance in Galicia, and set a fine example and was a good augury for the brave men who won the battle of the Marne. BY WOISLAV PETROVITCH When on the evening of July 25th the Crown Prince Alexander, acting as Prince Regent, signed the order for mobilization, Serbia was as entirely unprepared for war in every respect, save actual experience of warfare, as any coun- try that has ever been summoned to take the field in self- defense. Little or none of the recent wastage had as yet been made good. The orders placed abroad for cannon, rifles, ammunition, clothing, and stores had not yet been car- ried out; heavy guns, automobiles, flying machines were lack- ing. During the campaign which followed, it frequently happened that a regiment went into the firing line with one rifle for every two men, those who were unarmed taking both the place and the weapons of those who fell. The declaration of war on the 28th was followed on July 30th by a desultory bombardment of the unfortified Serbian capital from batteries on the opposite shore and monitors on the river. This, however, was the only action taken during the first few days, and Austria's failure to strike while Bel- grade lay defenseless and open to easy occupation is signifi- cant testimony to her alarm at the European situation and anxiety to compromise. It was impossible for the Serbian armies to Hne the Aus- tro-Serbian frontier, which extends to 340 miles, especially as in summer the Save and the Drina are easily forded at numerous points. Voyvoda [Field Marshal] Putnik there- fore fell back upon the traditional lines of defense, and, while the Government withdrew from Belgrade to Nish, he AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA grouped the main armies in the Shumadija, whence they could rapidly move either north or west. Strong detach- ments were posted at Valyevo and Uzhitse, and outposts sta- tioned at every important point on the frontier, after which all the General Staff could do was to wait till the enemy's plan of invasion materialized. At the beginning of August, Belgrade, Semendria, and Gradishte were subjected to a more vigorous bombardment, and a number of attempts to cross the Danube were made and repulsed with heavy losses. One Austrian regiment was practically wiped out. The Serbian staff knew, however, that several army corps were stationed in Bosnia, and re- fused to be misled by these feints on the Danube. Attempts followed to cross the Drina at Lubovia and Ratsha, and the Save at Shabatz, and these were looked upon as more sig- nificant. Desultory fighting round places as far apart as Obrenovats and Vishegrad continued until August 12th, when the first penetration of Austrian troops into Serbia was signaled from Losnitsa. At that town and at Leshnitsa the Thirteenth Army Corps effected a crossing, while on the same day the Fourth Army Corps crossed the Save to the north of Shabatz, and other troops the Drina. By the 14th, over a front of about one hundred miles, six great columns had crossed the rivers and were converging on Valyevo. The great bulk of the invaders had entered by the valley of the Jadar; the Third Serbian Army and part of the Sec- ond Army now advanced with all possible speed to meet them; meanwhile the remainder of the Second Army was ordered to block the advance from Shabatz. The Austrian plan was obviously to isolate and overwhelm the Second and Third Serbian Armies in the wedge of land between the Save, the Drina, and the Jadar; this object once attained, the road to Valyevo and Kragujevatz lay open, and Serbia was at the mercy of the invader. On the 14th the Austrians were brought to a temporary halt by the Serbian detachments retreating from Losnitza, who dug themselves in across the Jadar Valley at Jarebitsa, and gave the main armies time to hasten westward by forced marches; but the first real shock of battle came on the i6th. 6 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA when the Austrian column of almost 80,000 men, advancing from Leshnitsa to the north of the Tzer Mountain, was heav- ily defeated and routed at Belikamen, two regiments having been annihilated. Pursuing their advantage, the Serbians drove in a wedge between the Austrian forces advancing from Shabatz and those operating south of the Tzer Moun- tain along the Jadar. From this moment the Shabatz and the Jadar campaign became distinct operations. At the same time, south of the Tzer, a violent and inde- cisive action had taken place, and the Serbians were at length compelled to evacuate Jarebitsa on finding their left wing threatened by a force advancing, in hitherto unsuspected strength, from Krupani. The retirement was completed by the morning of the 17th. On August 1 8th the Crown Prince Alexander, having thrown the Austrians back upon Shabatz and brought up re- enforcements south of the Tzer, deployed his army on a front of thirty-five miles, extending from Leshnitsa to the neigh- borhood of Lubovia. Inspired with memories of Kuma- novo and Prilip, the Serbians gradually forced their way westward, along the Tzer and Iverak ranges, and down each bank of the Jadar, throwing the enemy back upon Leshnitsa and Losnitza. August 19th was the decisive day of the struggle; the Austrians gave way at every point; their retreat along the valleys was shelled by the Serbian guns advancing along the intervening heights, and gradually converted into a rout, in which rifle and bayonet completed the work of the guns. By the 23rd the Serbian armies, after taking quantities of prisoners and artillery, had hurled what was left of the Aus- trians back across the Drina, Thus ended the five days' en- gagement which will be known as the battle of the Jadar. In the meantime strong Serbian forces had crossed the Dobrava Valley and advanced on Shabatz, round which the Austrians had fortified a wide circle. Violent fighting took place on the 21st and 22nd, on which day the Serbian troops worked their way round to the western approaches of the town. They tightened their cordon on the 23rd, and during the night brought up siege artillery. When the bombard- AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA 7 ment had begun on the morning of the 24th, it was discov- ered that the Austrians had decamped, after murdering in cold blood fifty-eight prisoners from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Serbian Regiments, whose bodies were found piled up in three rows in a private house. By 4 p. m. the Serbians had reached the banks of the Save, and the first invasion of Serbia was at an end. The Austrians' explana- tion of their retreat, after the "successful accomplishment" of their incursion into the enemy's territory, on account of "more important operations at other points," is still fresh in public memory. As a result of their attempt to "execute" Serbia, the Aus- trians had lost 8,000 dead, 4,000 prisoners, and about 30,000 wounded; forty-six cannon, thirty machine guns, and 140 ammunition wagons, besides an enormous mass of stores and transport. The Serbian troops had lost 3,000 dead and 15,000 wounded. As for the civilians of the districts invaded, they were treated with a disregard of every law of civilized warfare, and a fiendish refinement of cruelty and malice, probably without parallel in modern history. The instructions issued to the Austrian troops, in the form of leaflets, began with the words : "You are going into a hostile country, the popu- lation of which is animated by fanatical hatred, and in which murder is rife in all classes of society. . . . Toward such a population there is room for no feeling of humanity or gen- erosity." The procedure adopted was, on entering any town or village, to shoot out of hand either the Mayor or a num- ber of selected inhabitants (amounting to fifty at Leshnitsa), in order to "inspire terror"; to secure hostages among those that remained, and to take prisoners and remove to Austria the youths under military age, "in order that King Peter might remain without soldiers for some years." At the same time the troops were given to understand that the campaign was an execution, and that they might not only loot and burn and ruin, but murder, violate and torture at will, "because these people were Serbians." The pent-up hatred and natural instinct of the Magyar found ex- pression in deeds which could not, without offense, be de- 8 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA scribed here; as a mild example we may cite the case of a man who in the village of Dvorska was tied to a mill-wheel ; knifing him as he was whirled round was then engaged in by the soldiers as a game of skill. Extortion of money from a woman by the threat to kill her babe was common, and generally followed by the murder of both ; wanton mutilation was commoner still ; and this dur- ing the invasion. The record of the Austrian retreat is prob- ably one of the blackest chapters in the history of mankind; whole families were burned alive, or systematically bayo- neted and laid out in rows by the roadside; the treatment of the female population can only be hinted at; in their case the final act of murder must be looked on as a crowning mercy. In the track of the army that fell back on Losnitza fol- lowed a small group of doctors, officials, and engineers of Serbian, Dutch, and Swiss nationality, who reported cir- cumstantially, and photographed, what they found. A day will come when the indictment thus constituted must be met by the Magyar race at the bar of public opinion. BY R. A. REISS Very shortly after the beginning of the war Serbia cried out in horror at the abominable excesses of which she ac- cused the invading Austro-Hungarian army ; but the public, at least in neutral countries, remained skeptical. I confess that I was myself not convinced by reading the Serbian com- plaints. However, when I received the invitation of the Serbian Government, I believed it to be my duty to accept it. Is it not the duty of an honest man, if cruelties have really been committed, emphatically to denounce them, and if only isolated cases of atrocities have occurred, to point out that a whole army cannot be made responsible for the misdeeds of a few hooligans such as are found among all nations? I therefore started for Serbia, and I conducted my in- quiry with every necessary precaution. I did not limit my- self to interrogating hundreds of Austrian prisoners and hundreds of eye-witnesses; I went to the spot, sometimes AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA 9 with shells bursting around me, to inform myself of every- thing that it was possible to investigate. I opened graves; I examined the dead and wounded; I visited bombarded towns; I went into houses and I carried on there a scien- tific inquiry, using the most scrupulous methods ; in short, I did my utmost to investigate and verify the facts which I report in this work. I will not add to it any useless com- ments, I will leave my witnesses to tell their own story, and will merely state the facts that I have established. The reader will form his opinion for himself. I. Explosive bullets. — After the Austrian defeats on the Jadar and the Tzer, Serbian soldiers returning from the front stated that when the enemy fired at them two explo- sions were heard ; the sharp report of the rifle as it was fired, and a second explosion which seemed to occur sometimes behind them and sometimes in front. The explanation of this mystery was soon discovered in the bandoliers of Aus- trian prisoners of war. Cartridges were there found which were outwardly exactly like ordinary cartridges, except that they had a black or red ring round the case near the shoulder. On opening these cartridges it was ascertained that they were really explosive bullets, use of which is forbidden by the rules of war and international conventions. Later on the Serbian army not only found cartridges of this nature on prisoners; they also seized whole boxes full of them. In addition the belts of machine guns v/ere found wholly or partly equipped with cartridges with explosive bullets. The boxes containing the clips which were stocked with these cartridges were labeled with the word Einschtisspa- tronen or 10 Stiick scharfe Uebungspatronen. The car- tridges came from the State manufactory of Wellersdorf near Vienna and the base of their case bore the date 191 2 and the double headed Austrian eagle. If the bullet in its flight is stopped by some obstacle (bone, wood, etc.) the striker, driven forward by its own momentum, strikes the cap, and thus produces the explosion of the powder which in its turn explodes the bullet. This bullet, therefore, has precisely the characteristics of explo- 10 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA sive bullets such as have been used up to now only for shoot- ing pachydermatous animals. I saw a very great number of wounds which had been produced by the Einschusspatronen, in hospitals, in the ad- vanced ambulances and even on the field of battle. In gen- eral, the orifice of entry is normal and small. The orifice of exit from the body on the other hand is enormous and the flesh is often protruded in the form of a mushroom. The inside of the wound is shattered and the bones which have been struck are broken into small splinters. The bullet on exploding inside the body is broken up and its fragments act like shrapnel. To this must be added the effect of the gases. The wounds are therefore very serious. A limb which has been struck by an explosive bullet is almost always lost; a wound in the head or the trunk is inevitably fatal. Ordinary bullets fired at a very short range may also produce wounds whose orifice is normal at the point of en- try and very large at the point of leaving the body ; but these wounds, of which I have seen a very great number, do not tear so large a channel through the body as wounds made by explosive bullets. Besides we have often extracted from the wounds shattered fragments of explosive bullets. There is therefore no doubt that these explosive Austrian bullets were used against Serbian soldiers. The number of persons so wounded proves that their use was very frequent. Surgeon- major Lioubischa Voulovitch for example has placed on record 117 cases of wounds caused by explosive bullets at the sixth reserve hospital of Valievo in nine days. I questioned a large number of Austro-Hungarian pris- oners on the use of the Einschusspatronen, and their replies led me to put the following facts on record : 1. Cartridges with explosive bullets were used in regi- ments Nos. 16, 26, 27 (Hungarian), 28, 78, 96 and 100. 2. They were only distributed to the troops towards the middle of December, that is to say after the defeat on the Jadar and Tzer. 3. The soldiers had no knowledge of them before the war : "They were always shut up in time of peace and their AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA ii use is reserved exclusively for war," said the v^ritness, num- ber 27, to me. 4. Several soldiers were told that these cartridges were intended to be used for the purpose of ascertaining the range. 5. An admission was made to many others that they were explosive bullets which produced very serious wounds. 6. Good marksmen and non-commissioned officers re- ceived from five to thirty of these cartridges. When this use of explosive bullets against the Serbians was denounced, the Austrians at first denied the fact but later they confessed that they used special cartridges to get the range. The Einschusspatronen were intended to allow of the observation of the range by smoke during the day and fire by night, smoke and fire being produced by the ex- plosion of the mixture of powder and aluminium contained in the interior chamber of the bullet. I have made experiments with these cartridges and I believe it to be impossible in reality to get the range by means of the smoke or flame. So far as concerns the smoke, the amount of it is relatively small and it cannot be seen dis- tinctly at a great distance. Moreover, just as in the case of the explosive mixtures of aluminium or magnesium em- ployed in photography, the smoke is forced immediately by the explosion of the gases to a height which is more or less great, and the cloud of smoke is only formed at a very con- siderable distance from the place of the explosion. It is therefore impossible that the smoke could show whether the target has really been hit. The flame is well seen at night, but how can any one know whether it rises from the target aimed at or not ? Even when one sees a small fixed light burning in the night it is almost impossible to gauge its distance since the elements for comparison are absent. How, therefore, can one gauge a distance with the aid of a light which only lasts an instant? The Austro-Hungarians have also used expanding bul- lets (dum-dum) made in 19 14. I have in my possession specimens of these cartridges with expanding bullets, much less dangerous than the cartridges with explosive bullets, 12 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA which were found in boxes on the battlefields of Crnabara and Paraschnitza. II. Bombardment of open towns also entered into the program of the Straf expedition — the Punitive-expedition — ■ as the Austro-Hungarians called it. Thus the towns of Bel- grade, Shabatz and Losnitza were bombarded. I visited these three towns during the bombardment, and I there ascertained the following facts : Belgrade. I was at Belgrade from October 2-4, 1914. At this date the Austrians had bombarded the town for 36 days and nights. Belgrade is an open town, for its an- cient Turkish fortress cannot be regarded as a work of modern defense. It is an interesting historical monument and nothing more. This, however, did not prevent the Aus- tro-Hungarians from bombarding it freely. The shells were aimed at private houses. Government buildings and factories without any distinction. Thus the University has been almost wholly destroyed, the Serbian national museum exists no longer, the old royal palace is damaged, as are also the Hotel de la Loterie and the rail- way station. The State tobacco manufactory was burned to the ground by incendiary shells. Austrian shells struck the Russian and British Legations in spite of the Spanish flag which was flying above them, and the Austrian gunners sent two shots through their own Legation. I made an examination to see whether the private houses which were damaged or destroyed by the bombardment were situated near the Government buildings, and I have ascer- tained that for the most part this was not the case. We must conclude that the Austrians were trying to destroy these houses. Sixty State buildings and 640 private houses were struck by projectiles. Even the hospitals were struck. Thus the State General Hospital was bombarded four times; the private residence of the governor of the hospital, the operating theater of the surgical section, which is situated in the courtyard in a spe- cial building, and the lunatic asylum were damaged. I draw the attention of my readers to the bombardment of the university, the national museum and the hospital. The AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA 13 Hague Convention, signed by Austria-Hungary, contains the express stipulation that buildings devoted to science, the arts, and charity must be preserved if they do not serve any military end. These buildings were not being used for any military purposes, and they are not situated in the neigh- borhood of buildings whose destruction was necessary for strategical reasons, I have also discovered some evidence of bombardment by shrapnel shells; in particular the university and its lecture halls are riddled with bullets which have come from these projectiles; I have kept a certain number of them as pieces of evidence. Normally shrapnel is only used in war against enemy forces and never for the bombardment of open towns. The use of such deadly weapons proves that the Austro-Hun- garians sought to destroy the civil population of Belgrade. At the time of my inquiry at Belgrade 25 civilians had been killed and 126 wounded by the bombardment. Among these latter 37 were struck by shrapnel and 87 by shells, Shahats. I was at Shabatz from October 22-24, 19 14, Shabatz is one of the richest towns in Serbia, At the time of my visit it had already been subjected to an invasion by the Austrians, who were driven out after their defeat on the Jadar and Tzer. Since the commencement of the war this town has been bombarded almost daily, and very few civilians have remained in it. The center of the town had been almost entirely destroyed by ordinary shells and incen- diary projectiles. Of the greater part of the houses there remained nothing but the facades blackened by fire. In all, 486 houses had been destroyed or damaged. The bombard- ment of this open town served no strategic object, for the Serbian positions were outside it. Losnitsa. I found at Losnitza the same rage for destruc- tion which had already struck me at Shabatz. I was in this town at a time when there were neither soldiers nor civilians in it, but nevertheless shells, incendiary or otherwise, con- tinued to rain upon it. The number of houses burnt by the soldiers of the army of invasion is incalculable. Both in town and in country, houses have been burnt without any necessity. At the time 14 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA of my inquiry in the four divisions of the district of Shabatz alone 1,658 houses had been burnt; namely, Potzerski divi- sion, 232; Matchvanski division, 457; Asboukavatzki divi- sion, 228 ; ladranski division, 741. It must be observed that these divisions are agricultural divisions, and that the 1,658 houses burnt are village houses. In consequence of this burn- ing 1,748 families of the four divisions are homeless. The deposition of the Mayor of Petkovitza, Pantelia Maritch, proves that this burning was deliberately organized by the invading army. He declares that the Austro-Hun- garian soldiers had with them little tin pots. They painted with the contents of these pots the houses which they wished to set on fire and then set a light to them with matches. Similar information was given to me in other places. III. Massacres of prisoners and wounded soldiers. — The Austro-Hungarian army have frequently massacred Serbian soldiers who have been made prisoners. This state- ment is proved by the evidence of Austrian prisoners, by the official reports of the Serbian military authorities, by the depositions of eye-witnesses, and finally by photographs taken on the spot. I publish below some of these depositions, in which I substitute fictitious initials for the names of my Austro-Hungarian witnesses to avoid the disagreeable con- sequences which would otherwise ensue when they return to their own country. A. X.J of the 1 6th regiment of infantry, saw in a little wood at Preglevska Tzerkva eleven or twelve Serbian wounded asking for help. Lieutenant Nagj, of the 37th Hungarian Regiment, ordered that they should not be helped and even threatened those who wished to help them with his revolver. The Hungarian soldiers cut the throats of the wounded with their knives and bayonets, B. X., of the 28th regiment of the line, states that not far from Kroupani a wounded Serbian was groaning under a tree. An Austrian soldier of the 27th regiment killed him with a revolver shot. C. X., of the 78th regiment of infantry, saw at Shabatz three Hungarian soldiers (a Corporal and two soldiers) AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA 15 leading away a Serbian soldier who was a prisoner to shoot him, E. X., of the 28th regiment of infantry. After an en- gagement near Kroupani E, X. went over the battlefield ac- companied by hospital orderlies and found two wounded Serbian soldiers. He wished to take them to the Hiilf splatz (advance ambulance), but the Austrian soldiers refused to bring help to them, and a formal order was necessary to compel them to obey. E. X. accompanied the two wounded. When they passed by the 78th Hungarian regiment, the sol- diers of this regiment struck the wounded with their fists; and suddenly a regular tumult broke out because the Hun- garians wished to finish off the Serbian wounded with their bayonets. E. X. asked for help from the officers, who helped him to carry his proteges to the ambulance. Mladen Simitch, native of Bohova, Serbian soldier of the 17th regiment of infantry, second company, second bat- talion. He was in the trenches with many other killed and wounded when the Austrians arrived. They finished off the wounded. Simitch feigned death, and afterwards succeeded in crawling away and escaping; but the Austrians saw him and fired on him. The Commander of the first regiment of Serbian infan- try reports (under date of October 13, 1914, Acte O, No. 280) : Near the Schtipliane river, the Austrians took pris- oners about 10 wounded men of the 3rd supernumerary regi- ment. The wounds of these men were dressed. When the Austrians found themselves obliged to leave their positions in consequence of the attack of the 2nd battalion of the 3rd Serbian regiment, they shot the wounded in order not to let them be retaken alive by the Serbs. The wounded men were found with their wounds dressed, but dead. At lovanovatz near Shabatz, about 50 soldiers of the 2nd Ban belonging to the 13th and 14th regiments, Timok di- vision, surrendered to the Austrians and gave up their arms to them. They were, however, all massacred by the Austro- Hungarian soldiers inside a house. A little time afterwards the Serbs on recapturing Shabatz found a heap of corpses in the farm of lovanovatz. Photographs were taken and will i6 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA form a permanent record of this contravention of all the laws of war. Sometimes the bodies of wounded soldiers were mu- tilated before or after their death. Photographs in the pos- session of the Serbian Government bear witness to this. For example, Captain J. Savitch on August 11-24, I9i4> photo- graphed the body of a young Serbian soldier from which the Austrians had torn off the skin of the lower jaw. IV. Massacres of civilians. Depositions of Austro- Hungarian prisoners. — A. X., of the 26th Regiment, deposes as follows : He was ordered, and the order was read to the regiment, to kill and burn everybody and everything met with in the course of the campaign and to destroy every- thing Serbian. Commandant Stanzer and Captain Irketitch gave orders to attack the Serbian population. Before the second invasion orders were given at Yanja on September loth to conquer and destroy the country. The civilian popu- lation were to be taken prisoners. A peasant who showed the way to the troops was shot by Commandant Stanzer and his soldiers, who fired at him five times. On another occa- sion a Croatian soldier named Dochan boasted of having killed a woman, a child and two old men, and invited his comrades to come with him to see his victims. B, X., of the 78th Regiment, states that his superiors gave orders that no one should be spared. First Lieutenant Fojtek, of the 2nd Company, said at Esseg (the garrison town of the 78th Regiment) that it was necessary to show the Serbs what Austrians are. Nothing must be spared and every one killed. C. X., of the 78th Regiment, states that First Lieutenant Bernhard said that everything found living must be killed. Major Belina gave permission to his men to pillage and steal everything they could find. Corporal D. X., of the 28th Regiment of Landwehr, de- poses: At Shabatz the Austrians killed near the church more than 60 civilians who had been previously shut up there. They were massacred with the bayonet to economize ammunition. The work was done by eight Hungarian sol- diers. D. X. could not bear to see this sight and left the spot. AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA 17 The corpses remained on the spot for two days before being buried. Among the victims were old men and children. The order for the massacre was given by the General and Officers. E. X., of the 6th Regiment of Infantry. The Hunga- rian Captain Bosnai gave orders, before crossing the fron- tier, that everything living should be killed from children of five to the oldest men. When the frontier had been crossed and the troops arrived at the first Serbian village, the Cap- tain gave orders that two houses should be burned and every one killed, even the children in the cradle. About 30 women, children and old men were taken prisoners and driven before the troops during the fight. E. X. saw these civilians wounded or killed by the bullets of the two oppos- ing forces. This happened at Okolischte. F. X., of the 2nd Bosnian Regiment. His regiment marching from Lioubovia found at the third village some peasants burnt on the hay by the looth regiment. The or- der for this massacre was given by Lieutenant-Colonel Krebs, of the last named regiment. First Lieutenant Stibitch, of the 2nd regiment, made ob- servations on the subject to Krebs and asked him the cause of this barbarous execution. Krebs replied that they were comitadjis, and that besides it had nothing to do with him. G. X., of the 28th Regiment of Infantry, deposes that during the first invasion the Austrian troops killed all the inhabitants and the wounded. Lieutenant lekete captured 23 peasants and brought them before his captain. The latter drew them up in a line and kicked each of them. If they cried out they were shot at once. H. X., of the 28th of the Line, states that the Hungarians devastated all the Serbian villages in Sirmia. Captain Eisen- hut gave orders to strike down everything living in Serbia. Mussulman peasants from Bosnia always followed the sup- ply train to pillage. /. X., of the 3rd Regiment of Bosnian Infantry. When his regiment arrived at Zvornik there were some civilian Ser- bian prisoners, women and children. I. X. gave them some bread, but a corporal saw him and tied him up to a tree for two hours. At Tousla there were also many Serbian civilian tt., TOL. II.— 2. i8 AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA prisoners, especially women and children. When these women went through the town the Croatian soldiers spat in their faces. On September 29th at ten in the evening, 150 fresh civilian prisoners arrived. They were old men, women and children. The women could not drag themselves along any further, and the soldiers drove them on with blows from the butts of their rifles. The soldiers of the 60th Regi- ment had taken prisoner a young man of eighteen whom they hanged on a tree, K. X., of the 1 6th Regiment of Infantry, At Dobritch, on August i6th or 17th, K. X. saw soldiers of the 37th Hun- garian Regiment kill eleven or twelve children from 6 to 12 years of age with their bayonets. The order for the mas- sacre was given by First Lieutenant Nagj. In my collection I have also a series of depositions by other Austro-Hungarian soldiers, who had been taken pris- oner by the Serbs, which recount massacres and atrocities committed on the civilian population of the invaded districts, but I believe that these few samples are enough to prove to my readers that even the Austro-Hungarian soldiers confess the crimes that have been committed by a certain number of their comrades, and, what is more important, that in the majority of cases these crimes were committed in obedience to orders given by their leaders. I draw special attention to the testimony of H. X. of the 28th Line, who says that the Hungarians devastated all the Serbian villages in Sirmia, that is to say in their own terri- tory. Other witnesses confirmed H. X.'s statements, and it appears that the Austro-Hungarian army also committed many excesses in Bosnia. In addition the following docu- ment, which was found by the 4th Supernumerary Regiment of Infantry and sent on August 23rd (old style) to the Com- mander of the 1st Serbian army by the Divisional Staff of the Timok Division (second Ban), proves what I have said. By order of A. O. K. Op. Kr. 259. In consequence of the hostile attitude of the population of Klenak ^ and Shabatz, hostages will again be taken in *Klenak is in Hungarian territory. AUSTRIA DEVASTATES SERBIA 19 all the Serbian villages, etc., even those situated on this side of the frontier, which are or will be occupied by the troops. These hostages are to be killed at once in case of any crime being committed by the inhabitants against the armed forces (treason) and the enemy villages are to be burnt. The Commander of the Army Corps reserves the power to bum the villages on our own territory. This order is to be communicated without delay to the population by the civil authorities. HoRTSTEiN, general, BY GENERAL KROBATIN Official Announcement from the Austrian Ministry of War Since, owing to the intervention of Russia into our dis- pute with Serbia, we find it necessary to concentrate our en- tire force for the great combat in the north, the war against Serbia must be considered only as a "Strafexpedition" (punitive expedition) which, for the same reason, has be- come a matter of secondary interest. In spite of that, and both in view of the general situation and of the false news which has been circulated by the enemy, an offensive action had been judged opportune. Yet, also for the above-men- tioned reason, this operation was limited to a short incursion into the enemy's territory, after the successful accomplish- ment of which it was necessary to return to an attitude of expectancy, in adjourning the offensive to a more favorable occasion. The offensive executed by part of our troops was an action replete with bravery and heroism. Its effect was to draw upon us the entire Serbian army, the attacks of which, despite a great numerical superiority, had no result, thanks to the heroism of our troops. The fact that our troops in part suffered heavy losses should not astonish us, for our enemy possessed a numerical superiority and was, in addi- tion, fighting for his existence. Thus when our troops, who had penetrated a long way into Serbian territory, received the order to regain their positions on the Drina and on the Save, they left an enemy completely enfeebled on the field of battle. BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS FIRST NAVAL MOVES, AND THE BLOCKING OF GERMAN COMMERCE JULY 29TH JOHN LEYLAND COUNT ERNST ZU REVENTLOW M. SAINT-BRICE No one who studies carefully the history of the Great War will ever believe that Britain either wanted the contest or was prepared for it. The blow struck her statesmen with almost the same amaze as it gave to America. The only one coincidence whicfi told in Britain's favor or seemed to suggest preparation was the fortunate marshaling of her Battle Fleet. Had this at the opening of the War been scattered as usual, broad over the oceans of the world, the great German fleet, second only to that of Britain, might have rushed forth from its sheltering forts. It might have wrought upon the ports and ships of France and Britain such a destruction as would have turned the evenly balanced scales of war. But the British navy was gathered in its fullest strength in the North Sea at the very mouth of the German harbors; and the German fleet was "bottled" from the start. The British ships had been thus assembled for practice maneuvers; and an order had been issued that they were to demobilize. That order was canceled on July 26th, and the entire tremendous fleet re- mained in battle trim just where it was needed. Mr. Leyland, Brit- ain's authoritative naval writer, editor of her "Navy Gazette," well points out that the seizure of the control of the North Sea by this fleet should be regarded as scoring one most decisive point in the great struggle. The order accomplishing this was issued on July 29th. Rumor, ever eager to dramatize the striking incident, tells us that the expected demobilization of the fleet was countermanded because of a single indiscreet rem.ark let fall by a high German official at an international naval banquet. The British officers present at the "love feast" caught the remark and rightly interpreted it as a presage of immediate war. Surely, however, no such warning was needed on July 26th. To have disarmed at that moment, with Austria's ulti- matum issued and Germany upholding her, would have been a folly incalculable. Germany's protest against the British view, her denial that her ships were helpless against the Britons, is here voiced by Count Reventlow, the most vehement of her literary supporters, the most enthusiastic of Pan-Germans. He bases his assertions mainly of course upon the work of the submarine. The fact of Germany's naval downfall, however, refuses to be set aside by argument. 20 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 21 The further course of the British blockade, its extension into an international blockade, and its ultimate effect upon the War, these points are then elucidated by M. Saint-Brice, official writer for the French Government. Germany's official views as to the illegality and injustice of the blockade have been already presented in the preceding volume of this series. c. F. H. BY JOHN LEYLAND WHEN King George returned from the visit he paid to the Grand Fleet in June, 191 7, he sent a message to Admiral Sir David Beatty, who had succeeded Sir John Jellicoe in the command, in which he said that "never had the British Navy stood higher in the estimation of friend or foe." It is, however, true that the work of the Sea Service during this unparalleled war has never been properly ap- preciated by many of those who have benefited by it most. The silent Navy does its work unobserved. The record of its heroism and the services it renders pass unobserved by the multitude. Sometimes it emerges to strike a blow, en- gage in a "scrap," or, it may be, to fight a battle, and then it retires into obscurity again. Its achievements are forgot- ten. Only the bombardment of a coast town or the tor- pedoing of a big ship, which the Navy did not frustrate, is remembered. Who can wonder that people in the Allied countries are still less able to reahze that behind all the fighting of their own armies lies the influence of sea-power, exercised by the British Fleet and the fleets that came one after another into cooperation with it? Without this power of the sea there could have been no hope of success in the war. On the first day of hostilities the British Navy laid hold upon the road that would lead to victory. There is no hyper- bole in saying that the Grand Fleet, in its northern anchor- ages, from the very beginning, influenced the military situa- tion throughout the world, and made possible many of the operations of the armies, which could neither have been suc- cessfully initiated nor continued without it. But in the early days of August, 1914, when, from the war cloud which had overshadowed Europe, broke forth the lurid horrors of the conflict, the situation was extremely critical. What was re- 22 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS quired to be done had to be done quickly and unhesitatingly, lest the enemy should strike an unforeseen blow. Happily, with faultless knowledge, the strategy of the emergency was realized, and with unerring instinct and sagacity it was applied. The foresight of great naval administrators, and chiefly of Lord Fisher, who had brought about the regenera- tion of the British Navy, shaping it for modem conditions, was justified a thousandfold. Never was the need of exerting sea command more urgent than at the outbreak of war. Everything that Eng- lishmen had won in all the centuries of the storied past was involved in the quarrel. Only by mastery of the sea could the country be made secure. Its soil had never been trodden by an invader since Norman William came in 1066. The very food that was eaten and the things by which the industries and commerce of the country existed demanded control at sea. If the British Empire was to be safe from aggression it must be safeguarded on every sea. If Eng- land was to set armies in any foreign field of operations, and to retain and maintain them there, with the gigantic sup- plies they would require; if she was to render help to her Allies in men or munitions or anything else, whether they came from England, or the United States, or any other country, and were landed in France, Russia, Italy, or Greece, or in Egypt, Mesopotamia, or East or West Africa, for the defeat of the enemy, that must be done by virtue of power at sea. Therefore, in this war, as John Hollond, writing his "Discourse of the Navy" in 1638, said of the wars of his time : "The naval part is the thread that runs through the whole wooft, the burden of the song, the scope of the text." The moment when the First Fleet, as it was then called, slipped away from its anchorage at Portland on the morning of Wednesday, July 29, 1914, will yet be regarded as one of the decisive moments of history. The initiative had been seized, and all real initiative was thenceforward denied to the enemy. The gauge of victory had been won. "Time is everything; five minutes makes the difference between a vic- tory and a defeat/' said Nelson. "The advantage and gain of time and place will be the only and chief means for our BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 23 good," Drake had said before him. By a fortunate circum- stance, which should have arrested the imagination as with, a presage of victory — a circumstance arranged five months before, as the result of a series of most intricate prepara- tions — time and place were both on the British side. The First, Second, and Third Fleets, and the flotillas attached to them, had been mobilized as a test operation, and inspected at Spithead by King George, on July 20th. The First Fleet had returned to Portland and the other fleets to their home ports, where the surplus or "balance" crews of the Naval Reserves were to be sent on shore. Then had come the now famous order to "stand fast," issued on the night of Sunday, July 26th, which had stopped the process of demobilization. Dark clouds had shadowed the interna- tional horizon. Austria-Hungary had presented her ultima- tum to Serbia. She declared war on the 28th. The Second Fleet remained, therefore, in proximity to its reserves of men, and the men were ready to be reembarked in the Third Fleet. Few people realized at the time the immense significance of the memorable eastward movement of the squadrons from Portland Roads, or of the assembly of those powerful forces at their northern strategic anchorages. Those forces be- came the Grand Fleet, that unexampled organization of fight- ing force, under command of that fine sea officer, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. War was declared by Great Britain on August 4th. Successive steps of supreme importance were taken, which, in very truth, saved the cause of the Allies. Disaster and surprise attack were forestalled. The Fleet, fully mobilized, and growing daily in strength, was already exerting command of the sea, and the safe transport of the Expeditionary Force to France was assured. Cooperation with the French Fleet was immediately established — its cruiser squadron in the Channel and its battle squadrons in the Mediterranean. Of all the theaters of the war, on sea or land, the North Sea is the most important. It is vital to all the operations of the Allies. Command of its waters and its outlets is the thing that matters most. In that sea is the center of naval 24 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS influence. It is the key of all the hostilities. From either side of it the great protagonists in the struggle look at one another. There the great constriction of the blockade is ex- erted upon Germany. It is the mare clausum against which she protests. Geography is there in the scales against her. She rebels against British sea supremacy. The "freedom of the seas" is, therefore, her claim — though she is endeavor- ing to qualify to be the tyrant of them. Her only outlook towards the outer seas is from the Bight of Heligoland and the fringe of coast behind the East Frisian Islands, or from the Baltic, if her ships pass the Sound or the Belt, issuing into the North Sea through the Skager-Rak. But they can- not reach the ocean, except through the North Passage, where the Grand Fleet holds the guard. Only isolated raid- ers, bent upon predatory enterprise, have stealthily gone that way after nightfall. At the southern gate of the North Sea, through the Straits of Dover and in the Channel, the way is barred. The guns of Dover, the Dover Patrol, and certain other deterrents forbid the enemy to adventure in that direction. The new engines of naval warfare^ — the mine, subma- rine, airship, and aeroplane — found their first and greatest use in the North Sea; and only by employing craft which hide beneath the water, and, on rare occasions, by destroy- ers which seek the cover of darkness for local forays, have the Germans been able to exert their efforts in any waters outside the North Sea. At the beginning of the war they had raiding cruisers in the Pacific and Atlantic, and a de- tached squadron in the Far East; but the British Fleet reached out to those regions, and, aided by the warships of Japan and France, it drove every vestige of German naval power from the oceans. The situation in the North Sea is, therefore, of absorbing interest. It may be studied chiefly from the two points of view of the strategy of the opposing fleets and the exercise of the blockade. There is a peculiarity in naval warfare, which is not found in warfare upon land, that a belligerent can withdraw his naval forces entirely from the theater of war by retaining them, as with a threat, or in a position of BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 25 weakness, behind the guns of his shore defenses. Nothing of the kind is possible with land armies. A general can always find his enemy, and attack or invest him, and, if suc- cessful, drive him back, or cause him to surrender, and oc- cupy the territory he has held. The Germans have chosen the reticent strategy of the sea. They have never come out to make a fight to a finish, to put the matter to the touch, "to gain or lose it all." The animus pugnandi is wanting to their fleet. It was necessary that they should do something. They could not lie forever stagnant at Kiel and Wilhelms- haven. They could keep their officers and men in training by making brief cruises in and outside the Bight of Heligo- land. They might, with luck, meet some portion of the Grand Fleet detached and at a disadvantage. In any case, they were bold enough to take their chance on occasions, always with their fortified ports and mined waters and their submarines under their lee. They might succeed in reducing British superiority by the "attrition" of some encounters. Such was the genesis of the Dogger Bank battle of January 24, 191 5, when that gallant officer. Sir David Beatty, inflicted a severe defeat upon Admiral Hip- per, and drove him back in flight, with the loss of the Bliicher and much other injury. The same causes brought the Ger- man High Sea Fleet, under Admiral Scheer, into the great conflict, first with Sir David Beatty, and then with the main force of the Grand Fleet, under command of Sir John Jellicoe, on May 31, 1916. The mine and the submarine have put an end to the sys- tem of naval blockade as practiced by St. Vincent and Corn- wallis. No fleet can now lie off, or within striking range of, an enemy's port. Battleships cannot be risked against sub- marines, acting either as torpedo craft or mine-layers, nor against swift destroyers at night. That is the explanation of the situation in the North Sea. The blockade was neces- sarily of a distant kind. There are no places on the British coasts where the Grand Fleet could be located, except those in which it lies and from which it issues to sweep the North Sea periodically. The first essential is to control the en- emy's communications, which is done effectively at the North 26 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS Passage — between the Orkneys and Shetlands, and the Nor- wegian coast — and at the Straits of Dover. If the enemy- desired a final struggle for supremacy at sea, with all its tremendous consequences, he could have it. But he can be attacked only when he is accessible. "There shall be neither sickness nor death which shall make us yield until this service be ended," wrote Howard in 1588. That is the spirit of the British Navy to-day. But, then, the Spanish Armada was at sea. It was not hiding behind its shore defenses. Be it noted that the Germans, thus hiding themselves, enjoy a certain opportunity of undertaking raiding operations in the North Sea. It is not a difficult thing to rush a force of de- stroyers on a dark night against some point in an extended line of patrols and effect a little damage somewhere. The magnificence of the work of the British patrol flotil- las and the auxiliary patrols must be recognized. In the North Sea these are subsidiary services of the Grand Fleet. Day and night, in every weather — in summer heats and winter blasts and blizzards, when icy seas wash the boats from stem to stern and the cold penetrates to the bone — these patrols are at work. The records of heroism at sea in these services have never been surpassed, and England owes a very great deal to the men who came to her service. The mercantile marine has given its vessels to the State, from the luxurious liner to the fishing trawler, and officers and men have come in who have rendered priceless services. The trawlers have carried on their perilous work of bringing up the strange harvest of horned mines by the score. The patrol boats have examined suspicious vessels, controlled sea traffic, and watched the sea passages. The destroyer flotillas have been constantly at work and ready at any time to bring raiding enemy forces to action. The Royal Naval Air Service has never relaxed its activity and has engaged in countless combats. Such is the magnificent work of the British Navy in blockading the German Fleet, molesting the enemy's coast positions, and controlling his communications with the oceans. The commercial blockade^ by which the enemy's supplies BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 27 and commodities are cut off and his exports paralyzed, is too large a subject to be dealt with here. The object is to bring the full measure of sea-power to bear in crushing the na- tional Hfe of the enemy. It is vital but "silent" work of the Navy, and does not lend itself to discussion or description. Questions of contraband and the right and method of search, which arise from the blockade, caused discussions with the United States before the States came into the war. The only object of the British Navy and the Foreign Office was to put an end to the transit of the enemy's commodities, and to do so with the utmost consideration for the interests of neutrals, and complete protection for the lives of the officers and crews in their ships and in the examining ships. For these reasons neutral vessels were taken intO' port for ex- amination, safe from the attentions of the enemy's subma- rines. One great hope of the Germans was that the neu- trals would become more and more exasperated with Eng- land. They remembered that the war of 181 2 arose from this very cause. But they were completely disappointed in all such hopes, and they themselves, by interfering with the free navigation of other countries, brought the United States into the war against them. The blockade work of the examination service and of the armed boarding steamers has been extremely hazardous. It has called for the greatest qualities of seamanship, because conducted in every condition of weather and when storm and fog have made it extremely perilous to approach the neutral vessels — which, moreover, have sometimes proved to be armed enemies in disguise. Hundreds of vessels have been brought into port by the Navy in those northern waters. Sleepless vigilance has been required and the highest skill of the sea in every possible condition of the service, while the seaman has become a statesman in his dealings with the neu- tral shipmaster. It has been for the Navy to bring the ships into port, and for other authorities to inquire into their status and to take them before the Prize Court if required. The German High Sea Fleet having failed, the subma- rine campaign was instituted, and began chiefly in the North Sea. It has never answered the expectations of its authors. 28 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS It has not changed the strategic situation in any degree what- ever. Great damage has been inflicted upon British interests, and valuable ships and cargoes have been sunk, and officers and men cast adrift in situations of ruthless hardship. The tale of the sea has never had a more terrible record, nor one lighted by so much noble self-sacrifice and unfailing courage. BY COUNT ERNST ZU REVENTLOW When the German Fleet entered the great contest, it was not in a state of completion, as many persons abroad believe it to have been. At that time the German Fleet had been for some 15 years in the process of being regularly built up, for the big Navy Bill had not become a law until the summer of 1900. In that year the German Navy contained only two somewhat modern battleships. It was calculated at that time that the rebuilding of the Fleet would be completed in 1920. In 1906, however, came the great Dreadnought revolution in shipbuilding which quickly rendered worthless all ships built before that time (p re-Dreadnoughts), and compelled tremendous enlargements of wharves, harbors and canals, gigantic extension of organization, etc. The work of com- pleting the German Fleet would have extended itself far beyond the year 1920 tmder these conditions. If one fur- thermore takes into consideration that, as the authorities of all lands acknowledge, experience shows that it requires not 15 but 30 years to build up a fleet with everything that be- longs thereto, on water and on land, it is clear that the Ger- man Fleet was far from being ready in the summer of 1914. To this must be added a fact that has been overlooked. In 1900, when the strength of the German Fleet was de- cided on, the relations of England to France and to Russia were bad. England had to maintain strong fleets in the Mediterranean and in East Asia. The alliance with Japan was not yet in existence. If these conditions had persisted. Great Britain could have used onl}^ a part of its fleet in a war with Germany. Since, however. Great Britain desired to attack Germany when the proper time came, it allied itself at the right moment with Russia, France, and Japan, and BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 29 was thus able to use its entire fleet against Germany and Germany's allies from August, 1914, on. Then, in the course of the war, Italy came in with its considerable fleet. The allies of Great Britain also employed their fleets in the home waters and on the seas against Germany and its allies. And since, as is well known, the fleets of Austria-Hungary and Turkey are very small, the German Fleet had to battle against an extraordinarily superior might. What has the German Fleet achieved, according to what plan has it fought? Let us begin with the last question : According to what plan has the German Fleet fought ? In the home waters two enemies were to be considered — Russia in the Baltic, Great Britain in and beyond the North Sea. In view of the number of Russian ships in Baltic harbors, the Russian Fleet could by no means be taken lightly. In the fall of 1 9 14 a half dozen English submarines were stationed in the Baltic. Therefore it was necessary to leave a portion of the German Fleet there, and to be steadily prepared to employ still more forces in the Baltic should occasion arise. The greatest part of the German Fleet lay, of course, in the North Sea. It was from the beginning impossible to prevent the iso- lation of Germany from the oceans; for, on the one hand, the German North Sea harbors, above all, the basis of opera- tions of the German Fleet, are too far distant from the Eng- lish Channel and the northern passage from the North Sea, to make it possible to keep these open, and, on the other hand, the German Fleet was much too small. At the be- ginning of the war, and especially after Great Britain had taken over the warships being built in British shipyards for other nations, the German Fleet was hardly half as strong as the British. The British Isles lie like a long mole before the North Sea, and for this reason the command of the out- lets of the North Sea is very easy for them. The British ships are at all times near their bases of operations, and in the case of the English Channel there exists the further fact that the opposite coast belongs to the ally, France. The com- mercial blockade could be easily carried out by armed mer- chantmen, older cruisers and battleships, light cruisers and 30 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS torpedo boats, so that the main British Fleet with its great battleships retained complete strategic freedom of action. Therein lay the danger for the small German Fleet, and therein lay also the military necessity of employing a strategy of reserve, so far as favorable opportunities did not present themselves. In view of the unfortunate geographic position of the North Sea, the cutting off of overseas traffic could not be prevented. It was also the intention of the British Fleet in the first days of the war to carry on a strategy of reserve in the North Sea, to employ good opportunities for making sallies, and also to attempt surprises. The cruiser battle in the Bay of Heligoland on August 28, 1914, was to be a surprise of this nature. It cost us some small cruisers, and it cost the attacking English squadron heavy damage, despite its great superiority. This battle was without any significance so far as the course of the war was concerned. It demonstrated again, however, the unfortunate geographical position of the German coasts; the English knew that the German Fleet could always be found in the so-called Bay of Heligoland, since we have no' other harbors there. The British Fleet, on the other hand, which had before then frequently enough been hunted for by our torpedo-boats, was not tied to any definite place, but lay at some point on the coasts of Great Britain. It is highly probable that the leaders of Great Brit- ain's campaign would have carried on a strategy of sorties alternating with one of holding back, in order, on the one side continuously to weaken the German Fleet without run- ning any serious risk to themselves, and on the other, in order so to disorganize and provoke it that it would let itself be induced to enter a great deciding battle under unfavor- able conditions and in an unfavorable position. These plans came to nought because of the entry into the naval warfare of a factor which the British Admiralty had not anticipated. This was the German submarine warfare — the war with mines and with submarines. Through the systematic stragetic employment of mines and submarines the German naval leaders in a short time succeeded in making a continuous stay in the North Sea BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 31 impossible for the British main Fleet. Only occasionally did detachments of the main English Fleet make short, rapid sorties into the North Sea, only to return immedi- ately to the Irish Sea or to the waters west and north of Scotland. This meant a shattering of all English plans of a military blockade of the German coasts, and of shutting the German naval forces up in the German harbors. The main British Fleet saw itself unable to command the North Sea. Even the mercantile blockade by British warships could not be maintained, since the German submarines had become too dangerous for the large British cruisers and other war- ships. Therefore the British Admiralty estabHshed a gi- gantic mine-field at the entrance to the North Sea from the English Channel, and proclaimed other portions of the North Sea a military zone which could be traversed by neu- tral ships only at their own risk. This was a violation of the rights of neutral shipping unheard of in history; the neutrals have endured it. The British Government simultaneously presented as the chief means of their campaign the starving out of the German people, and by doing so drove Germany to its submarine warfare on British commerce. The submarine warfare had a growing influence upon the whole economic life of Great Britain. No one would have considered possible the things that the German submarines accomplished. It stands with- out example. Nevertheless, Germany would certainly have gladly stopped this submarine war against commerce if, in return, the freedom and safety of all floating property at sea had been guaranteed. It was plainly the standpoint of the British Admiralty to avoid serious encounter with the German Fleet except under especially favorable conditions. It feared that it would otherwise have too few ships left, and would be weaker at sea than the United States, after the war. One can say that the motives for holding back the main fleets on both sides were similar, despite the great inequality of the two fleets. In any event, it is correct to say that the great armored ships did not come and fight for fear of the sub- marines ; but there are many other reasons to be considered. 32 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS We did not, it is true, command the North Sea without submarines, but we did through them make it impossible for the British Fleet to command the North Sea. That is the great, historically new event of this naval war. The Ger- man submarines have everywhere given astounding examples of their military powers. They even voyaged from the North Sea to the Dardanelles, and destroyed a number of English warships there. The two German cruisers Goeben and Breslau at the beginning of the war were in the Western Mediterranean, and they succeeded in getting through the whole French Fleet from Messina to the Dardanelles. In the Black Sea these two cruisers, in conjunction with the Turkish Fleet, repeatedly fought successfully against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and the latter, despite its superior might, never dared make an earnest attack in the Turkish waters of the Black Sea. The cruiser warfare on the seas was conducted inde- pendently of all actions. The few German cruisers were from the start on a lost post. They had no supporting bases, and found themselves facing a tremendously superior force of British, French, Japanese, and Russian warships. Mr. Churchill has declared in the House of Commons that there were in all about 90 warships of every description hunting for the few German cruisers. Their situation was, there- fore, extremely difficult, and their destruction earlier or later was assured. Their actions could, indeed, damage the enemy, but they could have no influence on the course of the war. Nevertheless, Count Spec succeeded with his squad- ron in destroying an English cruiser squadron on the Chilian coast. Spec's squadron was then destroyed by a tremen- dously superior enemy force in the battle off the Falkland Islands. An end was also put to the glorious career of the cruiser Emden. Well-informed persons in Germany, as has been said, had never based any hopes on this cruiser war- fare, for they knew that the forces were lacking to carry it out on a large scale, and for any long time. But the glory which the German sea-fighters won for themselves on the 5ceans constitutes a lasting success and a gain which can- not be lost. In every contest they demonstrated that they BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 33 can be destroyed only by superior English forces, and that, ship for ship, they are superior to the EngHsh. The losses of the German Fleet in the first year of the war were very small. It lost not a single ship of the first class, but only a few submarines and torpedo boats, some small cruisers and a few older cruisers. The German Fleet repeatedly showed that it possessed full freedom of action in the North Sea. The German Fleet coursed about in the North Sea a great number of times, and at times even ad- vanced to the English coasts in order to bombard English coast defenses and marine stations. The war demonstrated that the days of absolute Brit- ish supremacy are at an end. Ten years ago the Civil Lord of the British Admiralty, Mr. Lee, declared that the British Dreadnoughts would be on the German coasts be- fore the news of the breaking out of war appeared in the German papers. The war has shown that Mr, Lee was a bad prophet. BY M. SAINT-BRICE Official Announcement by the French Government England and France decided on October 18, 191 7, to place an embargo on commerce destined for the neutral king- doms of Northern Europe — in other words, to forbid all exports except those specially authorized. A similar step had been taken by President Wilson on July 9th with regard to all neutrals. That was a final step, and a decisive date in the evolution of the economic war. Many persons imagine that the infinitely complex mechanism intended to strangle our enemies was invented at a single stroke and that it remains, with the perfection of a few details, practically the same as it was in the be- ginning. On the contrary, few instruments of war have been transformed more radically or by a more continuous progression than the affair of wheels within wheels which we call, for lack of a better name, the blockade. The block- ade of 1917 no more resembles that of 1914 than the battle of Flanders resembles the battle of the Marne. In the one realm, as in the other, the Allies have been wise enough to W... VOL. 1I.~3. 34 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS profit from the teachings of half successes and even of re- verses. At first the lists of contraband articles were lengthened. Remember that in the beginning these lists neglected arti- cles as interesting as rubber, lubricating oil, and fodder. I will merely mention cotton, which waited nearly two years for the order forbidding its export — out of consideration for American interests. Direct shipments to Germany were stopped promptly enough. On the other hand, exportations out of Germany, bolstering her credit and increasing her war fund, might have continued freely for a long time if she had not committed the imprudence of tearing international law to shreds and proclaiming ruthless submarine war in British waters (February 3, 1915). The Allies replied oni March i, 19 15, by interdicting all traffic either going to or coming from the enemy countries. Finally, on July 7, 191 6, France and England formally freed themselves from the provisions of the London Con- vention, which had arranged for lists of absolute and con- ditional contraband, and had even sought to free a certain number of articles entirely from war risks. Thenceforth, it was admitted that all trade would be held under suspicion, except when proofs of its innocence were forthcoming. Thus the burden of proof was reversed. Until then it was up to the captor to establish the validity of the seizure by proving the enemy destination of the cargo. Since July 7, 1916, it is the seized cargo that has to establish its innocence as to destination. As to putting a stop to enemy trading by firms in bel- ligerent countries, it was thought at first that a few simple measures would be sufficient, such as prohibiting the de- parture of goods from port and laying heavy penalties on suspected traffic. Soon it was realized that even this aspect of the problem was not simple. The idea of nationality varies enormously in the laws of different nations. Strange as it may seem, the English law did not permit Germans and Austrians in neutral countries to be treated as enemies. To this was added the incredible confusion of interests in great international enterprises. The Allies found them- BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS 35 selves compelled on February 25, 191 6, to resort to black- lists formally proscribing houses connected more or less closely with the enemy. It remained to hinder supplies from reaching the enemy through neutrals. That was the stumbling block. It was difficult to stop the transit of shipments often seemingly honest; still more difficult was it to keep non-belligerents from furnishing the products of their soil and industry im- partially to both sides. For indirect commerce the Allies still had one means of action, since they controlled the ways of access. Besides, they possessed a basis of computation in the statistics of be- fore-the-war trade. Thus they could, almost mathemati- cally, fix the necessary allowance of each commodity for each neutral country, as based on production and imports. But all this was purely theoretical. Practically, nothing is more unreliable than figures. It would have been neces- sary to know the existing stocks of each commodity, and the changes of demand caused by the war. Let us not for- get the consideration which the western powers tried to show, as far as possible, toward trusted nations, up to the time when German methods compelled them to push things to extremes. Very rapidly the principles of the solution took shape. In November, 191 4, there was organized in Holland the Netherlands Oversea Trust, a group destined to become a permanent intermediary between Dutch commerce and the blockade authorities. In October, 191 5, the Swiss Surveil- lance Society was established on similar lines. In Norway and Denmark another system was followed, that of private agreements with commercial houses. Sweden alone resisted all arrangements. The basis of the agreement in every case was to fix upon the amount of contingent importations and to obtain guarantees against reexportation. On the lat- ter point the results have been most satisfactory. Errors in statistics have been more frequent. When all is said, the machine would have been very effec- tive if the neutral countries had not disposed freely of their own products. The word freely is, perhaps, out of place 36 BRITAIN ASSERTS CONTROL OF THE SEAS when one knows the war methods used by Germany to im- pose her will upon her smaller neighbors. Her principal argument is not force of arms. Our enemies, who alone are in position to furnish the neutrals with certain essential articles — such as coal and iron — did not have to resort to that method of blackmail. The world knows the methods used by Berlin to compel Switzerland to furnish supplies of cattle and metals in return for bank credits. Holland has found her potatoes and fish in a sense requisitioned; Den- mark her farm products. To combat this intensive drain the Allies long were without other resource than that of com- petition. To buy up all the supplies in neutral markets is expensive. It is a burdensome method and one that cannot always be pushed to its logical end. There is only one way to stop this enemy traffic, and that is to place the neutrals face to face with a situation in which they will no longer be able to pass along their own products — to kill speculation with want. All the small neutral States are dependent upon foreign trade; their food supply, there- fore, depends upon the masters of the sea. But it depends still more upon the United States, the only great country outside of Europe committed to the arbitrament of arms. That is why the American flag was almost like an enemy flag as long as the great transatlantic Republic remained in the neutral camp. From the day America entered the war it became wholly one of the Allies. The Americans, with their business lucidity and the light of two years' experience, per- ceived the gap in the blockade. That is why President Wil- son did not rest until he had all exports under his control. Henceforth the neutrals will have their food imports strictly controlled. They will receive only what is truly required for their needs after their stocks have been greatly reduced and after they have proved the exhaustion of their re- sources. Under these conditions it becomes practically im- possible for them to share their supplies with their neigh- bors. THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE BELGIUM AMAZES THE WORLD BY HER RESOLUTE RESISTANCE AUGUST 4TH-I5TH EVERARD WYRALL GENERAL LEMAN GERMAN AND BELGIAN SOLDIERS' NARRATIVES VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG Hi-storians may never agree as to the precise military value of the check to the first great German onrush which was caused by the de- termined resistance of the forts surrounding Liege. To some it has seemed that but for this unexpected barrier, the German armies would have swept down on France before she could have organized any effective opposition, that she would have been beaten without ever having the opportunity to fight. French military critics, however, reject this condemnation of their army staff. They maintain that they could have fought the Battle of the Marne as well and perhaps better at an earlier date, if they had been released from the difficult task of hurrying their troops to the frontier to aid Belgium, and then having to fall back again to the Marne. There are even strategists who believe that the Geiman Staff deliberately planned to lure the reckless Frenchmen into Bel- gium, where they could be more surely and more crushingly defeated. But putting aside the question of the military value of Liege's resistance, of its high moral and spiritual value there can be no dis- pute. The heroism of the little Belgian army and of the firm-hearted Belgian people roused the whole world. Independence was shown to be still treasured, a treasure worth the dying for. Honor was proven to be other than the empty word the German Government had de- clared it. Amid all the good and noble things which sprang into existence under the tragic pressure of the Great War, there was none larger in spiritual value than this, that the little Belgian army at Liege resisted "to the uttermost." The city of Liege, the once wealthy metropolis of southeastern Bel- gium, stands in a broad river valley, the most obvious and easy road by which an army could pass from northern Germany to France. Hence the German plans had long since been laid for an invasion by this road. At least as early as August 3rd her troops were crossing the Belgian border, were seizing little frontier towns like Vise, and clashing with the Belgian outposts. On the morning of August 4th the invaders appeared before Liege; and by that evening, having been refused the city's surrender, they were ready for their assault in force. 37 38 THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE Thus even before Serbia had been seriously assailed, Belgium found herself at desperate grip with her terrible opponent. We give here, first, the enthusiastic appreciation of the Belgian struggle written by a well-known British author, then the more exact official statement of the Belgian commander, the hero of the struggle. General Leman. These are followed by individual pictures selected from the letters of both German and Belgian fighters. Then comes the official summary by the German statesman most deeply involved, the Imperial Chancellor, Von Bethmann-Hollweg. The reader may thus appreciate the unequal conflict as it appeared from every side. C, F. H. BY EVERARD WYRALL THE story of the defense and fall of Liege will forever remain in history as one of the epics of the Great War. Not only did the Belgian Army in and about the forts sur- rounding the city cover itself with imperishable glory, but, by its heroic resistance, changed the whole course of the early period of the war, if not the entire campaign, in France and Belgium, For the Belgians completely broke the first German onslaught, thereby delaying the advance of the Kaiser's Army through Belgium to France, and entirely disorganizing the initial plans of the German General Staff. Numerous, indeed, were the grim and picturesque stories and reports published at the time of the terrible slaughter inflicted upon the German hordes by the gallant soldiers of King Albert, but much will never be known which other- wise might have formed the connecting links of a broken yet glorious story. Whilst a portion of the German Army enveloped and attacked Vise, the 7th Army Corps under General von Em- mich had concentrated upon the plains about Herve prior to an attack upon Forts Barchon, Evegnee, and Fleron. These forts were three of twelve which surrounded the city of Liege, forming a circle thirty-three miles in circumference. Six — Pontisse, Barchon, Fleron, Boncelles, Flemalle, and Loncin — were large forts. The other six — Evegnee, Chaudfontaine, Embourg, Hollogne, Loncin, and Liers were smaller. Situated on the heights, six miles from the center of Liege, and from two to three miles of one another, they commanded the river and all the railways and approaches to Liege. Each fort was armed with eight heavy guns and THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE 39 mortars, and four quick-firing guns. The main armaments were in cupolas, and all had been designed by the great Bel- gian military engineer. General Brialmont, and built under the direct supervision of Belgian engineers by a French firm. Each large fort was built for a garrison of 200 men, and each small fort to hold 169 men. Between the forts were trenches constructed so as to form a connected chain of fortifications. The forts were considered impregnable against all known artillery, and even against very heavy siege guns they could have held out for many weeks. In shape the forts were triangular, each built of concrete, with revolving and disappearing steel turrets or (as they were popularly called) cupolas. Such were the defenses about Liege which the Germans had to capture or batter to pieces ere they could hope to gain a permanent hold upon Belgium. As to the defenders, the forts and connecting trenches were held by approximately 22,000 Belgian troops under the command of that most gallant soldier, General Leman. For its adequate defense Liege should have had at least 50,000 troops, but the advance of the Germans had been so rapid that the Belgian forces, being largely composed of militia, could not send two-thirds of the necessary force to meet the 7th German Army Corps,^ which was flung against the three most easterly forts — Barchon, Evegnee, and Fleron. The Germans, indeed, did not anticipate the least difficulty in taking these forts, for they were under the im- pression that most of the Belgian forces were even then col- lected some miles northwest of Liege, viz., at Diest. More- over, they were so confident that the Belgians would only offer a feeble resistance that they had prepared a time-table by which they intended taking Brussels on August 3rd, and Lille on August 5th. The time they should have been in Brussels had already expired when they began to attack Liege. On the night of Tuesday, August 4th, the 7th German * An army Corps of 1914 may be roughly figured as containing forty thousand men, a Division contained half as many, and a Regiment about 3,500. In later years the numbers were much smaller. 40 THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE Army Corps massed opposite the spaces between the three forts, advanced to the attack. Previously, according to the German theory of war, their artillery had shelled the forts, an operation which had not the slightest effect upon either the defenses or the defenders, for the shells were badly timed, and those which struck the steel cupolas or solid con- crete surroundings exploded without doing serious damage. But the Germans advanced, confident that their "terrible artillery" had successfully prepared the way for an infan- try attack. They advanced in close formation, shoulder to shoulder, their rifles at their hips as if on the parade ground at Potsdam. Destruction overtook some of them even before they were ready to advance, for, in forming up, the 3rd Battalion of the 125th Regiment approached too close to the entrenched Belgians and was cut to pieces, not more than thirty surviving the withering rifle fire poured upon them. The special points of attack were the two spaces between the three forts. Here, however, the Belgians were most strongly entrenched, and when the advancing hordes at last came within rifle range, a hurricane of shot and shell swept away the front ranks, impeding the advance of the rear ranks, who stumbled over hundreds of their mangled comrades in a vain efifort to reach the Belgian position. To make matters worse, the forts threw powerful searchlights on to the ad- vancing columns, and soon the air was rent with the shrieks and groans of the wounded as they fell in masses before the terrible fire of the Belgian field guns, machine guns, and rifles. Not one German got within fifty yards of the Bel- gian trenches, and when at last the shattered remnants of the army wavered and fell back, the victorious defenders leapt from their trenches and charged the battered enemy, chasing them far into the dark night, taking hundreds of prisoners. Thus the first German attack upon Liege had failed — and failed ignominiously. So terrible were the Ger- man losses that Von Emmich was compelled to ask for an armistice in which to bury his dead — a request which was rightly refused, the Belgians fearing the enemy would make other uses of the momentary cessation of hostilities. THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE 41 The following morning, August 5th, saw the opening of an artillery duel between the guns of the forts and those of the Germans, in which the latter were outranged and beaten ; the Belgians destroyed two guns and badly damaged others. The invaders had been so sure of easily overpowering the Belgians that they had not brought their heavy guns, or even as it transpired later, sufficient commissariat. They found themselves therefore faced by the necessity for sending hur- riedly for their siege howitzers, and in the meantime they endeavored once more to gain possession of the forts on the eastern banks of the Meuse, or to penetrate between them and force their way into the city of Liege. To effect this end General von Emmich brought up two additional Army Corps, the 9th and loth, and extended his attack southwards between Forts Flemalle, Boncelles, and Embourg, as well as on Fleron, Evegnee, and Barchon and the spaces between them. And now General Leman, the gallant Belgian com- mander, found himself in difficulties. With so small a force at his disposal he could not hope to hold three German Army Corps perpetually at bay, but for the moment he could only bring a portion of his forces from their first position and ex- tend them over the defenses in and about Forts Flemalle, Boncelles, and Embourg. On the morning of August 5th, therefore, after the usual preliminary bombardment, Von Emmich, having first de- manded the surrender of the city of Liege under threat of bombardment, again flung his forces against the openings between the forts in an endeavor to force his way through. Again a perfect hurricane of bullets and shells swept away his advancing columns, covering the ground with dead and wounded in one horrible mangled mass of groaning, writh- ing soldiery, and in places piling up the dead and wounded to a height of three feet. The German casualties were enor- mous; they admitted a loss of 25,000 men, though these fig- ures were subsequently revised. But the fact remains that they suffered terrible losses out of all proportion to the cas- ualties sustained by the brave Belgians. All day long the attacks continued. With useless valor the German com- mander threw battalion after battalion against the extended 4 42 THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE Belgian position and forts, but they were flung back each time in broken and disordered masses. By the morning of August 6th, however, the German big guns had arrived, and, having been placed in position, opened fire upon the city as well as upon the forts. In the former panic reigned, for, with an interval of only one hour, the Germans for seven hours poured shells into the city. One completely wrecked the roof of the cathedral, and the uni- versity was destroyed. Many people were killed and num- bers wounded, and the effect was so terrible that further re- sistance was folly. The city was therefore surrendered, though the forts remained intact. Before the Germans marched into Liege, General Leman, with admirable strategy, had withdrawn the bulk of his field troops beyond the banks of the Meuse, leaving the forts garrisoned and well able to protect themselves against any attacks made upon them. A peculiar position thus presented itself — Liege, so far as the civilian population was concerned, was in the hands of the enemy, but Liege in the military sense, the forts and their garrisons, were still intact, and doing terrible execution upon the enemy whenever he came within range of the guns and rifles of the entrenched Belgian troops. The German forces marched into Liege in parade order, singing patriotic songs and performing their ridiculous goose step as if passing in review order before the Kaiser. Im- mediately their commander gave orders that, if a single shot was fired in the city, the whole place would be devastated. But beyond the city the Germans held no sway, for the forts still held out and their guns dominated the roads by which alone fresh German forces could advance. To the northeast of Liege, beyond the circle of the forts, the main Belgian field force and general staff were advancing from Louvain in order to repel any attempted invasion of the right banks of the Meuse, upon which, so far, the Germans had entirely failed to set foot. They held Liege with 120,000 men, but were in a most perilous position, for, encompassed as they were, by the forts, it was impossible for them to move out of the city in any considerable force, and only at night was it possible for them to pass in and out between the intervals THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE 43 of the fortifications in small parties. North and south of Liege the Belgians had blown up the bridges over the Meuse' and time after time, as the Germans endeavored to push their pontoons across the river, they were swept away by the ar- tillery fire from the forts. It was evident, therefore, to the German Stafif that, be- fore any advance could be made, the capture or demolition of the forts must be accomplished. Accordingly huge siege howitzers were brought up, and systematically the forts were bombarded and smashed to atoms. In the case of one fort, Loncin, a vivid account of the terrible bombardment to which it was subjected before being blown into the air, was supplied by an officer of the Belgian Army: — "It was impossible for the Germans to take our forts by frontal attacks; they therefore resolved to bring up their siege material, and put our forts out of action by a violent bombardment. By a gradual approach their infantry invested the forts from a distance, isolating them one from another. Once master of the intervals between the forts, they managed to introduce into the city by night several of their most powerful batteries. They were thus able to at- tack from behind forts which had not been constructed to resist artillery fire from this direction. Soon the fort of Loncin was completely isolated. Day and night, however, in this mighty hive of iron and concrete, each man went about his business calmly and courageously. There was no respite in the bombardment. The shells which struck the fort burst with a terrific report, but caused little damage. All the same, life inside became daily more terrible. The galleries were dark at night, for the electric generators had been de- stroyed. Gradually the air became heavier, charged with the acrid scent of powder. On August 14th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, invisible siege artillery opened fire on the fort. The bombardment lasted twenty-four hours. Every minute two, three, or four shells burst on the cupola with a noise of thunder. Tongues of flame and puffs of thick smoke en- tered by every crack. As we did not know the position of the enemy's guns, our cannon remained silent. The whole garrison concentrated in the vast central gallery, where they 44 THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE were in safety, for the galleries toward the front were no longer tenable. During the night, when the bombardment had relaxed, General Leman sent men to examine the state of the cupolas. Most of them had suffered but little damage. At dawn, firing began again fiercer than ever. The garrison busied itself with extinguishing the beginnings of the con- flagration at points where the woodwork had taken fire. We were still perfectly confident and calm, although we suf- fered a little from being penned up in the central gallery, which was filled with smoke. We were all of us ready to run to our posts, for an attack was anticipated for that night. Suddenly, at five o'clock in the afternoon, a terrible ex- plosion shook the whole fort. It was the powder magazine which had blown up, perhaps as the result of the sudden out- break of a fire which had been smoldering unperceived. It is impossible to describe in words the awful effect of this explosion. The center of the fort collapsed in a cloud of flame and dust and smoke. It was a scene of indescribable devastation. A broken cataract of blocks of stone, of con- crete, of fragments of cupolas, which crushed beneath it al- most the whole garrison, which had already been decimated by the violence of the explosion. The explosion was suc- ceeded by a silence as of death. The enemy's artillery no longer fired. Then suddenly those who still lived saw Ger- man infantry running up from all sides, threading their way through the ruins of the fort, and with infinite precautions searching for the survivors. They had extricated several wounded from the debris, when they came upon the body of General Leman. The heroic defender of Liege lay uncon- scious but still breathing. He was placed on a stretcher and was carried from the fort. Meanwhile another party of the enemy were searching the ruins by the light of lanterns. Suddenly, from one of the galleries which had resisted the explosion, came the sound of shots. The Germans stopped in their advance. By the light of their torches they saw, massed at the end of the corridor, all that was left of the garrison of the fort. Black with powder, their faces streaked with blood, their clothes in ribbons, their hands grasping rifles, the heroic twenty-five still sought to resist. Touched THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE 45 to nobility by such splendid heroism, the Germans made no attempt to attack. Instead, they flung aside their weapons and ran to the aid of the brave Belgian soldiers, who were already half -asphyxiated by the poisonous gases set free by the explosion. Of the 500 men who formed the garrison of Fort Loncin, 350 are dead, and more than 100 severely wounded." In commemoration of the gallant defense of Liege the French nation subsequently conferred the Legion of Honor upon the city. BY GENERAL LEMAN Diary from His German Prison at Magdeburg On the nth the Germans started bombarding us with 7 and 10 centimeter cannon. On the 12th and 13th they brought their 21 centimeter guns into action. But it was not until the 14th that they opened their heaviest fire and began their destruction of the outer works. On that day, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a German officer approached to within 200 yards of the fort with a signaling flag in his hand ; and shortly afterwards, the siege gunners, having ad- justed their range, began a fearful firing, that lasted a couple of hours. The battery on the left slope was destroyed, the enemy keeping on pounding away exclusively with their 21- centimeter cannons. The third phase of the bombardment began at 5 o'clock in the morning of the 15th, firing being kept up without a break until two in the afternoon. A grenade wrecked the arcade under which the general staff were sheltering. All light was extinguished by the force of the explosion, and the officers ran the risk of asphyxiation by the horrible gases emitted from the shell. When firing ceased, I ventured out on a tour of inspection on the external slopes, which I found had been reduced to a rubble heap. A few minutes later, the bombardment was resumed. It seemed as though all the German batteries were together firing salvoes. Nobody will ever be able to form any adequate idea of what the reality was Hke. I have only learned since that when the big siege mortars entered into action they hurled against us shells 46 THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE weighing i,ooo kilos (nearly a ton), the explosive force of which surpasses anything known hitherto. Their approach was to be heard in an acute buzzing ; and they burst with a thunderous roar, raising clouds of missiles, stones, and dust. After some time passed amid these horrors, I wished to return to my observation tower ; but I had hardly advanced a few feet into the gallery when a great blast passed by, and I was thrown violently to the ground. I managed to rise, and continued my way, only to be stopped by a choking cloud of poisonous gas. It was a mixture of the gas from an ex- plosion and the smoke of a fire in the troop quarters. We were driven back, half-suffocated. Looking out of a peep- hole, I saw to my horror that the fort had fallen, slopes and counter-slopes being a chaos of rubbish, while huge tongues of flame were shooting forth from the throat of the fortress. My first and last thought was to try and save the remnant of the garrison. I rushed out to give orders, and saw some soldiers, whom I mistook for Belgian gendarmes. I called them, then fell again. Poisonous gases seemed to grip my throat as in a vise. On recovering consciousness, I found my aide-de-camp, Captain Colland, standing over me, also a German officer, who offered me a glass of water. They told me I had swooned, and that the soldiery I had taken for Belgian gendarmes were, in fact, the first band of German troops who had set foot inside the forts. In recognition of our courage, the Germans allowed me to retain my sword. Gen. Leman's Letter to the Belgian King Sir, — After honorable engagements on August 4th, 5th and 6th, I considered that the forts of Liege could only play the role of forts d'arret. I nevertheless maintained military government in ordpr to coordinate the defense as much as possible, and to exercise moral influence upon the garrison. Your Majesty is not ignorant that I was at Fort Loncin on August 6th at noon. You will learn with grief that the fort was blown up yesterday at 5.20 p. m., the greater part of the garrison being buried under the ruins. That I did THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE 47 not lose my life in that catastrophe is due to the fact that my escort, Commandant Collard, a sub-officer of infantry who unfortunately perished, the gendarme Thevenim and my two orderlies, Vanden Bossche and Jos Lecocq, drew me from a position of danger, where I was being asphyxiated by gas from the exploded powder. I was carried into a trench, where a German captain named Guson gave me a drink, after which I was made prisoner and taken to Liege in an ambulance. I am convinced that the honor of our arms has been sustained. I have not surrendered either the fortress or the forts. Deign, Sire, to pardon my defects in this letter. I am physically shattered by the explosion of Loncin. In Germany, whither I am proceeding, my thoughts will be, as they have ever been, of Belgium and the King. I would willingly have given my life the better to serve them, but death was denied me. GERMAN LETTER FROM AN OFFICER IN THE ASSAULT General Leman's defense of Liege combined all that is noble, all that is tragic. The commander of one fort, at the moment when the bombardment was heaviest, went mad, and shot his own men. He was disarmed and bound. The cu- pola of another fort was destroyed by a bomb from a Zep- pelin. Other forts were swept away like sand castles on the seashore before the relentless waves of the oncoming tide. As long as possible General Leman inspected the forts daily to see that everything was in order. By a piece of falling masonry, dislodged by our guns, both General Le- man's legs were crushed. Undaunted, he visited the forts in an automobile. Fort Chaudfontein was destroyed by a Ger- man shell dropping in the magazine. In the strong Fort Loncin General Leman decided to hold his ground or die. When the end was inevitable the Belgians disabled the last three guns and exploded the supply of shells kept by the guns in readiness. Before this. General Leman destroyed all plans, maps and papers relating to the defenses. The food supplies were also destroyed. With about 100 men, 48 THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE General Leman attempted to retire to another fort, but we had cut off their retreat. By this time our heaviest guns were in position, and a well-placed shell tore through the cracked and battered masonry and exploded in the main magazine. With a thunderous crash the mighty walls of the fort fell. Pieces of stone and concrete twenty-five cubic meters in size were hurled into the air. When the dust and fumes passed away, we stormed the fort across ground liter- ally strewn with the bodies of the troops who had gone out to storm the fort and never returned. All the men in the fort were wounded, and most were unconscious. A cor- poral with one arm shattered valiantly tried to drive us back by firing his rifle. Buried in the debris and pinned beneath a massive beam was General Leman. "Respectez le general, il est mort," said an aide-de-camp. With gentleness and care, which showed they respected the man who had resisted them so valiantly and stubbornly, our infantry released the general's wounded form and car- ried him away. We thought him dead, but he recovered consciousness, and, looking around, said, "It is as it is. The men fought valiantly," and then, turning to us, added : "Put in your dispatches that I was unconscious." We brought him to our commander, General von Em- mich, and the two generals saluted. We tried to speak words of comfort, but he was silent — he is known as the silent general. "I was unconscious. Be sure and put that in your dispatches." More he would not say. Extending his hand, our commander said : "General, you have gallantly and nobly held your forts." General Leman replied : "I thank you. Our troops have lived up to their reputations." With a smile he added : "War is not like maneuvers" — a reference to the fact~~that General von Em- mich was recently with General Leman during the Belgian maneuvers. Then, unbuckling his sword, General Leman tendered it to General von Emmich. "No," replied the Ger- man commander, with a bow, "keep your sword. To have crossed swords with you has been an honor," and the fire in General Leman's eye was dimmed by a tear. THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE 49 LETTER FROM A BELGIAN OFFICER IN THE TRENCH ATTACK Some of US late arrivals only managed to get to our posts when the German attack began. It was night time. We replied sharply with our guns. Until the dawn came we had no very distinct idea of what our practice was. Then we noticed heaps of slain Germans in a semicircle at the foot of our fort. The German guns must have been much less suc- cessful, because they rarely hit us that night. They did bet- ter at daybreak. We did better still. As line after line of the German infantry advanced, we simply mowed them down. It was terribly easy, monsieur, and I turned to a brother officer of mine more than once and said, "Voila ! They are coming on again, in a dense, close formation ! They must be mad !" They made no attempt at deploying, but came on, line after line, almost shoulder to shoulder, until, as we shot them down, the fallen were heaped one on top of the other, in an awful barricade of dead and wounded men that threatened to mask our guns and cause us trouble. I thought of Napoleon's saying — if he said it, monsieur; and I doubt it, for he had no care of human life! — "C'est magnifique , mais ce n'est pas la guerre!" No, it was slaughter, just slaughter! So high became the barricade of the dead and wounded that we did not know whether to fire through it or to go out and clear openings with our hands. We would have liked tO' extricate some of the wounded from the dead, but we dared not. A stiff wind carried away the smoke of the guns quickly, and we could see some of the wounded men trying to release themselves from their terrible position. I will confess I crossed myself, and could have wished that the smoke had remained. But would you believe it, this veritable wall of dead and dying actually enabled those wonderful Germans to creep closer, and actually charge up the glacis? Of course, they got no further than halfway, for our maxims and rifles swept them back. Naturally, we had our own losses, but they were slight compared with the carnage inflicted upon our enemies. "V7.. VOL. II— 4 50 THE ASSAULT ON LIEGE BY VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG, GERMAN CHANCELLOR Official Address to the Belgian Government The Fortress of Liege has been taken by assault after a gallant defense. The Government deeply regrets that the at- titude of the Belgian Government towards Germany has led to sanguinary encounters. Germany does not come to Bel- gium as an enemy. It was only when it had been forced by circumstances and in presence of military dispositions made by France that the German Government was obliged to take the grave step of penetrating into Belgium and of occupying Liege as a point d'appui for further military operations. The Belgian Army having preserved in the most brilliant fashion the honor of its armies by its heroic resistance against a greatly superior force, the German Government now asks H.M. the King and the Belgian Government to spare Belgium the continuation of the horrors of war. The German Government is ready to enter into any kind of con- vention with Belgium which can in any way be made com- patible with the differences between itself and France. Ger- many reaffirms in the most solemn manner that she has not been actuated by any intention to appropriate Belgian ter- ritory ; such an intention is entirely foreign to her. Germany is still always ready immediately to evacuate the kingdom of Belgium as soon as the situation in the theater of war per- mits her to do so. THE BELGIAN GOVERNMENT'S REPLY The proposition which has been submitted to us repeats the demand formulated in the ultimatum of August 2nd. Faithful to her international obligations, Belgium can only repeat her answer to that ultimatum, especially seeing that since August 3rd her neutrality has been violated, a lament- able war has been waged on her soil, and the guaranteeing Powers have immediately and loyally responded to her appeal for help. BELGIUM'S AGONY GERMANY OFFICIALLY ADOPTS THE POLICY OF SUPPRESSION AUGUST-SEPTEMBER BRAND WHITLOCK GENERAL BARON VON BISSING EMPEROR WILLIAM II. JOHANNES JORGENSEN MAJOR-GENERAL DISFORTH A GERMAN SOCIALIST DESERTER Germany's apologists, both within the ancient empire and in other lands, have gone to reckless extremes in defending the fatherland against the awful charges of wholesale and official massacre in Bel- gium. For example, according to the amazing document of the Ninety-three leaders of German thought, here to be quoted, German hands and hearts remained white as snow through all the heroic process of conquering neutral Belgium. For the fair-minded but bewildered reader, therefore, it becomes the absolute duty of the historian to speak in the plainest and most unmistakable words in declaring that the bulk of charges against Germany have been proven completely by every form of legal evi- dence, including confession and admission of the commanding Ger- man officials themselves. On the other hand, the feeble counter- charges made by the Germans in partial extenuation of their guilt have never been judicially established; have, in cases where investiga- tion remained possible, been wholly disproven and withdrawn; and would, even if true, have been neither answer sjor excuse for the awful German barbarity. The full evidence of these conclusions is easily accessible. It is presented here in compacted form. First comes the official statement of Brand Whitlock, the United States Minister to Belgium throughout the disaster. This final report was issued after the United States had entered the War, but it is only a summarizing of Mr. Whitlock's in- dividual reports delivered during 1914 and the following years. Then he had spoken as a neutral, but as a neutral overcome with horror and disgust at what he personally had seen and faced. He remains the chief neutral witness in the case. But are neutral witnesses needed? Read what follows: the official proclamations of the German governor in supreme command. General Von Bissing. He was dismissed from office in the later years of Bel- gian occupancy, and a more severe ruler appointed in his stead. Con- sider especially Von Bissing's order as to the treatment of prisoners, prisoners who had been collected in crowds without any charge against specific individuals, without trial, often without hearing, and 51 52 BELGIUM'S AGONY shipped by carloads into Germany. Think what the rising generation of Germans had been trained to become under rulers such as Von Bissing, and then try to think of the agony to be inflicted by a gov- ernor yet more severe. Next we present here the Kaiser's notorious telegram to the United States Government accusing the Belgians. The Kaiser, in this letter, backs up Von Bissing. He makes extravagant and hysterical charges, which are false, and in this extreme form false to the point of obvious absurdity, but which the self-righteous monarch never withdrew. Moreover, as late as 1919, the German chief of staff, General Luden- dorff, in his noted book upon the war referred to the Kaiser's letter as though its falsities were facts, regretting the failure of its "appeal to the American sense of justice" as against "the Belgian atrocities." Were these chief German leaders deceived or deceiving? With Ludendorff there can be no question. To the impartial reader the pur- pose of his book stands immediately revealed in that evil phrase. He had in his hands the full information necessary for honesty and he preferred dishonesty. He persisted in the foul system in which he had been trained, the repeating of a falsehood constantly and boldly until men shall become doubtful as to where truth really lies, shall see neither black nor white but confuse all things as gray. So may a Ludendorff hope to appear no worse than others. It was under this policy that the German Government attempted in 1914 to shift upon the Belgian Government, or at least to throw into gray confusion, the responsibility for the entire invasion of Belgium. The conquerors took from the Belgian Government archives some per- fectly harmless, routine documents. These were military reports work- ing out a theoretical problem as to how, if Belgium and Britain were allied, and if Germany attacked them, their forces might best co- operate. Similar military reports assuming every conceivable alliance and combination existed under every government of Europe. They were an obvious part of military training and of statesmen's medita- tions. Germany deliberately distorted these documents, and then pub- lished the falsified forms as "proofs" of a secret and treacherous Belgian-British compact or alliance against Germany. The deceit of this shallow trick was at once revealed; yet thereafter all German officials and publications always referred to the Bel gian-British com- pact as a proven fact. Ordinary Germans presumably believe in it to this day. Great is the ancient power of falsehood; and greater still was the old German Government's belief in it. As to the Kaiser's own belief in his own letter at the time of writing it, perhaps it was sincere. The German Military Staff may have placed the Belgian charges before him in a misleading and con- vincing light. The question has no value except for those who would seek to study the inner character of the human being raised by lot to the awful eminence and responsibility for the German cataclysm. After the Kaiser's letter we present the estimate of another neutral, not of an eye-witness now but of a judge, the noted Danish writer, Jorgensen. He weighs the evidence on either side, quotes its more striking passages, and gives the decision of the world. Would Ger- many still reopen the case? A chance is given her. One of her BELGIUM'S AGONY 53 higher generals, Disforth, is quoted, to show what has seemed to most of us the real German attitude, the only real explanation of all the crimes of 1914. Germans had indeed adopted the faith that they are a "super-race" who should dominate the world at any cost. Last comes the voice of unofficial Germany, the socialist, help- less, anonymous even, forced into the ranks as "cannon-fodder," and revealing with dramatic clearness what the cannon-fodder thought of it all. There is no human document of the ages more well worth reading than this particular German's human story. BY BRAND WHITLOCK Condensed from his official report of September 12, 1917, to the U. S, Secretary of State °\VER all this area, that is in the country lying about Vise, Liege, Dinant, Namur, Louvain, Vilvercle, Ma- lines, and Aerschot, a rich agricultural region dotted with innumerable towns, villages and hamlets, a land of contented peace and plenty, during all that month of August there were inflicted on the civilian population by the hordes that over- ran it deeds of such ruthless cruelty and unspeakable out- rage that one must search history in vain for others like them committed on such a prodigious scale. Towns were sacked and burned, homes were pillaged ; in many places por- tions of the population, men, women, and children, were massed in public squares and mowed down by mitrailleuses, and there were countless individual instances of an amazing and shameless brutality. The stories of these deeds grad- ually filtered into Brussels in ever increasing numbers as the days went by, brought by the refugees, who, in crowds, fled the stricken region in terror. It was difficult at first to be- lieve them ; but the stories persisted, and were told with such detail and on such authority that one could no longer doubt their essential truth. They became a matter of common knowledge and public notoriety ; and they saturated the gen- eral mind with their horror. Take, for example, the following cases : Battice, in the province of Liege, is about five kilometers from Bligny. It was pillaged and burned on the 6th of August by Germans who had been repulsed before the forts of Liege. Thirty- six persons, including three women, were massacred, the vil- lage methodically burned, and the church destroyed. C. F. H. 54 BELGIUM'S AGONY The Germans entered Aerschot on August 19th. The greater part of the inhabitants who had remained in the town were shut up in the church for several days, receiving hardly any nourishment. On August 28th they were marched to Louvain. Upon their arrival there they were let loose and were fired upon by German soldiers. The following day they were marched back to Aerschot, the men being again shut up in the church and the women were put in a build- ing belonging to a Mr. Fontaine. Many women and young girls, it is said, were raped by the German soldiers. Upon one occasion seventy-eight men were taken outside the town and were made to pass before German gendarmes who struck them with the butts of their revolvers. Of these seventy- eight men only three escaped death. At another time a num- ber of men were put in rows of three, the Germans shooting the third man in each row. The Germans killed over one hundred and fifty of the inhabitants of Aerschot, and among this number were eight women and several children. The pillage and firing of houses continued for several days, and a great quantity of furniture and objects of art were sent to Germany. On the 6th of September, three hundred of the inhabitants were carted off in wagons to Germany. In the seven small villages surrounding Aerschot, forty-two persons were killed, four hundred and sixty-two were sent to Ger- many, one hundred and fifteen houses were burned and eight hundred and twenty-three were pillaged. One of the most sorely tried communities was that of the little village of Tamines, down in what is known as the Borinage, the coal fields near Charleroi. Tamines is a min- ing village in the Sambre ; it is a collection of small cottages sheltering about 5,000 inhabitants, mostly all poor laborers. The little graveyard in which the church stands bears its mute testimony to the horror of the event. There are hun- dreds of new-made graves, each with its small wooden cross and its bit of flowers ; the crosses are so closely huddled that there is scarcely room to walk between them. The crosses are alike and all bear the same date, the sinister date of August 22, 1 914. Whether their hands were cut off or not, whether they BELGIUM'S AGONY 55 were impaled on bayonets or not, children were shot down, by military order, in cold blood. In the awful crime of the Rock of Bayard, there overlooking the Meuse below Dinant, infants in their mothers' arms were shot down without mercy. The deed, never surpassed in cruelty by any band of savages, is described by the Bishop of Namur himself : This scene surpasses in horror all others; the fusillade of the Rock Bayard near Dinant. It appears to have been ordered by Colonel Meister. This fusillade made many vic- tims among the nearby parishes, especially those of des Rivages and Neffe. It caused the death of nearly 90 persons, without distinction of age or sex. Among the victims were babies in arms, boys and girls, fathers and mothers of fam- ilies, even old men. It was there that 12 children under the age of 6 perished from the fire of the executioners, 6 of them as they lay in their mothers' arms : the child Fievet, 3 weeks old ; Maurice Betemps, 1 1 months old ; Nelly Pollet, 1 1 months old ; Gilda Genon, 18 months old; Gilda Marchot, 2 years old; Clara Struvay, 2 years and 6 months. The pile of bodies comprised also many children from 6 to 14 years. Eight large families have entirely disappeared. Four have but one survivor. Those men that escaped death — and many of whom were riddled with bullets — were obliged to bury in a summary and hasty fashion their fathers, mothers, brothers, or sisters ; then after having been relieved of their money and being placed in chains they were sent to Cassel [Prussia]. Monceau-sur-Sambre (Charleroi) was pillaged and sacked on the 22nd of August, Twelve inhabitants were shot by firing squads and twenty-eight as they emerged from their burning houses. Thirty of all ages and both sexes were wounded under similar conditions. Sixty-two houses were looted and two hundred and fifty burned, French sol- diers were holding a bridge on the Sambre with machine guns and rifles and had received the Germans with a short but spirited fusillade. Gougnies, in the province of Hainaut, was sacked on the 23rd of August. No fighting had taken place there and the 56 BELGIUM'S AGONY first troops had passed through quietly. On Sunday, the 23rd, claiming that civilians had fired on their troops, the Germans set fire to various parts of the village. Seventeen houses were burned, and among those one in which Mr. Piret, provincial councilor for the Hainaut, had established a hospital. Ten wounded French soldiers therein were burned alive. Mr, Piret in spite of his great age was taken out and shot the next day at Le Roux. Two other in- habitants of Gougnies, Messrs. Thiry, aged 83, and Gre- goire, 56, were also shot. It is interesting to note that near Louvain at Heverle is the chateau of the Due d'Arenberg, a German; many of the houses in the village belonged to him ; on these houses there were posted little cards, one of which I attach to this re- port ; they read : "This house must be protected. It is strictly forbidden to enter the houses or to burn them without the consent of the Kommandantur." Certain houses were marked, in chalk: "Nicht pliln- dern." [Do not pillage.] During the whole of that terrible month of August [1914], and during a part of September, eastern Belgium was the scene of such happenings, from the deliberate and systematic organized massacres of civil populations, with isolated murders and outrages, violations of women, and those nameless deeds one cannot bring oneself to mention and yet somehow hears ; down to the sack of wine cellars by drunken soldiers. . . . There is little doubt that the German soldiers often fired because of the fear of francs-tireurs, but there is no convincing evidence that they were actually fired upon ; in- deed, no serious effort seems to have been made judicially to establish the fact. As to have a town given over to fire and sword, it sufficed simply for a German soldier to cry : "Man hat geschossen" [Some one fired a shot], so it seems now to suffice, when justification is attempted, to say : "The Belgians fired on us." . . . The Bishop of Namur writes to the Governor-General in Belgium, subjecting the [German] "White Book" to an BELGIUM'S AGONY 57 examination that is without mercy in its logic. After hav- ing gone over the different charges of the Germans con- cerning the firing by civilians, he points out to the Governor- General that, in the "White Book," there is not a word con- cerning the tragedy at Tamines, not a word about Surice, not a word about Spontin, not a word about Namur, not a word about Fehe, not a word about Gommeries, not a word about Latour, not a word, in short, about sixty-five other places where there was pillage and massacre and incendiarism. The Bishop shows, in the appendix devoted to Dinant, that almost three hundred tim.es the [German] "White Book" contented itself with repeating the unsupported alle- gation, "They have fired on us" ; and he adds, with perfect comprehension of the German psychology, when this is de- nied, when the Germans are challenged to produce proof — ■ proof, they reply, simply: "You cannot deny this; a Ger- man soldier said so." It may be that there were instances where Belgian house- wives threw boiling water on the soldiers, it would not have been surprising if they had, though it seems somewhat less likely in the case of boiling tar, as housewives are not gen- erally in the habit of keeping boiling tar available as means of defense, and it is not stated how the German soldiers were roasted. But it would seem that there could not have been enough boiling water in all Belgium, even had it all been flung at German soldiers, to make it a military necessity to bum, to slay, to sack and to pillage on such a scale. BY GENERAL BARON VON HISSING As German Military Governor of Belgium he issued a Proclamation, dated August 29, 1914, which said in part: If a blinded and maddened population treacherously attacks and slaughters without pity the brave sons of our peo- ple who are facing death for their country, as well as the wounded, doctors and hospital nurses^ — if bands of men *The leading Berlin Socialistic newspaper, under date of October 22, 1914, said : "We have already been able to establish the falseness of a great number of assertions which have been made with great precision and published everywhere in the press, concerning alleged cruelties com- 58 BELGIUM'S AGONY endanger the safety of the lines of communication of the armies, self-preservation requires that extreme measures should immediately be adopted against them. Indeed, it is a sacred duty of the military commanders to take such meas- ures. In such a case the innocent will have to suffer v^rith the guilty. The repeated instructions of the command of our army have allowed no doubt to subsist as to this matter. It is no doubt to be regretted that in repressing these infamous acts it should be impossible to spare human lives, and that isolated houses as well as flourishing villages, and even en- tire towns, should be annihilated, but this should not provoke misplaced sentimentality. All that we may destroy is, in mitted by the populations of the countries with which Germany is at war upon German soldiers and civilians. We are now in a position to silence two others of these fantastic stories. "The War Correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt spoke a few weeks ago of cigars and cigarettes filled with powder alleged to have been given out or sold to our soldiers with diabolical intent. He even pretended to have seen with his own eyes hundreds of this kind of cigarettes. We learn from an authentic source that this story of cigars and cigarettes is nothing but a brazen invention. Stories of soldiers whose eyes are alleged to have been torn out by francs-tireurs are circulated throughout Germany. Not a single case of this kind has been officially established. In every instance where it has been pos- sible to verify the story its inaccuracy has been demonstrated. "It matters little that reports of this nature bear an appearance of positive certitude, or are even vouched by eye-witnesses. The de- sire for notoriety, the absence of criticism, and personal error play an unfortunate part in the days in which we are living. Every nose shot off or simply bound up, every eye removed, is immediately transformed into a nose or eye torn off by the francs-tireurs. Already the Popular Gazette of Cologne has been able, contrary to the very categorical assertions of Aix-la-Chapelle, to prove that there was no soldier with his eyes torn out in the field ambulance at this town. It was said, also, that people wounded in this way were under treatment in the neigh- borhood of Berlin, but whatever inquiries have been made in regard to these reports, their absolute falsity has been demonstrated. At length these reports were concentrated at Gross Lichterfeld. A news- paper published at noon, and widely circulated in Berlin, printed a few days ago in large type the news that at the Lazaretto of Lichter- feld alone there were 'ten German soldiers, only slightly wounded, whose eyes had been wickedly torn out' But to a request for informa- tion by comrade Liebknecht the following written reply was sent by the chief medical officer of the above-mentioned field hospital, dated the i8th of the month : — 'Sir : Happily there is no truth whatever in these stories. Yours obediently, Professor Rautenberg.' " BELGIUM'S AGONY 59 our eyes, less in value than the life of a single one of our brave soldiers. That is self-evident, and indeed, properly speaking, it is not necessary to mention it. Whoever speaks here of barbarity commits a crime. Rigorously to carry out a duty is to obey a mandate of a high civilization [Kultur], and in that matter the popula- tion of the enemy's country has only to take a lesson from our army. A similar Proclamation of December, 1914 In an order of the day, I recently appealed to the public not to display false and misplaced sentiments of sympathy towards the prisoners of war. You should show more of a German conscience. Must I again repeat this remonstrance? It would seem so. According to the reports which have been submitted to me, all kinds of dainties, and in particular chocolates, have again been offered to the prisoners in spite of the prohibi- tions which have been issued, and that at Munster as well as elsewhere. Are you so full of pity for others and so anti- German in spirit that you do not hear the cries of distress of our own prisoners in France ? You may be sure that they are not offered chocolate there. Unfortunately, it is not possible completely to isolate from the outside world the prisoners of my district. I have, therefore, been obliged to put an end to the commerce in provisions and dainties which has been established in the encampments without my authority. It is mostly children and young people, and in particular little girls, who crowd round the prisoners un- ceasingly. They are entirely wanting in good breeding. It is for their relatives and the schools to alter this state of things. If these warnings should remain without result, recourse will be had to exemplary punishment in order to put a stop to this anti-German conduct. It is on the sentiment of the young generation that the future of our country depends. The General Commanding, VoN BiSSING. 6o BELGIUM'S AGONY BY EMPEROR WILLIAM II. This was sent as a telegram to the President of the United States, under date of September 7, 1914 I feel it my duty, Mr. President, to inform you as the most prominent representative of principles of humanity, that after taking the French fortress of Longwy, my troops discovered there thousands of dumdum cartridges made by special government machinery. The same kind of ammuni- tion was found on killed and wounded troops and prisoners, also on the British troops. You know what terrible wounds and suffering these bullets inflict and that their use is strictly forbidden by the established rules of international law. I therefore address a solemn protest to you against this kind of warfare, which, owing to the methods of our adversaries, has become one of the most barbarous known in history. Not only have they employed these atrocious weapons, but the Belgian Government has openly ^ encouraged and, since long, carefully prepared the participation of the Bel- gian civil population in the fighting. The atrocities com- mitted even by women and priests in this guerilla warfare, also on wounded soldiers, medical staff and nurses, doctors killed, hospitals attacked by rifle fire, were such that my gen- erals finally were compelled to take the most drastic meas- ures in order to punish the guilty and to frighten the blood- thirsty population from continuing their work of vile mur- der and horror. Some villages and even the old town of Loewen [Lou- vain], excepting the fine hotel de ville, had to be destroyed in self-defense and for the protection of my troops. My heart bleeds when I see that such measures have become un- avoidable and when I think of the numerous innocent peo- " As this word "openly" reaches the apex of these extravagant charges and should be the point most easily proven, let us assure the reader that it is flatly not so. The Belgian Government fairly flooded the land with proclamations and warnings by various local authorities, forbidding the civil population to take any part in the warfare, cau- tioning them of the awful consequences that would ensue. BELGIUM'S AGONY 6i pie who lose their home and property as a consequence of the barbarous behavior of those criminals.^ Signed, William, Emperor and King. by johannes jorgensen [Early in the War two official pamphlets were issued in Germany, circumstantially denying all charges of falsehood or brutality. The neutral scholar Jorgensen quotes these and then proceeds to analyze them. The one was called "The Truth about the War," the other "The Voice of Truth." The latter and more astounding one was signed by ninety- three of the leading authors, artists and scholars of Ger- many. No document could possibly be more representative of the German race. It begins as follows :] "We, as leaders of German Learning and Art, send forth to the united World of Culture a protest against the Lies and Slanders with which our enemies endeavor to befoul Germany's spotless Cause in the hard struggle for existence which has been forced upon her. The immovable witness of events has exposed the fables of German defeats. With still greater ardor they endeavor to falsify the character of facts and to bring suspicion upon us. Against these machi- ' Commenting on this telegram the German scientist, Lorenz Muller, wrote in prominent type in a scientific review in Germany: "Officially, no instance has been proved of persons having fired, with the help of priests, from the towers of churches. All that has been made known up to the present, and that has been made the ob- ject of inquiry, concerning alleged atrocities attributed to Catholic priests during this war, has been shown to be false and altogether imaginary, without any exception. Our Emperor telegraphed to the President of the United States of America that even women and priests had committed atrocities during this guerilla warfare on wounded soldiers, doctors and nurses attached to the field ambulances. How this telegram can be reconciled with the fact stated above (that there is nothing against the priests) we shall not be able to learn until after the war." Here is truthfulness combined v/ith a most typically German trustfulness in the Kaiser. As to the charges about "dumdum" bullets, these have never been reenforced by any evidence, such as, for example, the simple method of exhibiting a few of the "thousands of cartridges" with the proofs that they were made by French "government machinery." After the Peace Treaty a German government bulletin withdrew the charges. 62 BELGIUM'S AGONY nations we raise our voice in protestation. This voice shall be the herald of Truth. "Est ist nicht wahr" [It is not true] that Germany is guilty of this war! . . . "It is not true that our soldiers have attacked the life or property of a single Belgian citizen without the utmost provocation. Over and over again, in spite of all appeals, the populace have shot from ambush, have mutilated the wounded, and murdered the doctors whilst carrying on their work of mercy. There could be no more infamous deception than to try to shelter these criminals and to represent their just punishment by the Germans as a crime." The Ninety-three representatives of German Culture are here in perfect agreement with the German Emperor. With his hand and seal, with his full signature: Wilhelm II. R., the Kaiser wrote to President Wilson, laying before him his solemn indictment and protest, not only against his op- ponents' "barbaric methods in war" (that was before the poisonous gases were used), but against the fact that the "Belgian Government had not only encouraged but had, long previously, prepared the Belgian civilian population to participate in the fighting." * In accord with this "The Truth about the War" contains a chapter with the title : "Louvain and Belgian atrocities." It shows how cruelly the Belgians had behaved towards the Germans, and since the world has hitherto heard so much to the contrary it is interesting to read the German accusa- tion against Belgium. The chapter begins with a comparison between Luxem- burg and Belgium, to the advantage of Luxemburg. "In Luxemburg the Government and people bowed reasonably before the military necessity." Yes, that I can believe. I remember an evening in the capital of the Grand Duchy when some good friends jestingly proposed that I should make a speech next morning to the Army of Luxemburg. "It is not too large to fill the space outside your window, and you could begin by 'Dear Army.' " Luxemburg has a *The words in italics were underlined by the German Emperor jiimself. BELGIUM'S AGONY 63 quarter of a million inhabitants, whilst Belgium has eight and a half. Luxemburg was necessarily restricted to a ver- bal protest against the German invasion which was, in fact, made by the President of the Council, Monsieur Eyschen. "They were blinded in Belgium," says the German Pro- test ; "they seemed to have forgotten how their country had suffered under the ambition and rapacity of the French and the selfishness and faithlessness of England." What an argument! Because in 1792 the French had plundered Bel- gium, the Belgian Government in 1914 should not keep its faith as a neutral State. "The Belgians are to be pitied. For years they have given themselves over to a fanatical hatred of the German Kingdom and its people. They believed blindly all that was said by the newspapers of Paris, and by the Belgian papers in imitation; and all that French plays, French films, French cabarets and such like created in the way of suspicion, slander and abuse against Germany. They described Ger- man officers as spies and rapers of women (Frauenverge- waltiger, I translate the word as I can) ; German soldiers as beasts in the form of men, the German Kingdom as war- loving, as the 'German polypus,' with monstrous tentacles, and as a land of reaction, arrogance, and barbarity. The Belgian Press joined in the slanderous campaign of France contrary to its neutrality. What was thus sown in hate and contempt was harvested in horror." These are simply the tactics of the wolf with the lamb that the Germans are using. The blame for what was done in Belgium must indisputably, undeniably, be laid on the shoulders of the Belgians. Any one who has traveled in Belgium in the last ten years (my first visit there was fifteen years ago) knows how untrue this tale is of hatred of the Belgians for Germany. The fact cannot be concealed that the French element and French influence in Belgium was diminishing very much, and that the Flemish national move- ment leant strongly towards the Germanic character and origin of the population. Germany had already made great progress in the pacific conquest of Belgium. German beer, German newspapers, German industries, as well as German 64 BELGIUM'S AGONY music, German books, German science and German art were to be found everywhere. As for the Press campaign against Prussia described above, the present writer for months to- gether has read daily two and three Belgian papers ( Ving- tieme Sicele, Metropole, Soir), and has never seen a trace of this campaign. And of what "neutrality-breaking agree- ment with France" has the Belgian Government been guilty ? When and where had the Belgian Government before or during the ministry of de Broqueville been guilty of a Press campaign against Germany? But this chapter is only written to make it seem prob- able and explicable that the Belgian people consists of assas- sins, as the Ninety-three express it. Hence the pathetic change of key : "What was then sown in hatred and con- tempt was harvested in horror." One trembles for the lives of the Germans. What one cannot understand (I say it in parenthesis), is that since the Germans knew of this anti-German agita- tion in Belgium, why did they not try to work against it in time? A couple of well-written periodicals in French or Flemish, published in Antwerp, for example, the center of Germanism in Belgium, would have done great service and prevented the growth of the "harvest of horror." Another point for consideration is this : and it is not in parenthesis, but in large type : "What right have the Ger- mans to demand that they should not he hated and despised f" Because some one in a non-German country (and Belgium is not a German country and never was a German country) — ^because in such a country one forms the opinion that Germany is a "polypus" which has Europe in its grasp from the Adriatic to Cape Skagen, or that the German Empire is in reality reactionary, arrogant and barbarous, is it, then, a crime if they express that opinion? If Germany is in truth no polypus, but a little peaceful garden snail, it is easy to prove it. If Germany is the home of political progress, of sound self-knowledge and gentle manners, then this impres- sion must without fail be conveyed to all who visit, or come In contact with, the inhabitants of the country. Why do we speak oi "French courtesy," of the "English gentleman," ol BELGIUM'S AGONY 65 "Spanish pride," if it is not that these qualities describe the impression that generation after generation has received of those nations? We speak of "German Gemiithlichkeit," and this is certainly the most striking quality in the great Vaterland. It is a quality of private life which is to be seen at its best in a cheerful gathering round a "bock" of Munich beer or a bottle of sparkling Moselle. But the Gemiithlich over his bottle of wine can quite as well be a political re- actionary, and it does not preclude his being brutal and over- bearing as an officer or civilian to his subordinates, to those who have no redress. Let me return to "Die Wahrheit uher den Krieg." In the middle of the month of August the German Gov- ernment sent the following proclamation to the Belgian Gov- ernment : — "The Royal Belgian Government has rejected Germany's benignant offer to spare their land from the horrors of war. It has raised itself in armed opposition against the passage of troops necessitated by the enemies of Germany. It has -rhosen war. In spite of the Note of August 8th, in which the Belgian Government declared that, according to its agree- ment, it would only make war upon troops in uniform, in the fighting round Liege numbers of people have taken part in the combat under the protection of civilian dress. They have not only fired on German troops; they have cruelly killed the wounded and shot down doctors at their work. At the same time the population of Antwerp has destroyed Ger- man property in the most barbarous manner and brutally cut down women and children with the sword. Germany calls upon the civilized world to witness the shedding of this innocent blood, and the way in which Belgium has made war in the face of all civilization. If, henceforward, the war assumes a cruel character, Belgium bears the blame. To protect our German troops from the unbridled fury of the people, we shall, in future, treat every one not in uniform, who cannot justify his participation in the fighting by some outward mark or sign, as an outlaw, inasmuch as, sharing in the fighting, he injures German lines of communication, cuts telegraph wires, causes explosions, and takes an unlawful W., VOL,. II.— 5. 66 BELGIUM'S AGONY part in the perpetration of warfare. He will be treated as a sniper, and be shot at once under martial law." "So," the simple man might say, "when a robber breaks into my house and I leap from my bed and defend myself with anything that I can lay my hand upon — a poker or a candlestick — and I succeed in giving my robber a few bruises, he has the right to go out into the street and complain loudly that I have not defended myself with a Browning revolver or any other regular weapon. And he, the robber, who has no business at all in my house, shall stand forth before the civilized world's judgment and call me a brute, me, whom he has attacked. "He may, to crown his hypocritical insolence, call me to reckoning for the innocent blood that has been spilled — the blood that never would have been shed if he had not broken into my house !" But a man must be very simple to waste any surprise upon such a situation. It is, of course, the lamb's fault if it does not lie still while the wolf eats it. Having written these words I can no longer treat these things with irony. It is unbelievable what calumnies and slander German writers — official and other — have allowed themselves to use to blacken and slander a people who at the worst have fought a tragic and bitter fight for hearth and home against an overwhelming and aggressive power. What were Andreas Hofer and his Tyrolese other than sharpshooters — a people in arms in self-defense, for life or for death ? Their name is held in honor — Hofer is a hero, whilst the Belgians, who do as the Tyrolese did a hundred years ago, are called "assassins" and "brutes." But it is not even certain that these things were done at all. Let us look at the German evidence. It has throughout one common characteristic. It is all vague and indetermi- nate. It never, or rarely, gives names of places or people. We read, for example, in one of the documents the narrative of a military doctor : "In a village near Verviers we found a soldier with his hands tied behind him and his eyes put out." What village? What was the name of the soldier? BELGIUM'S AGONY 67 Where was he found ? Under what circumstances? Where is the evidence of the person who saw him? The military doctor continues : "In one village a young woman stepped up to a military automobile, held a revolver to the head of the chauffeur and shot him," Again the same vagueness. Which village ? What was the name of the chauffeur? We have to believe the German "Es ist wahr" (It is true), as we are obliged to believe the German "Es ist nicht wahr" (It is not true). It is an exception that we find the name of the place given. These two occurrences are men- tioned as happening in the village of Gammenich, near the frontier. Here a "gentleman from Aachen" (Name? Pro- fession ? Age ?) was killed, having left his automobile for a moment. An ambulance was shot at from a house (What ambulance? What were the names of the doctors? Where is the evidence of the hospital orderlies?) There is no evi- dence brought of the truth of their statements. We need something more. A military doctor appeals to our sympathy for a soldier "who was shot from behind a hedge in such a manner that his skin was still full of powder." And thereupon he gives vent to his feelings, plays on all the stops of German pathos which now swell into the full tones of an organ fugue. "Is this the way the civilized Belgians make war ? How should the blood not roar in our ears and rage in one's heart ! And then the Belgians wonder that we proceed ruthlessly against a civil population suspected of such crimes! One's heart swells in one's breast and civis Germanicus sum has become the expression of pride when we see the proud attitude of our magnificent Army. But it bleeds to see our poor boys shed their blood beneath the peasant's pitchfork or the kitchen knife of a fanatical Belgian woman. Who can won- der that we level to the earth the villages where our men are attacked !" We find the same inconceivable distortion of moral values in all the published documents. There is never a moment's doubt of Germany's right, first to invade a coun- try and then to decree how it shall fight, and lastly to judge 68 BELGIUM'S AGONY and punish all that oppose themselves to German rule. We have in this attitude the true German mentality. He has no feeling for the right or for justice (for that does not exist — a treaty is "only a scrap of paper") but only for outward order and correctness. Thus a German soldier relates in a technical and cold- blooded manner how they set fire to a house m Louvain from which they had shot at the troops. "As the inhabitants came out one by one they were shot to pieces (abgeschossen — I cannot translate into another language the calm stolidity of that word abgeschossen. It implies a methodical, almost mechanical proceeding, like that of stamping letters). The evidence of the above assertion appeared in Septem- ber, 1914, in the Hamburger Nachrichten, and has the honor of being quoted in "Die Wahrheit ilber den Krieg." It is by this fount of truth that I am illuminated. A captain in the German Army writes : — "A civilized people can have no conception of the be- havior of the inhabitants. I believe I have proof that the Belgians have been officially encouraged by the French to perpetrate this monstrous guerilla warfare. This must be the case, for all the houses behind my position — about ten in all — which I have visited, have been for some time pre- pared with this object. The roofs are pierced with gun holes. Iron pipes are placed in the walls with a steel flap which opens outwards. When the rifle is thrust out to shoot, the flap is raised. The gun being withdrawn, the flap falls down again. I found this arrangement in several houses. I have visited them all personally with my platoon com- mander. From outside, these contrivances have the appear- ance of ornaments; in the center is a support, cemented from without, which must have been prepared before the war, and it is my opinion that the Belgians systematically prepared all this. "In the house where we are living — a villa belonging to well-to-do people — the steel flaps are all numbered '3350.' The articles seem to have been made in a manufactory and numbered after the houses to which they were delivered." This is so ridiculous that one does not know whether to BELGIUM'S AGONY 69 laugh or to cry. As every one who has lived in Belgium knows (and as the German captain could have known had he asked), these iron-covered holes are used for fixing up the scaffolding for repairs to prevent damage to the fagade. In the same way in Denmark we put shelves in the walls for scaffoldings. These pipes are found particularly in well- to-do houses, and in such a house the captain was living. They are made in a manufactory, but that is the only part of the German hypothesis that is correct. The outer flaps that seem to the captain so dreadfully suspicious are, as one might think, to prevent the draught through the pipes. Thus a whole theory is based upon a misstatement such as this, which establishes an understanding with France for the preparation of a guerilla warfare. How could they foresee, for instance, that the Germans would come to Louvain? And this foolishness is spread about and printed and made to serve as proof against Belgium. There is no greater sign of the weakness of the German cause than that she uses such feeble defenses. All through the war, but especially in those first months, the accusations of the Germans were always directed to the blackening of Belgium in order that Germany should appear less black herself. Germany has no hope of ever appearing white with the whiteness of innocence; the con- viction that tigers eat men is a difficult one to uproot, says the Mother Tigress in Hitopadega. But Germany might be- come gray — "gray from battle" — that would satisfy her quite. She does not seek acquittal either from God or man, she only desires "extenuating circumstances." So long as she escapes hell she is ready to endure purgatory till the end of the world. The whole newspaper campaign against Belgium is easily understood when once this rather troubled state of mind is admitted. If one cannot use truthful statements, "misrepre- sentations and suspicions," to quote the words of the Ninety- three, must serve instead. We will only quote two more of their accusations. New ones are forever appearing. They are like the soap-bubbles that children blow. They gUtter for a moment, blown out 70 BELGIUM'S AGONY into a ball of glowing colors, then they burst and become once more a drop of the dirty water of which they were made. (i) "The Belgian Government openly encouraged the civil population to take part in the fighting and had care- fully prepared this participation beforehand. This was espe- cially the case in the fighting at Liege." The German illus- trated papers tried to prove this assertion by publishing pho- tographs of the Belgian snipers. It is clear that these snipers were soldiers of the Belgian Garde Civique, answering to the German Landsturm. The Belgian Landsturm was con- stituted in accordance with the stipulations of the Hague Convention. It is a regular corps, fighting in its own uni- form, and called up by the Belgian Government at the out- break of the war. Since August 8th the German Govern- ment had been informed by the Belgian Government through the Spanish Minister in Brussels that the Garde Civique would fight with the army."" Can we, then, say that the Belgians never did carry on anything like guerilla warfare against the enemy that in- vaded their land, or similar to that which the Spaniards carried on against Napoleon? Emil Waxweiler, Director of the Solvay Institute in Brussels, a man known and hon- ored by all the world, was asked this question. His answer is: "These attacks were undoubtedly isolated and excep- tional." Responsible friends told him that snipers shot upon Ger- man troops in two places. "That," he says, "may also have happened elsewhere." But directly afterwards he says : "I find a mass of misstatements." He quotes a few : — "A German train was standing in the station of Jurbise between Mons and Brussels in September, 1914, when a rifle shot was fired. The German soldiers in the train heard the explosion and thought that they were attacked by civilians. "The conditions of the Hague Convention, which were all com- plied with by the Belgian Garde Civique, are (i) to have a person at the head of things who is responsible for his subordinates, (2) to maintain a decided distinction and one easily to be recognized at a distance, (3) to bear weapons without concealment. (4) to ftilfill all the rules and customs of war. BELGIUM'S AGONY 71 They seized some peasants who were working near by and shot them. Later on the mistake was explained: the sol- diers expressed their regret and went on their way." In the little, Flemish village of Waereghem, some Bel- gian infantry were lying in ambush at the back of some farmhouses and fired on some passing German troops. It was said to be a civilian attack and the farms were burnt down as a reprisal. In a Walloon village a German officer was shot. The Mayor was taken prisoner and was sentenced to punishment (according to the German system of punishing the baker for the blacksmith's fault, which, as a matter of principle, and in the most bloody manner, has been carried out all over Belgium). "Shoot me, if you will," replied the Mayor, "but first have an autopsy of the officer who has been killed." This was done, and it was discovered that he was the victim of a German bullet. Here, as in many other cases, an acci- dental shot was construed into an attempt at murder. But this point will be treated of further. (2) "Belgian girls put out the eyes of defenseless wounded on the battlefield." It is no less a person than the Imperial Chancellor him- self who makes this accusation. It was repeated over and over again in the German and pro-German Press. And, in an article by Crispi in the now suppressed Roman paper, Concordia, he is not ashamed to write : "The chaste daugh- ters of Belgium shut German soldiers in their houses and mutilated them as they slept." In the Vorwdrts on October 22nd of last year an inquiry was conducted, and, later on, by two official commissions held in Germany, it was proved that there was absolutely nothing to justify such a horrible accusation, that it was pure invention: "the legend of the put-out eyes," a social democrat paper rightly called it. The story, thinks Wax- weiler, probably arose from the fact that many wounded have lost their eyes from splinters of shrapnel bombs which exploded round their heads. It is time that His Excellency Bethmann-Hollweg made his apologies to the young Belgian women. 72 BELGIUM'S AGONY "Mais revenons a nos moutons": a suitable appellation. Let us return to our German lambs and the martyrdom they suffered at the hands of the Belgian "jackals" — (this charm- ing name has been invented by the German playwright Her- bert Eulenberg, and illustrates the proverb: "Shame fol- lows injury.") Let us return to the "Voice of Truth" of the Ninety-three : "It is not true that a single Belgian citizen's life or property has been touched by our soldiers except un- der the utmost compulsion." Notice two phrases — "not one single" and "the utmost compulsion." "We answer for this with our name and honor." Now let us listen to a commentary of truth and of real- ity, calm, simple, unboasting and unpretentious, therefore, the more heart-rending and awful, like the wail of a Stabat Mater through which moans a Dies Irae. It is one of the hundreds and hundreds of reports received by the Belgian Government. A Committee was appointed on August 7, 1914, and was composed of the Judge of the Belgian High Court, M. van Izeghem (President) ; M. Cattier, a Pro- fessor of the Brussels University; M. Nys, Assessor of the High Court, Professor of International Law; M. Ver- hagen, Assessor of the High Court; M. Wodon, Professor of the University of Brussels; M. Medlemmer, as its mem- bers, and M. Gillard, Chief of Department of the Ministry of Justice, as Secretary. Another section of the Committee was afterwards con- stituted in Antwerp under the leadership of the Belgian Judge, M. Cooreman. Among the members is a former leader in the Belgian Senate, Count Goblet d'Alviella. The inquiry was conducted by two members of the Com- mittee, who visited the districts occupied by the Germans and inquired into the events upon the scene itself. The reports are distinguished by the most careful minuteness as to details of time, place, and so on. If any historical docu- ments are of value, these are valuable. From the whole dossier I shall select one report only. It is from the Committee's Summary of their meeting on December 18, 1914. It is given by an eye-witness, Mdlle. BELGIUM'S AGONY 73 Aline Diericx, and describes the events in the village of Surice on August 24, 1914. It runs as follows : — "Surice was a small village of a little over six hundred inhabitants in the Commune of Florennes. It was off the high road and it was crossed only by the roads running from Rosee to Mariembourg, through Romedenne, Ro- merie, and Matagne, and from Franchimont to Soulme and Gochenee. The population were very peaceful people, mostly agricultural laborers. The village was clean, the houses well-kept, and all breathed prosperity. Since the month of June I had been in the country with my sister, Madame de Gaiffier. Our niece, Marie Louise, our brother Ernest's daughter, a young girl of fifteen, lived with us. In front of our house, in a fairly large farm, lived the young girl's father and mother, and another young girl. Mar- guerite, seventeen years old. "About the 14th of August, a French battalion had been quartered at Surice. During the 23rd, which was Sunday, there arrived a regular procession of peasants from Egnen, near Dinant, from Onhaye and further away. In the evening we saw flames on the horizon in that direction. That same evening Dr. Jacques arrived from Anthee to seek shelter with us, with his wife and five children. They brought with them several other people, amongst whom were M. Piret, tlie parish priest in Anthee, the parish priest of Onhaye, and M. Palande's maid from Miavoye. They reassured us some- what, saying they believed that Surice would escape danger on account of its situation. Nevertheless we were alarmed late that evening by the arrival of two automobiles. In the one was our cook's husband, chauffeur to the Comte de Beaufort of Loyers, who had come to fetch his wife. In the other car was a Captain of Engineers and another officer, accompanied by his wife and his sons, who were army cadets. They gave us a horrible description of what was happen- ing in Namur, and then continued their journey in the direc- tion of Chimay. "The next morning many of the refugees decided to go on further and disappeared in the direction of Romedenne. In their place there arrived a Professor from the College 74 BELGIUM'S AGONY of Bellevue in Dinant, Pastor Gaspiard. He told us that he had been on the point of being shot. He had been ar- rested, together with the head master of the school, Pastor Nicolas, and other teachers. They had made them stand up before the guns, but had afterwards let them go, and they had escaped through the woods. He was accompanied by two friends, parish priests in Ostemree, Pastor Capelle, and the parish priest from Marville, M. Debatty. These two, however, did not remain long, but decided to go on to a more safe refuge. "In the afternoon my sister went to see some French wounded who were in the ambulance established by the Fathers of the Holy Family higher up in the village. She met some French officers, who said that we should be quiet at least for that night. They were going towards Rome- denne, from whence they were reconnoitering the road to Soulme. "When she came back from the village about six o'clock she heard firing, French mitrailleuses were being fired from the churchyard on the high ground between Surice and Romedenne upon the Germans who were coming from Soulme. "We heard the firing from our house too. The refugees left the garden to hide themselves in a barn, where they thought they would be in greater safety. It lasted a good hour. The French retired, and it was said they had killed a number of Germans, At seven o'clock we closed the shut- ters and went down into the cellars. About nine the mitrail- leuses began to fire again, and big guns bombarded the vil- lage. Then the Germans established their guns in the yard next door. My brother hastened to fly. About eleven o'clock we smelt smoke, and Dr. Jacques and my sister went up to the first floor, and to their horror saw the whole village in flames, and our farmyard too. The buildings were in full blaze and already falling in. So they came down to us and said it was burning on all sides and that we had better come out. We went out by the front door, down the steps. All around were burning houses, Cogniaux's, Tonne's, Mathieu Chabot's, and others. Later we heard that the inhabitants of BELGIUM'S AGONY 75 these houses had also sought shelter in their cellars, but had been chased out by the Germans and had fled from the village. More dead than alive, we went back into the hall of the house to wait upon events. We could not sleep, or very- little. We all prayed and prepared ourselves. On Tuesday, August 25th, at about six in the morning we heard the sound of hoofs. German officers with revolvers in their hands were exploring the shrubberies of our garden in search of hidden fugitives. They were followed by soldiers, and we heard some one shouting at our door, 'Open !' but at the same moment before we could open it, the door was broken into splinters and forced open. These soldiers were in gray with a covering on their helmets ; I did not see their number, my agitation and anguish were too great. With their bayo- nets fixed they drove us out. I wanted to carry away a httle package; a soldier struck me on the arm and would not permit me. They pushed and thrust at my sister; her skirt was torn by bayonets, but she was not wounded. Then came forward the three priests, the parish priests from An- thee and Onhaye, and Pastor Gaspiard ; at the sight of them the soldiers ground their teeth, shook their fists in their faces and put their bayonets to their breasts. At the same moment a German covered me with his revolver. Whilst this scene was enacting indoors the outbuildings of our house and the garden were set fire to. We were made to stand in a row and believed our last hour had come. We were marshaled round the house, and as we passed the windows of the hall the soldiers broke them in with the butt end of their rifles. We were then driven out on the road towards the church; several others joined us, and people kept coming out of the houses that were still standing, driven out by the soldiers. At this moment our parish priest. Monsieur Poskin, ap- peared with his old mother of eighty, his sister, Mademoi- selle Therese, and his other sister, Marie and her husband, the school inspector, M. Schmidt from Gerpennes, and their four children — they had come over to Surice the day before to seek refuge. The soldiers continued their cruelties. They shot at the helpless old people; our old chorister, Charles Colet, eighty-eight years of age, was shot as he came out of 76 BELGIUM'S AGONY his door. The soldiers rolled him up in a cloth and set fire to it. I saw a German break into the stable of Elie Pier- rot's house as the latter came running out of his burning home, carrying his stepmother of seventy-five. They tore the poor old woman out of his arms and shot him on the spot. He fell dead at the door of his house. We passed Henry Burniaux's house, it was on fire, and so was the tobacco fac- tory and the offices. The house on the other side of the street was also on fire. Then we came to the postman, Leopold Burniaux's house. We heard the most heartrend- ing screams — his wife, Eleonore, was imploring that her sons might be spared her. Her husband had been shot be- fore her eyes; her son Armand, who had been ordained a priest the year before and was home on holiday, had been taken by the soldiers and killed without pity. They also killed her son Albert, who had broken his leg the day before, and therefore could not escape. The poor woman still kept her last son, Gaston. He was a teacher at the college of Malonne. He clung to his mother and was allowed to join our procession. As our procession of suffering went for- ward we passed the smoking ruins of their house where those terrible scenes had been enacted. A little further on I saw in a garden by the road the body of a woman whom I did not know, and two small children weeping by her side. We were driven on to the road to Romedenne. To right and left the houses were already all burnt down, amongst these the house of the Communal Secretary, Monsieur Pichon, that of the tax-gatherer, Monsieur Georges and those of Monsieur Stanilas Burniaux and the Mayor Monsieur Del- court. All the workmen's cottages were also burnt. The school, the town-hall, and the church still stood. "Thus we came to the place which is called 'Les Fosses.' Here in the ditches lay the bodies of French soldiers and dead horses. To the right and to the left were numbers of German soldiers with mitrailleuses ; they shook their fists at us and pointed their revolvers at us. Shortly afterwards they drove us off the road over plowed fields, from which could be seen Romedenne and other more distant villages. We were about fifty or sixty persons in all, men and women. BELGIUM'S AGONY 17 It was about seven in the morning. The men were now made to stand on one side and the women on the other. An officer came forward and said in French with a strong Ger- man accent : 'You deserve to be shot — the whole lot of you. A young girl of fifteen has shot at one of our Generals. But the Council of War has decided that only the men are to be shot. The women are to go to prison.' "What now took place it is impossible to describe. There were eighteen men. Beside the parish priests from Anthee and Onhaye and Pastor Gaspiard stood our parish priest and his brother-in-law, Dr. Jacques and his son Henri, a boy of barely sixteen. Then Gaston Burniaux, Leonard Soumoy, his son-in-law Durdu and Camille Soumoy. A little further on was Balbeur and Billy, the latter with his seventeen-year- old son, and lastly a man from Onhaye and another from Dinant who had come to take refuge at Surice, and two others whom I did not know. They nearly put with the others Dr. Schmidt's son of fourteen years, but the soldiers pushed and cuffed him to one side. At this point I saw a young German soldier so moved that great tears fell upon his uniform. He did not dry his eyes, but turned away so that the officer should not see him. "Some minutes went by. Before our horrified eyes, whilst the women shrieked: 'Kill me too! Kill me too!* and the children wept, they stood the men up against a wall leading down from the high road to the lower part of the village. The men waved us good-by, some waved their hands, others their heads, or their hats. Young Henri Jacques supported himself against one of the priests as if to seek help and refuge from him, and shrieked : 'I am too young ! I haven't the courage to die !' I could not bear to look any more. I turned aside and hid my face in my hands. The soldiers fired and the men fell. Some one said to me : 'You can look up — they have fallen !' Some were not killed at once ; we saw them move a little still ; the soldiers finished them off, striking them with the butt end of their rifles on the head. Amongst them M. le Cure of Surice was found afterwards with his head horribly battered. After this massacre the Germans plundered the bodies. They took 78 BELGIUM'S AGONY watches, rings, purses and pocketbooks. Schmidt had about three thousand francs on him, his wife told me. "At this moment a German came forward with a certain Victor Cavillot, and before he reached the spot where the others were shot they shot him. I saw him turn round and fall backwards. "A deep anguish consumed us. The mother of our par- ish priest was so overcome at having seen her son killed — such a good, noble priest! — that she could not weep, but kept saying to herself : 'What a misfortune ! What a mis- fortune!' Therese Poskin was white as a corpse and went backwards and forwards from her sister to her mother. Madame Schmidt wept. She could speak a little German and, holding her little child by the hand, she had in vain begged for mercy for her husband, declaring, which was true, that he did not belong to those parts and only hap- pened to be there by chance. The poor little girl called at the last moment to her father : 'Forgive me, Papa, if I have ever given you pain !' It was agonizing. Madame Burniaux had for the third time seen one of her sons killed before her eyes. She walked about like a mad woman with staring eyes, repeating : 'Let us come away. Let us come away !' But they made us stay. All this time I had watched our house catch fire in its turn and also the church and the school. It was not till midday that these buildings fell in. When I saw the home of my father burning and so many cherished memories disappear my heart was torn with the thought of all the things I loved so much and shall never see again. Finally, they gave us a pass, or, more correctly, they gave it to a man who came from Romedenne with an order to conduct us, and we had the choice of going either to Rome- denne or to Rosee. We were expressly forbidden to go anywhere else. Before we could start we had to wait until the troops which had begun to defile had passed by. There were infantry, cavalry, and a number of automobiles. There passed, too, a number of officers on horseback. It was said that one of the Kaiser's sons was with them, and that he was on his way to Rocroi. I forgot to say that before our wretched fellow-citizens were shot the Germans drove up a BELGIUM'S AGONY 79 mitrailleuse before us as though we were to be murdered altogether. But shortly afterwards they took it in the oppo- site direction to join some others with which the Germans had begun the destruction of the first house in Romedenne. Since then I have heard that the church and a hundred and twenty houses were reduced to ruins in Romedenne. "We crossed the road by a roundabout way and reached Omezee. The whole way along houses were burning and the soldiers plundering, stealing even pots of jam. "We reached the wood, and here I met my brother and described to him the horrors I had just witnessed. When I named Durdu, he reminded me that it was Durdu who, in his capacity of Alderman, did all in his power to prevent civilians from making any attack on the enemy. At the be- ginning of the war he had read aloud to the villagers at the church door, as they came out from Benediction, a proclama- tion that had been sent to all the villages in the province, in which calmness and strict obedience to the authorities was enjoined, and also ordered that all arms should be deposited in the Communal School; it had been so well obeyed that even the old useless shotguns were collected and put under lock and key. We were, therefore, unable to believe that a young girl had shot a German officer and killed him. If he was killed, it must have been, the neighbors say, by the French soldiers who were lying in ambush behind the hedges at the entrance to the village. Afterwards we heard that both in Morville and Anthee they had given the same ex- cuse for shooting people and plundering and burning the houses. . . . "I have described the things I saw. When we met my brother and several other persons from Surice in the wood of Omezee, they told us that Marron was shot in his house, sitting in his chair — likewise Elisee Pierrard. Others were killed here and there, but I do not know their names or the circumstances of their death. I only know that old Adele Soumoy was burnt in her bed. My sister returned to Surice on the 2nd or 3rd of September, Of the hundred and thirty-one houses in the village only eight were not burnt. The village was as though dead. 8o BELGIUM'S AGONY "All I have said is the most careful and complete truth. I declare it on my soul and conscience (en mon ante et conscience) , and I am ready to take my oath to it." Several times whilst I have been translating this most simple, unexcited, almost lugubrious narrative, I have had to get up and walk about the room, I was so overcome by it. In the whole of this long report there is not a phrase, scarcely an expression of feeling. It is all so minute, the witness even describes the view she saw of Romedenne from the field of death. And who can ever forget the seventeen-year-old boy who, before the relentless guns of the Boches, cried in uncontrollable anguish : "No, no, I cannot die — I am too young 1" Or the little girl who begged her father's forgive- ness . . . ? It is all minute and most honest. Mdlle. Diericx does not call the German soldiers "jackals." She saw the tears of sympathy in the young German's eyes and does not for- get them. What happened at Surice we know was not a singular case. On the contrary it was only one case among hundreds of others. The path of the Germans through Belgium was marked the whole of its length with corpses and burnt-down homes. The manner of proceeding was always the same. First the cry: "Some one has fired upon us!" "Civil- ians have fired upon us!" And once that cry had gone forth everything was permitted. Murder, burning, ruthless exe- cution, every sort of cruelty, plunder, violence, every sort of orgy. What proportion is there in reality between this one act of the killing of a German officer by a young girl {tire sur, says the officer — ^but let us allow that she killed him), allowing that it happened, what connection is there between this one act of unlawful warfare and the whole sequel of cruel treatment with which the Germans punished it? Even if a new Charlotte Corday had killed one of the enemies of her country, does that justify the refined cruelty of the Germans in allowing a flock of defenseless and inno- cent women to witness the murder of their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, while all around their homes are in flames ? BELGIUM'S AGONY 8i Do the Germans think that by such methods they can pre- vent further attacks ? In that case they can be very sure that their method has failed. For if one can believe their own statements, they had hardly come to the next village before the cry went forth again : "Man hat geschossen!" ("Some- body has fired") and once more began to murder, to burn and plunder. In Belgian Luxcfnburg alone the list of the German pun- ishments runs thus : — Neufchateau, 21 houses burnt, i8 civilians shot. Etalle, 30 houses burnt, 30 civilians shot. HouDEMONT, 64 houses burnt, 11 civilians shot. RuLLES, half the village burnt. Ansart, the whole village burnt. TiNTiGNY, only 8 houses remain, 157 civilians shot. Jamoigne, half the village burnt. Les Bulles, the same. MoYEN, 42 houses destroyed. RossiGNOL, the whole village destroyed. MussY-LA-ViLLE, 20 houses burnt. Bertrix, 15 houses burnt, 2 civilians shot. Bleid, many houses destroyed. SiGNEUx, the same. Ethe, five-sixths of the village burnt, 300 civilians shot. Belle-Fontaine, 6 houses destroyed. Latour, only 17 males alive. Saint-Leger, 6 houses burnt, 1 1 civilians shot. Semel, entirely burnt down. Maissin, of 100 houses 64 burnt ; 10 men. i woman, and I young girl shot. ViLLANCE, 9 houses burnt, 2 men shot. AuLOY, 26 houses burnt, 52 men and women shot. Claireuse, 2 men shot and 2 hanged. List for the province of Luxemburg : — Three villages completely destroyed. One village five-sixths destroyed. Three villages half destroyed. In the other villages: 303 houses burnt down, in all 511 civilians dispatched to the other worlH. W.. VOL. IL— 6. 82 BELGIUM'S AGONY And that is only one of the provinces of Belgium. The world knows that the others fared no better — that the Ger- man name has ended in being feared as was the name of the Huns. But the ninety-three men of culture stood forth on Octo- ber 23rd — after Surice and Andenne, after Dinant and Tamines and Termonde and Louvain — and gave their word and honor that "not a single Belgian citizen's life or prop- erty had been touched except under the greatest provoca- tion." What are that word and honor worth now? BY MAJOR-GENERAL DISFORTH OF GERMANY No object whatever is served by taking any notice of the accusations of barbarity leveled against Germany by our foreign critics. Frankly, we are and must be barbarians, if by this we understand those who wage war relentlessly and to the uttermost degree. There is nothing for us to justify and nothing to explain away. Every act of what- ever nature committed by our troops for the purpose of discouraging, defeating and destroying our enemies is a brave act and a good deed, and is fully justified. . . . Ger- many stands as the supreme arbiter of her own methods, which in the time of war must be dictated to the world. It is of no consequence whatever if all the monuments ever created, all the pictures ever painted, and all the build- ings ever erected by the great architects of the world be de- stroyed, if by their destruction we promote Germany's vic- tory over her enemies. The commonest, ugliest stone placed to mark the burial place of a German grenadier is a more glorious and venerable monument than all the cathedrals of Europe put together. They call us barbarians. What of it ? We scorn them and their abuse. For my part, I hope that in this war we have merited the title of barbarians. Let neutral people and our enemies cease their empty chatter, which may well be compared to the twitter of birds. Let them cease their talk of the cathedral at Rheims and of all the churches and all the castles in France which have shared its fate. These BELGIUM'S AGONY 83 things do not interest us. Our troops must achieve victory. What else matters ? BY A GERMAN DESERTER [The writer of the following account tells how he, as a Socialist, was unwilling to enter the War, was later roused to enthusiasm for it as a patriotic necessity, and finally became so disgusted with its horrors and so con- vinced of its autocratic purposes of conquest and massacre that he fled from Germany. We take up his narrative on his first day with the array in Belgium. He meets the first homeless victims of the warfare.] In a perambulator or a push-cart those unfortunate be- ings carried away all that the brutal force of war had left them. In marked contrast to the fugitives we had hitherto met, these people were filled with the utmost fear, shivering with fright, terror-stricken in face of the hostile world. As soon as they beheld one of us soldiers they were seized with such a fear that they seemed to crumple up. How different they were from the inhabitants of the vil- lage in which we were, who showed themselves kind, friendly, and even obliging towards us. We tried to find out the cause of that fear, and heard that those fugitives had witnessed bitter street fighting in their village. They had experienced war, had seen their houses burnt, their sim- ple belongings perish, and had not yet been able to forget their streets filled with dead and wounded soldiers. It be- came clear to us that it was not fear alone that made these people look like the hunted quarry; it was hatred, hatred against us, the invaders, who, as they had to suppose, had fallen upon them unawares, had driven them from their homes. We marched away that very evening and tried to reach our section. When darkness fell the Belgians had concen- trated still farther to the rear ; they were already quite near the fortress of Liege. Many of the villages we passed were in flames; the inhabitants who had been driven away passed us in crowds; there were women whose husbands 84 BELGIUM'S AGONY were perhaps also defending their "Fatherland," children, old men who were pushed hither and thither, and seemed to be always in the way. Without any aim, any plan, any place in which they could rest, those processions of misery and unhappiness crept past us — the best illustration of man- murdering, nation-destroying war ! Again we reached a vil- lage which to all appearances had once been inhabited by a well-to-do people, by a contented little humanity. There were nothing but ruins now, burnt, destroyed houses and farm buildings, dead soldiers, German and Belgian, and among them several civilians who had been shot by sentence of the court-martial. Towards midnight we reached the German line which was trying to get possession of a village which was already within the fortifications of Liege, and was obstinately de- fended by the Belgians. Here we had to employ all our forces to wrench from our opponent house after house, street after street. It was not yet completely dark, so that we had to go through that terrible struggle which developed with all our senses awake and receptive. It was a hand- to-hand fight ; every kind of weapon had to be employed ; the opponent was attacked with the butt-end of the rifle, the knife, the fist, and the teeth. One of my best friends fought with a gigantic Belgian; both had lost their rifles. They were pummeling each other with their fists. I had just finished with a Belgian who was about twenty-two years of age, and was going to assist my friend, as the Herculean Bel- gian was so much stronger than he. Suddenly my friend succeeded with a lightning motion in biting the Belgian in the chin. He bit so deeply that he tore away a piece of flesh with his teeth. The pain the Belgian felt must have been immense, for he let go his hold and ran off screaming with terrible pain. All that happened in seconds. The blood of the Belgian ran out of my friend's mouth; he was seized by a horrible nausea, an indescribable terror, the taste of the warm blood nearly drove him insane. That young, gay, lively fellow of twenty-four had been cheated out of his youth in that BELGIUM'S AGONY night. He used to be the joUiest among us; after that we could never induce him even to smile. Whilst fighting during the night I came for the first time in touch with the butt-end of a Belgian rifle. I had a hand-to-hand fight with a Belgian when another one from behind hit me with his rifle on the head with such force that it drove my head into the helmet up to my ears. I experi- enced a terrific pain all over my head, doubled up, and lost consciousness. When I revived I found myself with a bandaged head in a barn among other wounded. I had not been severely wounded, but I felt as if my head was double its normal size, and there was a noise in my ears as of the wheels of an express engine. The other wounded and the soldiers of the ambulance corps said that the Belgians had been pushed back to the fortress; we heard, however, that severe fighting was still going on. Wounded soldiers were being brought in con- tinuously, and they told us that the Germans had already taken in the first assault several fortifications like outer forts, but that they had not been able to maintain themselves because they had not been sufficiently provided with ar- tillery. The defended places and works inside the forts were still practically completely intact, and so were their garrisons. The forts were not yet ripe for assault, so that the Germans had to retreat with downright enormous losses. The various reports were contradictory, and it was impos- sible to get a clear idea of what was happening. [His wound proving but slight, he rejoins the advance in a few days.] The spirit of our soldiers, in spite of the hardships they had undergone, became better and gayer. They joked and sang, forgot the corpses which were still filling the roads and paths, and felt quite at ease. They had already accus- tomed themselves to the horrible to such a degree that they stepped over the corpses with unconcern, without even making the smallest detour. The experience of those first few weeks of the war had already brutalized us completely. What was to happen to us if this should continue for months ? At eleven o'clock all further philosophizing was put a 86 BELGIUM'S AGONY stop to; we were ordered to halt, and we were to receive our food from the field-kitchen. We were quite hungry and ate the tinned soup with the heartiest of appetites. Many of our soldiers were sitting with their dinner-pails on the dead horses that were lying about, and were eating with as much pleasure and hearti- ness as if they were home at mother's. Nor did some corpses in the neighborhood of our improvised camp disturb us. There was only a lack of water, and after having eaten thirst began to torment us. Soon afterwards we continued our march in the scorch- ing midday sun; dust was covering our uniforms and skin to the depth of almost an inch. We tried in vain to be jolly, but thirst tormented us more and more, and we be- came weaker and weaker from one quarter of an hour to another. Many in our ranks fell down exhausted, and were simply unable to move. So the commander of our section had no other choice but to let us halt again if he did not want every one of us to drop out. Thus it happened that we stayed behind a considerable distance, and were not amongst the first that were pursuing the French. Finally, towards four o'clock, we saw a village in front of us; we began at once to march at a much brisker pace. Among other things we saw a farm-cart on which were sev- eral civilian prisoners, apparently snipers. There was also a Catholic priest among them who had, like the others, his hands tied behind his back with a rope. Curiosity prompted us to inquire what he had been up to, and we heard that he had incited the farmers of the village to poison the water. We soon reached the village and the first well, at which we hoped to quench our thirst thoroughly. But that was no easy matter, for a military guard had been placed before it, who scared us ofif with the warning, "Poisoned!" Dis- appointed and terribly embittered, the soldiers, half dead with thirst, gnashed their teeth; they hurried to the next well, but everywhere the same devilish thing occurred — the guard prevented them from drinking. In a square, in the middle of the village, there was a large village well which sent, through two tubes, water as clear as crystal into a BELGIUM'S AGONY 87 large trough. Five soldiers were guarding it and had to watch that nobody drank of the poisoned water. I was just going to march past it with my pal when suddenly the sec- ond, larger portion of our company rushed like madmen to the well. The guards were carried away by the rush, and every one now began to drink the water with the avidity of an animal. All quenched their thirst, and not one of us be- came ill or died. We heard later on that the priest had to pay for it with his death, as the military authorities "knew" that the water in all the wells of that village was poisoned and that the soldiers had only been saved by a lucky acci- dent! Faithfully the God of the Germans had watched over us; the captured Belgians did not seem to be under His pro- tection. They had to die. In most places we passed at that time we were warned against drinking the water. The natural consequence was that the soldiers began to hate the population, which they now had to consider to be their bitterest enemies. That again aroused the worst instincts in some soldiers. In every army one finds men with the disposition of barbarians. The many millions of inhabitants in Germany or France are not all civilized people, much as we like to convince ourselves of the contrary. Compulsory military service in those coun- tries forces all without distinction into the army, men and monsters. I have often bitterly resented the wrong one did to our army in calling us all barbarians, only because among us — as naturally also among the French and English — there were to be found elements tifet really ought to be in the penitentiary. I will only cite one example of how we sol- diers ourselves punished a wretch whom we caught com- mitting a crime. One evening — it was already dark — we reached a small village to the east of the town of Bertrix, and there, too, found "poisoned" water. We halted in the middle of the village. I was standing before a house with a low window, through which one could see the interior. In the miserable poverty-stricken working-man's dwelling we observed a woman who clung to her children as if afraid they would be torn from her. Though we felt very bitter on account of the 88 BELGIUM'S AGONY want of water, every one of us would have liked to help the poor woman. Some of us were just going to sacrifice our little store of victuals and to say a few comforting words to the woman, when all at once a stone as big as a fist was thrown through the window-pane into the room and hurt a little girl in the right hand. There were sincere cries of indignation, but at the same moment twenty hands at least laid hold of the wretch, a reservist of our company, and gave him such a hiding as to make him almost unconscious. If officers and other men had not interfered the fellow would have been lynched there and then. He was to be placed before a court-martial later on, but it never came to that. He was drowned in the river at the battle of the Meuse. Many soldiers believed he drowned himself, be- cause he was not only shunned by his fellow-soldiers, but was also openly despised by them. We were quartered on that village and had to live in a barn. I went with some pals into the village to buy some- thing to eat. At a farmer's house we got ham, bread, and wine, but not for money. The people positively refused to take our money as they regarded us as their guests, so they said; only we were not to harm them. Nevertlieless we left them an adequate payment in German money. Later on we found the same situation in many other places. Every- where people were terribly frightened of us; they began to tremble almost when a German soldier entered their house. Four of us had formed a close alliance; we had prom- ised each other to stick together and assist each other in every danger. We often also visited the citizens in their houses, and tried to the best of our ability to comfort the sorely tried people and talk them out of their fear of us. Without ex- ception we found them to be lovable, kindly, and good peo- ple who soon became confidential and free of speech when they noticed that we were really their friends. But when, at leaving, we wrote with chalk on the door of their houses, "Bitte schonen, hier wohnen brave, gute Leute!" [Please spare, here live good and decent people] their joy and thank- fulness knew no bounds. If so much bad blood was cre- ated, if so many incidents happened that led to the shooting BELGIUM'S AGONY 89 by court-martial of innumerable Belgians, the difference of language and the mistakes arising therefrom were surely not the least important causes; of that I and many others of my comrades became convinced during that time in Belgium. But at first the systematically nourished suspicion against the "enemy," too, was partly responsible for it. In the night we continued our march, after having been attached to the 21 -centimeter mortar battery of the 9th Regi- ment of Foot Artillery which had just arrived ; we were not only to serve as covering troops for that battery, but were also to help it place those giants in position when called upon. The gun is transported apart from the carriage on a spe- cial wagon. Gun-carriage and gun are drawn each by six horses. Those horses, which are only used by the foot ar- tillery, are the best and strongest of the German army. And yet even these animals are often unable to do the work re- quired of them, so that all available men, seventy or eighty at times, have to help transport the gun with ropes specially carried for that purpose. That help is chiefly resorted to when the guns leave the road to be placed in firing position. In order to prevent the wheels from sinking into the soil, other wheels, half a yard wide, are attached round them. These guns are high-angle guns, i.e., their shot rises into the air for several thousand yards, all according to the dis- tance of the spot to be hit, and then drops at a great angle. That is the reason why neither hill nor mountain can pro- tect an enemy battery placed behind those elevations. At first the French had almost no transportable heavy artillery, so that it was quite impossible for them to fight successfully against our guns of large caliber. Under those conditions the German gunners, of course, felt themselves to be top-dog, and decorated their 21 -centimeter g-uns with inscriptions like the following, "Here declarations of war are still being ac- cepted." We felt quite at ease with the artillery, and were still passably fresh when we halted at six o'clock in the morning, though we had been marching since two o'clock. Near our halting-place we found a broken German howitzer, and next to it two dead soldiers. When firing, a shell had burst 90 BELGIUM'S AGONY in the gun, destroying it entirely. Two men of the crew had been killed instantly and some had been seriously wounded by the flying pieces. We utilized the pause to bury the two dead men, put both of them in one grave, placed both their helmets on the grave, and wrote on a board : "Here rest two German Artillerymen," We had to proceed, and soon reached the town of Ber- trix. Some few houses to the left and right of the road were burning fiercely; we soon got to know that they had been set alight because soldiers marching past were said to have been shot at from those houses. Before one of these houses a man and his wife and their son, a boy of fifteen or sixteen, lay half burnt to cinders; all had been covered with straw. Three more civilians lay dead in the same street. We had marched past some more houses when all at once shots rang out; they had been shooting from some house, and four of our soldiers had been wounded. For a short while there was confusion. The house from which the shots must have come was soon surrounded, and hand- grenades were thrown through all the windows into the in- terior. In an instant all the rooms were in flames. The exploding hand-grenades caused such an enormous air-pres- sure that all the doors were blown from their hinges and the inner walls torn to shreds. Almost at the same time, five men in civilian clothes rushed into the street and asked for quarter with uplifted hands. They were seized immedi- ately and taken to the ofiicers, who formed themselves into a tribunal within a few minutes. Ten minutes later sentence had already been executed : five strong men lay on the ground, blindfolded, their bodies riddled by bullets. Six of us had in each of the five cases to execute the sentence, and unfortunately I, too, belonged to those thirty men. The condemned man whom my party of six had to shoot was a tall, lean man, about forty years of age. He did not wince for a moment when they blindfolded him. In a garden of a house nearby he was placed with his back against the house, and after our captain had told us that it was our duty to aim well so as to end the tragedy quickly, BELGIUM'S AGONY 91 we took up our position six paces from the condemned one. The sergeant commanding us had told us before to shoot the condemned man through the chest. We then formed two hues, one behind the other. The command was given to load and secure, and we pushed five cartridges into the rifle. Then the command rang out, "Get ready!" The first line knelt, the second stood up. We held our rifles in such a position that the barrel pointed in front of us whilst the butt- end rested somewhere near the hip. At the command, "Aim !" we slowly brought our rifles into shooting position, grasped them firmly, pressed the plate of the butt-end against the shoulder and, with our cheek on the butt-end, we clung convulsively to the neck of the rifle. Our right forefinger was on the trigger, the sergeant gave us about half a min- ute for aiming before commanding, "Fire !" Even to-day I cannot say whether our victim fell dead on the spot or how many of the six bullets hit him. I ran about all day long like a drunken man, and reproached my- self most bitterly with having played the executioner. For a long time I avoided speaking about it with fellow-soldiers, for I felt guilty. And yet — what else could we soldiers do but obey the order ? During the preceding night there had been encounters at Bertrix between the German military and the population. Houses were burning in every part of the town. In the market-place there was a great heap of guns and revolvers of all makes. At the clergyman's house they had found a French machine gun and ammunition, whereupon the clergy- man and his female cook had been arrested and, I suppose, placed immediately before a court-martial. Under those conditions we were very glad to get out of Bertrix again. We marched on in the afternoon. After a march of some three miles we halted, and received food from the field-kitchen. But this time we felt no appetite. The recollection of the incidents of the morning made all of us feel so depressed that the meal turned out a real funeral repast. Silently we set in motion again, and camped in the open in the evening, as we were too tired to erect tents. It was there that all discipline went to pieces for the first 92 BELGIUM'S AGONY time. The officers' orders to put up tents were not heeded in the slightest degree. The men were dog-tired, and suf- fered the officers to command and chatter as much as they Hked. Every one wrapped himself up in his cloak, lay down where he was, and as soon as one had lain down one was asleep. The officers ran about like mad shouting with re- doubled energy their commands at the exhausted soldiers ; in vain. The officers, of course, had gone through the whole performance on horseback and, apparently, did not feel suf- ficiently tired to go to sleep. When their calling and shouting had no effect they had recourse to personal physical exer- tion and began to shake us up. But as soon as one of us was awake the one before had gone to sleep again. At last they ceased their efforts in despair. TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY SHE SHELTERS THE FLEEING GERMAN WARSHIPS AUGUST lOTH HENRY MORGENTHAU BARON GUILLAUME When the Great War began, Turkey and the other states of the Balkan peninsula were only just recovering from two successive and exhaustive wars among themselves. They had known peace for only a single year. In the first of these internecine wars Turkey had been defeated by the united forces of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. In the second, all the others had opposed Bulgaria, crushed her am- bition to rule the peninsula, and deprived her of territory. Even Turkey had ventured to snatch from the Bulgarians a portion of her former losses. This she had done in defiance of Europe's com- mand that she should remain passive during the second war. Turkey had thus lost her fear of the united action of the European Powers. She had also lost her faith in them and in herself. With her Government torn to pieces by repeated revolutions, she was ruled by "opportunists," adventurers raised by chance into unac- customed power. Her Sultan was the merest figurehead. Control lay with whichever leaders were most vigorous and most reckless. These chanced at the moment to be two, Talaat Pasha, a statesman of real ability though brutal, who had risen from the lowest rank to become the leader of the "Young Turk" party, and Enver Pasha, a young officer of thirty-two. He had led the Turkish army in revo- lution in 1908; and in 1914, after assassinating his predecessor in office, he had been made "Minister of War." He thus controlled the army, the only real power in Turkey. Enver was an admirer of Germany. He had brought German officers to train his troops and had finally placed these under com- mand of a German general, Von Sanders. This general and Wangen- heim, the German ambassador in Constantinople, were the youthful leader's chief advisers. Through Enver in war and Talaat in diplo- macy, the Germans held control of Turkey. It was manifest, even to the ignorant Turks, that their country was so exhausted by the preceding wars that another contest, imme- diately following, must mean utter ruin to her people. But Turkish Governments have as a rule been wholly indifferent to the miseries of their subject peoples. War means prosperity for Turkish officials, and plxmder'for Turkish soldiers; the suffering falls upon the mer- chant class and on the poor. The moment the Great War began, Enver Pasha called a general mobilization of the army, explaining that this was a necessary step in order to preserve Turkish neutrality. In 93 94 TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY reality, the mobilization made his own power secure, except against assassination, and rejoiced his soldiers by enabling them to "conscript" provisions and supplies at will. The diplomats of Europe, outside of Germany, seem to have re- tained hope of Turkey's genuine neutrality, despite the Germanizing of her army and the mobilization of her forces. The United States Ambassador on the spot, Mr. Morgenthau, describes vividly the de- cisive incident which bound Turkey to follow the fortunes of Germany. The Belgian minister to Turkey at the time was Baron Guillaume, who here describes the general situation. c. F. H. BY HENRY MORGENTHAU ^ On August loth, I went out on a little launch to meet the Sicilia, a small Italian ship which had just arrived from Venice. I was especially interested in this vessel because she was bringing to Constantinople my son-in-law and daughter and their three little daughters. The greeting proved even more interesting than I had expected. I found the passengers considerably excited, for they had witnessed, the day before, a naval engagement in the Ionian Sea. "We were lunching yesterday on deck," my daughter told me, "when I saw two strange-looking vessels just above the horizon. I ran for the glasses and made out two large battleships, the first one with two queer, exotic-looking tow- ers and the other one quite an ordinary-looking battleship. We watched and saw another ship coming up behind them and going very fast. She came nearer and nearer and then we heard guns booming. Pillars of water sprang up in the air and there were many little puffs of white smoke. It took me some time to realize what it was all about, and then it burst upon me that we were actually witnessing an engage- ment. The ships continually shifted their position but went on and on. The two big ones turned and rushed furiously for the little one, and then apparently they changed their minds and turned back. Then the little one turned around and calmly steamed in our direction. At first I was some- what alarmed at this, but nothing happened. She circled around us with her tars excited and grinning and somewhat grimy. They signaled to our captain many questions, and * Reprinted by permission from "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story." TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY 95 then turned and finally disappeared. The captain told us that the two big ships were Germans which had been caught in the Mediterranean and which were trying to escape from the British fleet. He said that the British ships are chasing them all over the Mediterranean, and that the German ships are trying to get into Constantinople. Have you seen any- thing of them ? Where do you suppose the British fleet is ?" A few hours afterward I happened to meet Wangen- heim.^ When I told him what my daughter had seen, he displayed an agitated interest. Immediately after lunch he called at the American Embassy with Pallavicini, the Aus- trian Ambassador, and asked for an interview with my daughter. The two ambassadors solemnly planted them- selves in chairs before her and subjected her to a most minute, though very polite, cross examination. "I never felt so important in my life," she afterward told me. They would not permit her to leave out a single detail ; they wished to know how many shots had been fired, what direction the German ships had taken, what everybody on board had said, and so on. The visit seemed to give these allied am- bassadors immense relief and satisfaction, for they left the house in an almost jubilant mood, behaving as though a great weight had been taken off their minds. And certainly they had good reason for their elation. My daughter had been the means of giving them the news which they had desired to hear above everything else — that the Goehen and the Breslau had escaped the British fleet and were then steam- ing rapidly in the direction of the Dardanelles. For it was those famous German ships, the Goehen and the Breslau, which my daughter had seen engaged in battle with a British scout ship ! The next day official business called me to the German Embassy. But Wangenheim's animated manner soon dis- closed that he had no interest in routine matters. Never had I seen him so nervous and so excited. He could not rest in his chair more than a few minutes at a time; he was constantly jumping up, rushing to the window and look- * The German Ambassador. 96 TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY ing anxiously out toward the Bosphorus, where his private wireless station, the Corcovado, lay about three-quarters of a mile away. Wangenheim's face was flushed and his eyes were shining; he would stride up and down the room, speak- ing now of a recent German victory, now giving me a little forecast of Germany's plans — and then he would stalk to the window again for another look at the Corcovado. "Something is seriously distracting you," I said, rising^ 'T will go and come again some other time." "No, no!" the Ambassador almost shouted. "I want you to stay right where you are. This will be a great day for Germany! If you will only remain for a few minutes you will hear a great piece of news — something that has the utmost bearing upon Turkey's relation to the war." Then he rushed out on the portico and leaned over the balustrade. At the same moment I saw a little launch put out from the Corcovado toward the Ambassador's dock. Wangenheim hurried down, seized an envelope from one of the sailors, and a moment afterward burst into the room again. "We've got them !" he shouted to me. "Got what?" I asked. "The Goeben and the Breslau have passed through the Dardanelles !" He was waving the wireless message with all the en- thusiasm of a college boy whose football team has won a victory. Then, momentarily checking his enthusiasm, he came up to me solemnly, humorously shook his forefinger, lifted his eyebrows, and said, "Of course, you understand that we have sold those ships to Turkey I "And Admiral Souchon," he added with another wink, "will enter the Sultan's service!" Wangenheim had more than patriotic reasons for this exultation; the arrival of these ships was the greatest day in his diplomatic career. It was really the first diplomatic victory which Germany had won. For years the chancellor- ship of the empire had been Wangenheim's laudable ambi- tion, and he behaved now like a man who saw his prize within TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY 97 his grasp. The voyage of the Goehen and the Breslau was his personal triumph; he had arranged with the Turkish Cabinet for their passage through the Dardanelles, and he had directed their movements by wireless in the Mediter- ranean. By safely getting the Goehen and the Breslau into Constantinople, Wangenheim had definitely clinched Turkey as Germany's ally. All his intrigues and plottings for three years had now finally succeeded. I doubt if any two ships have exercised a greater in- fluence upon history than these two German cruisers. Few of us at that time realized their great importance, bvit sub- sequent developments have fully justified Wangenheim's exuberant satisfaction. The Goehen was a powerful battle cruiser of recent construction ; the Breslau was not so large a ship, but she, like the Goehen, had the excessive speed that made her extremely serviceable in those waters. These ships had spent the few months preceding the war cruising in the Mediterranean, and when the declaration finally came they were taking on supplies at Messina. I have always regarded it as more than a coincidence that these two vessels, both of them having a greater speed than any French or English ships in the Mediterranean, should have been lying not far from Turkey when war broke out. The selection of the Goehen was particularly fortu- nate, as she had twice before visited Constantinople and her officers and men knew the Dardanelles perfectly. The be- havior of these crews, when the news of war was received, indicated the spirit with which the German navy began hos- tilities ; the men broke into singing and shouting, lifted their Admiral upon their shoulders, and held a real German jolli- fication. It is said that Admiral Souchon preserved, as a touching souvenir of this occasion, his white uniform bear- ing the finger prints of his grimy sailors ! For all their joy at the prospect of battle, the situation of these ships was still a precarious one. They formed no match for the large British and French naval forces which were roaming through the Mediterranean. The Goehen and the Breslau were far from their native bases ; with the coaling problem such an acute one, and with England in possession of W., VOL. II.— T. 98 TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY all important stations, where could they flee for safety ? Sev- eral Italian destroyers were circling around the German ships at Messina, enforcing neutrality and occasionally reminding them that they could remain in port only twenty-four hours. England had ships stationed at the Gulf of Otranto, the head of the Adriatic, to cut them off in case they sought to escape into the Austrian port of Pola. The British navy also stood guard at Gibraltar and Suez, the only other exits that ap- parently offered the possibility of escape. There was only one other place in which the Goehen and the Breslau might find a safe and friendly reception. That was Constantino- ple. Apparently the British navy dismissed this as an im- possibility. At that time, early in August, international law had not entirely disappeared as the guiding conduct of na- tions. Turkey was then a neutral country, and, despite the many evidences of German domination, she seemed likely to maintain her neutrality. The Treaty of Paris, which was signed in 1856, as well as the Treaty of London, signed in 1 87 1, provided that war-ships should not use the Dardanelles except by the special permission of the Sultan, which could be granted only in times of peace. In practice the govern- ment had seldom given this permission except for ceremonial occasions. Under the existing conditions it would have amounted virtually to an unfriendly act for the Sultan to have removed the ban against war vessels in the Dardanelles, and to permit the Goehen and the Breslau to remain in Turkish waters for more than twenty-four hours would have been nothing less than a declaration of war. It is perhaps not surprising that the British, in the early days of August, 1914, when Germany had not completely made clear her of- ficial opinion that "international law had ceased to exist," regarded these treaty stipulations as barring the German ships from the Dardanelles and Constantinople. Relying upon the sanctity of these international regulations, the Brit- ish navy had shut off every point through which these Ger- man ships could have escaped to safety— except the entrance to the Dardanelles. Had England, immediately on the decla- ration of war, rushed a powerful squadron to this vital spot, TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY 99 how different the history of the last three years might have been! "His Majesty expects the Goehen and the Breslau to suc- ceed in breaking through!" Such was the wireless that reached these vessels at Messina at five o'clock on the eve- ning of August 4th. The twenty-four hours' stay permitted by the Italian Government had nearly expired. Outside, in the Strait of Otranto, lay the force of British battle cruisers, sending false radio messages to the Germans, instructing them to rush for Pola. With bands playing and flags flying, the officers and crews having had their spirits fired by ora- tory and drink, the two vessels started at full speed toward the awaiting British fleet. The little Gloucester, a scout boat, kept in touch, wiring constantly the German movements to the main squadron. Suddenly, when off Cape Spartivento, the Goehen and the Breslau let off into the atmosphere all the discordant vibrations which their wireless could command, jamming the air with such a hullabaloo that the Gloucester was unable to send any intelligible messages. Then the Ger- man cruisers turned southward and made for the ^gean Sea. The plucky little Gloucester kept close on their heels, and, as my daughter had related, once had even audaciously offered battle. A few hours behind the British squadron pursued, but uselessly, for the German ships, though far less powerful in battle, were much speedier. Even then the Brit- ish admiral probably thought that he had spoiled the Ger- man plans. The German ships might get first to the Darda- nelles, but at that point stood international law across the path, barring the entrance. Meanwhile Wangenheim had accomplished his great diplomatic success. From the Corcovado wireless station in the Bosphorus he was sending the most agreeable news to Admiral Souchon. He was telling him to hoist the Turkish flag when he reached the Strait, for Admiral Souchon's cruisers had suddenly become parts of the Turkish navy, and, therefore, the usual international prohibitions did not apply. These cruisers were no longer the Goehen and the Breslau, for, like an oriental magician, Wangenheim had suddenly changed them into the Sultan Selim and the Medilli. The loo TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY fact was that the German Ambassador had cleverly taken advantage of the existing situation to manufacture a "sale." Turkey had two dreadnoughts under construction in Eng- land when the war broke out. These ships were not exclu- sively governmental enterprises; their purchase represented what, on the surface, appeared to be a popular enthusiasm of the Turkish people. They were to be the agencies through which Turkey was to attack Greece and win back the islands of the ^gean, and the Turkish people had raised the money to build them by a so-called popular subscription. Agents had gone from house to house, painfully collecting these small sums of money; there had been entertainments and fairs, and, in their eagerness for the cause, Turkish women had sold their hair for the benefit of the common fund. These two vessels thus represented a spectacular outburst of patriotism that was unusual in Turkey, so unusual, in- deed, that many detected signs that the Government had stimulated it. At the very moment when the war began, Turkey had made her last payment to the English shipyards and the Turkish crews had arrived in England prepared to take the finished vessels home. Then, a few days before the time set to deliver them, the British Government stepped in and commandeered these dreadnoughts for the British navy. There is not the slightest question that England had not only a legal but a moral right to do this; there is also no question that her action was a proper one, and that, had she been dealing with almost any other nation, such a pro- ceeding would not have aroused any resentment. But the Turkish people cared nothing for distinctions of this sort; all they saw was that they had two ships in England, which they had greatly strained their resources to purchase, and that England had now stepped in and taken them. Even without external pressure they would have resented the act, but external pressure was exerted in plenty. The transaction gave Wangenheim the greatest opportunity of his life. Vio- lent attacks upon England, all emanating from the German Embassy, began to fill the Turkish press. Wangenheim was constantly discoursing to the Turkish leaders on English TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY loi perfidy and he now suggested that Germany, Turkey's good friend, was prepared to make compensation for England's "unlawful" seizure. He suggested that Turkey go through the form of "purchasing" the Goehen and the Breslau, which were then wandering around the Mediterranean, perhaps in anticipation of this very contingency, and incorporate them in the Turkish navy in place of the appropriated ships in England. The very day that these vessels passed through the Dardanelles, the Ikdam, a Turkish newspaper published in Constantinople, had a triumphant account of this "sale," with big headlines calling it a "great success for the Im- perial Government." Thus Wangenheim's maneuver accomplished two pur- poses: it placed Germany before the populace as Turkey's friend, and it also provided a subterfuge for getting the ships through the Dardanelles, and enabling them to remain in Turkish waters. All this beguiled the more ignorant of the Turkish people, and gave the Cabinet a plausible ground for meeting the objection of Entente diplomats, but it did not deceive any intelligent person. The Goehen and Breslau might change their names, and the German sailors might adorn themselves with Turkish fezzes, but we all knew from the beginning that this sale was a sham. Those who under- stood the financial condition of Turkey could only be amused at the idea that she could purchase these modern vessels. Moreover, the ships were never incorporated in the Turkish navy; on the contrary, what really happened was that the Turkish navy was annexed to these German ships. A hand- ful of Turkish sailors were placed on board at one time for appearance sake, but their German officers and German crews still retained active charge. Wangenheim, in his talks with me, never made any secret of the fact that the ships still re- mained German property. "I never expected to have such big checks to sign," he remarked one day, referring to his expenditures on the Goehen and the Breslau. He always called them "our" ships. Even Talaat told me in so many words that the cruisers did not belong to Turkey. "The Germans say they belong to the Turks," he re- marked, with his characteristic laugh. "At any rate, it's I02 TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY very comforting for us to have them here. After the war, if the Germans win, they will forget all about it and leave the ships to us. If the Germans lose, they won't be able to take them away from us !" The German Government made no real pretension that the sale had been bona fide; at least when the Greek Minister at Berlin protested against the transaction as unfriendly to Greece — naively forgetting the American ships which Greece had recently purchased — the German officials soothed him by admitting, sotto voce, that the ownership still remained with Germany. Yet when the Entente ambassadors constantly protested against the presence of the German vessels, the Turkish officials blandly kept up the pretense that they were integral parts of the Turkish navy ! The German officers and crews greatly enjoyed this far- cical pretense that the Goehen and the Breslau were Turkish ships. They took delight in putting on Turkish fezzes, thereby presenting to the world conclusive evidence that these loyal sailors of the Kaiser were now parts of the Sultan's navy. One day the Goehen sailed up the Bosphorus, halted in front of the Russian Embassy, and dropped anchor. Then the officers and men lined the deck in full view of the enemy embassy. All solemnly removed their Turkish fezzes and put on German caps. The band played "Deutschland uber Alles," the "Watch on the Rhine," and other German songs, the German sailors singing loudly to the accompaniment. When they had spent an hour or more serenading the Russian Ambassador, the officers and crews removed their German caps and again put on their Turkish fezzes. The Goehen then picked up her anchor and started southward for her station, leaving in the ears of the Russian diplomat the gradually dying strains of German war songs as the cruiser disappeared down stream. I have often speculated on what would have happened if the English battle cruisers, which pursued the Breslau and the Goehen up to the mouth of the Dardanelles, had not been too gentlemanly to violate international law. Suppose that they had entered the Strait, attacked the German cruisers in the Marmora, and sunk them. They could have done this, TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY 103 and, knowing all that we know now, such an action would have been justified. Not improbably the destruction would have kept Turkey out of the war. For the arrival of these cruisers made it inevitable that Turkey, when the proper mo- ment came, should join her forces with Germany. With them the Turkish navy became stronger than the Russian Black Sea Fleet and thus made it certain that Russia could make no attack on Constantinople. The Goeben and the Breslau, therefore, practically gave the Ottoman and Ger- man naval forces control of the Black Sea. Moreover, these two ships could easily dominate Constantinople, and thus they furnished the means by which the German navy, if the occasion should arise, could terrorize the Turks. I am convinced that, when the judicious historian reviews this war and its consequences, he will say that the passage of the Strait by these German ships made it inevitable that Turkey should join Germany at the moment that Germany desired her assistance, and that it likewise sealed the doom of the Turkish Empire. There were men in the Turkish Cabinet who perceived this, even then. The story was told in Constantinople — though I do not vouch for it as au- thentic history — that the cabinet meeting at which this mo- mentous decision had been made had not been altogether har- monious. The Grand Vizier and Djemal, it was said, ob- jected to the fictitious "sale," and demanded that it should not be completed. When the discussion had reached its height Enver, who was playing Germany's game, announced that he had already practically completed the transaction. In the silence that followed his statement this young Napoleon pulled out his pistol and laid it on the table. 'Tf any one here wishes to question this purchase," he said quietly and icily, 'T am ready to meet him." A few weeks after the Goeben and the Breslau had taken up permanent headquarters in the Bosphorus, Djavid Bey, Minister of Finance, happened to meet a distinguished Bel- gian jurist, then in Constantinople. "I have terrible news for you," said the sympathetic Turkish statesman. "The Germans have captured Brus- sels." 104 TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY The Belgian, a huge figure, more than six feet high, put his arm soothingly upon the shoulder of the diminutive Turk. "I have even more terrible news for you," he said, point- ing out to the stream where the Goeben and the Breslau lay anchored. "The Germans have captured Turkey." BY BARON GUILLAUME Official Report to the Belgian Government by the Belgian Minister of Turkey Constantinople, September 7, 191 4. Since I had the honor of announcing to you my return to Constantinople on August i6th, I have addressed to you no political dispatch, finding myself without any means of transmitting one to you. I entrust the present letter to a special messenger of the French Embassy, in the hope that it will reach you. On my return here, I found the situation very strained. The incident of the Goeben had just taken place. The German Ambassador, all-powerful here, to the ex- tent that the Ottoman ministers fairly frequently hold their Council meetings at his house, used all his efforts to push the Turks into an imprudent step, which might provoke war with the powers of the Triple Entente. At this moment, Talaat Bey and Halil Bey, President of the Chamber, had just left for Sofia and Bucharest with the object, they said, of settling the question of the islands with Greece, But the real aim of their journey was to feel the ground with a view to constituting a compact group, which might engage in war against Russia. They were soon able to assure themselves that this at- tempt had no chance of success, and it was at that moment that I had the honor of telegraphing to you that the Am- bassadors of the Triple Entente were beginning to hope that the complication of a war with Turkey would not supervene. Since then the situation has gone through different phases and more than once has looked dangerous. Baron de Wangenheim, and especially General Liman von Sanders, are doing all they can to incite the Turks to TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY 105 war, and they have succeeded in creating here an absolutely German atmosphere in Ottoman circles. A week ago a rupture appeared probable. The Gov- ernment not only did not send back the German crews of the Goeben and the Breslau, but hundreds of sailors and ar- tillerymen were seen arriving from Germany, to serve both in the naval forces and in the batteries guarding the Straits. The moment therefore appeared near, when the sense of national dignity would oblige the three Allied Powers to put a limit to the provocations of Turkey. Their Ambassadors then began to prepare for departure and I had the honor of informing you of this by telegraph, adding that in the event of my receiving my passports myself, I proposed to entrust the protection of the Belgians residing in Turkey to the Am- bassador of the United States. But in consequence of energetic representations made on August 30th to the Grand Vizier, the situation has seemed to clear up somewhat. His Highness is personally in favor of peace. The same may be said of several members of the Cabinet, amongst others Djavid Bey, who sees the abyss into which the finances of the State will be hurled. Unhappily the power of Enver Pasha is still very great and he would like to launch the country into the maddest ad- ventures at any cost. The mobilization which has taken place under his orders far surpassed in rigor that which took place during the Balkan War. This time, nobody is excepted between the ages of 20 and 45. Requisitions have assumed a character of a veritable spoliation. The military authorities not only require the provisions to be delivered to them which are found in the shops of private owners or at the Customs House, but also goods of every kind, from motor-cars to ladies' toilet articles. Numerous boats coming from the Black Sea and going past on their way to the Mediterranean, have been stopped at the passage and unloaded by force. These proceedings, which the Minister of a foreign Power has not hesitated to term piracy, in a note which he io6 TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY addressed to the Porte, have, as their result, made trading ships desert the Bosphorus. I learn that the receipts of the customs at Constantinople have diminished by more than 75 per cent. As to tithes, they will amount to practically nothing, according to what I was told by a member of the Council of Debt. On the one hand, the harvest has been gathered in under adverse con- ditions, in consequence of lack of labor; on the other hand, the military authorities have seized a mass of agricultural produce, before there was opportunity for the tithe to be levied. It will be possible for the September coupons of the Public Unified Debt to be paid, but that will probably not be the case with the following coupon, and, for the first time since the Decree of Muharram, a suspension of the service of the Public Debt will be seen, whilst the deficit, according to the British Delegate on the Council of the Debt, will reach the figure of £16,500,000. It is not surprising that under these conditions Djavid Bey, as Minister of Finance, is exerting himself to stop the Government on the fatal incline, down which German influence and the chauvinism of Enver Pasha wish to drag them. For the moment, it is especially war against Greece which is contemplated. As I was told yesterday by an Am- bassador, the Hellenic Government are well aware that they can no longer hold without question all that was assigned to them by the Treaty of London. The European situation has changed and they will have to make some concessions. Athens would be willing to make concessions with regard to the government in Chios and Mytilene; for instance, it would be prepared to recognize the suzerainty of the Sultan over these islands. But the Turks, in accordance with their system of bargaining, are now formulating on this head such demands that it seems difficult for an understand- ing to be reached. There are, nevertheless, various reasons which lead one to believe at present that Turkey will not decide to open hos- tilities against Greece. TURKEY LENDS SUPPORT TO GERMANY 107 Turkey could not attack Greece by sea, since England has given it to be understood that if the Goehen or the Bres- lau comes out of the Dardanelles, the British squadron has orders to sink them. As to a campaign on land, that would need the consent of Bulgaria, and certain signs seem to indicate that there is little disposition at Sofia to yield an assistance which might involve the country in grave complications. All the Ambassadors at Constantinople are, in fact, con- vinced that a rupture between Turkey and Greece will in- evitably lead to a war with the three great allied Powers. To sum up, the danger has diminished, but it is far from having disappeared. The Powers of the Triple Entente are doing their best to remove it, but German influence may bring things to such a pass that the dignity of the three allied countries will be compromised. Finally, if war breaks out, this will mean political, as well as economic, ruin for Turkey, since the persons most competent to speak are of the opinion that the Turkish army is incapable of taking the field. THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE GERMANY WINS THE BATTLE OF LORRAINE AUGUST 7TH-20TH GEORGE H. PERRIS FREIHERR VON STEINACKER The previous sections of our volume have shown the opening at- tacks of Germany and Austria in the Great War. We turn now to the response of France. As Britain alone had been prepared to meet the onslaught on the ocean, so was France alone in readiness on land. To the German attack she responded quickly by a counter-attack in Alsace. This is fully described by Mr. Ferris, a British scholar and diplomat who was at the time in France, and who had previously been a sympa- thetic friend to Germany. Hence his narrative is without any coloring of partiality to France. He gives facts and shrewdly estimates their value. For the German account we follow the narrative of General von Steinacker, authorized by the German Government and issued as semi-official toward the close of the war. This battle of Lorraine, or of Morhange as the French call it, was the first large and equal battle on the western front. E may now turn to the military plans of the western Y V Allies and their chief enemy, taking France first, as the Power longest acquainted with the threat of a new in- vasion. The German Empire is bordered on the west, to the extent of nearly two-thirds of its extent, by Holland and Belgium, and to the extent of little more than one-third by France. During the armed rivalry that followed the war of 1870, this short Franco-German frontier — only 170 miles in length, counting all its indentations, from Longwy to Belfort — had been so effectively blocked by systems of for- tification, centering in Diedenhofen (Thionville), Metz, Strassburg, and Neu-Breisach on the one side, Verdun, Toul, Epinal, and Belfort on the other, that any rapid invasion in either direction was generally considered impossible. It was, indeed, the prospect of over-pressure of millions of men in the gaps between these great fortresses that German mili- tary writers cited as justifying their assumption of a viola- tion of Belgian, and perhaps also of Dutch and Swiss, neu- BY GEORGE H. PERRIS THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE 109 trality. If these neutral States were barred, the defensive position of the German Empire on the west was very strong — the ItaHan AlHance apart — the possibiUty of any serious attack being Hmited to the gaps between the fortresses on the north of the Vosges and the gap of Belfort leading into the plain of southern Alsace. We have seen that the German Imperial Government was in no merely defensive mood, but had immediately struck out through neutral Luxemburg and the Liege gap. What was France doing, meanwhile ? She was playing the game on orthodox lines, all warn- ings notwithstanding. The mobilization progressing smoothly, the chief armies were hurried to the eastern fron- tier. A minor force was sent north to guard the gates of the Sambre and Meuse Rivers, and, generally, the neutral fron- tier from Maubeuge to Longwy. The western half of the northern frontier was left practically uncovered. An of- fensive was at once taken from Belfort into southern Al- sace, supported by an advance along the crests of the Vosges, under the direction of General Dubail. Evidently, the plain round Mulhouse was only lightly held. Perhaps this French advance was deliberately permitted ; certainly it absorbed in Paris and the country at large a great deal of attention which should have been directed elsewhere. On Friday, August 7th, a French brigade, with cavalry and artillery, occupied the town of Altkirch, and on the following morning advanced along the railway across the low country, and, after another stiff fight with the retiring German troops, entered Mulhouse at 5 p. m. This was, po- litically speaking, a great event. At last, after forty-four years, French soldiers again trod the bank of the "German" Rhine. Much was made of the victorious march of twenty- five miles into Alsace ; and General Joflfre issued a proclama- tion in which he called his soldiers, "the first laborers in the great work of la revanche." * * The proclamation ran as follows : Children of Alsace! After forty-four years of sorrowful waiting, French soldiers once more tread the soil of your noble country. They are the pioneers in no THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE Correspondingly acute was the disappointment of the fol- lowing retreat. On August 9th, the Austrian Government was reported to be sending troops through southern Ger- many to Alsace ; and it was only then that the French Gov- ernment broke off relations with the Dual Monarchy. On the same day, Mulhouse was retaken by the German 14th Army Corps and a portion of the 15th, the direct attack being supported by a flank movement against Cernay (Senn- heim). The sequel is thus described in the French official statement. "Our troops were enthusiastically received in Mulhouse by the Alsatians. Some hours were spent in joyous ex- citement, and for a moment, perhaps too readily, the men forgot that they were in the enemy's country. Beside the Alsatians feting our arrival, there were a number of Ger- man immigrants who immediately informed the retreating Germans of our exact position and strength. Mulhouse, difficult to defend against an attack from the north and east, was comparatively easy to recover if vigorously at- tacked. That is what the Germans did during the night, advancing on the one side from the Forest of Hard and on the other from the direction of Neu-Breisach and Colmar, and marching toward Cernay in order to cut our retreat. If we had remained at Mulhouse with insufficient forces, we would have been in danger of losing our line of retreat toward the Upper Vosges and Belfort. Orders were, there- fore, given to retire. Another plan might, indeed, have been conceived and carried out. The troops we had left at Alt- kirch had not been attacked. It would thus have been pos- sible to counter-attack the enemy marching on Cernay by utilizing our reserves. This plan was not carried out. Our left was attacked near Cernay by greatly superior forces; the great work of revenge. For them what emotions it calls forth, and what pride! To complete the work they have made the sacrifice of their lives. The French nation unanimously urges them on, and in the folds of their flag are inscribed the magic words, "Right and Liberty." Long live Alsace. Long live France. General-in-Chief of the French Armies, JOFTRB. THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE in our center was attacked at Mulhouse; and our right was inactive. The battle was badly begun, and the wisest so- lution was, therefore, to retreat. In order to carry out our initial plan, it was necessary to recommence the opera- tions on a new basis, and under a new commander. The command was given to General Pau." When the new start was made in the plain, the chief crests and passes of the Vosges had been captured after hard fighting, and were firmly held. The retirement five miles from the frontier on the eve of the war here in- volved a peculiarly hard penalty upon the mountain troops. The pass known as the Ballon d' Alsace (Welsche Belchen — ^4,085 feet), a famous viewpoint overlooking Thann, was the first to be secured. It is very steep on the Alsatian side, but less so on the French, where, moreover, the sum- mit was commanded by the fort of Servance. From here, the Col du Busang was easily taken. Next, the Schlucht, the picturesque pass between Gerardmer and Miinster, and the Hohneck (4,465 feet) were gained, under like advan- tageous conditions. More to the north, the central Vosges offered much greater difficulties, the French sides being the steeper, so that it was difficult to bring up artillery; while the Germans had been able to strengthen their positions on the narrow, thickly wooded summits by cutting down trees, putting up wire entanglements, and digging trenches. The Col du Bonhomme (3,120 feet) and the lower Col Ste. Marie, captured after a five-days' struggle before the mid- dle of August, gave protection to the French right in its progress toward Saales, at the head of the valley leading to Schlestadt; but the direct way to Colmar was blocked by German field-works and by heavy artillery on the lower slopes. A further northward advance was, therefore, made along the mountain crests, and artillery was brought down from the head of the Bruche Valley upon the German flank. This operation, in which material losses were sustained, opened the way for the occupation of Mount Donon (3,300 feet), the most northerly of the Vosges summits, on Au- gust 14th. This quasi-Alpine campaign had been skillfully directed, and met with a deserved success. The numbers of 112 THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE men engaged were not large, varying at first from a bat- talion of Chasseurs to a regiment of infantry, and being gradually increased. The most considerable French loss officially named was 600 killed and wounded in the Bon- homme and Ste. Marie passes. Apart from cannon and material, the German losses were larger. The little manufacturing town of Thann had now been reoccupied; and at St. Blaise, a village near Ste. Marie- aux-Mines, in a sharp combat. General von Deimling, com- manding the 15th German Army Corps, was wounded, and the French took their first standard, to the great joy of Paris sightseers a few days later. On August i8th, Gen- eral Joffre issued from eastern headquarters the first dis- patch bearing his own signature. It reported steady ad- vance along the Alsatian valleys, and declared that "the en- emy retreated in disorder, everywhere abandoning his wounded and material." General Pau had received strong reenforcements with a view to a "decisive" action. Ad- vancing simultaneously from Bel fort and the Vosges, but on a narrower front than previously, with their right sup- ported on the Rhone-Rhine Canal, they had stormed Thann and Dannemarie, and, bringing the left round toward Col- mar, while the center attacked Mulhouse, threatened the German forces with a serious breach of their communica- tions. After severe street fighting, in which twenty-four guns were taken, Mulhouse was again in French posses- sion on August 20th. The whole of the ground thus gained was abandoned a few days later. This was a grave blow to French pride, and brought a severe punishment upon the Francophile Al- satians. Naturally, the whole southern campaign aroused severe criticism. Several high officers were retired for mis- takes in the first advance, which was afterwards officially described as "a mere reconnoissance." If any less eminent soldiers than General Joffre and General Pau had been re- sponsible, there might have been more trouble. But Joffre "the taciturn," the cool-headed engineer whose powers had been tested in many a colonial field, and confirmed in long labors of fortification and organization, and the veteran THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE 113 Pau, who had been second in consideration for the post of Generalissimo, could not be regarded as reckless adven- turers, aiming at a political advantage they could not hold. The Germans directed their advance — apart from the three first German armies and General von Emmich's Army of the Meuse, operating through Belgium — across the Belgian Ardennes and Luxemburg respectively, against the gap behind Longwy, while the Verdun army watched that of Metz, and the Nancy army watched that of Strass- burg. Longwy, although without serious modern fortifi- cation, and having but a small garrison, refused to surren- der on August 3rd, and, after being invested and losing half its effectives by repeated bombardments, capitulated only on the 27th. The gallant Governor, Lieutenant- Colonel Darche, was named officer of the Legion of Honor for this heroic defense. The feat indicates, however, that the German efifort in this direction was of a secondary character; and, in fact, it was checked at Mangiennes and Pillon on August loth- I2th, with a loss of several guns and a thousand prisoners. On this side Verdun was not to be approached. After repelling attacks, and routing a Bavarian corps established on the hills above Blamont and Cirey, east of Nancy and Luneville, General de Castelnau's army of five corps and reserve divisions now made a bold entry into the Lorraine lowlands. All the signs seemed favorable. The Minister of War boasted (on August 15th) that the expected German attack on Nancy had "scarcely been at- tempted," that the invasion of Belgium had been "foiled," that the movements of the Allied armies had been "per- fectly coordinated," and that their supremacy at sea had secured the free passage of the Algerian troops and future foreign supplies. The British Expeditionary Force was known to have crossed the Channel. Mulhouse was lost, but the Vosges passes were won. The Generalissimo was sure as to the next move ; the soldiers had already gained confi- dence in themselves, their bayonets, and their field-guns, especially their "75's." On Sunday, the i6th, the French troops had a firm hold W., VOL. 11.-8. THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE on Avricourt, the frontier station on the main line from Paris to Strassburg. Saarburg was menaced from the north, south and west. A sleepy town, but an important railway junction, the authorities of the Reichsland kept here a considerable garrison, and the neighboring hills were defaced with huge barracks. To the south of the town a strong artillery position had been established. This was taken by assault; and, on August i8th, the French en- tered Saarburg, thus effectually breaking the main railway communications between Metz and Strassburg. Zabern, where Lieutenant von Forstner had so recently executed Prussian military vengeance upon a lame cobbler, which Herr von Jagow had described as "almost an enemy's country," where the Prussian Minister of War had feared "to see life for a German become less safe than life in the Congo" — Zabern, the very name of which cried aloud of the uniformed bully, was only a day's march further east, and Strassburg itself only as much more. Hope flashed over France like a sudden conflagration. Count Albert de Mun published in Paris the narrative of a refugee priest who declared that Metz was hungry and terror-stricken. General Bonnal, in the Gaulois, quoted a prisoner as saying: "It is an officers', not a people's war," and from this concluded that there had been "a complete reversal of roles" since 1870. The Abbe Wetterle, a nota- ble Alsatian member of the Reichstag, reached Paris on August 19th, by way of Basel and Pontarlier, having nar- rowly escaped arrest and trial for high treason. M. Blu- menthal, another deputy, and ex-mayor of Colmar, had also had an exciting journey from that town to the Swiss fron- tier. Their adventures accentuated the general anticipation that the lost provinces were about to be liberated. The French positions were quickly extended to the northwest of Saarburg, through Dieuze and Morhange to Chateau-Salins and Delme, decayed country towns on a strategic railway running to Metz, only twenty miles away. Whether they had deliberately tempted Castelnau into this dangerous salient, or had retired only to give time for the bringing up of heavy reen for cements, the Crown Prince of THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE 115 Bavaria and General von Heeringen were now able, with the aid of the Metz garrison, to fall upon the French from three sides at once. The blow was sudden and decisive. The French 15th Corps, taken by surprise, gave way — some, at least, of these Southern troops fled, but they afterwards bravely retrieved their character — and the whole line had to be withdrawn. The Germans claimed to have captured 10,000 prisoners and 50 guns. The French questioned these figures, but could not deny a severe reverse. This was on August 20th, while the German cavalry was entering Brussels, the French were recovering Mulhouse, and the authorities in Paris were congratulating themselves that, except a corner of land at Audun-le-Roman, the frontier station between Longuyon and Thionville, every part of the national ter- ritoiy was free of the invader. The retreat from Lorraine was arrested for a moment on the line of the Seille and the Marne-Rhine Canal. On August 22nd, it had reached the Moselle and the advanced works of Nancy on the left, Badonviller and the Donon on the right. On the 23rd, Luneville was lost; the French re- tired to, and at some points beyond, the Murthe, the center of the defense being the ring of hills known as the Grand Couronne of Nancy. On the 25th, Mulhouse was evacu- ated, and all but the southern passes of the Vosges were abandoned. There was now something more important than Alsace for General Pau to look after. The danger in the north was unmistakable. BY GENERAL FREIHERR VON STEINACKER The powerful attack which the French undertook in the region between Epinal and Toul-Nancy in the direction of Saarburg, led to the battle of Lorraine. The battle was preceded by small vanguard encounters on the borders of Lorraine. On the nth of August, a mixed French brigade attacked a small Bavarian frontier- guard detachment near Lagarde, As the French left this place in order to reconnoitre the Seille district, they were halted by the Bavarians and thrown back into the forest ii6 THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE of Parroy, situated northeast of Luneville on the Marne- Rhine canal. Thereby the Germans captured the first French flag, two batteries, four machine-guns and 700 pri- soners. By the loth of August the German advance troops had already crossed the boundary in the Meurthe district and fought victoriously near Baronweiler. These advance troops, however, were taken back as soon as the strength of the advancing enemy forces had been determined; for it did not appear expedient to offer the French battle within the artillery range of their great forts, Toul and Nancy. The French went forward to battle here with no fewer than 8 army corps of the first and second Armies, numbering about 300,000 men. It was hard for the so recently vic- torious German troops of the Sixth Army to obey the order to fall back. When, however, during the next few days they were incorporated into the main German posi- tion, extending through Morville and Pfalzburg, they re- alized their mission as frontier-guard was ended and that powerful forces were being placed here for a decisive battle. During the period August 12-19, the main German posi- tion here was extended and strengthened in expectation of the French attack. The town of Saarburg had to be aban- doned for a few days, a favorable position for the heavy artillery being found to the north of it. On August 19th, the French armies, under Dubail and Castelnau, had begun their advance, the German Sixth Army had been assembled in a fortified position on the line Morchingen-Saarburg, while the Seventh German Army stood ready for attack between Saarburg and Strassburg. On the morning of August 19th, French cavalry and guns appeared on the height before the German position. They were surprised, however, by German bombs which fell among them, and compelled them to seek cover. The French infantry managed to approach within a few hun- dred meters of the German line of fire; but the attack, momentarily expected, did not materialize. On the 20th, both German armies proceeded to the at- tack. Although this was entirely unexpected by the enemy, THE FRENCH INVADE ALSACE 117 the latter endeavored to stand his ground ; and severe fight- ing- took place near Dieuze and in several places to the north of it, as well as in the region of the Saar. Over vineyards and through fields where the oats grew high, the German attack went forward, and even the murderous artillery fire directed from the enemy's main position was powerless against it. The French infantry, which stood ready in dense masses in the forests near Saarburg and Saaraltdorf, suffered heavily under the fire of the German batteries. The right wing of the enemy was beaten by a brilliant bayonet charge. Thus, along the whole line of the Sixth Army, a great victory had been won on the evening of the 20th of August. Thousands of prisoners had been taken and a large number of guns had been captured. A few attempts to recover lost ground proved unavail- ing. The defeated "Second Army" of the French flowed back and was forced back ever farther by the energetic pur- suit which set in during the following days, being finally compelled in consequence of the defeat in the region of Beaumont, August 22nd, to retreat behind the Meurthe. Luneville was also captured on that day. The battle, so far as the Seventh Army was concerned, which developed along the line Saarburg-Liitzelhausen, on the 20th, owing to the nature of the ground, resolved itself into a series of single engagements which led to bitter hand- to-hand combats. On the 22nd, the First French Army was beaten and commenced its retreat toward the Meurthe and the Mortagne, the Seventh Army following to the line Baccarat-Saint Die. Here the German attack came to a standstill. During this first great and successful encounter with the French right wing, the Fifth Army, under the command of the German Crown-Prince, advanced through Luxemburg along both banks of the Chiers. The French fortress Long- wy, situated on this river near the boundary, could not arrest the advance of the Crown-Prince: it was surrounded, and the advance continued. On August 28th, Longwy fell into the hands of the Germans, being the first important French fortress to be captured. THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS •I AND THE RETREAT TO THE MARNE AUGUST 20TH-SEPTEMBER 5TH MARSHAL JOFFRE HEINRICH HUEBNER SIR JOHN FRENCH GENERAL VON STEINACKER We come now to the beginning of the vast, coordinated main battle, the trial of military skill and strength between France and Germany, which began along the borders on August 20th and reached its culmina- tion in the Battle of th6 Marne. So complex and far-spread was this campaign, so brilliant in its strategy, like some mighty chess game between the chosen masters of the military art, that it can only be understood when looked at in detail. We present first, therefore, the first series of engagements, which history has named "the Battle of the Frontiers" ; and we present it in the official narrative of Marshal Joffre, the ultimate victor in the game. The help that he received from his British allies is then fully emphasized by the equally official narrative of the British chief commander. The German commanders issued no such formal report, but the authoritative narrative of General von Steinacker groups this battle with the preceding one in Lorraine and covers both. A Ger- man "army order" issued by the Kaiser himself is also given as hav- ing an emphasis of its own in expressing the spirit of the German Headquarters. This is followed by the personal narrative of an enthusiastic and patriotic German officer, a former college professor, who was in the thick of the frontier battle and the eager advance upon Paris which followed the preliminary German success. We must recognize that this first huge clash of the armies was decisively a German success. Since General JofTre himself asserts this, it is useless for the Allies' partisans to deny it and seek to ex- plain the defeat away. In a great campaign at the opening of war, the opposing leaders are both venturing into the unknown. Despite all preliminary spy work in peace, they are sure neither of the oppo- nent's weapons nor of his tactics. Even their own new inventions have yet to prove of actual value in war. Joffre had expected the attack from the east, as his report explains. When it came from the north through Belgium he was not taken by surprise or wholly un- prepared; but he had much shifting of armies to accomplish. His own invasion along the eastern frontiers seems to have revealed to him the main German plan ; but his adversaries had gained the quicker start. He would have fought them in Germany if he could. As it was, he had lost Belgium before he was ready to begin. The unex- pected power of the new Teutonic artillery had swept aside the first Belgian fortress, Liege, with terrifying speed. It now proved equally 118 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 119 effective in capturing Namur. After that, the French did not trust to fortresses. They saw that these were only death-traps. They re- treated, while with this new knowledge, Joffre evolved new plans. The strategy of his frontier battle broke down chiefly because the French army under Gen. Lanrezac allowed itself to be driven back from the easily defensible river banks east of Namur. This left the newly arrived British army exposed to an overwhelming attack, and the whole Allied line fell back, fighting as it went. We might talk of separate battles in this celebrated retreat, battles fought by the British at Mons, Landrecies and Le Cateau, by the French at Charleroi, St. Quentin, Guise, Marfee, Jaulnay and a dozen other danger spots. In reality, however, these were all but one vast struggle to protect the "retreat to the Marne." BY MARSHAL JOSEPH JOFFRE Official French Review of the Campaign in France THE first month of the campaign began with successes and finished with defeats for the French troops. Un- der what circumstances did these come about ? Our plan of concentration had foreseen the possibility of two principal actions, one on the right between the Vosges and the Moselle, the other on the left to the north of Ver- dun-Toul line, this double possibility involving the eventual variation of our transport. On August 2nd, owing to the Germans passing through Belgium, our concentration was substantially modified by Marshal Joffre in order that our principal effort might be directed tO' the north. From the first week in August it was apparent that the length of time required for the British Army to begin to move would delay our action in connection with it. This delay is one of the reasons which explain our failures at the end of August. Awaiting the moment when the operations in the north could begin, and to prepare for it by retaining in Alsace the greatest possible number of German forces, the General in Chief ordered our troops to occupy Mulhouse, to cut the bridges of the Rhine at Huningue and below, and then to flank the attack of our troops, operating in Lorraine, The purpose of the operations in Alsace was to retain a large part of the enemy's forces far from the northern thea- ter of operations. Our offensive in Lorraine was to pursue 120 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" the same purpose still more directly by holding before it the German army corps operating to the south of Metz. This offensive began brilliantly on August 14th. On the 19th we had reached the region of Saarburg and that of the Etangs (lakes), and we held Dieuze, Morhange, Delme, and Chateau Salins. On the 20th our success was stopped. The cause is to be found in the strong organization of the region, in the power of the enemy's artillery, operating over ground which had been minutely surveyed, and, finally, in the default of cer- tain units. On the 22nd, in spite of the splendid behavior of sev- eral of our army corps, notably that of Nancy, our troops were brought back on the Grand Couronne, while on the 23rd and 24th the Germans concentrated reenforcements — three army corps, at least — in the region of Luneville and forced us to retire to the south. This retreat, however, was only momentary. On the 25th, after two vigorous counter-attacks, one from south to north and the other from west to east, the enemy had to fall back. From that time a sort of balance was established on this terrain between the Germans and ourselves. Main- tained for fifteen days, it was afterward, as will be seen, modified to our advantage. There remained the principal business, the battle of the north — postponed owing to the necessity of waiting for the British Army. On August 20th the concentration of our lines was finished and the General in Chief gave orders for our center and our left to take the offensive. Our center comprised two armies. Our left consisted of a third army, reen forced to the extent of two army corps, a corps of cav- alry, the reserve divisions, the British Army, and the Bel- gian Army, which had already been engaged for the pre- vious three weeks at Liege, Namur, and Louvain. The German plan on that date was as follows : From seven to eight army corps and four cavalry divisions were endeavoring to pass between Givet and Brussels, and even to prolong their movements more to the west. Our object was, therefore, in the first place, to hold and dispose of the THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 121 enemy's center and afterward to throw ourselves with all available forces on the left flank of the German grouping of troops in the north. On August 2 1 St our offensive in the center began with ten army corps. On August 22nd it failed, and this reverse appeared serious. The reasons for it are complex. There were in this affair individual and collective failures, imprudences com- mitted under the fire of the enemy, divisions ill-engaged, rash deployments, precipitate retreats, a premature waste of men, and, finally, the inadequacy of certain of our troops and their leaders, both as regards the use of. infantry and ar- tillery. In consequences of these lapses the enemy, turning to account the difficult terrain, was able to secure the maxi- mum of profit from the advantages which the superiority of his subaltern complements gave him. In spite of this defeat our maneuver had still a chance of success, if our left and the British Army obtained a de- cisive result. This was unfortunately not the case. On August 22nd, at the cost of great losses, the enemy suc- ceeded in crossing the Sambre and our left army fell back on the 24th upon Beaumont-Givet, being perturbed by the belief that the enemy was threatening its right. On the same day (the 24th), the British Army fell back after a German attack upon the Maubeuge- Valenciennes line. On the 25th and 26th its retreat became more hurried. After Landrecies and Le Gateau it fell back southward by forced marches. It could not from this time keep its hold until after crossing the Marne. The rapid retreat of the English, coinciding with the defeat sustained in Belgian Luxemburg [at the Sambre], allowed the enemy to cross the Meuse and to accelerate, by fortifying it, the action of his right. The situation at this moment may be thus summed up : Either our frontier had to be defended on the spot under conditions which the British retreat rendered extremely per- ilous, or we had to execute a strategic retirement which, while delivering up to the enemy a part of the national soil, 122 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" would permit us, on the other hand, to resume the offensive at our own time with a favorable disposition of troops, still intact, which we had at our command. The General in Chief determined on the second alternative. Henceforward the French command devoted its efforts to preparing the offensive. To this end three conditions had to be fulfilled : 1. The retreat had to be carried out in order under a succession of counter-attacks which would keep the enemy- busy. 2. The extreme point of this retreat must be fixed in such a way that the different armies should reach it simul- taneously, ready at the moment of occupying it to resume the offensive all together. 3. Every circumstance permitting of a resumption of the offensive before this point should be reached must be utilized by the whole of our forces and the British forces. The counter-attacks, executed during the retreat, were brilliant and often fruitful. On August 26th we success- fully attacked St. Quentin to disengage the British Army. Two other corps and a reserve division engaged the Prus- sian Guard and the Tenth German Army Corps, which was debouching from Guise. By the end of the day, after vari- ous fluctuations, the enemy was thrown back on the Oise and the British front was freed. On August 27th we also succeeded in throwing back upon the Meuse the enemy, who was endeavoring to gain a foothold on the left bank. Our successes continued on the 28th in the woods of Marfee and of Jaulnay. Thanks to them we were able, in accordance with the orders of the General in Chief, to fall back on the Buzancy-Le Chesne- Bouvellemont line. Further to the right another army took part in the same movement and carried out successful attacks on Au- gust 25th on the Othain and in the region of Spincourt. On the 26th these different units recrossed the Meuse without being disturbed and were able to join in the action of our center. Our armies were, therefore, again intact and available for the offensive. THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 123 On August 26th a new army composed of two army corps, five reserve divisions, and a Moorish brigade was constituted. This army was to assemble in the region of Amiens between August 27th and September ist and take the offensive against the German right, uniting its action with that of the British Army, operating on the line of Ham-Bray-sur-Somme. The hope of resuming the offensive was at this moment rendered vain by the rapidity of the march of the German right wing. This rapidity had two consequences, which we had to parry before thinking of advancing. On the one hand, our new army had not time to complete its detraining, and, on the other hand, the British Army, forced back fur- ther by the enemy, uncovered on August 31st our left flank. Our line, thus modified, contained waves which had to be redressed before we could pass to the offensive. To understand this it is sufficient to consider the situa- tion created by the quick advance of the enemy on the eve- ning of September 2nd. A corps of cavalry had crossed the Oise and advanced as far as Chateau Thierry. The First Army (General von Kluck), comprising four active army corps and a reserve corps, had passed Compiegne. The Second Army (General von Biilow), with three active army corps and two reserve corps, was reaching the Laon region. The Third Army (General von Hausen), with two active army corps and a reserve corps, had crossed the Aisne between the Chateau Porcien and Attigny. More to the east the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Armies, namely, twelve army corps, four reserve corps, and numerous Ersatz formations, were in contact with our troops, the Fourth and Fifth Armies between Vouziers and Verdun and the others in the positions which have beeni indicated above, from Verdun to the Vosges. It will, therefore, be seen that our left, if we accepted battle, might be in great peril through the British forces and the new French Army, operating more to the westward, having given way. 124 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" A defeat in these conditions would have cut off our armies from Paris and from the British forces and at the same time from the new army which had been constituted to the left of the English. We should thus be running the risk of losing by a single stroke the advantage of the as- sistance which Russia later on was to furnish. General Joffre chose resolutely for the solution which disposed of these risks, that is to say, for postponing the offensive and the continuance of the retreat. In this way he remained on ground which he had chosen. He Vv^aited only until he could engage in better conditions. In consequence, on September ist, he fixed as an ex- treme limit for the movement of retreat, which was still go- ing on, the line of Bray-sur-Seine, Nogent-sur-Seine, Arcis- sur-Aube, Vitry-le-Frangois, and the region to the north of Bar-le-Duc. This line might be reached if the troops were compelled to go back so far. They would attack before reaching it, as soon as there was a possibility of bringing about an offensive disposition, permitting the cooperation of the whole of our forces. On September 5th it appeared that this desired situation existed. The First German Army, carrying audacity to temerity, had continued its endeavor to envelop our left, had crossed the Grand Morin, and reached the region of Chauffry, to the south of Rebaix and of Esternay. It aimed then at cut ting our armies off from Paris, in order to begin the in« vestment of the capital. The Second Army had its head on the line Champau- bert, Etoges, Bergeres, and Vertus. The Third and Fourth Armies reached to Chalons-sur- Mame and Bussy-le-Repos. The Fifth Army was advanc- ing on one side and the other from the Argonne as far as Triacourt-les-Islettes and Juivecourt. The Sixth and Sev- enth Armies were attacking more to the east. But — and here is a capital difference between the situa- tion of September 5th and that of September 2nd — the envelopment of our left was no longer possible. In the first place, our left army had been able to occupy THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 125 the line of Sezanne, Villers-St. Georges and Courchamps. Furthermore, the British forces, gathered between the Seine and the Marne, flanked on their left by the newly created army, were closely connected with the rest of our forces. This was precisely the disposition which the General in, Chief had wished to see achieved. On the 4th he decided to take advantage of it, and ordered all the armies to hold themselves ready. He had taken from his right two new army corps, two divisions of infantry, and two divisions of cavalry, which were distributed between his left and his center. On the evening of the 5th he addressed to all the com- manders of armies a message ordering them to attack. "The hour has come," he wrote, "to advance at all costs, and to die where you stand rather than give way." BY SIR JOHN FRENCH Official Report of the British Commander Delivered to Lord Kitchener, Secretary of War September 7th, 1914. My Lord : I have the honor to report the proceedings of the field force under my command up to the time of rendering this dispatch. I. The transport of the troops from England both by sea and by rail was effected in the best order and without a check. Each unit arrived at its destination in this country well within the scheduled time. The concentration was practically complete on the eve- ning of Friday, the 21st ultimo, and I was able to make dispositions to move the force during Saturday, the 22nd, to positions I considered most favorable from which to com- mence operations which the French Commander in Chief, Gen, Joffre, requested me to undertake in pursuance of his plans in prosecution of the campaign. The line taken up extended along the line of the canal from Conde on the west, through Mons and Binche on the east. This line was taken up as follows: From Conde to Mons inclusive was assigned to the Sec- ond Corps, and to the right of the Second Corps from Mons 126 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS' the First Corps was posted. The Fifth Cavalry Brigade was placed at Binche. In the absence of my Third Army Corps I desired to keep the cavalry division as much as possible as a reserve to act on my outer flank, or move in support of any threatened part of the line. The forward reconnoissance was intrusted to Brig. Gen. Sir Philip Chetwode with the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, but I directed Gen. Allenby to send forward a few squadrons to assist in this work. During the 22nd and 23rd these advanced squadrons did some excellent work, some of them penetrating as far as Soignies, and several encounters took place in which our troops showed to great advantage. 2. At 6 a. m. on August 23rd, I assembled the com- manders of the First and Second Corps and cavalry division at a point close to the position and explained the general situation of the Allies, and what I understood to be Gen. Joffre's plan. I discussed with them at some length the im- mediate situation in front of us. From information I received from French Headquarters I understood that little more than one, or at most tv/o, of the enemy's army corps, with perhaps one cavalry division, were in front of my position; and I was aware of no at- tempted outflanking movement by the enemy. I was con- firmed in this opinion by the fact that my patrols encoun- tered no undue opposition in their reconnoitering operations. The observations of my aeroplanes seemed also to bear out this estimate. About 3 p. m. on Sunday, the 23rd, reports began com- ing in to the effect that the enemy was commencing an attack on the Mons line, apparently in some strength, but that the right of the position from Mons and Bray was being particularly threatened. The commander of the First Corps had pushed his flank back' to some high ground south of Bray, and the Fifth Cavalry Brigade evacuated Binche, moving slightly south; the enemy thereupon occupied Binche. The right of the Third Division, under Gen. Hamilton, was at Mons, which formed a somewhat dangerous salient; THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 127 and I directed the commander of the Second Corps to be careful not to keep the troops on this salient too long, but, if threatened seriously, to draw back the center behind Mons. This was done before dark. In the meantime, about 5 p. m., I received a most un- expected message from Gen. Joffre by telegraph, telling me that at least three German corps, viz., a reserve corps, the Fourth Corps and the Ninth Corps, were moving on my po- sition in front, and that the Second Corps was engaged in a turning movement from the direction of Tournay. He also informed me that the two reserve French divisions and the Fifth French Army on my right were retiring, the Ger- mans having on the previous day gained possession of the passages of the Sambre between Charleroi and Namur. 3. In view of the possibility of my being driven from the Mons position, I had previously ordered a position in rear to be reconnoitered. This position rested on the for- tress of Maubeuge on the right and extended west to Jen- lain, southeast of Valenciennes, on the left. The position was reported difficult to hold, because standing crops and buildings made the siting of trenches very difficult and lim- ited the field of fire in many important localities. It never- theless afforded a few good artillery positions. When the news of the retirement of the French and the heavy German threatening on my front reached me, I en- deavored to confirm it by aeroplane reconnoissance ; and as a result of this I determined to effect a retirement to the Maubeuge position at daybreak on the 24th. A certain amount of fighting continued along the whole line throughout the night and at daybreak on the 24th the Second Division from the neighborhood of Harmignies made a powerful demonstration as if to retake Binche. This was supported by the artillery of both the First and Second Divisions, while the First Division took up a supporting position in the neighborhood of Peissant. Under cover of this demonstration the Second Corps retired on the line Dour-Quarouble-Frameries. The Third Division on the right of the corps suffered considerable loss in this operation from the enemy, who had retaken Mons. 128 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" The Second Corps halted on this line, where they par- tially intrenched themselves, enabling Sir Douglas Haig with the First Corps gradually to withdraw to the new po- sition ; and he effected this without much further loss, reach- ing the line Bavai-Maubeuge about 7 p. m. Toward mid- day the enemy appeared to be directing his principal effort against our left. I had previously ordered Gen. Allenby with the cavalry to act vigorously in advance of my left front and endeavor to take the pressure off. About 7.30 a. m. Gen. Allenby received a message from Sir Charles Fergusson, commanding the Fifth Division, saying that he was very hard pressed and in urgent need of support. On receipt of this message Gen. Allenby drew in the cavalry and endeavored to bring direct support to the Fifth Division. During the course of this operation Gen. De Lisle, of the Second Cavalry Brigade, thought he saw a good opportunity to paralyze the further advance of the enemy's infantry by making a mounted attack on his flank. He formed up and advanced for this purpose, but was held up by wire about 500 yards from his objective, and the Ninth Lancers and the Eighteenth Hussars suffered severely in the retirement of the brigade. The Nineteenth Infantry Brigade, which had been guarding the line of communications, was brought up by rail to Valenciennes on the 22nd and 23rd. On the morning of the 24th they were moved out to a position south of Quarouble to support the left flank of the Second Corps. With the assistance of the cavalry Sir Horace Smith- Dorrien was enabled to effect his retreat to a new position ; although, having two corps of the enemy on his front and one threatening his flank, he suffered great losses in do- ing so. At nightfall the position was occupied by the Second Corps to the west of Bavai, the First Corps to the right. The right was protected by the fortress of Maubeuge, the left by the Nineteenth Brigade in position between Jenlain and Bry, and the cavalry on the outer flank. THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 129 4. The French were still retiring, and I had no sup- port except such as was afforded by the fortress of Mau- beuge; and the determined attempts of the enemy to get round my left flank assured me that it was his intention to hem me against that place and surround me. I felt that not a moment must be lost in retiring to another position. I had every reason to believe that the enemy's forces were somewhat exhausted and I knew that they had suffered heavy losses. I hoped, therefore, that his pursuit would not be too vigorous to prevent me effecting my object. The operation, however, was full of danger and diffi- culty, not only owing to the very superior force in my front, but also to the exhaustion of the troops. The retirement was recommenced in the early morning of the 25th to a position in the neighborhood of Le Cateau, and rearguards were ordered to be clear of the Maubeuge- Bavai-Eth Road by 5.30 a. m. Two cavalry brigades, with the divisional cavalry of the Second Corps, covered the movement of the Second Corps. The remainder of the cavalry division, with the Nineteenth Brigade, the whole under the command of Gen. AUenby, covered the west flank. The Fourth Division commenced its detrainment at Le Cateau on Sunday, the 23rd, and by the morning of the 25th eleven battalions and a brigade of artillery with divisional staff were available for service. I ordered Gen. Snow to move out to take up a position with his right south of Solesmes, his left resting on the Cambrai-Le Cateau Road south of La Chaprie. In this po- sition the division rendered great help to the effective retire- ment of the Second and First Corps to the new position. Although the troops had been ordered to occupy the Cambrai-Le Cateau-Landrecies position, and the ground had, during the 25th, been partially prepared and intrenched, I had grave doubts — owing to the information I had re- ceived as to the accumulating strength of the enemy against me — as to the wisdom of standing there to fight. Having regard to the continued retirement of the French on my right, my exposed left flank, the tendency of the en- W., VOL. II.— 9. 130 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" emy's western corps to envelop me, and, more than all, the exhausted condition of the troops, I determined to make a great effort to continue the retreat till I could put some sub- stantial obstacle, such as the Somme or the Oise, between my troops and the enemy, and afford the former some op- portunity of rest and reorganization. Orders were, there- fore, sent to the corps commanders to continue their retreat as soon as they possibly could toward the general line Ver- mand-St. Quentin-Ribemont. The cavalry, under Gen. Allenby, were ordered to cover the retirement. Throughout the 25th and far into the evening, the First Corps continued its march on Landrecies, following the road along the eastern border of the Foret de Mormal, and ar- rived at Landrecies about 10 o'clock. I had intended that the corps should come further west so as to fill up the gap between Le Cateau and Landrecies, but the men were ex- hausted and could not get further in without rest. The enemy, however, would not allow them this rest, and about 9.30 p. m. a report was received that the Fourth Guards Brigade in Landrecies was heavily attacked by troops of the Ninth German Army Corps, who were com- ing through the forest on the north of the town. This bri- gade fought most gallantly, and caused the enemy to suffer tremendous loss in issuing from the forest into the narrow streets of the town. This loss has been estimated from re- liable sources at from 700 to 1,000. At the same time in- formation reached me from Sir Douglas Haig that his First Division was also heavily engaged south and east of Ma- roilles. I sent urgent messages to the commander of the two French reserve divisions on my right to come up to the assistance of the First Corps, which they eventually did. Partly owing to this assistance, but mainly to the skillful manner in which Sir Douglas Haig extricated his corps from an exceptionally difficult position in the darkness of the night, they were able at dawn to resume their march south toward Wassigny on Guise. By about 6 p. m. the Second Corps had got into position wiUi their right on Le Cateau, their left in the neighborhood THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 131 of Caudry, and the line of defense was continued thence by the Fourth Division toward Seranvillers, the left being thrown back. During the fighting on the 24th and 25th the cavalry became a good deal scattered, but by the early morning of the 26th Gen, Allenby had succeeded in concentrating two brigades to the south of Cambrai. The Fourth Division was placed under the orders of the general officer commanding the Second Army Corps. On the 24th the French cavalry corps, .consisting of three divisions under Gen, Sordet, had been in billets north of Avesnes. On my way back from Bavai, which was my "Poste de Commandement" during the fighting of the 23rd and 24th, I visited Gen. Sordet, and earnestly requested his cooperation and support. He promised to obtain sanction from his army commander to act on my left flank, but said that his horses were too tired to move before the next day. Although he rendered me valuable assistance later on in the course of the retirement, he was unable for the reasons given to afford me any support on the most critical day of all, viz., the 26th. At daybreak it became apparent that the enemy was throwing the bulk of his strength against the left of the posi- tion occupied by the Second Corps and the Fourth Division. At this time the guns of four German army corps were in position against them, and Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien reported to me that he judged it impossible to continue his retirement at daybreak (as ordered) in face of such an attack. I sent him orders to use his utmost endeavors to break off the action and retire at the earliest possible moment, as it was impossible for me to send him any support, the First Corps being at the moment incapable of movement. The French cavalry corps, under Gen. Sordet, was com- ing up on our left rear early in the morning, and I sent an urgent message to him to do his utmost to come up and support the retirement of my left flank; but owing to the fatigue of his horses he found himself unable to intervene in any way. 132 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" There had been no time to intrench the position prop- erly, but the troops showed a magnificent front to the ter- rible fire which confronted them. The artillery, although outmatched by at least four to one, made a splendid fight, and inflicted heavy losses on their opponents. At length it became apparent that, if complete annihila- tion was to be avoided, a retirement must be attempted; and the order was given to commence it about 3.30 p. m. The movement was covered with the most devoted intrepid- ity and determination by the artillery, which had itself suf- fered heavily, and the fine work done by the cavalry in the further retreat from the position assisted materially in the final completion of this most difficult and dangerous opera- tion. Fortunately the enemy had himself suffered too heavily to engage in an energetic pursuit. I cannot close the brief account of this glorious stand of the British troops without putting on record my deep ap- preciation of the valuable services rendered by Gen, Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. I say without hesitation that the saving of the left wing of the army under my command on the morning of August 26th could never have been accomplished unless a comman- der of rare and unusual coolness, intrepidity, and determina- tion had been present to personally conduct the operation. The retreat was continued far into the night of the 26th and through the 27th and 28th, on which date the troops halted on the line Noyon-Chauny-La Fere, having then thrown off the weight of the enemy's pursuit. On the 27th and 28th I was much indebted to Gen. Sordet and the French cavalry division which he commands for materially assisting my retirement and successfully driv- ing back some of the enemy on Cambrai. Gen. D'Amade also, with the Sixty-first and Sixty-sec- ond French Reserve Divisions, moved down from the neigh- borhood of Arras on the enemy's right flank and took much pressure off the rear of the British forces. This closes the period covering the heavy fighting which THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 133 commenced at Mons on Sunday afternoon, August 23rd, and which really constituted a four days' battle. At this point, therefore, I propose to close the present dispatch. I deeply deplore the very serious losses which the British forces have sulf ered in this great battle ; but they were in- evitable in view of the fact that the British Army — only two days after a concentration by rail — was called upon to withstand a vigorous attack of five German army corps. It is impossible for me to speak too highly of the skill evinced by the two general officers commanding army corps ; the self-sacrificing and devoted exertions of their staffs; the direction of the troops by divisional, brigade, and regi- mental leaders; the command of the smaller units by their officers ; and the magnificent fighting spirit displayed by non- commissioned officers and men. I wish particularly to bring to your Lordship's notice the admirable work done by the Royal Flying Corps under Sir David Henderson. Their skill, energy, and perse- verance have been beyond all praise. They have furnished me with the most complete and accurate information, which has been of incalculable value in the conduct of the opera- tions. Fired at constantly both by friend and foe, and not hesitating to fly in every kind of weather, they have re- mained undaunted throughout. Further, by actually fight- ing in the air, they have succeeded in destroying five of the enemy's machines. I wish to acknowledge with deep gratitude the incal- culable assistance I received from the General and Personal Staffs at Headquarters during this trying period. September 17, 1914. My Lord : In continuation of my dispatch of September 7th, I have the honor to report the further progress of the operations of the forces under my command from Au- gust 28th. On that evening the retirement of the force was followed closely by two of the enemy's cavalry columns, moving southeast from St. Quentin. 134 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" The retreat in this part of the field was being covered by the Third and Fifth Cavalry Brigades. South of the Somme Gen. Gough, with the Third Cavalry Brigade, threw back the Uhlans of the Guard with considerable loss. Gen. Chetwode, with the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, en- countered the eastern column near Cerizy, moving south. The brigade attacked and routed the column, the leading German regiment suffering very severe casualties and being almost broken up. The Seventh French Army Corps was now in course of being railed up from the south to the east of Amiens. On the 29th it nearly completed its detrainment, and the French Sixth Army got into position on my left, its right resting on Roye. The Fifth French Army was behind the line of the Oise, between La Fere and Guise. The pursuit of the enemy was very vigorous; some five or six German corps were on the Somme, facing the Fifth Army on the Oise. At least two corps were advancing toward my front, and were crossing the Somme east and west of Ham. Three or four more German corps were op- posing the Sixth French Army on my left. This was the situation at i o'clock on the 29th, when I received a visit from Gen. Joffre at my headquarters. I strongly represented my position to the French Com- mander in Chief, who was most kind, cordial, and sympa- thetic, as he has always been. He told me that he had di- rected the Fifth French Army on the Oise to move forward and attack the Germans on the Somme, with a view to checking pursuit. He also told me of the formation of the Sixth French Army on my left flank, composed of the Sev- enth Army Corps, four reserve divisions, and Sordet's corps of cavalry. I finally arranged with Gen. Joffre to effect a further short retirement toward the line of Compiegne-Soissons, promising him, however, to do my utmost to keep always within a day's march of him. In pursuance of this arrangement the British forces re- THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 135 tired to a position a few miles north of the line Compiegne- Soissons on the 29th. The right flank of the German Army was now reaching a point which appeared seriously to endanger my line of communications with Havre. I had already evacuated Amiens, into which place a German reserve division was re- ported to have moved. Orders were given to change the base to St. Nazaire, and establish an advance base at Le Mans. This operation was well carried out by the Inspector General of Communications. In spite of a severe defeat inflicted upon the Guard Tenth and Guard Reserve Corps of the German Army by the First and Third French Corps on the right of the Fifth Army, it was not part of Gen. Joffre's plan to pursue this advantage; and a general retirement to the line of the Mame was ordered, to which the French forces in the more east- ern theater were directed to conform. A new Army (the Ninth) had been formed from three corps in the south by Gen. Joffre, and moved into the space between the right of the Fifth and left of the Fourth Armies. While closely adhering to his strategic conception to draw the enemy on at all points until a favorable situation was created from which to assume the offensive, Gen. Joffre found it necessary to modify from day to day the methods by which he sought to attain this object, owing to the de- velopment of the enemy's plans and changes in the general situation. In conformity with the movements of the French forces, my retirement continued practically from day to day. Al- though we were not severely pressed by the enemy, rear- guard actions took place continually. On September ist, when retiring from the thickly wooded country to the south of Compiegne, the First Cav- alry Brigade was overtaken by some German cavalry. They momentarily lost a horse artillery battery, and several offi- cers and men were killed and wounded. With the help, however, of some detachments from the Third Corps operating on their left, they not only recovered their 136 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" own guns, but succeeded in capturing twelve of the enemy's. Similarly, to the eastward, the First Corps, retiring south, also got into some very difficult forest country, and a somewhat severe rearguard action ensued at Villers-Cot- terets, in which the Fourth Guards Brigade suffered con- siderably. On September 3rd the British forces were in position south of the Marne between Lagny and Signy-Signets. Up to this time I had been requested by Gen. Joffre to defend the passages of the river as long as possible, and to blow up the bridges in my front. After I had made the neces- sary dispositions, and the destruction of the bridges had been effected, I was asked by the French Commander in Chief to continue my retirement to a point some twelve miles in rear of the position I then occupied, with a view to taking up a second position behind the Seine. This retire- ment was duly carried out. In the meantime the enemy had thrown bridges and crossed the Marne in considerable force, and was threatening the Allies all along the line of the British forces and the Fifth and Ninth French Armies. Consequently several small outpost actions took place. On Saturday, September 5th, I met the French Com- mander in Chief at his request, and he informed me of his intention to take the offensive forthwith, as he considered conditions very favorable to success. ARMY ORDER ISSUED BY EMPEROR WILLIAM IL ON AUGUST I9TH It is my Royal and Imperial command that you concen- trate your energies, for the immediate present, upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill and all the valor of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacher- ous English and walk over General French's contemptible little army.^ Headquarters, Aix-la-Chapelle. ^ It was from this order that the British seized the phrase "con- temptible little army" and used it as a badge of honor. Doubts have been raised as to the genuineness of the order. The British Govern- ment has vouched for its reality. THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 137 BY CAPTAIN HENRY HUEBNER [Captain Huebner's narrative begins with his enthusi- astic and patriotic departure for the front, hints at rapine and drunkenness in Belgium, and continues as follows:] Before reaching Louvain we bivouacked near a large well-built village, and here we had the wettest and merriest evening in the whole campaign. Some of our battalion water-carriers discovered a wine-cellar in the village. On going into a cellar they noticed a stack of fagots, and guessed that they were put there with a purpose. The fag- ots were quickly cleared away, and behind them appeared a door. It led to a cellar filled with thousands of bottles of wine. They loaded themselves inside and out with the pre- cious liquid, so that it is no wonder they walked into camp with unsteady gait. Louvain, which afterwards attained so sad a fame, re- ceived us in quite a friendly manner. The inhabitants put vessels of drinking water in the streets. During a long halt in one of the suburbs they willingly brought us food, drinks, and cigars. Towards evening we marched past a splendid red sand- stone building, the Congo Museum. It is surrounded by a beautiful park, through the trees of which we caught glimpses of the royal palace, Tervueren. Soon afterwards we entered the southern suburbs of the Belgian capital. The streets reechoed the tramp of thousands of feet and the marching-songs of the troops. Thousands of the inhabit- ants lined the street, watching the endless columns with curiosity and dismay, . . . August 23rd brought us into touch with the hated Eng- lish, A report came that about 30,000 English were in posi- tion on the other side of the canal, and our two divisions had to attack them. Our regiment was in reserve in a forest intersected by a railway. As we marched to our position in the forest we could hear the rattle of rifle-fire and the thunder of artillery in the distance. But we were soon or- dered forward. 138 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS We marched over a railway crossing, and at the quick step along the wide, dusty street of a large village with a burning August sun overhead, while the kindly villagers handed our men supplies of water and fruit. A short halt was called under the high wall of a park, and there we learned to our great joy that the artillery had successfully bombarded the station at J , near Mons, thus preventing the detrainment of English troops. In ad- vancing we passed the munition wagons of our heavy artil- lery, then, taking a path to the left, crossed meadows straight for the village. A part of it was already in flames, and the rifles were cracking in the park of a large chateau on the right. Large numbers of wounded were carried past us; they were from the gallant X regiment, which had stormed forward on its own, and, after heavy street fighting, had captured the station and some factories. We lay down for a short time while our artillery continued to pour shells into the village. Cries of jubilation greeted a well-aimed shot which took away the top of the church-tower with the Bel- gian flag fluttering on top and set the tower on fire. It was nearly seven o'clock before the English, who had obstinately defended the place, evacuated it and retreated at top speed. They had had their first taste of the furor teu- tonicm. Our regiment did not come under fire again that day, but now we rushed forward and crossed the canal by an excellent bridge which our pioneers had erected. On the other side were the ruins of the railway station; a little fur- ther on we saw the first English prisoners — a corporal and eight men — sitting with their backs against a wall. Our men were standing round gazing at the helpless Britons. I must admit that they made an exceedingly good impression — strongly-built, sun-burnt, well-equipped soldiers. I was sorry that I could not speak English, but a one-year volun- teer ^ noticed my embarrassment and offered to interpret. *A11 young Germans who pass a certain examination at the end of the sixth class in a State Secondary School get the privilege of serving only one year in the German Army. They have to bear the entire expenses of the year's training, and are called Einj'dhrige-Freiwillige. THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 139 This young soldier then narrated this extraordinary story : "I know the second prisoner from the left quite well; he is an old school friend of mine. My parents lived in England for twenty years, and we sat on the same school-bench to- gether. We have met again here, but, it is true, under very different circumstances." The world is indeed small! The farther we penetrated into the village the traces of the fight became more evident. Large buildings had been literally riddled by the German shells; the rifle bullets had split the red bricks in the houses, and as we turned a street corner there lay before us the first dead Englishman. In a signalman's cottage we found quite a number of the en- emy's dead, for it is said that the British — if it is at all pos- sible — carry the dead as well as the wounded into cover. It was an industrial village, but the streets were quite de- serted. Beyond it the country sloped upwards to various single hills, on the highest of which we could plainly see a huge stone obelisk, topped by a gilded object. We recog- nized the gigantic granite monument erected by the French in memory of their victory over the Austrians at the battle of Jemappes, 1792. Our battalion encamped at the foot of the obelisk. But while the shadows of evening fell upon the landscape our ar- tillery advanced to pursue the retreating English with their fire. On the left the neighboring division was still hotly en- gaged with them. They were only able to force a passage over the canal, which the English had defended with ob- stinate bravery, and were now endeavoring to drive the en- emy out of the factories, woods, colHery-buildings, and vil- lages, in order to come into line with our division. Across there the fire swelled to one long tremendous roar, then weakened, and after sunset ceased entirely. I shall never forget the scene, nor our own feelings, as we sat around on the monument steps. We felt a kind of mad joy that at the first set-to the hated English had got some good German blows and been hurled back. But we were compelled to admit that these English mer- cenaries — whom many of us before the war had looked down upon with disparagement and contempt — had in every case 140 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" fought valiantly and tenaciously. This was sufficiently ob- vious from the heavy losses which our German troops had suffered here. After a hurried meal from the field-kitchen, we marched on a good distance in the waning light, in spite of the day's exertions. The English, however, had vanished; so the regiment assembled in the long, desolate street of a neigh- boring village for a halt. We all sank absolutely exhausted on the cobble-stones, and very soon loud snoring sounded between the long rows of houses. It was by no means inspiring when an order was brought for us to return and act as a cover for the heavy guns. It seemed as if our superiors were determined that we should be quite pumped out, for the march back through blazing Jemappes to the village of G was an endless, racking strain. Our feet and legs almost refused to fulfill their functions; no word was spoken, and we rejoiced when, after two hours, a halt was called. Towards midnight we arrived at G , where the heavy artillery had marched up; guards and double sen- tries were detailed, and we looked for quarters. After a long search and much hammering of doors I found excel- lent quarters for four of us in the house of a frightened but very obliging schoolmaster. After I had got to bed the good man brought me a bottle of red wine and some roast beef which his wife had just prepared. During the whole campaign I have seldom slept so well and comfortably as in' the house of these good people. The first day of the great battle with the English, of which our fight was only a part, was a Sunday. With us Sunday came to be synonymous with Schlachttag (battle- day), for nearly every important engagement fell on that day. On the first day our regiment had not actually gone into action, but what we had missed was more than made good on Monday, August 24th. First of all Vv^e had to cover again the long march of the night before, and while on the road we could hear the roar of battle ahead. Our regiment was allotted the task of driv- ing the English out of the village F , in which they had THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 141 employed all sorts of devices to defend the houses. The village stood on a moderate height before us; on the left it turned back almost at right angles, w^hile on the right a num- ber of factories and collieries stretched down the slope. Open, stubble land rose gently between these two wings to the village. While cur battalion halted behind a huge slag heap, the other two battalions of our regiment were heavily engaged with the enemy. From our covered position we could see the English projectiles exploding with great exactness above our comrades, but they were already pushing forward, and finally our turn came too. We had hardly swerved into the open when English bullets began to whistle round our heads. We at once advanced in open formation, while a battery came up on the right and, after a short duel, silenced the enemy's guns, but his rifle-fire increased in violence, and we had to cross 1,200 yards of open field. Here and there one or other of our men sank with a short scream or dragged themselves groaning to the rear. Finally we rushed to a railway bank, across the top of which the enemy's bullets fled through the air like swarms of bees. But we could not lie there forever; the two first battalions were heavily engaged about 300 yards in advance of the rail- way, and badly in need of our support. So I yelled the order: Sprung auf, marsch! marsch! (Up and forwards!) A veritable hail of bullets greeted us as we rushed over the bank. Then we advanced by short rushes; throwing ourselves flat after each short rush we worked our way into the first line. While our artillery was hurling shells into the village and into the factories on the right we climbed the height and entered the village from behind. Just as on the previous day, however, the English had completely vanished. They must have run at an extraordinary speed. We got into the houses through the back gardens and by breaking open doors and windows, for everything was locked and bolted ; the English had even put sand-bags against the cellar windows. In order to get into the street we had to break open the front doors, and I was nearly shot by my own men 142 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS'f in the process, for they mistook me for an Englishman try- ing to escape. Three of the enemy's wounded were discovered, two of whom were able to walk, but the third had had his shin-bone shattered by a bullet and lay in great pain behind a house. As we put a first dressing on the wound he screamed in agony under our clumsy, inexperienced fingers, but never- theless he managed to stammer his "thank you." Thus ended our second day in the great battle of Mau- beuge,^ and again we had driven the English out of their fortified positions, although we had to attack across the open. It is true our losses had been heavy, but so had theirs. We had discovered that the British are brave and doughty opponents, but our Army had inspired in them a tremendous respect for the force of a German attack. Cap- tured English officers said that they had not believed it pos- sible for us to storm across such open country. Several of our companies had suffered very severe losses through the enemy's artillery fire and the machine guns which the English had very cleverly placed so as to catch our troops in the flank. There was desperate street and house-to-house fighting, but the same regiment which had met the English the day before succeeded in driving them out at the left side of the village and in making many pris- oners. An incident which I witnessed characterizes the feeling of our soldiers towards the English people. A number of prisoners were being escorted past us when our men shook their clenched fists and rained down curses of the foulest kind on Tommy Atkins, who marched past erect, with his head up and a smile on his face. When, later, French pris- oners were brought in, I never observed any similar out- bursts of a national hate which is only too well founded. After the English had been thrown back along the whole line we bivouacked in ajn open place in the village of F . The straw was already spread out, but nothing came of it. We had only a two hours' rest, then started again; after a •The German designation of what we call the battle of Mons. THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 143 long march we reached the village of W , where we found passable sleeping quarters but nothing to eat. On August 25th a period of tremendous forced marches began, which brought us in a few days across the Marne to the southeast of Paris. Our armies were close on the heels of the retreating enemy, the purpose of the General Staff being to push him away from Paris and hurl his armies back on to the line of fortresses (Belfort, Verdun, etc.) in the west. Unfortunately the scheme failed, for various rea- sons which I cannot and may not discuss in this place. Nevertheless, that hurried rush through Northern France — a rush which called for the most tremendous ex- ertions of both man and horse — will remain forever in my memory. In those breathless forced marches I did suc- ceed, however, in keeping at least a list of the towns and villages which we passed through. On August 25th our battalion was detailed to cover the light munitions column of the X Field Artillery Regiment, and on the same day we crossed the French frontier at 3.15 p. m. Only a small ditch marked the dividing line between the two countries, and our two companies crossed the little wooden bridge with loud hurrahs. On the 26th, after a long march, we reached B , and found decent quarters. The news that two English di- visions had been annihilated aroused great enthusiasm; but the fact that I had received no news from my family for twenty-six days considerably damped my share of joy.* Furthermore, in those days of forced marches the food sup- ply was exceedingly irregular. There was no bread to be had, although the field-kitchens worked fairly well. But it was quite impossible for the provision-columns to keep pace with us. I was exceedingly glad to find a large boiled ham in the village shop, and promptly requisitioned it. On the following day we continued the pursuit of the English. In order to stop our advance they made another 'During the first weeks of the war the German authorities "held up" all correspondence between the German Armies and the folk at home in order to veil the mobilization and concentration of their Armies. 144 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" stand at Le Cateau, but, in spite of a most gallant defense, received a crushing defeat. Our regiment did not partici- pate in this fight, but as we marched near to the battlefield, on our way southwards, we found numerous traces of the English retreat. The enemy artillery had left great heaps of their ammunition on both sides of the road, in order to save at least the guns. For quite an hour we were marching between these remarkable monuments of German victories and English defeats, and never have we enjoyed a higher degree of malicious joy ^ than during that day's march. The countryside teemed with small parties of English troops who had got cut ofif from the main body. As it was easy for them to hide in the woods, and as one was never sure of their strength, a lot of valuable time was lost in rounding them up. One of our cavalry patrols discovered a party of them near the village W , and our battalion, with my com- pany in front, was detached to clear them out. Very soon we got glimpses of the well-known English caps, and here it must be admitted that in making use of cover and in of- fering a stubborn defense the English performed wonders. When we advanced against their first position we were received with rifle-fire, then they vanished, only to pop up in a second position. They were dismounted cavalrymen whose horses were hidden farther back, and, after decoy- ing us to their third line, they movmted and fled. Between two of their trenches we found the dead horses of a patrol of Uhlans which they had apparently ambushed. After a very fatiguing march we reached the townlet of B about 7 p. m., and were lucky to find some ex- cellent beer in an inn by the market-place. Of course the place was packed with thirsty soldiers ; the hostess and her daughter did splendid business that evening. August 28th was another day of tremendous exertion. Our course led at some distance past St. Quentin, and this day brought our first fight with the French. During the ensuing march to find our regiment again, 'Schadenfreude ist die reinste Freude (Malicious joy is the purest joy) is a well-known German saying. THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 145 we were amazed on entering a village to see the inhabitants welcoming us with shouts and other signs of jubilation. They had mistaken us for English, and it was exceedingly funny to see the transformation in their faces, and how quickly they disappeared into the houses, when they dis- covered their mistake. I have forgotten where we slept after the terrible fight- ing and marching exertions of that day; but in my diary is the short notice: "Disgusting quarters." Next morning, by 7.30, we had reached the Somme. Our men were grad- ually getting accustomed to this race across France, The number of those who dropped out decreased from day to day; the -feet got hardened, but our bodies, it is true, got thinner. It is noteworthy that on these tremendous marches one suffered comparatively little from hunger. A swede or 'turnip from the next field, some chocolate, a cigarette, or a cigar, was often sufficient for a whole day. Further, the exultation of having defeated the enemy helped us to endure anything. . . . September ist, the anniversary of Sedan, was just as beautiful a day as forty- four years before. We crossed the Aisne in the early morning by Vic, and crossed a wide stretch of open country to a plateau in the hilly forest dis- trict of Villers Cotterets. At the edge of this plateau we could hear our guns in front bombarding the village V , and soon afterwards we heard heavy infantry fire — a sure sign that we were close to the enemy. As a matter of fact, our brigade- regiment was heavily engaged with the English rear guard. Unfortunately, we only came up in time to congratulate our comrades on their splendid success. A forest fight is always a difficult affair, but the woods in France claim particularly heavy sacrifices, because the French allow the undergrowth to grow very thick. This forms a great obstacle to an advance, and at the same time affords the defender great advantages. The English had chosen a height commanding a turning in the road which led through this huge forest, and spent several days in w., VOL. n.— 10. 146 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS strengthening the position. Yet our gallant brigade-regi- ment, in a fight of a few hours, had hurled them back and inflicted heavy losses on them. When the last shots had echoed through the magnifi- cent forest, several companies of our regiment were or- dered to accompany the Field Artillery through the forest. At intervals of ten steps we marched by the side of the guns in case of a surprise attack. As we passed the scene of the fight which was just ended we met numbers of our stretcher-bearers and small groups of captured British. At the top of the height in the forest we saw a large number of the enemy's killed and seriously wounded. Apparently the fight had raged hottest at the turn in the road, for just there the dead and wounded lay thick around, some 900 in all, in comparison to which our losses had been relatively light. . . . The strain and exertion which we endured on Septem- ber 3rd were almost beyond human capacity. From 6 a. m. till 10 p. m. we tramped along the dusty roads under a hot September sun, with only a couple of hours' rest at noon, till we reached the neighborhood of the Marne. Towards evening several hostile airmen circled above us at a great height. At S , in the Marne valley, we found passable quar- ters, and, after the terrific efforts of the day, sank ex- hausted into a deep sleep. Still these terrible marches did not bring us to the desired goal ; we could not overtake the retreating enemy, and it was said that the French and Eng- lish were marching to the southeast, towards Italy. On Friday, September 4th, we crossed the Marne at 7.30 a. m. in beautiful autumn weather. But this delightful day was to be impressed on our memories by another tre- mendous march. We passed through the district where Bliicher had been well thrashed by Napoleon a hundred years ago, and crossed the Morin (a tributary of the Marne) in the vicinity of Montmirail, reaching our quar- ters in the village, M , just as darkness fell. Several officers, including myself, were in a miller's house at the exit of the village. A strong barricade of plows, wagons, THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" 147 etc., was erected, and a strong guard piaced about 100 yards down the road. We had not slept long when we were roused by heavy rifle fire. The guards had seen a troop of soldiers march- ing towards them in the moonlight and opened fire. Our companies were alarmed and awaited an attack which never came. The sentries asserted that they had shot a number of the enemy, and, as a matter of fact, we found several dead and wounded by the roadside, among them a French colonel. The other companies in the village had also made some captures, among them being Turcos and some Zouaves, with their unpractical, theatrical uniforms. From the pris- oners we learned that the English and French Armies, de- feated at St. Quentin and Maubeuge, had fallen into great confusion. Portions of these armies had completely lost themselves and were wandering about aimlessly between the German columns advancing to the south. Again and again they collided with German troops on the right or left, till at last they did not know which way to turn. The enemy, therefore, was more exhausted and suffer- ing more than we were; added to this we were the victors, a fact which enabled us to endure all the demands put upon our energies. It is true that we suffered greatly in those days from want of food. In my diary is the remark: "Nothing to eat for three days ; abjectly wretched." 3Y GENERAL FREIHERR VON STEINACKER. The Second German Army, under General von Biilow, advanced from Liege along the Meuse in the direction of Namur. His scouting cavalry detachments, on August 19th, encountered at Perwez, 18 k.m. north of the fortress, the 5th French cavalry division, and defeated it. Then the German artillerists, screened by their cavalry, succeeded unobserved in bringing their heavy guns up into position against Namur. Austrian 30.5 cm. mortars joined the German 42cm. howitzers in opening fire on the fortress of Namur .on the evening of August 20th. Just as General von Emmich had 148 THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS" previously done at Liege, General von Gallwitz — who was entrusted with the siege of Namur, dispensed with a com- plete investment and formal attack, directing his guns against the nearest fort within range, Fort Maizeret, situ- ated on the eastern side; against the northeastern forts, Marchevolette and Cognelee; and against the southeastern forts. Dug in, behind the batteries, lay the German infan- try, ready to go forward. But only when the fire of the forts had noticeably slackened on the 22nd, and when, dur- ing the following night, the searchlights suspended their activity, was it possible for the infantry to work its way up closer to the fortress. On the 23rd, the cannons were also directed against the intermediate fortified places, and the garrison driven out; and when, at dawn of the 23rd, the artillery-fire once more set in with vigor. Fort Maizeret was evacuated, while the fire of Marchevolette and Cognelee subsided. Through the breach thus made, the neighboring works could now also be attacked from the rear, the attacking in- fantry, however, being compelled to engage in a fierce struggle with the garrison. Nevertheless the forts were taken and the enemy thrown back into the city. The anti- quated citadel was then bombarded from noon until half past three o'clock. Meanwhile the Belgian general staff had already vacated the fortress at 5 o'clock a. m., to be followed at noon by the garrison, consisting of Belgians and French, these effecting their retreat under the shelter of the western forts which continued fighting. On the 25th, these forts also surrendered, and Namur was in the possession of the Germans. While the advance now proceeded in a southerly direc- tion, measures for the prevention of attacks on the part of the enemy lying at Antwerp became necessary, in order that the rear communications might not be imperilled. On August 24th and 25th, King Albert, with five divisions, undertook an attack from the fortress in the direction of Mechelin-Villevorde in order to relieve the meanwhile hard- pressed French troops in the Sambre. A counter-attack on the part of the Germans resulted in a complete failure of the THE "BATTLE OF THE FRONTIERS'* 149 enterprise. Probably it was in order to support the above undertaking that the population of Louvain, on August 25th, organized a surprise attack, in all probability carefully planned with the cooperation of disguised Belgian soldiers. In cunning and cruelty it surpassed every known incident of this kind. It resulted in street-fighting which lasted 24 hours and ended with a partial destruction of the city.-^ On the 22nd the armies along the entire front, Longwy- Mons, clashed. The Fifth French army, reinforced by Belgians who had not been able to reach Antwerp, ad- vanced in the space between tlie Meuse and the Sambre and came upon the armies of Von Biilow and Von Hausen. In combats lasting several days, Mons and Charleroi being the scene of the hottest contention, the Allies were here forced back on French territory. The Germans followed them on August 27th, proceeding east of Maubeuge, tlie investment of that fortress being inaugurated by parts of Von Billow's araiy. In those same August days General Von Kluck began the battle with the left wing of the enemy forces, signalized by the first encounters with larger British bodies. On August 22nd the English occupied a position to the east and northeast of Maubeuge. On the evening of the 23rd, General French retired to a position between Valenciennes and Maubeuge, where, on the 24th, he became involved in vanguard conflicts with the advancing Germans. On the 25th the latter succeeded in forcing back the English troops to the line Cambrai-Landrecies-Le Gateau. Although Gen- eral French could have occupied positions prepared there, he retreated precipitately to the line Vermand-St. Quentin- Ribemont, taking with him as reinforcement three French divisions. But the German cavalry was quicker. It suc- ceeded in arresting the flood of the English retreat until the pursuing army corps could come up and gain the great victory of St. Quentin on the 27th. 'This is an impressive example of the official German insistance on the assertion that a considerable armed force attacked them in Louvain. The absurdity of this charge has been proven and reproven ; but no wonder the German people still believe it. THE DESTRUCTION OF LOUVAIN THE CULMINATION OF GERMAN MILITARISM AUGUST 2STH-27TH LEON VAN DER ESSEN GOTTLIEB VON JAGOW MANUEL GAMARRA We have already seen by what grim means the German High Com- mand sought to stamp out the national spirit of the Belgians, by what devices the German soldiery were roused to the necessary pitch of rage to make them fit distributers of "frightfulness." We turn now to the particular resulting deed which most of all aroused the world to horror. In the black calendar of German repressive measures against Belgium, the single incident that will be most long remembered is the sacking of Louvain. Louvain was a university city of about forty thousand inhabitants, a celebrated center of learning, noted for its Roman Catholic col- lege, its seminary for priests, and above all for its ancient and much treasured library of over a quarter million of volumes. It would be impossible to conceive a less warlike town, or one more intelligently awake to the necessity of obedience to its captors, and to the suicidal uselessness of resistance. Moreover, Louvain had been for a week in possession of the Germans, and had suffered their insolence in quiet dignity. Then the Germans threw themselves suddenly on the helpless populace, slaughtering them by hundreds and burning the center of the city with most of its treasured ancient edifices and its unreplace- able library. Probably we shall never know whether this destruction was de- liberately planned by the German leaders so as to reduce the surviving Belgians to a more abject submission, or whether it was but an acci- dental consequence of their general policy of urging their soldiers to savagery. The weight of opinion leans rather to the first alternative, though Professor Van der Essen in his judicial summing up of the case, here given, inclines to the theory of a chance destruction. He as a noted leader of learning in Louvain itself is by far the best au- thority for picturing the catastrophe as a whole. His description is here supplemented by the official statement by Germany's Minister of State, explaining the matter as Germany declares she understood it. Then follows a brief statement by a neutral eye-witness and sufferer, a priest from Paraguay in South America, who was studying in Lou- vain at the time. See also the statement by General Steinacker in the preceding section. C F. H. ISO THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN BY LEON VAN DER ESSEN APART from requisitions and constant vexations, the Germans had committed no excesses in Louvain after their entry on August 19th, They continued to make hos- tages, who took it in turn to Hve at the town-hall and were responsible for the behavior of their fellow-citizens. Every day, in all the churches of the place, an urgent warning was given at the instance of the German authorities, telling the inhabitants to remain calm and promising them, in that case, not to take any more hostages. The troops which reached the town the following week, however, seemed to be animated by a violently anti-clerical spirit. They followed the priests who showed themselves in public with buffoonery, insults, and even threats. They were also very excitable. One day, when a municipal offi- cial was taken through the town, preceded by soldiers with drums, and forced to read a proclamation, the Germans hurried up at once from all sides in the hopes of seeing a civilian executed. The attack by the Belgian 2nd and cavalry divisions on the German positions between Malines and Louvain on the day of August 25th produced considerable excitement in the town. The gun-firing was distinctly heard, and became more violent in the course of the afternoon. It drew closer. On this day Louvain was crammed with troops. Some 10,000 men had just arrived from Liege and were beginning to take up quarters in the town. A few hundred hussars were coming along the Malineg road, covered with dust and leading their horses by the bridles. It was plain that the struggle was not going well for the Germans and that re- enforcements were necessary. At the town-hall dispatch- bearers followed one another quickly, bringing messages which made the members of the Kommandantur anxious. At 5 p. m. firing was heard of particular violence, and seemed to be extremely close to the town. At this moment some horsemen galloped through the streets, giving the alarm. At once officers and soldiers ran together and formed up in a disordered column. Motor-cars were coming and 152 THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN going every way, and ranging themselves up confusedly on the borders of the boulevards. Artillery and commissariat wagons were mixed up with them. Along the roads the horses, lashed till they bled, stiffened themselves and rat- tled along in a mad dash the guns which were going to re- enforce the German troops on the Malines road. As if to raise the confusion to its height, carts were coming back full-tilt and in the greatest disorder from the field of battle, their drivers all excitement, with revolvers in their hands. After the departure of the hastily formed battalions a great silence fell upon the town. In view of the gravity of af- fairs, everybody had gone home, and soon nothing more was heard except the ever closer and more distinct sound of guns. Suddenly, at 8 p. m., when twilight had already fallen and every one, in obedience to the rules of the occupying army, had to be already at home, a shot rang out, followed rapidly by two more, and then by a terrible fusillade. This was heard simultaneously at several points of the town, in the Boulevard de Tirlemont, at the Tirlemont Gate, in the Rue de Tirlemont, at the Brussels Gate, in the Rue and Place de la Station, in the Rues Leopold, Marie-Therese, and des Joyeuses-Entrees. With the cracking of rifles was mingled the sinister "tac-tac" of machine guns. The windows of the houses splintered under a hail of bullets, the doors and walls were riddled by the machine guns. In their cellars and other places where they had taken shelter on the first shots the inhabitants heard, through the din, the quick and crowd- ing steps of the soldiers, the noise of whistles followed at once by volleys, and at times the heavy sound of a body falling to the ground. Those who had ventured to go up to their upper stories or attics soon saw the heavens red- dened with a dreadful light. The Germans had set fire to several quarters of the town — the Chaussee and Boulevard de Tirlemont, the Place and Rue de la Station, and the Place du Peuple Soon, too, the Palais de Justice, the University with the celebrated Library, and the Church of St. Pierre were ablaze, systematically set on fire with fagots and chemicals. Through the streets the German soldiers were running like madmen, firing in every direction. Under the r THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 153 briJers of their officers, they smashed in the doors of the houses, dragged the inmates from their hiding-places, with cries of "Man hat geschossenf Die Zimlisten hahen ge- schossen!" (There has been firing! Civilians have fired!), and hurled hand-grenades and incendiary pastilles into the rooms. Several of the inmates w^ere haled out and instantly shot. Those who tried to escape from their burning houses were thrust back into the flames or butchered like dogs by the soldiers, who were watching along the pavements, with their fingers on the triggers of their rifles. From several of the houses the officers had the objects of value taken out before giving the order to burn them. Every one who showed himself in the street was shot down. In the Rue de la Station an officer on horseback, bursting with rage, was directing the incendiaries. In the morning certain of the inhabitants, who had passed the night in their cellars or their gardens, ventured to go out. They then learnt that the Germans pretended that a plot had been hatched amongst them, that there had been firing on the troops, and that the whole responsibility for what had happened was thrown on the civilians. From dawn squadrons of soldiers entered the houses, searched them from top to bottom, and turned out the inhabitants, forcing them towards the station. The poor wretches were com- pelled to run with their hands uplifted. They were given blows with the fists and with rifle-butts. Soon a large num- ber of townspeople were collected in the Place de la Station, where dead bodies of civilians were lying on the ground. During the night a certain number of people had been shot, without serious inquiry. While they were being hustled along, the townspeople were searched by officers and sol- diers, and their money was taken from them (some officers gave a receipt in return), as well as any objects of value. Those who did not understand an order, who did not raise their arms quick enough, or who were found carrying knives larger than a penknife, were at once shot. While these horrible scenes were enacted, the guns were constantly booming in the Malines direction, but the noise gradually grew more distant. In the streets numerous civilian corpses 154 THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN lay, and in some places corpses of German soldiers, who had been killed by one another in the night. Victims of panic and obsessed by the thought of francs-tireurs, they had fired on every group which they met in the darkness. Fights of this kind had taken place in the Rue de Bruxelles, near the station, in the Rue de Paris et Vieux-Marche, the Rue des Joyeuses-Entrees, near the canal, and in the Rue de Namur. On all sides lay dead horses. The Germans had unharnessed them from their wagons, driven them into the streets and killed them, to lend belief to an attack by civilians. As the houses burned and the soldiers continued to loot and to drive the inhabitants down the streets, the townspeo- ple who had been carried off to the station were brutally separated into two groups. The women and children were shut up in the station and the tram-shed, the men ranged up in the Place de la Station. The Germans selected by haphazard from among them the victims destined to be ex- ecuted. Some of them had to lie on their stomachs, and were butchered by shots in the head, neck, or back. Others were collected in groups, surrounded by soldiers with fixed bayonets, and carried off to the outskirts of the town, to the accompaniment of curses, threats, and blows. They were forced to march and countermarch through Herent, Thil- donck, Rotselaer, Campenhout, etc. Wherever they went the prisoners saw houses in flames and corpses of civilians stretched on the road or charred by fire. In the country dis- trict of Louvain the Germans had committed the same ex- cesses as in the town itself. In order to terrorize them, these groups of prisoners were hunted along the roads, with- out any precise object except to drive them mad. Some- times they were made to stop, and a mock shooting took place. They were forced to run, to lift up their arms, etc. Those who fell through fatigue or attempted to escape were slaughtered. When the mournful procession passed through a village they found their ranks swollen by numbers of in- habitants of these places, who had already spent the night in the church. At last, after having thus wandered over the country for hours, several of these groups were taken THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 155 back to Louvain and put on board cattle-trucks. Piled on to these like cattle, old men, women, children, and able- bodied men were dispatched to Germany. We cannot stop to describe the tortures which the deported had to endure on the journey and the cruelties inflicted on them by the fa- natical inhabitants of the towns through which they passed. Some were taken to Cologne and exhibited to the crowd; others were sent as far as Miinster, where they were in- terned. During these explosions of violence on the part of the troops there was no respect of persons. Dutch, Spaniards, South Americans pleaded their neutral status in vain ; they were jeered at and subjected to the same outrages as the Belgians. The flags of foreign nations floating over certain houses were no protection to them. The Spanish pedagogic in the Rue de la Station was burnt, and in the house of Pro- fessor Noyons, of Dutch nationality, a pile of fagots was lighted. Meanwhile those of the inhabitants who had not fled towards the station, or who had not been driven in that di- rection, were running madly about the streets. A large number took refuge in the Hospital of Saint-Thomas, in the neighborhood of the Institut Superieur de Philosophie. About 9 a. m. on Wednesday, August 26th, the shooting ceased and quiet temporarily returned. A picket of soldiers traversed the streets, taking an unarmed policeman with them to announce that able-bodied men must come together in certain places to help to put out the flames. The civil guards were specially invited to repair, in civilian clothes, to the St.-Martin barracks. All who obeyed the summons were made prisoners and taken, some to the station, bound for Germany, others to the neighboring villages, where they swelled the troops of prisoners already there. Several groups were taken tO' Campenhout in particular. After spending the night there, insulted and threatened with death all the time, they were ordered the next day or the day after to Louvain and shut up in the Riding School. There atro- cious scenes were witnessed. Women went mad and chil- dren died. 156 THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN On this Wednesday the soldiers started again to fire at intervals, to plunder, and to burn. They could be seen strolling about the town, drunk, laden with bottles of wine, boxes of cigars, and objects of value. The officers let them do it, roared with laughter, or set the example themselves. The Vice-Rector of the University and the Prior of the Dominicans were led through the town, escorted by soldiers, and forced to stop at certain spots to read a German procla- mation warning the people "not to fire again upon the sol- diers." A gloomy comedy, indeed! In several places sol- diers were seen entering the houses and the gardens, firing shots, so as to prolong the mystification and the looting. Some walked along firing phlegmatically into the air. If a house was of fairly good appearance, a group of soldiers would assail it with shouts of "There was firing from here," and at once began to loot. On the third day, Thursday, August 27th, some soldiers went through the town in the morning, announcing to the terrified population that Louvain was to be bombarded at noon and that every one must leave at once. Often they added special instructions to go to the station. Those who obeyed these orders were put on to cattle-trucks and sent to join their hapless fellow-citizens in Germany. Others, bet- ter advised, took refuge at Heverle, the property of the Duke of Aremberg, a member of the Prussian House of Lords, who was serving in the German army, and there they were not molested. Along the Tirlemont and Tervueren roads rolled the wretched flood of fugitives, old men, women, children, in- valids, nuns, priests, in a rout which cannot be described. German soldiers followed, compelling the unfortunates to raise their arms, striking them and insulting them. The fury of the Germans raged particularly against the priests. On the Tirlemont road several of them were arrested, taken to a piggery, and stripped of everything. They were ac- cused of having incited the people to revolt, and there was talk of shooting them. One officer, more humane than the rest, had them released. The scenes were the same on the Tervueren road. There the Rector of the University, sev- THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 157 eral ecclesiastical professors, the President of the American Seminary, and a number of Jesuits were treated in a dis- graceful fashion and penned in a field. A young Jesuit, Father Dupierreux, on whom was found a diary with notes on the war, some of them very unflattering to the invaders, was shot before the eyes of his colleagues. Certain of these priests were taken to Brussels, where they were at last re- leased. The Rector of the University, some professors and monks were set free through the intervention of a Dutch- man, M. Grondys, who was present at the sack of Louvain. At II o'clock on this Thursday, August 27th, the town was as dead. Nothing could be heard to break the profound silence except the sinister crackle of houses on fire. Then, the inhabitants having disappeared, the regular sack began. There was no more talk of bombardment. The sack was organized methodically like the burning, which also con- tinued at the same time. The doors of wardrobes and drawers of desks were smashed with rifle-butts. Safes were broken open with burglars' tools. Every soldier took his pick amid the heap of furniture spread over the floor. Silver-plate, linen, works of art, children's toys, mechanical instruments, pictures — everything was taken. Whatever could not be carried off was broken. The cellars were emp- tied. Then the looters finished up by depositing their filth in all the corners. This lasted eight days. Every time fresh troops reached Louvain, they rushed on their prey. Recalling his entry and his stay at Louvain on August 29th, a Landsturm soldier from Halle wrote in his diary : "The battahon . . . arrive dragging along with it all sorts of things, particularly bot- tles of wine, and many of the men were drunk. . . . The battalion set off in close order for the town, to break into the first houses they met, to plunder — I beg pardon, I mean to requisition — wine and other things too. Like a pack let loose, each one went where he pleased. The officers led the way and set a good example." And Gaston Klein, the soldier in question, concludes: "This day has inspired me with a contempt I could not de- scribe." 158 THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN The burning continued, simultaneously with the sack, down to September 2nd. On that day the last houses were set on fire in the Rue Marie-Therese. In the evening drunken German soldiers were still dragging to the station heavy bags full of things stolen in the Rue Leopold. On the afternoon of Friday, August 28th, the Germans committed a particularly odious crime. From August 20th the little town of Aerschot had been abandoned to the mercy of all the troops passing through. The parish priest of Gelrode had been put to death there in barbarous circum- stances, and the burning of houses and terrorization of the remaining inhabitants had gone on. On the morning of August 28th a large group of people from Aerschot was carried off in the direction of Louvain. When they reached the Place de la Station they were made to wait, being told that they were to be put on a train and deported to Germany. While the human herd stood there, suddenly, without mo- tive, some enraged soldiers began to fire into the mass. Some were killed and wounded, including women and chil- dren. Certain German soldiers, who took two of the wounded to the Hospital of St.-Thomas, could not them- selves conceal the disgust inspired in them by this barbarous act. Meanwhile some energetic citizens, among whom was M. Nerinckx, professor of the University, had somehow man- aged to form a new municipal council, with the help of some members of the old council who had escaped the massacre or had returned after the early days of terror. By their firm attitude they were at last able to obtain from the com- mandant of the town the cessation of all acts of disorder on the part of the troops. Such is the story of the sack of Louvain. What was the motive of it? We shall not stop to consider the odious and lying accusation made against the inhabitants by the military authorities and adopted by the Emperor himself in his famous telegram to the President of the United States. It has been reduced to nothing by the evidence of disin- terested neutrals and by the inquiries of an Austrian priest, made on the spot. THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 159 In Louvain itself the following explanation is given. On the night of August 25th, at the moment when soldiers and vehicles v^^ere coming back in disorder from Malines, some shots rang out. The German soldiers in the town im- agined, some that the enemy was coming, others that the civilians were beginning an attack. The former fired on their own comrades, taking them for Belgian or French sol- diers; the latter riddled the fronts of the houses with bullets. The supposition is that there was a mistake, and then a panic. It must be the truth with regard to a great number of German soldiers. We have already said that the soldiers quartered in Louvain seemed very nervous, that the troops who flocked back into the town during the battle were very excited ; and, on the other hand, it is established that during the night several groups of Germans fired on one another in the streets. In such a state of mind, constantly haunted by visions of francs-tireurs, the German soldiers were very liable to sudden panic. A single shot was sufficient to pro- duce it. We have the histories of Aerschot, Liege, Namur, and above all Andenne, to guide us on the subject. Now, the evidence of witnesses establishes that a few moments before the fusillade began a shot was heard, fol- lowed immediately by two others. By whom was this shot fired? That will probably never be known. Was it fired by an unnerved sentry, by a drunken soldier, by a civilian ? Considering the numerous warnings given to the towns- people, the threats of the Germans themselves, the excited state of the troops returning to the town, and the numbers of the soldiers in the garrison, it is very unlikely that a civilian would have been guilty of this act of folly, knowing that thereby he was exposing the whole population to name- less horrors. The fate of Aerschot was in every one's mem- ory. Those events were recent. If the first shot was fired by a German soldier, did that soldier act with the intention of starting a catastrophe? Was he obeying superior orders, and was he giving the sig- nal for the carrying out of a German military "plot"? Some have replied to the German accusation with a i6o THE SACKING OF LOU VAIN charge of premeditation on the part of the invaders. Lou- vain must have been condemned in advance, they say, and the attack of the Belgian troops on August 25th can only have hastened the execution of the plan. History, while rejecting the German accusation, v^ill de- mand serious proofs before accepting the victims' counter- accusation of German premeditation. Doubtless the Ger- man methods of terrorization do not entirely exclude the possibility of systematic and premeditated destruction of a town. But^ did this premeditation exist positively in this one particular case of Louvain? That is the whole ques- tion. After carefully examining the mass of documents within our reach, we believe we may say that, in the present state of the evidence, it is impossible to consider proved the charge of premeditation with regard to Louvain — premedi- tation signifying to us the plan conceived long beforehand of giving Louvain up to the flames. No doubt there are singular facts which, at first sight, seem to justify the defenders in their hypothesis of German premeditation. The fusillade breaking out almost simul- taneously at several points some distance apart, the several centers of incendiarism started at the same time, the pres- ence of a company of incendiaries armed with up-to-date appliances, the luminous signals said to have been sent up a few moments before the fusillade began, certain remarks let drop by soldiers or officers, the removal of the German wounded on the eve of the disaster, the warnings given long in advance to the inhabitants living in places 20 to 30 kilo- meters away from Louvain by soldiers or officers — the whole setting of the drama, taken in its entirety, cannot fail to be suspicious. Still, when one examines the weight of these facts, one by one, many of them lose their conclusive force. The data are not precise enough or are insufficiently established ; the facts and the words themselves seem capable of different interpretations. C3n the other side, certain facts seem to negative premedi- tation, in the sense which we attach to the word. It is es- THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN i6i tablished that many soldiers, and even officers, believed for a moment that "the French were there." On the hypothesis of a preconceived plan, would they not have understood that the first shots were the signal for the massacre? At the start, and in the night, the Germans fired upon one an- other; there can be no doubt of that. This can be easily un- derstood on the hypothesis of a panic, less easily on that of a German plot. We therefore exclude, provisionally, the supposition of a German plot, conceived long before its execution. It does not seem to us proved by the documents published so far. What we do not exclude is the hypothesis of premedi- tation on the part of the soldiers. In the state of excitement in which they were, particularly those coming back in dis- order from Malines, they may have fired a shot, knowing that "the rest" would follow.^ This story was repeated so often in other places that we have the right to apply it hypo- thetically in the case of Louvain. There is more. On the night of the 25th and the fol- lowing days, certain soldiers and non-commissioned officers fired shots,^ so as to have a pretext for continuing the pil- lage. Many of the soldiers and officers may have believed, at the beginning, for a few moments, that they were being at- tacked by the enemy entering the town or that a civilian attack was taking place. But this mistake cannot have lasted long. It remains established that, in cold blood and with- out any idea of a serious inquiry, the military authorities persisted in the error^and subjected Louvain to eight days' martyrdom, without raising a finger to stop the orgy. Whether the responsibility falls upon Major Von Man- teuffel or must be referred back to the highest personalities in the Empire does not matter. It is the prolonged sack of the town, without previous inquiry, which makes what has been called "the crime of Louvain" so enormous. * There were at Louvain soldiers of the i6sth Infantry Regiment, which committed the worst excesses in the villages around Liege. 'At Professor Verhelst's house; before the houses of Professors Dupriez and Noel; before the Hospital of St. Thomas. — ^Declaration of the Rector of the University in regard to the Rue de Namur. W-. VOL. II.— 11. i62 THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN Such an inquiry was possible. The example of Huy proves that. On August 25th Major Von Bassewitz, com- mandant of that place, published the following order of the day : — August 25, 1914. Last night shooting took place. It has not been proved that the inhabitants of the town were still in possession of arms. Nor has it been proved that the civil population took part in the shooting; on the contrary, it would seem that the soldiers were under the influence of alcohol and opened fire under an incomprehensible fear of an enemy attack. The conduct of the soldiers during the night produces a shameful impression, with a few exceptions. When officers or non-commissioned officers set fire to houses, without permission or order from the commandant, or in the present case from the senior officer, and when they encourage the troops by their attitude to burn and loot, it is an act of the most regrettable kind. I expect severe instructions to be given generally as to the attitude towards the life and property of the civil population. I forbid firing in the town without officers' orders. The bad conduct of the troops has had as its result the serious wounding of a non-commissioned officer and a sol- dier by German shots. Von Bassewitz, Major, Commandant. If this had been the state of mind of the military au- thorities in Louvain, it is certain that there would not have been the horrors which we have described above. We can- not help thinking that the military authorities, when once the machine was accidentally thrown out of gear, were not at all annoyed. They took care not to give the necessary sign to avert the consequences. How many victims were there at Louvain ? We do not know. The Capuchin Father Valere Claes himself discov- ered 108, of whom 96 had been shot, the others having per- ished in the ruins of the houses. In his Pastoral Letter, THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 163 Cardinal Mercier speaks of 176 persons shot or burnt in the whole neighborhood of Louvain and the adjoining com- munes. With regard to material destruction, 1,120 houses were burnt in the area of the commune of Louvain, 461 in the adjacent commune of Kessel-Loo, and 95 in that of Heverle, these three parts making up the urban district of Louvain. In Louvain itself, apart from private houses, fire destroyed the Church of St.-Pierre, the central Uni- versity buildings, the Palais de Justice, the Academic des Beaux-Arts, the theater, and the School of Commercial and Consular Science belonging to the University. The Church of St.-Pierre was methodically set on fire, as was the University Library. A Josephite Father called the attention of the officer in command of the incendiaries to the fact that the building which he was about to set on fire was the Library. The officer replied, "Es ist Befehl" (It is ordered). It was then about 11 p. m. on Tuesday, August 25th. This was not the end, however, of the excesses com- mitted by the Germans during the first sortie of the Belgian troops from Antwerp. The region round Louvain and the villages situated between this town and Malines were en- gulfed in the "punishment." Bueken, Gelrode, Herent, Wespelaer, Rymenam, Wygmael, Tremeloo, Werchter, Wesemael, Wackerzeel, Blauwput, Thildonck, Rillaer, Wil- sele. Linden, Betecom, Haecht were partly burnt and plun- dered, a number of the inhabitants being shot. Others were dragged along for many hours, loaded with insults, used as shields against the enemy's troops during the battle, and finally chased in the direction of the Belgian lines. Some were thrown into wells after being horribly ill- treated. Here, too, the German soldiers were bitter against the priests. The Rev. Father Van Holm, a Capuchin, and Father Vincent, a Conventual; Lombaerts, parish priest of Boven-Loo; de Clerck, parish priest of Bueken, and Van Bladel, parish priest of Herent, were killed, as also were a Josephite Father and a Brother of Mercy. The parish priests of Wygmael and Wesemael were shamefully treated. Finally, in this neighborhood the Germans committed the i64 THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN same outrages against women and young girls as in the neighborhood of Hofstade, Sempst, etc. Crimes of a Sadie character were also found. Neither old men, women, nor children were respected. BY GOTTLIEB VON JAGOW Official Statement by the German Minister of State, Addressed to the United States Government Long ago the Belgian Government had organized an in- surrection of the people against the invasion of the enemy. Some stores of arms had been established, and upon each gun was the name of the citizen who was to use it.^ Since the Hague Conference it has been recognized, at the request of the little powers, that an insurrection of the people is in conformity with international law, if weapons are carried openly and the laws of war respected. Such an insurrection, however, could be organized only to combat an enemy who' invaded the country. At Louvain, on the other hand, the city had already surrendered and the population had then abandoned all resistance. The city was occupied by German troops. Nevertheless the population attacked from all sides the German garrison and the troops who were in the act of en- tering the city, by opening upon them a murderous fire. Be- cause the attitude of the population was obviously pacific these troops arrived at Louvain by railroad and autos. In the present case, then, there is no question of a measure of defense in conformity with international law, nor an admis- sible ruse of war; but it was a traitorous attack on the part of the civilian population. This attack is the more unjusti- fiable because it has been proved that it had been planned long before and was to have taken place at the same time as the sortie from Antwerp. The weapons were not carried openly. Some women and young girls took part in the com- bat, and gouged out the eyes of the wounded. •Belgian authorities claim in refutation of this charge that these arms had been handed in by the civil population in response to dis- armament proclamations, and that the names were those of the owners who had surrendered the guns. THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 165 The barbarous acts of the Belgian people in almost all the territories occupied by the German troops have not only justified the most severe reprisals on the part of the Ger- man military authorities but have even compelled the latter to order them for safeguarding the troops. The intensity of the resistance of the population is proved by the fact that it took our troops twenty-four hours to overcome the attacks by the inhabitants of Louvain. In the course of these combats the city of Louvain has been destroyed in large part by a conflagration which broke out after the explosion of a convoy of benzine, and this explosion was occasioned by shots fired during the battle. The Imperial Government is the first to deplore this unfor- tunate result, which was in no way intentional. Neverthe- less, because of the acts of the francs-tireurs, it was impos- sible to avoid such an outcome. Moreover, any one who knows the conciliatory character of the German soldier could not seriously assert that he has been led to act in such a manner without serious provocation. Under these cir- cumstances the Belgian people, who respect neither right nor law, bear all the responsibility, in conjunction with the Bel- gian Government, which, with a criminal nonchalance, has given to the people orders contrary to international law by inciting them to resistance, and which, in spite of reiterated warnings by the German authorities, did nothing, after the capture of Liege, to induce the people to take a pacific atti- tude.* *As to the general charges here iterated without detail, they are fully refuted in the preceding article on "Belgium's Agony." The specific "francs-tireurs" [free shooters, civilians] charge is perhaps best answered in the protest to the German authorities, issued by the Bishop of Namur. It says, in part: "We assert, with all the inhabitants of our villages, without ex- ception, and with the whole Belgian population, that the story of the Belgian francs-tireurs is a legend, an invention, a calumny. "It is evident that the German army trod the Belgian soil and carried out the invasion with the preconceived idea that it would meet with bands of this sort, a reminiscence of the war of 1870. But German imagination will not suffice to create that which does not exist. "There never existed a single body of francs-tireurs in Belgium. "This is so certain that we have no hesitation in solemnly chal- lenging the German authorities to prove the existence of a single band 1 66 THE SACKING OF LOU VAIN BY MANUEL GAMARRA Testimony of a Neutral Eye-witness, a Paraguayan Priest Studying at Louvain The vanguard of the Army of Von Kluck occupied Lou- vain, without striking a blow, on the i8th of August at noon. The first error to rectify is the following : Louvain was not of francs-tireurs formed either before or after the invasion of the territory. "No 'isolated instance' even is knovtm of civilians having fired upon the troops, although there would have been no occasion for surprise if any individual person had committed an excess. In several of our villages the population was exterminated because, as the military au- thorities alleged, a major had been killed or a young girl had attempted to kill an ofificer, and so forth. . . , "Let us however accept for one moment, not by way of admission, but of supposition, this hypothesis of a legitimate repression of francs- tireurs. We assert that it will be made clear, by the examination of each particular instance of the destruction of a village and the ex- termination of the civilians, that the punishment is so greatly out of proportion to the alleged crime that it could not be justified by any kind of argument. Such are the events that happened at Andenne, Tamines, Dinant, Leffe, Neffe, Spontin, Surice, Ethe, Tintigny, Houde- mont, and many other places, events so abominable that they will one day rouse the conscience of the whole world, and that one day a sense of justice in Germany itself will stigmatize them in scathing terms when she has a true knowledge of the facts, and has recovered her equanimity. "Further, still on the supposition that what took place, in certain parts at least, was merely the repression of francs-tireurs, what civil- ized mind would dare to justify, on behalf of soldiers, the following acts : the infliction in some cases of blows and wounds, atrocities of all kinds, barbarities and sanguinary methods, cruel and infamous treatment, on mere hostages or prisoners; the dispatch of the wounded, the shooting of peaceful and unarmed civilians, pillage by armed men to an extent almost incredible, the employment of priests, young peo- ple, old men, women and children as a shield against the bullets and shells of the enemy; the imputation to the civil population of acts of war for which Belgian or French soldiers were legitimately respon- sible, and the severe punishment inflicted on the population in conse- quence thereof ; summary executions by shooting, without any form of inquiry or regular sentence, extermination of entire families and even villages; incendiarism in more than 200 villages of the two prov- inces, independently of the destruction caused by the fighting; moral torture inflicted on persons of weak constitution and sometimes upon whole populations. Outrage and murders of women, young girls, and children at the breast. . . . "Now these crimes are so numerous that one or another of them THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 167 bombarded. There was no fighting, except in the direction of Tirlemont and Dieste to the north and south of Louvain. The destruction of this town was carried out dehberately by a company of incendiarists seven days after its occupation. The commander of the place who gave the orders was named Manteufifel, and it was the 52nd Regiment of Infantry which was estabhshed there during these early days. The burning began at half-past seven in the evening of August 25th. Whilst the town was burning on all sides the Germans shot the unfortunate people as they fled from their burning houses. It was a night of unimaginable horror. Most of the inhabitants, however, succeeded in escaping by the courtyards and gardens. I myself succeeded in doing so when, about midnight, the houses adjoining the one which I occupied in Juste Lipse Street began to blaze. The following morning I was taken prisoner and con- ducted to the station at about 10 o'clock. With me was a Spaniard, Father Catala, Spanish Vice- Consul, who had been for some little time principal of a col- lege in Station Street, which had been burnt down, in spite of the Spanish flag flying over its door. The first group of prisoners, from 70 to 80 in number, included some distin- guished persons, advocates, medical men, etc. Five of us and often all of them at once, have been committed in hundreds of our villages. "An impression of dismay and horror provoked by these barbarities remains with those of our population who have lived through these terrible events and have suffered on account of them in a way which it is impossible to describe. It is, they say, a monstrous war, carried on, not against soldiers, but against unarmed civilians. They have one and all forgotten the events, horrible as they are in themselves, of the war properly so called, and remember only the sufferings during less than a week by an entire population unarmed, terror-stricken, and given up to the mercy of ferocious soldiers. It has been said (but can it be true?) that the number of civilians killed is not far behind that of soldiers who have fallen in battle. It is astonishing indeed that there have not been still more victims, and we cannot but admire the ingenuity with which the inhabitants of such localities as Dinant, Tamines, Spontin, Houdemont and numerous villages lying between the Sambre and the Meuse escaped to the full extent of the destruction to which they had been doomed. "Millions of eye-witnesses are ready to affirm these facts upon oath as soon as the regular committee of inquiry shall have been appointed." i68 THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN were foreigners, Father Catala, three young Spaniards, and myself. We were placed in files of four, surrounded by soldiers, who insulted us and treated us in a brutal manner. At the beginning of the Station Street there was a corpse partially carbonized. In the corridors of the station were lying fifteen or twenty bodies of civilians who had been shot. The town, especially in this quarter, was enveloped in smoke and flames. These were days of indescribable terror. I had in my hand my passport proving my foreign na- tionality. I was looking for a means of saving myself from the death that I felt was threatening, for the German soldiers, as well as officers were, at that moment, no longer men but ferocious beasts. God alone could, by a miracle, save us. They did not wish to hear anything about my passport. Every time that I tried to prove my innocence and my American nationality the officers threatened arid struck me. When I saw that all was useless I resigned my- self and prepared for death. My companions did the same. . . . Towards eleven o'clock they began to conduct us towards Malines, in the environs of which fighting was going on between Belgians and Germans. To the right and left of the road everything was in flames. At Heront, five kilo- meters from Louvain, I saw in a corner of the wall the body of a little girl of 12 or 13 years of age burned alive. We were terribly ill-treated during the whole of the journey whether we were made to run or to stop, or to walk slowly, it was all by blows with a saber, the butt end of a rifle or a lance. We were kicked and spat upon, and, O my God! to what insolence we were subjected! I supported a sick old man who dragged himself along with the help of my arm in order to escape death, for if he had stopped he would have been pierced by a bayonet or shot by a bullet. We glanced towards one another from time to time in a state of stupefaction at such barbarity. At length we ar- rived in a field nine or ten kilometers from Louvain. There a halt was made and an officer told us that we were about to be shot. When I repeated to him that I was a South Ameri- THE SACKING OF LOUVAIN 169 can, as was proved by my passport, he cried out, with fire flashing from his eyes, that it was I who would be shot the first "because I had kept concealed in my church mitrail- leuses and other arms." He ordered me to hold my tongue. They then tied our hands behind our backs with our own handkerchiefs. The soldiers drew themselves up in line and every preparation was made for our execution, and we were left there for a quarter of an hour. Presently we were divided again into groups, with our hands still bound, with the soldiers drawn up in front of us as shooting parties, and we were then made to proceed through the fields from village to village towards the Bel- gian lines. At nightfall we arrived at Campenhout, where we passed the night imprisoned in the church where fighting was going on all around. The following day Father Catala, the three young Spaniards and myself were set at liberty. The remaining inhabitants of Louvain were no better treated. Many were conducted as prisoners into the in- terior of Germany (Munsterlagen). Several thousands were dragged as far as Tirelmont. Thousands of others passed a whole week in the woods, living only on potatoes which they gathered in the fields. During August 27th, 28th and 29th Louvain remained denuded of its inhabitants and the Germans seized the occasion to pillage systemati- cally house after house, everything in fact which had not been burned, so that the families which subsequently re- turned, if their dwellings were still standing, found nothing but the walls. What the Germans have done at Louvain, and in the whole of Belgium, is indescribable. A narrative of these events would fill volumes. As for myself, since God has saved my life, I am pleased to have been able to be in a position to see and verify all those iniquitous doings which cover with opprobrium German militarism, of which many other foreigners have been witnesses, if indeed they have not been the victims, and amongst them South Americans, Uruguayans, Brazilians, Colombians, etc., who are able to testify, like myself, to the truth. TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER THE INVASION OF EAST PRUSSIA AND ITS BRILLIANT REPULSE BY HINDENBURG AUGUST 26TH-SEPTEMBER 1ST GABRIEL HANOTAUX GENERAL VON HINDENBURG GENERAL BASIL GOURKO The suddenness and completeness of the Russian defeat at Tan- nenberg gave to that battle a widespread fame, causing it to stand out more prominently than many another of greater size and more im- portant result. The unexpected swiftness of the Russian invasion of East Prussia at the opening of the War caused something very like a panic in the streets of Berlin, and a corresponding rejoical in the Allies' lands. The Russians, however, had never intended this advance to progress very far into Germany. In fact, it was undertaken with troops singularly unprepared. Only the complete unexpectedness of the move gave it an even temporary success. To check it without disarranging their French campaign the Ger- man Staff dispatched into East Prussia Von Hindenburg, a general who had been previously retired from service, partly because of age, partly because of disfavor at Court. The story is told that during one of the "practice campaigns" with which German generals drilled in time of peace, Hindenburg, a native of East Prussia, had been placed in command of one army there, and pitted against another un- der command of the Kaiser himself. Hindenburg had been so un- courtly as to take full advantage of his intimate knowledge of the region, and to defeat his august opponent with staggering complete- ness. That had caused his retirement then, and his recall now in the hour of East Prussia's need. He defeated his Russian opponents with apparent ease, though it should be noted that Von Ludendorff, his chief lieutenant, has de- scribed this first Hindenburg success as a gamble. He declares that the German leaders took a desperate chance; they left one Russian army, under General Rennenkampf, wholly unopposed, and hurled all their forces at General Samsonof's army. Had Rennenkampf ad- vanced, he would have destroyed the Germans. His delay was at one time attributed to treason; but the charge remains unproven. Nevertheless, Hindenburg's every step against the Russians im- presses us as the move of a master playing a game against the merest beginners — and a merciless master. He spares the beginners not at all; he exacts from them the utmost penalties of defeat. At Tannen- berg the Russians were driven into the vast and often bottomless swamps of the region, where they floundered helplessly or sank to 170 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 171 suffocation beneath the surface. Their cries of surrender were un- heeded. The German troops were ordered to continue firing upon them, and they were massacred by thousands. We have included in our account an apparently authentic letter published in Germany, in which a German participant in the slaughter cries out against the horror of it. Despite the quick repulse of this invasion of East Prussia, it caused the most extensive ravaging which any German territory received dur- ing the entire War. When the world exclaimed in protest against the "frightfulness" deliberately employed in Belgium and Serbia, Ger- man apologists spoke of equal horrors as having been perpetrated by the Russians in East Prussia. Convincing proof of such charges will probably never be forthcoming. We may fairly conclude that there were individual cases of brutality and even murder; yet upon the whole the Russians during the first years of the War proved them- selves a kindly foe, quick to fraternize with a defeated enemy. And even if we accept the tales of Russian barbarity at their worst, it was never an official barbarity, like that of Germany, originating at head- quarters. The Russian officers did their best to restrain their ignorant troops not to delude them into greater excesses. It is a vivid com- mentary upon the German state of mind, that the Germans should feel their own excesses justified by the excuse that the less civilized Russians had thus imitated the German savagery and had proved equally murderous. Hindenburg's own account of the battle is here given as told in his autobiography. The story is also quoted from Gabriel Hanotaux, the most renowned of contemporary French historians. The Rus- sian viewpoint is then given by the Russian general best fitted to attempt it, General Gourko. He was chief of staff and afterward commander-in-chief upon the Russian western front. C. F. H. BY GABRIEL HANOTAUX THE German military chiefs applied the doctrines of en- circlement in the east also; but there they won success with them. The campaign in East Prussia presents a posi- tive proof that fully confirms the negative proof of the bat- tle on the French frontier. Two Russian armies had invaded East Prussia; one, commanded by Rennenkampf, followed the great railway that binds Petrograd to Berlin by way of Gumbinnen, In- sterburg, Allenstein, Eylau, on toward Thorn on the Vis- tula. While besieging or masking Konigsberg, Elbing, Dantsic, it counted upon occupying East Prussia and there awaiting the success of the general maneuver aimed against Austria by the Grand Duke Nicholas. The other Russian army came from Warsaw and the 172 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER banks of the Narew. It advanced from south to north in order to march, Hke the other, upon the Vistula in the di- rection of Dantsic, there to join Rennenkampf's army and clear the way to Berlin. The preliminary mission intrusted to the two armies of the north was singularly facilitated by the fact that Ger- many, not foreseeing so rapid a mobilization of the first Russian armies, had left on that frontier only three active army corps and some reserve formations. The two Russian armies — separately weaker than the German army — would be much stronger than it when once united. Unfortu- nately, they were not in close communication with each other, being separated by the almost impenetrable region of the Masurian Lakes. The first commander of the German army, von Pritt- witz, advanced on the frontier before Rennenkampf; he was beaten at Gumbinnen on August 20th. Rennenkampf advanced as far as Insterburg on the railway north of the Masurian Lakes; he installed his army in East Prussia and threatened Konigsberg. Meanwhile Samsonof, coming from the Narew, was debouching to the southwest of the lakes and skirting them with the object of joining Rennen- kampf near Osterode-Eylau, The German army, which was still facing Rennenkampf near Gumbinnen, saw its communications menaced by this advance of Samsonof. It beat a precipitate retreat, and von Prittwitz believed he had no choice but to retire behind the Vistula. The population was fleeing as far as Berlin. There was a great sensation in the headquarters of the German General Staff, which had staked everything on the western front, and which at that moment (August 20th- 22nd) still had some painful fighting to do at Charleroi, in the Ardennes, and on the Lorraine frontier, so that it did not feel any too sure of victory. It was in this hour of peril that a dispatch, dated at Namur, went to seek at Hanover in a tavern where he was smoking his pipe and drinking his habitual bock an old, retired General, Hindenburg, and named him at one stroke the commander of the army on the eastern front. For his TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 173 second in command they gave him Ludendorff, who, leav- ing Namur with all necessary instructions, came to seek him at Hanover. The two men took the train together in the night of August 22nd, studying their maps on the jour- ney, formulating their plan, and writing their orders. Far from thinking of retiring behind the Vistula, Hin- denburg and Ludendorff decided to resume the offensive against the Russian armies, attacking them separately while they were still divided by the Masurian Lakes. Hin- denburg first turned his attention to Samsonof's army, which had come from Warsaw and the Narew, and which most directly menaced his communications. Samsonof was an impetuous man; having excellent troops, he was full of confidence, and was marching straight ahead; he was just the man to fall headforemost into the trap that his enemy was setting for him. This was the trap. Hindenburg arranged his troops in a vast semicircle formed by the lines of hills on each side of Allenstein, the one toward Usdau on the west and the other toward Willenberg on the east. The Twenty-second German Army Corps, at the entrance of the semicircle, at Soldau, on the railway from Warsaw, received an order to engage Samsonof's army, and to retreat while fighting, thus luring it as far as possible into the curve of the German lines. At the proper moment the two sectors of the semi- circle were to close in upon Samsonof, envelop and crush him; it was Schlieffen's maneuver, the extension of the front and the action of both wings. Samsonof entered the semicircle in pursuit of the Twen- ty-second German Corps, the Twenty-second fell back, Sam- sonof followed, forcing it westward, and finally establish- ing his headquarters at Allenstein. He believed he had won a victory. His right, finding no enemy forces before it, extended itself northward and reached the Fetrograd- Berlin railway near Rastenburg. The position of Samsonof may be compared to that of the classic runner, with his right hand stretched high in the air toward Rennenkampf, the body in full career, but the left foot delaying in the rear toward Usdau. It was ex- 174 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER actly at this moment when Samsonof was hurhng himself forward, that Hindenburg, beginning the real maneuver, seized him by that left foot. A German force, coming partly from Thorn, and reenforced by all the units available, appeared at Usdau and threw itself against the communi- cating lines of Samsonof in the direction of Soldau. Samsonof failed to grasp the meaning of this move- ment, and went on pursuing his idea of breaking the Ger- man front at the middle. He hurled himself against the Hohenstein-Tannenberg lines, which Hindenburg had gar- nished with his heavy guns and his best troops. The lat- ter withstood the shock of Samsonof's desperate assaults, which were renewed for three days — August 26th-29th. Meanwhile Hindenburg's extreme right wing continued its turning movement, gained the first advantage at Usdau, and marched next upon Soldau with the object of closing the door on Samsonof at that point. In the other direction Mackensen, who held the eastern sector of the semicircle, turned Samsonof's flank on the east, defeated his right wing, and pushed on toward Willenberg, the other door. With- out pausing in the pursuit he turned toward Samsonof's main force, which was still fighting desperately in the di- rection of Hohenstein-Tannenberg, and fell upon its rear. It was the same as if von Hausen had succeeded in his Meuse maneuver on the western front and had fallen upon the rear of Lanrezac at Charleroi. Apparently at that moment Samsonof realized what was happening. He tried to snatch himself out of the trap; he evacuated Allenstein in haste and rushed toward Soldau to open a way toward the Narew and Warsaw. It was too late. Hindenburg's right wing had entered Soldau. The doors of escape were closed one after the other. In the swamps and network of little lakes Samsonof's army was surrounded. It fought heroically, a hopeless fight. Even surrender, if it had been desired, was impossible. After the incredible efforts of five whole days of battle there remained only the shattered fragments of a great army, strewn about in the trackless maze of swamp lands; troops wandering through the woods, units mixed in a hope- TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 175 less mob, cannon mired in the stagnant water, regiments formed from soldiers of all arms, the most vigorous debris gathered up by the most energetic officers in order to break through the circle by charging at random! Some divisions got through. Others clung in rags to the thickets of thorn trees, or wandered in circles, com- pletely lost. Samsonof did not wish to survive the disaster; he placed himself in the first ranks and was killed by a shell, which also struck his Chief of Staff. Thus ended what the German historians call emphatically "the greatest battle of destruction in history." They all give the credit to the strategic teachings of Schlieffen, I have before me a Ger- man brochure explaining the battle of Tannenberg with diagrams; its title is "From Hannibal to Hindenburg," and it contains this sentence: "It was Schlieffen who be- fore his death dictated the whole plan of the great war against France and Russia." BY GENERAL VON HINDENBURG In the pocket-book of a dead Russian officer a note had been found which revealed the intention of the enemy Command. It told us that Rennenkampf's Army was to pass the Masurian Lakes on the north and advance against the Insterburg-Angerburg line. It was to attack the Ger- man forces presumed to be behind the Angerapp while the Narew Army was to cross the Lotzen-Ortelsburg line to take the Germans in flank. The Russians were thus planning a concentric attack against the Eighth Army, but Samsonof's Army now already extended farther west than was originally intended. What, indeed, could we do to meet this dangerous enemy scheme? It was dangerous less on account of the audacity of the conception than by reason of the strength in which it was to be carried out — at any rate, strength from the point of view of numbers. We could hope that it would be otherwise as regards strength of will. Dur- ing the months of August and September Russia brought up no fewer than 800,000 men and 1,700 guns against 176 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER East Prussia, for the defence of which we had only 210,000 German soldiers and 600 guns at our disposal. Our counter-measures were simple. I will attempt to make the broad outlines of our plan clear to the reader even if he is not an expert. In the first place we opposed a thin center to Samso- nof's solid mass. I say thin, not weak. For it was com- posed of men with hearts and wills of steel. Behind them were their homes, wives and children, parents and relatives and everything they had. It was the 20th Corps, brave East and West Prussians. This thin center might bend under the enemy's pressure, but it would not break. While this center was engaged two important groups on its wings were to carry out the decisive attack. The troops of the ist Corps, reenforced by Landwehr — likewise sons of the threatened region — were brought for the battle from the right, the northwest, the troops of the 17th Corps and the ist Reserve Corps, with a Landwehr brigade, from the left, the north and northeast. These men of the 17th Corps and ist Reserve Corps as well as the Landwehr and Landsturm also had behind them every- thing which made life worth living. We had not merely to win a victory over Samsonof. We had to annihilate him. Only thus could we get a free hand to deal with the second enemy, Rennenkampf, who was even then plundering and burning East Prussia. Only thus could we really and completely free our old Prussian land and be in a position to do something else which was expected of us — intervene in the mighty battle for a deci- sion which was raging between Russia and our Austro- Hungarian Ally in Galicia and Poland. If this first blow were not final the danger for our Homeland would become like a lingering disease, the burnings and murders in East Prussia would remain unavenged, and our Allies in the south would wait for us in vain. It was thus a case for complete measures. Everything must be thrown in which could prove of the slightest use in manoeuvre warfare and could at all be spared. The fortresses of Graudenz and Thorn disgorged yet more TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 177 Landwehr fit for the field. Moreover, our Landwehr came from the trenches between the Masurian Lakes, which were covering our new operations in the east, and handed over the defence there to a smaller and diminishing number of Landsturm. Once we had won the battle in the field we should no longer need the fortresses of Thorn and Graudenz, and should be freed from anxieties as regards the defiles between the lakes. Our cavalry division and the Konigsberg garrison with two Landwehr brigades were to remain facing Rennen- kampf, who might fall upon us like an avalanche from the north-east at any time. But at the moment we could not yet say whether these forces would really be sufficient. They formed but a light veil which would easily be torn if Rennenkampf's main columns moved or his innumerable cavalry squadrons advanced, as we had to fear. But per- haps they would not move. In that case the veil would be enough to cover our weakness. We had to take risks on our flanks and rear if we were to be strong at the decisive point. We hoped we might succeed in deceiving Rennen- kampf. Perhaps he would deceive himself. The strong fortress of Konigsberg with its garrison and our cavalry might assume the proportions of a mighty force in the imagination of the enemy. But even supposing Rennenkampf cradled himself in illusions to our advantage, would not his High Command urge him forward in forced marches to the south-west — in our rear? Would not Samsonof's cry for help bring him in hot haste to the battlefield? And even if the sound of human voices echoed in vain, would not the warning thun- der of the battle reach the Russian lines north of the Lakes, nay, to the enemy's Headquarters itself? Caution with regard to Rennenkampf was therefore necessary, though we could not carry it to the extent of leaving strong forces behind, or we should find ourselves weaker on the battlefield than we ought to be. When we considered the numbers on both sides a com- parison with the probable Russian forces showed a great disparity against us, even if we counted in on our side the w., VOL. n.— 12. 178 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER two Landwehr brigades which were then coming from Schleswig-Holstein, where they had been employed in coast protection (and assuming tliat they would arrive in time for the battle), and even if Rennenkampf did not move and indeed played no part. Moreover, it must be remembered that large bodies of Landwehr and Landsturm had to fight in the first line. Older classes against the pick of Russia's youth! We had the further disadvantage that most of our troops and, as the situation decreed, all those which had to deliver the coup de grace, had just been engaged in heavy and expensive fighting. Had they not just been compelled to leave the battlefield of Gumbinnen to the Russians? The troops were not therefore marching with the proud feeling of being victors. Yet they pressed forward to the, battle with stout hearts and unshaken confidence. We were told that their moral was good, and it therefore justified bold decisions. Where it was somewhat shaken such decisions could not fail to restore it. It had been thus before; could it be otherwise now? I had no misgivings on the score of our numerical inferiority. He who reckons solely by the visible in-war is reckoning falsely. The inherent worth of the soldier is everything. It was on that that I based my confidence. What I thought to myself was this: The Russian may invade our Fatherland, and contact with the soil of Germany may lift up his heart, but that does not make him a German soldier, and those who lead him are not German officers. The Russian soldier had fought with the greatest obedience on the battlefields of Manchuria although he had no sympathy with the political ambitions of his rulers in the Pacific. It did not seem un- likely that in a war against the Central Powers the Russian Army would have greater enthusiasm for the war aims of the Tsar's Empire. On the other hand, I considered that, taking it all round, the Russian soldier and officer would not display higher military qualities in the European theatre than they had in the Asiatic, and believed that I was en- titled to credit our side with a plus on the ground of intrin- sic value instead of a minus for our numerical inferiority. TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 179 Such was our plan and such our line of reasoning before and for the battle. We compressed these ideas and inten- tions into a short report which we sent from Marienburg to Main Headquarters on August 23: "Concentration of the army for an enveloping attack in the region of the 20th Corps planned for August 26." On the evening of the 23rd I took a short walk on the western bank of the Nogat. From there the red walls of the proud castle of the Teutonic Knights, the greatest brick monument of Baltic Gothic, made a truly wonderful picture in the evening light. Thoughts of a noble chivalry of the past mingled involuntarily with conjecture as to the veiled future. The sight of the refugees flying past me from my home province deepened the sense of responsibility that possessed me. It was a melancholy reminder that war not only affects the fighting man, but proves a thousandfold scourge to humanity by the destruction of the very essen- tials of existence. On August 24 I motored with my small Staff to the Headquarters of the 20th Corps, and thus entered the vil- lage which was to give its name to the battle so soon to blaze up. Tannenberg! A word pregnant with painful recollec- tions for German chivalry, a Slav cry of triumph, a name that is fresh in our memories after more than five hundred years of history. Before this day I had never seen the battlefield which proved so fateful to German culture in the East. A simple monument there bore silent witness to the deeds and deaths of heores. On one of the following days we stood near this monument while Samsonof's Russian Army was going to its doom of sheer annihilation. On our way from Marienburg to Tannenberg the im- pression of the miseries into which war had plunged the unhappy inhabitants were intensified. Masses of helpless refugees, carrying their belongings, pressed past me on the road and to a certain extent hindered the movements of our troops which were hastening to meet the foe. Among the Staff at the Corps Headquarters I found the confidence and resolution which were essential for the i8o TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER success of our plan. Moreover, they had a favorable opinion of the moral of the troops at this spot, which was at first the crucial point for us. The day brought us no decisive information either about Rennenkampf's operations or Samsonof's movements. Ap- parently it only confirmed the fact that Rennenkampf was moving forward very slowly. We could not see the reason for this. Of the Narew Army, we knew that its main columns were pressing forward against the 20th Corps. Under its pressure this corps refused its left wing. There was nothing doubtful about this measure. Quite the con- trary. The enemy, following up, would all the more effec- tively expose his right flank to our left enveloping column which was marching on Bischofsburg. On the other hand the hostile movement which was apparently in progress against our western wing and Lautenburg attracted our attention, as it caused us some anxiety. We had the im- pression that the Russians were thinking of enveloping us in turn at this point and coming in on our flank. August 25 gave us a rather clearer picture of Rennen- kampf's movements. His columns were marching from the Angerapp, and therefore on Konigsberg. Had the original Russian plan been abandoned ? Or had the Russian leaders been deceived by our movements and suspected that our main force was in and around the fortress? In any case we must now have not the slightest hesitation in leaving but a thin screen against Rennenkampf's mighty force. On this day Samsonof, obviously feeling his way, was directing his main columns towards our 20th Corps. The corps on the Russian right wing v/as undoubtedly marching on Bischofs- burg, and therefore towards our 17th Corps and ist Reserve Corps, which had reached the district north of this village on this day. Apparently further large Russian forces were concentrating at Mlawa. This day marked the conclusion of the stage of expecta- tion and preparation. We brought our ist Corps round to the right wing of the 20th Corps. The general attack could begin. August 26th was the first day of the murderous combat TANNENBERG : RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER i8i which raged from Lautenburg to north of Bischofsburg. The drama on which the curtain was rising, and whose stage stretched for more than sixty miles, began not with a continuous battle line but in detached groups; not in one self-contained act, but in a series of scenes. General von Francois was leading his brave East Prus- sians on the right swing. They pushed forward against Usdau with a view to storming the key to this part of the southern battle front next day. General von Scholtz's magnificent corps gradually shook off the chains of defence and addressed themselves to the business of attack. Fierce was the fighting round Bischofsburg that this day wit- nessed. By the evening magnificent work had been done on our side at this point. In a series of powerful blows the wing corps of Samsonof's right had been defeated and forced to retreat on Ortelsburg by the troops of Mackensen and Below (loth Corps and ist Reserve Corps), as well as Landwehr. But we could not yet realize how far-reach- ing our victory had been. The Staff expected to have to meet a renewed and stout resistance south of this day's battlefield on the following day. Yet was their confidence high. It was now apparent that danger was threatening from the side of Rennenkampf. It was reported that one of his corps was on the march through Angerburg. Would it not find its way to the rear of our left enveloping force? More- over, disquieting news came to us from the flank and rear of our western wing. Strong forces of Russian cavalry were in movement away there in the south. We could net find out whether they were being followed up by infantry. The crisis of the battle now approached. One questi©n forced itself upon us. How would the situation devel®p if these mighty movements and the enemy's superiority in numbers delayed the decision for days? Is it surprising that misgivings filled many a heart, that firm resoluti®n began to yield to vacillation, and that doubts crept in where a clear vision had hitherto prevailed? Would it not be wiser to strengthen our line facing Rennenkampf again and be content with half-measures against Samsonof ? Was it i82 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER not better to abandon the idea of destroying the Narew Army in order to ensure ourselves against destruction? We overcame the inward crisis, adhered to our original intention, and turned in full strength to effect its realization by attack. So the order was issued for our right wing to advance straight on Neidenburg, and the left enveloping wing "to take up its position at 4. a. m. and intervene with the greatest energy." August 27 showed that the victory of the 1st Reserve Corps and 17th Corps at Bischofsburg on the previous day had had far-reaching results. The enemy had not only retired, but was actually fleeing from the battlefield. More- over, we learned that it was only in the imagination of an airman that Rennenkampf was marching in our rear. The cold truth was that he was slowly pressing on to Konigs- berg. Did he, or would he, not see that Samsonof's right flank was already threatened with utter ruin and that the danger to his left wing also was increasing from hour to hour? For it was on this day that Francois and Scholtz stormed the enemy's lines at and north of Usdau and de- feated our southern opponent. Now, when the enemy's centre pushed forward farther towards AUenstein — Hohen- stein, it was no longer victory but destruction that lured it on. For us the situation was clear. On the evening of this day we gave orders for the complete encirclement of the enemy's central mass, his 13th and 15th Corps. The bloody struggle continued to rage on August 28. On the 29th a large part of the Russian Army saw itself faced with total annihilation at Hohenstein. Ortelsburg was reached from the north, Willenberg, through Neiden- burg, from tha west. The ring roimd thousands and thou- sands of Russians began to close. Even in this desperate situation there was plenty of Russian heroism in the cause of the Tsar, heroism which saved the honor of arms but could not longer save the battle. Meanwhile Rennenkampf was continuing to march quietly on Konigsberg. Samsonof was lost at the very moment when his comrade was to give proof of other and better military qualities. For we were already in a position TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 183 to draw troops from the battle front to cover the work of destruction in which we were engaged in the great cauldron, Neidenburg — Willenberg — Passenheim, and in which Sam- sonof sought for death in his despair. Swelling columns of prisoners poured out of this cauldron. These were the growing proofs of the greatness of our victory. By a freak of fortune it was in Osterode, one of the villages which we made our Headquarters during the battle, that I received one of the two captured Russian Corps Commanders, in the same inn at which I had been quartered during a General Staff ride in 188 1 when I was a young Staff officer. The other reported to me next day at a school which we had converted into an office. As the battle proceeded we were able to observe what splendid raw material, generally speaking, the Tsar had at his disposal. I had the impression that it doubtless con- tained many qualities worth training. As in 1866 and 1870, I noticed on this occasion how quickly the German officer and soldier, with their fine feeling and professional tact, forgot the former foe in the helpless captive. The lust of battle in our men quickly ebbed away and changed to deep sympathy and human feeling. It was only against the Cossacks that our men could not contain their rage. They were considered the authors of all the bestial brutalities under which the people and country of East Prussia had suffered so cruelly. The Cossack apparently suffered from a bad conscience, for whenever he saw himself likely to be taken prisoner he did his best to remove the broad stripe on his trousers which distinguished his branch of the serv- ice. On August 30th the enemy concentrated fresh troops in the south and east and attempted to break our encircling ring from without. From Myszaniec — that is, from the direction of Ostrolenka — he brought up new and strong columns to Neidenburg and Ortelsburg against our troops, which had already completely enveloped the Russian centre and were therefore presenting their rear to the new foe. There was danger ahead; all the more so because airmen reported that enemy columns twenty-three miles long — i84 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER therefore very strong — were pressing forward from Mlawa. Yet we refused to let go of our quarry. Samsonof's main force had to be surrounded and annihilated; Frangois and Mackensen sent their reserves — weak reserves, it is true — to meet the new enemy. Against their resistance the at- tempt to mitigate the catastrophe to Samsonof came to naught. While despair seized on those within the deadly ring, faint-heartedness paralyzed the energies of those who might have brought their release. In this respect, too, the course of events at the Battle of Tannenberg confirmed the human and military experience of yore. Our ring of fire round the Russian masses, crowded closely together and swaying this way and that, became closer and narrower with every hour that passed. Rennenkampf appears to have intended to attack the line of the Deime, east of Konigsberg and between Labiau and Tapiau, this day. From the region of Landsberg and Bartenstein his masses of cavalry were approaching the battlefield of Tannenberg. However, we had already con- centrated strong forces, weary but flushed with victory, for defence in the neighborhood of Allenstein. August 31 was the day of harvesting for such of our troops as were still engaged, a day of deliberation about the further course of operations for our leaders, and for Rennenkampf the day of the retreat to the Deime — Allen- burg — Angerburg line. As early as the 29th the course of events had enabled me to report the complete collapse of the Russian Narew Army to my All-Highest War Lord. The very same day the thanks of His Majesty, in the name of the Fatherland, had reached me on the battlefield. I transferred these thanks, in my heart as with my lips, to my Chief of Staff and our splendid troops. On August 31st I was able to send the following re- port to my Emperor and King: "I beg most humbly to report to Your Majesty that the ring round the larger part of the Russian Army was closed yesterday. The 13th, 15th and i8th Army Corps have been destroyed. We have already taken more than 60,000 pri- TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 185 soners, among them the Corps Commanders of the 13th and 15th Corps. The guns are still in the forests and are now being brought in. The booty is immense though it cannot yet be assessed in detail. The Corps outside our ring, the ist and 6th, have also suffered severely and are now re- treating in hot haste through Mlawa and Myszaniec." The troops and their leaders had accomplished extra- ordinary feats. The divisions were now in bivouacs and the hymn of thanks of the Battle of Leuthen rose from them. In our new Headquarters at Allenstein I entered the church, close by the old castle of the Teutonic Knights, while divine service was being held. As the clergyman uttered his closing words all those present, young soldiers as well as elderly Landsturm, sank to their knees under the overwhelming impression of their experiences. It was a worthy curtain to their heroic achievements, BY A GERMAN SOLDIER [This letter, descriptive of the massacre of the entrapped Russians at Tannenberg, appeared in a German socialistic paper, and purports to have been written by a participant :] It was frightful, heartrending, as these masses of hu- man beings were driven to destruction. Above the terrible thunder of the cannon could be heard the heartrending cries of the Russians : "O Prussians ! O Prussians 1" — but there was no mercy. Our Captain had ordered : "The whole lot must die; so rapid fire." As I have heard, five men and one officer on our side went mad from those heartrending cries. But most of my comrades and the officers joked as the un- armed and helpless Russians shrieked for mercy while they were being suffocated in the swamps and shot down. The order was: "Close up and at it harder!" For days after- wards those heartrending yells followed me and I dare not think of them or I shall go mad. There is no God, there is no morality and no ethics any more. There are no human beings any more, but only beasts. Down with militarism. This was the experience of a Prussian soldier. At pres- ent wounded; Berlin, October 22, 1914. i86 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER If you are a truth-loving man, please receive these lines from a common Prussian soldier, BY GENERAL BASIL GOURKO * Tannenberg took its name from a large wood behind the battlefield into which the two central corps were driven and surrounded by the Germans, the entire forces, with all their remaining officers, being captured. The plans which had been made, owing to tactical errors on the part of the corps commanders on the flanks, were never carried out, and the two corps in the center, left entirely without support and surrounded by the living wall of the enemy, had no option but to lay down their arms after a heavy fight. Fighting began on the morning of September 28th, and from the beginning the corps on the flanks met with some resistance, the Germans threatening an attack on their ex- terior, which was but poorly protected with cavalry. Prob- ably this resistance was unexpected, for both corps, without half their troops having come into action, began to retire at the moment the two central corps were heavily engaged. On the front the battle had been going well for the Russian troops ; a few thousand prisoners had been taken, and there was every possibility of a great victory. Things moved normally for some time afterwards and heavy losses had been incurred by both sides, when suddenly fresh German columns made their appearance, marching to strike a blow at both flanks of the Russian troops attacking in the northerly direction. It was reported at the same time that these en- emy columns could turn both flanks of our forces, which, of course, would mean that both army corps would be encir- cled. Headquarters of the central corps were entirely without information as to what had happened to the corps on the flanks. They were supposed to be holding in check any turning movement attempted by the Germans. In reality they were retreating and had altogether lost touch with the enemy. Probably it is quite natural to ask why General * Reprinted from Gourko's "Russia, 1914-1917," by permission of the publishers, the Macmillan Co. TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 187 Samsonof did not give orders to compel the flanking corps to stop their retreat, to reattack and by a single frontal blow strike hard at the flank and rear of the German columns which were then beginning to surround the two corps in the center. Failing this in any case he could have given or- ders in due time to withdraw from a fight that was fast threatening to become unequal. General Samsonof and his Staff were at an observation post in company with General Martson, the commander of the 15th Corps, watching, within the limits of their visibility, the attack which was successfully developing before them. It was subsequently reported by eye-witnesses that during the battle Samsonof several times inquired from General Martson if any information had been received from the corps on the flanks. Each time the answer was in the nega- tive. The absence of news was due to the difficulty of maintaining connection in such open fighting and also to the fact that both the flanking corps were moving, and had the utmost difficulty in maintaining any kind of communication with the other commanders. Destitute of any information concerning the other troops under his control, Samsonof lost all power of directing operations and thus infringed one of the elementary rules of military strategy, that which provides that the commander of an army shall choose as his headquarters some spot where information can readily be brought to him and whence he can communicate with all the forces under his command. The worse the organization of communication, the more an army commander is disinclined to come close to the actual scene of the fighting and by personal supervision counter- balance the failure to maintain communication between him- self and the unit under his command. Again the tendency to generalize, which nearly every man possesses, will in- evitably lead an army commander to imagine that an opera- tion happening before his eyes must be similar to that of the other areas where fighting is taking place, which he can- not see. The defeat or success of a unit under the immedi- ate observation of the army commander may result in such orders being given to the whole army as would certainly meet 188 TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER the situation immediately within vision but might prove dis- astrous taking the battle altogether. In the Battle of Tannenberg the preliminary success en- joyed by the troops under General Samsonof's immediate observation was such an encouraging picture that final vic- tory appeared a matter of certainty. Unfortunately, just at this time the retreat of the two flanking corps, of which Samsonof was totally unaware, was leading from hour to hour towards the catastrophe which was ultimately to over- take the corps in the center. Every hour that passed brought confirmation of the fact that the 13th and 15th Corps were being more and more completely surrounded by the Ger- mans. General Martson set out for the scene of the frontal attack to issue orders for a gradual retirement, for the di- visions to withdraw one by one. Simultaneously, Samsonof set off in a different direction, presumably to get in touch with the other army corps of his army. But these measures were taken too late. Disaster had already overtaken the 13th and 15th Corps; German turning columns had already penetrated their flanks and rear so deeply that only a portion of the transport and a comparatively insignificant number of infantrymen man- aged to escape from the ring of German masses which every minute became more contracted. The two army corps fell back slowly into the shades of Tannenberg Wood, abso- lutely helpless and unable to use their artillery. The result of this disaster was that the Germans captured, almost in full strength, two army corps with all their officers, and re- covered possession of their own troops who had been cap- tured earlier during the battle. Caught in the ring, although the Germans did not know it, was General Samsonof and his personal staff. Night fell. Samsonof, accompanied by five other staff officers, was guiding himself through the thick forest towards the Russian frontier. Their motor-cars had been abandoned, for it was too risky to use the roads. The little party mounted on horseback, passing out of the forest, de- spite the darkness were seerkby a party of German infantry armed with machine guns. Amidst a hail of bullets the party TANNENBERG: RUSSIA'S FIRST DISASTER 189 dismounted and continued their way on foot, into another belt of forest. Utter darkness surrounded them. The sounds of fighting died away, and all that could be heard was the trampling of the undergrowth and an occasional voice as members of the little party called out to each other in order to keep together. From time tO' time a halt was called and all drew closer to make sure that nobody was missing. General Samsonof, who suffered from heart trouble, and found his breathing more and more difficult, lagged behind. There came a time when everybody had been called and all had answered but Samsonof. General Postovski, the Chief of his Staff, immediately called a halt and in the thick dark- ness led a search for the missing general. It was fruitless. RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS THE LEMBERG DEFEAT REDUCES AUSTRIA TO GERMAN VASSALAGE AUGUST 26TH-SEPTEMBEK 2ND ERNEST VIZETELLY PRINCESS RADZIWILL The chief Russian forces in the opening phases of the War were concentrated, not upon the German frontier where Tannenberg was fought, but against the Austrians. Here a brief and brilliant Russian campaign directed by Gen. Russky culminated in a crushing defeat of the main Austrian armies at Lemberg, the chief city of the frontier Austrian province of Galicia. The Austrians, retreating in confusion, left all Galicia in Russian hands, except for the strong fortress city of Przemysl. Great as was this victory, in the number of men engaged, in the losses and in the resulting booty, nevertheless it was not of decisive military importance; for the Russians did not succeed in advancing beyond Galicia into the heart of the Austrian domains. The im- portance of the battle of Lemberg lies in another direction. In a way, the Russians had aided Germany's game, for they had so completely broken the Austrian spirit and self-confidence, that thereafter the Austrian military authorities did what the Germans bade them. Thus Lemberg ultimately, by placing the Austrian soldiers under the iron German system, made them much more formidable than at first. Such results, however, were of later development. For the mo- ment Russia rejoiced whole-heartedly over her great triumph. This spirit is well shown in the account of the victory by the Russian prin- cess, Catharine Radziwill. The Russians regarded the campaign of Lemberg as equaling that of the Marne in importance, and excelling it in fullness of success. A more impartial view is here presented by the British authority on Austrian affairs, Mr. E. Vizetelly. BY ERNEST A. VIZETELLY RUSSIA did not wait for the complete mobilization of her troops. On August 2nd — the very day when a Te Deum for victory was chanted outside the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg (whose name was soon to be changed to Petrograd), and when, in the presence of statesmen, cour- tiers, soldiers, and seamen, the Emperor Nicholas took a solemn pledge that he would not conclude peace so long as a 190 RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS 191 single enemy remained on Russian soil — a first army crossed the East Prussian frontier under the orders of General Ren- nenkampf, an officer of German extraction, who had previ- ously commanded at Vilna. The post of generalissimo of the Russian forces had been conferred on the Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch, one of the Czar's uncles, and the control of the principal army intended for the operations against Austria was allotted to General Russky, until then commander at Kiev. Some German detachments had already penetrated to various Polish frontier villages and towns, but they re- frained from going farther in that direction when Rennen- kampf's troops made their appearance in East Prussia, where several minor engagements took place during the en- suing week. More important operations were imminent when on August 14th the Grand Duke Nicholas issued a momentous proclamation to the whole Polish people. Po- land, it will be recollected, was dismembered twice during the eighteenth century, one part (Posen and Danzig) going to Prussia, another (Galicia) to Austria, and the remainder (the Warsaw territory) to Russia. For several years prior to the Great World War, Prussia, as is well known, had grossly ill-treated her Polish subjects, whom she vainly strove to "Germanize." In Galicia Austria had exercised a milder sway, while Russia, anxious to obliterate the un- happy memories of the past, had recently promised a num- ber of reforms in the administration of her Polish territory. At the moment of the declaration of war, the Austrian Poles or Galicians gave numerous signs of loyalty. In response to the appeals of the Emperor Francis Joseph they flocked to the Austrian colors, and tendered large war offerings of money, Cracow alone contributing over £40,000. Prussia, on her side, suddenly strove to conciliate the more or less disaffected inhabitants of Posen by dint of blandishment and cajolery ; and, carrying her intrigues as well as some of her forces across the frontier, she endeavored to stir up revolt among the Russian Poles. Russia retorted in a very remarkable manner, for the Grand Duke Nicholas's manifesto to the Poles promised the 192 RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS reunion of all the severed regions of Poland under the Rus- sian scepter, with freedom in faith, language, and self- government. In a striking passage of his proclamation the Grand Duke said : "A century and a half ago the living flesh of Poland was torn asunder, but her soul did not die," — words which recalled the legendary retort of the heroic Polish patriot, Kosciusko, who, on being finally overcome in 1794, was said to have exclaimed: "Finis Polonice!" "I said no such thing," he afterwards declared indignantly; "it would have been blasphemy. Poland will live !" Galicia being now seriously threatened by the army of General Russky and another under General Brusiloff, the Austrians endeavored to check their advance by a bold counter-stroke, which consisted in invading Poland with strong composite forces of Austro-Germans, Poles, and Hungarians. These troops advanced from Cracow into the Kielce, Radom, and Lublin districts of Russian Poland, where they made considerable progress, thereby creating a hope that they might be able to turn the right of the Russian troops who were operating against Galicia from the east. Russia, however, disposed of ample forces to defeat this design, and her plans with respect to Galicia remained un- changed. These were carried out in the careful methodical manner which was to be expected of such a commander as General Russky — an officer of the scientific type, sixty years of age, spectacled, and slightly bent, even as Moltke became bent, patient also like Moltke with respect to the accomplish- ment of his designs, but quick in his decisions. His fellow commander. General Brusiloff, was an officer of a more dashing stamp, but also one of high attainments. In oppo- sition to these leaders Austria put forth Field-Marshal von Ost-Auffenberg, Field-Marshal von Hoetzendorff, General Dankl, the Archduke Frederick — a brother of the Queen- mother of Spain, and reputed to be the best military man of the Austrian imperial family — and also the young Arch- duke Joseph, heir to the empire since the assassination of his uncle, Francis Ferdinand, at Serajevo, On August 25th there began a great battle for the pes- RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS 193 session of Lemberg, the seat of the Austrian Government in Galicia, though Cracow, at the other extremity of the province, was the capital of all Poland in the days of the country's independence. The contest for Lemberg raged during seven days, and extended over a distance of 200 miles from the Lublin district in Russian Poland to Halicz, south- southwest of the threatened city. By September 2nd the Austrians were completely defeated. There were thousands of killed and wounded, and the Russians claimed to have taken no fewer than 70,000 prisoners, in addition to 200 guns and several standards. Many of the Austrian losses were incurred on the Halicz front, where they desperately attempted a flanking movement but were decisively routed by General Brusiloff. At this point alone the Russians buried 5,000 of the enemy's dead. Lemberg, several of whose fortified positions had previously been taken, now surrendered to General Russky. Meanwhile Russky and his colleagues were dealing fur- ther severe blows at the Austrian forces. On September 5th the latter were attacked in the vicinity of Tomaszow, near the frontier, and retreated in disorder towards Rawa- ruska, northwest of Lemberg, where, after four days' fight- ing, they were again severely defeated. The result of these engagements was that the Russians were able to cross the lower part of the River San — driving the Austrians be- fore them into a marshy triangle between that stream and the Vistula — and to lay siege to the great fortress of Przemysl, which offered, however, so determined a resist- ance that the invaders ultimately contented themselves with isolating it, relying on time to contribute to its reduction. Meantime Russky, Brusiloff, and Dimitrieff were inflict- ing further defeats on the Austrians under Auffenberg and his colleagues, Dankl and Boverig, On September 17th these commanders were routed in Galicia with terrible losses, the estimates supplied by the Russians being so huge as to appear almost incredible. On the 21st the important for- tified town of Jaroslav, commanding the railway line be- tween Lemberg and Cracow, was stormed by the Russians, and although Przemysl still stanchly resisted bombardment, 77., VOL. n.— 13. 194 RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS the end of the month found the Austrian armies in a most woeful plight, and the Russians steadily prosecuting their advance towards Cracow. In these circumstances several Austrian commanders were superseded, and the victor of Tannenburg, the much- belauded German General von Hindenburg, became, in con- nection with the campaign against Russia, generalissimo of the forces of the Dual Monarchy. It was asserted at the time that his appointment had been imposed on Austria by the German Kaiser, but there is evidence that the aged Em- peror Francis Joseph was profoundly dissatisfied with the conduct of his own generals. They had failed on all sides. In vain, too, had every available man of the eleven nationali- ties of the empire been called to the colors. Nothing seemed to stem the tide of disaster. Cossacks had driven back the Austrian forces in the Carpathians and descended into the Hungarian plain, where their presence seemed to threaten a speedy advance on Budapest. Vienna, crowded with an ever-increasing number of refugees, was reported to be al- most in a state of panic. BY PRINCESS RADZIWILL The whole attention of the pubhc became concentrated apon Galicia, where the Grand Duke had thrown the whole weight of our armies. He guessed, quite rightly, that the vulnerable point of our enemies lay in the weakness of the Austrian troops. The Austrians had at first occupied cer- tain portions of the so-called Kingdom of Poland — the prov- ince of Lublin — and we had considerable trouble to dislodge them ; but once on their own ground, they had broken down in what seemed an almost incredible manner. Events proved, later on, that the cause of this sudden collapse had iDcen the utter incapacity of the officers, who, owing to the happy-go-lucky way in which they considered everything, had failed to grasp the determination with which Russia invaded Austrian territory. Besides this, the German Staff still believed that it could allow the Austrians to act inde- pendently, and could trust them to bring into execution the plan which had been settled by mutual agreement. The RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS 195 Austrians, however, showed themselves miserable tacticians, and defeat upon defeat followed, until Berlin, exasperated by the succession of reverses which gave up the whole of Galicia into Russian hands, insisted upon the Austrian troops being led by Prussian officers. After this, things most un- fortunately changed for us; we were obliged to evacuate Galicia, and thus were stultified our enormous sacrifices to conquer the region. Hostilities against Austria were conceived upon a con- siderable scale, and were executed with great talent and knowledge by General Russky, the commander of the troops forming part of the Kiev army, who showed singular per- spicacity and great decision in all the operations which he executed. The Austrians thought that by attacking us with all their forces they would be able to prevent our mobiliza- tion being accomplished in time, and thus, from the outset, secure a very real advantage. They began by attacking and taking Lublin and Chelm, with the evident intention to force our lines from the West to cross the Bug, and thus attack from the rear the army which we were concentrating around Warsaw, and in flank the troops which we had sent into Eastern Prussia. To be able to execute this movement, the Austrians developed their forces on a front of more than 150 versts,^ occupying and leaning on the following points, which they had strongly fortified : Zavilost, Janov, Bilgoraj, Tomaszov, and Belcez. To accomplish this very important operation it was in- dispensable, however, to protect the right wing of the Aus- trian Army from the possibility of an attack by the Russian troops occupying the Kiev military district. In order to do this, the intention of the Austrian commanders had been to bring forward the second Austro-Hungarian Army, com- posed of the third, eleventh and twelfth corps, and five cav- alry divisions. According to the reckonings of the Austrian Staff, the mobilization of the Austro-Hungarian Army, as well as its concentration in South Galicia, ought to have been accomplished on the fourteenth day after the order for the general mobilization had been issued; but two weeks after *A verst is 1,1613/5 yfirds. 196 RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS war had begun the Austrians had not succeeded in gathering all their forces. This delay placed our enemies in a worse strategical position than they had imagined possible, and they found themselves compelled to reenforce the troops which they had in South Galicia by bringing up part of their seventh, thirteenth and fourteenth corps, amounting to twelve divisions of infantry, and a few brigades of Land- sturm and some cavalry and artillery — approximately 220,- 000 to 230,000 men, — who were instructed to cover the operations that had been intrusted to the main body occupy- ing Southern Galicia. In the meanwhile the Russian mobili- zation had been effected far more quickly than our adver- saries had anticipated, and already, on the i6th of August, a bare fortnight following the declaration of war by Aus- tria upon Russia, the army forming part of the Kiev mili- tary district had developed itself around Lutzk, Dubno and Proskurov — that is, on a front extending to something like 175 versts — and began steadily marching toward the en- emy's territory. During seventeen days these troops, which formed the left wing of our main army, covered a space of 220 versts, or something like thirteen versts per day, fighting nearly the whole of the time. If one takes into account that troops on the march in peaceful times are not supposed to cover more than fifteen versts in twenty-four hours, whilst we managed to do thirteen, fighting and forcing all kinds of obstacles, Russia may justly feel proud of the endurance shown by our soldiers upon this occasion, where everything depended on the promptitude of our movements. The main forces of our enemy in South Galicia were gathered together in a very strongly fortified position at Kamenka and Kalisz, and extended upon a front of more than no versts. We attacked this position, and after a most desperate struggle, which lasted several days, the Aus- trians were completely routed on September ist. They lost something like a hundred and thirty thousand men killed and wounded, whilst, in addition, two hundred guns and vast quantities of ammunition were left in our hands. After this defeat, due to the clever strategy of General RUSSIA CRUSHES THE AUSTRIANS 197 Russky, who was most ably seconded by General Brusiloif, the commander of the Second Army engaged in Galicia, the principal Austrian forces reassembled opposite Opol and Belcez, but they did not succeed in establishing themselves on a wide front. We had crossed the frontier on the 19th of August, and fought all the time from that day to the moment when at last we entered Lemberg. Our march for- ward was very difficult, owing to the many small rivers, affluents of the Dniester, which had to be crossed, as well as to the various fortified points that we had to take by storm ; but already, on the 20th of August (September 2nd), our army found itself in sight of Lemberg, the forts of which showed no resistance whatever, and on August 21st (Sep- tember 3rd), at eleven o'clock in the morning, the town, itself was taken by our troops after a short engagement. The greatest success of the campaign had been achieved with relatively very little loss, and the name of General Russky became famous all over Russia. The Grand Duke Nicholas immediately telegraphed the good news of Lemberg to the Emperor, asking the Czar to award the Cross of St. George, of the third class, a most rare distinction, to General Russky. All over Russia solemn thanksgiving services were celebrated, and great manifesta- tions of joy as well as popular demonstrations took place in Petrograd and in Moscow. People began speaking of the invincible Russian armies and expected to hear every day that we were on the road to Vienna, if not in actual posses- sion of that capital. In the general joy it was entirely for- gotten that Germany existed, and through the glasses of a rose-colored optimism she was seen already conquered just as completely as her Austrian ally. As for our reverses in Eastern Prussia, they had already sunk into insignificance, the more so that, as a revenge for all the horrors of Tan- nenburg, the Emperor had seen fit to change the name of Petersburg into the truly Russian "Petrograd," and the gov- ernment had forbidden German to be spoken in the streets or to be taught in schools. Surely this was enough to satisfy the most fervent patriot ! THE ABANDONMENT OF PARIS WITHDRAWAL OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT TO BORDEAUX SEPTEMBER 3RD GENERAL GALLIENI GEORGE FERRIS We turn again to France, the main theater of the Great War. As the victorious Germans swept on from the frontier and over north- eastern France, there seemed no stopping them. Battles were re- ported every day; and still the British and the French fell back. To all except Jofifre, the master strategist, this seemed to imply disaster falling thick upon disaster. The public could not realize how the Germans were being worn to exhaustion, their lines of communication stretched to the uttermost, their munitions squandered. Then came the mom.ent when Joffre warned the Paris government that he would not even guarantee the safety of the capital. That too might become the spoil of war; the government must withdraw. Heroically President Poincare and all his ministers accepted the situation. France must fight to her utmost, must sacrifice everything else, even Paris, if her military chances were thereby improved. In- deed, there is no single element of the War more impressive than the splendid firmness wherewith Frenchmen met every call upon their courage and resources, even to the end. Mr. Perris, who here de- scribes the Paris of those dark September days, was himself an eye- witness, an English one not over-sympathetic with the French. Their own f^;eling in the matter is best expressed by the Government Procla- mation of withdrawal, and by the brief, decisive words in which General Gallieni announced that, with the government officials gone, he was in command of the capital, and would defend it to the end. Both then and later Gallieni well won his fame as one of the fore- most French heroes of the War. by general gallieni Army of Paris, Inhabitants of Paris, THE members of the Government of the Republic have left Paris to give a fresh impulse to national defense. I have been intrusted with the task of defending Paris against the invader. That task I will fulfill to the end. Gallieni, Commandant of the Army of Paris. 198 THE ABANDONMENT OF PARIS 199 [Here follows the Government Proclamation signed by all the civil and military authorities, including Gallieni.] People of France 1 For several weeks relentless battles have engaged our heroic troops and the army of the enemy. The valor of our soldiers has won for them, at several points, marked advan- tages ; but in the north the pressure of the German forces has compelled us to fall back. This situation has compelled the President of the Re- public and the Government to take a painful decision. In order to watch over the national welfare, it is the duty of the public powers to remove themselves temporarily from the city of Paris. Under the command of an eminent Chief, a French Army, full of courage and zeal, will defend the capital and its patriotic population against the invader. But the war must be carried on at the same time on the rest of its territory. Without peace or truce, without cessation or faltering, the struggle for the honor of the nation and the reparation of violated rights must continue. None of our armies is impaired. If some of them have sustained very considerable losses, the gaps have immedi- ately been filled up from the reserves, and the appeal for recruits assures us of new reserves in men and energy to- morrow. Endure and fight ! Such must be the motto of the Allied British, Russian, Belgian, and French armies. Endure and fight, while at sea the British aid us, cut- ting the communication of our enemy with the world. Endure and fight, while the Russians continue to ad- vance to strike the decisive blow at the heart of the German Empire. It is the duty of the Government of the Republic to di- rect this stubborn resistance. Everywhere Frenchmen will rise for their independence ; but, to insure the utmost spirit and efficacy in the formidable fight, it is indispensable that the Government shall remain free to act. 200 THE ABANDONMENT OF PARIS At the request of the military authorities, the Govern- ment is therefore temporarily transferring its headquarters to a place where it can remain in constant touch with the whole of the country. It requests members of Parliament not to remain away from it, in order that they may form, with their colleagues, a bond of national unity. The Government leaves Paris only after having assured the defense of the city and of the entrenched camp by every means in its power. It knows that it does not need to recommend to the admirable population of Paris that calm, resolution, and coolness which it is showing every day, and which is on a level with its highest traditions. People of France, let us all be worthy of these tragic cir- cumstances. We shall gain the final victory; we shall gain it by unflagging will, endurance, and tenacity. A nation which refuses to perish, and which, in order to live, does not flinch either from suffering or sacrifice, is sure of victory. BY GEORGE FERRIS On the night of Monday, August 31st, I received pri- vately the alarming news that the Government of France was abandoning its capital, tlie first city of Continental Europe. At four o'clock on that afternoon, 1,200 of the 1,500 employees of the Ministry of War, of all grades, had received notice, first to send their families into the coun- try immediately, then to go themselves to Tours, taking with them what they could of the material for which they were responsible. The loading of automobiles with office docu- ments, typewriters, and other effects was then proceed- ing at full pressure. Many of the men had already left. At other Ministries, there was the same scene of hurried pack- ing in corridors full of boxes, and a rapid succession of motor-cars carried away the official property as soon as it was ready. Some was taken to the Quai d'Orsay and Aus- terlitz stations; other motor-cars had gone southward by road. The decision to abandon Paris and to shift the seat THE ABANDONMENT OF PARIS 201 of Government to Bordeaux was come to on the Monday afternoon at a Cabinet Council, of which a usually trust- worthy official gave me a grievous account. This climax had been reached so rapidly, and it is so easy for the stolid Englishman to misunderstand the French temperament — in which wild gesticulations are perfectly consistent with an heroic courage — that I will not repeat my informant's words, lest it should be supposed that there was a flagrant hour of sheer panic. Suffice it that the Ministers were not agreed whether to go or stay, but that it was ultimately de- cided to go. It is difficult now to recall the sense of impending calam- ity that then seemed so real, and lay hourly more heavily upon us. At the Central Telegraph Office that Monday evening, I was told that, since the early morning, there had been no communication with London. Letters were three days late. We were, or appeared to be, nearly isolated. There might have been a great defeat. We did not know. When I went to the War Office at eleven o'clock that night to receive the usual late communique, I already knew the facts cited above, and had, beside, a bundle of rumors hot enough then to set the Seine on fire ; but not now. The offi- cer in charge of the Press service did not usually come in person, but sent an orderly with a parcel of typewritten sheets which were distributed without comment. There had been an unusually long communique at 5 p. m. — a rechauffe of the former news which did not indicate any new defeat or cause for anxiety. At 1 1 p. m. Commandant Thomasson came to us himself, and, after announcing that no official bulletin would be issued, made a short statement, in course of which he admitted that a second aeroplane had ap- peared over Paris that day and left the usual missiles. Not a word as to what many of the responsible French journal- ists present must, like myself, have been thinking about. And therefore no guidance in the next morning's papers for the hundreds of thousands of anxious hearts in a city that had been at full stretch of its nervous powers for a month. Or, rather, there were two notes, faintly struck, in either of which some comfort might be found, but that neither had 202 THE ABANDONMENT OF PARIS any apparent authority, and they were quite irreconcilable. Paris is all right, said the one voice; she can stand a long siege, and by that time the Russians will be in Berlin. Paris may be invested, said the other voice, and it is evi- dently inadvisable for the Ministry to be locked up or cap- ared by the enemy. Naturally, it will retire, as the Bel- gians retired from Brussels to Antwerp. Putting aside for a moment the question of the power of the city to resist assault and to bear a siege, it will be seen that the analogies were unsound. It was supposed that, if the Russians reached Berlin, everything would be over but the shouting, while, when the Germans reached Brussels and Paris, the Governments would move away and the resistance be main- tained as if nothing had happened. An impartial observer would say that, if the Russians continued their successful march, the Prussian Government would leave Berlin — and the German people would not lose much by that. The Bel- gian Government was in being; but there was this great difference between Brussels and Paris — Brussels was an open town, and could not be defended. Paris had a double ring of fortifications, and we had been told, with every kind and degree of positiveness, that it would resist capture to the last. Evidently, the Government, or the main body of it, should be moved whenever there was any danger of its being captured; but a premature movement of the kind could not but be a severe shock to the Parisian public, and it was a matter of no little local importance that shocks should be avoided if possible, apart from any general effect upon the feeling of the nation. No news more alarming than statements that the de- fenses were being put in readiness, and that it was advisable for people having relations in the country to send their women and children thither, had been allowed to appear in the Paris Press for a week past. Yet an exodus, now much accentuated, had begun on Saturday, August 29th; through- out that and the following days, lines of cabs, many of them filled with household goods, were racing through the boulevards to the southern and western railway stations; and a very large part of the population of the city was en- THE ABANDONMENT OF PARIS gaged in discussing whether, and if so how, it should re- move itself. A lady who had arranged some time before to leave Paris on the Saturday night for Biarritz had to be content at the last moment with a seat on a rough bench in a cattle truck, into which thirty passengers or more were crowded, without a glimmer of light. The train carried nothing but third-class and trucks, and, stopping at most stations, it took about thirty hours tO' reach its destination. I went down to the St. Lazare Station on the Sunday morning to see how it was with the British and American passengers leaving at 9.30 by the Havre route. A quite orderly, but tired, anxious, and uncomfortable crowd of about a thou- sand persons surrounded the entry to the platform, and more were constantly arriving. At noon there were 10,000 persons in and around the Mont Parnasse Station, trying to get train for Rennes, St. Malo, and Brest; and at the In- valides Station, which had been more carefully reserved for military use, the officials said that enough passengers had been booked in advance for Brittany to fill all the trains for a week. The odd thing was that there was an inflow as well as an outflow, though not on so large a scale. First, there was an uninterrupted stream of refugees from the immediate scene of fighting — the region of Mons, and then the region around Laon. More than 30,000 of these poor people were landed at the Nord Station on the 29th. Many of them were carry- ing oddments of property with them, and some of the chil- dren had been allowed to bring a favorite dog or canary. All of this vast social disturbance was not directed upon Paris. A lady who had a summer cottage near Pontoise de- scribed vividly the abandonment of many of the villages on this northwestern road by their inhabitants, who had not yet seen the Germans, and were resolved not to see them. Add to the influx of refugees that of wounded soldiers — all the hospitals of the city were not full, but even when expect- ing a siege, Paris is a great distributing center — and a smaller number of German prisoners; then ofiFset against these the flight of Parisian families and foreigners, and