Skip to main content web texts movies audio software image logosearch Search upload personSIGN IN ABOUT CONTACT BLOG PROJECTS HELP DONATE JOBS VOLUNTEER PEOPLE Full text of "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 sociological movements and individual national activities" See other formats UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LIBRARY THE GIFT OF EDWARD E. ROEWADE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/sourcerecordsofg06newy BINDING Vol. VI The binding design on this volume is an authorized facsimile of the original art binding on the official copy of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which was signed by the President of Uruguay and deposited in the Archives of the Government of Uruguay. 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 OUTUNE NARRATIVES. INDICES. CHRONOLOaES. AND COURSES OF READING ON SOCIO- LOGICAL MOVEMENTS AND INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL ACTIVITIES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHARLES F. IIORNE, Ph.D. DIRECTING EDITOR WALTER F. AUSTIN, LL.M. With a staff of specialists VOLUME VI i^ational ^lumm Copyright, 1923, National Alumni Printed in U.S.A. CONTENTS VOLUME VI— 1918 The Year of Victory PACK An Outline Narrative of The Winning of the War .... xiii CHARLES F. HORNE. I The " Fourteen Points" of Peace {Jan. 8) America Establishes the Basis for the World's Reconstruction ..... i PRESIDENT WILSON, of the United States. GEORG. COUNT VON HERTLING, German Chancellor in 1918. ARTHUR BALFOUR, Foreign Minister of Great Britain. BARON DE BROQUEVILLE. Foreign Minister of Belgium. II Creation of the New State, the Ukraine {Feb. q) The War's First Peace Treaty, and the Breaking Up of Russia . . . . .18 PRESIDENT VINICHENKO, of the Ukrainian National Council. N'ICOLAI LENINE, Bolshevist Leader of Russia. RICHARD VON KUHLMAN, Head of the German Peace Con- mission. CHARLES, Emperor of Austria-Hungary. Ill Bolshevism Bows to Germany {Feb. 15-March 3) Teuton Armies Force Russia to Accept Their Peace ...... 31 LEON TROTSKY. Foreign Minister of Bolshevik Russia. SIR GEORGE ASTON, British general and historian. GEOROv COUNT VON HERTLING, German Chancellor. OTTOKAR. COUNT CZERNIN, Austrian Prime Minister. VI Opening of the Mighty Kaiserbattle " {March 21) Germany Smashes Through the British Line . 50 MARSHAL HINDENBURG, German Commander-in-Chief. SIR DOUGLAS HAIG. British Commander-in-Chief. GUSTAVE BABIN, French official observer. GENERAL VON ARZ, Austrian Chief of Staff. GERMAN AND AMERICAN OFFICIAL REPORTS, vii viii CONTENTS PAGE V The Most Tremendous of German War Inventions {March 23) The Long Distance Bombardment of Paris . 92 WILLIAM G. SHARP, U. S. Ambassador in Paris. GENERAL ROHNE, Prussian Artillery expert. VI Foch Given Supreme Command {Aprils) America Leads the Way to the Complete Union of the Allies' Forces. .... 97 GENERAL PERSHING, U. S. Commander-in-Chief. DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, British Prime Minister. VII Britain Fights "With Back to the Wall" {April 9-30) Battle of the Lys, the Second Blow of the Kaiser- battle. ...... 140 MARSHAL HINDENBURG, German Commander-in-Chief. SIR DOUGLAS HAIG, British Commander-in-Chief. SIR ARTHUR CURRIE, Canadian Commanding Genera!. GENERAL VON GAEDKE, noted German military critic. VIII The'' Zeebrugge Affair ' ' {A pril 22) The Most Brilliant Naval Exploit of the War . 126 COMMANDER ALFRED CARPENTER, officer in command. BRITISH ADMIRALTY NARRATIVE. STATEMENTS OF ADMIRALS VON TIRPITZ AND SCHEER, of Germany IX The Odyssey of the Czecho-Slavs {May-September) The March of the "Army Without a Country'' . 144 VLADIMIR NOSEK, Czecho-Slav statesman. THOMAS MASARYK, President of Czecho-Slovakia. ROBERT LANSING. U. S. Secretary of State. X The Chief Blow of the " Kaiserbattle" {May 27) Germany Breaks the French Line on the Aisne and Again Reaches the Marne . . .164 GENERAL HENRI BERTHAUT, French Military expert. JOHN BUCHAN. British historian. MAJOR MAX VON SCHREIBERSHOFEN, German Military authority. XI Europe's Cry to America for Instant Help {May 28- June 2) Cantigny, The First Independent A merican A ttack 1 84 GENERAL PERSHING, U. S. Commander-in-Chief. GEORGES CLEMENCEAU, Prime Minister of France. VITTORIO ORLANDO, Prime Minister of Italy. MAJOR FREDERICK PALMER, U. S. eye-witness at Cantigny. CONTENTS ix PAGB XII Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood {June i-8) How America Met the Germans at the Marne . 193 U. S. FRENCH AND BRITISH OFFICIAL REPORTS. JOSEPHUS DANIELS, U. S. Secretary of the Navy. OTTO H. KAI-IN, American publicist. LIEUTENANT VON BERG, official German investigator. JEAN PIERREFEU, of the French staff. XIII Italy s Greatest Victory {June 15-23) Austria' s Catastrophe on the Piave . . . 213 HENRI KERVAREC, Official Observer with the Italian forces. M.A.RSKAL VON HOETZENDORFF, Austrian Commander. MAX OSBORN, German Official Observer. LORD ROBERT CAVAN, British Commander in the Field. LUIGI VILLARI, Italian "radical" critic. XIV Siberian Independence Proclaimed {July 4) Russian Democracy Receives Ally Aid Against Bolshevism. ..... 230 CARL M. ACKERMAN, American eye-witness. SIBERIAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. U. S. & JAPANESE GOVERNMENT STATEMENTS. BORIS BAKHMETEFF, Russian Ambassador to U. S. NICOLAI TCHAIKOWSKV, President of North Russia. XV Germany s Last Effort at Attack {July 15) The ''Peace Assault" and American Resistance on the Marne ..... 242 GENERAL GOURAUD, French commander in the battle. JOHN BUCHAN, British historian. LIEUTENANT KURT HESSE, German participant. GENERAL VON ARDENNE, German military critic. XVI The Beginning of the End {July 18) Foch Launches the Great Allied Advance . .259 FERDINAND FOCH, Marshal of France. JOHN BUCHAN, British historian. GEORG WEGENER, German military critic. U. S., GERMAN AND FRENCH OFFICIAL STATEMENTS. KARL ROSNER, Newspaper attendant of the Kaiser. XVII Breaking the Hindenhurg Line {Aug. 8-Sep. 30) Canadaandthe United States Aid the British Drive 281 MARSHAL HINDENBURG, German Commander. FREDERICK MCKENZIE. Canadian eye-witness. U. S. OFFICIAL REPORTS. XVIII St. Mihiel {Sep. 12) Germany Loses her Chief Salient against Verdun . 309 CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK WILLIAM, of Germany. GENERAL PERSHING, U. S. Commander-in-Chief. X CONTENTS PACK XIX Bulgaria's Downfall {Sept. i5-2g) The Allies Advance from Salonika . . . 321 GENERAL FRANCHET D'ESPEREY. French commander. GENERAL JOHN MILNE, British commander. ELEUTHERIOS VENIZELOS. Prime Minister of Greece. KING FERDINAND OF BULGARIA. XX The Fall of Turkey {Sept. i8-0ct. 30) Capture of Damascus and Constantinople . . 332 SIR EDMUND ALLENBY, British general in command. GASTON BODART, oflScial Teuton investigator. W. T. MASSEY, official British observer. MOHAMMED VI, Sultan of Turkey. XXI Storming the Argonne {Sept. 26~0ct. 16) America's Biggest Battle .... 345 GENERAL PERSHING, U. S. Commander-in-Chief. GENERAL VON DER MARWITZ. German commander. GENERAL LUDENDORFF, German Chief of Staff. XXII Awakening of the German People {Oct. 2-Nov. 5) The Sailors' Mutiny at Kiel . . . -358 MAJOR VON DER BUSSCHE, representing the German Staff. WILLIAM II, Emperor of Germany. DR. KARL LIEBKNECHT, German Socialistic leader. F. S. DELMER, a British eye-witness. XXIII Austria's Breakdown {Oct. 2$-Nov. j) Italy Smashes the Austrian Front at Vittorio . 373 GENERAL DIAZ, Italian Commander-in-Chief. G. M. TREVELYAN. Head of the British Red Cross in Italy. ALLESSANDRO SAPELLI, Captain in the Italian Army. CHARLES V, Emperor of Austria-Hungary XXIV The Final Ally Drive to Victory {Nov. i-Nov.ii) The Americans Capture the Sedan Line . . 386 GENERAL MAURICE, British Chief of Staff. GENERAL PERSHING, U. S. Commander-in-Chief. MARSHAL FOCH. XXV Germany Declares Herself a Republic {Nov. g) Abdication of the Kaiser .... 402 PRINCE MAXIMILIAN, the last Imperial Chancellor. WILLIAM HOHENZOLLERN. tiie former Kaiser. FREDERICK WILLIAM, former Crown Prince. FREDERICK EBERT, President of the German Republic. COUNT VON MOLTKE, of the Kaiser's personal Staff. XXVI The Armistice {Nov. 11) .... 415 MARSHALS FOCH aND HINDENBURG. NARRATIVES OF EYE-WITNESSES. WOODROW WILSON, President of the United States. ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME VI The Last Stroke for V/orld Empire (page 84) Painting by Hugo Ungewitter Tlie Kaiser in Command Painting by F. Schwarnstadt The First Attack .... United States Government Photograph St. Mihiel ..... United States Government Photograph The Beginning of the End United States Government Photograph as 1918 THE YEAR OF VICTORY AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF THE WINNING OF THE WAR BY CHARLES F. HORNE THE year of victory! In 1918, the fifth year of combat, the Great War reached its tremendous chmax and he- roic close. The Allies rescued civilization from destruction, rescued Democracy from that State Absolutism of Prussia which had seemed the most overpowering of all forms of government. Moreover, the rescue was accomplished with dramatic suddenness at the instant when all hope seemed failing, accomplished in that one last desperate effort which precedes despair. History will never record a moment more lense with anxiety than that in which the American troops checked the Germans in their great June advance toward Paris. No reversal of the tidal wave of world-wide battle had ever been one-half so stupendous as that in which the United Allies swept back the entire German army from July until November, and kept them retiring at ever-increasing speed until the Armistice. Americans may forever remember with just pride the glory of their part in the achievements of 1918. Yet there are some among them who have blindly overestimated America's triumph and have thus sunk back into a compla- cent ignoring of other nations, an idle boasting that, having beaten the world's greatest military power, they could repeat the deed with ease, if Germany or another were ever again so mad as to defy them. This, of course, is a complete misread- ing of their real part in the War. Upon them devolved the proud fortune of striking the final blow; but they struck at an antagonist already exhausted by many blows far mightier than theirs. The effort they made was full of sturdy prom- ise; but in performance their deeds were still small when xiil xiv AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF compared with the achievements by which Britain, France and Russia had held back the foe, or the still more stu- pendous effort by which Germany had matched these three powers at once. It is an open question whether they alone, unprepared as they were, could have outfought the feeblest of these four desperate and determined nations. By the spring of 1918, however, the strength of all the European powers was ebbing fast. The terrific drain of the past four years had brought them all close upon exhaus- tion, bankruptcy, starvation. The value of the support they were to receive from America's military aid was still an unanswered riddle for the future. Hence the outcome of the War loomed grimly doubtful. Russia, with her lower civilization and her cruder form of absolutism in govern- ment, had been the first Power to break beneath the strain ; and her complete military downfall had increased enormously the danger of defeat to the Allies. Germany was now re- lieved from all military effort in the East. Austria, though terribly weakened, had still strength to support her Balkan allies, to hold conquered Rumania in check, and even to threaten Italy, exhausted by the anarchistic disaster of the preceding year. Thus Germany, for the first time since 19 14, was able to turn all her forces westward against France and Britain. These two had withstood her every previous as- sault. Could they withstand one more, the heaviest of all, wherein their great foe's united armies were all to gather in one last and most terrific blow? On the other hand, even Germany could not hide from herself the fact that this blow must be her last. She was straining her resources to the uttermost. Beyond this year and this assault, there could be no more heaping up of great masses of ammunition, no m.ore feeding of enormous armies. The alternative of victory was no longer more battles, more piling of "cannon-fodder" into the maw of slaughter. The alternative now would be a complete military breakdown, followed by surrender or else by anarchy and all the mad massacre that rides in fellowship with despair. So the real German dictator. General Ludendorff, now gave his ultimatum to the shifting series of shadowy Im- THE WINNING OF THE WAR xv penal Chancellors who had superseded Bethmann-HoUweg. This ultimatum was soon known to the public of Germany and of the world. Ludendorff declared that if he were given all the men and all the munitions Germany could still gather, he could smash this Franco-British line. It would cost, he estimated, 400,000 men; but Paris would be cap- tured and France be broken. So Germany would be vic- torious before the summer — and before the Americans could be ready. There was the real issue! Could America send across the seas enough men, enough competent fighting men, to offset the new and mighty reenforcement of German vet- erans gathered from the Russian front? This seemed to Europe tragically uncertain. Britain was still very strong, and very resolute to fight ; but she had passed the zenith of her power. France, with the loss of half her fighting men, continued strong only in her heroic spirit. Her sons could be relied on to maintain the struggle until the last man fell. But was that strength sufficient? Then it was that the President of the United States stood forth in the world-crisis, as the world's leader. The uncer- tainty of victory upon either side in Europe, and the certain approach of anarchy from every side, had led to much talk of peace. Britain and France were even grudgingly pre- pared to abate something of their former demands, though making peace with the German autocracy was like trying to live with a double-ended poison snake, which talked and struck from both ends at once. Then, on January 8th of 1918, President Wilson announced his famous "fourteen points," which when summarized into one, meant that justice to all the fighting peoples was the only basis on which the United States would sheathe the sword she had unwillingly drawn. The clear, high words had a tremendous influence. They raised the Allies' cause to be the World's cause. They gave Europe new heart and courage. They were adopted by every one of the Allied governments ; and Woodrow Wilson became the acknowledged leader and spokesman of this first real "league of nations." ^ *See § I, "The Fourteen Points of Peace," Wilson, Hertling, etc xvi AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF THE RUSSIAN PEACE WITHOUT PEACE Even Germany approved the "fourteen points," at least in words, for to refuse approval to such high thoughts would have been for any man an open confession of wickedness. But at heart the German leaders had as yet no intent of admitting their injustice, or of making restitution for their crimes. Their triumph over Russia had so much encour- aged them that they still dreamed of being the leaders, and ultimately the despots, of the world. Hence they paltered with peace talk in the West, while in the East they pre- pared for devouring helpless Russia. The armistice which Germany had made with the Bol- shevist rulers of Russia in the preceding December called for a peace convention to be held at Brest-Litovsk, the for- mer Russian fortress city now held by the Germans. When the convention met, there appeared before it in January of 19 1 8 the representatives of a new country, previously un- known to the general world. This was the Ukraine, or Ukrainia, comprising the rich grain lands of southwestern Russia, whose people had always been known as "little Rus- sians," and whose chief center was the very ancient Russian holy city of Kiev. Some Ukrainian leaders, upheld by Ger- many's military support, now declared Ukrainia an inde- pendent state, separate from Bolshevist Russia and bound to Germany by close ties of alliance and commercial dependence. In effect Ukrainia was to become a German province.^ The Bolshevist rulers were here caught in a trap of their own making. They had declared that every community had the right to frame its own government. They could not therefore protest against the Ukraine's doing so. They ac- knowledged Ukrainia's independence. But then there imme- diately followed further German demands. Finland, in the north, must also be separated from Russia ; so must Poland ; so must all the western regions which German troops had already seized, the districts known as Lithviania and Estho- nia and Courland and Livonia. In short, all the richest and most populous parts of western Russia, right up to the very edge of Petrograd itself, were to be formed into small, sepa- * See § II, "Creation of the Ukraine," by Vinichenko, Lenine, etc THE WINNING OF THE WAR xvii rate states, which were nominally to select their own forms of government. But the new governments were to be estab- lished under the direction and control of the German gov- ernors and German troops who were in possession of the entire region — and who obviously intended to remain so. This, Germany called a "peace without annexations." There was of course an element of grim farce in the way Germany thus turned against the Bolshevists their own proclamation, and wrenched from them all their richest lands in the name of "freedom." To the AUies it showed mani- festly how little Germany had meant by her surface acqui- escence in the "fourteen points," and how completely she in tended to twist each one, by some hypocritical turn, to her own enrichment and enlargement. With such a foe, force and only force could insure justice. So, presently, Mr. Wilson spoke for the Allies once more in his celebrated speech of April 6th, declaring that Germany should now be met with "Force to the uttermost." Even though Germany might break western Europe as she had broken Russia, America would still fight on^ upholding universal justice as against all the slave armies Germany might drag from her tortured new dominions. Neither did the Bolshevists themselves yield easily to Germany's iron demands. They protested ; they argued ; and when the German military leaders at Brest-Litovsk stopped argument with grim, contemptuous commands, the Bolshe- vist leaders adopted the fantastic policy of simply quitting the peace conference, declaring that Russia was at peace anyway, though she would accede to none of Germany's demands — beyond that of the Ukraine's independence. The Bolshevists seem to have thought, or hoped, that Germany, content with keeping the lands she already held, would at least leave Petrograd alone, and so enable them to "save their face" with the Russian people, to whom they had prom- ised an equal peace. At least they could now say that they had signed no unequal peace; and they still hoped for an uprising in their favor among the German masses. German militarism was, however, far too strong to ^eave the opportunity, even had there been the desire, for a revolt xviii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF in Germany; and the German leaders had no intent of let- ting Russia off so vaguely. If the two countries were not at peace, they were at war. So the German generals marched their troops further onward into Russia — unopposed; for the Bolshevist army was still of such type that, while eagerly slaughtering thousands of helpless civilians at home, it was as unwilling as it was incompetent to fight a well armed foe.^ Under pressure of this renewed German invasion, which began in February, the Bolshevist rulers abandoned their defiant attitude. They again met the German peace com- missioners, yielded everything that had been demanded, and agreed also to pay to Germany a heavy money "indemnity." The first installment of this was soon afterward paid; the final peace treaty was signed on March 3rd; and Germany was left to absorb the newly created border states as best she might. In her proclamations she represented herself to these peoples as their noble benefactor, bringing to them the inestimable advantage of studying German "Kultur" and of holding their lives and fortunes subject to the mercy of some Prussian "junker" instead of a Russian Czar. Forlorn Rumania, left isolated by the Russian and the Ukrainian peace, was also compelled to sign a treaty which placed her helpless in Germany's power, ruled by the able German general, Mackensen, who had already half-con- quered her. The only Ally forces that remained in the East were two. At Salonika and Monastir, the combined army of British, French and Serbian troops still upheld the Greeks in their wavering defiance of exhausted Bulgaria and Austria. And in Asia, British forces held Bagdad and Jerusalem, and could push onward, almost at will, against the exhausted, starving and despairing Turks. Germany's allies thus con- tinued to pay, by their increasing and utter ruin, the full price for all her Russian triumph. THE TREMENDOUS GERMAN DRIVE IN THE WEST Against this eastern background of intrigue and conquest, massacre and desolation, such as the world had not known through all the centuries of modern civilization, against this was to be pictured the great final drama of battle in the * See § III, "Bolshevism Bows to Germany," Trotsky, Czernin, etc. THE WINNING OF THE WAR xix West. The great Ludendorff had made all his preparations, and on March 21st he launched Germany's final "thrust for victory." He proclaimed that this was to be the vastest, the most rigorously continued, and in the end the most glori- ous for Germany, of all world battles ; it was to be called the "Kaiser-battle." For this assault, Ludendorff had carefully culled from all his regiments their best fighting soldiers, and he had united these in new regiments as "shock troops." He could thus rely on his new regiments for a most powerful attack ; yet the policy was almost suicidal in its recklessness. If once these shock troops were all expended in the desperate battle, what strength could be expected from the other weak- ened regiments ! The device made clear that this was indeed the relentless desperation of a final blow. How near that desperation came to victory is still an awesome vision to the peoples who escaped. For four months, from mid-March to mid- July, the great Kaiser-battle raged, while the whole civilian world watched in breathless expectation this struggle which must decide the fate of every human soul among us all. Generals on either side may have been earlier confident as to the final issue ; but as to the rest of the world, not until after the i8th of July, when the last great German assault had crumbled before Rheims and the great Foch counter-attack had been successfully launched against the "Mame salient," not until then could we say with easier breath that the end was in sight, that with God's good grace the victory would be ours. Let us follow the steps of this stupendous battle. It consisted of four, or perhaps we should reckon them five, separate German assaults, each stupendous in itself, each fol- lowed by a period of renewed preparation, and each launched against a different sector of the Ally line. That first Ludendorff assault of March 21st has been called the Battle of Picardy. It was directed against the British army along a front of over fifty miles in Picardy, the region where the great Battle of the Somme had been fought in 19 16 and had forced the Hindenburg Retreat of 191 7. Along all this line there now broke forth the heaviest bombardment of the War, followed by the fierce charge of AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF the German "shock troops." Ludendorff's hope, as he him- self has told us, was to break through the British lines at the northern end of his attack, near Arras, and thus sepa- rate the chief force of the Britons from their comrades and their French allies to the south. Thus the Britons could be quickly crowded back upon the Channel ports, crushed into helpless disorder in this restricted space, and even annihi- lated. After that the victorious Germans would turn upon the French and capture Paris. ^ Fortunately for the Allies, the strongly guarded British lines at Arras held firm against the utmost German effort. There came a break, however, farther south, where the ex- treme end of the British line joined the French army. Here the "Fifth British Army" under General Gough had been ex- tended in thin formation over a considerable space, and un- der the continued beating of the German thunderstorm the thin line snapped. Sweeping through the gap, the Germans rushed down the valley of the Somme, and soon recovered all the region they had resigned in the former Hindenburg Retreat. Unfortunately for themselves, their previous devastation of this region had been so complete that it was now an utter wilderness, a morass of mud, offering extraordi- nary difficulty to their advance and to the bringing forward of supplies. So their own previous thoroughness now proved their undoing. Their great leader afterward said that he would sooner have broken through the Ally line in any other place whatever. His very success became a trap by luring him to more costly effort. The advance of his exhausted troops grew slower and slower. The Allies attacked them desperately from either side; and by March 28th the line in front of the Germans had formed again. On that day they captured the French city of Montdidier; but that marked the apex of their ad- vance in this "Battle of Picardy." On the same day their last huge assault on Arras, their original goal, broke down with tremendous losses. This was probably the heaviest single day of fighting in the entire War. The narrow escape of the Allied forces from a complete See § IV, "Opening of the Kaiserbattle," by Haig, Ludendorff, etc. THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxi and crushing defeat in this first assault, the unexpected snap- ping of the sturdily held British line, led to one great forward step in the Ally plans. General Foch was made Commander- in-Chief with full authority over all the forces on the West- ern front. This step had been urged by the American au- thorities from the first ; but the British had refused thus to subordinate themselves. Their prime minister, Lloyd George, had risked his whole popularity by urging it. Now the obvious necessity shook even British pride; and the American general, Pershing, set them a gallant example. In the hour of disaster, he publicly offered all his American troops, untrained as most of them still were, to be used in this extremity in whatever way the French commander wished, either as an army or as individual companies and regiments to be brigaded under French or British generals and to lend reenforcement wherever needed. This splendid sacrifice of America's individuality may have exerted the last pressure needed ; for now the British army rulers yielded their opposition. On April 3rd, Marshal Foch assumed con- trol over what was for the first time one vast united army directed by a single brain toward a single purpose. Thus Ferdinand Foch, Frenchman, Catholic, a professor once dis- missed from a military college, came into command of the greatest single army ever gathered in the world. ^ Foch knew well that the mighty Kaiser-battle had as yet passed only its initial stage. He made hasty realign- ment of his troops. The fighting meanwhile continued every day, though in less tremendous fashion. Then no sooner had the Germans readjusted themselves than they struck again with all their strength. This second huge outburst of destruction began on April 9th, and has been called the Battle of the Lys. In it Ludendorff resumed his original plan, to drive against the Britons in the north and sweep them back upon the Channel coast. Since he had failed at Arras, he tried now further north along the Lys River, just to the south of Ypres. The Battle of the Lys was almost a duplicate of that of Picardy. This time it was a Portuguese regiment that gave * See § VI, "Foch Assumes Supreme Command," Lloyd George, etc xxii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF way, overwhelmed by the massed thousands of the Germans. Through the gap thus made, the foe swept down the valley of the Lys River, surrounding and capturing Armentieres with its British garrison, and storming Messines Ridge, which the British had so brilliantly won the year before. Soon the Germans had regained all the ground they had lost in the great 191 7 Battle of Flanders, and were threatening Ypres with complete encirclement. On April 12th the Brit- ish chief commander, Haig, issued his frank and startling appeal to his men, declaring that they were fighting with their "backs to the wall," and that any further loss of ground would mean irremediable disaster.^ But that ground was not lost. General Foch rushed French troops to the Britons' aid; and again the gap was closed. Again the German blow had reached the limit of its power. So tremendous had been the slaughter of the Ger- man "cannon-fodder" in this desperate attack that they could not even hold the ground they had won. During the first week of May, British counter-attacks pressed them back from their furthest advance, although still leaving them closer to Ypres and the Channel than they had ever won before. During the momentary lull of the last days of April, while the soldiers everywhere hardened their resolution and gathered strength for the next giant clash, the younger offi- cers of the British navy achieved what was perhaps the most spectacular deed of the War, the blocking of the Zeebrugge harbor. This Belgian port and also that of Ostend, had been converted into submarine bases, the nearest bases from which the U-boats could creep out upon the Ally ships. On April 23rd, in a most dashing raid, the Allies destroyed the port of Zeebrugge by smashing its breakwaters and sinking old cement ships in the harbor, which was thereafter useless. In similar fashion they raided Ostend, sinking an old war- ship in its channel mouth, and partly blocking that port as they had wholly blocked Zeebrugge. This came as an almost final blow to the German U-boat power, which had been stead- ily waning since America's entrance into the War.^ '■ See § VII, "Britain with Back to the Wall," by Haig, Gaedke, etc. See § VIII, "The Zeebrugge Affair," Carpenter, Von Tirpitz, etc. THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxiii The third great blow of the Kaiser-battle, the Battle of the Aisne, was launched by Ludendorff on May 27th. Twice now he had struck at the British lines and broken them, but failed of power to follow up the first success. Now he turned his attention to the south. Perhaps the French reenforce- ments sent by Foch to the Britons' aid had left the French line feeble. So the Germans now struck southward from their line along the Chemin des Dames, sweeping across the Aisne River, where they had fought their first defensive fight in 1914. Now for the second time they were rushing onward toward the Marne.^ This was the supreme German effort of the War. The shock troops seemed to burst through the French line even more readily than through that of Britain. In four days they drove forward over forty miles. They reached and crossed the Marne. They pushed westward down its valley toward Paris. They were within less than forty miles of the metropolis, and there was no large force between them and that splendid goal. Was France to perish after all? The scant reenforcements near at hand were rushed hastily forward from every source. Was this to be the end? It was not; for there, at the very apex of the attack, on June I St, at Chateau-Thierry (shat-5'-te-a-re), on the Marne, the Germans met the American vanguard.^ German generals have since explained that Paris was not their real objective in this drive, that they sought rather to force their way southward across the Marne, and so to sepa- rate Rheims and the French armies to the east of it from Paris and the armies further west. But the fact remains that in this efifort the Germans had unexpectedly won dan- gerously near to Paris, that it seemed almost in their grasp, and that their troops upon the spot began pushing eagerly toward it. The French troops around Chateau-Thierry be- gan withdrawing, true to their stern policy of slaying as many Germans as possible but saving their own men by re- treat at whatever cost to the neighboring country. When, however, the counsel to withdraw reached the American com- ' See § X, "The Chief Blow of the Kaiserbattle," by Berthaut, Von Schriebershofen, etc. " See § XII, "Chateau-Thierry," by Kahn, Daniels, etc. xxiv AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF mander, General Bundy, he made the now famous comment, "My men would not understand such an order. Americans do not retreat." And he held his line. That was the supreme moment of the Great War. At last the Germans were to meet face to face in decisive battle those Americans who had journeyed half across the earth to fight them. In not unequal numbers the two clashed, the stern, full manhood of Autocracy against the glowing, eager youth of Democracy. For miles along the line they met, not only at Chateau-Thierry but at Vaux (v5)'i, at Belleau (bell-6) Wood, at Torchy (tor-she), at Bouresches (boo- resh) . These are all names to be forever treasured by Ameri- cans, At every one of these sanctified spots. Democracy more than held its own. The German shock troops were slowly driven back. Farther north and farther east their advance was held up by French and by Italian troops; but the apex of their drive was broken by the Americans. By June 7th the Champagne Battle had definitely failed of its purpose. It had only driven a third wedge into the Ally line without dividing it in twain. Almost immediately afterward the Germans delivered two further assaults which should perhaps be reckoned as part of this third great battle. They attempted to widen the "Marne salient," this deep gash in the Ally line, by attacking in turn its two basic angles. On June 9th they launched a tremendous drive against its northern front, ad- vancing from the region they had won in March around Montdidier. For this attack, however, General Foch was fully prepared ; and it broke down completely, with enormous German losses. Then on June i8th the Germans attacked the southern buttress of the wedge, the fortress city of Rheims. This attack was as futile and almost as costly as the preceding one. The German generals had again to pause, to take stock of their losses, and to reorganize. Presumably by this time Ludendorff knew that the great battle had been decided against him. His check along all the line, in this third effort to break through, had been de- cisive. His thousands of regiments of shock troops had been almost annihilated. Nevertheless he made one more giant THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxv effort, the fourth and last assault, the mighty Friedensturm or Peace-battle, as the Germans called it because of their gen- eral's promise that it should conquer peace at last. The Peace-battle was begun on July 15th. Its immedi- ate commander was the Prussian Crown Prince, and its di- rection of attack was southward all along the Marne from Chateau-Thierry to Rheims and eastward beyond Rheims. Hence it is sometimes called the second battle of the Mame. Along this front of sixty miles, almost a million Germans rushed forward in this last attack. General Foch expected them, was ready for them. At Chateau-Thierry the Ameri- cans checked them sharply. Between there and Rheims the Germans drove back some Italian troops and almost encircled Rheims. Its fall was menacingly near. But farther east- ward beyond Rheims, the Germans met frightful defeat. The French general, Gouraud, had devised a new method of meeting them with machine guns and blocking their attacks, a method so effective that the Crown Prince's troops melted away like snow under the July sun. The slaughter was awful; and within three days the Germans had abandoned the entire Friedensturm as hopeless. On the fourth day, July i8th, Foch launched his great counter-offensive which continued until the end of the War. But before following that glorious march to victory we must note briefly what had been happening in other fields. AIR RAIDS AND REPRISALS All through the spring aerial raids had been continued on either side with ever increasing skill and power, until at length the German Kaiser made public proposal that both sides should abandon these. This offer from the men who had counted on winning the war with their Zeppelins and who had maintained aerial raiding for almost a year before the Allies began retaliating, was an open confession that the German leaders believed they had hopelessly lost their supremacy in the air, and that Germany was now suffering more than her opponents from the raids. Paris, which had grown hardened to these aerial attacks, was now startled by a new sensation. Soon after the great ' See § XV, "Germany's Last Efifort," by Gouraud, Hesse, etc. xxvi AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF German advance began in March, the French capital was suddenly bombarded by an immense "long distance" cannon, hurling a shell through the air some seventy miles, whereas twenty-five miles had previously been the very farthest limit of bombardment. So amazingly unexpected was this new German device that for a time men doubted the existence of such a cannon and sought to explain the coming of the mysterious projectiles in some other way. Of course from such a distance there was no chance of aiming the gun; it was just pointed toward Paris in a general way, and the shells were fired to fall where they might. Thus the bom- bardment did comparatively little injury, while it roused French anger to a sterner hardness than ever.* ANARCHY IN THE EAST Outside of France, the chief Ally centers of interest lay in eastern Europe, in Italy, and in the United States. In the East, both Russia and Austria had presented new prob- lems with the advancing year. When Bolshevist Russia had definitely accepted the German peace, the land became dan- gerously like a German province. Freed Teuton prisoners took an active role in its armies and assemblies. The Ger- man government had only to demand the surrender of any supplies it wished, or to take possession of whatever was denied it. Of course exhausted and distracted Russia had comparatively little produce left to give; but she did possess considerable military stores previously loaned her by the Al- lies for use in the common cause. More important still, she possessed millions of ignorant and hungry men, who might easily be induced to join a German army. German offi- cials became prominent everywhere in Russia. They toiled indeed in the cause of order and of renewed industry, but of German order and of an industry that was both Ger- man and military. In fact, there now ensued between German militarism and Russian anarchy a peculiar and in some phases not un- equal struggle. As part of the nominal peace, a Russian envoy settled in Berlin. He was an eager Bolshevist, and ' See § IV, "Most Tremendous of War Inventions," by Ambassador Sharp, General Rohne. THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxvii with him came a long train of Bolshevist supporters well supplied with money and with the typical Bolshevist litera- ture, full of impassioned denunciation of "capital" and im- possible extravagance of promises for a poor man's para- dise. There was in Germany much bitter discontent for such extravagant appeals to work upon; and if Autocratic Ger- many had crushed Russia, Bolshevik Russia was not now without influence in weakening Autocratic Germany. In fact, more than one German writer since the War, unwilling to admit the overwhelming military victory of the AlHes, has ascribed his country's defeat almost wholly to the "weak- ening of the Will to Victory" caused by the spread of the Bol- shevist propaganda. In this new Russian situation the Allies were sorely puz- zled as to how to treat their former ally. To Czaristic Rus- sia they had in 191 4 pledged friendship and support. The Democratic Russia which replaced it in March, 19 17, had received new and stronger pledges, in which the United States had also joined. But to Bolshevist Russia the Allies owed nothing. Its leaders had not even been in Russia or been recognized as Russians when the mutual pledges had been given. Moreover, the Bolshevists had repudiated every for- mer pledge and declared themselves the enemies of every other government in the world, accusing all of being "capi- talistic" and declaring themselves the only "friends of the people," those people who were perishing in agony by the hundred thousand under Bolshevism's blind and brutal law- lessness. Ought the great Democratic doctrine that every civilized people had the right of "self-determination" of their form of rule, be accepted by the Allies as extending even to this Russian "no rule" and mob-massacre of all its nobler ele- ments? Should the Ally governments stand passive and watch the destruction of all civilization extend abroad from anarchistic Russia, as it had threatened to extend from au- tocratic Germany? Bolshevism was not itself content with "self-determination." It challenged the whole world to war. It eagerly spread everywhere its delusive propaganda, calling for world-revolution, for the annihilation of every form of xxviii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF education, culture and wealth, except Lenine's, and for the destruction of all established governments and all existing religions. Tentatively, hesitantly, the Ally governments began to reach out the hand of interference within Russia. Wherever any Russians themselves rallied and declared a preference for order rather than disorder, for law and justice rather than dull prejudice and red injustice, there the Allies lent aid to the new parties opposing Bolshevism. The first defi- nite step of this sort was taken in April, 1918, when the United States and Japan landed forces at Vladivostok, the chief Siberian port on the Pacific, to protect from Bolshevist seizure or destruction the large Ally supplies which had been sent there for Democratic Russia. The Bolshevists, it should be remembered, had repudiated all the debts of the former government, so certainly they had no claim upon the sup- plies those debts had purchased.^ With Ally support, Siberian Russia soon shook itself free of the Bolshevists and declared its independence of them. In similar fashion the Allies lent assistance to northern Rus- sia. Ally troops, including some from the Unted States, were landed at Archangel, the chief port of Europe's Arctic coast, and there aided the forming of a "Peasants' Government of Northern Russia" with Archangel as its capital. In south- ern Russia, the Cossacks repudiated Bolshevist rule, and allied themselves with the Ukraine. Thus in every direction there gradually formed a resisting front, limiting the exten- sion of the Bolshevist domain, or sometimes actively driving it back toward Petrograd and Moscow, its chief centers. To the aid of these frontiers of resistance against the spreading anarchy, there came another force, one of the very strangest of all time, the "army without a country," the Czecho- (check-o) Slavs. This remarkable army had its ori- gin in the Austrian Empire. There the subject nations had grown increasingly desperate; for the Austrians and Hun- garians had perforce tightened the reins of tyranny under the pressure of Austrian defeat and approaching starvation. The strongest of these subject people were the Bohemians, *See 9 XIV, "Siberian Independence," Ackerman, Bakhmeteff, etc THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxix who with their neighboring related peoples have now become known as the Czecho-Slavs. These Czecho-Slavs had al- ways wished to fight upon the Allies' side rather than that of the Teutons. Hence there had gradually grown up in Rus- sia a Czecho-Slav division in the Russian army. This began with some of the Slavs of Russian birth, but in the later years was built up largely of Slav prisoners captured from the Austrian army. Many of these eagerly joined Russia and turned their arms against their former oppressors. This Czecho-Slav division, at the time of Russia's military break- down in 1 91 7, furnished almost the only troops who still would fight. Austria had proclaimed them traitors, and executed any who were captured. Hence surrender to the Teutons meant for them now sure death. As the disintegra- tion of Russia continued, these Czecho-Slavs drew ever closer together under officers of their own choosing, until they formed an army of their own. When the Bolshevists made peace with Germany, the Czecho-Slavs refused to be included in this peace. They asked to be transferred to some Ally country where they might still continue the fight which had become to them an inescapable battle for independence or for death. The Bol- shevist leaders tried to beguile the Czecho-Slavs with kindly words and then disarm them, tried, it would seem, to secure their surrender to the Teutons and to destruction. At any rate, the Czecho-Slavs believed this ; and turning their arms against the Bolshevists, they fought their way across all Rus- sia to Siberia, and onward through Siberia till they reached touch with the Allies. Thus they achieved at last the most remarkable march and battle and escape in all history.^ Italy's victory over Austria If we turn from this Russian turmoil to look more closely to the Austrian Empire's increasing misery, we find her sub- ject nations growing ever more vehement and desperate in defiance. It was not a lustful anarchy which here fought against autocracy; the revolting masses formed an earnest and intelligent democracy. Those Czechs (checks) who * See § IX, "Odyssey of the Czecho-Slavs," by Nosek, Masaryk, etc. XXX AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF could escape from Austria had formed in Paris a national government of their own; and this proclaimed the Czecho- Slavic independence and democratic form of govemment. A remnant of Jugo- (yugo) Slavs, or southern Slavs from the regions around Serbia, also proclaimed, from Paris, their de- fiance of Austria, and their resolve to achieve democracy. In Italy, too, democracy had once more regained full ascendancy. The nation rallied slowly, painfully and he- roically from the anarchistic breakdown of its army in 191 7. All through the spring of 19 18 the Italian army was pa- tiently built up again, until it grew so strong that, as we have noted, some of its regiments were loaned to France to strengthen the resistance against Ludendorff. Meanwhile Germany had been constantly urging the Aus- trians to aid her great French assault by renewing their at- tack on Italy. Austria's rulers had grown heartily disgusted with the entire war and were awake to the stern fact that a German victory was likely to be fully as destructive to them as was an Ally one. Hence they were by no means eager for further battle. Their new young Emperor Charles even made secret peace overtures to the Allies, too secret and too timorous to be effective. When at last the Austrians felt they could delay attack no longer, they began on June 15th a double assault along the Italian front. One Austrian advance came from the mountain region of the Alps. It struck at the French and British forces which had been aiding Italy since the previous fall, and which now held the advanced posts of honor and of danger. They beat back the Austrian attack at once. Meanwhile an even larger Austrian army was being hurled against the Italian line along the lower Piave (pee- ah-ve) River, in the neighborhood of Venice. Some hun- dred thousands of Austrians forced the passage of the Piave ; but beyond that the Italians held firm, and presently Nature came impressively to their aid. Torrential rains so swelled the Piave as to make its passage temporarily impossible. The Austrians who had crossed were left without sufficient supplies, the Italians attacked them again and again, and threw them into utter confusion. Those who could not flee THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxxi back across the river were killed or captured. The total Aus- trian loss approached three hundred thousand. This was the chief Austrian disaster on the western front, the chief Italian victory of the War, a fitting prelude to the greater Ally victories which were to follow.^ HOW AMERICA PREPARED Meanwhile what had the United States been doing to aid the approaching triumph ? Pershing's generous offer to Mar- shal Foch in March, that the American troops would fight wherever needed, had been typical of the Americans' whole attitude. They were in the War not to profit, nor to boast, nor to show their prowess, but to crush the German mon- ster by whatever manly means they could, and so restore peace to the suffering world. Europe was amazed by the whole-souled devotion with which Americans turned their entire thought and energy to "war work" ; and the results were such as not even mighty Germany had achieved. So rapidly did the number of fully-drilled, fully-equipped Amer- ican troops increase in France that Pershing's offer of March had placed a quarter of a million men at Marshal Foch's dis- posal. Even as early as this, his forces were the reserve which helped to block the Ludendorff drive. By May, the Americans in France were a great army, and on May 28th, just at the opening of Ludendorff's third drive, they were set to fight their first battle all by themselves. This was a small affair as battles were then measuring, an at- tack by some five thousand men to capture the town of Can- tigny, near Montdidier, where the first mighty German attack had ended. Yet the storming of Cantigny might well be quoted as a model battle. Their officers planned it out as they would have planned a football contest, and their men went into it in the same spirit. Each soldier knew exactly what he had to do — and did it. And they took Cantigny and hurled back the ensuing German counter-attacks with the precision of clock-work, or rather with the yet more beautiful accuracy of human intelligence, when self is wholly subordinated to the achieving of a higher purpose.^ ' See § XIII, "Austria's Breakdown," Kervarec, Von Hoetzendorf. * See § XI, "Europe's Cry for Help," by Clemenceau, Orlando, etc. xxxii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF The French generals watched that Cantigny assault with keenest anxiety. Were the Americans as yet first class sol- diers, troops who could be equally trusted with the French and British? When, upon the Cantigny success, there fol- lowed immediately the victory of the sterner battles of un- expected necessity at Chateau-Thierry and at Belleau Wood, General Foch knew that victory was in his hands. He had now three great armies to depend upon, instead of two. The two had been reeling back almost exhausted; the third was fresh with all the vitality of untried youth. When Foch launched his great counter-attack on July i8th, he started it along the line that reached from Cantigny to Belleau and he started it with an equal mingling of French troops and Amer- icans. THE allies' drive TO VICTORY So we come to that stupendous Ally advance, the final campaign of the War. The surge of troops swept onward as steadily, as successfully, as ever the German shock-troops had in the Kaiser-battle. And the lines never fell hack again. On that first day, July i8th, American and French troops advanced some six miles. Two American divisions fighting in the line just south of the city of Soissons (swah- son) were the spearhead of the attack. Theirs had been the honor of checking Germany at Chateau-Thierry. Theirs was now at Soissons, the yet greater honor of forcing her to begin her final retreat. Ludendorff poured in all possible re- enforcements to aid his yielding troops, but within a week the Germans had been driven back from across the Marne and were hurriedly evacuating the entire salient they had captured in their great assault of May.^ The forcing of the foe from that salient was soon left almost entirely to the Americans. Those were glorious days ! They fought heroically at Fere (fair), at Fismes (feem), and in the deadly valley of the Vesle (val) River, where they began to meet the heavy artillery from the old German main defense line along the Chemin des Dames. Not until late August was that salient wholly empty of the still desperately resisting foe. 'See § XVI, "The Beginning of the End," by Foch, Buchan, etc. THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxxiii Then suddenly on August 8th, Foch struck elsewhere along the line. He had been marshaling both French and British divisions, and some Americans also, for this second great offensive. It was in the north, along the old Somme Valley region, and was entrusted mainly to British troops. So once more these heroes fought their way back over the same old ground. And now for the first time there became evident the decreasing morale of the German troops, that decrease of individual resistance which Ludendorff's policy of the "shock-troops" had made inevitable. In fact Luden- dorff himself has called that day of August 8th the blackest of the War. Some of his retreating regiments shouted curses at their leaders, and even cursed the reenforcements which, by hurrying forward to replace the retreaters, were thus prolong- ing the War. The rapid advance with which the Britons now drove their way up the Somme was an impressive contrast to their bit- terly fought progress in the huge battle of 191 6. Then, as the German cartoons had suggested, they had won each day scarce ground enough to lay out the graves of the fallen. Now, they advanced by miles and miles. Before the end of August, French and British troops had regained practically all the ground lost in all the Kaiser-battle. They were once more facing the old established Hindenburg Line of 1917. More than that, on August 26th, the Canadians, fighting under a British army commander, made the first break in the Hindenburg Line itself. Germany had deemed that line impregnable.^ Her leaders simply dared not tell the public it was gone. If German battle announcements had been de- ceptive before, they now became absolutely false. A deluded people struggled on at home, unconscious of how closely their approaching doom was now enfolding them. There was no pause in the great battle during early Sep- tember. While the British still pushed on across the northern end of the Hindenburg line, and the French assailed it from the south, Foch suddenly launched his third great blow far- ther east, beyond Verdun. This was the wiping out of the St. Mihiel (son me-y§l) salient, in which the Germans had *See § XVII, "Breaking the Hindenburg Line," by Hindenburg, etc. xxxiv AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF been firmly entrenched since 1914. It was the first major action entrusted wholly to the United States troops, and it was one of the most, perhaps the most, completely successful, fully rounded and technically perfect operation of the War.^ The American soldiers had now been released to a large extent from that voluntary service under other generals to which General Pershing had generously surrendered them during the terrible need of the Kaiser-battle. He had been able for the first time to form an American Army. To this Marshal Foch had entrusted a large portion of the Ally line east of Paris, including the region around St. Mihiel. Here on September 12th, along a front of over twenty miles, more than two hundred thousand United States soldiers suddenly attacked both sides of the salient. On that first day, they broke through the German lines on each side of the salient ; and in the morning of the second day the American troops from the two sides met at Vigneulles, in the middle of the salient, enclosing within their lines, and afterward captur- ing, all the troops who had not yet found time to escape. Small respite was given the successful American army after St. Mihiel. Now that this last dangerous German salient was wiped out, Foch was ready for his final general advance. No scattered blows now ! On September 26th the Allies' whole line from the English Channel to St. Mihiel was launched forward all at once. The eager Belgian troops who had so long held the dreary seacoast rushed back across their own home land. Aided by French troops they, on September 30th, temporarily seized the Belgian city of Roulers. South of them came the smashing British advance, aided by United States troops and Canadians. On October 2nd the British armies captured Armentieres, and the Ger- mans began a hurried evacuation of Lille, the metropolis and chief center of their four years' power in northern France. South of the British came the stem French armies ; and on October ist they seized St. Quentin (son-kan-ton). An old prophecy had said that when St. Quentin was re- gained, France would be cleared of her foes. There was no question now that the Germans were going; the only doubt 'See § XVIII, "St. Mihiel," by Frederick William and Pershing. THE WINNING OF THE WAR was as to whether their crumbling front would enable them to escape without utter disaster. Meanwhile the hardest advance of all had been this time entrusted to the Americans. From Verdun and St. Mihiel they were to advance northward up the Meuse River Valley and through the Argonne forest. This forest had been de- liberately abandoned by the French in Joffre's first retreat of 19 14 ; but so dense and craggy were its tangled depths that no foe had ever yet fought a passage through the Argonne to victory. The desperate achievement had been tried in earlier wars, and again repeatedly in this war by both French and Germans. But the defensive advantages of the wilderness had ever proved invulnerable. Let the boys from the west- ern world break through it if they could! ^ They did. From September 26th onward for four weeks they fought their way through the Argonne against the main strength of the German army. Germany realized that de- feat here would shut off her troops from their chief supply line from home by way of Metz, and would leave them en- closed, with their backs pinned against the rough Belgian highlands and forests. So her best remaining troops were now marshaled against the Americans. In vain ! The men fought with an impassioned firmness that carried them through everything. The price of victory was cruelly high, but they paid it all. They were well aided by General Gou- raud's French troops to their west; and on October i6th the Americans captured Grand Pre, the city beyond the Ar- gonne. On October 26th they broke the last German line of defense; and on November 6th they seized the heights above the city of Sedan. That blocked the Germans' escape southward by way of Metz. Their main line of communi- cation with Germany was definitely smashed.^ By this time the advance of the British in the north and of the French in the center had become almost equally suc- cessful. In the first days of November the whole Belgian seacoast was reoccupied by the Belgian troops, and the Brit- ish were at the gates of Ghent. On November 2nd the Brit- *See § XXI, "Storming the Argonne," by Pershing, Marwitz, etc •See § XXIV, "The Final Ally Drive," by Maurice, Foch, etc. xxxvi AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF ish seized Valenciennes ; and by November 8th the whole Ger- man center was retreating in wild haste before the French. Unless the Germans made good speed, they were likely to be entrapped from both the north and south by the Britons and Americans. THE CRUMBLING OF THE CENTRAL POWERS There is no disputing that in those last days of the Ally drive, the German soldiers as a whole no longer battled with their former energy. In some sections, as in the Argonne, they still fought gallantly, but there was no longer any great center of command to keep them all at their best. The con- fusion of retreat had left each division dependent on its own commanders, or even on the temper of its own soldiers; and these were most of them no longer in a fighting mood. Despair was upon them. The breakdown of Teutonic power, Avhen it came, had proven more swift and more complete than the most opti- mistic of the Allies had dared to hope. 1918 had opened so disastrously that the utmost the Ally leaders expected from its closing months was the restoration of the balance in their favor. They expected the Foch drive to push slowly onward until winter checked its power. Everywhere men were preparing for another winter of grim endurance. 19 19 was to be the year of final effort and of victory. Suddenly, however, in those glorious days of September, each of Germany's fellow-culprits was separately beaten down. They had long been but empty shells, upheld only by the strength she lent them. And now Germany herself was reeling. At last the German people knew that they stood alone, and that the end was near. What wonder that German soldiers were no longer willing to die for the lost HohenzoUern madness of world-ownership! Bulgaria had been the first of the Central Powers to collapse and to surrender. The Allied army, so long held on the defensive at Salonika, had at length secured com- plete Greek cooperation. Thus, no longer fearful of treach- ery in the rear, it was enabled to begin on September 15th a general advance against the Bulgarian lines. The resistance THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxxvii was feeble ; for Germany could lend the Balkans no assistance now. On September 21st, a dashing Serbian charge broke the line of Bulgarian communications. After that the only Ally difficulty was to keep up with the fleeing foe. On Sep- tember 30th the French occupied the old Serbian capital of Uskub; and on that day the Ally commander, General D'Esperey, accepted from Bulgaria her offer of uncondi- tional surrender. Bulgaria's army was dispersed, and her king fled the country.^ Thereafter the Austrian and other troops holding north- ern Serbia and Montenegro retreated rapidly before the Al- lies. On October 30th all Montenegro was freed; and on November 3rd the Serbians triumphantly reentered Belgrade. What awful sufferings had been theirs since they had fled from their capital three years before! Turkey was the second of the falling Central Powers to surrender. The British forces under General AUenby in the Holy Land, aided by their Arab allies, broke the last shred of Turkish resistance in Asia at the battle of Rafat, on September i8th. Pressing promptly forward, Allenby seized Damascus on September 30th. He then captured the Turko-German bases of supply; and the Turks in Con- stantinople entreated peace on any terms to save themselves and their people from complete destruction. An armistice amounting to unconditional surrender was granted them on October 30th.2 Meanwhile Austria had also felt the closing grip of the Allies. The Italian army, aided by British and French di- visions and one United States regiment, began its final ad- vance against the opposing Austrian forces on October 24th. The Austrians had no heart left for this last battle. They knew that Bulgaria and Turkey were broken, and that Ger- many was breaking fast. For a day, the Austrian soldiers vigorously resisted the Italian charge along the Piave River ; then they gave way completely. The Italians pursued them with cavalry. On October 31st the Austrians begged an armistice on any terms. On November 3rd, having first * See § XIX, "Bulgaria's Downfall," Venizelos, King Ferdinand, etc. •See § XX, "Fall of Turkey" by AUenby, Sultan Mohammed, etc. xxxviii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF seized the great seaport of Trieste, Italy granted the armis- tice on terms which meant that Austria also dismissed her army and placed herself unconditionally at the Allies' mercy.^ Some similar armistice, upon less costly terms, Germany had been seeking for a month before. On September 30th, Kaiser William issued an "Imperial Decree" announcing that henceforth the Reichstag was to be a real parliament, and that Imperial Chancellors were to rule subject to its will. In not very convincing evidence of this, he dismissed his latest Chancellor and himself appointed another, Prince Max of Baden, who was reputedly opposed to militarism. We know now that this step was only taken because Generals Hinden- burg and Ludendorff had both declared that peace was neces- sary, and the German leaders thought that Prince Max and a nominally representative parliament could secure better terms than the militarists. Prince Max at once appealed to President Wilson, de- claring that he wished to arrange peace on the basis of Wil- son's "fourteen points." The United States government, however, steadily refused to be beguiled by further Ger- man pretense. President Wilson pointed out that the new government of Germany looked too nearly similar to the old, and that the only armistice the Allies could venture to allow would be one that left Germany defenseless and en- tirely incapable of suddenly changing her government back to the old one and renewing the contest. The Allies would stand by the "fourteen points," but meant to establish them- selves in such a position that they alone should decide what those points might mean in practice ; and Germany must sub- mit to this interpretation. Thus in plainest words Wilson said that the Allies wholly mistrusted Germany's sudden repentance, and would grant her no armistice which did not include a complete military surrender. At the beginning of October, Germany haughtily declared such a surrender impossible. Before the end of the month, however, increasing disaster made her change her tone. On October 24th, the Socialist leader Haase asserted openly in •See § XXII, "Austria's Breakdown," by Diaz, Sapelli, etc. THE WINNING OF THE WAR xxxix the Reichstag that militarism had ended in hopeless failure, and that the German Empire must end, and be replaced by a Republic. On October 27th, General Ludendorff resigned his dictatorial command. At the beginning of November, the government planned to send out the German fleet to strike a blow in the desperate hope that the fleet might by some fortunate chance be successful, and restore the balance of power. But on November 3rd, the sailors at Kiel mutinied, and refused to be thus sent to slaughter in a blind effort to save the Hohenzollern government. The red flag of So- cialistic, and even of anarchistic, defiance began to be waved everywhere in Germany.^ Facing now the utter disruption of their government from within, the German leaders consented to military surrender, that is, they sent commissioners to meet General Foch in the field, and ask him for terms. These commissioners reached Foch on November 8th, and learned that the only terms he offered them were such as would make Germany ab- solutely helpless. The commissioners sought to argue and bargain, but Foch refused to listen or even to delay his attack while they planned some new evasion. Im- mediately thereafter, November 9th, Kaiser William abdi- cated and fled to Holland. His last hope was lost in Foch's determined attitude.^ On the same day Berlin was seized by revolutionaries, who included soldiers, sailors and civilians. Herr Scheide- mann, the Socialistic leader, became the chief guide of the people; and when he announced the downfall of the Empire, the masses agreed to leave to Scheidemann and his colleagues the forming of a republican government. The cautious Ger- man people were as little eager for Russian anarchy as they were for further Prussian militarism. Under pressure of these changes at home, the German commissioners to Foch signed before daybreak on November nth the armistice he had dictated. Revolutionary Germany submitted herself wholly to the Allies, protected only by their assurance that in reorganizing the world they would follow * See § XXII, "Awakening of the German People," by Bussche, Liebknecht, etc. See § XXV, "Germany a Republic," Prince Max, the Kaiser, etc. xf THE WINNING OF THE WAR President Wilson's "fourteen points." These included "self' government" even for Germany. The armistice was put promptly into effect at the eleventh hour of that eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.^ At that moment the Allied troops were everywhere press- ing victoriously forward; and there have since been embit- tered patriots in every Ally land who have voiced a regret that our leaders granted any armistice at all, that they did not command the troops to go on fighting until every Ger- man was fleeing or was slain, and the united Ally flags were waving in Berlin. Such a course, however, would not only have been to value a somewhat empty glory above a very heavy cost in human life and suffering; it would also have increased a hundredfold the danger of engulfing the entire universe in anarchy. Exhausted France might easily have broken under the further strain ; so might socialistic Italy. Moreover, the new Germany that had just been born, revolutionary Germany, seething with nev/ passions, furious, universally suspicious, and still equipped with the weapons of the former Germany, would have been a desperate antagonist if driven to join fortunes with anarchistic Russia. From such a possible contest, not with the tumbling German Empire, but with all the forces of anarchy and starvation and despair gather- ing in mad union through all the world, from such a hideous contest heaped in unendurable load upon an already stag- gering civilization, our leaders wisely saved us. From a military standpoint the Great War was over. It ended with that armistice of November 11, 1918. It ended with all of Germany's fellow conspirators completely crushed, with France clear of the foe, Americans and Frenchmen crossing the German border, and Britons and Belgians sweep- ing rapidly through Belgium. The German military colossus Avas broken, we may say with confident hope, forever. The cost to Europe had been terrible, immeasurable ; but the vic- tory was complete. The Great War had achieved its purpose. ' See § XXVI, "The Armistice," by Foch, Hindenburg, Wilson, etc THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE AMERICA ESTABLISHES THE BASIS FOR THE WORLD'S RECONSTRUCTION JANUARY 8th WOODROW WILSON GEORG, COUNT VON HERTLING ARTHUR BALFOUR BARON DE BROQUEVILLE Through all the year 1917 there had been talk of peace. Always, however, the German standpoint was that Germany must emerge from the War with larger territory and greater power than before, that is, that she must emerge as an acknowledged victor and without blame either for opening the War or for her methods of conducting it. The Allies, on the other hand, were equally determined to force from Ger- many not only a restitution of all the lands she and her allies had seized, but also such recompense as might be possible for all the slaughter of civilians which had everywhere followed upon the vic- tories of the Central Powers. In July of 1917 the German Reichstag made its first decided stand against the extreme "war-party" of the Kaiser and his generals. It refused to vote war supplies until the long controlling Imperial Chan- cellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, resigned office, and a new Chancellor of presumably less warlike tendency supplanted him. Having won its way in this, the Reichstag on July 19th passed a resolution declaring, on one side, that Germany had been driven into the War by the Allies, but on the other, that Germany desired no "forced acquisitions of territory." Unfortunately the Reichstag did not really speak for the German Government, which continued to seek a peace of expansion. In August of 191 7, the Pope issued from Rome an appeal to both sides to end the War by mutual concessions. He suggested as the basis of peace that each side should forego all claim for damages, and that each should restore all territory. This seemed to Western Europe and America an impossible solution, as it gave back to Ger- many all her colonies, left her in possession of Alsace, and freed her and her allies from all retribution for the Belgian, Serbian, Armenian and other massacres. Thus, in effect, it left Germany where she had been at the opening of the War, only with an infinitely stronger control over Austria and Turkey, whereas it left the rest of the world with many regions ravished, ruined and forever hopelessly impoverished by the German methods of desolation. President Wilson responded to the Papal note on August 27th; and the other Allies promptly announced that they accepted his reply as their own. He had become the spokesman of the great world league. The central thought of his decisive rejection of the Papal proposal was expressed in the following words : W- VOL. VL— 1, t 2 THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE "The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast military establish- ment controlled by an irresponsible Government which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the plan out with- out regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-es- tablished practices and long-cherished principles of international action and honor; which chose its own time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within the tide of blood — not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women and children also and of the helpless poor; and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world. This power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German people. "To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan pro- posed by His Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve a recuperation of its strength and a renewal of its policy; would make it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nations against the German people, who are its instruments ; and would result in abandoning the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the manifold subtle interference, and the certain counter-revolution which would be at- tempted by all the malign influences to which the German Government has of late accustomed the world. Can peace be based upon a restitu- tion of its power or upon any word of honor it could pledge in a treaty of settlement and accommodation? "The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this : Is it based upon the faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of an ambitious and intriguing Government, on the one hand, and of a group of free peoples, on the other? This is a test which goes to the root of the matter; and it is the test which must be applied. "We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified in accepting. Without such guarantees treaties of settlement, agree- ments for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the place of force, territorial adjustments, reconstitution of small nations, if made with the German Government, no man, no nation could now depend on." These decisive words put a temporary end to peace proposals. America would not abandon the War without accomplishing the pur- pose for which she had begun it; and Britain and France, encouraged by her firmness, were ready to uphold her despite the Russian break- down. The opening of the peace-conference between Russia and the Cen- tral Powers at Brest-Litovsk in December, 1917, brought the general peace question up for new discussion. On Christmas day Germany, or rather the Austrian Prime Minister, Count Czernin, speaking for all the Central Powers, proposed that all the world should join the Brest- Litovsk conference. But in the pride of victory over Russia the Cen- tral Powers now offered as the peace basis terms even more triumphantly German than before. Naturally the Allies had no thought of yielding to these terms ; and THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE 3 the incident would have been a minor one, had it not called forth President Wilson's celebrated speech of January 8, 1918, in which he named definitely the "fourteen points" on which alone would the United States consent to peace. Once more his words were accepted by the Allies. The "fourteen points," soon supplemented by their summary in "five points" in President Wilson's speech of February nth, became the enduring basis of the Allies' demands. Upon these points, and their development as caused by the events of 1918, peace was ulti- mately established by the Allies' victory. We give here both the "fourteen" and the "five" points as announced by President Wilson, and also the responses made by the German Chan- cellor of the moment, the aged Bavarian statesman, Georg, Count von Hertling. We present also the official British and official Belgian commentaries upon von Hertling's words. These were expressed for Britain by her Secretary of Foreign Affairs and former Prime Minister, Hon. Arthur Balfour, and for Belgium by her noted Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baron de Broqueville. The reader should note also the com- ments of Count Czernin, Austria's Prime Minister, as given in a later section of our volume, in his discussion of the Russian peace. C. F. H. BY WOODROW WILSON From the Address delivered to Congress, January 8, 1918 WE have entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible, unless they were corrected, and the world secured once for all against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing pe- culiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in, and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own free hfe, determine its own institutions, be assured of j'ustice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world, as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program ; and that program, the only possible one as we see it, is this: /. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind, hut diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.^ 4 THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE //. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, out- side territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may he closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade condi- tions among all the nations consenting to the peace and asso- ciating themselves for its maintenance. IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial ad- justment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observ- ance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the Government whose title is to be determined. VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory, and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembar- rassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy, and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, tnore than a wel- come, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come mil be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as dis- tinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and tinselfish sympathy. VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored without any attempt to limit the sov- ereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they havje themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing cu:t THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE 5 the whole structure and validity of international law is for- ever impaired. VIII. All French territory should he freed and the in- vaded portions restored; and the w^rong done to France by Prussia in iSyi in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine , which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should he righted, in order that peace may once tnore be made secure in the interest of all. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognisable lines of nationality. X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous develop- ment. XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacu- ated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to tJie sea; and tJie relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nation- dlity; and international guarantees of the political and eco- nomic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states shoidd be entered into. XII. TJie Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Em- pire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under TurkisJi rule should he assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely un- molested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guaranties. XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which shoidd include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish popidations, which should be assured a free and se- cure access to the sea, and whose political and economic in- dependence and territorial integrity should he guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed, under specific covenants, for the purpose of affording mutual 6 THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE guaranties of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel ourselves to he intimate partners of all the Governments and peoples associated together against the imperialists. We cannot he separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end. BY CHANCELLOR VON HERTLING Summarized from his Address to the Reichstag, January 24th (1) The negotiations at Brest-Litovsk prove "that we are quite ready to accept this proposal [President Wilson's first point, on no secret international agreements] and de- clare publicity of negotiations to be a general political prin- ciple." (2) There is "no difference of opinion" with Mr. Wilson in respect to his second point, on freedom of the seas ; but to realize this it would be well if the fortifications at Gibral- tar, Malta, Aden, Hong-Kong, and other places should be removed. (3) The Central Powers are "in thorough accord with the removal of economic barriers which interfere with trade in a superfluous manner" and "condemn economic war." (4) "The idea of limitation of armaments is entirely discussable." (5) As to colonies, "Mr. Wilson's principles will en- counter some difficulties in the realm of reality," but the "reconstitution of the world's colonial possessions" will "have to be discussed in due time." (6) In respect to evacuation of Russian territory, "we are dealing with questions which concern only Russia and the four allied [Central] Powers." (7) "The Belgian question belongs to those questions the details of which are to be settled by war and peace nego- tiations (Kriegs imd Friedensverhandlnngen) ." (8) "The integrity of our territory [including Alsace] offers the only possible basis of peace discussion. The oc- cupied parts of France are a valuable pawn in our hands ; THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE 7 forcible annexation forms no part of the official German policy." (9 to 12) Mr, Wilson's points 9 to 12 touch chiefly Aus- tria and Turkey. (13) *Tt may be left to Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Poland to come to an agreement on the future consti- tution" of Poland. ( 14) The German Government "is gladly ready, when all other pending questions have been settled, to begin the ex- amination of the basis of ... a bond of nations." BY WOODROiW WILSON From the Address delivered to Congress, February iith After all, the test of whether it is possible for either Gov- ernment to go any further in this comparison of views is simple and obvious. The principles to be applied are these : First, that each part of the final settlement must be based upon the essential justice of that particular case and upon such adjustments as are most likely to bring a peace that will be permanent; Second, that peoples and provinces are not to be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were mere chattels and pawns in a game, even the great game, now forever discredited, of the balance of power; but that — Third, every territorial settlement involved in this war must be made in the interest and for the benefit of the popu- lations concerned, and not as a part of any mere adjustment or compromise of claims amongst rival states ; and — Fourth, that all well-defined national aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can be accorded them without introducing new or perpetuating old elements of discord and antagonism that would be likely in time to break the peace of Europe and consequently of the world. A general peace erected upon such foundations can be discussed. Until such a peace can be secured we have no choice but to go on. So far as we can judge, these prm- ciples that we regard as fundamental are already everywhere accepted as imperative, except among the spokesmen of the military and annexationist party in Germany. 8 THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE BY CHANCELLOR VON HERTLING Address to the Reichstag, February 25th I entertain certain doubts as to the utility and success of dialogues carried on by Ministers and statesmen of bel- ligerent countries. Mr. Runciman in the House of Commons recently ex- pressed the opinion that we would get much nearer peace if responsible representatives of the belligerent powers would come together in an intimate meeting for discussion. I can only agree with him that that would be the way to remove numerous intentional and unintentional misunderstandings and compel our enemies to take our words as they are meant, and on their part also to show their colors. I cannot at any rate discover that the words which I spoke here on two occasions were received in hostile coun- tries objectively and without prejudice. Moreover, discus- sion in an intimate gathering alone could lead to understand- ing on many individual questions which can really be settled only by compromise. It has been repeatedly said that we do not contemplate retaining Belgium, but that we must be safeguarded from the danger of a country with which we desire after the war to live in peace and friendship becoming the object or the jump- ing-off ground of enemy machinations. If, therefore, a pro- posal came from the opposing side — for example, from the Government in Havre — we should not adopt an antagonistic attitude, even though the discussion at first might only be unbinding. Meanwhile it does not appear as if Mr. Runciman's sug- gestion has a chance of assuming tangible shape, and I must adhere to the existing methods of dialogue across the Chan- nel and ocean. Adopting this method, I readily admit that President Wilson's message of February nth represents, perhaps, a small step toward a mutual rapprochement. I therefore pass ovei the preliminary and excessively long declarations in order to address myself immediately to the four prmciples THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE 9 which, in President Wilson's opinion, must be applied in a mutual exchange of views. The first clause says that each part of the final settle- ment must be based upon the essential justice of that particu- lar case and upon such adjustments as are most likely to bring a peace that will be permanent. Who would contradict this? The phrase, coined by the great father of the Church, Augustine, 1,500 years ago — "justitia fundmnenfum regnorum" — is still valid to-day. Certain it is that only peace based in all its parts on the principles of justice has a prospect of endurance. The second clause expresses the desire that peoples and provinces shall not be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were mere chattels and pawns in a game, even the great game, now forever discredited, of the balance of power. This clause, too, can be unconditionally assented to. In- deed, one wonders that the President of the United States considered it necessary to emphasize it anew. This clause contains a polemic against conditions long vanished, views against Cabinet politics and Cabinet wars, against mixing State territory and princely and private property, which be- long to a past that is far behind us. I do not want to be discourteous, but when one remem- bers the earlier utterances of President Wilson, one might think that he is laboring under the illusion that there exists in Germany an antagonism between an autocratic Govern- ment and a mass of people without rights. And yet President Wilson knows (as, at any rate, the German edition of his book on the State proves) German political literature, and he knows, therefore, that with us Princes and Governments are the highest members of the nation as a whole, organized in the form of a State, the high- est members, with whom the final decision lies. But, seeing that they also, as the supreme organs, belong to the whole, the decision is of such a nature that only the welfare of the whole is the guiding line for a decision to be taken. It may be useful to point this out expressly to President Wil- son's countrymen. lo THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE Then finally at the close of the second clause the game of the balance of power is declared to be forever discredited. We, too, can only gladly applaud. As is well known, it was England which invented the principle of the maintenance of the balance of power in order especially to apply it when one of the States on the European Continent threatened to be- come too powerful for her. It was only another expression for England's domination. The third clause, according to which every territorial set- tlement involved in this war must be made in the interest and for the benefit of the populations concerned, and not as part of any mere adjustment or compromise of claims among rival States, is the only application of the foregoing in a definite direction, or a deduction from it, and is therefore included m the assent given to that clause. Now, in the fourth clause he demands that all well-defined national aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can be accorded them without introducing new or per- petuating old elements of discord and antagonism that would be likely in time to break the peace of Europe, and conse- quently of the world. Here, also, I can give assent in prin- ciple, and I declare, therefore, with President Wilson, that a general peace on such a basis is discussable. Only one reservation is to be made. These principles must not be proposed by the President of the United States alone, but they must also be recognized definitely by all States and nations. President Wilson, who reproaches the German Chancellor with a certain amount of backwardness, seems to me in his flight of ideas to have hurried far in advance of existing realities. Certainly a League of Nations, erected upon justice and mutual unselfish appreciation, a condition of humanity in which war, together with all that remains of the earliest barbarism, should have completely disappeared and in which there should be no bloody sacrifices, no self-mutilation of peoples, no destruction of laboriously acquired cultural values — that would be an aim devoutly to be desired. But that aim has not yet been reached. There does not yet exist a court of arbitration set up by all nations for THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE ii the safeguarding of peace in the name of justice. When President Wilson incidentally says that the German Chan- cellor is speaking to the court of the entire world, I must, as things stand to-day, in the name of the German Empire and her allies, decline this court as prejudiced, joyfully as I would greet it if an impartial court of arbitration existed and gladly as I would cooperate to realize such ideals. Unfortunately, however, there is no trace of a similar state of mind on the part of the leading powers in the En- tente. England's war aims, as recently expressed in Lloyd George's speeches, are still thoroughly imperialistic and want to impose on the world a peace according to England's good pleasure. When England talks about peoples' right of self- determination, she does not think of applying the principle to Ireland, Egypt, or India, Our war aims from the beginning were the defense of the Fatherland, the maintenance of our territorial integrity, and the freedom of our economic development. Our war- fare, even where it must be aggressive in action, is defensive in aim. I lay especial stress upon that just now in order that no misunderstandings shall arise about our operations in the east. After the breaking off of peace negotiations by the Rus- sian delegation on February loth we had a free hand as against Russia. The sole aim of the advance of our troops, which was begun seven days after the rupture, was to safe- guard the fruits of our peace with Ukraine. Aims of con- quest were in no way a determining factor. We were strengthened in this by the Ukrainians' appeal for support in bringing about order in their young State against the dis- turbances carried out by the Bolsheviki. If further military operations in other regions have taken place, the same applies to them. They in no way aim at con- quest. They are solely taking place at the urgent appeals and representations of the populations for protection against atrocities and devastation by Red Guards and other bands. They have, therefore, been undertaken in the name of hu- manity. They are measures of assistance and have no other 12 THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE character. It is a question of creating peace and order in the interest of peaceable populations. We do not intend to establish ourselves, for example, in Esthonia or Livonia. In Courland and Lithuania our chief object is to create organs of self-determination and self- administration. Our military action, however, has produced a success far exceeding the original aim. News was received yesterday that Petrograd had ac- cepted our conditions and had sent its representatives to Brest-Litovsk for further negotiations. Accordingly, our delegates traveled thither last evening. It is possible that there will still be dispute about the details, but the main thing has been achieved. The will to peace has been ex- pressly announced from the Russian side, while the con- ditions have been accepted and the conclusion of peace must ensue within a very short time. To safeguard the fruits of our peace with Ukraine, our army command drew the sword. Peace with Russia will be the happy result. Peace negotiations with Rumania began at Bucharest yesterday. It appeared necessary that Secretary von Kiihl- mann should be present there during the first days when the foundations were laid. Now, however, he will presumably soon go to Brest-Litovsk. It is to be remembered regard- ing negotiations with Rumania that we are not taking part in them alone, and are under obligation to champion the interests of our allies, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and to see to it that a compromise is arranged there regarding any divergent desires that will possibly give rise to difficulties, but these difficulties will be overcome. With regard to Rumania, too, the guiding principle will be that we must, and desired to, convert into friends the States with which on the basis of the success of our army we now conclude peace. I will say a word regarding Poland, in behalf of which the Entente and President Wilson have recently appeared specially to interest themselves, as a country liberated from oppressive independence of Czarist Russia by the united forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary, for the purpose THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE 13 of establishing an independent State, which, in unrestricted development of its national culture, shall at the same time become a pillar of peace in Europe. The constitutional problem — in the narrower sense the question what constitution the new State shall receive — could not, as is easily understood, be immediately decided, and is still in the stage of exhaustive discussions between the three countries concerned. A fresh difficulty has been added to the many difficulties which have in this connection to be overcome, difficulties especially in the economic domain in consequence of the collapse of old Russia. This difficulty results from the delimitation of the frontier between the new State and adjacent Russian territory. For this reason the news of peace with the Ukraine at first evoked great uneasi- ness in Poland. I hope, however, that with good-will and proper regard to the ethnographical conditions a compromise on the claims will be reached. The announced intention to make a serious attempt in this direction has greatly calmed Polish circles. In the regulation of the frontier question only what is indispensable on military grounds will be demanded on Ger- many's part. The Entente is fighting for the acquisition of portions of Austro-Hungarian territory by Italy and for the sever- ance of Palestine, Syria, and Arabia from the Turkish Em- pire. England has particularly cast an eye on portions of Turkish territory. She has suddenly discovered an affection for the Arabians and she hopes by utilizing the Arabians to annex fresh territories to the British Empire, perhaps by the creation of a protectorate dependent upon British domi- nation. That the colonial wars of England are directed at in- creasing and rounding out the enormous British possessions, particularly in Africa, has been repeaiedly stated by British statesmen. In the face of this policy Entente statesmen dare to represent Germany as the disturber of peace, who, in the interest of world peace, must be confined within the nar- 14 THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE rowest bounds. By a system of lies and calumny they en- deavor to instigate their own people and neutral countries against the Central Powers and to disturb neutral countries with the specter of the violation of neutrality by Germany. Regarding the intrigues recently carried on in Switzer- land we never thought, nor will we think, of assailing Swiss neutrality. We are much indebted to Switzerland. We ex- press gratitude to her, Holland, the Scandinavian countries, and Spain, which by her geographical position is exposed to especial difficulties, and no less to the extra-European countries which have not entered the war, for their manly attitude in that, despite all temptations and oppressions, they preserve their neutrality. The world yearns for peace and desires nothing more than that the sufferings of war under which it groans should come to an end. But the Governments of the enemy States contrive ever anew to stir the war fury among their peoples. Our people will hold out further, but the blood of the fallen, the agonies of the mutilated and the distress and sufferings of the peoples will fall on the heads of those who insistently refuse to listen to the voice of reason and hu- manity. BY ARTHUR BALFOUR Address to the British Parliament, February 27th Many questions must be settled at the peace conference, but the question of Belgium is the best touchstone of the honesty of purpose of Central European diplomacy, and especially of German diplomacy. There is only one course for the offending nation in this case, namely, unconditional restoration and reparation. When was Belgium the jumping-ofif ground of enemy machinations and why should Germany suppose it is going to be? Belgium has been the victim, not the author, of these crimes, and why should she be punished because Germany is guilty? Germany always had in mind new territorial, com- mercial or military conditions which would prevent Belgium from taking an independent place among the nations, which Germany and ourselves were pledged to preserve. THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE 15 What we have to consider is how far von Hertling's lip service to President Wilson's four propositions really is exemplified by German practice. I could understand a German taking a different view from the view of the French, British, Italian, or American Government, but not a German discussing the principles of essential justice and saying: "There is no question of Al- sace-Lorraine to go before a peace conference." Regarding President Wilson's second proposition, we have had within the last few weeks a specimen of how von Hertling interprets in action the principle he so glibly ap- proves in theory. To take one instance only, there is the cession of Polish territory to the Ukraine. We would like to know how the Germans came to make this gross violation of their principle. Coming to the third proposition, von Hertling says, with justice, that the doctrine of the balance of power is a more or less antiquated doctrine. He further accuses England of being the upholder of that doctrine for purposes of aggran- dizement. That is a profoundly unhistorical method of looking at the question. Great Britain has fought time and again for the balance of power, because only by fighting could Europe be saved from the domination of one over- bearing and aggressive nation. If von Hertling wants to make the balance of power an- tiquated, he can do it by inducing his countrymen to abandon that policy of ambitious domination which overshadows the world at this moment. As to President Wilson's third and fourth principles: Consider for a moment how von Hertling desires to apply the principle that the interest and benefit of the populations concerned should be considered in peace arrangements. He mentions three countries he wishes to see restored to Turkey, namely, Armenia, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. Does any one think that this would be to the interest and benefit of the populations concerned? Von Hertling accuses us of being animated with purely ambitious designs when we invaded Mesopotamia and captured Jerusalem. I suppose he would say that Russia was similarly moved when i6 THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE she occupied Armenia. But when Turkey went to war she picked a quarrel with us for purely ambitious purposes. She was promised by Germany the possession of Egypt. Would the interest and happiness of the population of Egypt be best conserved by Turkish conquest of Egypt? The Germans in the search for the greatest happiness of these populations would have restored Egypt to the worst rule the world has ever known. They would have destroyed Arab independence and abandoned Palestine to those who had rendered it sterile all these centuries. How could any one preach seriously a profession of faith about the interests of populations after this evidence of the manner in which von Hertling desires to see it car- ried out? If the Reichstag had any sense of humor it must surely have smiled when it heard the Chancellor dealing in that spirit with the dominating doctrine of every important German statesman, soldier, and thinker for two generations at least. So much for the four principles which Mr. Holt says von Hertling accepts, and which he thinks the British Gov- ernment is backward in not accepting. I hope my short analysis may have convinced him that there are two sides to that question. I cannot, however, leave von Hertling without making some observation upon the Russian policy which he defines. That also is a demonstration of German methods. He tells us the recent arrangements with Russia were made on the urgent appeal of the populations for protection against the Red Guard and other bands, and, therefore, undertaken in the name of humanity. We know that the East is the East and the West is the West and that the German policy of the West is entirely different from the German policy of the East. The German policy in the East recently has been directed toward pre- venting atrocities and devastation in the interest of hu- manity, while German policy in the West is occupied entirely in performing atrocities and devastations. Why this dif- ference of treatment of Belgium on one side and other popu- lations on the other? I know of no explanation, except that THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" OF PEACE 17 Germany pursues her methods with remorseless insistency and alters or varies the excuse she gives for her poHcy. If she invades Belgium, it is military necessity; if Cour- land, it is in the interest of humanity. It is impossible to rate very high the professions of humanity, international righteousness and equity in regard to those populations v^hich figure so largely in the speeches. I am quite unable to un- derstand how anybody can get up in the Reichstag and claim that Germany is waging a defensive war. I am convinced that to begin negotiations, unless you see your way to carry them through successfully, would be to commit the greatest crime against the future peace of the world, and, therefore, while I long for the day when negotiations may really begin, negotiations which must have preparations for the bringing of ideas closer together, I do believe I should be doing an injury to the cause of peace if I encourage the idea that there is any use in beginning these verbal negotiations until something like a general agree- ment is apparent in the distance and until the statesmen of all the countries see their way to that broad settlement, which, it is my hope, will bring peace to this sorely troubled world. BY BARON DE BROQUEVILLE Official Belgian Statement of February 28th The Belgian Government's views are known and have not changed. It affirmed them quite recently. In its answer to the Holy See on December 24th the Belgian Government said: "The integrity of the metropolitan and colonial terri- tory; political, economic and military independence without condition or restriction; reparation for damages and guar- antees against repetition of the aggression of 19 14 are the indispensable conditions for a just peace as far as Belgium is concerned." The Belgian Government has already declared and re- peated that it will not discuss peace except in consort with the powers which guaranteed its independence and wliich have fulfilled their obligations toward Belgium. W., VOL. VI.— 2. CREATION OF THE NEW STATE. THE UKRAINE THE WAR'S FIRST PEACE TREATY AND THE BREAKING UP OF RUSSIA FEBRUARY QTH PRESIDENT VINICHENKO NICOLAI LENINE THE UKRAINIAN PEACE TREATY DR. VON KUHLMAN CHARLES, EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA The first people to break definitely away from ancient Russia, and set themselves up on her territory as an independent State, were the Ukrainians. The Finns and other border peoples soon followed them. The word Ukraine indeed means borderland, and the Ukrainians, lying along the southwest border of Russia, are a Slavic people, but were never genuinely Russian. They have a language of their own, and form a different Christian sect from the Russians, having long been known religiously as Uniates and racially as Little Russians. Just as Russia had striven to rouse discontent against Austria among the subject peoples of Galicia, so Austria had sought to stir up against Russia these Ukrainians. When Russia became a republic in 1917 the movement for a separate Ukrainian Government gathered strength, and in July the Russian Gov- ernment recognized the National Socialistic Council or Rada of the Ukraine, and accepted the Ukraine as a sort of independent State within the Russian union. This Rada had been set up by Austrian aid, but it made at least an outward effort to free itself from Austrian influence; and in August of 1917 President Vinichenko and the other leaders of the Rada all declared themselves wholly independent of their Teutonic friends. When, in November, Russia turned to Bolshevism, its leaders soon clashed with the Ukrainians, who were Socialists but not Bolsheviks. On November 20th Vinichenko issued the following noted proclama- tion announcing Ukrainia's policy, her faith and her desire to remain self-governing under the Russian roof. By December the Ukraine found itself at civil war with the Bolshevists, who accused it, as shown in the following "ultimatum" by Lenine, of aiding the other Russian parties in opposition to the Bolshevists. Hence the Ukrainians came as a separate nation to Brest-Litovsk, and entreated Teutonic protection against the Bolshevists. This was readily granted them. Indeed, the world is never likely to know very surely how much the entire movement for Ukrainian independence had been fostered by Teutonic agents. At all events, on February gth, at Brest-Litovsk, the Central Powers signed a treaty with Ukrainia, and afterward compelled the Bolshevists to accept it. 18 CREATION OF THE UKRAINE 19 This was the first peace treaty arising from the War, and was con- sequently received by the people of the Central Powers with much rejoicing. It was of course a thoroughly Teutonic treaty, that is to say, the Ukraine pledged itself to supply the Central Powers with large amounts of grain and to aid them in other ways which brought Ukrainia to the verge of being a Teutonic ally. Indeed, the Ukrainian leaders promised more than they could perform. Teuton armies travers- ing the Ukraine found it impossible to gather the expected foodstores from the exhausted country. During the remainder of 1918 the Ukraine suffered from Teutonic plunder and massacre quite as much as did the other Russian borderlands. Its lot was almost as tragic as that of Poland or Rumania. The fate of these three nominally independent dependents of Germany was in truth far more than enough to warn any other country against accepting from the Teutons this peace of subservience which was more terrible than war. c. F. h. BY PRESIDENT VINICHENKO Proclamation of November 20, 1917, by the Ukrainian Rada or National Socialistic Council UKRAINIAN people and all peoples of the Ukraine ! An hour of trials and difficulties has come for the land of the Russian Republic. In the north in the capitals (Petro- grad and Moscow) a bloody internecine struggle is in prog- ress. A Central Government no longer exists, and anarchy, disorder, and ruin are spreading throughout the State. Our country also is in danger. Without a strong, united, and popular Government, Ukrainia also may fall into the abyss of civil war, slaughter, and destruction. People of Ukrainia, you, together with the brother peo- ples of Ukrainia, have entrusted us with the task of protecting rights won by struggle, of creating order and of building up a new life in our land. And we, the Ukrainian Central Rada, by your will, for the sake of creating order in our coun- try and for the sake of saving the whole of Russia, announce that henceforth Ukrainia becomes the Ukrainian National Republic. Without separating from the Russian Republic, and preserving its unity, we take up our stand firmly on our lands that with our strength we may help the whole of Russia, and that the whole Russian Republic may become a federation of free and equal peoples. Until the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly meets, the whole power of creating order in our lands, of issuing laws, and of ruling, belongs to us, the Ukrainian Central Rada, 20 CREATION OF THE UKRAINE and to our Government — the General Secretariat of Ukrainia, Having strength and power in our native land, we shall defend the rights of the revolution, not only in our own lands, but in all Russia as well. Therefore we announce: To the territory of the Na- tional Ukrainian Republic belong the lands where the major- ity of the population is Ukrainian: Kiev, PodoHa, Volhynia, Tchernigov, Poltava, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Kherson, Tauris (without the Crimea). The further delimitation of the frontiers of the Ukrainian National Republic, viz., the addition of part of Kursk, Kholm, Voronez, and the neigh- boring provinces and districts, where the majority of the population is Ukrainian, is to be settled according to the organized wishes of the peoples. To all the citizens of these lands we announce : Hence- forth in the territory of the Ukrainian National Republic the existing rights of ownership to the lands of large pro- prietors and other lands not worked by the owners which are fit for farming, and also to lands belonging to the royal family, to monasteries, to the Crown and to the Church, are abolished. Recognizing that these lands are the property of the whole working people, and must pass to the people without compensation, the Ukrainian Central Rada instructs the General Secretary for Land Questions to work out im- mediately a law for the administration of these lands by Land Committees, chosen by the people, until the meeting of the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly. The labor question in the Ukrainian National Republic must immediately be regulated. For the present we an- nounce: In the territory of the National Ukrainian Re- public henceforth an eight hours' day is ordained in the factories and workshops. The hour of trial and danger which all Russia and our Ukrainia is now experiencing necessitates the proper regu- lation of labor, and a fair distribution of food supplies and a better organization of work. Therefore, we instruct the General Secretary for Labor, together with representatives of labor, to establish from to-day State control over pro- CREATION OF THE UKRAINE 21 duction in Ukrainia, respecting the interests both of Ukrainia and also the whole of Russia. For four years on the front blood has been shed, and the strength of all the peoples of the world has been wasting away. By the wishes and in the name of the Ukrainian Republic we, the Ukrainian Cen- tral Rada, firmly insist on the establishment of peace as soon as possible. For this end we make resolute efforts to compel, through the Central Government, both allies and enemies to enter immediately upon peace negotiations. Likewise we shall insist that at the Peace Congress the rights of the Ukrainian people in Russia and outside Russia shall not be infringed in the treaty of peace. But until peace comes, every citizen of the Republic of Ukrainia, together with the citizens of all the peoples of the Russian Republic, must stand firmly in their positions both at the front and in the rear. Recently the shining conquests of the revolution have been clouded by the reestablishment of the death penalty. We announce : Henceforth in the lands of the Republic of Ukrainia the death penalty is abolished. To all who are im- prisoned and arrested for political offenses hitherto com- mitted, as well as those already condemned or awaiting sen- tence, and also those who have not yet been tried, full am- nesty is given. A law will immediately be passed to this effect. The courts in Ukrainia must be just and in accordance with the spirit of the people. With this aim we order the General Secretary for j udicial Affairs to make every attempt to establish justice and to execute it according to rules understood by the people. We instruct the General Secretary for Internal Affairs as follows : To make every effort to strengthen and extend the rights of local self-government, which shall be the organs of the highest local administrative authority, and until the establishment of the closest connection with the organs of revolutionary democracy, which are to be the best foundation of a free democratic life. Also in the Ukrainian National Republic all the Hberties won by the Russian revolution are to be guaranteed, namely, freedom of the press, of speech, 22 CREATION OF THE UKRAINE of religion, of assembly, of union, of strikes, of inviolability of person and of habitation, the right and the possibility of using local dialects in dealing with all authorities. The Ukrainian people, which has fought for many years for its national freedom and now has won it, will firmly protect the freedom of national development of all nationali- ties existing in Ukrainia. Therefore, we announce that to the Great Russian, Jewish, Polish, and other peoples of Ukrainia we recognize national personal autonomy for the security of their rights and freedom of self-government in questions of their national life, and we instruct our General Secretary for Nationality Questions to draw up in the near future a measure for national personal autonomy. The food question is the foundation of the power of the State at this difficult and responsible moment. The Ukrain- ian National Republic must make every effort to save itself both at the front and in those parts of the Russian Republic which need our help. Citizens! In the name of the National Ukrainian Re- public in federal Russia, we, the Ukrainian Central Rada, call upon all to struggle resolutely with all forms of an- archy and disorder, and to help in the great work of build- ing up new State forms, which will give the great and power- ful Russian Republic health, strength, and a new future. The working out of these forms must be carried out at the Ukrainian and all-Russian Constituent Assemblies, The date for the election of the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly is fixed for January 9, 19 18, and the date for its summoning January 22, 1918. A law will be immediately published regulating the sum- moning of the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly. BY NICOLAI LENINE Ultimatum of December 17, 191 7, recognizing the already existing war with the Ukraine The Russian Socialist Government, by the voice of the Soviet of the people's commissaries, once more confirms the independent national rights of all the nationalities that were oppressed by the Czarist-Great Russian bourgeoisie, even to CREATION OF THE UKRAINE 23 the point of recognizing the right of these nationahties to separate themselves from Russia. Consequently, we, the Soviet of the commissaries of the people, recognize the right of the Ukrainian People's Republic to separate itself entirely from Russia and to enter into pourparlers with, the Russian Republic on the subject of the determination of federal or other mutual relations to be established between the two republics. All that concerns the national rights and the independence of the Ukraine we, the commissaries of the people, freely recognize without any limits or conditions. As regards the bourgeois Republic of Finland, which is still bourgeois, we will not make a gesture toward restrict- ing its national rights or toward interfering with the inde- pendence of the Finnish people. We will not make a move- ment against the national independence of any people be- longing to the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, we accuse the Rada of Ukraine of the fact that, under cover of phrases and declarations regarding na- tional independence, it has given itself over to a systematic bourgeois policy, under which neither the Rada nor the So- viets of Ukrainia are willing to recognize the action of our Soviet over their country. Among other things, the Rada has refused to call immediately the Soviets of Ukrainia in a general assembly, as they demand. This double-faced policy, which deprives us of the pos- sibility of recognizing the Rada as authorized representa- tive of the laboring masses (exploited as they are by the Ukrainian Republic), has latterly reached a point where it has practically annihilated every possibility of accord with us. This attitude in the beginning disorganized the front. Through its manifestos addressed to the Ukrainian troops at the front, the Rada destroyed its unity and provoked divi- sion at a time when unity was possible only by following the path of systematic accord between the Governments of the two republics. In the second place, the Rada has been guilty of dis- persing the troops in the Ukraine that were faithful to the Soviets. 24 CREATION OF THE UKRAINE In the third place, the Rada is lending assistance to the plots of Kaledine by taking its stand against the influence of the Soviets and by meddling effectively with the autono- mous rights of the Don and Kuban Provinces. By shelter- ing the counter-revolutionary movement of Kaledine, and by running counter to the will of the great mass of Cossack workmen in allowing the armies favorable to Kaledine to pass through the Ukraine, and at the same time refusing such passage to the armies hostile to that General, the Rada is opening the way to an unheard-of treason against the revolution. By supporting the worst enemies of the national inde- pendence of the peoples of Russia — the Cadets and the parti- sans of Kaledine — the Rada may oblige us to declare war upon it ; and this we would do without any hesitation, even if that institution were formally recognized as representing incontestably the entire population of the independent and bourgeois Republic of the Ukraine. For the reasons given, the Council of The People's Com- missaries, calling to witness the Ukrainian People's Republic, submits to the Rada the following questions : 1. Does the Rada promise to renounce in future all action for the disorganization of the common front? . 2. Does the Rada promise to refuse in future to permit the passage over Ukrainian territory of any troops going into the region of the Don, the Urals, or elsewhere, and never to permit such passage without first having obtained the authorization of our Generalissimo? 3. Does the Rada promise to lend assistance to the armies of the revolution in the struggle against the counter- revolutionary forces of the Cadets and of Kaledine? 4. Does the Rada promise to put an end to the attempts to crush the armies of the Soviet and of the Red Guard in the Ukraine, and return their arms, immediately and with- out delay, to those from whom they have been taken? In case a satisfactory reply has not been received within twenty-four hours, the Soviet of the People's Commissaries will consider the Rada in a state of war with the influence of the Soviet in Russia and in the Ukraine. CREATION OF THE UKRAINE BY PRESIDENT VINICHENKO Appeal presented by the Ukraine to the conference at Brest-Litovsk on January lo, 1918 1. The entire democracy of the Ukrainian State is striv- ing for the termination of the war, for peace throughout the entire world, and a general peace between all the belligerent States. 2. The peace which is to be concluded between all the powers must be democratic and must assure to every people, even the smallest, full and unlimited national self-determi- nation. 3. In order to render possible the real expression of the people's will, proper guarantees must be given. 4. Any annexation that means annexation by force or the surrender of any portion of territory without the con- sent of its population is therefore inadmissible. 5. Any war indemnities, without regard to the form given them, are from the standpoint of the interests of the working classes also inadmissible. 6. In conformity with regulations to be drawn up at the peace congresses, material assistance must be given to small nations and States which in consequence of the war have suf- fered considerable losses or devastations. 7. The Ukrainian Republic, which at present occupies the Ukrainian front on its own territory and is represented in all international affairs by its Government, whose duty is the protection of the Ukrainian people's interests and which acts independently, must, like other powers, be allowed to participate in all peace negotiations, conferences, and con- gresses. 8. The power of the (Petrograd) Council of Commis- sioners does not extend to the whole of Russia, and therefore not to the Ukrainian Republic. Any eventual peace re- sulting from negotiations with the powers waging war against Russia can therefore be binding for the Ukraine only if the terms of this peace are accepted and signed by the Government of the Ukraine Republic. 9. In the name of all Russia only such a Government (and it must be an exclusively Federal Government) can 26 CREATION OF THE UKRAINE conclude peace as would be recognized by all the republics and regions of Russia possessing a State organism. If, how- ever, such a Government cannot be formed in the near future, then this peace can only be concluded by the united repre- sentatives of those republics and regions. Firmly adhering to the principle of a democratic peace, the Secretariat General is also striving for the speediest possible attainment of this general peace, and attaches great weight to all attempts which can bring its realization nearer. The Secretariat therefore considers it imperative to have its representatives at the conference, while at the same time it hopes that a final solution of the peace question will be reached at an international congress. ,t ViNICHENKO, President of the Secretariat. PEACE TREATY BETWEEN THE CENTRAL POWERS AND THE UKRAINE, SIGNED FEBRUARY 9, I918, AND LATER ACCEPTED ALSO BY BOLSHEVIK RUSSIA Whereas, the Ukrainian People has, in the course of the present world war, declared its independence, and has expressed the desire to establish a state of peace between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Powers at present at war with Russia, the Governments of Germany, Austria- Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey have resolved to conclude a Treaty of Peace with the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic; they wish in this way to take the first step towards a lasting world peace, honorable for all parties, which shall not only put an end to the horrors of war, but shall also conduce to the restoration of friendly relations between the peoples in the political, legal, economic, and in- tellectual spheres. To this end the Plenipotentiaries of the above-mentioned Governments have met together at Brest-Litovsk for the in- ception of peace negotiations, and have agreed upon the fol- lowing points: . Article I Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey of the one part, and the Ukrainian People's Republic of the other part, declare that the state of war between them is at CREATION OF THE UKRAINE 27 an end. The contracting parties are resolved henceforth to live in peace and amity with one another. Article II (1) As between Austria-Hungary of the one part, and 1 the Ukrainian People's Republic of the other part, in so far ; as these two Powers border upon one another, the frontiers ' which existed between the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Russia prior to the outbreak of the present war will be pre- served. (2) Further north, the frontier of the Ukrainian Peo- I pie's Republic, starting at Tarnograd, will in general fol- low the line Bilgoray, Szczebrzeszyn, Krasnostav, Pugashov, Radzin, Miedzyzheche, Sarnaki, Melnik, Vysokie-Litovsk, Kameniec-Litovsk, Prujany, and Vygonovsk Lake. This frontier will be delimited in detail by a mixed commission, according to the ethnographical conditions and after taking 1 the wishes of the inhabitants into consideration. (3) In the event of the Ukrainian People's Republic 1 having boundaries coterminous with those of another of the Powers of the Quadruple Alliance, special agreements may I be come to thereupon at a later date. Article III The evacuation of the occupied territories shall begin immediately after the ratification of the present Treaty of Peace. The manner of carrying out the evacuation and the trans- fer of the evacuated territories shall be determined by the Plenipotentiaries of the interested parties. Article IV Diplomatic and consular relations between the contract- ing parties shall commence immediately after the ratification ' of the Treaty of Peace. Provision for the admission of consuls on the widest scale possible on both sides is held over for special agree- ments. Article V The contracting parties mutually renounce repayment of their war costs, that is to say, their State expenditure for the prosecution of the war, as well as payment for war dam- 28 CREATION OF THE UKRAINE ages, that is to say, damages sustained by them and their nationals in the war areas through mihtary measures, in- cluding all requisitions made in enemy territory. Article VI Prisoners of war of both parties shall be permitted to return home, in so far as they do not desire, with the ap- proval of the State in whose territory they shall be, to re- main within its territories or to proceed to another country. Questions connected with this will be dealt with in the sepa- rate treaties provided for in Article VIII. Article VII It has been agreed as follows with regard to economic relations between the contracting parties, viz. : The contracting parties mutually undertake to enter into economic relations without delay and to organize the ex- change of goods on the basis of the following stipulations [here follow details which by a supplementary commercial treaty placed the Ukraine under German control] : Article VIII The establishing of public and private legal relations, the exchange of prisoners of war and interned civilians, the amnesty question, as well as the question of the treatment of merchant shipping in the enemy's hands, shall be settled by means of separate Treaties with the Ukrainian People's Re- public, which shall form an essential part of the present Treaty of Peace, and, as far as practicable, come into force simultaneously therewith. Article IX The agreements come to in this Treaty of Peace shall form an indivisible whole. Article X For the interpretation of this Treaty, the German and Ukrainian text shall be authoritative for relations between Germany and the Ukraine; the German, Hungarian, and Ukrainian text for relations between Austria-Hungary and the Ukraine; the Bulgarian and Ukrainian text for rela- tions between Bulgaria and the Ukraine; and the Turkish and Ukrainian text for relations between Turkey and the Ukraine. CREATION OF THE UKRAINE 29 Final Provision The present Treaty of Peace shall be ratified. The rati- fications shall be exchanged in Vienna at the earliest possible moment. The Treaty of Peace shall come into force on its ratifi- cation, in so far as no stipulation to the contrary is con- tained therein. In witness whereof the Plenipotentiaries have set their hands and seals to the present Treaty. Executed in quintuplicate at Brest-Litovsk on the 9th day of February, 1018. ru- r n • ^ ■' 7 [Here follow signatures.] BY RICHARD VON KUHLMAN Address of February 9, 1918, as Chairman of the Brest-Litovsk Conference Gentlemen, none of you will be able to close his eyes to the historical significance of this hour at which the representa- tives of the four allied powers are met with the representa- tives of the Ukrainian People's Republic to sign the first peace attained in this world war. This peace, signed with your young State, which has emerged from the storms of the Great War, gives special satisfaction to the representa- tives of the allied delegation. May this peace be the first of a series of blessed conclusions; peace blessed both for the allied powers and for the Ukrainian People's Republic, for the future of which we all cherish the best wishes. RESPONSE BY ALEXANDER SEVERYUK, FOR THE UKRAINE We state with joy that from this day peace begins be- tween the Quadruple Alliance and Ukrainia. We came here in the hope that we should be able to achieve a general peace and make an end of this fratricidal war. The political posi- tion, however, is such that not all of the powers are met here to sign a general peace treaty. Inspired with the most ardent love for our people, and recognizing that this long war has exhausted the cultural national powers of our peo- ple, we must now divert all our strength to do our part to bring about a new era and a new birth. We are firmly persuaded that we conclude this peace in the interests of 30 CREATION OF THE UKRAINE great democratic masses, and that this peace will contribute to the general termination of the Great War. BY CHARLES, EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY Address of February 14, 1918 To My Peoples : Thanks to God's gracious aid, we have concluded peace with Ukrainia. Our victorious arms and the sincere peace policy which we pursued with indefatigable per- severance have shown the first fruit of a defensive war waged for our preservation. In common with my hard-tried peoples, I trust that after the first conclusion of peace, which is so gratifying an event for us, a general peace will soon be granted suffering hu- manity. Under the impression of this peace with Ukrainia, our glance turns with full sympathy to that aspiring young people in whose heart first among our opponents the feeling of neigh- borly love has become operative, and which, after bravery exhibited in numerous battles, also possessed sufficient reso- luteness to give expression by deed before the whole world to its better conviction. It thus has been the first to leave the camp of our ene- mies in order, in the interest of the speediest possible at- tainment of a new and great common aim, to unite its efforts with our strength. Having from the first moment I mounted the throne of my exalted forefathers felt myself one with my peoples in the rocklike resolve to fight out the struggle forced upon us until an honorable peace was reached, I feel myself so much the more one with them in this hour in which the first step has now been taken for the realization of this aim. With admiration for and affectionate recognition of the almost superhuman endurance and incomparable self-sacrifice of my heroic troops, as well as of those at home who daily show no less self-sacrifice, I look forward with full confidence to the near and happier future. May the Almighty bless us further with strength and endurance, that, not only for ourselves and our faithful allies, but also for entire humanity, we may attain a final peace! BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY TEUTON ARMIES FORCE RUSSIA TO ACCEPT THEIR PEACE TERMS I FKBRUARY ISTH-MARCH 3ED I LEON TROTSKY NICOLAI LENINE 1^ SIR GEORGE ASTON COUNT VON HERTLING j OTTOKAR, COUNT CZERNIN The Russian Bolshevist leaders who in 1917 promised to bring peace I to the poor Russian masses, spoke partly deceived and partly deceiving. A military peace with Germany they may have thought they could I achieve; but a permanent peace with any other party or government whatsoever was beyond possibility for men of their purpose and their character. As to character, they displayed no least regard for truth ; or fair dealing or for the rights of any one except themselves. They \ were wholly lacking in the spirit of compromise without which all n social organization becomes impossible. As to purpose, they meant to j: create class-hatred and class-war over all the world, until only they jl themselves should remain alive, as rulers of the most evil and dull 1 and embruted of all classes. They were as set, as ever were the German war lords, or as ever Lucifer himself had been, to rule the universe, or •i else to ruin it. They believed, or more probably they pretended to believe, that I Germany would grant them an equal peace. When they met her in ■1 conference at Brest-Litovsk in January of 1918, they soon realized that under a thin pretense of words she was determined to take from Rus- sia all her western provinces. The head of the Russian peace delegates h was Leon Trotsky, the former New York student and agitator. He I raged against the German demands, and finally on February loth with- I' drew his delegates altogether, declaring that Russia would sign no 1 such treaty; she would simply stop fighting and expect the Germans j< to do the same. To German solidness and stolidness of purpose, such an hysterical ij' defiance offered merely further opportunity for conquest. Without a j treaty, she was still at war; and promptly on February loth her troops j everywhere advanced, taking possession of more and more Russian ;! territory, unopposed. In face of this unyielding resoluteness, the !| Bolshevist leaders weakened and on February 28th announced their j readiness to sign Germany's treaty — though Trotsky continued pro- i testing to the end. I The actual treaty was signed on March 3rd. It compelled Russia l| to acknowledge the complete independence of Ukrainia and Finland, ; to resign all authority over Poland, Courland and Lithuania, which i: 31 32 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY were to be made into such States as Germany might decide, and to withdraw all Bolshevik troops from the Russian provinces of Esthonia and Livonia, leaving the people there to select their own government while under the control of German troops. Turkey also was re- warded at Russia's expense by receiving the border provinces of the Caucasus, thus giving the Turks some millions more of Armenians to massacre. More important than all these cessions, from the War standpoint of the Allies, was the fact that Russia was immediately to free her Teuton war prisoners. This meant the nominal restoration of over a million men to the Teuton armies. Actually, however, only a frac- tion of these prisoners reentered the War. They scattered over Russia, aiding in its disruption, aiding in Germanizing its spirit, or, as in the remarkable case of the Czecho-Slav army, taking independent action of their own. Another result of the Russian and Ukrainian treaties was the forcing of a similar treaty upon Rumania (March 5th). Shut off from all western aid, Rumania could not possibly stand out alone against the Teuton forces. The country retained a nominal independence but disbanded its armies, gave its supplies and munitions to the Teutons, and was policed and held to obedience by Teuton troops. We give here the Bolshevist ofificial statements as to the Brest- Litovsk treaty, and the explanations of both Trotsky and Lenine. Then comes the Ally viewpoint from General Sir George Aston, a noted British military writer. Then, in contrast, comes the official Teuton rejoicing, as voiced by the German and Austrian figure-heads of the moment, the German Imperial Chancellor, Georg, Count von Hertling, and the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Ottokar, Count Czernin. RUSSIAN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT DESCRIBING THE FIRST CONFERENCE AT BREST-LITOVSK, ISSUED JANUARY 23, I918 LEON TROTSKY, the Bolshevist Foreign Minister, ad- dressing the conference, declared that "the position of the Austro-Germans is now absolutely clear." Continuing, the Foreign Minister said : "Germany and Austria seek to cut ofif more than 150,000 square versts from the former Polish Kingdom of Lithuania, also the area populated by the Ukrainians and White Rus- sians, and, further, they want to cut into territory of the Letts and separate the islands populated by the Esthonians from the same peoples on the mainland. Within this terri- tory Germany and Austria wish to retain their reign of military occupation, not only after the conclusion of peace with Russia, but after the conclusion of a general peace. At Ihe same time the Central Powers refuse not only to give BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY any explanation regarding the terms of evacuation, but also refuse to obligate themselves regarding the evacuation. "The internal life of these provinces lies, therefore, for an indefinite period in the hands of these powers. Under such conditions any indefinite guarantees regarding the ex- pression of the will of the Poles, Letts, and Lithuanians is only of an illusory character. Practically it means that the Governments of Austria and Germany take into their own hands the destiny of these nations." Trotsky declared that he was glad now that the Central Powers were speaking frankly, stating that General Hoff- mann's conditions proved that the real aims were builded on a level quite different from that of the principles recognized on December 25th, and that real or lasting peace was only possible on the actual principle of self-definition. "It is clear," Trotsky declared, "that the decision could have been reached long ago regarding peace aims if the Cen- tral Powers had not stated their aims differently from those expressed by General Hoffmann." Dr. Richard von Kuhlman, German Secretary for For- eign Affairs, replied to Trotsky, declaring in principle that General Hoffmann's aims were the same as those advanced at Chistmas. Throughout the negotiations, he said, the Ger- mans had kept in view the ethnological boundaries, but also the actual boundaries of the old Russian Empire. The Cen- tral Powers intended to permit free self-definition, and he scoffed at the theory that the presence of troops would pre- vent this. Regarding evacuation, Dr. von Kuhlman said that it must be taken up with the newly born self-defined Governments. "If General Hoffmann expresses the terms more strongly," said Dr. Kuhlman, "it is because a soldier al- ways expresses stronger language than diplomats. But it must not be deduced from this that there is any dissension between us regarding the principles, which are one whole and well thought out." Dr. Kuhlman consented to Trotsky's request for a post- ponement of the conference, declaring, however, that it would be much pleasanter if they could finish the negotiations at W.. VOL- VI.— 3. 34 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY once, as the former recess brought about many misunder- standings. BY LEON TROTSKY Proclamation of February lo, 1918, declaring the War ended without a peace treaty The peace negotiations are at an end. The German capi- talists, bankers, and landlords, supported by the silent co- operation of the English and French bourgeoisie, submitted to our comrades, members of the peace delegations at Brest- Litovsk, conditions such as could not be subscribed to by the Russian revolution. The Governments of Germany and Austria possess coun- tries and peoples vanquished by force of arms. To this au- thority the Russian people, M^orkmen and peasants, could not give its acquiescence. We could not sign a peace v^^hich M^ould bring with it sadness, oppression, and suffering to millions of workmen and peasants. But we also cannot, will not, and must not continue a war begun by Czars and capitalists in alliance with Czars and capitalists. We will not and we must not continue to be at war with the Germans and Austrians — workmen and peasants like ourselves. We are not signing a peace of landlords and capitalists. Let the German and Austrian soldiers know who are placing them in the field of battle and let them know for what they are struggling. Let them know also that we refuse to fight against them. Our delegation, fully conscious of its responsibility be- fore the Russian people and the oppressed workers and peasants of other countries, declared on February loth, in the name of the Council of the People's Commissaries of the Government of the Federal Russian Republic to the Gov- ernments of the peoples involved in the war with us and of the neutral countries, that it refused to sign an annexationist treaty. Russia, for its part, declares the present war with Germany and Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria at an end. Simultaneously, the Russian troops have received the fol- lowing order for complete demobilization on all fronts. BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY 35 Military Order No military operations must again take place. The be- ginning of a general demobilization on all fronts is decreed. I order the issue of instructions on the front for the with- drawal of the troops from the first lines and for their con- centration in the rear, and, further, for their dispatch to the interior of Russia, in accordance with the general plan for demobilization. For the defense of the frontier some de- tachments of younger soldiers must be left. I beg our soldier comrades to remain calm and await with patience the moment of the return of each detachment to its home in its turn. I beg that no effort be spared to bring into the stores all artillery and other military equipment which cost milliards of the people's money. Remember that only systematic demobilization can be carried out in the shortest time, and that systematic de- mobilization alone can prevent interference with the send- ing of food supplies to those detachments which remain for a certain period on the front. BY NICO'LAI LENINE Address of February 23rd, urging acceptance of the Teutonic Terms The German reply offers peace terms still more severe than those of Brest-Litovsk. Nevertheless, I am absolutely convinced that to refuse to sign these terms is only possible to those who are intoxicated by revolutionary phrases. Up till now I have tried to impress on the members of the party the necessity of clearing their minds of revolutionary cant. Now I must do this openly, for unfortunately my worst fore- bodings have been justified. Party workers in January declared war on revolutionary phrases, and said that a policy of refusal to sign a peace would perhaps satisfy the craving for effectiveness — and brilliance — but would leave out of account the objective cor- relation of class forces and material factors in the present initial moment of the Socialist revolution. They further said that if we refused to sign the peace then proposed more crushing defeats would compel Russia to conclude a still more disadvantageous separate peace. 36 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY The event proved even worse than I anticipated, for our retreating army seems demoralized and absolutely refuses to fight. Only unrestrained phrasemaking can impel Russia at this moment and in these conditions to continue the war, and I personally would not remain a minute longer either in the Government or in the Central Committee of our party if the policy of phrasemaking were to prevail. This new bitter truth has revealed itself with such ter- rible distinctness that it is impossible not to see it. All the bourgeoisie in Russia is jubilant at the approach of the Ger- mans. Only a blind man or men infatuated by phrases can fail to see that the policy of a revolutionary war without an army is water in the bourgeois mill. In the bourgeois papers there is already exaltation in view of the impending overthrow of the Soviet Government by the Germans. We are compelled to submit to a distressing peace. It will not stop revolution in Germany and Europe. We shall now begin to prepare a revolutionary army, not by phrases and exclamations, as did those who after January loth did nothing even to attempt to stop our fleeing troops, but by or- ganized work, by the creation of a serious national, mighty army. Their knees are on our chest, and our position is hope- less. This peace must be accepted as a respite enabling us to prepare a decisive resistance to the bourgeoisie and im- perialists. The proletariat of the whole world will come to our aid. Then we shall renew the fight. BY GENERAL SIR GEORGE ASTON In November, 19 17, the party identified with M. Lenine, afterwards known as the Bolshevists or Bolsheviks, took up the reins of government at Petrograd, and on the 21st they proposed an immediate armistice on all Fronts to bring about a democratic peace without annexations or indemnities. In December, a Bolshevist delegation, headed by Trotsky, abandoned Russia's treaty obligations with Allied Powers, and entered into separate peace negotiations with representa- tives of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk. I am tempted to use a quotation from Clausewitz, as a clew to German BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY 37 policy in the events leading up to and during the course of these negotiations. He wrote that Russia "can only be sub- dued by its own weakness, and by the effects of internal dis- sension. In order to strike these vulnerable points in it^ political existence, the country must be agitated to its very center." Those words must have been written by Clausewitz about a hundred years ago, and all German General Staff officers have been brought up on them ever since! On the I St of December the Germans agreed to stop all hostilities against the Russians on the Eastern Front. Cun- ning, for the time, was thought to pay better than violence. Two days afterwards negotiations for an armistice were be- gun at the Headquarters of Prince Leopold of Bavaria, who commanded the German armies on that Front. The armistice was extended to the Rumanians on the 9th of December. Peace negotiations were opened at Brest-Litovsk. The Ger- mans immediately took advantage of the situation to improve their strategical position. Now that "very inexpensive" declarations would serve the pui"pose formerly fulfilled by armies in the East, hordes of troops were hurried across to strike blows in the southwest and in the west against the menacing armies of Russia's Allies, who had remained stanch to their obligations. Then the Bolshevists began to bombard the whole world through the Petrograd Wireless Station with high-sounding phrases and peace propaganda, of which the burden was con- tained in the words "no forcible annexations." The Ger- mans carried on their military movements. The Ukrainians sent their own delegates to the "peace" conference, thus ren- dering the position of Rumania still more hazardous. The delegates assembled, and at Christmas time Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Minister, was put up to make the dra- matic announcement that the Qtiadruple Alliance favored an immediate general peace "without forcible acquisitions of territory and without war indemnities." Troop movements to the advantage of the Central Powers went on. Cunning was used to camouiiage projected violence, while Russia, in accordance with the advice of Clausewitz, was being subdued 38 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY "by her own weakness, and by the effects of internal dis- sension." The Russian delegates scored a moral victory by prov- ing the worthlessness of the "no annexations" formula ; when that formula was put to the test, it appeared that German troops were to retain their grip over provinces wrested from Russia, and the opinion of the population upon their future fate was to be expressed at the point of German bayonets. The Bolshevists struggled to prolong the discussions in the vain hope that the people of Germany would be influenced by the barrage of high-sounding phrases put up by the Petro- grad Wireless Station, and in the still vainer hope that, if so influenced, a population with no voice in the policy of their country, saturated with the falsehoods of their rulers, and controlled by the machine guns of the military party, would have any chance whatever of affecting the situation. After a short visit to Petrograd, Trotsky's deputation re- turned to Brest on the 7th of January. The Germans, in his absence, had seized upon the opportunity to confer with the Ukrainians separately, and had laid the seeds of the sep- arate Ukraine peace which subsequently had such far-reach- ing results. The pitiful farce was soon brought to a con- clusion. At the right moment General Hoffmann, represent- ing the military party, and really dominating the whole con- ference, threw off the mask of conciliation and fair dealing, and only allowed force — ^the military situation, vastly im- proved during the intervening weeks — to count in the dis- cussions. The conspicuous successes gained by the Italians against the Austrians had been annulled, the plans for the great Kaiser-Battle on the Western front had been drawn up, and troops set free from the East were being massed to take part in it. Trotsky managed to drag on the negotiations for a time. Early in February a separate peace was forced upon the Ukraine, on terms facilitating the plunder of that province for the advantage of the population of Germany and Austria. On the nth of February Petrograd wireless announced that the Russian negotiators had failed to gain any respite from their pitiless opponents; the German and BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY 39 Austrian Governments desired to possess countries and peo- ples vanquished by force of arms. While unable to sign a peace, the Bolshevists could not continue the War. They demobilised the remnants of the Russian army, and so lay at the mercy of their enemies. The German purpose had so far been fulfilled by the cun- ning of the "very inexpensive" verbal acceptance of the "no annexations or indemnities" meaningless jargon. Violence was reverted to. The Germans broke the armistice, advanced further into Russian territory, murdering and devastating as they went, until, on the 3rd of March, they forced a "peace" treaty, exacted at the point of the bayonet, upon the Bolshevist delegates at Brest. They robbed Russia of her Baltic provinces and of territory extending all the way to the Black Sea and along its eastern shores. These territories carry a population of about 60,000,000, and without their resources and their seaports the remainder of the Russian population will be in imminent danger of starvation. After this "glorious" example of the fruitful results of peace negotiations conducted upon German lines, the next step was to enter at once into "peace" negotiations with pro-German delegates hastily summoned from Finland, a country with which Germany was not understood to be at war! The mask was thrown off at last. Count Hertling announced gloatingly in the Reichstag that "economic de- velopment in every direction" had been the German war aim "from the beginning," and the Kaiser rejoiced publicly in the "rich future" likely to result from the HohenzoUern sharp-sword policy. Robbery of weak neighbors was the new ideal set before a nation hitherto told that they had gone to war to defend their beloved Fatherland. Rumania still held out for a time. Her fine army was threatened on all sides — by Bulgaria on the south, by Aus- tro-Hungarian and German forces in the west and north. The territory of her late Ally, Russia, was no longer avail- able for retreat in an easterly direction, and the Russian army within her borders had degenerated into an undisci- plined and pillaging mob. She was forced by Mackensen, the German General, into negotiating for peace as the price 40 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY for continuing the armistice. Again the German sword rattled in its scabbard. She was forced to demobilise her army as a condition for further respite. Meanwhile the German "wily one" was not inactive. Every peace treaty has been the germ from which has de- veloped a whole host of supplementary treaties and agree- ments, all stipulating for advantages in the "economic de- velopment in every direction" of German commerce. By seizing control of communications and of harbors every step has been taken to secure the continuance of these advan- tages. But markets accessible by land are not enough. The situation on the Baltic was secured ; greedy eyes were then cast upon the Black Sea. The next step was to provide fur- ther for German economic expansion by the simple method of expanding the boundaries of provinces which had come under German control under the terms of "peace" forced upon Russia. A "German-Ukraine" army pushed beyond the Ukraine boundaries into the Crimea. All this has resulted from the peace conferences at Brest- Litovsk. BY COUNT VON HERTLING Congratulatory Address to the Reichstag on March 19, 1918 Hypocrisy has become second nature to the enemy, whose untruthfulness is made worse by its brutality. Every attempt at calm explanation and every real deliberation must fail, when the enemy, at the very moment he is laying a heavy hand on a neutral country, dares to speak of a policy guided by complete unselfishness. The treaty with Russia contains no conditions disgraceful to Russia, if the provinces break- ing away from Russia say it is in accordance with their own wish and the wish is accepted by Russia. Courland and Lithuania have long been united to Ger^ many politically, economically, and militarily. Livonia and Esthonia are the eastern frontier fixed by the treaty, but we hope that they also will have close and friendly relations with Germany; not, however, to the exclusion of their friendly relations with Russia. Poland is not mentioned in the treaty, and we shall endeavor to see if it is possible to BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY 41 live in stable and good-neighborly relations with the new State, If the Reichstag adopts the treaty, peace on the whole eastern front will be restored, as I announced February 24th ; but among the Entente Powers there is not the least in- clination to finish this terrible war. The responsibility for bloodshed will be upon the heads of those who wish continu- ation of the bloodshed, Russia proposed that all the belligerents enter into peace negotiations. We and our allies accepted the proposals and sent delegates to Brest-Litovsk. The powers until then allied with Russia remained aloof. The course of the negotiations is known to you. You remember the endless speeches, which were intended not so much for the delegates there assembled as for the public at large, and which caused the desired goal of an understanding to recede into the distance. You re- member the repeated interruptions, the rupture and the re- sumption of the negotiations. The point had been reached where "yes" or "no" had to be said, and on March 3rd peace was concluded at Brest-Litovsk. On March i6th it was ratified by a competent assembly at Moscow. If in the telegram from Washington it was thought fit to express to the Congress assembled at Moscow the sym- pathy of the United States at a moment when, as it says, the German power obtruded itself, in order to bring suc- cess to the battle for freedom, then I put that calmly aside with the rest. We have not for a moment contemplated, and do not contemplate, opposing the justified wishes and endeavor of Russia to be liberated. As I said on November 29th, we desire for that sorely tried land a speedy return to a peaceful and orderly state of affairs, and we deeply deplore the ter- rible conditions which have made their appearance in many places. The Russian treaty contains no conditions whatever which dishonor Russia, no mention of oppressive war in- demnities, no forcible appropriations of Russian territory. A number of the border States have severed their connec- tion with the Russian State in accordance with their own 42 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY will, which was recognized by Russia. In regard to these States we adopt the standpoint formerly expressed by me, that under the mighty protection of the German Empire they can give themselves political form corresponding with their situation and the tendency of their kultur, while at the same time, of course, we are safeguarding our own interests, BY COUNT CZERNIN Public Address of April 2, 1918 With the signing of peace with Rumania the war in the east is ended. Three treaties of peace have been signed — with Petrograd, Ukraine, and Rumania. One principal sec- tion of the war is thus ended. Before discussing the separate peaces which have been signed, and before going into details, I wish to return to the statements of the President of the United States wherein he replied to the speech I made before the delegations on Jan- uary 24th. In many parts of the world Mr. Wilson's speech was regarded as an attempt to drive a wedge between Vienna and Berlin. I do not believe that, because I have much too high an opinion of Mr. Wilson's statesmanship to suspect him of such a train of thought. According to my impressions, Mr. Wilson does not want to separate Vienna from Berlin. He does not desire that, and knows that it is impossible. He perhaps thinks, however, that Vienna presents more favorable soil for sowing the seeds of a general peace. He has perhaps said to himself that the Austro-Hungarian Mon- archy has the good fortune to have a monarch who genuinely and honorably desires a general peace, but that this monarch will never be guilty of a breach of faith; that he will never make a shameful peace, and that behind this monarch stand 55,000,000 souls. I imagine that Mr. Wilson says to himself that this closely knit mass of people represents a force which is not to be disregarded and that this honorable and firm will to peace with which the monarch is imbued and which binds him to the peoples of both States is capable of carrying a BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY 43 great idea in the service of which Mr. Wilson has also placed himself. President Wilson's four points are a suitable basis upon which to begin negotiating about a general peace. The ques- tion is whether or not Mr. Wilson will succeed in uniting his allies upon this basis. God is my witness that we have tried everything possible to avoid a new ofifensive. The Entente would not have it. A short time before the beginning of the offensive in the west M. Clemenceau inquired of me whether and upon what basis I was prepared to negotiate. I immediately replied, in agree- ment with Berlin, that I was ready to negotiate, and that as regards France I saw no other obstacle for peace than France's desire for Alsace-Lorraine. The reply from Paris was that France was willing to ne- gotiate only on that basis. There was then no choice left. The gigantic struggle in the west has already begun. Austro-Hungarian and German troops are fighting shoul- der to shoulder as they did in Russia, Serbia, Rumania, and Italy. We are fighting united for the defense of Austria- Hungary and Germany. Our armies will show the Entente that French and Italian aspirations to portions of our terri- tory are Utopias which will be terribly avenged. The explanation of this attitude of the Entente Powers, which verges on lunacy, is to a great extent to be sought in certain domestic events here, to which I shall return later. Whatever may happen, we shall not sacrifice German in- terests any more than Germany will desert us. Loyalty on the Danube is not less than German loyalty. We are not fighting for imperialist or annexationist ends, either for our- selves or for Germany, but we shall act together to the end for our defense, for our political existence and for our future. The first breach in the determination of our enemies to war has been driven by the peace negotiations with Russia. That was a break-through by the idea of peace. It is a symptom of childish dilettantism to overlook the close relationship of the various peace signatures with each other. The constellation of enemy powers in the east was 44 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY like a net. When one mesh was cut through the remaining meshes loosened of their own accord. We first gave international recognition to the separa- tion of Ukraine from Russia, which had to be accomplished as an internal affair of Russia. Profiting from resultant circumstances which were favorable to our aims, we con- cluded with the Ukraine the peace sought by that country. This gave the lead to peace with Petrograd, whereby Rumania was left standing alone, so that she also had to conclude peace. So one peace brought another, and the desired success, namely, the end of the war in the east, was achieved. The peace concluded with Rumania, it is calculated, will be the starting point of friendly relations. The slight frontier rectifications which we receive are not annexations. Wholly uninhabited regions, they serve solely for military protection. To those who insist that these rectifications fall under the category of annexations and accuse me of incon- sistency, I reply that I have publicly protested against hold- ing out a license to our enemies which would assure them against the dangers of further adventures. From Russia I did not demand a single meter, but Ru- mania neglected the favorable moment. The protection of mercantile shipping in the lower Danube and the guarding of the Iron Gate are guaranteed by the extension of the frontier to the heights of Turnu-Severin, by leasing for thirty years a valuable wharf near this town, together with a strip along the river bank at an annual rental of i,ooo lei, and, finally, by obtaining the leasing rights to the islands of Ostrovo, Marecorbu, and Simearu, and the transfer of the frontier several kilometers southward in the region of the Petroseny coal mine, which better safeguards our posses- sions in the Szurdok Pass coal basin. Nagy-Szeben and Fogaras will receive a new security frontier of an average width of from 15 to 18 kilometers at all passes of importance, as, for instance, Predeal, Bodz, Gyimes, Bekas, and Tolgyes. The new frontier has been so far removed to Rumanian ground as military reasons require. BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY 45 The rectification east of Czernowitz has protected that city against future attacks. At the moment when we are successfully endeavoring to renew friendly and neighborly relations with Rumania, it is unlikely that we would open old wounds, but every one knows the history of Rumania's entrance into the war and will admit that it was my duty to protect the monarchy against future surprises of a similar kind. I consider the safest guarantee for the future, interna- tional agreements to prevent war. In such agreements, if they are framed in binding form, I should see much stronger guaranties against surprise attacks by neighbors than in frontier rectifications, but thus far, except in the case of President Wilson, I have been unable to discover among any of our enemies serious inclination to accept this idea. How- ever, despite the small degree of approval this idea receives, I consider that it will be realized. Calculating the burdens with which the States of the world will emerge from the war, I vainly ask myself how they will cover military expenditures if competition in armaments remains unrestricted. I do not believe that it will be pos- sible for the States after this war adequately to meet the increased requirements due to the war. I think, rather, that financial conditions will compel the States to enter into a compromise regarding the limitation of annaments. This calculation of mine is neither idealistic nor fantastic, but is based upon reality in politics in the most literal sense of the word. I, for my part, would consider it a great disas- ter if in the end there should be failure to achieve general agreements regarding the diminution of armaments. It is obvious that in the peace with Rumania we shall take precautions to have our interests in the questions of grain, food supply, and petroleum fully protected. We shall further take precautions that the Catholic Church and our schools receive the state of protection they need, and we shall solve the Jewish question. The Jew shall hence- forth be a citizen with equal rights in Rumania. The irredentist propaganda, which has produced so much evil in Hungary, will be restrained and, finally, precautions 46 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY will be taken to obtain indemnification for the injustice innoi cently suffered by many of our countrymen owing to the war. We shall strive by means of a new commercial treaty and appropriate settlement of the railway and shipping ques- tions to protect our economic interests in Rumania. Rumania's future lies in the east. Large portions of Bessarabia are inhabited by Rumanians, and there are many indications that the Rumanian population there desires close union with Rumania. If Rumania will adopt a frank, cor- dial, friendly attitude toward us we will have no objections to meeting those tendencies in Bessarabia. Rumania can gain much more in Bessarabia than she lost in the war. In concluding peace with Rumania and Ukraine, it has been my first thought to furnish the monarchy with food- stuffs and raw materials. Russia did not come into con- sideration in this connection owing to the disorganization there. We agreed with Ukraine that the quantity of grain to be delivered to the Central Powers should be at least i,ooo,- 000 tons. Thirty cars of grain and peas are now en route, 600 cars are ready to be transported, and these transports will be continued until the imports are organized and can begin regularly. Larger transports are rendered possible by the peace with Rumania, which enables goods to be sent from Odessa to Danube ports. We hope during May to undertake the first large trans- port from Ukraine. While I admit that the imports from Ukraine are still small and must be increased, nevertheless our food situation would have been considerably worse had this agreement not been concluded. From Rumania we will obtain a considerable surplus of last year's harvest. Moreover, about 400,000 tons of grain, peas, beans, and fodder must be transported via the Danube. Rumania must also immediately provide us with 800,000 sheep and pigs, which will improve our meat supply slightly. It is clear from this that everything will be done to obtain from the exploitation of the regions which peace has opened for us in the east whatever is obtainable. The difficulties of obtaining these supplies from Ukraine are still consider- BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY 47 able, as no state of order exists there. But with the good- will of the Ukrainian Government and our organization we will succeed in overcoming the difficulties. An immediate general peace would not give us further advantages, as all Europe to-day is suffering from lack of foodstuffs. While the lack of cargo space prevents other nations f rom supplying themselves, the granaries of Ukraine and Rumania remain open to the Central Powers. The forcible annexation of foreign peoples would place difficulties in the way of a general peace, and such an ex- tension of territories would not strengthen the empire. On the contrary, considering the grouping of the monarchy, they would weaken us. What we require are not territorial annexations, but economic safeguards for the future. We wish to do everything to create in the Balkans a situa- tion of lasting calm. Not until the collapse of Russia did there cease to exist the factor which hitherto made it im- possible for us to bring about a definite state of internal peace in the Balkans. We know that the desire for peace is very great in Serbia, but Serbia has been prevented by the Entente Powers from concluding it. Bulgaria must receive from Serbia certain districts inhabited by Bulgarians. We, however, have no de- sire to destroy Serbia. We will enable Serbia to develop, and we would welcome closer economic relations with her. We do not desire to influence the future relations be- tween the monarchy and Serbia and Montenegro by motives conflicting with friendly, neighborly relations. The best state of egoism is to come to terms with a beaten neighbor, which leads to this : My egoism regarding Austria-Hungary is that after being conquered militarily our enemies must be conquered morally. Only then is victory complete, and in this respect diplomacy must finish the work of the armies. Since I came into office I have striven only after one aim, namely, to secure an honorable peace for the monarchy and to create a situation which will secure to Austria-Hun- gary future free development, and, moreover, to do every- thing possible to insure that this terrible war shall be the last one for time out of mind. I have never spoken dif- 48 BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY ferently. I do not intend to go begging for peace, or to obtain it by entreaties or lamentations, but to enforce it by our moral right and physical strength. Any other tactics, I consider, would contribute to the prolongation of the war. I must say, to my regret, that during the last few weeks and months much has been spoken and done in Austria that prolongs the war. Those who are prolonging the war are divided into various groups, according to their motives and tactics. There are, first, those who continuously beg for peace. They are despicable and foolish. To endeavor to conclude peace at any price is despicable, for it is unmanly, and it is foolish because it continuously feeds the already dying aggressive spirit of the enemy. The desire for peace of the great masses is natural as well as comprehensible, but the leaders of the people must consider that certain utter- ances produce abroad just the opposite effect from what they desire. Firmly relying on our strength and the justice of our cause, I have already concluded three moderate but honor- able peace treaties. The rest of our enemies also begin to understand that we have no other desire than to secure the future of the monarchy and of our allies, and that we intend to enforce this and can and will enforce it. I shall unswerv- ingly prosecute this course and join issue with any one who opposes me. The second group of war prolongers are the annexation- ists. It is a distortion of fact to assert that Germany has made conquests in the east. Lenine's anarchy drove the border people into the arms of Germany. Is Germany to refuse this involuntary choice of foreign border States? The German Government has as little desire for oppres- sions as we, and I am perfectly convinced that neither an- nexationists nor weaklings can prevent forever a moderate and honorable peace. They delay it, but they cannot pre- vent it. The hopes of our enemies of final victory are not merely based on military expectations and the blockade. They are based to a great extent on our interior political conditions and on certain political leaders, not forgetting the Czechs. BOLSHEVISM BOWS TO GERMANY Recently we were almost on the point of entering into nego- tiations with the Western Powers, when the wind suddenly veered round and, as we know with certainty, the Entente decided it had better wait, as parliamentary and political events in our country justified the hope that the monarchy would soon be defenseless, Czech troops are now criminally fighting against their own country, and we must unite against this high treason. The government is quite ready to proceed to the revision of the Constitution, but this will not be helped by those who hope through the victory of the Entente to gain their ends. If we expel this poison, a general honorable peace is nearer than the public imagines, but no one has the right to remain aside in this last decisive struggle. W., VOL. VI. — *. OPENING OF THE MIGHTY "KAISERBATTLE" GERMANY SMASHES THE BRITISH LINE, BUT IS CHECKED AT ARRAS MARCH 2IST MARSHAL HINDENBURG SIR DOUGLAS HAIG GUSTAVE BABIN GENERAL VON ARZ GERMAN AND AMERICAN OFFICIAL REPORTS The great spring attack which was to be Germany's supreme ei¥ort for victory had been fully expected by the Allies ; and they had taken every possible precaution against it. Their lines were as strong as military science could make them. Both sides were waiting only for the ending of the winter weather. Germany indeed struck before winter had fled. She struck too soon; but with the United States' strength in France increasing so rapidly, the German leaders felt they could not wait. Even as it was, the Americans checked them in June, before their battle was quite won. In their first effort, of March 21st, the Germans struck upon a wide front of about fifty miles extending from Arras southward. Their real hope, as General Ludendorff has since stated, was to break through at Arras; but here the British were in great force and resisted every assault, hurling the Germans back with tremendous losses. South of Arras, however, in the region of the Somme River the British line was less strongly held. This was the district which the Germans were supposed to be least likely to attack, since they them- selves had reduced it to utter ruin in their "Hindenburg retreat." Hence during the winter the British forces had extended their line and taken over from the French the defense of this desolated district, thus enabling the French to concentrate in the southern regions which seemed more dangerously exposed. Thus the Germans found in the Somme district only a single widely extended British army, the Fifth Army, under General Gough. This army gave way under the pressure of overwhelming numbers, was beaten back day after day, and was soon separated from the strong British forces at Arras on the north, and from the French along the Oise River in the south. But the natural difficulties of the season and the ruined land so delayed the German advance, that the British army was never quite surrounded or enclosed. On the north the British general, Carey, gathered a hurried force of men from every source and blocked the gap which had opened there. On the south, the French in large numbers and brilliant valor fought their way northward until they had closed the still more open break through which the Germans were making their main advance. Thus by March 26th the chief danger was averted. The Germans were far in advance of their former posi- 50 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 51 tions but a new line had been drawn in front of them, and they were themselves almost exhausted. They did not immediately accept their check. On March 28th they drove the new formed French line farther back and captured Mont- didier, the apex of their advance. But so heavy were their losses that they made no further great advances. The "Battle of Picardy," as the Allies called it, or the first drive in the great "Kaiserbattle," was definitely over by about April 5th. It had cost each side perhaps a quarter of a million casualties. The Germans lost most in their des- perate frontal attacks ; but the breaking of the British line resulted in the capture of many thousand Britishers, ninety thousand was the German claim. So the two sides suffered not unequally. As to the result of the battle upon the spirit of the contenders, the Allies were startled indeed that their supposedly impregnable line had been so swifitly broken. In all their three years of assault the Allies themselves had gained no such large advance. The German civilian population was much encouraged ; but the German leaders knew well that beneath their seeming success lay really — ^failure. Their position on the field was no better than before; and they had lost weeks of time and many thousands of their best fighting men that they could ill afford to lose. c. F. H. BY MARSHAL HINDENBURG From his Memoirs SHORTLY before we left Spa His Majesty issued the Order for the first great battle. I will quote the material portion of this order in full to save a detailed description of our plans. By way of explanation I may re- mark that the preparations for the great battle are indicated by the rubric "Michael," and that the day and hour of the attack were only inserted when we knew for certain that our preparations were complete. Main Headquarters, 10-3-18. By His Majesty's Orders: 1. The Michael attack will take place on the 21.3. The first attack on the enemy's lines is fixed for 9.40 a. m. 2. The first great tactical objective of the Crown Prince Rup- precht's Army Group is to cut off the English in the Cambrai salient and reach the line Croisilles (southeast of Arras) — Bapaume-Peronne. If the attack of the right wing (Seventeenth Army) proceeds favor- ably, this army is to press on beyond Croisilles. The further task of this Army Group is to push forward in the general direction of Arras-Albert, keep its left wing on the Somme at Peronne, and intensifying its pressure on the right wing compel the retirement of the English front facing the Sixth Army also, and release further German troops from trench warfare for the general advance. 3. The German Crown Prince's Army Group will first gain the line of the Somme south of the Omignon stream (this flows into the 52 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" Somme south of Peronne) and the Crozat Canal (west of La Fere). By pushing on rapidly the Eighteenth Army (right wing of the Crown Prince's Army Group) is to secure the crossing of the Somme and the Canal. The tension in which we had left Spa in the evening of March i8th had increased as we arrived at our new head- quarters at Avesnes. The beautiful bright weather of early spring which we had been enjoying had changed. Violent rain-storms swept over the country. They did full justice to the nickname which the French had given to Avesnes and its neighborhood. In themselves clouds and rain were by no means imwelcome to us in these days. They would probably shroud our final preparations. But aad we really any grounds for hoping that the enemy had not got wind of what we were about? Here and there the hostile artillery had been particularly wide-awake and lively. But the firing had then died down. From time to time enemy airmen at night had tried to observe the most im- portant of our roads with the help of light-balls and turned their machine-guns on all suspected movements. But all this supplied no definite data on which to answer the ques- tion: "Can our surprise succeed?" The reinforcements earmarked for the attack entered the assembly trenches in the final few nights; the last trench-mortars and batteries were brought up. The enemy did not interfere to any appreciable extent! At different points parties volunteered to drag heavy guns right up to our wire and there conceal them in shell-holes. We be- lieved that we ought to be venturesome if we could thereby guarantee that the attacking infantry should have artillery support in their passage through the whole enemy defensive system. No hostile counter-measures hindered this prepara- tory work. The weather was stormy and rainy almost the whole day on March 20th. The prospects for the 21st were un- certain. Local mist was probable. But at midday we de- cided definitely that the battle should begin in the morning of the following day. The early morning hours of March 21st found the whole of Northern France, from the coast to the Aisne, OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 53 shrouded in mist. The higher the sun mounted into the sky the thicker the fog became. At times it limited the range of vision to a few yards. Even the sound waves seemed to be absorbed in the grey veil. In Avesnes we could only hear a distant indefinite roll of thunder coming from the battlefield, on which thousands of guns of every calibre had been belching forth fury since the early morning. Unseeing and itself unseen, our artillery had proceeded with its work. It was only our conscientious preparation which offered any guarantee that our batteries were being really effective. The enemy's reply was local, fitful and of varying violence. It looked as if he were groping about for an unseen enemy rather than systematically fighting a troublesome foe. It was therefore still uncertain whether the English were not fully prepared with their defence and expecting our attack. The veil which hid everything did not lift. About 10 A.M. our brave infantry advanced into the very heart of it. At first we received only vague reports, recitals of objectives reached, contradictions of previous reports, recalls. It was only gradually tliat the atmosphere of un- certainty cleared and we were in a position to realise that we had broken through the enemy's first line at all points. About midday the mist began to dissolve and the sun to triumph. By the evening hours we were able to piece together a definite picture of what had been accomplished. The armies on the right wing and the centre of our battle front were to all intents and purposes held up in front of the enemy's second position. The army on the left had made immense progress beyond St. Quentin. There was no doubt that the right wing was faced with the stoutest opposition. The English had suspected the danger which was threatening them from the north and brought up all their available reserves to meet it. On the other hand the left wing had had relatively the easiest task, apparently as the result of a wholesale surprise. In the north our losses had been larger than we expected; otherwise they were in accordance with anticipation. 54 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" The results of the day seemed to me satisfactory. Such was also the opinion of the General Staff officers who had followed the troops and were now returning from the battlefield. Yet only the second day could show whether our attack would now share the fate of all those which the enemy had made upon us for years, the fate of finding it- self held up after the first victorious break-through. The evening of the second day saw our right wing in possession of the second enemy position. Our centre had even captured the third enemy line, while the army on the left wing was in full career and now miles away to the west. Hundreds of enemy guns, enormous masses of am- munition and other booty of all kinds were lying behind our lines. Long columns of prisoners were marching east- wards. The destruction of the English troops in the Cam- brai salient could not be achieved, however, as, contrary to our expectations, our right wing had not pushed on far and quickly enough. The third day of the battle made no change in the previous impressions of the course of events; the heaviest fighting was on our right wing, where the English defended themselves with the greatest obstinacy and were still main- taining themselves in their third line. On the other hand we had gained more ground in our centre and also on the left wing. This day the Somme had been reached south of Peronne, and indeed crossed at one point. In view of the brilliant sweep of our attack to the west, a sweep which put into the shade everything that had been seen on the Western Front for years, it seemed to me that an advance on Amiens was feasible. Amiens was the nodal point of the most important railway connections between the two war zones of Central and Northern France (the latter being mainly the English sphere of operations) which had the line of the Somme as a definite boundary. The town was thus of very great strategic importance. If it fell into our hands, or even if we succeeded in getting the town and its neighborhood under effective artillery fire, the enemy's field of operations would be cleft in twain and the tactical break-through would be converted into a strate* OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 55 gical wedge, with England on one side and France on the other. It was possible that the strategic and political inter- ests of the two countries might drift apart as the result of such a success. We will call these interests by the names of Calais and Paris. So forward against Amiens ! We did indeed go forward, and with giant strides. And yet it was not quick enough for active imaginations and glowing wishes. For we had to fear that the enemy also would realise the peril in which he now stood, and would do everything in his power to avert it. English reserves from the northern wing, French troops drawn from the whole of Central France were hastening to Amiens. The evening of the fourth day saw Bapaume in our hands. Peronne and the line of the Somme south of it was already well behind our leading divisions. We were once more treading the old Somme battlefield. For many of our men it was rich in proud, if serious memories, and for all who saw it for the first time it spoke straight to the heart with its millions of shell-holes, its confused medley of crumbling and overgrown trenches, the majestic silence of its desolate wastes and its thousands of graves. Whole sections of the English front had been utterly routed and were retiring, apparently out of hand, in the direction of Amiens. It was the progress of the army on our right wing which was first held up. To get the battle going again at this point we attacked the hills east of Arras. The attempt only partially succeeded, and the action was broken off. Meanwhile our centre had captured Albert. On the seventh day our left wing, guarding against French attacks from the south, pressed forward through Roye to Montdidier. The decision was therefore to be sought more and more in the direction of Amiens. But here also we found the resistance stiffening, and our advance became slower and slower. The hopes and wishes which had soared beyond Amiens had to be recalled. Facts must be treated as facts. Human achievements are never more than patchwork. Favorable opportunities had been neglected or had not al- ways been exploited with the same energy, even where a 56 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" splendid goal was beckoning. We ought to have shouted into the ear of every single man: "Press on to Amiens. Put in your last ounce. Perhaps Amiens means decisive victory. Capture Villers-Bretonneux whatever happens, so that from its heights we can command Amiens with masses of our heavy artillery!" It was in vain; our strength was exhausted. The enemy fully realised what the loss of Villers-Bre- tonneux would mean to him. He threw against our advanc- ing columns all the troops he could lay hands on. The French appeared, and with their massed attacks and skilful artillery saved the situation for their Allies and themselves. With us human nature was urgently voicing its claims. We had to take breath. The infantry needed rest and the artillery ammunition. It was lucky for us that we were able to live to a certain extent on the supplies of the beaten foe; otherwise we should not even have been able to cross the Somme, for the shattered roads in the wide shell-hole area of the first enemy position could only have been made available after days of work. Even now we did not give up all hope of capturing Villers-Bretonneux. On April 4, we made another attempt to drive the enemy from the village. The first reports of the progress of our attack on that day were very promising, but the next day brought a reverse and disillusionment at this point. Amiens remained in the hands of the enemy, and was subjected to a long-range bombardment which certainly dis- turbed this traffic artery of our foe but could not cut it. The "Great Battle" in France was over ! BY SIR DOUGLAS HAIG Official Report of July, 1918 On the 19th of March my Intelligence Department re- ported that the final stages of the enemy's preparations on the Arras-St. Quentin front were approaching completion, and that from information obtained it was probable that the actual attack would be launched on the 20th or 21st of OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 57 March. On our side our dispositions to meet the expected offensive were as complete as the time and troops available could make them. The front of the Fifth Army, at that date commanded by General Sir H. de la P. Gough, extended from our junc- tion with the French just south of Barisis to north of Gouzeaucourt, a distance of about forty-two miles. Over 10 miles of this front between Amigny Rouy and Alaincourt were protected by the marshes of the Oise River and Canal, and were therefore held more lightly than the remainder of the line; but on the whole front of this Army the number of divisions in line only allowed of an average of one divi- sion to some 6,750 yards of front. The Third Army, under the com.mand of General the Hon. Sir J. H. G. Byng, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., M.V.O., held a front of about 27 miles from north of Gouzeaucourt to south of Gavrelle. The average length of front held by each division in line on the Third Army front was about 4,700 yards. In all at least sixty-four German divisions took part in the operations of the first day of the battle, a number con- siderably exceeding the total forces composing the entire British Army in France. The majority of these divisions had spent many weeks and even months in concentrated training for offensive operations, and had reached a high pitch of technical excellence in the attack. To meet this assault the Third Army disposed of eight divisions in line on the front of the enemy's initial attack, with seven divisions available in reserve. The Fifth Army disposed of fourteen divisions and three cavalry divisions, of which three infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions were in reserve. The total British force on the original battle front, therefore, on the morning of the 21st of March was twenty-nine infantry divisions and three cavalry divi- sions, of which nineteen infantry divisions were in line. Launched on a front of about fifty- four miles on the 2 1 St of March, the area of the German offensive spread northwards on the 28th of March, until from La Fere to beyond Gavrelle some sixty-three miles of our former line were involved. On this front a total of seventy-three Ger- man divisions were engaged during March against the Third 58 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" and Fifth Armies and the right of the First Army, and were opposed in the first place by twenty-two British in- fantry divisions in line, with twelve infantry divisoins and three cavalry divisions in close reserve. As soon as it became evident that the enemy had thrown practically the whole of his striking force against this one battle front, it became both possible and necessary to collect additional reserves from the remainder of my front, and hurry them to the battlefield. Plans previously drawn up to meet such an eventuality were put into execution at once, and before the end of March, by which date the principal German effort had been broken, a further force of eight Brit- ish divisions was brought south and sent into the fight. Shortly before 5 a. m. on the 21st of March a bombard- ment of great intensity, with gas and high explosive shell from all natures of artillery and trench mortars, was opened against practically the whole fronts of the Fifth and Third Armies from the Oise to the Scarpe River, while road cen- ters and railways as far back as St. Pol were engaged by high velocity guns. Violent bombardments were opened also on the French front in wide sectors east and northeast of Rheims, and on portions of the British front between the Scarpe River and Lens. Our positions from south of the La Bassee Canal to the River Lys were heavily shelled with gas, and battery areas between Messines and the Ypres- Comines Canal were actively engaged. Dunkirk was bom- barded from the sea. The hour of the enemy's assault varied in different sec- tors, but by about 9.45 a. m. a general attack had been launched on a battle front of fifty-four miles between the Oise and the Sensee Rivers. Later in the day, as visibility improved, large numbers of low-flying aeroplanes attacked our troops and batteries. Favored by a thick white fog, which hid from our ar- tillery and machine gunners the S.O.S. signals sent up by our outpost line, and in numbers which made loss of di- rection impossible, the attacking German infantry forced their way into our foremost defensive zone. Until i p. m. the fog made it impossible to see more than 50 yards in any OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 59 direction, and the machine guns and forward field guns which had been disposed so as to cover this zone with their fire were robbed almost entirely of their effect. The de- tachments holding the outpost positions were consequently overwhelmed or surrounded, in many cases before they were able to pass back information concerning the enemy's attack. The attack being expected, reserves had been brought forward and battle stations manned. On all parts of the battle front garrisons of redoubts and strong points in the forward zone held out with the utmost gallantry for many hours. From some of them wireless messages were re- ceived up to a late hour in the day, giving information of much value. The losses which they were able to inflict upon the enemy were undoubtedly very great and materially de- layed his advance. The prolonged defense of these differ- ent localities, under conditions which left little hope of any relief, deserves to rank among the most heroic actions in the history of the British Army. So intense was the enemy's bombardment that at an early hour our communications were severed, and so swift was his advance under the covering blanket of the mist that certain of our more advanced batteries found the German infantry close upon them before they had received warning from their own infantry that the expected attack had been launched. Many gallant deeds were performed by the per- sonnel of such batteries, and on numerous occasions heavy losses were inflicted on bodies of hostile troops by guns firing over open sights at point-blank range. During the morning reports were received that the en- emy had penetrated our front line opposite La Fere, and had also broken into our forward positions north of the Bapaume-Cambrai road, and opposite Lagnicourt and BuUe- court. The first indication that the progress made by him was developing a serious aspect was the news that at noon German infantry were entering Ronssoy. This meant that in this sector the attack had already reached and penetrated a considerable distance into the second defensive belt which constituted our battle positions. The enemy's success at this point was followed up vigor- 6o OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE' ously. Templeux-le-Guerard fell into his hands shortly afterwards, while the villages of Hargicourt and Villeret, attacked simultaneously in flank and rear, were practically surrounded, and were entered about midday. Thereafter the enemy was held up by the resistance of our troops in the rear defenses of the battle zone, greatly assisted by the very gallant action of the 24th Division in Le Verguier and the 21st Division at Epehy, on the two flanks of his advance. Both these divisions held out through- out the day against repeated attacks delivered in great strength, and killed large numbers of the enemy. In this fighting, parties of German troops who had entered Peiziere on the northern outskirts of Epehy were driven out by our infantry, with the assistance of tanks, which on this and many subsequent occasions did valuable and gallant work. At midday the enemy's infantry had reached the first line of our battle positions in strength on practically the whole front of his attack, except at the Flesquieres salient, where his assaults were not pressed with the same weight as elsewhere. Save in the neighborhood of Ronssoy, however, and at certain other points in a less serious degree, our battle positions themselves had not been entered, while at numer- ous localities in front of them fierce fighting was taking place around strong points still occupied by our troops. The most serious progress made by the enemy during this part of the struggle was on the right, south of St. Quen- tm. At Fargnier, having reached the eastern portion of the village by 4 p. m., during the remainder of the day his troops pressed on to the Crozat Canal and captured Quessy. North of this point the i8th Division, reenforced by troops of the 2nd Cavalry Division, still held their battle positions intact, though threatened on both flanks by the enemy's progress at Quessy and at Benay, and successfully restored the situation in the neighborhood of Ly- Fontaine by a counter-attack. Many of the strong points in the forward zone on the front of this division were also holding out, though surrounded. Wireless messages from their gallant defenders were re- ceived as late as 8.30 p. m., and rifle fire was heard in their vicinity until midnight. OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 6i At the end of the first day, therefore, the enemy had made very considerable progress, but he was still firmly held in the battle zone, in which it had been anticipated that the real struggle would take place. Nowhere had he ef- fected that immediate break-through for which his troops had been training for many weeks, and such progress as he had made had been bought at a cost which had already greatly reduced his chances of carrying out his ultimate purpose. In view of the progress made by the enemy south of St. Ouentin, the thinness of our line on that front, and the lack of reserves with which to restore the situation in our battle positions, the Fifth Army Commander decided on the eve- ning of March 2ist, after consultation with the G.O.C., Ilird Corps, to withdraw the Divisions of that Corps behind the Crozat Canal. The movement involved the withdrawal of the 36th Division, on the right of the XVIIIth Corps, to the line of the Somme Canal. The enemy's advance south and north of the Flesquieres salient rendered a withdrawal by the Vth Corps and by the 9th Division on its right necessary also. Orders were ac- cordingly issued to the Divisions concerned for a line to be taken up, as a first stage, along the high ground known as Highland Ridge, and thence westwards along the Hinden- burg Line to Havrincourt and Hermies. The Second Day of the Battle On the morning of the 22nd of March the ground was again enveloped in thick mist, under cover of which the enemy renewed his attacks in great strength all along the line. Fighting was again very heavy, and short-range fire from guns, rifles, and machine guns caused enormous losses to the enemy's troops. The weight of his attack, however, combined with the impossibility of observing beforehand and engaging with artillery the massing of his troops, enabled him to press forward. In the south the enemy advanced during the morning as far as the line of the canal at Jussy, and a fierce struggle 62 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" commenced for the passage of the canal, his troops bringing up trench mortars and machine guns, and endeavoring to cross on rafts under cover of their fire. At i p. m. he suc- ceeded in effecting a crossing at Quessy, and made progress during the afternoon in the direction of Vouel. To the south and north the progress of the German in- fantry continued. Constantly attacked from almost every direction, Le Verguier fell into the enemy's hands at about lo a. m., after a most gallant defense. On the left bank of the Cologne River the capture of Ste. Emilie was followed by the fall of Villers Faucon, and both Roisel and Epehy were threatened with envelopment from the rear. Accordingly, our troops about Roisel were withdrawn during the afternoon under orders, the enemy making no at- tempt to interfere, and were directed to reorganize behind the line of our third defensive belt between Bernes and Boucly. Later in the afternoon the troops of the 21st Divi- sion in Epehy also fell back under orders, though with more difficulty, as parties of hostile infantry were west of the village. To the north the 9th Division held their battle po- sitions practically intact until the late afternoon, when they were withdrawn under orders to the rear line of defense be- tween Nurlu and Equancourt. This retirement also was made with great difficulty. The Break Through at St. Quentin With Maissemy already in the enemy's hands, the fall of Le Verguier greatly weakened the defense of the center of the Fifth Army. The rear line of our battle positions was held during the morning, in spite of unceasing pressure from large hostile forces, but as the day wore on the great concentration of German divisions attacking west of St. Quentin had its effect. During the early afternoon our troops east of Holnon Wood were forced to withdraw from their battle zone trenches; while after repulsing heavy attacks throughout the morning, the 30th Division were again at- tacked during the afternoon and evening and compelled to give ground. Our troops, fighting fiercely and continuously, were gradually forced out of the battle zone on the whole OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 63 of this front, and fell back through the 20th Division and the 50th Division holding the third defensive zone between Happencourt, Villeveque and Boucly, in the hope of reor- ganizing behind them. By 5.30 p. m. the enemy had reached the third zone at different points, and was attacking the 50th Division heavily between Villeveque and Boucly. Though holding an ex- tended front of some 10,500 yards, the division succeeded in checking the enemy's advance, and by a successful counter- attack drove him temporarily from the village of Coulain- court. At the close of the engagement, however, the troops of the 50th Division about Poeuilly had been forced back, and by continued pressure along the south bank of the Omig- non River the enemy had opened a gap between their right flank and the troops of the 6ist Division, under command of Major-General C. J. Mackenzie, C.B., and of the 20th Division farther south. At this gap, during the late after- noon and evening, strong bodies of German troops broke through the third defensive zone about Vaux and Beauvois. All available reserves at the disposal of the Fifth Army had already been thrown into the fight, and except for one French division and some French cavalry in the Ilird Corps area, no further support was within reach of the fighting line. There remained, therefore, no course open but to fall back on the bridgehead positions east of the Somme, The Crossing at Ham In the course of the withdrawal to the Somme on March 23rd, a gap occurred in our line in the neighbor- hood of Ham, and the enemy, following closely upon our troops, entered the town during the early morning. Before midday bodies of German infantry, though at first only in small numbers, succeeded in crossing the river about Ham and Pithon, where the bridges had not been completely de- stroyed. In the afternoon these forces increased in strength, gradually pressing back our troops, until a spirited counter- attack by troops of the 20th and 6ist Divisions about Ver- laines restored the situation in this locality. To the east of 64 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE' this point, heavy fighting took place around Ollezy, which the 36th Division regained and held until a late hour, and around Aubigny and Brouchy, both of which villages, how- ever, fell into the enemy's hands before night. Farther north, the withdrawal to the west bank of the Somme was carried out successfully during the morning and early afternoon, effectively covered by troops of the 50th Division. By 3.15 p. m. all troops were across the river, and the bridges for the most part destroyed. The Northern Front Firm Meanwhile, very heavy fighting had been taking place on the northern portion of the battle front. The enemy pressed closely upon our troops, as they withdrew to the line of the ridge running from north of Peronne to Nurlu and Equancourt. Heavy attacks developed at an early hour be- tween these two places. On the Third Army front, where our resources were greater, the enemy was held in check, though he gained pos- session of Le Bucquiere and Beugny after a prolonged strug- gle. In this fighting the 9th Battalion Welsh Regiment, 19th Division, greatly distinguished itself in the defense of Beugny, which it held till dusk, thereby enabling the other battalions of its brigade in position to the north of the vil- lage to extricate themselves successfully from what would otherwise have been a hopeless situation. No less than six separate attacks, in two of which the enemy brought up cavalry and guns, were repulsed by the 124th Brigade of the 41st Division. The fighting in this sector of the front was very severe, but here and at all points north of the Bapaume-Cambrai Road our line was maintained. About 3.30 p. m. the enemy again attacked five times from the direction of Vaulx and five times from Beau- metz-lez-Cambrai, and on each occasion was repulsed. At the junction of the Third and Fifth Armies the situa- tion was less satisfactory, and as the day wore on it became critical. During the morning, the divisions of the Vth Corps had proceeded with their withdrawal, and, covered by rear- guards who were heavily engaged, had fallen back from the OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 65 Metz-en-Couture salient to the defenses of the third zone about Ytres. The left of the Vllth Corps, however, had been withdrawn under orders during the morning from the Nurlu positions to the line of the Canal du Nord, north of Moislains. As the result of this movement, a gap was formed between the flank divisions of the two corps, and this gap the enemy rapidly exploited. Though vigorous efforts were made to reestablish touch both by the 47th Division, under command of Major-General Sir G. F. Gorringe, and by a brigade of the 2nd Division, they were unsuccessful. The right of the Vth Corps was forced back by pressure from the southeast first to the neighborhood of Four Winds Fawn, south of Ytres, where troops of the 47th Division made a gallant stand in the open until nightfall, and later to a position east of Rocquigny. The divisions of the Vllth Corps, after heavy fighting during the afternoon, were forced back west of Peronne, and across the line of the River Tortille to the high ground about Bouchavesnes and Government Farm, south of Sailly- Saillisel. At dusk, however, the line was still in movement. Small parties of the enemy searched constantly for gaps, and, having found them, bodies of German infantry pressed through in force and compelled our troops to make further withdrawals. The Extension of the French Front From the time when the indications of an offensive on my front first became definite I had been in close touch with the Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies. On differ- ent occasions, as the battle developed, I discussed with him the situation and the policy to be followed by the Allied Armies. As the result of a meeting held in the afternoon of the 23rd of March, arrangements were made for the French to take over as rapidly as possible the front held by the Fifth Army south of Peronne, and for the concen- tration of a strong force of French divisions on the southern portion of the battle front. For my own part, after consultation with the First arid Second Army Commanders, General Sir H. S. Home and W., VOL. VI.— 5. 66 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" General Sir H. C. O. Plumer, concerning the situation on the fronts of their Armies and the possibilities of attacks de- veloping there also, I arranged for the formation from the troops under their command of a special force of reserve divisions for action as occasion might demand. Measures were also taken to permit of the employment of the Ca- nadian Corps for counter-attack, in the event of the enemy- succeeding in piercing my front. In this connection I desire to express my deep apprecia- tion of the complete unselfishness with which the needs of their own fronts were at all times subordinated by the Army Commanders to the more pressing demands of the battle. A variety of considerations made it necessary for me at this date to draw particularly heavily upon the resources of the Second Army, All my demands were met by the Second Army Commander in the most helpful and disinterested spirit. The Retreat Across the Somme Battlefield During the night of March 23rd-24th the situation on the battle front remained unchanged as far south as the neighborhood of Ytres. Beyond that point divisions and brigades had lost touch in the course of their frequent withdrawals, and under the constant pressure of the enemy the rearward movement continued. At dawn German in- fantry had already reached Bus, I^chelle, and Le Mesnil- en-Arrouaise, and during the morning of March 24th en- tered Saillisel, Rancourt, and Clery. It became necessary to order the evacuation of Bertincourt, and gradually to swing back the right of the Third Army in conformity with the movement farther south. To the north of Bertincourt, though the enemy gained possession of Mory in the early morning after continuous fighting throughout the night, our troops substantially maintained their positions, the Guards Division in particular beating ofif a succession of heavy attacks. The enemy's advance at the junction of the Third and Fifth Armies was not made without heavy sacrifice. In the retirement of our troops there zvas no panic of any sort. OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 67 Units retreated stubbornly from one position to another as they found them turned and threatened with isolation; but at many points fierce engagements were fought, and wher- ever the enemy attempted a frontal attack he was beaten off with loss. During the early part of the morning troops of the 17th Division drove off four attacks east of Barastre, and the 47th Division held the village of Rocquigny from sunrise until well into the afternoon, beating off all attacks with rifle and machine-gun fire, until the enemy worked round their flank between Rocquigny and Le Transloy and forced them to withdraw. South of this point, however, the enemy pressed for- ward rapidly through the gap which he had made, and suc- ceeded in isolating a part of the South African Brigade, 9th Division, near Marrieres Wood, north of Clery. These troops maintained a most gallant resistance until 4.30 p. m., when they had fired off all their ammunition, and only about 100 men remained unwounded. Early in the afternoon Ger- man infantry entered Combles, and having gained the high ground at Morval, were advancing towards Les Boeufs. Their continued progress threatened to sever the connection between the Fifth and Third Armies, and the situation was serious. The withdrawal of the right and center of the Third Army was carried out during the afternoon and evening in circumstances of great difiiculty, as on the right flank bodies of German infantry were already between our troops and the positions to which they were directed to fall back. In this withdrawal valuable service was rendered by twelve machine guns of the 63rd Division Machine Gun Battalion, in Les Boeufs. These guns held up the enemy's advance from Morval at a critical period, firing 25,000 rounds into the enemy's advancing masses, and by their action enabling their division to reach the position assigned to it. The Situation South of the Somme South of the Somme the situation was less satisfactory. The greater portion of the defensive line along the river and 68 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE' canal had been lost, and that which was still held by us was endangered by the progress made by the enemy north of the Somme. All local reserves had already been put into the fight, and there was no immediate possibility of sending fur- ther British troops to the assistance of the divisions in line. On the other hand, the French forces engaged were increasing steadily, and on this day our Allies assumed re- sponsibility for the battlefront south of the Somme, with general control of the British troops operating in that sector. The situation still remained critical, however, for every mile of the German advance added to the length of fiont to be held, and, while the exhaustion of my divisions was hourly growing more acute, some days had yet to pass before the French could bring up troops in sufficient strength to arrest the enemy's progress. During the night the enemy had gained possession of Guiscard, and in the early morning of March 25th, strongly attacked the Allied positions on the wooded spurs and ridges east and northeast of Noyon. The position of the French and English batteries north of the Oise Canal became hazard- ous, and they were accordingly withdrawn across the canal at Appilly. Dismounted troops of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade actively assisted in covering this withdrawal, which was successfully completed at i p. m. Shortly afterwards another heavy attack developed in this sector and was checked after hard fighting. At the close of this engagement, troops of the 1 8th Division retook the village of Baboeuf by a bril- liant counter-attack, capturing 150 prisoners. Early in the fight French armored cars rendered valuable service and killed a number of the enemy. Meanwhile the enemy's progress south and west of Guis- card had continued, and that night his troops entered Noyon. The French and British troops to the east of the town were therefore ordered to withdraw southwards across the Oise, and by the morning of March 26th this had been success- fully accomplished. On the Fifth Army front, also, fighting had recommenced at an early hour on March 25rh. Hostile attacks at Licourt and to the south of it widened the gap between the XVIIIth OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 69 and XlXth Corps and the enemy entered Nesle, forcing the French and British troops back to the high ground on the south bank of the Ingon River, southwest of the town. To the south of this point his troops crossed the Libermont Canal, while to the north the right of the XlXth Corps was slowly pushed back in the direction of Chaulnes. March- elepot was burning, but our troops at midday were reported to be still holding the line of the canal east of Villers Car- bonnel and Barleux. In view, however, of the situation to the south, and the progress made by the enemy on the right bank of the Somme west of Peronne, it was impossible for this position to be maintained. Accordingly, our troops were gradually withdrawn during the evening to the general line Hatten- court-Estrees-Frise, the 39th Division delivering a counter- attack south of Biaches to cover the withdrawal in that area. A gap still existed between the XVIIIth and XlXth Corps west of Nesle, and the Germans had already reached Liancourt Wood, when the 6ist Brigade of the 20th Di- vision, which had hitherto been engaged with the 36th Di- vision farther south, was brought up in busses to the neigh- borhood of Liancourt. Though reduced to some 450 rifles in its previous fighting, the brigade successfully held up the enemy's advance and made it possible for the remainder of its division to withdraw unmolested through Roye on the morning of the 26th of March. Carey s Force The whole of the troops holding the British line south of the Somme were now greatly exhausted, and the ab- sence of reserves behind them gave ground for considerable anxiety. As the result of a conference held by the Fifth Army Commander on the 25th of March, a mixed force, including details, stragglers, schools personnel, tunneling companies. Army troops companies, field survey companies, and Canadian and American engineers, had been got to- gether and organized by General Grant, the Chief Engineer to the Fifth Army. On the 26th of March these were posted by General Grant, in accordance with orders given by the 70 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" Fifth Army Commander, on the line of the old Amiens defenses between Mezieres, Marcelcave, and Hamel. Sub- sequently, as General Grant could ill be spared from his proper duties, he was directed to hand over command of his force to General Carey. Except for General Carey's force there were no re- enforcements of any kind behind the divisions which had been fighting for the most part continuously since the open- ing of the battle. In consideration of this fact, and the thin- ness of our fighting line, the Fifth Army Commander did not deem it practicable for our troops to attempt to maintain the Hattencourt-Frise positions if seriously attacked. Ac- cordingly, orders had been given on the night of the 25th of March that, in the event of the enemy continuing his as- saults in strength, divisions should fall back, fighting rear- guard actions, to the approximate line Le Quesnoy-Rosieres- Proyart. This line was intended to link up with the right of the Third Army at Bray. The Attempt to Sever the Allied Armies On the morning of the 26th of March the enemy recom- menced his attack in strength southwestwards and west- wards from Nesle, in the double hope of separating the French and British Armies and interfering with the de- training arrangements of our Allies by the capture of Mont- didier. Heavy attacks developed also about Hattencourt, in the neighborhood of the St. Quentin-Amiens road, and at Her- becourt. Under the pressure of these assaults our divisions commenced to withdraw slowly in accordance with orders to the line indicated above. This was taken up successfully and maintained, a number of hostile attacks during the after- noon and evening being beaten off by counter-attacks in which local commanders displayed great energy and initiative. As the British forces retired westwards, however, the French troops on their right were gradually forced back in a southwesterly direction beyond Roye, leaving a gap be- tween the French and British Armies of which the enemy took immediate advantage. To fill this gap, the 36th and OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 71 30th Divisions, which on the previous day had been with- drawn to rest, were put once more into the battle and speedily became involved in heavy fighting about Andechy and to the north of that place. Though the enemy had penetrated behind them and had taken Erches, the troops of the 36th Division at Andechy maintained a most gallant resistance until the afternoon of the 27th of March, thereby playing no small part in preventing the enemy from breaking through between the Allied Armies. On this part of the battle front a very gallant feat of arms was performed on this day by a detachment of about 100 officers and men of the 6ist Brigade, 20th Division, at Le Quesnoy. The detachment was detailed to cover the with- drawal of their Division, and successfully held the enemy at bay from early morning until 6 p. m. at night, when the eleven survivors withdrew under orders, having accom- plished their task. At the end of the day, although the enemy's thrust west of Roye had pressed back our right somewhat beyond the positions to which it had been intended to withdraw, the British forces south of the Somme were in touch with the French, and the general line, Guerbigny — Rouvroy-en-San- terre — Proyart, had been taken up successfully. The Northern Advance Stopped A^eanwhile, north of the Somme the battle was entering upon its final stages; though the enemy's effort was not yet fully spent and his troops were still capable of powerful attacks. During the morning of March 26th our troops continued the taking up of the Ancre line without much interference from the enemy, but between Hamel and Puisieux the situa- tion was not yet clear. A gap still existed in this area be- tween the Vth and IVth Corps, through which bodies of German infantry worked their way forward and occupied Colincamps with machine guns. These machine guns were silenced by a section of field artillery of the 2nd Division, which gallantly galloped into action and engaged them over open sights. 72 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" Farther south, the Bray-sur-Somme — Albert line had been taken up successfully on the night of March 25th-26th, and fighting of a minor character occurred during the morn- ing, particularly at Meaulte, where troops of the gth Di- vision beat off a strong attack. Owing, however, to a mis- understanding, the Bray-sur-Somme — Albert line was re- garded by the local commander as being merely a stage in a further retirement to the line of the Ancre, south of Albert, Accordingly, on the afternoon and evening of March 26th, the withdrawal was continued, and when the higher com- mand became aware of the situation the movement had al- ready proceeded too far for our former positions tO' be re- established. By the time the withdrawal had been stopped the right of the Third Army rested on the Somme about Sailly-le-Sac ; while the Fifth Army still held the south bank of the Somme north of Proyart, about five miles farther east. The left flank of the Fifth Army, therefore, was dangerously un- covered, being protected merely by the natural obstacle of the river and an improvised force of 350 men with Lewis guns and armored cars which had been sent up to hold the crossings. The Fight for the Rosihes Line South of the Somme, meanwhile, the enemy had recom- menced his attacks at about 8.30 a. m. on the greater part of the Fifth Army front and against the French. The line occupied by our troops at this time, had it been main- tained, would have preserved Amiens from serious bombard- ment, and orders were issued that every effort was to be made to hold our positions. In the fighting which fol- lowed troops of all divisions, despite the weakness of their numbers and the tremendous strain through which they had already gone, displayed a courage and determination in their defense for which no praise can be too high. At 10 a. m. the 8th Division at Rosieres had already repulsed a heavy attack, and the enemy was pressing hard against our positions in the neighborhood of Proyart. The results of the unfortunate withdrawal from Bray now be- OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 73 came apparent. The enemy was not slow to take advantage of the position held by him along the north bank of the Somme in the rear of our troops, and in spite of our efforts to destroy or hold the river crossings, began to pass strong parties of infantry to the south bank at Cerisy. Being heavily attacked in front and with bodies of the enemy established south of the river in their immediate rear, our troops at Proyart and to the north were compelled to fall back. The enemy gained Framerville, Proyart, and Morcourt, and endeavored to advance southwards behind our line. In view of the absence of reserves behind this front other than the composite force already referred to, the situation was serious. A counter-attack by the 66th Division re- stored the situation about Framerville, and at nightfall our troops were still east and north of Harbonnieres, whence our line ran northwestwards to Bouzencourt. South of Harbonnieres, the 8th Division held the village of Rosieres against all attacks and killed great numbers of the enemy. South of this point, as far as Arvillers, troops of the 24th, 30th, and 20th Divisions maintained their posi- tions substantially unchanged throughout the day, though beyond their right flank the enemy passed Davenscourt and captured Montdidier. The Amiens Defenses During the night of March 27th-28th, parties of the enemy worked their way southwards from Morcourt and Cerisy and entered Bayonvillers and Warfusee-Abancourt, astride the main Amiens road. Our troops east of these places were seriously endangered, and in the early morning of March 28th were directed to withdraw to the line Vrely- Marcelcave. Our line from Marcelcave to the Somme was manned by Carey's Force, with the ist Cavalry Division in close support. During the evening the enemy concentrated heavy artillery fire on Marcelcave, and forced these troops to withdraw a short distance to the west of the village. The position of our troops at Arvillers and Vrely, how- ever, in the deep and narrow salient between the Avre and 74 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" Luce Rivers, was rapidly becoming untenable. The enemy was pushing southwards from Guillaucourt, and beyond our right flank had entered Contoire and was pressing the French troops back upon Hangest-en-Santerre. A gallant attempt by troops of the 6ist Division to regain Warfusee-Aban- court and lighten the pressure from the north proved un- successful, and in the course of the afternoon and evening our troops fell back through the 20th Division, which during the evening was disposed on the line Mezieres-Demuin. At nightfall we held approximately the Amiens defense line on the whole front south of the Somme from Mezieres to Ignau- court and Hamel. The nature of the fighting on the southern portion of the battle front where our troops had been engaged for a full week with an almost overwhelming superiority of hos- tile forces had thrown an exceptional strain upon the Fifth Army Commander and his Staff. In order to avoid the loss of efficiency which a continuance of such a strain might have entailed, I decided to avail myself of the services of the Staff of the Fourth Army, which was at this time in reserve. Gen- eral Sir H. S. Rawlinson, who had but recently given up the command on appointment to Versailles, accordingly re- turned to his old Army, and at 4.30 p. m. on this day as- sumed command of the British forces south of the Somme. At the same time the construction of new defense lines made necessary by the enemy's advance called for the ap- pointment of an able and experienced Commander and Staff to direct this work and extemporize garrisons for their de- fense. I accordingly ordered General Gough to undertake this important task. The Attack on Arras Meanwhile, between 7 and 8 a. m. on the morning of March 28th fighting of the most intensity had broken out north of the Somme from Puisieux to northeast of Arras. Finding himself checked on the northern flank of his attack, the enemy on this day made a determined effort to obtain greater freedom for the development of his offensive, and struck in great force along the valley of the Scarpe at Arras. OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 75 This development of the battle, which had been foreseen as early as March 23rd, involved the right of the Xlllth Corps on the right of the First Army, and represented a considerable extension of the original front of attack. A German success in this sector might well have had far-reach- ing effects. There is little doubt that the enemy hoped to achieve great results by this new stroke, and that ics failure was a serious setback to his plans. After a bombardment of great violence three fresh Ger- man divisions advanced to the assault along the north bank of the Scarpe River and were supported in their ; ' tack by the two German divisions already in line. According to captured documents, the enemy's immediate object was to gain the general line Vimy — Bailleul — St. Laurent — Blangy, when three special assault divisions were to carry the Vimy Ridge on the following day. Immediately south of the Scarpe four German divisions were engaged, to two of which were assigned the tasks of capturing Arras, and the heights overlooking the town. This assault was supported by power- ful attacks, in which eleven hostile divisions were engaged, along our whole front southwards to beyond Bucquoy. Still farther south, as far as Dernancourt, strong local attacks were delivered at different points. The methods followed by the enemy on this occasion were the same as those em- ployed by him on the 21st of March, but in this instance the thick fog which had played so decisive a part on that day was absent. In consequence, our artillery and machine guns were given every opportunity to engage the German infan- try both when assembling and while advancing to the attack, and the heaviest losses were inflicted on them by our fire. Immediately prior to the assault, masses of German in- fantry with artillery in rear of them were observed drawn up in close formation on Greenland Hill, and were shelled by our artillery. North of the Scarpe, about Roeux, great exe- cution was done at point-blank range by single guns which we had placed in forward positions close up to our front line. The enemy's infantry in this sector are reported to have advanced almost shoulder to shoulder in six lines, and on 76 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" the whole front our machine gunners obtained most favorable targets. The weight and momentum of his assault and the cour- age of his infantry, who sought to cut their way through our wire by hand under the fire of our machine guns, sufficed to carry the enemy through the gaps which his bombardment had made in our outpost line. Thereafter, raked by the fire of our outposts, whose garrisons turned their machine guns and shot at the enemy's advancing lines from flank and rear, and met by an accurate and intense fire from all arms, his troops were everywhere stopped and thrown back with the heaviest loss before our battle positions. A second attack launched late in the afternoon north of the Scarpe, after a further period of bombardment, was also repulsed at all points. At the end of the day our battle po- sitions astride the Scarpe were intact on the whole front of the attack, and in the evening successful counter-attacks en- abled us to push out a new outpost line in front of them. Meanwhile, the surviving garrisons of our original outpost line, whose most gallant resistance had played so large a part in breaking up the enemy's attack, had fought their way back through the enemy, though a party of the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, 4th Division, remained cut off at Rceux until successfully withdrawn during the night. On the southern portion of his attack, the enemy's re- pulse was, if possible, even more complete than on the new front east of Arras. Attacks on the Guards Division and on the 31st Division were defeated after all-day fighting. The 42nd Division drove off two attacks from the direction of Ablainzevelle, and the 62nd Division with an attached brigade of the 4th Australian Division also beat off a suc- cession of heavy attacks about Bucquoy with great loss to the enemy. Less important attacks at different points between Hebu- terne and Dernancourt were in each case repulsed, and led CO the capture of a number of prisoners by our troops. With this day's battle, which ended in the complete de- feat of the enemy on the whole front of his attack, the first stage of the enemy's offensive weakened and eventually OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 77 closed on the 5th of April, During these days hostile pres- sure continued south of the Somme, and after much fierce and fluctuating fighting in this area, accompanied by a num- ber of strong local attacks also on the northern portion of the battle front, the enemy on the 4th and 5th of April made final unsuccessful efforts to overcome the resistance of the Allies. These attacks, however, though formidable, lacked the weight that had made his earlier successes possible, while the strength of the Allied positions increased from day to day. It has been seen that in the Somme battle, by the end of March, in addition to some ten German divisions engaged against the French, a total of seventy-three German divi- sions were engaged and fought to a standstill by forty-two British infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions. Finally, I am glad to acknowledge the ready manner in which American engineer units have been placed at my dis- posal from time to time, and the great value of the assist- ance they have rendered. In the battles referred to in this dispatch American and British troops have fought shoulder to shoulder in the same trenches, and have shared together in the satisfaction of beating off German attacks. All ranks of the British Army look forward to the day when the rap- idly growing strength of the American Army will allow American and British soldiers to cooperate in offensive action. AMERICAN ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT On General Sanderson Carey's employment of U. S. and Canadian engineers A disastrous-looking gap appeared in the 5th Army south of Hamel in the later stages of the opening battle. The Germans had crossed the Somme at Hamel and had a clear path for a sweep southwestward. No troops were available to throw into the opening. A brigadier general was commissioned by General Gough, commander of the 5th Army, to gather up every man he could find and to "hold the gap at any cost." The general called upon the American and Canadian engineers, cooks, 78 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE' chauffeurs, road workmen, anybody he could find; gave them guns, pistols, any available weapon, and rushed them into the gap in trucks, on horseback, or on mule-drawn limbers. A large number of machine guns from a machine-gun school near by were confiscated. Only a few men, however, knew how to operate the weapons, and they had to be worked by amateurs with one "instructor" for every ten or twelve guns. The Americans did especially well in hand- ling this arm. For two days the detachment held the mile and a half gap. At the end of the second day the commander, having gone forty-eight hours without sleep, collapsed. The situa- tion of the detachment looked desperate. While all were wondering what would happen next, a dusty automobile came bounding along the road from the north. It contained Brigadier General Carey, who had been home on leave and was hunting for his headquarters. The general was commandeered by the detachment and he was found to be just the commander needed. He is an old South African soldier of the daredevil type. He is famous among his men for the scrapes and escapades of his schoolboy life as well as foi his daring exploits in South Africa. Carey took the detachment in hand and led it in a series of attacks and counter-attacks which left no time for sleep- ing and little for eating. He gave neither his men nor the enemy a rest, attacking first on the north, then in the center, then on the south — harassing the enemy unceasingly with the idea of convincing the Germans that a large force op' posed them. Whenever the Germans tried to feel him out with an attack at one point, Carey parried with a thrust somewhere else, even if it took his last available man, and threw the Germans on the defensive. The spirit of Carey's troops was v/onderful. The work they did was almost supernatural. It would have been im- possible with any body of men not physical giants, but the Americans and Canadians gloried in it. They crammed every OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 79 hour of the day full of fighting. It was a constantly changing battle, kaleidoscopic, free-for-all, catch-as-catch-can. The Germans gained ground. Carey and his men were back at them, hungry for more punishment. At the end of the sixth day, dog-tired and battle-worn, but still full of fight, the de- tachment was relieved by a fresh battalion which had come up from the rear. BY GUSTAVE BABIN France's part in the Battle The Great German ofifensive was launched on March 2 1 St. It had been preceded by a heavy bombardment extend- ing from La Fere to Arras, and from the Oise River to the Scarpe. Perhaps even at the very moment of attack the German High Staff still hesitated between launching their assault southward toward Paris or northward against the English Channel. The yielding of the British line under General Gough in the south, fixed their purpose. The south- ern road leading along the valley of the Oise River opened to them. Their great dream of French conquest, broken in 19 14, began to soar again. The German forces advanced by way of the narrow cor- ridor formed between the valley of the Oise and Nesle. Al- most every division which was engaged passed along that avenue. Coming first by this path, they hurled themselves in masses on the British right wing. They succeeded here more rapidly perhaps than they themselves had hoped. Those who attacked to the northward were the least for- tunate. They encountered there a heavy resistance. Their objective on the first day was the Somme River in the neigh- borhood of Ham, an advance of about seventeen kilometers. Bursting forth from St. Quentin, they found that, by the first evening, they had only advanced four kilometers, after tre- mendous effort ; they had only reached to Savy, whose woods they had destroyed in their preceding retreat and whose ven- erable college they had brutally ravaged. Their heaviest blow, as I have said, was that delivered against General Gough, with twelve German divisions. Six of these had held the front line between St. Quentin and the Oise. Six m^re now came to aid them. By the 2Stli of 8o OPENING OF THE "KAISE-RBATTLE' March, this number had been largely increased. Germany poured her strength against this point of least resistance. In all, before March 30th, she had 28 divisions pushing for- ward by this route toward Montdidier. These were her best troops, her shock-divisions. This was the force which the French troops had to en- counter when on March 22nd they were summoned to the rescue of the retreating British right. Add to this the fact that the enemy was maneuvering in a region which he knew as well as we, and which he had systematically devastated. He had shrewdly chosen his own field of battle, easily acces- sible to him by the roads and railways which he had pre- pared. Moreover, he possessed constantly the tremendous advantage of acting on the inner lines of a salient, so that he could quickly correct an error, replace a broken regi- ment, and move always more rapidly than we. Over all these obstacles French valor, French genius, triumphed, as it had triumphed at the Marne, on the Yser, on the Somme, and at Verdun. In vain did the foe hurl into the fiery furnace division after division beyond count- ing, and engage in a struggle as savage as it was desperate. His redoubtable artillery could not follow swiftly enough for a rapid advance. His general, von Hutier, had plenty of leisure to reflect upon the fate of von Kluck, who for a moment had held the same dream, before he let fall the reality and attempted to seize the shadow. One may nat- urally suppose that von Hutier was resolved not to fall into the same error. But to wipe from the military map such a morsel as the Capital of France is not an easy matter, even if one dares attempt the venture. On the morning of March 21st, the right of the British Army, where it was in touch with the French lines, was vio- lently attacked. The twelve German divisions were ani- mated by a terrible energy, because their chiefs had assured them that this was the final and supreme effort. The Brit- ish held them well at first, held them back all day. So well were they checked that the President of France that evening returned to Paris after a day of anxiety; and he said, *Tt has been a great check for Germany." OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 8l Yet, at the very hour when it seemed possible to speak thus with all confidence, General Gough, fearing that he could no longer resist the endless masses that were being poured against him, gave orders to his troops, toward eleven o'clock at night, to fall back upon the Crozat Canal. There he hoped to pause and again check the foe. But troops that retreat are not easily regathered and rearranged in a new line. True, the feat had been accomplished at the Marne ! But that has been well said to have been a miracle. On March 23rd, the Germans, having again failed to advance further north, crossed the Somme at Ham. The ex- treme right of the British Army was in danger of being surrounded, as the foe could easily advance from Ham to Nesle. A new retreat by the British right was now neces- sary. A sort of seesaw was thus established. The first retreat of the extreme right on March 22nd had forced the northern divisions to withdraw beyond Ham. This in its turn forced a new withdrawal on the southern divisions. During March 22nd one French army corps had been made ready to help the British. The possibility of our lend- ing aid had been already considered, but the case had not seemed to require it. Now, however, with the loss of the Crozat Canal, prompt aid was absolutely necessary. On the 23rd this first French corps closed with the enemy. Four more divisions were hastened to the danger point. The motor transport and the railroad rivaled each other in their speed and zeal. The troops were thrown into the fight as they arrived, the first lines sheltering the unloading of the rest. Events swept dizzily onward. When General Petain, commanding these forces, received his orders, he was told to join the British on the line of the Crozat Canal and to aid them in holding it. But on the morning of the 23rd came the Germans' successful passage of the Somme at Ham ; and from there they marched southwest ward. The next arriving French division was sent to meet them there, while the earlier divisions, already advancing eastward to the canal, were deflected to meet the new attack from the north. Here we were soon engaged in magnificent combat. In the after- W., VOL. VI.— 6, 82 OPENING OF THE "K'AISERBATTLE" noon an overwhelming German attack drove in the remainder of the British line from the east, and those exhausted Britons withdrew behind our lines. On the morrow, the 24th, the enemy again attacked in force, marching down the valley of the Oise with his left wing touching the river bank. He increased the pressure of his enormous masses. He forced his way down the val- ley to Viry and to Chauny. We on our side brought up another division to increase our resistance. The British troops, scattered now, and without higher command, fought admirably at many points along the front. In the night they were officially placed under the orders of the French com- manding general. On the afternoon of the 24th, the foe drove down from the north along the route from Ham to Noyon. His ntim- berless troops fought their way on "shoulder to shoulder, breast to breast." Our divisions had scarcely had time to form in line ; yet they met the German push with magnificent vigor. Only step by step could the foe advance. To the northward, on the other hand, there was a new British with- drawal ; that evening the enemy crossed the Somme all along the line above Ham. On the 25th, the Germans directed two great attacks against Noyon, the one coming from the north, the other from the east. General Humbert, commanding our army at this point, reenforced this pivotal position with a new divi- sion. The defense of the city gradually became impossible and its evacuation was decided upon. The retreat was ac- complished during the night without attack from the enemy. The divisions which lay south of Noyon in the Oise with- drew to the south bank of the river ; those on the high ground to the west of Noyon fell back further to the westward to keep in touch with the British on the north. The next day General Humbert issued this proclamation of highest military spirit : "The enemy, equally with our- selves, is much wearied. We have now a powerful artillery. Our troops are defending the very heart of France. The im- portance of their task will point out to them their duty." The important thing for us was to hold the heights south OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 83 of Noyon and so retain control of this pivotal position. It was the hinge upon which our forces must swing in order to continue to hold possession of the south bank of the Oise. On the morning of the 26th the drive of the enemy recom- menced along all of our front; but his chief effort was di- rected particularly against the region around Noyon, of which he fully recognized the importance. There are to the west of the city two heights of unequal altitude, the moun- tain of Porquericourt and Mont Renaud, the two consti- tuting a solid mass of defense barring the road to Compiegne. The enemy knew well that we would hold these to the utter- most ; so, advancing his forces beyond Noyon, he redoubled his efforts to become master of these heights. There our artillery mowed the enemy down by whole companies, the main attack being directed against Mont Renaud. It re- mained permanently in our hands. In the afternoon of the 26th the German effort seemed directed more toward the north. Our reconnoissances re- vealed large movements of his troops advancing from his original lines toward the British forces at Roye. These forces seemed also endeavoring to encircle our left wing either to surround us, or to' advance on Paris. But fighting foot by foot our armies were extended westward to meet each westward advance of the foe. In vain, that evening, did the Germans make one more desperate attack to break this line. Our machine guns met them at every point. The route to Paris was thenceforth closed. The enemy had to seek some other goal. Noyon had fallen, but our army re- mained firm and unshaken. All the next day, the 27th, the enemy continued to test our line from Noyon to the south of Roye, as if seeking to find a passage through our lines. A new French army was by now hurrying along the railways to fill the vacant space between our forces and the broken British front. This army took the field to the west of Montdidier adjoining the left of our army, which until then had upheld battle. Here there was to be another dramatic moment. The foe found an open gap between Roye and Montdidier, and at- tempted to penetrate between the sections of the rapidly ar- 84 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE' riving new army. Our men were detrained with a celerity and accuracy and a steadiness most impressive. Even while the enemy attacked our general was constructing his army, checking them with cavalry while he placed his rapidly ar- riving artillery. By the 28th this new army was also fully prepared. Its line held firm. We were once more fixed, established ; our forces were in full touch with the British army. On the 29th we began our counter-attacks. BY GENERAL VON LUDENDORFF Official Report of March 21st to 28th When the drum-fire on the morning of March 21st had poured forth its thick sheaves of shot, the barrels of the cannon were red hot.-^ In the battery positions the powder smoke of the shots had thickened the fog to such an extent that one could not see from one gun to another. The at- tacking artillery fired the number of shots planned in the thick fog, bu'L the objectives and the time of the firing were so exactly calculated that the attack remained independent of the weather. The first English position has disappeared, and in its place there extends a wide and desolate crater- field. Everywhere there are the remains of wire entangle- ments, broken-down shaft entrances, and destroyed block- houses. At most places the battered-in trenches were over- run, and the survivors came rushing towards the Germans minus their weapons and with their hands in the air. At other places the English are defending themselves with great stubbornness. Near Epehy, for example, they defended the edge of the village until the evening. Farther south, however, Lempire, Ronssoy, Hargicourt, Villeret, and Pontru have been taken. The storming troops, with in- describable energy, overran the crater-field and are now storming beyond the chains of hills west of the captured vil- lages, of which the fields and meadows have long since been transformed into desolate steppes. The English sought to make a stand in the artillery position. The ground favored them ; but their artillery was too much overcome to support * The guns could not have been loaded had this been the case. OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 85 their infantry effectively. The German batteries, on the other hand, pressed forward. The fire continued to be di- rected on the crater-land, whilst the pioneers were building a road through the wilderness of mire, and on the first day of attack the artillery followed up the storming troops. At many points the artillery protecting position was broken through. Even in the declining evening the loftily situated ruins of Templeux, with the whole of the strongly con- structed quarries, were taken. The second day also began with a thick fog. Its im- penetrable veil favored the English retirement. The Ger- man attacking artillery, which was brought forward over the crater zone, had at first small objectives. The fire of the English guns of heavy caliber barred the few crossings through the miry field. But German field batteries galloped between the towers of smoke. They were thus able closely to support the infantry attack. At 7 o'clock the firing be- gan against the second British position. Hardly an hour later the triple wire entanglements protecting it w^ere broken through. The fog continued beyond midday. The infan- try stormed farther into the field of mist. Afterwards, in unceasing pursuit, it followed the artillery. At midday com- panies which had pushed forward had already reached Roisel. Fighting continued desperately around the station. Numer- ous guns were captured here. At the same time English detachments continued to hold out on the heights south of Templeux. Their machine-gun fire struck the German ad- vancing troops in the flanks, but not for long. Before our storming waves, advancing over the chains of hills, rises the English Army. Close bands of prisoners are streaming backwards. In the roads field grays are followed by chains of reserves and columns. The enemy retreats to his third position. North of the Cologne Brook their wire entangle ments were reached even before nightfall. Bright sunshine favored the progress of the German of- fensive between the Scarpe and the Oise on the second day's fighting. On the whole front of attack the German infan- try, determined upon victory, unceasingly pressed forward. The German artillery fire had produced its effect. The strong 86 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE' obstacles which had been prepared during many months were destroyed. The English trenches were transformed into graves, which were full of dead. Whilst the first lines in places were only thinly occupied, the English offered a brave resistance in their second position, which was broken down in a desperate struggle. The dugouts had to be taken in hard hand-to-hand fighting. Here the superiority of the German infantry showed itself in the best light. Unexpect- edly commenced and extremely effective, German artillery preparation only allowed the counter-effect of the English to be brought into action gradually. The German losses were thus surprisingly light. In the captured second English position many closely- massed counter-attacks had to be warded off, two of which, supported by tanks, took place in the evening of March 21st in the region of Doignies, after the capture of the village of Vaulx-Vraucourt. Sixteen tanks were destroyed by ar- tillery and infantry fire and trench mortar fire. The Eng- lish suffered unusually heavy losses during their fruitless counter-attacks. The booty and number of prisoners are continually increasing. A single German regiment captured 30 gtms near Monchy. In the advance beyond the heights south of Maissemy, German storming troops encountered enemy batteries. After three of them had been blown up, an additional one was destroyed before our troops passed farther on. On the whole front our battle aviators participated suc- cessfully in the fighting, bombs being freely dropped on the railway stations of Chaulnes, Roye, and Noyon. Good hits on arriving trains, as well as great explosions at the station of Compiegne, were observed. Further strong explosions in the direction of Behagnies confirmed the excellent effect of our long-distance fire, which was well supported by our ar- tillery aviators. The decision in the Monchy-Cambrai-St. Quentin-La Fere battle was brought about by a surprise overrunning of the third position. South of Bernes, the EngHsh, on March 22nd, had sent forward fresh forces from Amiens into these positions. The troops had scarcely reached these OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 87 positions, and their machine guns had not been fetched for- ward, when they were surprised by the German attack. On the 23rd the mist lifted earlier than on the preceding days, and the English gave way over the whole front. It is true that their rearguards defended every hilly ridge, but in a short time they were driven out of every new position they took up. The superiority of the German leaders and troops made itself felt to the full. The English artillery sacri- ficed itself in order to cover the retreat. Their batteries moved back only a few hundred yards before the German storming waves. In raging, rapid fire they shot away their munitions, and then attempted to limber up and to drive away. Under our shrapnel and machine-gun fire numerous batteries could not be got away, whilst others were captured with their teams. The counter-attacks made by the tanks helped just as little. Gun and mine-thrower fire put most of them out of action before they had got properly working. One tank, which broke out into the German infantry line, was rendered harmless by the clever deed of a non-commis- sioned officer, who sprang upon the tank and killed the crew by means of revolver shots fired through the air-hole in the covering of the tank. South of Peronne, on the Somme, we advanced. At the same time other detachments pressed forward towards Pe- ronne and to the north of it. Here the English undertook counter-attacks from the town. Their companies, how- ever, fled when the Germans stormed towards them. Pe- ronne is in flames. What the French, after careful work, had built up after the evacuation of the town by the Germans, the English destroyed before their retreat.^ But the retreat was over-hasty, and rich booty remained behind on every hand. Automobiles with English staffs left the town shortly before the Germans arrived. Between the retreating col- umns the tanks traveled, which no longer dared to make fresh attacks. German battle-plane squadrons accompanied the retreat. Their machine-guns and bombs brought death and confusion. British airmen did not accept battle, and flew away as soon as they saw the German chaser airmen. 'This is untrue. 88 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE' On the battlefield between the Scarpe and the Oise, within a period of three days from the 21st to the 23rd instant, the English Army suffered the greatest defeat in British history. The successes achieved in the great victory are such as have not been nearly approached by the Entente since the beginning of the battle of positions in the western thea- ter. The English offensive near Arras in April, 1916, was made on a front 12 miles wide; the Anglo-French attack on the Somme in July, 1916, was made on double that width; the French attacked on the Aisne in 19 17 on a width of 24 miles. The English big attack, prepared for months in Flanders, never exceeded a space of 18 miles, and the whole of the territorial gains of almost half a year's fighting only amounted to 36 square miles. In the three days' battle in the west, the Germans made a territorial gain of 700 square miles. On March 24th, the Crown Prince Rupprecht of Ba- varia, with the armies of Generals Otto von Below and von der Marwitz, again defeated the enemy in the tremendous struggle near Bapaume. General Kuhne broke through the strong positions of the enemy to the northeast of Bapaume in bitter fighting; the troops of General Griinert and Gen- eral Staabs, coming from the east and southeast, drove the enemy back via Ypres and Sailly. The stubborn enemy re- sistance, which had been reenforced with French forces, was broken in violent battles. Freshly brought-up troops and numerous tanks threw themselves against our advancing troops along the roads leading from Bapaume to Cambrai and Peronne. They could not bring about a decision in favor of the enemy. In the evening, defeated, they streamed back again in a westerly direction. During the course of a night battle, Bapaume fell into the hands of the victors. Hot fighting developed for the possession of Combles and the heights situated to the west. The enemy was defeated. English cavalry attacks broke down. We are now standing to the north of the Somme, in the middle of the former .Somme battlefield. The German Crown Prince, with the army of General von Hutier, forced a passage across the Somme below Ham. OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 89 His victorious troops, in bitter fighting, mounted to the west of the Somme. Violent counter-attacks by English infantry and cavalry broke down with sanguinary losses. The town of Nesle was taken by storm this evening. Between the Somme and the Oise the troops which pene- trated across the Crozat Canal have, late in the evening of the 23rd, taken by storm the strongly-fortified and stub- bornly-defended positions on the western bank of the canal. In hot fighting the English, French and Americans were thrown back through the pathless wooded country via La Neuville and Villequier-Aumont. The attack continued yes- terday. French infantry and cavalry divisions, which were brought forward for counter-thrust, were thrown back with sanguinary losses. In restless pursuit, General von Conta and General von Gayl pressed after the retreating enemy. Guiscard and Chauny were captured in the evening. We bombarded the fortress of Paris with long-range guns. The enemy casualties are unusually heavy. The tre- mendous booty which fell into our hands from the 21st can- not yet be estimated. More than 45,000 prisoners have been ascertained, many more than 600 guns, thousands of ma- chine guns, tremendous quantities of munitions and imple- ments, great stores of supplies and pieces of clothing. In continuation of the great battle in France our troops on March 25th achieved fresh successes. English divisions brought up from Flanders and Italy with the French threw themselves against our troops in desperate attacks. They were defeated. The armies of General Otto von Below and General von der Marwitz have finally maintained themselves in Ervillers after a hot and fluctuating battle, and in their advance against Achiet-le-Grand, captured the villages of Bihucourt, Biefvillers, and Grevillers. They captured Irles and Miraumont and have crossed the Ancre. English troops freshly brought forv/ard attacked violently on a wide front from the direction of Albert. The enemy was driven back after a bitter struggle. We crossed the Bapaume-Albert road, near Courcelette and Pozieres. To the south of Peronne, General von Hof- acker has forced a passage across the Somme, and has taken 90 OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE^ by storm the height of Maisonnette, which was so hotly contested in the Somme battle of 1916, as well as the vil- lages of Biaches and Barleux. Strong enemy counter-attacks wore themselves out before our lines. The army of General von Hutier, after hard fighting, drove the enemy back near Marchelepot and Hattencourt across the Peronne-Roye railway. The tenaciously de- fended Etalon was wrested from the French and English. Our signal service has taken a prominent share in the successes which we have achieved. Laboring untiringly, they rendered possible the cooperation between the units fighting next to one another, and gave the leaders the assurance of being able to guide the battle into the desired channels. Railway troops, which first carried out the tremendous advance from the beginning of the fighting without any fric- tion, and who are now coping with the traffic behind the front, are working ceaselessly on the reconstruction of the destroyed railways. Since the beginning of the battle 93 enemy aeroplanes and six captive balloons have been brought down. The booty in guns has increased to 963. Over 100 tanks are lying in the captured positions. On the rest of the Western front the artillery battles continued, incr^;asing on the Lorraine front to great strength. We continued the bombardment of the fortress of Paris. From the other theaters of war there is nothing new to report. First Quartennaster-General von Ludendorff. BY FREIHERR VON ARZ Statement of April 2nd, by Austria's chief general in France Among other things, the wound of our enemies in the west is so deep to-day that it can never heal again. I should be telling a lie if I said that the latest German successes surprised me; of these victories I was confident. The splen- did leadership of the great masters of war, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who have known their own aim, the depth and thoroughness of the German mind, and the high moral ear- OPENING OF THE "KAISERBATTLE" 91 nestness of the German soldiers were sufficient guarantee for success to the onlooker acquainted with the circumstances. The change from trench to active warfare makes the superi- ority of the German Army appear still more conspicuous. When the barbed-wire defenses are left some miles behind, and the maneuvers take place in the open field, then the alert- ness and experience of the non-commissioned officers, who have been trained by years of instruction during peace, and our thoroughly trained General Staff get their reward. Mil- lions of fighters can be raised out of the soil, but it is not so easy to obtain even a fraction of the necessary leaders of all ranks. The facts we must keep before us when judg- ing of the position on the western front. The German company and battalion commanders are a hundred times better than the English, and in that form an important guar- anty of success. The victorious and confident feelings of the German troops had not suffered any change by reason of the bad weather, the cold and rain which set in on March 27th. Against the wet and cold they were protected by the huge quantities of booty, consisting of coats, jackets and canvas, which they had found, while the rich lots of foodstuffs, which were found everywhere piled up in the British army depots, most advantageously supplemented their own rations. These unexpectedly large supplies have enabled many of the troops to live completely on what they find, so that their own supplies can be saved for a later period. THE MOST TREMENDOUS OF GERMAN WAR INVENTIONS THE LONG DISTANCE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS MARCH 23RD-MAY WILLIAM G. SHARP GENERAL ROHNE The bombardment of Paris from behind the German line was timed to open with the great military attack of the Kaiserbattle. Thus a double purpose was intended, first to add to the confusion, terror and even despair which the Germans hoped would result from their at- tack, and second to obscure the source of the bombardment. With the artillery everywhere at fullest discharge and with the French Army fully engrossed in immediate battle, the site of the huge guns directed against Paris might long remain a mystery. In fact, however, the French observers located the three monster cannon with admirable skill and promptitude; and managed before very long to batter them into uselessness. Moreover, the French people refused to be terrified by this blind and not really very destructive assault upon their capital. Paris suffered no more than London had previously suffered from the Zeppelin raids. In short, the great Ger- man guns were very spectacular, but very ineffective. Their one best shot was that here described by the U. S. Ambas- sador in Paris at the time, Mr. William Sharp. It plunged through the roof of the church of St. Gervais during the church service on Good Friday, March 29th, and killed almost a hundred people, mostly women and children. Among the few men slain was the Secretary of the Swiss Legation. Considering the fact that the members of the Swiss Lega- tion were Germany's best friends — her only open friends — in Paris during the War, the result of the bombardment could scarcely have made more manifest the recklessly indiscriminate character of the Ger- man attacks upon civilians. Here was no warning, no pretense even of confining war to the armed forces. The Germans themselves knew there was no military value to their new gun. They were simply fol- lowing their old policy of "frightfulness." We cull a brief explanation of the character of the gun from the accounts of Germany's chief artillery authority. General Rohne; and that the impression made upon the Ally world may be understood, we quote also a news report of the time. 92 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GERMAN LONG RANGE GUN The German long range guns used in bombarding Paris were constructed from worn out 15-inch, 45-caliber naval guns, mounted on concrete emplace- ments. The converted guns were of two parts; the main section was 98.5 feet long, and the forward section 19.7 feet. The 15-inch gun was bored out, and a heavy uniformly-rifled tube 8.26 inches in diameter inserted, 42.3 feet of this tube projecting beyond the muzzle of the gun. Over this projecting portion a hoop was shrunk. The muzzle section, 23.6 feet in length, was screwed to the end of this hoop tube. This forward tube was unrifled and was probably added to impart additional lineal velocity and better align the axis of the projectile with that of the bore of the gun. The reliners used in this gun were of such a thickness that when worn out they could be rebored to 9.3 inches, and then to 9.93 inches. Up to the time the firing on Paris ceased, at least one of the seven guns constructed had been rebored and was firing 9.3-inch projectiles. A comparison of the general characteristics of this gun with our 14-inch naval gun, model 1920, is shown below. Source of information: Ordnance Department. Comparison of German Long Range Gun and American 14" Navy Gun Muzzle Energy, foot tons Range, yards Length, feet Weight, pounds Muzzle Velocity, feet per sec Elevation, degrees (maximum) . . . , Chamber Pressure, lbs. per sq. in . . Length of Projectile, feet Accuracy Life, rounds Weight of Projectile, pounds German American 8.26" 14" Navy 467,250 85,750 132,000 39,000 118.2 59.7 318,000 180,395 4,760 2,800 55 38 44,000 40,000 3.44 5.09 50 250 264 1,400 German gun in per cent of TT. Nnvv trim 100% 338 198 IM 176^ 170 ■■ 145 H 110 20 1 19 1 , STATISTICS BRANCH - GENERAL STAFF WAR DEPARTMENT 10-9-20 AIR SERVICE German L 72 Built to Bomb New York City The German rigid airship L 72 shown in the picture was built especially for the purpose of bombing New York City, having been designed for a non- stop voyage of 9,500 miles. It would have carried tons of bombs. The big dirigible, which is 19 feet longer than the Capitol at Washington, lacked but three days of completion when the armistice was signed. It is now in the possession of France. Characteristics of the L 72 Length 770 feet Cruising distance 9,500 miles Height 95 feet Maximum speed 62 M.P.H. Width ' • . 88 feet Gasoline capacity 11,000 gallons Capacity 2,470,000 cu. ft. Engines, six 240 H.P. Maybach Lifting power, total 85.75 tons Total horse power 1,440 STATISTICS BRANCH - GENERAL STAFF WAR DEPARTMENT 5-1-20 THE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS 93 U. S. REPORT FROM AMBASSADOR SHARP Washington, April 3rd. THE Secretary of State has received from Ambassador Sharp in Paris a graphic report of his visit to the scene of the horrible tragedy which occurred on the afternoon of Good Friday in a church by the explosion of a German shell projected from far back of the enemy lines a distance of more than seventy miles. The appalling destruction wrought by this shell is, as the Ambassador remarked, prob- ably not equaled by any single discharge of any hostile gun in the cruelty and horrors of its results. In no other one spot in Paris, even where poverty had gathered on that holy day to worship, could destruction of life have been so great. Nearly a hundred mangled corpses lying in the morgues, with almost as many seriously wounded, attested to the measure of the toll exacted. Far up to the high, vaulted arches, between the flying buttresses well to the front of the church, is a great gap in the wall, from which fell upon the heads of the devoted worshipers many tons of solid masonry. It was this that caused such a great loss of life. As the Ambassador entered the church, where but a few hours before had been gathered the worshipers, he could easily picture the scene that followed the explosion. The amount of debris, remaining just as it fell on the floor, cov- ered the entire space between the lofty columns supporting the arches at each side. Only a miracle could have saved from death or serious injury those who escaped the falling mass. The scene was that of some horrible shambles, and it was not until well into the night that all the bodies were recovered. Upon the floor in many places could still be seen the blood of the victims, among whom were many prominent and well-to-do people. The Ambassador called to express his sympathy to his Swiss colleague, whose lifelong friend, the Secretary of the Swiss Legation, was killed while leaving the church. The Minister was deeply afifected as he spoke of the great loss to him through the Secretary's death. The Secretary was 94 THE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS well known in Washington, where he served with the Swiss Legation from 1902 to 1904, and was very highly esteemed by all who knew him. In conclusion, Mr. Sharp says that the exceptional cir- cumstances under which this tragedy occurred, both as to the sacred character of the day and the place, have greatly aroused the indignation of the people of Paris toward an enemy who seeks to destroy human life without regard to the immunities prescribed by the laws of civilization and humanity, and, instead of terrorizing the people, shells of the great cannons, as well as the bombs dropped from the German airplanes, only serve to strengthen the resolve of the French to resist, to the last man if necessary, the in- vasion of such a foe. BRITISH PRESS REPORT This date (Saturday, March 23rd) was marked by a new departure in warfare. Paris was startled by a heavy shell falling in the town at 7.30 a. m. It was followed by others at intervals of about 20 minutes for some few hours. The effects of the bombardment were entirely without mili- tary importance, the only results being some destruction of property and the killing and wounding of a number of harmless citizens, including many women and children. On the 24th, Palm Sunday, Paris was again shelled, and Good Friday was also singled out as an appropriate day for the work of destruction. On the latter date the churches of Paris would be filled with worshipers, and there would be a grand opportunity for repeating on land the brave deed achieved in sinking the Lusitania on the sea. A church was struck, part of the roof blown in, with the result that 76 persons were killed and 90 wounded, of whom a large pro- portion were women and children. On March 30th the vic- tims numbered 8 dead and 90 wounded, but with these two exceptions the casualties were limited to quite small numbers, rarely over one, for each shell fired. At the beginning of May the bombardment ceased for a time. It did not take long to discover where the guns were stationed, and within a few hours from the time the bom- THE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS bardment began it was located by French aviators behind the St. Gobain Forest, not far from La Fere. A few days later the positions of two others were ascertained. All three gun emplacements were on the reverse slope of a wooded hill known as the Mont de Joie, between the Laon-La Fere rail- way and the Laon-La Fere road, where they were hidden by the trees. It was an outlying spur of the hill-mass of St. Gobain. A line drawn from Fourdrain to Couvron and Aumencourt would run through the center of the position of the three gun-pits arranged approximately in the form of an equilateral triangle, the apex of which pointed towards Paris. They were all well under the crest line. Each in- stallment consisted of a concrete pit in the shape of a long and deep trench, to which a line of railway ran back to the Laon-La Fere railway line. At the front end of each a concrete platform was constructed on which the gun car- riage rested. This was carefully covered by branches of trees which, combined with the neighboring wood, served to protect the position as much as was possible from view. When a big gun was fired a number of 17 cm. guns in its neighborhood were simultaneously let off so as to cover the sound of the larger explosion, and whenever the French avia- tors were seen approaching, the anti-aircraft guns were brought into action and volumes of smoke also discharged to render observation difficult. Except at the time of dis- charge the gun was not elevated, its long-chase being kept down to avoid detection. Accommodation for the gun crews was provided in a bomb-proof dugout, which was con- nected with the gun-pit by a deep trench. The distance from the big guns to the French lines wa5 about six miles ; the French heavy guns were some two miles farther back. A range of eight miles is long for accurate practice, but on the fourth day (i.e., March 26th) a shell fell into one of the gun cuttings and rendered the gun useless. It must be remembered that unless a shell dropped actually in the trench or on the gun it would not do much harm. Artillery fire and bombs from the air were continuously directed on the position. It was not till May 3rd that a very clear atmosphere al- 96 THE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS lowed continuous observation. It was then seen that only one gun was in action and the concentrated fire of the French heavy guns would appear to have silenced it. From that day forward no shell fell on Paris till May 27th, by which time the gun had been repaired. BY GENERAL ROHNE The huge "super-guns" used by us in the bombardment of Paris were one of our chief triumphs of the War. Had they been completed at an earlier stage, they could have been directed against England equally with France, and might well have proved the decisive factor in forcing a peace upon our foes. As it was, their destructive fire caused v/idespread panic in the French capital. Many thousands of people fled from Paris, and the party which was seeking for an imme- diate, honorable peace became much stronger. The damage done to the French fortifications was not large; but the damage to the city itself was considerable, and the damage to the enemy morale was extreme. These guns had a range of over seventy miles, gaining this enormous advance over all earlier cannon by the tre- mendous initial velocity of their discharge. The highest velocity previously imparted to a shell at the moment of its leaving the cannon muzzle did not reach 3,000 feet per sec- ond; the velocity attained by the new guns was 4,800 feet per second, an increase of over 60 per cent. The shell itself weighed 330 pounds, a light weight in comparison with some which have been used in shorter guns ; but 330 pounds of concentrated explosives is quite sufficient to work untold destruction. To this velocity of flight, we added a high angle of fire, with the result that the projectile soared high above the lower levels of the atmosphere, and found at the top of the curve of its flight so little air-resistance that it was practically traveling in a vacuum. This explains the length of its flight ; and when it fell, the increasing speed generated by the height of the fall, gave it a weight and power of de- struction that made it as destructive as would have been a much larger, slower shell. FOCH GIVEN SUPREME COMMAND AMERICA LEADS THE WAY TO THE COMPLETE UNION OF THE ALLIES' FORCES APRIL 3RD GENERAL JOHN PERSHING DAVID LLOYD GEORGE A main element in the winning of the War, definitely recognized as such by all the Ally governments, was the union of all the military forces under General Foch. This step was hurriedly and informally taken on the actual field of battle when the British line wa« breaking under the pressure of the Kaiserbattle. There was a hasty meeting of statesmen and generals at the town of Doulens, just back of the battle- line; and immediate control over all the scattered and intermingled Ally soldiers was given to the great French commander. The formal authorization of the step came later. General Foch's actual commis- sion dated from April 3rd, and the various Ally governments con- firmed it individually at later dates. This step, which France had long desired and Britain and Italy had opposed, was carried through largely by the insistence of the American authorities, and under the impulse of the noble step taken by General Pershing, when he had voluntarily subordinated himself and all his troops to the French general's command. The yielding of the other Allies would, however, have been impossible had there not been a General Foch. In a way he stood to the Allies as General Washington had once stood to the thirteen American colonies. They all trusted him and were sure he would guard the interests of all as highly as he guarded his own. Foch had proven himself by years of service. He was the one general in whom all armies and all govern- ments had confidence. It was to him rather than to France that the Allies yielded precedence. He stood undisputedly the foremost of men in proven military ability and loyalty to the great cause of Civilization. BY GENERAL PERSHING From his Official Report of September, 1919 IN the latter part of January, 1918, joint note No. 12, presented by the military representatives with the su- preme war council, was approved by the council. This note concluded that France would be safe during 19 18 only under certain conditions, namely : "(a) That the strength of the British and French troops •W.. VOL. VL— 7. 97 98 FOCH GIVEN SUPREME COMMAND in France are continuously kept up to their present total strength and that they receive the expected reenforcements of not less than two American divisions per month." The first German offensive of 1918, beginning March 2 1 St, overran all resistance during the initial period of the attack. Within eight days the enemy had completely crossed the old Somme battlefield and had swept everything before him to a depth of some fifty-six kilometers. For a few days the loss of the railroad center of Amiens appeared im- minent. The offensive made such inroads upon French and British reserves that defeat stared them in the face unless the new American troops should prove more immediately available than even the most optimistic had dared to hope. On March 27th the military representatives with the su- preme war council prepared their joint note No. 18. This note repeated the previously quoted statement from joint note No. 12, and continued : "The battle which is developing at the present moment in France, and which can extend to the other theaters of opera- tions, may very quickly place the Allied armies in a serious situation from the point of view of effectives, and the military representatives are from this moment of opinion that the above-detailed condition can no longer be main- tained, and they consider as a general proposition that the new situation requires new decisions. "The military representatives are of opinion that it is highly desirable that the American Government should assist the aUied armies as soon as possible by permitting in prin- ciple the temporary service of American units in allied army corps and divisions. Such reenforcements must, however, be obtained from other units than those American divisions which are now operating with the French, and the units so temporarily employed must eventually be returned to the American army. "The military representatives are of the opinion that from the present time, in execution of the foregoing, and until otherwise directed by the supreme war council, only American infantry and machine-gtm units, organized as that government may decide, be brought to France, and that all FOCH GIVEN SUPREME COMMAND 99 agreements or conventions hitherto made in conflict with this decision be modified accordingly." The Secretary of War, who was in France at this time, General Bliss, the American military representative with the supreme war council, and I at once conferred on the terms of this note, with the result that the secretary recommended to the President that joint note No. 18 be approved in the following sense: "The purpose of the American Government is to render the fullest cooperation and aid, and therefore the recom-/ mendation of the military representatives with regard to the preferential transportation of American infantry and ma- chine-gun units in the present emergency is approved. Such units, when transported, will be under the direction of the commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces, and will be assigned for training and use by him in his dis- cretion. "He will use these and all other military forces of the United States under his command in such manner as to render the greatest military assistance, keeping in mind al- ways the determination of this government to have its vari- ous military forces collected, as speedily as their training and the military situation permit, into an independent Ameri- can army, acting in concert with the armies of Great Britain and France, and all arrangements made by him for their temporary training and service will be made with that end in view." When, on March 21, 19 18, the German army on the western front began its series of offensives, it was by far the most formidable force the world had ever seen. In fighting men and guns it had a great superiority, but this was of less importance than the advantage in morale, in experience, in training for mobile warfare, and in unity of command. Ever since the collapse of the Russian armies and the crisis on the Italian front in the fall of 19 17, German armies were being assembled and trained for the great cam- paign which was to end the war before America's effort could be brought to bear. Germany's best troops, her most lOO FOCH GIVEN SUPREME COMMAND successful generals, and all the experience gained in three years of war were mobilized for the supreme effort. The first blow fell on the right of the British armies, including the junction of the British and French forces. Only the prompt cooperation of the French and British gen- eral headquarters stemmed the tide. The reason for this objective was obvious and strikingly illustrated the necessity for having some one with sufficient authority over all the Allied armies to meet such an emergency. The lack of com- plete cooperation among the Allies on the western front had been appreciated and the question of preparation to meet a crisis had already received attention by the supreme war council. A plan had been adopted by which each of the Allies would furnish a certain number of divisions for a general reserve to be under the direction of the military repre- sentatives of the supreme war council of which General Foch was then the senior member. But when the time came to meet the German offensive in March these reserves were not found available and the plan failed. This situation resulted in a conference for the immedi- ate consideration of the question of having an Allied com- mander-in-chief. After much discussion during which my view favoring such action was clearly stated, an agreement was reached and General Foch was selected. His appoint- ment as such was made April 3rd and was approved for the United States by the President on April i6th. The terms of the agreement under which General Foch exercised his authority were as follows : "Beauvais, April 3, 1918. "General Foch is charged by the British, French, and American Governments with the coordination of the action of the allied armies on the western front ; to this end there is conferred on him all the powers necessary for its effective realization. To the same end, the British, French, and American Governments confide in General Foch the strategic direction of military operations. "The commander-in-chief of the British, French, and American armies will exercise to the fullest extent the tactical direction of their armies. Each commander-in-chief will FOCH GIVEN SUPREME COMMAND loi have the right to appeal to his government, if in his opinion his army is placed in danger by the instructions received from General Foch." The grave crisis precipitated by the first German offensive caused me to make a hurried visit to General Foch's head- quarters at Bombon, during v^hich all our combatant forces were placed at his disposal. The acceptance of this offer meant the dispersion of our troops along the Allied front and a consequent delay in building up a distinctive American force in Lorraine, but the serious situation of the Allies de- manded this divergence from our plans. ADDRESS OF GENERAL PERSHING TO GENERAL FOCH The offer to subordinate American forces, made at Bombon on March 28th I have come to tell you that the American people vi^ill hold it a high honor that their troops should take part in the present battle. I ask you to permit this in my name and in theirs. At the present moment there is only one thing to do, to fight. Infantry, artillery, aeroplanes — all that I have I put at your disposal — do what you like with them. More will come — in fact, all that may be necessary. I have come ex- pressly to tell you that the American people will be proud to take part in this, the greatest and most striking battle of history. BY DAVID LLOYD GEORGE Statement issued by the British Prime Minister, March 30, 1918 For the first few days after the German Army had launched upon our lines an attack unparalleled in its con- centration of troops and guns the situation was extremely critical. Thanks to the indomitable bravery of our troops, who gradually stemmed the enemy advance until reenforce- ments could arrive and our faithful Ally could enter into the battle, the situation is now improved. The struggle, however, is still only in its opening stages, and no predic- tion of its future course can yet be made. From the first day the War Cabinet has been in constant session and in communication with Headquarters and with the French and American Governments. A number of meas- I02 FOCH GIVEN SUPREME COMMAND ures have been taken in concert between the Governments to deal with the emergency. The enemy has had the incalculable advantage of fighting as one army. To meet this the Allies have, since the battle began, taken a most important decision. With the cordial cooperation of the British and French Commanders-in-Chief, General Foch has been charged by the British, French, and American Governments to coordinate the action of the Allied Armies on the Western front. In addition to the action taken to meet immediate needs of the moment, it will be necessary to bring into operation certain measures which have long been in contemplation should a situation such as the present arrive. It is clear that, whatever may happen in this battle, the country must be prepared for further sacrifices to insure final victory. I am certain that the nation will shrink from no sacrifice which is required to secure this result, and the necessary plans are being carefully prepared by the Govern- ment and will be announced when Parliament meets. Further Statement of the Prime Minister on April gth It has become more obvious than ever before that the Al- lied Armies were suffering from the fact that they were fight- ing as two separate armies, and had to negotiate support with each other. Valuable time was thus lost. And yet the inherent difficulties were tremendous. There were na- tional prejudices, national interests, professional prejudices, traditions. The inherent difficulties of getting two or three separate armies to fight as one were almost insurmountable, and it could only be done if public opinion in all the coun- tries concerned insisted upon it as the one condition of success. A few days after the battle commenced, not merely the Government, but the Commanders in the field — we had not merely the Field Marshals, but all the Army Commanders present — were so convinced — and the same thing applied to the French, they were so convinced — of the importance of more complete strategic unity, that they agreed to the ap- pointment of General Foch to the supreme direction of the FOCH GIVEN SUPREME COMMAND 103 strategy of all the Allied Armies on the Western front. May I just say one word about General Foch? It is not merely that he is one of the most brilliant soldiers in Europe. He is a man who, when we were attacked and were in a similar plight at the first battle of Ypres, rushed the French Army there by every conceivable expedient — omnibuses, cabs, lor- ries, anything he could lay his hands upon — he crowded French Divisions through, and undoubtedly helped to win that great battle. There is no doubt about the loyalty and comradeship of General Foch. I have no doubt that this arrangement will be carried out not merely in the letter, but in the spirit. It is the most important decision that has been taken in reference to the coming battle. There are three functions which a Generalissimo wields — the strategical, the tactical, and the administrative. What does the administrative mean? It means the control of the organization, the appointment and dismissal of officers and generals, and that is a power which it is difficult or almost impossible to give to a general of another country with a national army. Therefore, in spite of all the arrangements made, unless there be not merely good will, but the knowl- edge that the public in France, Great Britain and America will assist in coordination and in supporting the authorities in the supreme strategical plans chosen by the Governments, and in any action they may take to assert their authority, any arrangements made will be futile and mischievous. I make no apology for dwelling at some length upon this point. I have always felt that we are losing value and effi- ciency in the Allied Armies through lack of coordination and concentration. We have sustained many disasters already through that, and we shall encounter more unless this defect in our machinery is put right. Hitherto I regret that every effort at amendment has led to rather prolonged and very bitter controversy, and these difficulties, these great inherent difficulties, were themselves accentuated and aggravated. There were difficulties of carrying out plans, and other ob- stacles, and, what is worse, valuable time is lost. I entreat the nation as a whole to stand united for a united control of the strategical operations of our armies at the front. BRITAIN FIGHTS "WITH BACK TO THE WALL- BATTLE OF THE LYS, THE SECOND BLOW OF THE KAISER- BATTLE APKIL 9TH-3OTH MARSHAL HINDENBURG SIR ARTHUR CURRIE SIR DOUGLAS HAIG GENERAL VON GAEDKE If Germany had seemed approaching a great victory in her first blow in the Kaiserbattle, she seemed even nearer to decisive triumph in her second mighty blow. This was delivered against the British in the Lys valley, just south of Ypres. It began on April 9th, and by the nth the British forces were so shaken that General Haig issued the noted appeal to his army which opens our present article. In it he told them frankly that their position was desperate, and each man must die where he fought, rather than retreat. In similar fashion the Canadian general. Sir Arthur Currie, appealed to his Canadian corps, which played a gallant part throughout the battle. These spirited words met the success they deserved. The British troops held firm. General Foch sent a French army to their aid, and ultimately the German advance was checked. Some small forces of Americans also took part in the widespread confused resistance, and General Haig makes special mention of their valiant service. Tactically this battle has been called "General Ludendorff's one mis- take." Started, as the great German chieftain himself has said, merely to weaken and confuse the Allies, it had in its opening stages secured this result to a truly staggering degree. But Ludendarff seems to have been tempted by this initial success into an effort to make this in itself the main, decisive battle. He would crush the British completely, here and now. For this purpose he abandoned his suc- cessful attacks by "infiltration," that is, by searching for weak spots through which to penetrate and so encircle the stronger positions and cut them off from their bases. Instead, he returned to the earlier German method of mass attacks, hurling huge forces directly against the British line in the hope of "smashing through." In these tactics he failed ; or perhaps as Ludendorff was not in person on the field, we should lay the blame on the actually commanding generals, von Quast, south of the Lys, and von Armin, on the north. At any rate, on April 12th the mass attacks of the Germans took the place of subtler maneuvers, and the battle of the Lys became for them a bloody and most costly failure. They had previously won considerable ground ; they won now a little more, enough to enable them to talk of the battle as a victory. But its end left the general position along the whole 104. BATTLE OF THE LYS 105 west front just about as it had been a month before — and American aid was one month nearer at hand. As the historian Buchan, whose general estimate of the battle we quote, has said of this attack, "It all but destroyed the British Army; but it saved the Allies' front, and in the long run gave them the victory." BY MARSHAL HINDENBURG IN winter the low-lying area of the Lys river-valley was to a large extent flooded, and in spring it was often noth- ing but a marsh for weeks on end — a real horror for the troops holding the trenches at this point. North of the Lys the ground gradually rose, and then mounted sharply to the great group of hills which had its mighty pillars at Kemmel and Cassel. It was perfectly hopeless to think of carrying out such an attack before the valley of the Lys was to some extent passable. In normal circumstances of weather, we could only expect the ground to become dry enough by the middle of April. But we thought we could not wait until then to begin the decisive conflict in the West. We had to keep the prospects of American intervention steadily before our eyes. Notwithstanding these objections to the attack, we had the scheme worked out, at any rate in theory. In this working out we provided for the eventuality that our op- eration at St. Quentin woitld compel the enemy's leaders to withdraw large reserves from the group in Flanders to meet our break-through there. This eventuality had materialized by the end of March. As soon as we saw that our attack to the west must come to a standstill, we decided to begin our operations on the Lys front. An inquiry addressed to the Army Group of the Crown Prince Rupprecht elicited the reply that, thanks to the dry spring weather, the attack across the valley of the Lys was already feasible. The enterprise was now taken in hand by the Army Headquarters Staff and the troops with amazing energy. On April 9, the anniversary of the great crisis at Arras, our storm troops rose from their muddy trenches on the Lys front from Armentieres to La Bassee. Of course they io6 BATTLE OF THE LYS were not disposed in great waves, but mostly in small de- tachments and diminutive columns which waded through the morass which had been upheaved by shells and mines, and either picked their way towards the enemy lines between deep shell-holes filled with water or took the fev/ firm cause- ways. Under the protection of our artillery and trench- mortar fire, they succeeded in getting forward quickly in spite of all the natural and artificial obstacles, although apparently neither the English nor the Portuguese, who had been sandwiched in among them, believed it possible. Most of the Portuguese troops left the battlefield in wild flight, and once and for all retired from the fighting. It must be admitted that our exploitation of the sur- prise and of the Portuguese failure met with the most seri- ous obstacles in the nature of the ground. It was only with the greatest difficulty that a few ammunition wagons were brought forward behind the infantry. Yet the Lys was reached by the evening and even crossed at one point. Here again the decision was to be expected only in the course of the next few days. Our prospects seemed favorable. On April loth Estaires fell into our hands and we gained more ground north-west of Armentieres. On the same day our front of attack was extended to the region of Wytschaete. We again stormed the battered ruins of the much- fought- for Messines. The next day brought us more successes and fresh hopes. Armentieres was evacuated by the enemy and we captured Merville. From the south we approached the first terrace of the great group of hills from which our opponent could see our whole attack and command it with his artil- lery. From now on progress became slower. It soon came to a stop on our left wing, while our attack in the direction of Hazebrouck was slowly becoming paralysed. In our centre we captured Bailleul and set foot on the hills from the south. Wytschaete fell into our hands, but then this first blow was exhausted. The difficulties of communication across the Lys valley which had to be overcome by our troops attacking from the south had been like a chain round our necks. Ammunition BATTLE OF THE LYS could only be brought up in quite inadequate quantities, and it was only thanks to the booty the enemy had left behind on the battlefield that we were able to keep our troops properly fed. Our infantry had suffered extremely heavily in their fight with the enemy machine-gun nests, and their complete exhaustion threatened unless we paused in our attack for a time. On the other hand, the situation urgently exacted an early decision. We had arrived at one of those crises in which the continuation of the attack is extremely difficult, but when the defence seems to be wavering. The release from such a situation can only come from a further attack and not by merely holding on. We had to capture Mount Kemmel. It had lain like a great hump before our eyes for years. It was only to be ex- pected that the enemy had made it the key to his positions in Flanders. The photographs of our airmen revealed but a portion of the complicated enemy defence system at this point. We might hope, however, that the external appear- ance of the hill was more impressive tlian its real tactical value. We had had experiences of this kind before with other tactical objectives. Picked troops which had displayed their resolution and revealed their powers at the Roten- Turm Pass, and in the fighting in the mountains of Transyl- vania, Serbian Albania and the Alps of Upper Italy, might once more make possible the seemingly impossible. A con- dition precedent to the success of our further attacks in Flanders was that the French High Command should be compelled to leave the burden of the defence in that region to their English Allies. We therefore first renewed our attacks at Villers-Bretonneux on April 24th, hoping that the French commander's anxiety about Amiens would take pre- cedence of the necessity to help the hard-pressed English friends in Flanders. Unfortunately this new attack failed. On the other hand, on April 25th the English defence on Mount Kemmel collapsed at the first blow. The loss of this pillar of the defence shook the whole enemy front in Fland- ers. Our adversary began to withdraw from the Ypres salient which he had pushed out in months of fighting in ig8 BATTLE OF THE LYS 19 1 7. Yet to the last Flemish city he clung as if to a jewel which he was unwilling to lose for political reasons. But the decision in Flanders was not to be sought at Ypres, but by attacking in the direction of Cassel. If we managed to make progress in that quarter, the whole Anglo- Belgian front in Flanders would have to be withdrawn to the west. Just as our thoughts had soared beyond Amiens in the previous month, our hopes now soared to the Channel Coast. I seemed to feel how all England followed the course of the battle in Flanders with bated breath. After that giant bastion, Mount Kemmel, had fallen, we had no reason to flinch from the difficulties of further attacks. We must have Cassel at least! From that vantage point the long-range fire of our heaviest gims could reach Bou- logne and Calais. Both towns were crammed full with English supplies, and were also the principal points of de- barkation of the English armies. The English army had failed in the most surprising fashion in the fight for Kem- mel. If we succeeded in getting it to ourselves at this point, we should have a certain prospect of a great victory. If no French help arrived, England would probably be lost in Flanders. Yet in England's dire need this help was once more at hand. French troops came up with bitter anger against the friend who had surrendered Kemmel, and attempted to recover this key position from us. It was in vain. But our own last great onslaught on the new Anglo- French line at the end of April made no headway. On May ist we adopted the defensive in Flanders, or rather, as we then hoped, passed to the defensive for the time being. Twice had England been saved by France at a moment of extreme crisis. Perhaps the third time we should succeed. If we reached the Channel Coast we should lay hands di- rectly on England's vital arteries. In so doing we should not only be in the most favorable position conceivable for interrupting her maritime communications, but our heaviest artillery would be able to get a portion of the South Coast of Britain under fire. The mysterious marvel of technical science, which was even now sending its shells into the BATTLE OF THE LYS 109 French capital from the region of Laon, could be employed against England also. BY SIR DOUGLAS HAIG His "Backs to the Wall" appeal to his troops, issued as the "Order of the Day" on April nth There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man; there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and the freedom of man- kind depend alike upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment. BY GENERAL SIR ARTHUR CURRIE His appeal to his Canadian troops entering the battle Looking back with pride on the unbroken record of your glorious achievements, asking you to realize that to-day the fate of the British Empire hangs in the balance, I place my trust in the Canadian Corps, knowing that where Canadians are engaged there can be no giving way. Under the orders of your devoted officers in the coming battle you will ad- vance or fall where you stand facing the enemy. To those who fall I say, "You will not die, but step into immortality. Your mothers will not lament your fate, but will have been proud to have borne such sons. Your names will be revered for ever and ever by your grateful country, and God will take you unto Himself." Canadians, in this fateful hour I command you and I trust you to fight as you have ever fought, with all your strength, with all your determination, with all your tranquil courage. On many a hard-fought field of battle you have overcome this enemy. With God's help you shall achieve victory once more. no BATTLE OF THE LYS BY SIR DOUGLAS HAIG Official report of July, 1918 The possibility of a German attack north of the La Bas- see Canal, for which certain preparations appeared to have been carried out, had been brought to my notice prior to the 2 1 St of March. Indications that preparations for a hos- tile attack in this sector were nearing completion had been observed in the first days of April, but its extent and force could not be accurately gauged. There were obvious advantages for the enemy in such a course of action. In the first place, the depth of his ad- vance on the southern portion of the battle front had left him with a long and dangerously exposed flank between Noyon and Montdidier. The absence of properly organized communications in the battle area made this flank peculiarly vulnerable to a counter-stroke by the French. To prevent this, and preserve the initiative in his hands, it was essential that he should renew his attack without delay. In the second place, the heavy and prolonged struggle on the Somme had placed a severe strain on the forces under my command and had absorbed the whole of my reserves. Further, to meet the urgent demands of the battle, I had been forced to withdraw ten divisions from the northern portion of my line, and to replace them by divisions exhausted in the Somme fighting, which had only just been made up with reinforcements recently sent out from home. The divisions thus withdrawn had been taken chiefly from the Flanders front, where, in a normal year, the condition of the ground could be relied upon to make offensive operations on a large scale impossible before May at the earliest. In consequence of these different factors, the bulk of the divisions in front line in the northern battle, and in particular the divisions which on the 9th of April held the portion of my front between the Portuguese sector and the Ypres- Comines Canal, had already taken part in the southern battle. It must be remembered that before the northern battle com- menced forty-six out of my total force of fifty-eight divisions had been engaged in the southern area. BATTLE OF THE LYS III Arrangements for the relief of the Portuguese divisions, which had been continuously in line for a long period and needed rest, were therefore undertaken during the first week of April, and were to have been completed by the morning of the loth of April. Meanwhile, other divisions which had been engaged in the Somme fighting, and had been with- drawn to rest and reorganize, were moved up behind the Lys front. Arrangements had already been made for the evacuation of the salient at Passchendaele should circum- stances require it, a measure which would both upset any preparations which the enemy might have made for an offen- sive there and economize a few troops for use elsewhere. The persistence of unseasonably fine weather and the rapid drying up of the low-lying ground in the Lys Valley enabled the enemy to anticipate the relief of the 2nd Portu- guese Division. On the night of the 7th of April, an un- usually heavy and prolonged bombardment with gas shell was opened along practically the whole front from Lens to Armentieres. At about 4 a. m. on the 9th of April the bombardment recommenced with the greatest intensity with both gas and high explosive shell. The enemy's attack in the first instance was launched on the northern portion of the front of General Sir H. S. Home's First Army, held by the Xlth and XVth Corps. On the loth of April the right of General Sir H. C. O. Plumer's Second Army, held by the IXth Corps, was also involved. At about 7 a. m. on the 9th of April, in thick fog which again made observation impossible, the enemy appears to have attacked the left brigade of the 2nd Portuguese Divi- sion in strength and to have broken into their trenches. A few minutes afterwards, the area of attack spread south and north. Shortly after 7 a. m. the right brigade of the 40th Division reported that an attack had developed on their front, and was being held, but that machine gunners near their right-hand post could see the enemy moving rapidly through the sector to the south of them. Communication with the divisions in line was difficult, 112 BATTLE OF THE LYS but during the morning the situation cleared up, and it be- came apparent that a serious attack was in progress. South of the Portuguese sector, the 55th Division was heavily attacked on its whole front, and by 10.30 a. m. its left brigade had been forced back from its outpost line. The main line of resistance was intact and a defensive flank was formed facing north between Festubert and a strong point just south of Le Touret, where touch was established later with troops of the 51st Division. Throughout the remainder of the day, the 55th Division maintained its positions against all assaults and by successful counter-attacks captured over 750 prisoners. The success of this most gallant defense, the importance of which it would be hard to overestimate, was due in great measure to the courage and determination displayed by our advanced posts. These held out with the utmost resolution, though sur- rounded, pinning to the ground those parties of the enemy who had penetrated our defenses, and preventing them from developing their attack. Among the many gallant deeds re- corded of them, one instance is known of a machine gun which was kept in action although the German infantry had entered the rear compartment of the "pill-box" from which it was firing, the gun team holding up the enemy by revolver fire from the inner compartment. To the north of the positions held by the 55th Division the weight and impetus of the German attack overwhelmed the Portuguese troops, and the enemy's progress was so rapid that the arrangements for manning the rear defenses of this sector with British troops could scarcely be completed in time. The 1st King Edward's Horse and the nth Cyclist Bat- talion, indeed, occupied Lacouture, Vieille Chapelle, and Huit Maisons, and by their splendid defense of those places en- abled troops of the 51st and 50th Divisions to come into action east of the Lawe River between Le Touret and Estaires. East of Estaires our troops found the enemy al- ready in possession of the right bank of the river, and touch between the 50th and 40th Divisions could not be established. After heavy fighting the right of the 40th Division was BATTLE OF THE LYS 113 forced back upon the Lys, and early in the afternoon with- drew across the river at Bac St. Maur. The remainder of the 40th Division, reen forced by troops of the 34th Division, established themselves in a position covering the approaches to Erquinghem and Armentieres, between Fort Rompu on the Lys and our old front line north- east of Bois Grenier. Here they successfully maintained themselves, although the line was not readily defensible and was constantly attacked. In the fighting very gallant service was rendered by the 12th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, 40th Division, who held out in Fleurbaix until the evening, though heavily attacked on three sides. During the afternoon troops of the 51st and 50th Divi- sions (chiefly composed of drafts hurriedly sent up to join their regiments) were heavily engaged east of the Lawe River and were gradually pressed back upon the river cross- ings. The enemy brought up guns to close range and in the evening crossed at Estaires and Pont Riqueul, but in both cases was driven back by counter-attacks. At the end of the day the bridgeheads were still held by us as far east as Sailly-sur-la-Lys. In the course of the night our troops at Estaires and in the sector to the south were withdraAvn to the left bank of the Lawe and Lys Rivers, after sharp fighting about Pont Riqueul. The bridges across both rivers were blown up, though, as had been the case in the Somme battle, in some instances their destruction was incomplete. Early in the morning of the loth of April, the enemy > launched heavy attacks covered by artillery fire about the river crossings at Lestrem and Estaires, and succeeded in reaching the left bank at both places ; but in each case he was driven back again by determined counter-attacks by the 50th Division. The enemy continued to exercise great pressure at Estaires, and fierce street fighting took place, in which both sides lost heavily. Machine guns, mounted by our troops in the upper rooms of houses, did great execution on his troops as they moved up to the attack until the machine guns were knocked out by artillery fire. In the evening the W., VOL. VI.— 8. 114 BATTLE OF THE LYS German infantry once more forced their way into Estaires, and after a most gallant resistance the 50th Division with- drew at nightfall to a prepared position to the north and west of the town. East of Estaires the enemy had already crossed the Lys in strength, with artillery in close support of his infantry, and by the evening had pressed back our troops to a posi- tion north of Steenwerck. Thereafter, the arrival of Brit- ish reenforcements for the time being held up his advance. The Attack at Messines Meanwhile, after an intense bombardment of our front and support lines and battery areas between Frelinghien and Hill 60, strong hostile attacks had developed at about 5.30 a. m. in this sector also. The outpost positions of the 25th and 19th Divisions in line north of Armentieres and east of Messines were driven in, and during the morning the enemy worked his way for- ward under cover of mist along the valleys of the Wamave and Douve Rivers, on the flanks of our positions in Ploeg- steert Wood and Messines. By midday he had gained Ploeg- steert Village, together with the southeastern portions of Ploegsteert Wood, and had captured Messines. North of that village the area of attack extended during the afternoon as far as the north bank of the Ypres-Comines Canal. In this new sector the enemy carried our forward positions as far as Hollebeke, pushing back our line to the crest of the Wytschaete Ridge. Messines was retaken early in the afternoon by the South African Brigade, 9th Division. During the night this di- vision cleared Wytschaete of parties of German troops. North of Hollebeke our positions astride the Ypres-Comines Canal were substantially unchanged, and on this front the 9th Division killed great numbers of the enemy. The Withdrawal from Armentieres The enemy's advance north of Armentieres made the position of the 34th Division in that town very dangerous. Though it had not yet been attacked on its own front, its BATTLE OF THE LYS 115 available reserves had already been heavily engaged in pro- tecting its southern flank. As the northern flank also had now become exposed, it was decided to withdraw the division to the left bank of the Lys. The early stages of the move- ment were commenced shortly after midday. Though the operation was closely followed up by the enemy and pressed by him on all sides, it was carried out with great steadiness and in good order, and by 9.30 p. m. had been completed successfully. All the bridges across the river were destroyed. On the morning of the iith of April the enemy recom- menced his attacks on the whole front, and again made progress. Between Givenchy and the Lawe River the suc- cessful resistance of the past two days was maintained against repeated assaults. Between Locon and Estaires the enemy, on the previous evening, had established a footing on the west bank of the river in the neighborhood of Fosse. In this area and northwards to Lestrem he continued to push westwards, despite the vigorous resistance of our troops. At Estaires, the troops of the 50th Division, tired and reduced in numbers by the exceptionally heavy fighting of the previous three weeks, and threatened on their right flank by the enemy's advance south of the Lys, were heavily en- gaged. After holding their positions with great gallantry during the morning, they were slowly pressed back in the direction of Merville. The enemy employed large forces on this front in close formation, and the losses inflicted by our rifle and machine- gun fire were unusually heavy. Our own troops, however, were not in sufficient numbers to hold up his advance, and as they fell back and their front gradually extended, gaps formed in the line. Through these gaps bodies of German infantry worked their way forward, and at 6 p. m. had reached Neuf Berquin. Other parties of the enemy pushed on along the north bank of the Lys Canal and entered Mer- ville. As it did not appear possible to clear the town with- out fresh forces, which were not yet available, it was de- cided to withdraw behind the small stream which runs just west of the town. This withdrawal was successfully carried cut during the evening. ii6 BATTLE OF THE LYS Though our troops had not been able to prevent the enemy's entry into Merville, their vigorous resistance, com- bined with the maintenance of our positions at Givenchy and Festubert, had given an opportunity for reenforcements to build up our line in this sector. As troops of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 31st, 6 1st, and ist Australian Divisions began to arrive, the southern portion of the battle front gradually be- came steady. Time was still required, however, to complete our dispositions, and for the next two days the situation in this area remained critical. The Thrust Towards Hasebrouck Meanwhile, a situation which threatened to become seri- ous had arisen north of Merville. At about 8 a. m. the enemy attacked in great strength on a front extending from south of the Estaires-Vieux Berquin Road to the neighbor- hood of Steenwerck. After very heavy fighting he suc- ceeded in the afternoon in overcoming the resistance of our troops about Doulieu and La Becque, forcing them back in a northwesterly direction. As the result of this movement, a gap was formed in our line southwest of Bailleul, and bodies of the enemy who had forced their way through seized Outtersteene and Merris. In the evening a brigade of the 33rd Division, with a body of Cyclists, a Pioneer battalion, and every available man from schools and reenf orcement camps, came into action in this sector. On their left, troops of the 25th, 34th, and 49th Divisions, though heavily attacked, maintained their positions to the south and southeast of Bailleul, and before midnight our line had been reformed. Next day, the enemy followed up his attacks with great vigor, and the troops of the 29th and 31st Divisions, now greatly reduced in strength by the severe fighting already experienced, and strung out over a front of nearly 10,000 yards east of the Foret de Nieppe, were once more tried to the utmost. Behind them the ist Australian Division was in process of detraining, and the troops were told that the line was to be held at all costs, until the detrainment could be completed. BATTLE OF THE LYS 117 During the morning, which was very foggy, several de- tennined attacks, in which a German armored car came into action against the 4th Guards Brigade on the southern por- tion of our line, were repulsed with great loss to the enemy. After the failure of these assaults, he brought up field guns to point-blank range, and in the northern sector with their aid gained Vieux Berquin. Everywhere, except at Vieux Berquin, the enemy's advance was held up all day by des- perate fighting, in which our advanced posts displayed the greatest gallantry, maintaining their ground when entirely surrounded, men standing back to back in the trenches and shooting to front and rear. In the afternoon the enemy made a further determined efifort, and by sheer weight of numbers forced his way through the gaps in our depleted line, the surviving garrisons of our posts fighting where they stood to the last with bullet and bayonet. The heroic resistance of these troops, how- ever, had given the leading brigades of the ist Australian Division time to reach and organize their appointed line east of the Foret de Nieppe. These now took up the fight, and the way to Hazebrouck was definitely closed. The performance of all the troops engaged in this most gallant stand, and especially that of the 4th Guards Brigade, on whose front of some 4,000 yards the heaviest attacks fell, is worthy of the highest praise. No more brilliant exploit has taken place since the opening of the enemy's offensive, though gallant actions have been without number. The action of these troops, and indeed of all the divi- sions engaged in the fighting in the Lys Valley, is the more noteworthy because, as already pointed out, practically the whole of them had been brought straight out of the Somme battlefield, where they had suffered severely, and had been subjected to a great strain. All these divisions, without adequate rest and filled with young reenforcements which they had had no time to assimilate, were again hurriedly thrown into the fight, and, in spite of the great disadvan- tages under which they labored, succeeded in holding up the advance of greatly superior forces of fresh troops. Such an accomplishment reflects the greatest credit on the youth ii8 BATTLE OF THE LYS of Great Britain, as well as upon those responsible for the training of the young soldiers sent out from home at this time. The Struggle for Neuve Eglise On the afternoon of the 12th of April sharp fighting had taken place in the neighborhood of Neuve Eglise, and during the night the enemy's pressure in this sector had been maintained and extended. By the morning of the 13th of April his troops had forced their way into the village, but before noon were driven out by troops of the 33rd and 49th Divisions by a most successful counter-attack in which a number of prisoners were taken. In the course of this day, also, a succession of heavy attacks were driven ofif with great loss to the enemy by the 33rd and 34th Divisions about Meteren and La Creche. In the evening further attacks developed on this front and at Neuve Eglise. The pressure exercised by the enemy was very great, and bodies of German infantry, having forced their way in between La Creche and Neuve Eglise, began a strong encircling movement against the left of the 34th Division north and east of the former village. During the early part of the night our troops maintained their positions, but before dawn on the 14th of April withdrev/ under orders to a line in front of the high ground known as the Ravelsburg Heights between Bailleul and Neuve Eglise, the enemy having been too severely handled to interfere. At Neuve Eglise the enemy again forced his way into the village, and heavy and confused fighting took place through- out the night. A party of the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment maintained themselves in the Mairie until 2 p. m, on the 14th of April, and during the morning of this day other troops of the same division were reported to have cleared the village with bombs. The enemy persisted in his attacks, however, and by midnight Neuve Eglise was defi- nitely in his possession. Other attacks delivered on the 14th of April between Neuve Eglise and Bailleul and south- east of Meteren were repulsed. On the morning of the isth of April the 19th Division BATTLE OF THE LYS 119 repulsed hostile attacks about Wytschaete. Late in the after- noon fresh assaults in great strength, in which the Alpine Corps and two other fresh German divisions were engaged, developed against Bailleul and the Ravelsburg Heights. After heavy fighting the enemy gained a footing on the eastern end of the high ground, and, though driven back by a counter-attack, reestablished his position there and worked west along the ridge. By 7 p. m. the whole of it was in his possession, and the retention of Bailleul itself be- came very difficult. Two hours later, hostile infantry forced their way into the town, and our troops, who were being heavily attacked from the east and south, were compelled to fall back to positions between Meteren and Dranoutre. The Arrival of French Troops The constant and severe fighting on the Lys battle front, following so closely upon the tremendous struggle south of Arras, had placed a very serious strain upon the British forces. Many British divisions had taken part both in the northern and southern battles, while others had been en- gaged almost continuously from the outset of the German offensive. I had represented the state of affairs to General Foch, Commanding-in-Chief the Allied Forces, and had pointed out to him the necessity of relief for the British troops and their need of an opportunity to rest and refit. General Foch had complied with my request without delay. Certain French forces were moved to the north, and by this date were already in position close behind the British front in Flanders. The First Attacks on Kemmel ' At different times on the i6th of April a number of strong local attacks were made by the enemy on the Meteren- Wytschaete front, which were for the most part repulsed with heavy loss to him. At Meteren and Wytschaete, how- ever, he succeeded in penetrating our positions, and after much rather confused fighting established himself in both villages. Counter-attacks delivered during the evening by British and French troops failed to eject him, though at I20 BATTLE OF THE LYS Wj^schaete a battalion of the 9th Division reached the eastern edge of the village, and our line w^as ultimately es- tablished close up to its w^estern and northern outskirts. These attacks were followed on the morning of the 17th of April by a determined attempt on the part of the enemy to capture the commanding feature known as Kemmel Hill. The assault was launched after a preliminary bombardment of great intensity, and was accompanied by strong attacks in the Meteren and Merris sectors. The enemy's attacks in the Kemmel sector were pressed with great determination, but ended in his complete repulse at all points, his infantry being driven out by counter-at- tacks wherever they had gained a temporary footing in our line. The attacks at Meteren and Merris were also beaten ofif with heavy loss. On this day also the enemy launched a strong assault upon the right of the Belgian Army about the Ypres-Staden Railway. This attack, the object of which was to capture Bixschoote and advance beyond the Yser Canal, ended in complete failure, and left over 700 prisoners in the hands of our Allies. On the 1 8th of April the enemy made a fresh effort to overcome our resistance on the southern flank of his attack. After a heavy bombardment which at Givenchy is reported to have exceeded in intensity even the bombardment of April 9th, his infantry attacked on nearly the whole front from Givenchy to west of Merville, At Givenchy and Festu- bert they succeeded at certain points in entering our posi- tions, but after severe and continuous fighting, lasting throughout the day, the troops of the ist Division regained by counter-attacks practically the whole of their original positions. Elsewhere the enemy failed to obtain even an initial success, being repulsed with exceedingly heavy loss at all points. For nearly a week following the failure of these attacks the battle on the Lys front died down, though sharp fighting of a minor character took place from time to time at different points, particularly in the neighborhood of Festubert where a strong point known as Route "A" Keep changed hands BATTLE OF THE LYS 121 more than once before remaining finally in our possession. Further west, the 4th Division, in cooperation with the 61 st Division, carried out a series of successful local operations north of the La Bassee Canal, resulting in the capture of some hundreds of prisoners and a considerable improvement of our positions between the Lawe and the Clarence Rivers. During this period, also, the French troops which had already come into line in the neighborhood of Meteren and opposite Spanbroekmolen, gradually relieved the British troops between these two points, and by the morning of the 2ist of April had taken over the whole of the Kemmel sector. The Capture of Kemmel Hill Operations on the southern front were followed on the 25th of April by a renewal of the enemy's attacks in great strength north of the Lys. Following upon a very violent bombardment, at about 5 a. m. the enemy attacked the French and British positions from Bailleul to the Ypres-Comines Canal with nine divi- sions, of which five were fresh divisions and one other had been but lightly engaged. The main object of the attack was the capture of Kemmel Hill by a direct assault upon the French, combined with an attack upon the British right south of Wytschaete, aimed at turning the British right flank and separating it from the French. At that date the British right flank lay on the Messines-Kemmel road, at a point about halfway between Kemmel and Wytschaete. After very heavy fighting, the German infantry worked their way round the lower slopes of the high ground, and at 10 a. m. had succeeded in capturing Kemmel Village and Hill; though elements of French troops held out until a late hour on the hill and in the village. The weight of the attack in the British sector fell on the 9th Division and attached troops of the 49th Division, who at 7 a. m. were still holding their positions about Wyt- schaete intact, though heavily engaged. Fierce fighting con- tinued in this neighborhood for some hours later, and great numbers of Germans were killed by rifle and machine-gun 122 BATTLE OF THE LYS fire at short range. Later in the morning the right of the 9th Division was forced to fall back fighting stubbornly to Vierstraat, but at i p. m. our troops still held the Grand Bois north of Wytschaete. In the afternoon the attack spread northwards along the front held by the 21st Division. By the evening our troops had been gradually pushed back from their forward posi- tions, and held a line running from Hill 60 to Voormezeele, when it passed north of Vierstraat to our junction with the French about La Clytte. The Allied line had not been broken, and reenforcements were hurrying up. Next day fighting continued fiercely. In the early morn- ing a very gallant counter-attack by the 25th Division, un- dertaken in conjunction with the French, penetrated into Kemmel Village, taking over 300 prisoners. Our troops then found themselves exposed to heavy machine-gun fire from the flanks, and were unable to maintain their positions. Later in the morning the enemy renewed his attacks in strength, but, in spite of repeated efforts, was only able to make small progress at certain points. Successful counter-attacks were carried out also by the French, in the course of which the village of Locre was re- captured in a very gallant action. The capture of Kemmel Hill seriously threatened our position in the Ypres salient, the communications and south- ern defenses of which were now under direct observation by the enemy, while his continued progress to the northwest in the Voormezeele sector would make the extrication of troops east of Ypres most hazardous. A further readjust- ment of our lines in the salient was accordingly carried out on the night of the 26th-27th of April, our troops with- drawing to the general line Pilckem-Wieltje-west end of Zillebeke Lake- Voormezeele. On the 28th of April local fighting took place in the neigh- borhood of Locre and Voormezeele without material change in the situation; but on the following day, encouraged by the capture of Kemmel Hill, the enemy made a determined effort to improve his success. After a bombardment of exceptional intensity, which BATTLE OF THE LYS 123 started at 3.10 a, m., a series of strong attacks were launched about 5 a. m. against the French and British positions from west of Dranoutre to Voormezeele. Very heavy fighting rapidly developed on the whole of this front, and ended in the complete repulse of the enemy with the heaviest losses to his troops. At Locre and to the north of that village the enemy made desperate attempts to overcome the resistance of our Allies and gain possession of the high ground known as the Scher- penberg. At one time parties of his troops entered Locre, and penetrated to the cross-roads between the Scherpenberg and Mont Rouge; but in both localities successful French counter-attacks drove him out after bitter fighting. On the British front the positions were strongly attacked between 5 a. m. and 5.30 a. m. On the failure of these attacks, bodies of German infantry advanced at 6 a. m. in mass formation, with bayonets fixed, against the 49th Di- vision, and were repulsed with the heaviest losses. The 25th Division was again attacked at 8.35 a. m., and during the morning repeated attacks were made without result on this division and the 49th Division. At all points the attack was pressed vigorously with massed bodies of troops, and the losses suffered by the German infantry were very great. Throughout the whole of the fighting our infantry and ar- tillery fought magnificently, and in more than one instance our troops went out to meet the German attack and drove back the enemy with the bayonet. At the end of the day, except for a small loss of ground about Voormezeele, our line was intact, and the enemy had undergone a severe and decided check. In concert with this operation, the Belgian positions astride the Ypres-Staden Railway were again attacked, and once more vigorous counter-strokes by Belgian troops promptly ejected the German infantry from such ground as had been gained by them in their first assault. Here also the enemy's failure was complete. On the 30th of April the French retook Locre early in the morning, but beyond this no infantry action of im- portance took place, and the month closed with the enemy 124 BATTLE OF THE LYS definitely held on both the southern and the northern battle fronts. In the Lys battle, up to the end of April, the enemy en- gaged against the British forces a total of 42 divisions, of which 33 were fresh and nine nad fought previously on the Somme in March. Against these 42 German divisions, 25 British divisions were employed, of which eight were fresh and 17 had taken a prominent part in the preceding battle. Our Allies I cannot close this report without paying my personal tribute to the ready and effective assistance given me by the French and Belgian Higher Command in the course of the Somme and Lys battles. Reference has already been made to the schemes for mutual cooperation and assistance be- tween the French and British Armies which formed so im- portant a part of the Allied plan for the year's campaign. These schemes have been carried out with absolute loyalty. The support rendered by French troops south of the Somme and north of the Lys, and by Belgian troops in taking over the responsibility for the greater part of the line previously held by British troops north of Ypres, has been of incal- culable value. I desire also to express my appreciation of the services rendered by the Portuguese troops who had held a sector of my front continuously throughout the winter months, and on the 9th of April were called upon to withstand the as- sault of greatly superior forces. Finally, I am glad to acknowledge the ready manner in which American Engineer Units have been placed at my disposal from time to time, and the great value of the assist- ance they have rendered. In the battles referred to in this Dispatch, American and British troops have fought shoulder to shoulder in the same trenches, and have shared together in the satisfaction of beating off German attacks. All ranks of the British Army look forward to the day when the rap- idly growing strength of the American Army will allow American and British soldiers to cooperate in offensive action. BATTLE OF THE LYS 125 BY GENERAL VON GAEDKE The defense of the battle by the standard German military critic The beginning of the German offensive was regarded by Britons as evidence of the haste with which the German High Command was trying to end the war. This only shows ignorance of the conditions necessary for mihtary success. Every High Command must naturally endeavor to end the war as quickly as their strength permits. It would be a breach of their most sacred duty if they tried to do other- wise, for war is always so great an evil that it cannot be ended quickly enough. It follows, therefore, that it is neces- sary to attack, because the offensive alone can bring a vic- torious peace, independent of the will of the enemy. Trench warfare means the indefinite prolongation of the war with all its injuries and disadvantages. This necessity was bit- terly felt for years, so long as we had to divide our forces between East and West. With us, it was only a measure of necessity : for the British and French it was a sign of im- potence. Through all these years, in countless attacks, they have rightly endeavored to get rid of trench warfare and restore open fighting, but all their attempts broke down against the unshatterable wall of the resistance of our troops. Hindenburg always dictates the methods of fighting. The enemy has to follow his lead, presumably even when he retreats, and as long as this is the case there is no question of a standstill in any sense. The enemy is obliged to use his reserves wherever Hindenburg wishes. This is the most striking feature of the present period of the fighting — the enemy has yet attempted no strategic counter-attack. Hin- denburg's first positions have hypnotized the enemy Com- mand : all they seem capable of doing is to rush up one divi- sion after another and place them wherever the German pressure seems greatest. Our enemies are incapable, ap- parently, of any original thought ; they adopted the ideas of Hindenburg and Ludendorff in constructing their trenches. Further, we are informed that the whole country as far as and even beyond Paris consisted of lines of trenches, one behind the other, and they had used more barbed wire than in a whole year previously. THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" THE MOST BRILLIANT NAVAL EXPLOIT OF THE WAR APRIL 22ND LIEUTENANT J. K. BELL and CAPTAIN ALFRED CARPENTER B.RITISH ADMIRALTY NARRATIVE STATEMENTS OF ADMIRALS VON TIRPITZ AND SCHEER For six months the British naval chiefs were planning an attack upon the German U-boat bases on the Belgian coast, Zeebrugge and Ostend. So close had become the combined British and American blockade against the U-boats, so many were the watchful "destroyers" ever patrolling the dangerous North Sea, that U-boats which started from a German port seldom got far enough to do much damage before they were detected and hunted back to harbor or destroyed. Only by a sudden pounce from the Belgian ports could the U-boats suc- cessfully reach the English Channel and prey upon the constant sea- trafific there. So Zeebrugge and Ostend were to be blocked, if the thing was in any way possible. The work was done, and thoroughly, chiefly by the venture of April 22nd, popularly known as the "Zeebrugge Affair." But as this first raid, while blocking the Zeebrugge channel was less successful at Ostend, a second raid was directed at Ostend on May loth. This more nearly, though not quite completely, achieved its purpose. The officer in direct command of the chief attacking ship at Zee- brugge, Captain Carpenter, here tells his own story — or has it told in an interview by Lieutenant J. Keble Bell, a standard British author better known by his pen-name of Keble Howard, Its vivid picture is then expanded and confirmed by the official narrative issued by the British Admiralty. Not often does official Britain let itself be stirred to poetical reports; but there is an emotional quality in this whole dashing exploit that fairly compels perfervid language. It has been widely accepted as the most brilliant naval exploit of the War. Ger- man officials have naturally discussed it but little; but we give here two somber admissions of its weight. Von Tirpitz was the champion and director of unrestrained U-boat attacks. Scheer was the admiral in command of the great Jutland fight and generally regarded as Ger- many's ablest naval officer. BY J. KEBLE BELL Introducing Captain Carpenter's own narrative LET me, first of all, try to tell you the story of Zeebrugge as I extracted it, not without difficulty, from several of the leading spirits of that enterprise. This is no technical 136 THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 127 story. Elsewhere you will find the official narrative issued by the Admiralty to the Press, and that contains, as all good ofiicial documents do, names, ranks, dates, times, and move- ments. I lay claim to no such precision. It is my proud yet humble task to bring you face to face, if I can, with the men who went out to greet what they regarded as certain death — bear that in mind — in order to stop, in some measure, the German submarine menace, and to prove yet once again to all the world that the British Navy is the same in spirit as it was in the days of Nelson and far down the ages. These men went out on the eve of St. George's Day, 19 1 8, to do those two things — the one utilitarian, the other romantic. They went out to block the Bruges Canal at Zee- brugge — to stop that mouth which for so long past has been vomiting forth its submarines and its destroyers against our hospital ships, and our merchant vessels, and the merchant vessels of countries not engaged in this war. They blocked it so neatly, so effectively, that it will be utterly useless as a submarine base for — I long to tell you the opinion of the experts, but I may not — many months to come. This shall be proved for you as we proceed. Now let me explain, very briefly, the nature of the task which the Navy set itself. You imagine Zeebrugge, perhaps, as a long and dreary breakwater, flanked by flat and sparsely populated country, with a few German coastguards dotted about, and a destroyer or two in the offing. I am certain that that is the mental picture most of us had of Zeebrugge — if we had one at all. Now conceive instead a crowded fortress. Conceive a garrison of no less than one thousand men ever on the break- water. Figure to yourself, at every possible coign of van- tage, guns of mighty caliber, destroyers lurking beneath the Mole on the harbor side, searchlights at all points, and great land guns in the distance ready to pulverize any hostile craft that dares to show its nose within miles. Picture all that as vividly as you can, and then ask your- self the question : "Would it be possible to storm Zeebrugge .so successfully that block-ships could be sunk in the very 128 THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" mouth of the Canal and seal it up?" How would you have set about it? With a huge force of cruisers? No, for the enemy must be taken by surprise. The action must be swift, cunning, and sure. The enemy must not be warned, or your one object, the blocking of the Canal, will be lost. It took Lord Jellicoe and Sir Roger Keyes six long and anxious months to perfect their plan, with the chance that the secret, at any moment, might slip out. But it was per- fect at last, and the secret had not slipped out. Next they wanted a number of men — picked men with special qualities — who would be ready and eager tO' die if only this amazing coup might be achieved. Last of all they wanted a night on which all the conditions — the wind, the weather, the light — should be in their favor. They did not get that, but they went in, none the less, and did the job. What would you say if you heard, some fine morning, that an almost obsolete German cruiser had come and leant up against the wall of Dover Harbor, that two German offi- cers had calmly sat astride the wall in the course of their business, that some German sailors had landed on the wall and chased our gunners away from their guns, and that, in the meantime, three quite obsolete German ships, filled with concrete, had been sunk in the mouth of the harbor and blocked it? What in the world would you say? I think you would at first refuse to believe it. Then, when some official communication lent color to the story, you would tear your hair, declare that all was lost, and utter ex- tremely unpleasant things about the British Forces and those in charge of them. Yet this is precisely what happened at Zeebrugge. There is nothing more gallant in the annals of the British Navy. Not one man expected to come back. There is nothing more successful in the annals of the British Navy. They did to the full just what they hoped and had planned to do. "Some people," said Captain Carpenter, "have called this affair audacious. That isn't the word I should use for it." "What word would you use?" "Impertinent," he replied, laughingly. "Just imagine this Armada of smoke-boats, motor launches, ferry-boats, THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 129 obsolete submarines, and ancient cruisers laden with con- crete, headed by the old Vindictive, setting out in broad day- light to attack the mighty fortress of Zeebrugge." "In broad daylight!" I exclaimed. "Certainly. We timed ourselves to reach the Mole by midnight, so, owing to our slow speed, we had to do three hours of the oversea passage in daylight." "How were the men? Excited?" "Oh, no ; quite calm, and immensely relieved to be at it at last. Well, so soon as it got dark, it was dark ! We could hardly see a thing, and when the smoke-boats got to work, pouring out great waves of dense smoke at regular inter- vals, which the light northeast wind carried right across the Mole and the harbor, pitch doesn't describe it !" "What about the mine-field?" "H'm! Anyway, we dodged it. My job, you under- stand, was to get alongside the Mole, land my Marines, help Iris and Daffodil to do the same, stay there drawing the fire of the batteries and diverting attention while the block-ships got into the Canal and sunk themselves, then get the Marines back on board, shove off, and clear out as quickly as possible. Incidentally, of course, we meant to put out of action as many Huns as was convenient by fire from our guns. You've seen the picture of the fighting-top? That was filled with Marines armed with Lewis guns. They did capital work. I'll come to that later. "We got pretty near the Mole before they saw us, and then the fun began ! Up went the star-shells, the guns began blazing, and we went pell-mell for the old Mole like that." A savage dig at the model with his cane. "I had intended to fetch up just here" — he indicated a spot on the exterior of the great wall pretty near the head of it — "but actually came in here" — a little further inland. "We'd had things called 'brows' constructed — a sort of light drawbridge with a hinge in the middle. These were lowered away, but the current was so strong against the Mole, and the Vindictive bounced up and down so nimbly, that the men had the devil of a job to drop the ends of these brows on the wall. W.. VOL. VI.— 9. I30 THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" "All this time, naturally enough, the Huns were blazing at us with everything they'd got. If you have a look at the Vindictive in the morning, you'll soon see what they were doing to us. We were just swept with fire from two sides. Even before the party could begin to land. Colonel Elliot and Captain Halahan, poor chaps, who were in charge of that part of the business, were killed. "The Iris went ahead of me and came alongside the Mole just here" — a little nearer the shore end. "They tried to hang on with their grapnels, but couldn't quite manage it, so Lieut. -Commander Bradford and Lieut. Hawkins scrambled ashore and sat on the parapet, trying to fix the grapnels. They were both killed. "In the meantime, owing to the difficulty of securing to the Mole when alongside, I ordered the Daifodil to continue pushing, according to plan, so as to keep us in position. This was a pity, because she was full of men, and they couldn't land to help with the fighting. Eventually, some of them scrambled across the Vindictive and landed that way. "The wind had changed about fifteen minutes before we came alongside the Mole ; all the smoke had cleared off and the harbor was plain to the eye. That helped the Huns to pot at us, and they took fine advantage of it. The din, as you can guess, was terrific, and I think they got the old Vindictive in every visible spot. "Suddenly the thing happened for which we had been, semi-consciously, waiting. There was a tremendous roar, and up went a huge tower of flame and debris and bodies into the black sky ! My fellows cheered like mad, for they knew what it meant. Sand ford had got home beneath the viaduct with his ancient submarine and touched her oflf. I never saw such a column of flame ! It seemed a mile high! "I must tell you a curious feature of this afifair. As he approached the Mole they got the searchlights on to him and began firing at him. That was a nasty position, because she was stuffed full of explosives, and also had a big quantity of petrol on board. But when they saw him still coming on, and dashing straight at the Mole, they stopped firing and simply gaped. I suppose they thought he was mad. THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 131 "Anyway, they paid for their curiosity. On the viaduct itself there were a whole lot of Huns — masses of them. There they stood, staring at Sandford in his submarine. The searchlights lit them up. Then, presently, came the ex- plosion, and bang went the whole lot to glory ! They must have been the most surprised Huns since the war started. "All this time, of course, a lot of other things were hap- pening. Many of the seamen and Marines had landed on the Mole and were making fine play with the astonished Ger- mans. Some went right to the head of the Mole and found the guns deserted. One gun, I must tell you, had not even been uncovered, which is clear proof that the garrison was taken by surprise. Others were chasing the enemy all down the Mole towards the viaduct, which they were never to cross, and some went into the shed I told you about and dealt with such people as they found. "The men in the fighting-top were also doing fell work. All along the Mole, you see, and close under the fifteen-foot parapet, there are dug-outs or funk-holes. At first the Huns popped into these, but by-and-by it occurred to them that they would certainly be found and spitted if they stayed there, so the bright idea occurred to them of nipping across the Mole and dropping down the side into their own destroyers lying there. An excellent scheme but for our fellows in the fighting-top, who picked them off with their Lewis guns as they ran. "Those chaps in the fighting-top had to pay for it, though, in the end. They were attracting a lot of attention, and the Huns were constantly trying to drop a shell amongst them. They succeeded at last, I'm sorry to say, and laid out every man jack but one — Sergeant Finch. He was wounded badly, but dragged himself out from under the bodies of his pals and went on working his little gun until he couldn't work it any longer. "Now we come to the block-ships. We saw Thetis come steaming into the harbor in grand style. She made straight for the opening to the Canal, and you can imagine that she was a blaze of light and a target for every big thing they could bring to bear. She was going toppingly, all the same, THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR' when she had the rotten luck to catch her propeller in the defense-nets. Even then, however, she did fine work. She signaled instructions to the Intrepid and Iphigenia, and so they managed to avoid the nets. It was a gorgeous piece of cooperation! "And, by the way, I'm not at all sure that Thetis won't give even more trouble to the enemy than the other two. I told you something, I think, about the tendency of the har- bor to silt up. Well, Thetis is lying plump in the channel that must always be kept clear of silt. The consequence is that the silt will collect all round her and over her, and I doubt whether she will ever be removable. "To get back to the other block-ships. In went Intrepid, and in after her went Iphigenia. They weren't content, you know, to sink themselves at the mouth of the Canal. That was not the idea at all. They had to go right in, with guns firing point-blank at them from both banks, sink their ships, and get back as best they could. And they did it. They blocked that Canal as neatly and effectively as we could have wished in our most optimistic moments, and then, thanks to the little motor-launches, which were handled with the finest skill and pluck, the commanders and men got back to safety. To-morrow I'll show you some aeroplane photo- graphs which are due in from France, and you'll see for your- self how beautifully Intrepid and Iphigenia are lying. "As soon as we saw that the block-ships were sunk we knew that our job was done. Now came the most ticklish part of the business — to get away. Up to this point we had been protected, so far as our hull was concerned, by the Mole. We knew that, directly we left the Mole, we should be in for it. "The signal arranged for the men to reembark was a long blast from Vindictive's siren. But that had gone with a lot of other tackle, so we did the best we could with Daffodil's little hooter. (Ferry passengers across the Mersey must know it well.) It wasn't much of a hoot, but the fellows heard it, and made for the scaling-ladders. "This was the Hun's chance. The fire turned on those chaps as they clambered up the ladders, most of them trying THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 133 to carry a dead or wounded pal, was awful. Talk about hero- ism ! Every man was a hero ! You must ask some of them who actually landed to tell you about that. Wonderful ! "We got them aboard at last, and stayed to make certain that nobody was left behind. Then we shoved off from the Mole, which had had enough of us for one night, and made for home at our best speed. Instantly the big shore-guns and everything else vicious blazed away, but the very wind which had turned against us when we arrived now stood our friend. We worked all our smoke-boxes like mad, and the smoke saved us. They landed some shells home, of course, and a lot of poor fellows in the Iris were killed by one shell just as they were leaving the Mole. But most of the stuff aimed at the Vindictive fell short, thank God, and we finally ran out of range. "It was a good fight. I think the Huns saw their ending that night." BRITISH ADMIRALTY STATEMENT The objectives were the canal of Zeebrugge and the en- trance to the harbor of Ostend. Three cruisers. Intrepid, Iphigenia and Thetis, each duly packed with concrete and with mines attached to her bottom for the purpose of sinking her, Merrimac-iashion, in the neck of the canal, were aimed at Zeebrugge; two others, similarly prepared, were directed at Ostend. The old cruiser Vindictive, with two ferry-boats, Iris and Daffodil, was to attack the great half-moon Mole which guards the Zeebrugge Canal, land bluejackets and ma- rines upon it, destroy what stores, guns, and Germans she could find, and generally create a diversion while the block- ships ran in and sank themselves in their appointed place. Vice-Admiral Keyes, in the destroyer Warwick, commanded the operation. There had been two previous attempts at the attack, capa- ble of being pushed home if weather and other conditions had served. The night of the 22nd offered nearly all the required conditions, and at some fifteen miles off Zeebrugge the ships took up their formation for the attack. Vindictive, which had been towing Iris and Daffodil, cast them off to 134 THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" follow under their own steam ; Intrepid, Iphigenia, and Thetis slowed down to give the first three time to get alongside the Mole; Siriiis and Brilliant shifted their course for Ostend; and the great swarm of destroyers and motor craft sowed themselves abroad upon their multifarious particular duties. The night was overcast and there was a drift of haze; down the coast a great searchlight swung its beams to and fro; there was a small wind and a short sea. From Vindictive's bridge, as she headed in towards the Mole with her faithful ferry-boats at her heels, there was scarcely a glimmer of light to be seen shorewards. Ahead of her, as she drove through the water, rolled the smoke- screen, her cloak of invisibility, wrapped about her by the small craft. The northeast wind moved the volume of it shoreward ahead of the ships ; beyond it, the distant town and its defenders were unsuspicious; and it was not till Vin- dictive, with her bluejackets and marines standing ready for the landing, was close upon the Mole that the wind lulled and came away again from the southwest, sweeping back the smoke-screen and laying her bare to the eyes that looked seaward. There was a moment immediately afterwards when it seemed to those in the ships as if the dim coast and the hidden harbor exploded into light. A star shell soared aloft, then a score of star shells ; the wavering beams of the search- lights swung round and settled to a glare; the wildfire of gun flashes leaped against the sky; strings of luminous green beads shot aloft, hung and sank; and the darkness of the night was supplanted by the nightmare daylight of battle fires. Guns and machine guns along the Mole and batteries ashore woke to life, and it was in a gale of shelling that Vin- dictive laid her nose against the thirty-foot high concrete side of the Mole, let go an anchor, and signed to Daffodil to shove her stern in. Iris went ahead and endeavored to get alongside likewise. The fire, from the account of everybody concerned, was intense. While ships plunged and rolled beside the Mole in an unexpected send of sea. Vindictive with her greater draught jarring against the foundation of the Mole with THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 135 every plunge, they were swept diagonally by machine-gun fire from both ends of the Mole and by heavy batteries ashore. Commander A. F. B. Carpenter (afterward Cap- tain) conned Vindictive from her open bridge till her stern was laid in, when he took up his position in the flame-thrower hut on the port side. It is marvelous that any occupant of the hut should have survived a minute, so riddled and shat- tered is it. Officers of Iris, which was in trouble ahead of Vindictive, describe Captain Carpenter as "handling her like a picket-boat." Vindictive was fitted along the port side with a high false deck, whence ran the eighteen brows, or gangways, by which the storming and demolition parties were to land. The men were gathered in readiness on the main and lower decks. The gangways were lowered, and scraped and rebounded upon the high parapet of the Mole as Vindictive rolled; and the word for the assault had not yet been given when both leaders of the assault were killed by the machine-gun fire which swept the decks. "The men were magnificent." Every officer bears the same testimony. The mere landing on the Mole was a peril- ous business ; it involved a passage across the crashing, splin- tering gang\vays, a drop over the parapet into the field of fire of the German machine guns which swept its length, and a further drop of some sixteen feet to the surface of the Mole itself. Many were killed and more were wounded as they crowded up to the gangways ; but nothing hindered the or- derly and speedy landing by every gangway. The lower deck was a shambles as the Commander made the rounds of his ship ; yet those wounded and dying raised themselves to cheer as he made his tour. The crew of the howitzer which was mounted forward had all been killed; a second crew was destroyed likewise ; and even then a third crew was taking over the gun. In the stern cabin a firework expert, who had never been to sea before, was steadily firing great illuminating rockets out of a scuttle to show up the lighthouse on the end of the Mole to the block ships and their escort. The Daffodil, after aiding to berth Vindictive^ should 136 THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR have proceeded to land her own men, but now Commander Carpenter ordered her to remain as she was, with her bows against Vindictive's quarter, pressing the latter ship into the Mole. Iris had troubles of her own. Her first attempts to make fast to the Mole ahead of Vindictive failed, as her grapnels were not large enough to span the parapet. Two officers climbed ashore and sat astride the parapet trying to make the grapnels fast till each was killed and fell down between the ship and the wall. Iris was obliged at last to change her position and fall in astern of Vindictive, and suffered very heavily from the fire. A single big shell plunged through the upper deck and burst below at a point where fifty-six marines were waiting the order to go to the gangways. Forty-nine were killed and the remaining seven wounded. Another shell in the ward-room, which was serving as sick bay, killed four offi- cers and twenty-six men. Her total casualties were eight officers and sixty-nine men killed and three officers and a hundred and two men wounded. The storming and demolition parties upon the Mole met with no resistance from the Germans, other than the in- tense and unremitting fire. The geography of the great Mole, with its railway line and its many buildings, hangars, and store-sheds, was already well known, and the demoli- tion parties moved to their appointed work in perfect or- der. One after another the buildings burst into flame or split and crumpled as the dynamite went off. A bombing party, working up towards the Mole exten- sion in search of the enemy, destroyed several machine-gun emplacements, but not a single prisoner rewarded them. It appears that tipon the approach of the ships, and with the opening of the fire, the enemy simply retired and contented themselves with bringing machine guns to the shore end of the Mole. And while they worked and destroyed, the cover- ing party below the parapet could see in the harbor, by the light of the German star-shells, the shapes of the block ships stealing in and out of their own smoke and making for the mouth of the canal. THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 137 Thetis came first, steaming into a tornado of shell from the great batteries ashore. All her crew, save a remnant who remained to steam her in and sink her, had already been taken off her by the ubiquitous motor launches, but the rem- nant spared hands enough to keep her four guns going. It was hers to show the road to Intrepid and Iphigenia, who followed. She cleared the string of armed barges which defends the channel from the tip of the Mole, but had the ill-for- tune to foul one of her propellers upon the net defense which flanks it on the shore side. The propeller gathered in the net and rendered her practically unmanageable; the shore batteries found her and pounded her unremittingly; she bumped into a bank, edged off, and found herself in the channel again, still some hundreds of yards from the mouth of the canal, in a practically sinking condition. As she lay she signaled invaluable directions to the others, and here her commander blew the charges and sank her. A motor launch raced alongside and took off her crew. Her losses were five killed and five wounded. Intrepid, smoking like a volcano and with all her guns blazing, followed; her motor launch had failed to get along- side outside the harbor, and she had men enough for any- thing. Straight into the canal she steered, her smoke blow- ing back from her into Iphigenia's eyes, so that the latter, blinded and going a little wild, rammed a dredger with a barge moored beside it, which lay at the western arm of the canal. She got clear though, and entered the canal pushing the barge before her. It was then that a shell hit the steam connections of her whistle, and the escape of steam which followed drove off some of the smoke and let her see what she was doing. The commander of the Intrepid placed the nose of his ship neatly on the mud of the western bank, ordered his crew away, and blew up his ship by the switches in the chart- room. Four dull bumps was all that could be heard; and immediately afterwards there arrived on deck the engineer, who had been in the engine-room during the explosion and reported that all was as it should be. 138 THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" The commander of Iphigenia beached her according to arrangement on the eastern side, blew her up, saw her drop nicely across the canal, and left her with her engines still going to hold her in position till she should have bedded well down on the bottom. According to latest reports from air observation, the two old ships with their holds full of concrete are lying across the canal in a V position ; and the work they set out to do has been accomplished. The canal is effectively blocked. The whole harbor was alive with small craft. As the motor launches cleared the canal, and came forth tO' the in- cessant geysers thrown up by the shells, rescuers and res- cued had a view of yet another phase of the attack. The shore end of the Mole consists of a jetty, and here an old submarine, loaded with explosives, was run into the piles and touched off, her crew getting away in a boat to where the usual launch awaited them. Officers describe the explosion as the greatest they ever witnessed — a huge roaring spout of flame that tore the jetty in half and left a gap of over 100 feet. The claim of an- other launch to have sunk a torpedo-boat alongside the jetty is supported by many observers, including officers of the Vin- dictive, who had seen her mast and funnel across the Mole and noticed them disappear. Where every moment had its deed and every deed its hero, a recital of acts of valor becomes a mere catalog. "The men were magnificent," say the officers; the men's opinion of their leaders expresses itself in the manner in which they followed them, in their cheers, in their de- meanor to-day while they tidy up their battered ships, set- ting aside the inevitable souvenirs, from the bullet-torn en- gines to great chunks of Zeebrugge Mole dragged down and still hanging in the fenders of the Vindictive. The motor launch from the canal cleared the end of the Mole and there beheld, trim and ready, the shape of the Warwick, with the great silk flag presented to the Admiral by the officers of his old ship, the Centurion. They stood up on the crowded decks of the little craft and cheered it again and again. While the Warwick took them on board, they saw Vin- THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 139 dictive, towed loose from the Mole by Daffodil, turn and make for home — a great black shape, with funnels gapped and leaning out of the true, flying a vast streamer of flame as her stokers worked her up — her, the almost wreck — to a final display of seventeen knots. Her forward funnel was a sieve; her decks were a dazzle of sparks; but she brought back intact the horseshoe nailed to it, which had been pre- sented to her commander. Meantime the destroyers North Star, Phoebe, and War- wick, which guarded the Vindictive from action by enemy destroyers while she lay beside the Mole, had their share in the battle. North Star, losing her way in the smoke, emerged to the light of the star-shells, and was sunk. The Ger- man communique, which states that only a few members of the crew could be saved by them, is in this detail of an un- usual accuracy, for the Phccbe came up under a heavy fire in time to rescue nearly all. Throughout the operations moni- tors and the siege guns in Flanders, manned by the Royal Marine Artillery, heavily bombarded the enemy's batteries. The wind that blew back the smoke-screen at Zeebrugge served us even worse off Ostend, where that and nothing else prevented the success of an operation ably directed by Com- modore Hubert Lynes, C.M.G. The coastal motor boats had lit the approaches and the ends of the piers with calcium flares and made a smoke-cloud which effectually hid the fact from the enemy. Sirius and Brilliant were already past the Stroom Bank buoy when the wind changed, revealing the arrangements to the enemy, who extinguished the flares with gunfire. The Sirius was already in a sinking condition when at length the two ships, having failed to find the entrance, grounded, and were forced therefore to sink themselves at a point about four hundred yards east of the piers, and their crews were taken ofif by motor launches. May II, 1918. The Sirius lies in the surf some two thousand yards east of the entrance to Ostend Harbor, which she failed so gal- lantly to block; and when, in the early hours of yesterday 140 THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" morning, the Vindictive groped her way through the smoke- screen and headed for the entrance, it was as though the old fighting-ship awoke and looked on. A coastal motor-boat had visited her and hung a flare in her slack and rusty rig- ging; and that eye of unsteady fire, paHng in the blaze of the star-shells or reddening through the drift of the smoke, watched the whole great enterprise, from the moment when it hung in doubt to its ultimate triumphant success. The planning and execution of that success had been en- trusted by the Vice-Admiral, Sir Roger Keyes, to Commo- dore Hubert Lynes, C.M.G., who directed the previous at- tempt to block the harbor with Sirius and Brilliant. There was no preliminary bombardment of the harbor and the batteries as before the previous attempt; that was to be the first element in the surprise. A time-table had been laid down for every stage of the operation; and the staff work beforehand had even included precise orders for the laying of the smoke barrage, with plans calculated for every direction of wind. The monitors, anchored in their firing-positions far to seaward, awaited their signal; the great siege batteries of the Royal Marine Artillery in Flan- ders — among the largest guns that have ever been placed on land-mountings — stood by likewise to neutralize the big Ger- man artillery along the coast; and the airmen who were to collaborate with an aerial bombardment of the town waited somewhere in the darkness overhead. The destroy- ers patrolled to seaward of the small craft. The Vindictive, always at that solemn gait of hers, found the flagship's light-buoy and bore up for where a coastal motor-boat was waiting by a calcium flare upon the old position of the Stroom Bank buoy. Four minutes before she arrived there, and fifteen minutes only before she was due at the harbor mouth, the signal for the guns to open was given. Two motor-boats dashed in towards the ends of the high wooden piers and torpedoed them. There was a machine-gun on the end of the western pier, and that van- ished in the roar and the leap of flame and debris which called to the guns. Over the town a flame suddenly ap- peared high in air, and sank slowly earthwards — the signal THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 141 that the aeroplanes had seen and understood; and almost coincident with their first bombs came the first shells whoop- ing up from the monitors at sea. The surprise part of the attack was sprung. The surprise, despite the Germans' watchfulness, seems to have been complete. Up till the moment when the tor- pedoes of the motor-boats exploded, there had not been a shot from the land — only occasional routine star-shells. The motor-launches were doing their work magnificently. These pocket-warships, manned by officers and men of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, are specialists at smoke- production; they built to either hand of the Vindictive' s course the likeness of a dense sea-mist driving landward with the wind. The star-shells paled and were lost as they sank in it; the beams of the searchlights seemed to break off short upon its front. It blinded the observers of the great bat- teries when suddenly, upon the warning of the explosions, the guns roared into action. It was then that those on the destroyers became aware that what had seemed to be merely smoke was wet and cold, that the rigging was beginning to drip, that there were no longer any stars — a sea- fog had come on. The destroyers had tO' turn on their lights and use their sirens to keep in touch with each other; the air attack was suspended, and Vindictive, with some distance yet to go, found herself in gross darkness. There were motor-boats to either side of her, escorting her to the entrance, and these were supplied with what are called Dover flares — enormous lights capable of illuminat- ing square miles of sea at once. A pistol was fired as a signal to light these ; but the fog and the smoke together were too dense for even the flares. Vindictive then put her helm over and started to cruise to find the entrance. Twice in her wanderings she must have passed across it, and at her third turn, upon reaching the position at which she had first lost her way, there came a rift in the mist, and she saw the entrance clear, the piers to either side and the opening dead ahead. The inevitable motor-boat dashed up, raced on into the opening under a heavy and momentarily growing fire. THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" and planted a flare on the water between the piers. Vin- dictive steamed over it and on. She was in. The guns found her at once. She was hit every few seconds after she entered, her scarred hull broken afresh in a score of places and her decks and upper works swept. The after-control was demolished by a shell which killed all its occupants. Upper and lower bridges and chart-room were swept by bullets. The Vindictive laid her battered nose to the eastern pier and prepared to swing her 320 feet of length across the channel. She was soon lying at an angle of about forty degrees to the pier, and seemed to be hard and fast, so that it was impossible to bring her further roxmd. The engineer, who was the last to leave the engine-room, blew the main charges by the switch installed aft. Those on board felt the old ship shrug as the explosive tore the bottom plates and the bulkheads from her; she sank about six feet and lay upon the bottom of the channel. Her work was done. BY ADMIRAL VON TIRPITZ Far out at sea were our raiders, detached, without friends. They were getting fine results, but one after an- other, I told myself, they must perish for lack of coal and provisions, for there were no revictualing ports. The same thing that handicapped our raiders was occurring in a large sense on land through England's artifices. She had just shaken the club over the Swiss and they issued a ban on our exports. Holland did likewise. Von Tirpits's Official Report of April 24th During the night of April 22-3rd an enterprise of the British naval forces against our Flanders bases, conceived on a large scale and planned regardless of sacrifice, was frustrated. After a violent bombardment from the sea, small cruis- ers, escorted by numerous destroyers and motorboats, under cover of a thick veil of artificial fog, pushed forward near Ostend and Zeebrugge to quite near the coast, with the in- tention of destroying the locks and harbor works there. THE "ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR" 143 According to the statements of prisoners, a detachment of four Companies of the Royal Marines was to occupy the Mole of Zeebrugge by a coup de main, in order to destroy all the structures, guns, and war material on it and the vessels lying in the harbor. Only about forty of them got on the Mole. These fell into our hands, some alive, some dead. On the narrow high wall of the Mole both parties fought with the utmost fierceness. Of the English naval forces which participated in the attack the small cruisers Virginia \_sic'\, Intrepid, Sirius and two others of similar construction, whose names are un- known, were sunk close off the coast. Moreover, three torpedo-boat destroyers and a considerable number of tor- pedo motor-boats were sunk by our artillery fire. Only a few men of the crews could be saved by us. Beyond damage caused to the Mole by a torpedo \_sic'] hit, our harbor-works and coast batteries are quite un- damaged. Of our naval forces only one torpedo-boat suf- fered damage of the lightest character. Our casualties are small. BY ADMIRAL SCHEER Statement as quoted by General von Ludendorff "Admiral Scheer was afterward appointed Chief of the Naval Staff. He was an unusually clear-thinking man and swift of decision. It seemed to him that the evacuation of our submarine base at Bruges [Zeebrugge is the port of Bruges] might soon become necessary. He did not, how- ever, think that this would be necessarily fatal to our sub- marine campaign. The U-boats were no longer able to enter the English Channel, and were thus compelled to travel around the north of Scotland; and this would put us under the unwelcome necessity of massing all our submarine bases along the German coast. Admiral Scheer said that the building of submarines might be further speeded up, and more effective results obtained; and he asked me therefore to loan him competent workmen. This I did to some small extent, though the army could ill spare them." THE ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS THE WANDERING WAR OF THE "ARMY WITHOUT A COUNTRY" MAY-SEPTEMBER VLADIMIR NOSEK CHAIRMAN PROZATIMNI THOMAS MASARYK ROBERT LANSING Another new country to arise in 1918 was Czecho-Slovakia. The name in itself is confusing. The Czechs are the Bohemians or North Slavs, commonly known as the Czecho-Slavs, to distinguish them from the Jugo-Slavs or South-Slavs of the Balkan States. There exist, however, contiguous to the Czechs, a people of another branch of the Slavic race, known as Slovaks; and their home, a northern district of Hungary, they have named Slovakia. As these people have united with the Czechs to form the new independent republic, its authorities have decided that both the land and the people should be called, not Czecho-Slavic as they were at first, but Czecho- Slovak. The forming of the Czecho-Slav army in Russia, and the cause of its attempting its amazing march across Russia and Siberia, have been already told in the Outline Narrative for this volume. Their journey from Kiev in the Ukraine to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, six thousand miles across a hostile land, has no parallel in history. The "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" Greeks under Xenophon was conducted over only a comparatively small portion of Asia Minor. It was but a schoolboy undertaking when measured against this tre- mendous feat triumphantly accomplished by the Czecho-Slovak army. The outline of their effort is here given by one of their leading diplomatic representatives, M. Nosek. The detailed account of their quarrel with the Bolshevists is told officially by the man the wandering army made its executive organizer on the spot — one of the dozen Xenophons of the great march. Thomas Masaryk, the most trusted and successful leader of Czecho-Slovak affairs in Europe and America, was made first president of the new republic. He states the general position of his people. The peculiar situation of the Czecho-Slovaks, with their land wholly in Austrian hands, but their men free either in Siberia or in the Allied lands, and ready to speak and fight, has led to many anomalies. Chief of these is that the Czecho-Slovaks were recognized as a nation even when they had no country. The United States' formal recog- nition of them is here given as announced in September, 1918. Their own Declaration of Independence of Austria was not issued until October 18, 1918, when it was proclaimed by Masaryk in Paris. The Teutonic breakdown enabled them to set up a government in their 144 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 14S own land in November ; and the ancient Bohemian metropolis of Prague was then proclaimed the capital of Czecho- Slovakia. BY VLADIMIR NOSEK WHEN war broke out, the Czecho-Slavs all over the world felt it their duty to prove by deeds that their place was on the side of the Entente. The Czecho-Slavs in Great Britain, France and Russia volunteered to fight for the Allies, while in the United States of America, where there are some one and a half million Czecho-Slavs, they have counteracted German propaganda and revealed Ger- man plots intended to weaken the American assistance to the Allies. I. In France 471 Czechs, i.e., over 60 per cent., en- tered the Foreign Legion and greatly distinguished them- selves by their bravery. The majority of them have been mentioned in dispatches and received the Military Cross. They have also won five crosses and twenty medals of the Russian Order of St. George. Their losses amount to more than 70 per cent. Further, many Czechs living in Great Britain at the outbreak of the war joined the French Foreign Legion in France, and after His Majesty's Government allowed Czechs to volunteer for service in the British army in the autumn of 1916, practically all Czechs of military age resident in Great Britain enrolled so far as they were not engaged on munitions. In Canada, too, the Czechs joined the army in order to fight for the British Empire. The most important part was taken, however, by the Czecho-Slavic colonies in Russia and America. In Russia, where there are large Czecho-Slavic settlements, numbering several thousand, a Czecho-Slavic legion was formed at the outbreak of the war which rendered valuable services, espe- cially in scouting and reconnoitering. This legion grew grad- ually larger, especially when Czech prisoners began to be allowed to join it, and finally, under the direction of the Czecho-Slavic National Council, it was formed into a regu- lar army. In September, 191 7, it had already two divisions, w.. VOL.. VI.— 10. 146 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS and in 1918 fresh prisoners joined it, so that it counted some 100,000. In order to be able fully to appreciate this achievement, we must remember that this was an army of volunteers, organized by the Czecho-Slavic Council without the powers of a real government. At the beginning of the war the Czecho-Slavs not only had no government of their own, but not even any united organization. And if we realize that to-day, the National Council is recognized by the Allies as the Provisional Government of Bohemia with the right of exercising all powers appertaining to a real government, including the control of an army as large as Great Britain had at the outbreak of the war, it must be admitted that the action of the Czecho-Slavs abroad was crowned with won- derful success. In Russia the difficulties with which the National Coun- cil had to cope were especially grave, and mainly for two reasons. In the first place, the Czecho-Slavic prisoners who voluntarily surrendered were scattered all over Russia. It was extremely difficult even to get into touch with them. In addition there was a lack of good-will on the part of the old Russian Government. Thus very often these prisoners, who regarded Russia as Bohemia's elder brother and libera- tor, were sadly disillusioned when they were left under the supervision of German officers, and thousands of them died from starvation. Nevertheless they never despaired. Eager to fight for the Allies, many of them entered the Jugo-Slav Division which fought so gallantly in the Dobrudja. Nearly all the Czech officers in this division were decorated with the highest Russian, Serbian and Rumanian orders. Half of them committed suicide, however, during the retreat rather than fall into the hands of the enemy. It was not until after the Russian Revolution, and espe- cially after the arrival of Professor Masaryk in Russia in May, 191 7, that the Czecho-Slavic army in Russia became a reality. The Czecho-Slavs had been mentioned in Russian official communiques of February 2, 1916, and March 29, 1917. The most glorious part was taken by the Czecho-Slavic ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 147 Brigade during the last Russian offensive in July, 19 17, in which the Czechs showed manifestly the indomitable spirit that animates them. Since every Czech fighting on the side of the Entente was shot, if he was captured by the Austrians, the Czechs everywhere fought to the bitter end, and rather committed suicide than be captured by their enemies. For this reason they were justly feared by the Germans. As in the Hussite wars, the sight of their caps and the sound of their songs struck terror in the hearts of the Germans and Magyars. At the battle of Zborov on July 2, 19 17, the Czechs gave the whole world proof of their bravery. Determined to win or fall, they launched an attack almost without am- munition, with bayonets and hand-grenades — and they gained a victory over an enemy vastly superior in numbers. According to the official Russian communique: "On July 2nd, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, after a severe and stubborn battle, the gallant troops of the Czecho- Slavic Brigade occupied the strongly fortified enemy posi- tion on the heights to the west and southwest of the village of Zborov and the fortified village of Koroszylow. Three lines of enemy trenches were penetrated. The enemy has retired across the Little Strypa. The Czecho-Slavic Bri- gade captured 62 officers and 3,150 soldiers, 15 guns and many machine guns. Many of the captured guns were turned against the enemy." Finally, however, when the Russians refused to fight, the Czechs had to retire as well. General Brusiloff declared : "The Czecho-Slavs, perfidiously abandoned at Tarnopol by our infantry, fought in such a way that the world ought to fall on its knees before them." Professor Masaryk succeeded admirably in uniting and strengthening all the Czecho-Slavic forces in Russia, and in organizing a regular army of the many thousands of Czecho- Slavic prisoners there. Before the Revolution these efforts of the National Council and the Czech prisoners, who were always eager to fight for the Allies, were rendered immensely difficult by the obstacles inherent in the geographic condi- tions of Russia and by obstacles placed in their way by the old Russian regime. 148 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS Unfortunately now, when the Czecho-Slavs had at last succeeded after much work in realizing their plans, the Czecho-Slavic army became powerless owing to the collapse of Russia. Without ammunition, without support from any- where, the Czecho-Slavs thought they could no more render very effective service to the Allies in the East. They de- cided, therefore, to go over to join their compatriots in France. The position of our army was as follows : After the offensive of July, 1917, the Czechs retreated to Kiev, where they continued to concentrate fresh forces. At that time they numbered about 60,000, and this number had grad- ually increased to 80,000 by the end of 191 7. They always observed strict neutrality in Russia's internal aflfairs on the advice of their venerable leader, Professor Masaryk. It was necessary to counsel this neutrality for the sake of our army itself, since it contained partisans of different creeds and parties, disagreement among whom might have led to its dissolution. On the whole, the Czecho-Slavs, who are an advanced nation, fully conscious of their national aspirations, remained unaffected by the misleading Bolshevist theories. The Czechs abstained throughout from interfering with Rus- sian affairs, yet they did not wish to leave Russia as long as there was any chance for them to assist her. It was not until the shameful peace of Brest-Litovsk in February, 19 18, that Professor Masaryk decided that the Czecho-Slavic army should leave Russia via Siberia and join the Czecho-Slavic army in France. The Bolsheviks granted them free passage to Vladivostok. This journey of some 5,000 miles was not, however, an easy task for an army to accomplish. The troops had to move in small echelons or detachments, and concentration at the stations was prohibited. They had to procure their trains and their provisions, and they had constant trouble with the Bolsheviks, because in every district there was a practically independent Soviet Government with whom the Czechs had to negotiate. The first detachments with the gen- eralissimo of the army. General Diderichs, at the head ar- rived in Vladivostok at the end of April, 1918. But the ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 149 other detachments were constantly held up by the Bolsheviks and had great trouble in passing through. They moved from Kiev via Kursk, Tambov, Penza and Samara. The two last-named towns lie on the line between Moscow and Tcheliabinsk at the foot of the Urals, whence a direct line runs across Siberia to Vladivostok, As we have already pointed out, the Bolsheviks agreed in principle to allow our troops to leave Russia. Their com- mander-in-chief, General Muraviev, allowed the Czechs free passage to France on February i6th. The same concession had been granted by the Moscow Soviet. On the whole, the Czechs were on tolerably good terms with the Bolsheviks. Professor Masaryk rejected every plan directed against the Bolsheviks submitted to him even by such of their political adversaries as could not justly be called counter-revolution- aries. The Czecho-Slavic troops went still further; they actually complied with the request of the Bolsheviks and par- tially disarmed. The trouble only began in May, 19 18, when the Bol- sheviks yielded to German intrigues and resolved to destroy our army. Already at the beginning of May the Czechs had begun to feel embittered against the Bolsheviks, because in defiance of the agreement their troops were constantly being held up by local Soviets. At Tambov, for instance, they were held up for a whole month. At Tcheliabinsk the Czechs had a serious scuffle with Magyar ex-prisoners on May 26th, and the Bolsheviks sided entirely with the Magyars, even arresting some Czecho-Slavic delegates. The Czechs simply occupied the city, liberated their comrades, and at a congress held by them at Tcheliabinsk on May 28th it was decided to refuse to surrender any more arms and ammunition and to continue transports to Vladivostok, if necessary with arms in their hands. This was a reply to Trotsky's telegram that the Czecho- Slavs should be completely disarmed, which the Czecho- Slavs defied as they knew that another order had been issued by Trotsky simultaneously, no doubt on the instigation of Count Mirbach, saying that the Czecho-Slavic troops must be dissolved at all costs and interned as prisoners of war. I50 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS The Bolsheviks now arrested prominent members of the Mos- cow branch of the Czecho-Slavic National Council on the ground that they were "anti-revolutionaries." They alleged also that they had no guarantee that ships would be pro- vided for the Czechs to be transported to France, and that the Czechs were holding up food supplies from Siberia. The Bolsheviks deliberately broke their word, and Trotsky issued an order to "all troops fighting against the anti-revo- lutionary Czecho-Slav brigades." In this he said: "The concentration of our troops is complete. Our army being aware that the Czecho-Slavs are direct allies of the anti-revolution and of the capitalists, fights them well. The Czecho-Slavs are retreating along the rail- way. Obviously they would like to enter into negotiations with the Soviets. We issued an order that their delegates should be received. We demand in the first place that they should be disarmed. Those who do not do so voluntarily will he shot on the spot. Warlike operations on the rail- way line hinder food transports. Energetic steps must be taken to do away with this state of affairs." The Czecho-Slavs were sorely handicapped, since they were not only almost unarmed, but were also dispersed along the trans-Siberian line in small detachments which had con- siderable difficulty in keeping in touch with each other. Nevertheless the fates were favorable to them. They were victorious almost everywhere, thanks to their wonderful spirit and discipline. The first victories gained by the Czecho-Slavs over the Bolsheviks were at Penza and Samara. Penza was captured by them after three days' fighting at the end of May. Later the Czecho-Slavs also took Sysran on the Volga, Kazan with its large arsenal, Simbirsk and Yekaterinburg, connect- ing Tcheliabinsk with Petrograd, and occupied practically the whole Volga region. In Siberia they defeated a considerable force of German- Magyar ex-prisoners in Krasnoyarsk and Omsk and estab- lished themselves firmly in Udinsk. On June 29, 15,000 Czecho-Slavs under General Diderichs, after handing an ulti- matum to the Bolsheviks at Vladivostok, occupied the city ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 151 without much resistance. Only at one spot fighting took place and some 160 Bolsheviks were killed. The Czecho- Slavs, assisted by Japanese and Allied troops, then pro- ceeded to the north and northwest, while the Bolsheviks and German prisoners retreated to Chabarovsk. In September the Czech and Allied troops from Vladivo- stok joined hands with the Czecho-Slavs from Irkutsk and western Siberia, and thus gained control over practically the whole trans-Siberian railway. By this means they have done great service to the Allies, especially to Great Britain, by defending the East against the German invaders. Fur- thermore, it was the Czecho-Slavs' bold action which induced Japan and America at last to intervene in Russia and for the sake of Russia, and it was their control of the Siberian railway which made such intervention possible. Let us hope that their action will lead to the regeneration and salvation of the Russian nation. The service rendered by Czecho-Slav troops to the Allied cause was justly appreciated by the Allies. Mr, Lloyd George sent the following telegram to Professor Masaryk on Sep- tember 9, 1918: "On behalf of the British War Cabinet I send you our heartiest congratulations on the striking suc- cesses won by the Czecho-Slav forces against the armies of German and Austrian troops in Siberia. The story of the adventures and triumphs of this small army is, indeed, one of the greatest epics of history. It has filled us all with admiration for the courage, persistence and self-control of your countrymen, and shows what can be done to triumph over time, distance and lack of material resources by those holding the spirit of freedom in their hearts. Your nation has rendered inestimable service to Russia and to the Allies in their struggle to free the world from despotism. We shall never forget it." BY PROZATIMNI Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Czecho-Slovak army in Siberia An authorized and verified translation of the official ver- sion of the incident given by the Temporary Executive Coni' mittee of the Czecho-Slav army, into whose hands the di' 152 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS rection of military operations and political negotiations was placed by the Assembly of Czecho-Slav Soldiers at TcJielia- binsk, May, 1918. The principle of the neutrality of the Czecho-Slav army as regards the internal conflicts and battles of Russia was defi- nitely expressed and recognized both in the agreement and treaty made by the Czecho-Slav National Council with the temporary government of Russia, and in that arrived at later with the government of the Ukraine Republic, the Ukraine National Council. To this principle both political and mili- tary leaders adhered firmly, and succeeded in implanting it so deeply in the minds of the soldiers that, in spite of the attempts made right and left to induce them to break it, not a single section of the army could be induced to do so. Later, when the Ukraine National Council was defeated and gradually driven out of the governments on the eastern side of the Pnieper and later out of Kiev and the rest of the Ukraine, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet forces, Colonel Muravjof, and Mr. Kocubinsky, the minister of war of the Soviet Government of the Ukraine, recognized the strict armed neutrality of the Czecho-Slav army. Prior to this, when on January 12, 1918, the Ukraine Central Council adopted the "Fourth Universal," which ex- pressed the desire of the Ukraine Government to live on terms of friendship and harmony with all neighboring states, and especially with Austria, it was decided at a meeting of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, at which Professor Masaryk himself presided, to declare the Czecho-Slav army in all parts of the former Russian state as a part of the autonomous army of the Czecho-Slavs in France. This proc- lamation was published on February 10, 1918, after the ar- rival of the Bolsheviks in Kiev. Soon after that, simul- taneously with the success of the peace negotiations of the delegates of the Soviet and Ukraine Governments with the representatives of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk, defi- nite steps were taken to arrange for the departure of the Czecho-Slav army to the French front. The first movement was to be the concentration of all our forces on the eastern side of the Dnieper, and this was to ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 153 be carried out on the basis of an agreement made with the Ukraine-Soviet Government, which at one time planned to estabhsh a front against the Germans in the Ukraine. In the meantime, however, the Germans began to threaten the Czecho-Slavs from both flanks, and they were obliged to retire into the territory of Great Russia. Again this re- tirement was made in complete agreement with the Soviet authorities in the Ukraine, an arrangement having been reached with the Czecho-Slovak National Council and the commander of the Soviet forces of the South Russian Re- publics, Antonov-Ovsejenko, On the basis of this agreement an order was issued to the Czecho-Slav Army Corps (No. 26, March 16, 1918) to turn over to the Soviet forces all superfluous arms and other military equipment, while Antonov on his part issued an order to all revolutionary forces of the South Russian Republics (No. 92, March i6th), from which the following is a literal extract : "Our comrades of the Czecho-Slav Army Corps, who fought so bravely and gloriously at Zhitomir, Kieff, Greb- yonka, and Bachmac, defending the way to Poltava and Kharkoff, are now leaving Ukraine territory, and are turn- ing over to us a part of their military equipment. The revo- lutionary army will never forget the fraternal assistance rendered by the Czecho-Slav Army Corps in the battle of the working people of the Ukraine against the thieving bands of imperialism. The military equipment given up by the Czecho-Slavs the revolutionary army accepts as a fraternal gift." On the basis of this agreement, Antonov consented to the departure of the Czecho-Slavs from the Ukraine, and the staff of the Soviet army of Great Russia also agreed to our departure toward the East, and issued the necessary orders to the railway officials who were to attend to the de- tails of the transport on behalf of the Soviet Government. Agreement to our departure from Russia via Vladivostok was also expressed in telegrams sent by Lenine and Trotsky. In Penza, however, a new set of negotiations was be- gun. The Council of People's Commissioners in Moscow demanded the complete disarmament of the Czecho-Slav 154 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS army. As the result of the negotiations between the Czecho- Slavs and the Moscow authorities a telegram was sent from Moscow on March 26th signed by Stalin, in which a certain number of arms were to be left to each echelon to provide protection against attack by counter-revolutionists. In this same telegram the promise was made to help in every way possible the Czecho-Slavs as long as they remain on Russian territory, provided they maintain an honest and sincere loyalty. Further, the Penza Soviet was ordered to appoint reliable commissioners who were to accompany the Czecho-Slav echelons to Vladivostok, see that their unity as an organization was unimpaired, and at the same time keep the Council of People's Commissioners informed as to the progress of the transport. In this same telegram it was stated that telegrams with necessary instructions would be sent by the Council of People's Commissioners to all interested parties. Our army maintained an honest and sincere loyalty. But meanwhile the Soviet Government proceeded to break its word at every step. The Penza Soviet named but one com- missioner, who went on ahead to Vladivostok with the first echelon, and there sat down and did nothing. In spite ot our repeated requests that other commissioners be named, the Penza authorities absolutely refused to do this, giving as an excuse the lack of suitable men. The local Soviets one after another put all sorts of obsta- cles in our path. In Samara, but 400 versts beyond Penza, the local Soviet demanded that we give up more of our arms These demands were repeated in Ufa, Zlatoust, Omsk, Irkutsk, Tchita, and so on all along the line. The repre- sentatives of the Czecho-Slav National Council, as well as the commanders of the various echelons, used every pos- sible means to prevent the movement of our transports from being halted. In Samara the echelons gave up 138 rifles apiece, leaving only thirty to an echelon; in Omsk each echelon gave up a machine gun, and in Irkutsk more rifles, until there was left but twenty to an echelon. The negotia- tions of these loyal Soviets, being in clear opposition to the orders of the Council of People's Commissioners quoted ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 155 above, often had the appearance of bargaining at the bazaar, and for the Czecho-Slav soldiers was insulting in the extreme, and had the effect of increasing every day mistrust in the Soviet Government, and in creating a disgust for them which ever grew stronger. One great reason for this lack of confidence and disgust was the attitude assumed by the Soviet authorities, both local and central, toward those who had deserted the Czecho- Slav army and joined the ranks of the Red army. Ther6 were not many of them, and they were bad soldiers and men of weak characters. They went over to the Soviet army for mercenary reasons. The mtmificent salaries, the opportuni- ties to at once assume a position of high rank, fear of the French front, petty personal spite, these were the motives that led these men to desert their comrades. Our soldiers knew these men, and were glad that they were rid of them. The Soviet Government welcomed these deserters and sup- ported them in every way possible. At Penza the Soviet named some of these deserters as their representatives on the commission which had charge of receiving the arms given up by the Czecho-Slavs. Other deserters holding documents from the Soviet political or military authorities insisted on coming into the Czecho-Slav echelons to carry on agitations for the Red army, and to determine if we did not have some arms hidden away. These deserters, who called themselves social revolution- ists, internationalists, and communists, often declared that the holding up of our transport and all the obstacles put in our path were for the purpose of causing dissension within our ranks and gaining as many recruits as possible for the Red army. They declared that this was the reason why the Soviet Government wished a part of the troops to go by way of Archangel ; that somewhere on the way in a region where no food was to be had they planned to halt us and compel us from very hunger to join their ranks. The Czecho-Slav National Council exercised all its in- fluence with the army to keep them from taking stock in these tales, and to induce them to keep their patience, and 156 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS as good soldiers not to make any reply to the unfaithfulness and insulting behavior of the Soviet Government. The atmosphere wzs therefore highly charged with elec- tricity when the Tcheliabinsk incident occurred. At Tchelia- binsk, besides the Czecho-SIav echelons, there stood several trains filled with prisoners on their way home to Austria and Germany. The relations between the Czecho-Slav soldiers and these prisoners was good, as it was uniformly when- ever they came in contact with one another on the road. The soldiers did carry on an agitation amongst them against Austrian and German imperialism, and laughed at them for returning to serve once more under Austrian and German officers. But at the same time they felt sorry for them, and often shared their food with them. On May 14th, one of these prisoners threw a piece of iron out of a train that was just leaving, wounding one of the Czecho-Slav soldiers. The soldiers immediately surrounded the car from which the iron had been thrown, and demanded that the guilty prisoner be given up to them. When this was done, they immediately killed him. In the course of the investigation of this affair, the local Soviet called as witnesses the members of the guard which had been on duty at the station. But instead of hearing their testimony, they put these men under arrest. A depu- tation which was later sent by the Czecho-Slavs to demand the release of the guard was likewise put under arrest. This illegal imprisonment of their fellows was more than the sol- diers in the echelons at Tcheliabinsk could stand, and, led by their commanders, they marched into the city, released their imprisoned comrades, and returned immediately to their trains. No attack by force was made, the whole proceeding was conducted in an orderly and quiet manner, hardly a shot being fired. The local Soviet proceeded to describe this action on the part of the Czecho-Slavs in lurid colors in telegrams sent out in all directions. Believing the information thus im- parted to them, the Council of People's Commissioners issued an order to disarm completely all Czecho-Slav echelons. At the same time orders were issued to the Soviets of all cities ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 157 where our echelons were then located to proceed against them by force. Accordingly, almost on the same day the Soviet forces, composed for the most part of Magyar and German prisoners of war, fell upon the Czecho-Slav echelons, which were almost entirely disarmed. At the attack made upon echelons of the Sixth Czecho- Slav Regiment at Marianovka, near Omsk, the Czecho-Slavs sufifered losses amounting to ten killed and ten severely wounded. The staff of the First Regiment, whose echelon was attacked at Zlatoust, defended itself with stones against the machine guns and rifles of the Bolsheviks, but lost six men killed and ten severely wounded, and was compelled to make its way across the Urals on foot. Similarly the staff of the Second Artillery Brigades was attacked at Imo- kentjeska, near Irkutsk, when they had already given up their arms. Machine guns placed in the wdndows of the railway station opened up a heavy fire upon the Czecho-Slavs, but in spite of the fact that the men had no arms except a few hand-grenades, they succeeded in clearing the station of Bol- shevist forces and in capturing their machine guns. A fourth attack was made at Serodobsk, south from Penza. All of these attacks were made on May 27th and the following two or three days immediately after the issuance of the order from Moscow to disarm the Czecho-Slavs at any cost. Prior to these events, but after the first incident at Tchelia- binsk, the Assembly of Czecho-Slav Soldiers met for its annual meeting and decided that in view of the tense situa- tion existing between the Soviet Government and the Czecho- Slavs, vigorous measures must be taken immediately in or- der to secure the rapid passage of the trains toward Vladi- vostok. Accordingly delegates were dispatched to all echelons with instructions to proceed ahead at any cost, and an execu- tive committee was appointed to see that these plans were carried out. The executive committee in formulating its plans counted on the probability of an armed conflict with the Bolshevik forces, but felt confident that they would be able to force their way through to Vladivostok in spite of any resistance that might be offered by the Soviet forces. The reason for their confidence in the successful outcome 158 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS of their new plan lay not only in the well-known weakness of the Red army, but also in the fact of their knowledge that the people at large were sick and tired of the Bolshevist rule, and that therefore they would not turn a hand to help the Bolshevists in any possible conflict with the Czecho-Slavs. Furthermore, the Czecho-Slavs, from their intimate knowl- edge of political conditions throughout Russia, judged that the feeling against the Bolshevists was strongest in the very regions where most of their echelons were located, namely in the Urals and western Siberia. The executive committee, therefore, in planning their action, took cognizance of these facts and planned to take advantage both of the weakness of the Red army and of the strong popular feeling against the Bolshevists to force their way through to the East. That their action would be accompanied by or followed by the overthrow of the Soviet Government and the establishment of a new government in western Siberia never entered into their calculations, although later, when the fall of the Soviet Government was an accomplished fact, the Czecho-Slavs M^ere the first to welcome the new government and to lend it their moral and armed support. The plans of the executive committee for the forcing of the passage of Vladivostok had not been thoroughly worked out when the events of May 25th brought things to an issue. By its cowardly attacks upon the Czecho-Slav echelons the Soviet Government began a warfare against the Czecho-Slavs, the object of which was, according to the command of Trotsky, to disarm and disband the Czecho- Slav army corps, place them in prison camps, and there try to enlist them in the ranks of the Red army or to put them out at hard labor. In short, they wished to destroy en- tirely the Czecho-Slav army, that important moral support of the revolutionary movement of the Czecho-Slovakia and the other oppressed nationalities of Austria-Hungary. After the first order to disarm completely the Czecho- Slav echelons, there still remained the possibility of diplo- matic negotiations. But after the attack made upon the echelons on May 25th-26th, the soul of each soldier cried out for revenge for the blood of their innocent comrades. And ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 159 so there was nothing left but war, a war which has already resulted in the seizure of almost the entire Siberian Rail- way by the Czecho-Slavs and the fall of the Soviet Govern- ment all along the line. The Czecho-Slavs are convinced that the action taken against them by the Soviet Government was dictated from Berlin through the German ambassador in Moscow, Count Mirbach. This conviction is based on the opinion, very widely spread throughout Russia, that the Soviet Govern- ment is the paid agent of Germany. This conviction grew stronger as repeated attempts were made to disarm the sol- diers, for the men could not but see in this disarmament real danger, knowing as they did that the Central Soviet Govern- ment was really powerless, and that in most places the chief strength of their armed forces consisted in armed German and Magyar prisoners. For example, in Omsk the commander of the forces of the Internationalists, composed of prisoners, was an Aus- tro-Hungarian ofificer, a Magyar by race. This officer, Ligeti by name, had all the Czecho-Slavs and other Slavs who were serving in the Red army disarmed, so that Omsk was really in the hands of this Austro-Hungarian officer. In Ishim the Red army was composed entirely of Magyars. In Petro- pavlovsk the men who came to negotiate with the Czecho- Slavs in the guise of Czech communists afterward proved to be the representatives of the German section of the In- ternationalists. The commanding officers of the Red army were in many cases Germans and Magyars, judging by the orders and the curses in those tongues that were heard on all sides during the battles. When the echelon was attacked near Irkutsk, there was heard the command : "Schiessen." The conviction that the Soviet Government wished to destroy our forces was also strengthened by the constant holding up of the transport, for which no adequate cause could be found. At first the delay was blamed upon the Amur railway, where transportation was reported to have been halted. The advance of Semenov upon Irkutsk was given as an excuse. But the Czecho-Slavs soon learned that transportation on the Amur railway had been soon resumed, i6o ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS while the advance of Semenov existed more in the imagina- tion of the Soviet authorities than in reality. Amongst other excuses given was that of a lack of locomotives on the Amur road, but all the while German prisoners were being merrily transported toward the west, and there were plenty of loco- motives for them. On April 20th the people's commissioner for foreign af- fairs, Tchitcherin, sent the following telegram to the Si- berian Soviets : "Transport German prisoners as rapidly as possible toward the west. Hold back the Czecho-Slav echelons." It was only after a long and tedious session of negotia- tions that there was secured an order for the renewal of our transport toward Vladivostok. One day, about May 15th, a member of the Czecho-Slav National Council was officially informed that the trains would now be moved. On the very next day, however, he learned through private con- versation with the railway officials that another order had been issued in Irkutsk to stop the movements of the Czecho- Slav trains. He finally learned that this command had issued from the commander of the Soviet forces at Irkutsk, General von Taube, a German, whose adjutant had issued the order by "mistake." The Seventh Czecho-Slav Regiment captured a German engineer, who had been commandeered from Moscow to de- stroy the bridges and tunnels on the railroad beyond the Baikal. In Troitsk the commanders of the Soviet artillery were all Austrian officers. From all these facts even an uninterested onlooker may picture to himself the news which had been spread about the Czecho-Slav army. Inasmuch as the warfare is still being carried on on all sides, it has not been possible to gather all the evidence from the Soviet offices, and unfortunately in many cases the Bolsheviks succeeded in carrying away with them or destroying all their papers before our men took pos- session. Later, however, there will be certainly found many proofs of the truth of the assertion made by the president of the Tcheliabinsk Soviet and the military commissioner in that town, who informed our representatives in confidence, ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS i6i shortly before the outbreak of hostiUties, that the cause of all the acts against the Czecho-Slavs was the German am- bassador at Moscow. BY THOMAS MASARYK Announcement issued at Washington, D. C, on July 27, 1918, by authority of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, then acting at Wash- ington under Thomas Masaryk as president. There have been so many promising campaigns started in Russia during the last year of which nothing more is heard that the people in this country watch with a certain lack of confidence the successes of the Czecho-Slovak forces in Si- beria and Eastern European Russia. Will they be permanent or will they come to nothing, as did the ill-fated campaigns of Korniloff, the Don Cossacks, the various Siberian governments and many others? Can the Czecho-Slovaks stand their ground, a hundred thousand men among a hundred million, and are they not themselves talking about withdrawing from Russia? It is, of course, well known that the Czecho-Slovaks are not Russians ; that they are a well organized and thoroughly disciplined force recruited from former Austrian soldiers of the Bohemian and Slovak races, who surrendered to the Rus- sians. The Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia was created in order to fight the Germans and the Austrians, and when Russia deserted the cause of the Allies, arrangements were made by Professor T. G. Masaryk, President of the Czecho- slovak National Council and by virtue of that Commander in Chief of the Czecho-Slovak forces, with the allied repre- sentatives in Russia and also with the Bolsheviki to march the Czecho-Slovaks out of Russia and take them to the west- ern front. It should be kept clearly in mind that occupation of Russian territory or the restoration of an eastern front was not thought of when these arrangements were made, in Feb- ruary, 1918. It was due to one of those German blunders, like the one that brought America into the war, that the Czecho-Slovaks, instead of Vv^ithdrawing from Russia, are W,. VOL. VI.— 11. i62 ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS now in control of Siberia and of considerable territory west of the Urals. Under pressure of Austrian and German demands Trot- sky tried to disarm the Czecho-Slovaks and put them in prison camps, with a view of turning them over to the Aus- trian authorities. The Czecho-Slovaks, being attacked, had to defend themselves, and as a result found themselves in control of the greatest portion of the Trans-Siberian Rail- road and the Volga River. They were like Saul, who went to seek his father's asses and found a kingdom. Professor Masaryk was by this time in America, and the Czecho-Slovak leaders, under the changed conditions, hesi- tated as to their course of action. The only orders they had were to take their forces to the Pacific. They had no desire to play policemen in Russia, and they realized that their position could not be indefinitely sustained unless they were assured of a steady flow of supplies. And yet the un- paralleled strategic opportunities which their position gave them made a strong appeal to their imagination. This seems evident from the fact that, instead of withdrawing from Eu- ropean Russia, they occupied more cities on the Volga, stretching out their detachments in the direction of the Mur- man Coast, A week ago Professor Masaryk received a lengthy cable report from the leader of the Czecho-Slovak forces in which the following words are found indicative of the present de- sires of these men: "In our opinion it is most desirable and also possible to reconstruct a Russia-Germany front in the east. We ask for instructions as to whether we should leave for France or whether we should stay here to fight in Russia by the side of the Allies and of Russia. The health and spirit of our troops are excellent." Professor Masaryk has since then instructed the forces in Siberia to remain there for the present. The question, how- ever, of staying in Russia or getting out does not depend on the Czecho-Slovaks alone. That is something which must be decided by the Allies. The Czecho-Slovak Army is one of the allied armies, and it is as much under the orders of the Ver- ODYSSEY OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS 163 sailles War Council as the French or American Army. No doubt the Czecho-Slovak boys in Russia are anxious to avoid participation in a possible civil war in Russia, but they re- alize at the same time that by staying where they are they may be able to render far greater services, both to Russia and the allied cause, than if they were transported to France. They are at the orders of the Supreme War Council of the Allies. BY ROBERT LANSING U. S. Government announcement issued by Secretary Lansing, Septem- ber 3, 1918, recognizing the Czecho- Slovaks The Czecho-Slovak peoples having taken up arms against the German and Austro-Hungarian empires, and hav- ing placed in the field organized armies, which are waging war against those empires under officers of their own na- tionality and in accordance with the rules and practices of civilized nations, and Czecho-Slovaks having in the prose- cution of their independence in the present war confided the supreme political authority to the Czecho-Slovak National Council, the Government of the United States recognizes that a state of belligerency exists between the Czecho-Slovaks thus organized and the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. It also recognizes the Czecho-Slovak National Council as ado, facto belligerent government, clothed with proper au- thority to direct the military and political affairs of the Czecho-Slovaks. The Government of the United States further declares that it is prepared to enter formally into relations with the de facto government thus recognized for the purpose of prosecuting the war against the common enemy, the empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary. THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE GERMANY BREAKS THE FRENCH LINE ON THE AISNE MAY 27TH-3OTH JOHN BUCHAN MAJOR MAX VON SCHREIBERSHOFEN GENERAL HENRI BERTHAUT Twice had the Germans struck terrific blows against the Western front, in March and again in April; and each time the Allied line had broken and the Allies had only saved themselves by a narrow margin from complete disaster. Had the Germans still strength for another blow ? Ludendorff had declared he expected to sacrifice 400,000 men; and as yet he had suffered only about that number as a total of casualties. Many of these would soon be again available. Where would the next blow fall? It came suddenly on May 27th and in the region where it was least expected. The army of the Crown Prince struck the French defenses along the Chemin des Dames, the line north of the Aisne which had been won by such long fighting in the preceding year. This time the success of the Germans was even greater than before. Just as they had in a few days snatched from the British the gains of a whole year of fighting, now they snatched the same from the French. Taken by surprise, the French troops found themselves surrounded by the "in- filtration" method. Thousands of them were captured; their line was broken; from the Chemin des Dames they retreated hurriedly south- ward to the Aisne, and then to the Marne. Westward they fell back on Soissons to keep touch with the British line. Then, after desperate fighting, they lost Soissons. On the night of the last of May the Paris government officials talked of a second evacuation of their capital, another flight to Bordeaux like that of 1914. The French defense, however, now stiffened splendidly. Once more the German blow had spent its strength. The battle became equal ; and for a month of attack and counter-attack both sides held firm. BY JOHlSr BUCHAN LUDENDORFF had put his hand to the plow, and there could be no turning back. The stagnation of May was not part of his plan, but a sheer necessity to enable him to fill up the gaps in his ranks. He had lost almost half a million of men — not, indeed, more than he had bargained for, but in that bargain he had assumed a success which was 164 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 165 still denied him. By the last week of May he had replaced more than 70 per cent, of his losses from men returned from hospitals and the first part of the 1920 class. He had still a real superiority in numbers over his antagonists ; he had the strategic initiative and the priceless advantage of interior lines. He had not changed his main purpose. He still aimed at separating the British and French armies, and for him the vital terrain was still the Somme. But he did not con- sider that the time was ripe for the final blow, and he re- solved to repeat his Lys experiment, and strike first in a different area, with the object of exhausting Foch's reserves and stripping bare his center. There were many inducements to this course. Repeated blows at widely separated sections would compel the mov- ing of Allied supports round the big outer edge of the salient ; would certainly give him local successes ; and might, in the precarious position of the Allies, supply just that finishing stroke which would disintegrate their entire defense. He and his colleagues had always Russia in mind. He had treated the Russian front in this way, and by-and-by had come the Revolution when the heart and limbs of Russia failed her. Might not the sentimental democracies of the West be driven down the same road ? He had still some five months of cam- paigning before him, and he did not believe that America would prove a serious factor in the war before the winter. His time limits were inexorable, but the allowance seemed still sufficient. The new terrain must be of the same type as the Lys — that is, it must be sufficiently remote from the center to make reenforcement difficult, and it must threaten some vital pos- session of the Allies. He found such an area in the Heights of the Aisne.^ It was the nearest point to Paris ; it was a path to the Marne; and an advance beyond that river would cut the Paris-Chalons railways and imperil the whole French front in Champagne. He could concentrate troops for the attack in the angle of the salient, so that, as on March 21st, the Allies could not guess his intention. And, having re- ^The British Staff from the month of April onward had been confident that the next German blow would be in this area. i66 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE newed his shock troops, he could once again use the deadly tactics of March, to which Foch as yet seemed to have found no answer. About the 20th of May the Army group of the Crown Prince had mustered some forty divisions for the attempt, twenty-five for the first wave and fifteen in reserve. The two armies allotted to the task were : on the right, the VHth Army, under von Boehn ; and, on the left, the 1st Army, under Fritz von Below. They lay between the Ailette and Rheims, wholly to the north and east of the plateau; while on the heights was part of the group of Franchet d'Esperey, the French Sixth Army, under General Maistre, with only the nth Corps of four divisions in line. On the French right lay the British 9th Corps, which had been recently with- drawn from Flanders. It held the California Plateau and Craonne, and extended as far south as Bermericourt, with three divisions in line. Around Rheims lay the French Fifth Army, with, on its right, General Gouraud's Fourth Army extending into Champagne. The British divisions, which were depleted and tired after their two months' struggle, had been brought to the section to rest. The weakness of the Allied front — seven divisions to hold a line of thirty miles — was no fault of the High Command, but due simply to the exigencies of the great battle. If a force is outnum- bered it must be content to be thin at many points, and the Aisne was not the only, or, so far as could be judged, the most critical area on the western front. We have seen that Ludendorff began the Lys battle with an attack of nine divisions, a modest complement suitable for a subsidiary operation. We have seen, too, that he was gradually drawn by unexpected success into a gross expendi- ture of men. The new plan marked a further weakening in the rigor of his first strategy. A thirty-mile front and twenty-five divisions of assault were on a scale too great for a legitimate diversion. He still held to his main plan, but he was fumbling in his methods, and he had chosen an ill place for one prone to temptation. For Paris lay in the southwest beyond the forests, and the lure of a capital city THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 167 is hard to resist for the soldier, and harder for the politicians behind him. Ludendorff employed many of the same troops, includ- ing three divisions of the Prussian Guard, as had led the assault on March 21st. Both in the secrecy of his concen- tration ^ and in the precision of his new tactics he far ex- ceeded his previous record. Never, perhaps, during the whole campaign did the great German war machine move so noiselessly and so fast. On the evening of Sunday, May 26th, all was quiet in the threatened area. At one o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 27th, a sharp bombardment began everywhere from the Ailette to the suburbs of Rheims. At four o'clock the infantry advanced, and in an hour or two had swept the French from the crest of the ridge. The odds were too desperate, and the four weak French divisions were smothered under weight of numbers and artillery. The nth Corps early in the morning was back on the southern slopes of the heights, and by the afternoon was on the Aisne itself, five miles from its old positions. By 8 a. m. three French divisions from reserve had attempted to hold a line on the southern bank of the river covering the crossings. They were swept aside, and the vanguard of von Conta's corps crossed by the French bridges, and before nightfall had reached the Vesle : a total advance of twelve miles, and far beyond anything that had been accomplished on March 21st. By the evening the French front ran from the Ailette, near Leuilly, by Neuville-sur-Margival to the Aisne at Conde, and then in a crescent on the southern bank by Braisne, Quincy, and Mont-Notre-Dame to south of Fismes. Large numbers of prisoners and an immense store of booty had fallen into von Boehn's hands. At first Fritz von Below fared less well against the Brit- ish 9th Corps. It was forced back to its second position, but resisted gallantly for most of the day. The 21st, be- tween Cormicy and Bermericourt, with a French Colonial Division on its right, held its ground throughout the day. 'The first news of the impending attack came from prisoners taken by the French on the 26th. 1 68 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE The 8th, around Berry-au-Bac, stood firm till the afternoon, when the pressure on the west forced it across the river. The 5Gth, at Craonne, had the hardest task of all, for the retreat of the French uncovered its left flank, and it was slowly driven back to the Aisne, after making a heroic effort to recapture the Craonne plateau. That evening the line of the 9th Corps ran from Bermericourt westward through Cormicy and Bouffignereux, to link up precariously with the French northeast of Fismes. The battle had now reached the district of the Tardenois, that upland which is the watershed between Aisne and Marne. The countryside is broken up into many hollows, but the center is open and full of excellent roads. On the west and southwest lie big patches of forest, of which the great wood of Villers-Cotterets is the chief. It is cut in the middle by the stream of the Ourcq, flowing westward, and farther east by the long and shallow valley of the Vesle. On the south it breaks down sharply to the Marne, and an enemy coming from the north by the plateau commands all the flatter southern shore. It was Ludendorff's desire to push for the Marne at his best speed; but the difficulty lay with his flanks. So long as Soissons and Rheims held he would be forced by every day's advance into a narrowing salient. His advantage was that the French line had been completely broken, and that some days must elapse before serious resistance could be made to his triumphant center. At all costs he must broaden the salient, and on the 28th he succeeded in forcing back the containing Allied wings. On his right he drove the French to the line Venizel-Serches-Lesges, and on his left he com- pelled the British 9th Corps to retire to positions running well south of the Vesle by Crugny to Muizon. In the center the French were south of Lhuys and Chery and Courville. He did more, for on his extreme right, between the Aisne and the Ailette, he captured Sancy, and won a line from Pont- St. Mard by Terny to Bray. He was now on the heights overlooking Soissons from the north and close on the town in the river flats to the east. That day an event happened which might well have given THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 169 food for thought to the German Command. American troops had been before this date engaged in minor actions in Lor- raine, but now for the first time they took part in the main battle. The ist United States Division, brigaded with the Third French Army, attacked in the Montdidier section, and took the village of Cantigny, along with 170 prisoners. Three furious counter-attacks by the enemy failed to retake the place. It was much that a new division should thus neatly and efficiently carry out an offensive, but that they should be able to consolidate and hold their gains was a real achieve- ment and a happy augury for the future. On Wednesday, the 29th, the broadening of the salient began in earnest, and Soissons fell. All the day before it had been hotly shelled, and in some places set on fire ; and on the morning of the 29th the enemy, strengthened by fresh divisions, pushed in from the east and entered its streets. They were driven out after severe fighting, but returned to the attack in the afternoon, and compelled the French to retire to the plateau west and south of the town. Fritz von Below, on the German left, had also increased his forces, and succeeded in pressing the British and French troops on the Allied right off the upland of St. Thierry. That day there was a general falling back everywhere, and at night the Allied line ran from La Neuvillette north of Rheims, well to the south of Crugny, south of Arcis le Ponsart, through the station of Fere-en-Tardenois, and then northwest by Cuiry-Housse, Septmonts, and Belleu, to the west of Sois- sons, and so to Juvigny and Pont St. Mard. Next day the German center made a strong forward thrust. It was the second main attack of the battle, and its aims were to reach the Marne, and to destroy the two pillars of the Allied front at Soissons and Rheims. The first was immediately successful. During the morning the Ger- man vanguard appeared on the hills above the Marne between Chateau-Thierry and Dormans, and by the evening the en- emy was in possession of some ten miles of the north bank of the river. He was less fortunate on his flanks. He failed entirely to debouch from Soissons. In the east La Neuvil- lette fell, and he won a foothold in Betheny, but he was I70 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE checked in front of Rheims. That night the Allied front lay from Rheims by Vrigny, Ville-en-Tardenois, and Jonquery to Dormans ; then along the right bank of the Marne to just east of Chateau-Thierry; then northwest by Oulchy-la-Ville, Missy-au-Bois, and Tartiers to the original line at Pontoise. The enemy had now cause to consider his position. His achievement had been brilliant — an advance of over thirty miles in seventy-two hours, the occupation of ten miles of the Marne shore, between 30,000 and 40,000 prisoners, and some 400 guns. But there were anxious elements in his suc- cess. He had used up most of the fresh divisions of the Crown Prince's reserve, and though Prince Rupprecht had twenty more, and the Duke of Wurtemberg and General von Gallwitz at least four fresh divisions to spare, it would be unwise to squander the total mass of maneuver in what had been intended as a diversion. But the position won was such that it offered no safe resting-place; the battle must be continued, or the gains must be relinquished. It is a good working rule that a salient on a formed front should not be in depth more than a third of its base. But von Boehn had far exceeded this proportion, and he found himself forced through too narrow a gate. There was nothing for it but to carry away the gate-posts — to halt the center while the flanks came into line. The more dangerous wing was the German right, which followed roughly the high road from Soissons to Chateau- Thierry. If von Boehn could press out in that direction he would enlarge the borders of his salient, and, by outflanking the Soissons heights, break down that vital gate-post. Ac- cordingly, on the morning of the 31st he performed the military operation known as "forming front to a flank." He drove back the French from the southern bank of the Oise and Aisne Canal between Guny and Noyon, and he pressed down the valley of the Ourcq as far as Neuilly St. Front, North of that point his front ran by Vierzy to Missy, and south of it through Bois-du-Chatelet and Verdilly to the northeast of Chateau-Thierry. Next day, Saturday, June ist, it was the turn of Fritz von Below, who attacked at Rheims with tanks on the left THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 171 flank of the German salient and at first made ground. A French counter-attack later in the day drove him back and captured four of his tanks. Northwest of Soissons von Boehn made a half-hearted effort, and southwest of the town the French won back some ground, and checked furtlier enemy progress down the south bank of the Aisne. On Sunday, June 2nd, both German armies made a resolute at- tempt to break the gate-posts. Von Below, with five divi- sions, attacked at Vrigny, southwest of Rheims, but failed to advance. Von Boehn drove hard against the western flank, occupied the northern part of Chateau-Thierry and the high riverside ground as far as Chezy-sur-Marne, and en- larged his holding farther north in the neighborhood of Chezy-en-Orzois. But he made no progress down the Ourcq, for the French had brought up reserves in that area, and had found a line which they could defend. Just east of the great forest of Villers-Cotterets runs the little river Savieres, in a deep gorge with precipitous sides. It falls into the Ourcq at Troesnes, whence an irregular line of heights stretches south- ward in front of Passy and Torcy. All this line, which was of some strength, was recaptured by the French by the Sun- day evening, with the exception of the hamlet of Faverolles, where the Germans had still a footing. That day marked the farthest limit of von Boehn's success in this area, for, though he continued his efforts for another week, he made comparatively small progress. The Crown Prince had used forty-one divisions in the week's battle, and had practically exhausted his own reserves, but he had not drawn upon the resources of the neighboring group commanders. The situation was still very grave, for the French line had been greatly lengthened, it bristled with vulnerable points, and there was scanty room to maneuver. Paris was dan- gerously near the new front, and the loss of Paris meant far more than the loss of a capital. Earlier in the campaign the great city might have fallen without brmging upon the Allies irreparable disaster. But in the past two years it was in the environs of Paris that many of the chief new muni- tion factories had arisen. If these were lost the Allied 172 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE strength would be grievously crippled, and after four years of war it was doubtful whether France had the power to re- place them. On Monday, the 3rd, there was heavy fighting around Torcy, where the Germans tried to push down the little val- ley of the Clignon; between Troesnes and Faverolles; and on the Chaudun plateau, southwest of Soissons, where von Boehn was endeavoring to turn the Villers-Cotterets forest by its northern end. The struggle was bitter; but the French reaction had clearly begun, and on their extreme left they recovered the southern part of the hill of Choisy, which overlooks the Oise. On the Tuesday there was a lull, and on Wednesday, the 5th, the French repulsed an attempt to cross the Oise near Mont Lagache. American troops had come into action on the western and southern side of the salient, and counter-attacked with success west of Torcy at the wood of Neuilly-la-Poterie, and defeated an attempt to ford the Marne at Jaulgonne, northeast of Chateau-Thierry. On Thursday, the 6th, the Germans were forced back a mile at Torcy, and that night the British 19th Division re- took the village of Bligny, eight miles to the southwest of Rheims. On the 7th the French and Americans took Neuilly- la-Poterie and Bouresches, and the French captured the important Hill 204, above Chateau-Thierry. Von Boehn had exhausted his strength, and had called a halt; and, ac- cording to their practice in such lulls, the Germans an- nounced the results of their victory — 55,000 prisoners and 650 guns. They were clearly preparing a blow elsewhere, and Foch waited anxiously for news of it. It came on the morning of Sunday, the 9th, and, as had been expected, from another army. This time it was the turn of von Hutier. It had proved impossible to carry away the gate-posts by means of the two armies already engaged, so it was necessary to bring the force on their right into ac- tion. At midnight on the 8th an intense bombardment began in the Montdidier-Noyon section, and at dawn on the 9th von Hutier attacked with fifteen divisions on a front of twenty-five miles. In the next three days three more divi- THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 173 sions were drawn in, and of the eighteen five were from the reserve of Prince Rupprecht. The Allied front between Montdidier and Noyon had for its main feature the group of low hills south of Lassigny, between the stream of the Matz and the Oise. West of the Matz the line ran through an open country of piowland and rolling downs. East of it the front curved round the north- ern skirts of the hills, which were thickly wooded and rose to some 400 feet above the surrounding levels. They formed a continuous ridge except at their western end, where one summit was separated by a sharp valley, with the village of Gury at its northern end. If von Hutier could thrust down the Matz he would turn the uplands, and so get rid of the main natural obstacle between him and Compiegne. The main strategic object of Ludendorff was now to secure the front Compiegne-Chateau-Thierry, from which he could threaten Paris. Already his greater scheme, though not con- sciously rehnquished, was growing dim, and the lure of the capital was overmastering him. Further, he had to release von Boehn from the awkward narrows in which he was wedged. On most of the front of attack von Hutier failed, for there was no element of surprise, and Foch was ready for him. But in the center along the Matz there was a local success. The enemy advanced some three miles, took the isolated hill above Gury, and got as far as the village of Ressons, in the south. Next day the three miles became six, and the Germans were in Marqueglise and Elincourt, in th^* center; on their left they entered the Bois de Thiescourt; and on their right took the villages of Mery, Belloy, and St. Maur. The extreme French left, between Rubescourt and Courcelles, stood firm. That evening the French front ran from Mesnil St. Georges, in the west, by Le Ployron, Cour- celles, Marest, Montigny, and La Bernardie, to the south of Cannectancourt. The battle was now one of dogged resistance, and, for the enemy, slow and costly progress, very different to the Aisne action a fortnight before. But Foch could not afford to take risks, so that night he shortened his line by evacu- 174 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE ating the salient south of Noyon, between Nampcel and Mon- tigny. Measures were also taken for the defense of Paris should the enemy advance continue. It was blazing June weather, the ground was bone-dry, and all the conditions favored the attackers. But a new thing had begun to appear in the campaign. The enemy continued his former tactics, but they were less successful. The French were notably quick in counter-attack, and this discomfited the shock-troops in their infiltration, for it is small use finding weak spots in a front if you are checked before you can take advantage of them. The French reserves were still scanty, and the defense was still heavily outnumbered, but the odds were not so fantastic as in March and April, and in their hundreds of thousands America was landing her troops. Already some of them had been in the line, and at Cantigny and Chateau-Thierry had shown their brilliant quality. The battle-front was now gigantic, not less than loo miles from Mesnil St. Georges to Rheims. For the remainder of the month there was a ding-dong struggle, no side gaining any real advantage, for both were near the end of their en- durance. On the I ith the French retook Mery and Belloy, and advanced their line nearly two miles on a front of four betvv'een Gournay and Courcelles. Farther east they pressed back the enemy from the Matz River, and repulsed a German attack along the Ribecourt-Compiegne road. That same day, between the Ourcq and the Marne, the Americans made a fine advance at Belleau Wood, and took 300 prisoners. On the 1 2th the Germans had some success between Ribe- court and Marest, and took the latter village, as well as Chevincourt and Machemont and Melicocq. Just south of the Aisne they made another advance — two miles on a front of three — and reached the outskirts of Ambleny and St. Bandry. The only French gain was at Melicocq, where they won the southern bank of the Matz from Marest to the Oise. On the 13th the enemy made a great efifort between Cour- celles and Mery, and again between Bouresches and Belleau, but failed utterly with heavy losses. That day von Hutier's THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 175 subsidiary operation may be said to have closed, and closed without any serious gain. He had squandered twenty odd divisions, and the fresh reserves left to Prince Rupprecht were again no more than twenty. The tide of assault in the west was slowly ebbing. Having failed on his right flank, the Crown Prince made a final effort on his left. On June i8th Fritz von Below attacked at Rheims on a front of ten miles, between Vrigny, on the southwest, and the fort of La Pompelle, on the southeast of the city. He hoped to take Rheims, but he underrated the defense, and used only three divisions. The place was a vital road junction for the Allies, and, though encircled on three sides, it had held out most stoutly during the battle, much aided by the fact that the Allies held the great massif of the Mountain of Rheims to the south and southwest. Von Below's attempt was futile, but the fiasco seems to have impressed the German Staff with the necessity of a serious effort against the Mountain if they were to make any headway beyond the Marne. Of this im- pression we shall presently see the fruits. For the better part of a month silence fell on the battle- front, broken only by local attacks of the French and British, which in every case were successful, for the enemy was hold- ing most of his front thinly with indifferent troops. He was preparing another blow, as all the omens indicated, and it was likely that this blow would be his last. It was certain that it would be on a great scale, and would be delivered with desperate resolution, for the summer days were slip- ping by, and Germany waited the fulfillment of Ludendorff's pledge. So far, in three great actions, he had strategically failed. He had taken heavy toll of the Allies; but he had himself suffered colossally, and his casualties were now mounting fast to the limit which he had named as the price of victory. The climax of the battle — and of the war — was approach- ing, and Foch faced it with an easier mind ; for he saw his army growing daily as the Americans came into line, and he could now spend more lavishly since he was sure of his ultimate reserves. More important still, he had solved the 176 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE problem of how to meet the new German tactics, and was ready with a method of his own in which this great master of modern war had borrowed from his opponents, and glori- fied and transformed the borrowings. BY MAJOR MAX VON SCHREIBERSHOFEN A semi-official statement issued in July, 1918 For weeks the entire west front had been under a mighty tension. A great amount of puzzling and guessing had been going on in the newspapers of the Entente about the prog- ress of the German offensive; now the tension has been relieved, the riddle is solved, the veil which had been spread over the aims of the German offensive has been lifted. The armies of von Boehn and von Below, which belong to the army group of the German Crown Prince, took the offensive between Soissons and the region north of Rheims and sur- prised their opponent completely. After the first German victories on both sides of the Somme, and on the Flanders front, the newly appointed Gen- eralissimus, General Foch, had gathered all his reserves north of Amiens to support the English front and to oppose the German advance upon Amiens and Calais. He so firmly counted upon the German offensive in this direction that he drew from the other sectors the fresh troops toward Amiens, and in their place sent the worn English divisions to relieve them. The German command had reached its ob- jective in the attacks on the Somme and the Lys ; the destruc- tion of a part of the hostile forces and the engaging of the enemy's reserves. There was no compelling reason to con- tinue the attack on the previous battle-grounds ; for the whole offensive was not a matter of occupying a definite territory, nor of gaining a single base or fortified position, but simply of destroying the hostile forces and resources. It did not matter where this was done. If General Foch took pre- cautionary measures against a German offensive on the Somme and near Ypres, then this gave all the more reason why the commanders of the German Army should start the combat in some other place. It had already been declared at the beginning of the THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 177 big offensive in France, on the 21st of March, that, owing to the character of a modern national war, it was impossible to conquer the opponent by a single mighty blow, but rather that his entire military and national power could only be overcome gradually ; that the operations, therefore, were con- sisting of a series of independent battles which need not nec- essarily be bound up together either as to time or place, but which had only a common final aim, the destruction of the enemy. In this manner the operations were conducted ; first of all, the attack on both sides of the Somme, then the ad- vance on the Lys, and now the great offensive on the Aisne. Even if each one of these enterprises represents an inde- pendent operation, they nevertheless form a connected whole, and gear into each other like the ingenious work of a clock. In their reciprocal action the brilliancy of the plan is fully apparent. The German attack on the 27th of May spread over a front about 40 kilometers broad, and was directed on the part of the army of von Boehn on the west wing against the enemy's position on the range of hills between the Aisne and the Ailette, on whose plateau runs the much-talked-of Chemin des Dames; on the part of the army of von Below on the east wing from the sector Berry-au-Bac up to and including the range of hills of the Brimont, the attack was directed toward the Aisne-Marne Canal. The direction of attack of the two armies did not run parallel, but led to an extensive action as the army of von Boehn pressed forward from north to south, and the army of von Below from east to west. A hot and embittered struggle has often occurred for the possession of the heights along the Chemin-des-Dames. There the German armies had come to a halt again after the retreat from the Marne in September, 19 14, and had successfully repulsed the attacks of General Joffre. Of the numerous attempts by the French to pierce the German line during the following years, the most noteworthy was the great spring offensive of General Nivelle in April, 1917. Not until the French had made a wedge in the German lines in the projecting Laffaux-angle northeast of Soissons was W . VOL. VI.— 12. 178 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE the German military command induced methodically to evacuate the ridge of hills along the Chemin-des-Dames and to withdraw beyond the Ailette. (First to second of Novem- ber, 1917.) After that time the French were in possession of it, but had been unable to penetrate beyond. An unusually difficult task was assigned to the army of von Boehn, for it had to cross the Ailette Valley under the enemy's fire, and to take the strongly fortified position on the heights by storm, from below. But owing to the ex- traordinary achievements of the troops, it performed its task in a brilliant manner. Already in the forenoon the po- sition of the enemy was captured. But this was not enough. The enemy was driven back upon the Ailette; the German troops followed irresistibly; in the afternoon several cross- ings were gained in several places along a broad front, and the evening saw the victorious troops in possession of the hilly territory. At the same time the army of von Below had gained the crossing over the Aisne-Marne Canal, had conquered the enemy's east wing, and had considerably light- ened the advance of von Boehn's army by a flank attack. A new obstacle to the further advance of the German troops to the south presented itself in front, namely, the Vesle sector. It offered to the vanquished enemy the pos- sibility of making a stand, and, strengthened by reserves, of presenting fresh resistance. It was, therefore, doubtful whether the German advance could be continued. But the impetuous rush of the German infantry left to the opponent no time to establish himself and to organize a defense ac- cording to plan. The forenoon of the second day of the battle saw the German troops on both sides of Fismes on the southern shore of the Vesle, in possession of the heights there. Thus this hindrance was also successfully overcome. Both wings of the armies had simultaneously worked their way forward in the direction of Soissons in the west and of Rheims in the east, and had approached the two cities to within a distance of five kilometers. On the third day of the battle Soissons was taken and the forts of the northwest front of Rheims were captured. South of the Vesle the new front of the French which was THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 179 just being formed collapsed, and the enemy was thrown back upon the Mame by the way of Fere-en-Tardenois. The number of prisoners had already increased to 45,000 on the 31st of May; the capture of war material was immense. Cannon of all kinds, inclusive of railway artillery of the heaviest caliber, were taken. Extensive munition depots, railway trains, hospitals, and aviation stations fell into our hands. General Foch found himself in an unusually difficult po- sition. He had collected his reserves north of Amiens and confronted the difficult question of whether he should leave them there, because he still had to count upon the possi- bility of a German attack on Amiens and Calais, and because he had to consider the English allies whom he could not leave to themselves. His attempt to hinder the advance of the Germans by the use of his reserves behind the Vesle sector was frustrated by the impetuous spirit of attack of our troops, who pressed on to the Marne. As to the further development of the German operations we had to count, first of all, upon an increased use of the enemy's reserves, for the French had time to bring up troops lying at a greater distance. Moreover, the difficulties of communication with the rear, and of the bringing up of the reserves at the right time were enormous. There is a lack of great thoroughfares and railways from north to south. It was, therefore, not likely that the offensive could be car- ried on as speedily as in the past. We had to count rather upon its slowing down ; perhaps even reckon on a pause for rest in the future. One can also see at a glance where the German command had set a limit to its goal. The German success on the Aisne was a logical consequence and de- velopment of the earlier attacks on the Somme and the Flanders front; it was a necessary step on the long road toward the gradual conquest of the enemy's national and mili- tary powers ; and at the same time formed a very favorable foundation for the continuation of the operations and the gaining of the final victory. i8o THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE BY HENRI BERTHAUT The great German offensive of May 27th began on the line of the Ailette River. It extended from the forest of Pinon near Ainsy-le-Chateau, eastward to the neighborhood of Rheims, a distance of some thirty-five miles. The as- sault at the western end seemed to have for its purpose to attack our lines from two directions and so enclose within the advance our naturally strong positions along the Chemin des Dames, that is, the line of the Ailette River and behind that and far more important the line of the Aisne River. It should be noted that the great southward bend in the trench line beyond Corbeny aided this purpose of the en- emy by enabling him to drive in behind our line of the Chemin des Dames. Nevertheless, his advance would have been almost impossibly difficult if we had only taken care beforehand to fortify strongly the edge of the Paris basin. This would have given us a second line of defense parallel to the first, which extended from Corbeny southward to Rheims. However, the main German attack met with such com- plete success that the foe had no need to attempt the encir- cling of the Chemin des Dames lines. On the first day of attack, he won the entire front of the Ailette, charged across it and swept over the entire length of the Chemin des Dames, left that behind, and even reached the Aisne River itself at several points. On the morrow he seized the Aisne along its whole length from Vailly to Berry-au-Bac. The numerical superiority of the Germans in this attack was enormous. The French and British troops fell back fighting hard. The strong positions south of the Aisne were stormed in their turn. The retreating battle continued be- tween the Aisne and the next river to the southward, the Vesle. Further west the original flanking attack approached toward Soissons. By the evening of the 28th the Vesle itself was crossed by the enemy at Fismes. This time once more the German preparations which had enabled them to gain so brilliant a victory, had been ac- complished with great secrecy. We must realize that they THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE i8i had shown remarkable skill in lulling our watchfulness to sleep. The preceding offensive to the westward had been checked. The great German salient which had for years pointed toward Soissons had been wholly reconstructed, so that its apex now lay beyond Montdidier some twenty miles further westward. One was justified in thinking that the enemy would continue his successful operations in that direc- tion, driving his pathway southwestward above Paris or northwestward down the Somme. It was known that he had gathered mighty forces just behind this region. It was, however, precisely this gathering of strength in the very middle of the salient which had enabled him to strike in what- ever direction he chose, while still concealing from us the aim of his blow. Our lines both on the Ailette and on the Aisne were so strong that an assault against them seemed most improbable. The enemy ensnared us in a false security. His troops, it is said, were brought to the front little by little, marching only at night, hiding by day in the villages and in the woods. Thus they were able to gather unsuspected masses in the forests of Coucy and St. Gobain, and amid the wooded hills north of the Ailette. It seems also that full freedom was allowed our aviators; they were not attacked along this seemingly quiet front. They could search at will ; and they discovered nothing. In brief, when the assault came the sur- prise was complete. In France the loss of the Chemin des Dames aroused much angry protest. That of the line of the Aisne passed almost without comment; yet our real defenses lay along the Aisne. The public, however, knew only the Chemin des Dames, about which army reports and newspaper articles had long been speaking. The Chemin had been the scene of endless battle, the enemy had there resisted us most obsti- nately; whereas the defenses of the Aisne, being in the rear, had never been subjects of public discussion. Never before had the German been in a position to attack them, because we had so early in the war dislodged him from the south bank of the Aisne. i82 THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE That a sudden, strong attack, so wholly unexpected, had caused us to lose, as in a single instant, the whole Chemin des Dames, that is easily explained by the skillful tactics of the foe. The immediate fall of the strong defenses of the Aisne is less easily excusable. We can but state the facts. On May 29th the Germans carried also the entire line of the Vesle River. Thus we had not only lost our first and second lines, but also a third line almost as strong as the second. Next, we had to fight desperately in the streets of Sois- sons; and from those too we were driven by the crowding numbers of the foe. We abandoned Soissons ; we fell back to the region of Fere-en-Tardenois ; Rheims was threatened with encirclement. Next, Ville-en-Tardenois was attacked. Fortunately our right held firm; our soldiers could not be driven from the forests at the base of the mountain of Rheims. Our Italian allies stationed near there made also a resolute defense, and a month later they aided in driving back the enemy. During this retreating struggle, as in the earlier one of March, the region between the two, the lower valley of the Ailette remained almost unattacked. But the advance which the Germans had now won on either side of this region com- pelled us to abandon it. We withdrew toward the plateau of Soissons. But, just as on our right we had been able to hold the forest of the Rheims mountain, so on our left we were able to defend the rocky forest heights of Laigue and Compiegne and Villers-Cotterets. The fighting here was bitter and not unequal. The pocket which the enemy had made in our line grew deeper, but he could not broaden it either to right or left, where we held these forest heights on either side. That was the essential point of the entire battle. On May 31st the Germans, still deepening their pocket, reached to the Marne at Jaulgonne, south of Fere-en-Tarde- nois. Chateau-Thierry was threatened. Then we were driven back westward along the Ourcq River valley. The THE CHIEF BLOW OF THE KAISERBATTLE 183 foe extended his hold along the north bank of the Marne. We evacuated Chateau-Thierry.^ During the opening days of June, the battle became more equal. We could no longer be driven back. The German as- saults against the forest of Villers-Cotterets were numerous and powerful, but the enemy was held. He was also re- pelled along the Ourcq.* By the 4th of June his offensive seemed exhausted. On the 5th the new line of defense was definitely established. It stretched from Carlepont on the north, to the Aisne River near Fontenay, then along the border of the Villers Cotteret forest and across the Ourcq to Bouresches, then to the Marne at Chateau-Thierry, and eastward along the Marne to the border of those woods which adjoin the forest of the mountain of Rheims. For over a month this front was allowed to remain in- active. The calm was broken only by some minor counter- attacks at Bouresches and around Chateau-Thierry.^ ' This was when the Americans came forward and held the half of Chateau-Thierry south of the Marne preventing the foe from crossing the river. See later section. * This also was in part the work of the Americans. 'Again the Americans. EUROPE'S CRY TO AMERICA FOR INSTANT HELP CANTIGNY, THE FIRST INDEPENDENT AMERICAN ATTACK MAY 28TH-JUNE 2ND GENERAL PERSHING GEORGES CLEMENCEAU VITTORIO ORLANDO DAVID LLOYD GEORGE MAJOR FREDERICK PALMER How near Europe stood to destruction in those spring days of 1918 is best left to the Europeans themselves to tell. Note General Per- shing's official authorization of the statement that a million startled citizens had abandoned Paris by early June. Read the startling appeal sent to America by the three Prime Ministers. General Foch himself had warned them that if America could not speedily come to their aid with largely increased forces, there was "immediate danger of an Allied defeat in the present campaign." To such a point of weakness and of danger had Germany's strength and persistence reduced all Europe. Up to this time the American troops had been receiving a thorough training before being sent to the front. The Allied governments had accepted the idea that the Americans were to drill their great army during 1918, and attack with it in 1919. All aggressive plans had been postponed until then; the current year was to have been merely de- fensive. Now, however, it seemed startlingly clear that even the de- fensive could not last through the year without American help. Could America fight instantly with her half-trained troops? And could she bring more, in ever increasing numbers, to back up the relatively small number of 300,000 who had been in France by the end of March ? How well they increased their numbers General Pershing tells. As to the fighting efficiency of the men, there came at this very moment the first full, clear test — Cantigny. A Division from the former U. S. "regular army" had been thrown into the first line to aid the French and British near Montdidier, where the first break had carried the Germans in March. These Americans were directed to make a counter- attack and recapture Cantigny, They were to organize and carry out the assault wholly by themselves. Major Frederick Palmer, the noted American war-correspondent, has written a book of what he himself saw in France. His picture of that Cantigny assault is as simply clear and complete as was the assault itself. His narrative is reprinted here. As to the eflfect of Cantigny upon the French, it was tremendous. General Foch suddenly saw the Americans with new eyes, and looked upon the War with a new and eager hope. It was immediately after Cantigny that he called for American troops, and he at once began 184 EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP to employ their untrained regiments to meet the full shock of the Ger- man attack, to assume the full responsibility of France's earlier slogan, "They shall not pass!" c. F. H. BY GENERAL PERSHING AT a meeting of the Supreme War Council held at Abbe- ville May I St and 2nd, the entire question of the amal- gamation of Americans with the French and British was reopened. An urgent appeal came from both French and Italian representatives for American replacements or units to serve with their armies. After prolonged discussion re- garding this question and that of priority generally the fol- lowing agreement was reached, committing the Council to an independent American Army and providing for the im- mediate shipment of certain troops : "It is the opinion of the Supreme War Council that, in order to carry the war to a successful conclusion, an Ameri- can Army should be formed as early as possible under its own commander and under its own flag. In order to meet the present emergency it is agreed that American troops should be brought to France as rapidly as Allied transporta- tion facilities will permit, and that, as far as consistent with the necessity of building up an American Army, preference will be given to infantry and machine-gun units for train- ing and service with French and British Armies; with the understanding that such infantry and machine-gun units are to be withdrawn and united with its own artillery and aux- iliary troops into divisions and corps at the direction of the American Commander-in-Chief after consultation with the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in France. "Subparagraph A. It is also agreed that during the month of May preference should be given to the transporta- tion of infantry and machine-gun units of six divisions, and that any excess tonnage shall be devoted to bringing over such other troops as may be determined by the Ameri- can Commander-in-Chief. "Subparagraph B. It is further agreed that this program shall be continued during the month of June upon condition that the British Government shall furnish transportation i86 EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP for a minimum of 130,000 men in May and 150,000 men in June, with the understanding that the first six divisions of infantry shall go to the British for training and service, and that troops sent over in June shall be allocated for train- ing and service as the American Commander-in-Chief may determine. "Subparagraph C. It is also further agreed that if the British Government shall transport an excess of 150,000 men in June that such excess shall be infantry and machine-gun units, and that early in June there shall be a new review of the situation to determine further action." The gravity of the situation had brought the Allies to a full realization of the necessity of providing all possible ton- nage for the transportation of American troops. Although their views were accepted to the extent of giving a consider- able priority to infantry and machine gunners, the priority agreed upon as to this class of troops was not as extensive as some of them deemed necessary, and the Abbeville con- ference was adjourned with the understanding that the ques- tion of further priority would be discussed at a conference to be held about the end of May. The next offensive of the enemy was made between the Oise and Berry-au-Bac against the French instead of against the British, as was generally expected, and it came as a com- plete surprise. The initial Aisne attack, covering a front of 35 kilometers, met with remarkable success, as the German armies advanced no less than 50 kilometers in four days. On reaching the Marne that river was used as a defensive flank and the German advance was directed toward Paris. During the first days of June something akin to a panic seized the city and it was estimated that 1,000,000 people left during the spring of 19 18. The further conference which had been agreed upon at Abbeville was held at Versailles on June ist and 2nd. The opinion of our Allies as to the existing situation and the urgency of their insistence upon further priority for infan- try and machine gunners are shown by the following message prepared by the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, France, and Italy, and agreed to by General Foch. i EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP 187 BY CLEMENCEAU, ORLANDO AND LLOYD GEORGE The Prime Ministers of France, Italy, and Great Britain, now meeting at Versailles, desire to send the following mes- sage to the President of the United States: "We desire to express our warmest thanks to President Wilson for the remarkable promptness with which American aid, in excess of what at one time seemed practicable, has been rendered to the Allies during the past month to meet a great emergency. The crisis, however, still continues. Gen- eral Foch has presented to us a statement of the utmost grav- ity, which points out that the numerical superiority of the en- emy in France, where 162 Allied divisions now oppose 200 German divisions, is very heavy, and that, as there is no pos- sibility of the British and French increasing the number of their divisions (on the contrary, they are put to extreme straits to keep them up) there is a great danger of the war being lost unless the numerical inferiority of the Allies can be remedied as rapidly as possible by the advent of American troops. He, therefore, urges with the utmost insistence that the maximum possible number of infantry and machine gun- ners, in which respect the shortage of men on the side of the Allies is most marked, should continue to be shipped from America in the months of June and July to avert the imme- diate danger of an Allied defeat in the present campaign owing to the Allied reserves being exhausted before those of the enemy. In addition to this, and looking to the future, he represents that it is impossible to foresee ultimate victory in the war unless America is able to provide such an Army as will enable the Allies ultimately to establish numerical su- periority. He places the total American force required for this at no less than 100 divisions, and urges the continuous raising of fresh American levies, which, in his opinion, should not be less than 300,000 a month, with a view to establish- ing a total American force of 100 divisions at as early a date as this can possibly be done. "We are satisfied that General Foch, who is conducting the present campaign with consummate ability, and on whose military judgment we continue to place the most absolute i88 EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP reliance, is not overestimating the needs of the case, and we feel confident that the Government of the United States will do everything that can be done, both to meet the needs of the immediate situation and to proceed with the continu- ous raising of fresh levies, calculated to provide, as soon as possible, the numerical superiority which the Commander-in- Chief of the Allied Armies regards as essential to ultimate victory." A separate telegram contains the arrangements which General Foch, General Pershing, and Lord Milner have agreed to recommend to the United States Government with regard to the dispatch of American troops for the months of June and July. BY GENERAL PERSHING Such extensive priority had already been given to the transport of American infantry and machine gunners that the troops of those categories which had received even partial training in the United States were practically exhausted. Moreover, the strain on our Services of Supply made it es- sential that early relief be afiforded by increasing its personnel. At the same time, the corresponding services of our Allies had in certain departments been equally overtaxed and their responsible heads were urgent in their representations that their needs must be relieved by bringing over American spe- cialists. The final agreement was cabled to the War De- partment on June 5th, as follows : The following agreement has been concluded between General Foch, Lord Milner, and myself with reference to the transportation of American troops in the months of June and July : "The following recommendations are made on the as- sumption that at least 250,000 men can be transported in each of the months of June and July by the employment of combined British and American tonnage. We recommend: "(a) For the month of June : ( i ) Absolute priority shall be given to the transportation of 170,000 combatant troops (viz., six divisions without artillery, ammunition trains, or supply trains, amounting to 126,000 men and 44,000 re- EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP 189 placements for combat troops) ; (2) 25,400 men for the service of the railways, of which 13,400 have been asked for by the French Minister of Transportation; (3) the balance to be troops of categories to be determined by the Com- mander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces. "(b) For the month of July: (i) Absolute priority for the shipment of 140,000 combatant troops of the nature de- fined above ( four divisions minus artillery 'et cetera' amount- ing to 84,000 men, plus 56,000 replacement) ; (2) the bal- ance of the 250,000 to consist of troops to be designated by the Commander-m-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces. "(c) It is agreed that if the available tonnage in either month allows of the transportation of a larger number of men than 250,000, the excess tonnage will be employed in the transportation of combat troops as defined above. "(d) We recognize that the combatant troops to be dis- patched in July may have to include troops which have had insufificient training, but we consider the present emergency is such as to justify a temporary and exceptional departure by the United States from sound principles of training, espe- cially as a similar course is being followed by France and Great Britain. "FOCH. "MiLNER. "Pershing," The various proposals during these conferences regard- ing priority of shipment, often very insistent, raised ques- tions that were not only most difficult but most delicate. On the one hand, there was a critical situation which must be met by immediate action, while, on the other hand, any pri- ority accorded a particular arm necessarily postponed the formation of a distinctive American fighting force and the means to supply it. Such a force was, in my opinion, abso- lutely necessary to win the war. A few of the Allied repre- sentatives became convinced that the American Services of Supply should not be neglected but should be developed in the common interest. The success of our divisions during May and June demonstrated fully that it was not necessary I90 EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP to draft Americans under foreign flags in order to utilize American manhood most effectively. On March 21st, approximately 300,000 American troops had reached France. Four combat divisions, equivalent in strength to eight French or British divisions, were available — the First and Second then in line, and the Twenty-sixth and Forty-second just withdrawn from line after one month's trench warfare training. The last two divisions at once began taking over quiet sectors to release divisions for the battle; the Twenty-sixth relieved the First Division, which was sent to northwest of Paris in reserve ; the Forty-second relieved two French divisions from quiet sectors. In addi- tion to these troops, one regiment of the Ninety-third Divi- sion was with the French in the Argonne, the Forty-first Depot Division was in the Service of Supply, and three divi- sions (Third, Thirty-second, and Fifth) were arriving. Following the agreements as to British shipping, our troops came so rapidly that by the end of May we had a force of 600,000 in France. Cantigny On April 25th the First Division relieved two French divisions on the front near Montdidier and on May 28th captured the important observation stations on the heights of Cantigny with splendid dash. French artillery, aviation, tanks, and flame throwers aided in the attack, but most of this French assistance was withdrawn before the completion of the operation in order to meet the enemy's new offensive launched May 27th toward Chateau-Thierry. The enemy reaction against our troops at Cantigny was extremely vio- lent, and apparently he was determined at all costs to coun- teract the most excellent effect the American success had produced. For three days his guns of all calibers were con- centrated on our new position and counter-attack succeeded counter-attack. The desperate efforts of the Germans gave the fighting at Cantigny a seeming tactical importance en- tirely out of proportion to the numbers involved. EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP 191 BY MAJOR FREDERICK PALMER For days before the attack the heavy guns had avoided drawing attention to it by shelling Cantigny. At 4.45 on the morning of the attack the artillery began an adjustment fire in which each battery had a fifteen-minute interval; and at 5.45 all the guns began the real preparation. Now the heavies gave Cantigny all they could send and the little town was revealed to the eye of the waiting infantry in lurid flashes. The crashes and the screams and the bursts at the end of the screams in their unorchestrated, monstrous roar were like hundreds of other artillery preparations while the minutes ticked off to zero hour, and the enemy, aroused now to the fact that an attack was coming, began to respond. At 6.45 in the early dawn of May 28th, as has happened many times before, the line of figures started up from the earth and began their advance. The formations were the same as those of the practice maneuvers, and the movement was equally precise as it kept to the time-table of the bar- rage. Each unit was doing its part, the tanks as they nosed their way forward doing theirs. Our shelling of the lower end of the town suddenly ceased; and then our men were seen entering the town exactly on time. Headquarters waited on reports, and they came of prisoners taken, of the further progress of units — all according to the charts. We had passed through the town ; we were mopping it up ; and v/e had reached our objective in front of the town. Our losses to that point were less than a hundred men, with three hundred and fifty prisoners. A small offensive as of- fensives go, but our own, and our first. Going over the top in a frontal attack had been almost tame, it was so like practice exercises. The fact that our practice exercises had been so systematically applied, that, indeed, we had done everything in the book, accounted for the perfect success of Cantigny. There was a glad, proud light in the eyes of our wounded. They had been hit in a "real party." Nobody could deny that they were graduate soldiers now. But there was to be the reaction which always comes with limited objectives when you do not advance far 192 , EUROPE'S CRY FOR HELP enough to draw the enemy's fangs — his guns. Upon the roads along which men must pass to bring up supplies, upon every point where men must work or men or wagons pass, upon the command posts, he turns the wrath of his resent- ment over the loss of men and ground, and in his rage con- centrates most wickedly, most persistently and powerfully upon the infantry which is trying to organize the new front. The German artillery would show this upstart American division its mistake in thinking that it could hold what it had gained. Eight-inch shells were the favorites in the bom- bardment of our men, who now had Cantigny at their backs as they dug in, while showers of shrapnel and gas added to the variety of that merciless pounding that kept up for three days. We suffered serious casualties now ; but we did not go back, and we took revenge for our casualties in grim use of rifle and machine gun which, with the aid of prompt barrages, repulsed all counter-attacks, until the Germans were con- vinced of the futility of further efforts. Later, when I did the usual thing of rising at three in the morning in order to go over our positions at Cantigny, the sector had become settled in its habits though still active. Part of the walls of the chateau which had had a single hit when I first saw it were still standing; all the surrounding village was in ruins almost as complete as if it had been in the Ypres salient. From the front line I watched the early morning "strafe" of the German guns; the selected points of "hate," here and there along the front receiving a quarter of an hour's atten- tion, while the crushed remains of Cantigny were being sub- jected to additional pulverization. We held the line, but with cunning men hidden in the earth. You hardly knew of their presence unless you stumbled on them. Everybody you met at the front had a certain air of pro- prietorship in the sector ; and back at headquarters the thor- oughbred vetCian chief of staff and all the other ofBcers of that much-schooled First received you with their habitual attitude, which seemed to say, "Any suggestions or criti- cism? We are always listening — but, understand, please, we are the First Division." CHATEAU-THIERRY AND BELLEAU WOOD HOW AMERICA MET THE GERMANS AT THE MARNE MAY 3 1 ST- JULY 1ST AMERICAN, FRENCH AND BRITISH OFFICIAL REPORTS JOSEPHUS DANIELS MAJOR EVANS OTTO KAHN LIEUTENANT VON BERG JEAN PIERREFEU No sooner had the Americans proved themselves at Cantigny than their troops were thrown into the front Hne to help in stopping the great German thrust of May 27th. By May 31st that drive had reached the Mame, and its spearhead had turned westward down the Marne valley and was aimed towards Paris, only forty miles away. Here it was, at the Marne town of Chateau-Thierry, that the Americans, a "motorized" machine-gun battalion, first met the German advance; and here it was that General Bundy refused to tell them to retreat. Chateau-Thierry lies on both banks of the Marne, and the Ameri- cans were driven back with their French comrades from the section north of the river, but they held the southern bank with desperate tenacity, and blocked every effort of the vastly more numerous Ger- mans to cross the river. That was the first glorious fight of Chateau- Thierry, extending from the evening of May 31st to June 3rd. Meanwhile, just to the north of Chateau-Thierry, the entire Ameri- can "Second Division," which included a brigade of marines, was lined up to block the German westward advance down the valley toward Paris. Active fighting with the Germans began here on June 2nd. On June 4th the Marine Brigade was ordered to make a counter- attack, to check the Germans by taking from them their foremost line in the now famous Belleau Wood. The fight for Belleau Wood and for the neighboring village of Bouresches saw some of the fiercest fighting of the War — Germany's best against America's best! Be- fore that fight was over all Europe knew of the "marines," the Ameri- can "devil-dogs," and how they could fight. The German advance on Paris was definitely checked by larger victories elsewhere by June 9th; but the fighting around Belleau Wood continued all through June. Other Americans came to the aid of the marines. The best German troops were sent there, too. The German generals were determined to make this a test battle; and they found it so. Not until July ist did they definitely admit defeat. On that day American troops swept beyond the woods and captured the village of Vaux which lay further to the north and east; and the Germans drew back their line and left the Westerners in possession. A private letter by Major Evans tells the story. He was there. Secretary Daniels also writes with pride of the success of his navy soldiers. Otto Kahn, the well-known American publicist, who was in Paris at the time, tells of the general fight and what Paris felt about it. Jean Pierrefeu, whose book on French "Headquarters" has be- 193 W., VOL. VI.— 13. 194 CHATEAU-THIERRY AND BELLE AU WOOD come the classic of French thought during the War, tells also of the inspiration of the Americans. But better reading still is contained in the official reports, which do not usually include heroics. Most in- teresting of all is the German summary of the American fighters given by Lieutenant von Berg, who gravely ranks their "Second Division" as almost equal to Germany's best, and who as gravely accepts as stupidity the adroit refusal of his few prisoners to give him any military information. "Most of them have never seen a map !" and "Their superiors keep them purposely without knowledge of military subjects!" That German had still something to learn about Americans. "We kill or get killed !" said one captured marine to Lieutenant von Berg. And that speech also was officially reported. It must have sent a single tiny shiver of chilliest warning through official Ger- mandom. "Reckless?" Yes; but of a recklessness that, if backed by a strong government and directed by an able general, must always lead to overwhelming victory. C, F. H. BY GENERAL PERSHING THE third German offensive on May 27th, against the French on the Aisne, soon developed a desperate situa- tion for the AlHes. Our Second Division, then in reserve northwest of Paris and preparing to relieve the First Divi- sion/ was hastily diverted to the vicinity of Meaux on May 31st, and, early on the morning of June ist, was deployed across the Chateau-Thierry-Paris road near Montreuil-aux- Lions in a gap in the French line, where it stopped the Ger- man advance on Paris. At the same time the partially trained Third Division was placed at French disposal to hold the crossings of the Marne, and its motorized machine- gun battalion succeeded in reaching Chateau-Thierry in time to assist in successfidly defending that river crossing. The enemy having been halted, the Second Division com- menced a series of vigorous attacks on June 4th, which re- sulted in the capture of Belleau Wood after very severe fighting. The village of Bouresches was taken soon after, and on July ist Vaux was captured. In these operations the Second Division met with most desperate resistance by Ger- many's best troops. To meet the March offensive, the French had extended their front from the Oise to Amiens, about 60 kilometers, and during the German drive along the Lys had also sent re- * The First Division was on the Montdidier front around Cantigny. See previous article. CHATEAU-THIERRY AND BELLEAU WOOD 195 enforcements to assist the British. The French lines had been further lengthened about 45 kilometers as a result of the Marne pocket made by the Aisne offensive. This in- creased frontage and the heavy fighting had reduced French reserves to an extremely low point. Our Second Corps, under Maj. Gen. George W. Read, had been organized for the command of the 10 divisions with the British, which were held back in training areas or as- signed to second-line defenses. After consultation with Field Marshal Haig on June 3rd, 5 American divisions were relieved from the British area to support the French. The Seventy-seventh and Eighty-second Divisions were moved south to release the Forty-second and Twenty-sixth for em- ployment on a more active portion of the front; the Thirty- fifth Division entered the line in the Vosges, and the Fourth and Twenty-eighth Divisions were moved to the region of Meaux and Chateau-Thierry as reserves. On June 9th the Germans attacked the Montdidier-Noyon front in an effort to widen the Marne pocket and bring their lines nearer to Paris, but were stubbornly held by the French with comparatively little loss of ground. In view of the unexpected results of the three preceding attacks by the en- emy, this successful defense proved beneficial to the Allied morale, particularly as it was believed that the German losses were unusually heavy. FRENCH OFFICIAL REPORT Military Bulletin of June ist American troops checked German advanced forces which were seeking to penetrate Neuilly Wood, and by a magnifi- cent counter-attack hurled back the Germans north of this wood. Further south the Germans were not able to make any gains. On the Marne front an enemy battalion which had crept across to the left bank of the river above Jaulgonne was counter-attacked by French and American troops and hurled back to the other bank, after having suffered heavy losses. A footbridge which the enemy used was destroyed and TOO prisoners remained in our hands. 196 CHATEAU-THIERRY AND BELLEAU WOOD BRITISH REPORT Press dispatch of June Sth On May 31st, when the Germans were already in the outskirts of Chateau-Thierry, an American machine-gun unit was hurried thither in motor lorries, Chateau-Thierry lies on both banks of the Marne, which is spanned by a big bridge. A little to the northward a canal runs parallel to the river and is crossed by a smaller bridge. The Americans had scarcely reached their quarters when news was received that the Germans had broken into the northern part of Chateau-Thierry, having made their way through the gap they had driven in our lines to the left of the town and then pouring along the streets to the bridge, intend- ing to establish themselves firmly on the south bank and cap- ture the town. The American machine gunners and French colonials were thrown into Chateau-Thierry together. The Americans immediately took over the defense of the river bank, espe- cially the approaches to the bridge. Fighting with their habitual courage and using their guns with an accuracy which won the highest encomiums from the French, they brought the enemy to a standstill. Already wavering under the American fire, the Germans were counter-attacked by the French colonials and driven from the town. They returned to the attack the next night and under cover of darkness crept into the town along the river bank and began to work their way through the streets toward the main bridge. At the same moment a tremendous artillery bombardment was opened upon the southern half of the town. When within range of the machine guns the Germans advanced under the cover of clouds of thick white smoke from smoke bombs, in order to baffle the aim of the Ameri- can gunners. A surprise, however, was in store for them. They were already crossing the bridge, evidently believing themselves masters of both banks, when a thunderous ex- plosion blew the center of the bridge and a number of Ger- CHATEAU-THIERRY AND BELLEAU WOOD 197 mans with it into the river. Those who reached the south- ern bank were immediately captured. In this battle in the streets, and again at night, the young American soldiers showed a courage and determination which aroused the admiration of their French colonial comrades. With their machine guns they covered the withdrawal of troops across the bridge before its destruction, and although under severe fire themselves, kept all the approaches to the bank under a rain of bullets which nullified all the subse- quent efforts of the enemy to cross the river. Every attempt of the Germans to elude the vigilance of the Americans re- sulted in disaster. During the last two days the enemy has renounced the occupation of the northern part of Chateau-Thierry, which the American machine guns have made untenable. It now belongs to No Man's Land, as since the destruction of the bridges, it is not worth while for the French to garrison it. Against their casualties the Americans can set a much greater loss inflicted by their bullets on the enemy. They have borne their full part in what a French staff officer well qualified to judge described as one of the finest feats of the war. FRENCH GOVERNMENT CITATION Issued December 8, 1918, in honor of the 4th American Brigade, fighting at Belleau Wood. This brigade consisted of two regiments of Marines, and a Machine-Gun battalion from the "Regulars" of the U. S. A. During these operations [of early June], thanks to the brilliant courage, vigor, dash, and tenacity of its men, who refused to be disheartened by fatigue or losses ; thanks to the activity and energy of the officers, and thanks to the per- sonal action of Brig. Gen. Harbord, the efforts of the brigade were crowned with success, realizing after twelve days of incessant struggle an important advance over the most diffi- cult of terrain and the capture of two support points of the highest importance, Bouresches village and the fortified wood of Belleau. 198 CHATEAU-THIERRY AND BELLEAU WOOD BY JOSEPHUS DANIELS United States Secretary of Navy It was June 6th that the attack of the American troops began against Belleau Wood and its adjacent surroundings, with the wood itself and the towns of Torcy and Bouresches forming the objectives. At 5 o'clock the attack came, and there began the tremendous sacrifices which the Marine Corps gladly suffered that the German fighters might be thrown back. The marines fought strictly according to American meth- ods — a rush, a halt, a rush again, in four-wave formation, the rear waves taking over the work of those who had fallen before them, passing over the bodies of their dead comrades and plunging ahead, until they, too, should be torn to bits. But behind those waves were more waves, and the attack went on. "Men fell like flies," the expression is that of an officer writing from the field. Companies that had entered the battle 250 strong dwindled to 50 and 60, with a Sergeant in com- mand; but the attack did not falter. At 9.45 o'clock that night Bouresches was taken by Lieutenant James F. Robert- son and twenty-odd men of his platoon; these soon were joined by two reen forcing platoons. Then came the enemy counter-attacks, but the marines held. In Belleau Wood the fighting had been literally from tree to tree, stronghold to stronghold ; and it was a fight which must last for weeks before its accomplishment in victory. Belleau Wood was a jungle, its every rocky formation con- taining a German machine-gun nest, almost impossible to reach by artillery or grenade fire. There was only one way to wipe out these nests — by the bayonet. And by this method were they wiped out, for United States marines, bare chested, shouting their battle cry of "E-e-e-e-e y-a-a-h- h-h yip !" charged straight into the murderous fire from those guns, and won! Out of the number that charged, in more than one in- stance, only one would reach the stronghold. There, with his bayonet as his only weapon, he would either kill or cap- ture the defenders of the nest, and then swinging the gun CHATEAU-THIERRY AND BELLEAU WOOD 199 about in its position, turn it against the remaining German positions in the forest. Such was the character of the fighting in Belleau Wood; fighting which continued until July 6th, when after a short relief the invincible Americans finally were taken back to the rest billet for recuperation. In all the history of the Marine Corps there is no such battle as that one in Belleau Wood. Fighting day and night without relief, without sleep, often without water, and for days without hot rations, the marines met and defeated the best divisions that Germany could throw into the line. The heroism and doggedness of that battle are unparal- leled. Time after time officers seeing their lines cu