YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO - DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO Young People's History of the World War BY LOUIS P. BENEZET SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS EVANSVILLE, INDIANA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ^ 1 Copyright, 1922, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1922. Norfoooti press J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. MAR - 1 1922 ©CU653994 TO THE MEMORY OF HOBART A. H. BAKER, VICTOR E. CHAPMAN, HENRY A. COIT, QUINCY S. GREENE, HARRY INGERSOLL, AND EDWARD C. SORTWELL, MY FORMER PUPILS, WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES THAT OUR TYPE OF CIVILIZATION SHOULD NOT PERISH FOREWORD For a year or two following the Armistice of No- vember, 191 8, and especially after the signing of the Peace Treaty in the early summer of 1919, the peoples of the victorious allied countries showed a decided disinclination to hear or read about the great war. They had been so thoroughly surfeited with tales of heroism, so numbed by the daily cas- ualty lists, so bombarded by patriotic propaganda, that they wished only to forget the whole horrible business. Of late, however, there has been a renascence of interest. A new generation is growing up, com- posed of young folks who were not old enough in 1 914- 1 7 to know what it was all about. It is with these people in mind that this volume has been writ- ten. It is not well that the valorous deeds of this terrible period should be forgotten. If mankind is to advance, we must learn to avoid in the future the mistakes of the past. The time must never come again when a nation shall regard the pledge of its sacred honor as a " scrap of paper." A nation must know that, like an individual, it is bound by moral law, even though there exist no interna- tional court or international police power to en- force it. vii viii FOREWORD The lesson of the World War is a tremendous one. Summed up in a single sentence it is, "It must never happen again." The morale of the men in the trenches, on the allied side, at least, was kept up through the weary years of struggle by the persistent propaganda that this was to be the last war, — the war to end war. We are playing falsely with the nine million dead, — the flower of the young man- hood of a dozen nations — if we fail to keep before the minds of their young brothers the glorious story of their sacrifice and the awful needlessness of it all. If war is to be blotted off the face of the earth, each must do his "bit." This small contribution is offered to swell the mighty and ever growing vol- ume of demands that nations, like individuals, deal with each other openly, honorably, and without greed. When that day shall have come, the navies and armies of the world will have gone the way of the rapier, which every gentleman of the sixteenth century was obliged to carry, or the six-shooter, which took the place of courts and juries in the days of '49. While this volume is written for the understand- ing of young people, it is the hope of the author that many older readers may find in his pages some- thing to repay their time. Louis P. Benezet. Evansville, Indiana, December 22, 1921. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Junkers and Their Leader i II. The Middle-Europe Scheme 20 III. The Blow 40 IV. Where Germany Miscalculated .... 62 V. The Seven Seas and the Six Continents . . 99 VI. The Year 1915 123 VII. Ups and Downs 161 VIII. The Issue Plain 196 IX. Dark Days 233 X. At Lowest Ebb 256 XI. Ships, Fuel, and Food 293 XII. Hold the Fort 314 XIII. The Beginning of the End . . . . . 333 XIV. From Victory to Victory 360 XV. The Home Fronts 390 XVI. The Sinking Ship and the Rats .... 419 XVII. The Closing Scenes 448 Index 477 IX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Bismarck Dictating Terms of Peace to Thiers and Ferry . . n " Dropping the Pilot " 15 The German Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg . 66 The Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia 71 General von Hindenburg 72 General JofTre 78 General Gallieni 79 General Foch as He Appeared Early in the War ... 83 Winston Churchill 100 Talaat Pasha in Berlin 105 The Goeben off Constantinople 107 Enver Pasha . 109 The Bliicher Sinking 120 Warships in the Dardanelles 128 General Dimitrieff ' . . .134 General Cadorna 143 General von Falkenhayn 165 The Gun That Saved France 166 General Petain . 168 The German Crown Prince 169 General Brusiloff 174 Admiral Beatty 177 General Berthelot 194 Nicholas II, Tzar of All the Russias 204 Alexander Kerensky 205 Nikolai Lenin 206 xi xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Amid the Ruins of Peronne 210 General Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette . . . .218 General Nivelle 220 A Captured German " Pill-box " with French Poilus . . . 248 General Diaz 250 General Byng 252 General Allenby .255 David Lloyd-George 257 Leon Trotzky 268 General Ludendorff 280 General Fayolle 286 General Home 291 Damage Done to One of the German Ships Docked at Hoboken 298 The Young Americans " . .299 Herbert Hoover 301 Dr. Harry A. Garfield 303 Alexandre Ribot 305 Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig 316 General Mangin 331 General Gouraud 339 General Foch as He Appeared at the End of the War . .341 General Degoutte 343 General Rawlinson 350 General Debeney 351 General Humbert . . . 352 A Company of the Smaller, Faster French Tanks . . . 353 German Prisoners Guarded by British "Tommies" . . . 354 Professor Thomas G. Masaryk 355 General Pershing 371 Tzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria 379 Trenches and Barbed Wire in the Argonne Forest . . . 384 Albert, King of the Belgians 387 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Xlll General Plumer A "Four Minute Man" Addressing a Crowd Pope Benedict XV Emperor Karl of Austria General Franchet d'Esperey General de Castelnau General Guillaumat Woodrow Wilson General Liggett . General Bullard . General Badoglio Friedrich Ebert . Kaiser Wilhelm II Georges Clemenceau PAGE 388 400 403 410 421 429 430 442 449 45o 455 463 463 469 LIST OF MAPS PAGE Racial Map of Austria-Hungary 2 n The First Battle of the Marne g The Retreat from Antwerp and the Race for the Sea . . . 86 The Line of Trenches from Switzerland to the Sea, December 31, X 9H I24 The Great Russian Retreat x ■,* The Attack on Serbia, October, 1915 j„ Conquests of the Central Powers and of the Allies, February, *9 l6 ... ' l63 The Great Advance of Brusiloff I7 ^ Russian Losses through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . . .273 The Drive of March 21, as Planned by Ludendorff, and as Actually Accomplished 2 %j Germany's Gains, 191 8 ™ The Second Battle of the Marne ^47 The Breaking of the Bulgarian Front, September, iqrS . . 378 Allenby's Victory over the Turks 381 Map of the Western Front, Showing Changes in the Battle Lines during 191 8 4 5 7 YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR CHAPTER I The Junkers and Their Leader Civilization cracking apart. — How the Kaiser, as King of Prussia, ruled all Germany. — The military system of the Prussian Jun- kers. — Bismarck and his Junker-built empire. — The arrogance of the military group. — Foreign dealings. — The young Kaiser asserts his independence. — The sea Junkers and their program. No one who was old enough to read the news- papers in the summer of 19 14 will forget the aston- ishment with which the American people learned of the outbreak of the World War. There was a sense of bewilderment, a feeling that it simply could not be true, as we heard that the men of the five greatest nations in Europe, together with those of three smaller countries, were flying at each other's throats to wound, maim, and kill. For an even hundred years the United States had kept out of European quarrels. Our little war with Spain in 1898 had dealt entirely with Cuban troubles. Very few people on this side of the Atlantic knew much about the history of Europe or the reasons why one country was afraid of being attacked by 2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR another. We had read, of course, of the big standing armies of Russia, Austria, Germany, and France, but this did not mean much to us. We knew about the wars that had taken place between Russia and Japan, and between Turkey and Italy, but we had thought of Russia and Turkey as not being highly civilized. We had the idea that most of the nations of western Europe, like Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Holland, and Belgium were too well educated and too civilized ever to go to war with each other. Suddenly, we read that Austria had attacked the little country of Serbia. As far as we could see, there was no excuse for this. Then Russia warned Aus- tria to keep hands off and to let little Serbia alone. Next, Germany sent word to Russia that she must stop threatening Austria with her armies ; that if Russia kept on, Germany would make war on her. Then we read that Germany had actually attacked, not Russia, as one would expect, but France, who, as far as we could see, was an innocent bystander. At the same time, we heard, with astonishment, that the German army, in order to attack the French from the north, was marching through the country of the Belgians, who seemed bystanders still more innocent. The following day, news came that Eng- land, which, next to our own country, was the most peaceful nation in the world, had declared war on Germany. Declaration of war followed declaration of war so rapidly that we could not keep track of THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 3 them. Why all this took place and why it was that these countries were fighting, it is important that we know. The German empire from 1871 to 1918 was gov- erned in a curious way. Although parts of western and southern Germany were filled with large indus- trial cities, the great majority of whose inhabitants were occupied in trade and manufacture, the German people really had little or no voice in the govern- ment. To be sure, they elected representatives to one law-making house of the German Congress, which they called the Reichstag, but no law could be passed if thirteen members of the other house, called the Bundesrat, voted against it. Now seventeen members of the Bundesrat were picked out by the King of Prussia, who was also the German Emperor (Kaiser), so that really no matter what the mem- bers elected by the people might say or do in the Reichstag, the real master of the German empire was the Kaiser. He ruled with almost as much power as the Tzar of Russia. To be sure, the Ger- man people were so much better educated than the Russians that the Kaiser had thought it wise to allow them to make certain laws that kept them contented ; but when it came to questions of the army or of war and preparation for war, he was an absolute monarch. In England, France, and Italy, the man who sees to it that laws are obeyed, and who is the real ruler of the country, is the Prime Minister. He holds 4 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR his place only as long as the majority of the people's representatives in Congress support him. When they vote against him, he must resign. In Germany, on the other hand, the Chancellor of the empire, who held a place like that of the Prime Ministers in the other countries, was not accountable to the Reichstag at all. He did not have to be satisfactory to the people or to their representatives. So long as he was pleasing to the Kaiser he still ruled the German nation. Appointed by the Kaiser, and acting as Prime Minister of Prussia as well as German Chancellor, he was able to do this because so large a part of Prussia, which was the largest state in the empire (nearly two- thirds of the inhabitants of Germany lived in Prussia) was under the control of the descendants of the old warrior chiefs that ruled these lands during the middle ages. In the Prussian elections people voted in three different classes according to the amount of property that they owned. The vote of any two classes out- weighed the vote of the third. There was one district in Prussia where one very rich man owned one third of all the property. He was the only voter in the first class. Fifty -two other men owned another third of the property. They voted in the second class. The rest of the ten thousand people living in this district made up the third class. If twenty-seven of the fifty-two men in the second class voted for the same candidate that the one man in the first THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 5 class voted for, these twenty-eight could elect him, even though all the other thousands voted together for someone else. In this way the rich and powerful, who were mostly descendants of the old fighting chiefs of the middle ages, ruled the great country of Prussia, and through Prussia controlled the German empire. These rich landowners and their relatives are known by the name Junkers (yoon'kers). It will be interesting to learn something about them and their country of Prussia. In its origin, the name Prussia is not a German name at all. The first Prussians were not a Germanic tribe. They spoke a language more like the Russian or the Polish. The district known as Prussia two hundred years ago was located on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea. A number of German fighting men, a secret order, called the Teutonic Knights, had settled there, conquered the Slavs, Lithuanians, and Prussians, and ruled the country at the point of the sword. They had encouraged other Germans to move into this district until there came to be a large colony of them around the city of Konigsberg (ku'niks barg) . Then a daughter of one of the dukes of this now Germanized county of Prussia had married a German Count of Brandenburg whose family name was Hohenzollern. The Duke of Prussia had no other children, so his grandson be- came, in course of time, both Duke of Prussia and Count of Brandenburg. Brandenburg was the county in which was situated the little city of Berlin. Be- 6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR tween Brandenburg and this German part of Prussia was the county of West Prussia, inhabited by Poles and other Slavic tribes. Finally, one vain Count of Brandenburg changed his title to that of King of Prussia. His father and grandfather had been ambitious men who had added greatly to their lands by waging war on their neigh- bors. These neighbors did not wish to be annexed to Brandenburg, but had been compelled to join it by the bigger armies of the Brandenburg counts. At last there came a king of Prussia who was one of the most wonderful fighters that the world has ever produced. He is known in history as Frederick the Great. He was a cold-blooded, unscrupulous, forceful ruler (very much like other kings of his time, however). He lived during the early days of our first President, George Washington, but it would be hard to find two men whose ideas were more different. Frederick, true to the Junker blood in his family, started his reign by marching down and seizing from the Austrian Empress the rich county of Silesia. He had no more right to do this than you would have to knock down the first man that you might meet on the street and take his watch and money away from him. There were three long, bitter wars over this seizure, but in the end Frederick was the winner and kept the stolen land. You will remember that West Prussia, a part of the country of the Poles, kept Frederick from going THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 7 from Berlin to his county of East Prussia, around Konigsberg, except by water. Toward the end of his reign he and his old enemy, the Austrian Empress, together with an unscrupulous empress who then ruled over Russia, agreed to cut great slices off the kingdom of the Poles. The Poles were unable to resist. They could not fight three powerful nations at once, and another act of brutal robbery helped to enlarge the kingdom of Prussia. Forty years later, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, tried to undo the wrong that the three sovereigns had done to Poland by rebuilding that state. He forced Prussia and Austria to give back a good part of the land that they had stolen. But after the kings of Europe had combined against him and forced him to leave France, the three countries once more divided Poland, giving Russia a larger slice than she had had before. To make up to the Prussians for losing part of the plunder, the kings forcibly cut off half the little kingdom of Saxony and joined it to Prussia. They then com- pelled certain counties in the west of Germany along the River Rhine to join Prussia also. After the French, under Napoleon, had beaten the Prussian army in 1806, the French Emperor, in order to keep the Prussian king from having his revenge, gave orders that not more than thirty thousand men should be in the Prussian army at any one time. The Prussians, however, slyly worked up a scheme to deceive Napoleon and train a big 8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR army to fight him. They called thirty thousand young men into the army, trained them hard for a few months, and then sent them to their homes, taking in their places another thirty thousand who went through the same hard drill. A few months later, and still another group were brought into training. In this way they were able to drill as soldiers all the able-bodied men in their kingdom. So when Napoleon was beaten by the snow and ice in his big winter campaign against Russia, the Prussians, to his astonishment, brought out a well- drilled, formidable army which helped not a little in overthrowing him. This was the beginning of the military system of the Prussians, a system which turned whole nations into armies, and made of Europe one vast armed camp. In 1 848 the people in many parts of Europe rose up and drove several kings from their thrones. France became a republic. The Emperor of Austria had to give up his throne to his nephew. The Germans actually called a Congress to vote a constitution which should give the people the right to rule them- selves. It seemed as though the end of the rule of the Junkers had come in all countries of Europe except Russia and Turkey. However, the German revolution proved to be a fizzle. The revolutionists could not agree, quar- reled among themselves, and thus let the kings remain in power. The new Emperor of Austria THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 9 started out with fine promises, but before many years he was ruling in the same arrogant way that his uncle had. In the meantime, an unusual man had come to the front in Prussia. This was Count (afterward Prince) Bismarck, a true Junker, with all the Jun- ker's disdain for the common people and their desire for free speech and free government. Bismarck's one ambition was to make Prussia the leading mili- tary power of Europe. He did this through the agency of three wars. The first took place in 1864. It was an attack on poor little Denmark by the combined armies of Prussia and Austria. As a result, two counties inhabited partly by Germans and partly by Danes were taken away from Denmark. These were Schleswig (shlas'vig) and Holstein (hol'shtm) . Next Bismarck picked a quarrel with Austria, and, in spite of the fact that some of the south German states and the north German state of Hanover joined Aus- tria, Bismarck, by getting Italy to ally itself with him, defeated the Austrians in a short war, crushing their armies in a six weeks' campaign. Schleswig, Holstein, and Hanover were then forcibly annexed to Prussia. Bismarck next turned his attention to France, which was the strongest military power in Europe at that time. He waited until he was sure that the Prussian armies would be victorious and until he knew that he would have the help of the south Ger- io HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR man states, and then picked a quarrel with France in a most unscrupulous fashion by altering a certain telegram sent him by the King of Prussia. He made it appear to the German people that their king had been insulted by the French Ambassador, while he gave out the news to Paris that the Prussian king had practically pushed the French Ambassador out-of-doors. The war which resulted lasted less than a year. It proved that the French army had been in no shape to fight. Some of its generals were dishonest and badly trained, and its men poorly sup- plied with guns and munitions. The states of south Germany now joined with Prussia to form a new German empire with the King of Prussia as its Kaiser. Bismarck, as Chancellor, was the real ruler of the nation. He had been intensely unpopular for some time when he was forcing Prussia to drill her army and to get ready for his wars. He had paid no attention to laws or to the votes of the representatives of the people, but had contemptuously ignored them, relying on the strong support given him by military men and other Junkers. After 1 87 1, when France was beaten, the majority of the German people lined up with the Junkers in their program. The successes of the Prussian army had turned the whole nation into militarists. The Junkers got control of the schools and of the newspapers. They taught the children that Ger- many was surrounded by jealous neighbors who THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER II might one day attack her if she did not maintain a big army. The newspapers kept up the same kind of talk. But the people failed to see that the other nations were unfriendly only because they feared Painted by Anton von Werner Bismarck Dictating Terms of Peace to Thiers and Ferry the Junkers and what Germany's great army might do. At the conclusion of the war the Junkers had forced France to pay Germany one billion dollars and to give up two of her richest counties, Alsace and Lorraine. Prussia had picked the quarrel, Prussia had led the attack on France, Prussia had robbed 12 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR her prostrate foe when she was unable to resist any longer. The morals of the whole affair were the same as if Bismarck had met President Thiers of France walking peaceably down the street and had beaten him over the head with a club and picked his pockets. The German people, by allowing them- selves to believe that this sort of thing was right, stored up for themselves a dreadful day of reckoning. Meanwhile Bismarck became the most popular man in the empire ; they hailed him as a hero and a demigod. The whole German nation, with few exceptions, gloried in the might of their armies. The spirit of militarism grew stronger all through the land. The Junker officer, in the army, even though he might be comparatively poor, was considered in rank far above the wealthy merchant or manufac- turer, the professor in the university or the eminent writer or artist. The officers in the German army, who were nearly all Junkers, could treat the privates with great arro- gance to which the men dared not object. An officer could kick his men or cuff them about if he wished. When these Junkers walked through the streets of the cities, they expected every one to get out of their way. American women in Berlin, not knowing this custom, were sometimes crowded off the side- walks into the gutters by these young officers. In 1 91 3 an incident happened in Zabern (tsa'bern), a town in Alsace, which showed how the military group was above the law of the land. A young THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 13 officer named Von Foerstner (firstner) ordered his soldiers to charge a crowd of men and boys who had been jeering at them. They did so, but caught only one man, a lame old shoemaker. They brought him before the officer, who drew his sword and cut the old man across the head. A storm of anger arose from many parts of the country where the people were beginning to grow restless. It was demanded in the Reichstag that Von Foerstner be punished. Instead of this the Kaiser moved him to another town and gave him a medal. The spirit that might makes right ,\ has always been characteristic of the Junkers. In 191 1, a Ger- man general, named Von Bernhardi, wrote a book entitled "Germany and the Next War," in which he tells, in the most cold-blooded manner imaginable, just why and how Germany must attack and destroy all her weaker neighbor nations. Considerations of treaties, pledged word, or the rules of Christianity do not affect him in the least. After her great defeat in 1870, France began to think less of leadership in war, and more of building up her colonies and her trade with Africa and the Indies. She planted settlements and trading sta- tions in many parts of Africa and in southeastern Asia. This pleased Bismarck and the Germans, who felt that as long as the French were kept busy with little wars in Africa and Asia they would have no time to think of getting even with Germany over the taking of Alsace and Lorraine. 14 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR France marched an army into Tunis in northern Africa, and told the people there that they would have to let Frenchmen help them run the govern- ment. This made Italy angry, for she had been planning to do this very thing. As a result of this feeling of Italy toward the French, Bismarck was able to persuade the Italians to join a league with Germany and Austria. Italy agreed to come to the help of the other two countries if they were attacked by France and Russia together. Years afterward it was proved that Bismarck himself had urged the French to seize Tunis, hoping that this act would make trouble, and possibly war, between them and the Italians. In 1888 the old Kaiser of Germany died, followed, ninety-nine days later, by his son, who had devel- oped cancer of the throat from too much smoking, it was said. His grandson, the young Kaiser, was a man of peculiar and arrogant nature. In a good many ways he was astonishingly well educated. He spoke several languages, he knew a great deal about history (that is, the history of kings and wars) , he could paint fairly good pictures, compose music, write books, preach sermons, and talk intelligently on a great number of subjects. Unfortunately, an important part of his train- ing had been entirely left out : he had never been made to obey ; he had never been taught to consider the rights or the feelings of other people; he could not bear to be. crossed in anything; he wanted THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 15 nobody around him except those who would tell him how wise he was and how glorious was his em- pire, what a wonderful army he had, etc. The old Kaiser, his grandfather, had not been a brilliant man. However, he had wit enough to know that Bismarck was far shrewder and wiser than he, and was content to let him run the empire so long as the empire pros- pered. The young Wilhelm, however, after two years of quar- reling with Bismarck, dismissed him with no more ceremony than if he had been discharging a servant whom he had caught stealing. There were murmurs of regret and indignation from all over Germany when the man who had built up the army and the world power of the em- pire stepped down and out, but the group of flatterers around the young Kaiser took care that little of this talk reached his ears. The old Chancellor took it calmly. "Some day that young fool will play his hand, play it at the Cartoon by Sir John Tenniel Dropping the Pilot" t6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR wrong time, and ruin himself and his country," said he. The men who followed Bismarck as chancellor were more or less of the "rubber stamp" kind, who took orders from their master and, in turn, told the repre- sentatives of the people in the Reichstag what they might or might not do. Meanwhile, Germany prospered. Her population increased by thirty millions in forty years. In 1870 most of her people had been farmers. By 1910 she did not raise more than two-thirds of what her people ate, so many of her men had become factory- workers. Her great gun-factories made rifles and cannon for Russia, for Turkey, for Italy, for most of the small nations of the world. Her goods were sold all over the globe. A great fleet of ships, built in Germany, was carrying more and more of the world's produce as the years went by. With the growth of factories and trade, a new kind of Junker came forward, a Junker of the sea. The land Junkers could not be satisfied until their army had ridden roughshod over every nation of Europe. In the same way the leaders of Germany's new navy would be satisfied only when, protected by the strong- est fleet in the world, they should force England and France to give up some of their richest colonies and should capture for Germany the trade of the world. The leader of this Junker sea-plan was the young Kaiser himself. "Our future lies on the water," he said, not long after his grandfather's death. THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 17 He had a canal cut across the neck of the Danish peninsula, through Schleswig-Holstein, so that his warships could sail from the North Sea into the Baltic without ever leaving German waters. Germany had started too late in the race for colonies. It was not until 1884 that she began to acquire land in Africa and to annex islands in the sea. The Kaiser resented the fact that France and Great Britain had already seized the choice parts of the world before Germany began to build up her colonial empire. In 191 1, by sending a war- ship to Morocco and threatening war, he forced France to give up to him a great stretch of land in Central Africa which he added to his so-called Cam- eroon colony. France was gradually getting more and more of Morocco under her control, and this had greatly angered the Kaiser and the Junkers. They growled and threatened, until, rather than go to war about it, the French bought them off. The Kaiser's chief helper in his sea-plans was Admiral von Tirpitz. Together they planned to rule the seas, by building a navy that should be stronger even than England's. How they envied England ! envied her her rich colonies of Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand; envied her the forts at Malta, Gibraltar, Aden, and Hong- kong; envied her, above all, the right to rule India and Egypt; envied her the ownership of the Suez Canal. As Germany's navy grew, it surpassed Russia's, Italy's, France's, and that of the United i8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR States. It was nearly as large as England's. The Ger- man sea Junkers boasted that one day they would sail out and crush the British fleet. Their officers were always talking about ' ' der Tag ' ' (the day) when this would happen. In 1895, the Germans, backed by Russia and other European powers, had used the threat of their fleet to force Japan out of certain rights in China, and then two years later had compelled China to give these identical rights to Germany. This story will be told in full in a later chapter. It is enough for us now to note the rough manner in which the two eastern nations were handled. In the language of the Kaiser, "the mailed fist" of the German empire had been shaken in their faces. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why was the outbreak of the World War such a surprise to Americans ? 2. How could the Kaiser prevent laws from being passed? 3. What was the chief difference between the Chancellor of Ger- many and a Prime Minister in any other country ? 4. How did the Prussian election system keep the power in the hands of the Junkers ? 5. How did Prussia grow to be a powerful nation? 6. How did the Prussian military system force Europe to train all its young men for war ? 7. Compare the revolution of 1848 in France with that of Ger- many in the same year. 8. How did Bismarck become successful? 9. What changed the feelings of the German people toward Bis- marck ? THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 19 10. What was shown by the Zabern affair? 11. How did Bismarck induce Italy to join the "Triple Alli- ance" with Germany and Austria? 12. What was the chief fault with the young Kaiser's training? 13. Why was the German navy so greatly increased? CHAPTER II The Middle-Europe Scheme Germany's late start in the race for colonies. — The trade of Turkey. — The Kaiser and the Sultan. — The Berlin to Bagdad railway. — Designs on Egypt, India, and the Caspian oil fields. — Serbia, Bulgaria, and Roumania. — The peoples within the Austrian empire. — One hundred and fifty million subjects. — Centers of discontent. — The harbor of the Sheik of Koweit. — The four little nations against Turkey. — German and Austrian inter- ference brings on the Second Balkan War. — A settlement most displeasing to Berlin and Vienna. — Junker plans for war. — The murder of the Austrian heir. — Two birds with one stone. Bismarck had scorned the idea of colonies. In fact, he had rather rejoiced to see France annexing so much land in Africa, thinking that it would cause her a great deal of worry and trouble. The Ger- mans had been so busy building up their new empire and their factory system that they paid little atten- tion to Africa and the islands of the Pacific until the best places for colonies had all been annexed by Great Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal. Waking up at last, Germany had franti- cally seized the few remaining parts of Africa, and had planted her flag upon a few islands in the Pacific. These colonies did not prove profitable, however. The country, in most cases, was so poor and the natives had so little to trade, that it cost Germany THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 21 more to run her colonial governments than the colonies paid into the treasury. The countries that promised greatest profits from trade, with control from Europe, were the less highly civilized nations, like China, Turkey, Persia, Egypt. Algeria, and Morocco. But China was too far away, although Germany had a foothold there, with a ninety-nine year lease on the Kiaochow (kyow-chow) peninsula. Then, too, Japan and Russia, because of their nearness, were better able than Germany to get the lion's share of the Chinese trade. Great Britain, too, had Hongkong and Weihaiwei (wa-hi-wa), Chinese ports, and the United States was trying to influence the European nations to keep the whole of China open to the trade of all nations. India and Egypt, with the Suez Canal, were under the rule of Great Britain, and Germany cursed her own slowness in not getting hold of Egypt before the British had done so. Algeria was French, and it seemed almost impossible to keep the neighboring country of Morocco from becoming French, too. Persia was bounded on the north by Russian lands, and on the east by countries where the British were obtaining more and more power. It seemed impossible to keep the trade of Persia from going to these two countries. There remained Turkey; and the Germans com- menced a regular campaign to capture the trade of the Ottoman empire. 22 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR It began in 1898 with a visit to Constantinople by- Kaiser Wilhelm himself. He embraced and kissed in public the villainous old Sultan, the man who a few years ago had murdered in cold blood hundreds of thousands of Armenians, simply because they were Christians. He called the Sultan ' ' brother ' ' and gave him costly presents. He visited the Holy Land, but was so respectful to the Mohammedans that it was reported among them that he had secretly been converted to their religion. Of course, all this greatly delighted and flattered the Sultan. Two or three times the Russians had been on the point of driving the Turk out of Constantinople and out of Europe, but each time England, fearing that Russia would then become too powerful, had stepped in and saved Turkey. But after the bloody Armenian massacres and the savage treatment of the Christians on the island of Crete, even England no longer felt any friendship for the Sultan. In fact, Mr. Gladstone, the former Prime Minister of England, had publicly called him a bloody assassin. So the Kaiser appeared to be a friend in need. Soon after his visit the world heard that the Sultan's government had given permission to a company of Germans to build a railroad across Asia Minor to the Euphrates River, and down the valley of Meso- potamia to the ancient city of Bagdad and to the Persian Gulf. This road, by connecting with roads already built from Constantinople to Belgrade, to Buda- THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 23 pest, to Vienna, to Prague, to Berlin, and to Ham- burg, would give Germany and her friends a much shorter road to the East than had other countries, who sent their goods by boat through the Suez Canal. A train travels twice as swiftly as a boat. A cargo of goods from India or Persia could get to Hamburg in six or seven days over the railroad while it would take ten or twelve to get them to Lon- don by ship. It looked as though the Turk, who had cut the trade routes to the East in the time of Colum- bus, would now help the Germans to build them up again, with great profit to both nations. The more the Germans studied the plan of the Berlin to Bagdad railroad, the bigger and more promising the scheme seemed. One branch could run down through Syria to Egypt. Egypt, legally, was part of the Turkish empire anyhow, they argued, and the English had no business there. Let the Ger- man railroad reach there and German traders get a foothold — soon the English dream would vanish, and Germany would be the nation to get the rich Egyp- tian trade. Once at Bagdad and on the Persian Gulf, it would be easy to win from Russia and Eng- land the trade of Persia. From Persia it was only a step over to India, which, as all the world knew, was full of hatred for its English rulers and seething with revolt. A little help from Germany, some * Krupp guns and Mauser rifles — a few German- * Krupp (Kroop) founded the great German gun-works at Essen, Prus- sia. Paul Mauser was a German who invented a repeating rifle. 24 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR trained generals to lead them, and India would rise and free itself. Its people would only change mas- ters, however, for in their gratitude they would let in the Germans, and the Germans, once in, would know better than to be tricked as the English had been. With Turkey thoroughly under German control, it would be easy to help the Turks to get the rich Caspian oil fields away from Russia. So ran the dream. What were the chances of success? What were the obstacles in the way? In the first place there must be a thorough control of Turkey. German money must be lent, German guns must be sold, German generals must train the Turkish army. The Sultan must be made to feel that Germany was his only friend. He must be surrounded by German advisers, men trusted by the Kaiser. Then with Turkey well in hand, the smaller na- tions through which the road would pass must be mastered also. Bulgaria had a German king. So had Roumania. Both might be won over to friend- ship and induced to sign treaties giving all their trade to Austria and Germany. Both nations had reason to be afraid that Russia, which had been anxious for years to take Constantinople, would swallow them up on the way. Austria was Ger- many's faithful friend — in fact, more than a friend, almost a servant. The diplomats at Vienna danced when the Kaiser piped. THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 25 There remained only Serbia, and Serbia was a small, weak state and could easily be crushed. It was useless to try to make friends with her. She hated Austria, who had ruled millions of Serbs before 1908 and had crushed Serbian hopes of annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina (har-tse go vi'na) by taking these states by force herself. But it was not absolutely necessary to build the railroad over the shortest route, through Serbia and Bulgaria. There was a narrow strip of country, between Serbia and Montenegro, called the Sanjak (san jak') of Novibazar (no'vi ba zar'), which was part of Turkey. At its northwest end it touched Bosnia and Herzegovina, which now were part of the Austrian empire. By planning a new route for the railroad, through the towns of Sarajevo (sa/ra ya/vo) , Novibazar, and Uskub, it would be possible to keep it wholly on German, Austrian, and Turkish soil. The Austrian empire was a mixture of different peoples. Poles, Russians, Roumanians, Italians, Serbs, and the related peoples, the Croats and Slovenians who were under the Austrian rule, wished earnestly to break away from the dual mon- archy and join the people of their own blood in the countries round about. There was a time when there had been a strong kingdom of Serbia, but (except for the little country of Montenegro) it had been conquered and extin- guished by the Turks, who pushed on and conquered 26 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Croats and Hungarians too. Serbs and Croats had been cruelly persecuted by the Turks, and they rejoiced when the Hapsburg family, rulers of Austria, had gradually driven out the Mohammedans and joined the liberated peoples to Austria. But the unfortunate Serbo- Croats soon found that they had only exchanged masters. The Austrians ruled them just about as harshly as had the Turks, and gave them no more freedom. Within the Austrian empire were other small nations. In the north were the Bohemians, who call themselves Czechs (cheks), and the Slovaks (slo vaks') , who like the Croats and Serbs are closely related peoples. In the central plains, around the rivers Danube and Theiss (tice) lived the Hunga- rians, or as they call themselves, Magyars (mod'yors). The Magyars were fighters, who kept demanding their rights, and after two or three unsuccessful wars with Austria, or rather revolts against the Austrian rule, they were able, in 1867, to force the Hapsburg Emperor to give them equal rights with the Austrians. The real Austrians were Germans, of the same blood as the people of Germany, and speaking the same language. Yet, out of the fifty-two million peo- ple in the empire, only nine million were Austro- Germans. The Hungarians numbered some ten million people, so that the other peoples in the Empire outnumbered the Germans and Magyars combined, by over twelve millions. Nevertheless, the two ruling peoples (Germans and Magyars) THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 27 owned nearly all the property, held all the offices, elected practically all the law-makers, ruled the army, controlled the schools and courts, and did their best ,r^^\. mnilllnii^^hk- Czechs and Slovaks Magyars and\ „ Szecklers \ ^^arxans Serbs, Croats 1 ^ ^ p— | Ruthenians and Slovenians J RSSSSSysH ( Ukrainians) , Roumanians Racial Map of Austria-Hungary to force everybody in the country to speak no lan- guage but German or Hungarian. The Roumanians, Russians, Poles, Croats, Serbs, Slovaks, etc., did the hard work and were paid little 2$ HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR money and given very few rights. They were little better than serfs. The same condition existed in the Turkish empire. The great majority of the people in Turkey in Eu- rope, as it was before 191 2, was not made up of Turks, but of Serbs, Bulgars, Greeks, Albanians, and Spanish Jews. Turkey in Asia was made up of Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Syrians, Jews, and Arabs, besides the Turks, who were the ruling class and held most of the gov- ernment positions. The Middle-Europe plan, as worked out in Berlin, provided for an oligarchy (rule of the few) over one hundred and fifty millions of people : Germany 68,000,000 Austria- Hungary 52,000,000 Serbia 3,500,000 Bulgaria 5,500,000 Turkey 21,000,000 The little crowd of Junkers could control Germany. Germany had made herself more and more dictator of Austria. Turkey would be won over and con- trolled in the same way. Bulgaria, too, could be won over. A short, sharp war would crush Serbia, whose lands would then be divided between Aus- tria, Bulgaria, and Turkey. But there were two or three things which threat- ened to spoil the plan. To begin with, a great many of the subjects of these countries were far from THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 29 satisfied with their rulers. In Germany there were a million Danes, living in Schleswig, four or five million Poles in the eastern districts, and a million and a half people in Alsace and Lorraine, the counties torn from France in 1871. All these were anxious to be free from the rule of Berlin. Then, as has been said, out of the fifty-two million in Austria- Hungary fewer than twenty million belonged to the ruling German and Magyar nations. The other thirty- two million were anything but satisfied. Many of the Germans, both in Austria and Germany itself, were Socialists, who were very much dissatisfied with the rule of the Junkers. Turkey was full of discontented peoples, both in Europe and in Asia. The Arabs of the eastern coast of the Red Sea were impatient of the rule of the Turks and needed only a little encouragement to revolt. The greater part of Arabia, however, was ruled by chiefs who were not troubled by the Turks. Turkey claimed dominion over them, but as an actual fact could not control them, so that they were really independent rulers. An incident which happened about six years before the great war made the Germans furiously angry with England. One of the main objects in building the Hamburg-Berlin-Bagdad-Persian Gulf railroad was to capture the trade of India and induce this country to revolt from British rule. The Germans seemed to think that they could keep the knowledge of this part of the plan from the British. 3 o HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR While they were busy building the road and plan- ning for a terminal on the Persian Gulf, a far-seeing Englishman learned that there was only one good harbor for big ships at the head of the gulf and that this belonged to the Sheik of Koweit (ko wat') . This Sheik was one of the Arab chieftains who were practically independent of the Turks and had the power to make agreements with foreign countries without asking permission of the government at Con- stantinople. Accordingly, this Englishman quietly slipped up from India to call on the Sheik of Koweit, and obtained from him a long lease of the harbor and all the land adjoining it in the name of Great Britain. Not long afterwards the Germans, who had taken it for granted that Koweit was a Turkish town and under the control of the Sultan, found out that they would have to get permission from the Sheik to build the docks, wharves, and railway terminals that were necessary for the Indian trade. They hurriedly called upon him, only to learn that they were too late. They stormed and threatened, but without result. They offered large sums — he would not listen to them. The word of an Arab was sacred, a treaty signed by him was something more than "a scrap of paper." Then their fury burst forth against England. For the Germans to slip in and cajole the Turks into letting them build a railroad which would steal away the trade of India from England, — that was a good joke on the English. But for the English to THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 31 slip in and steal the only deep-water harbor that the Germans could use — that was an underhand and contemptible trick ! An attempt was made to send Turkish troops to sieze Koweit ; but the Sheik ap- pealed to the British. A battleship appeared off the town, and the Turks decided that they wouldn't try to seize the harbor, after all. Other events kept happening to disturb the peace of mind of the Junkers who planned to rule Middle- Europe along the line of the Berlin to Bagdad rail- way. All the peoples of the Balkan countries— Serbs, Bulgars, Albanians, Roumanians, and Greeks had hated the Turks for centuries. But they had hated each other almost as much, and the Turks, by keep- ing them separated, had been able to rule them. In 1 91 2, however, Turkish treatment of the Chris- tians grew so outrageous that the Russians and Prime Minister Venizelos of Greece were able to persuade four little countries to forget their old-time quarrels and make war- jointly on Turkey. These allies were Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Serbia. Roumania did not join in the war, but she was friendly to the other Christian nations. Austria and Germany were well pleased. The Junkers figured that the Turkish armies, fitted out with German guns and drilled by German officers, would make short work of the four little countries. If Turkey conquered Serbia and Bulgaria so much the better. The path to the East would be greatly 32 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR cleared by wiping out some of these troublesome peoples. But to the intense disgust of Germany and Austria the armies of the four little allies flung back the desperately resisting Turks all along the line. The Turks were hustled back into forts and strongholds, where, one by one, their armies were starved out and forced to surrender. The victory was astonish- ing — greater than the little allies had ever dared to hope. To the victor belong the spoils. They began promptly to divide up the lands of their fallen foe. Montenegro and Serbia each took half of the Sanjak of Novibazar, and. presto I the path of the railroad to the East could no longer pass from Austrian soil to Turkish. Then once more appeared the "mailed fist." Austria, backed by Germany and Italy, protested against the extension of Serbia to the Adriatic Sea. If this took place and Serbia got a seaport, she would be free to trade with all the nations of the earth. In the past all her trade had gone to Austria. Austrians paid Serb farmers just what they pleased for their hogs, and the Serbians had to take what was offered, for they could ship only over the Berlin-Vienna-Constantinople railway. There was no use shipping the hogs in the other direction, for the Mohammedans consider the pig an unclean animal and will not eat his flesh. Serbia appealed to Russia, but with the " mailed fist" in his face, the Tzar would do nothing. It THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 33 meant war with Germany, Austria, and Italy if he took Serbia's part. So the Junkers marked off the mountainous western coast, called it Albania, and sent a Junker princeling to rule over it, without so much as saying "By your leave" to the people who lived there. Then Serbia, cheated out of her seaport, sought land in Macedonia that Bulgaria considered hers, and with the Junkers of Austria and Germany backing her and urging her on, Bulgaria made a treacherous attack on the Serbs and Greeks which started the Second Balkan War. Again the Junkers made a mistake and " backed the wrong horse." They had expected Bulgaria to win the war easily, and by helping her they counted on making her a lasting friend, who would join in the Middle -Europe scheme. By conquering Serbia, Bulgaria would help clear the path of the Berlin to Bagdad railway of this troublesome little nation. But Serbians and Greeks fought like demons, enraged at the treachery of the Bulgars, and to the great astonishment and disgust of the Germans and Austrians, the war ended quickly in a crushing defeat for their new-found friends. Roumania came in at the last, taking the side of Serbia and Greece. The King of Bulgaria found himself without friends in that part of the world, and wished, when it was too late, that instead of attacking Serbia, as the Germans and Austrians had urged him to do, he had listened to the Russians. They had begged him to be rea- 34 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR sonable and give up to Serbia a fair part of the lands taken away from Turkey. The treaty of peace was signed at Bukarest, Roumania, in July, 1913. It was most unsatis- factory to Austria and Germany. Their best friend, Turkey, had been beaten in the first war and had lost almost all her lands in Europe. Their other friend, Bulgaria, had received a severe trouncing and had been forced to give up part of her northern boundary to Roumania and let Serbia and Greece divide Macedonia between them. Serbia, the one nation that they had wished to see crushed, had come out of both wars victorious, with her territory almost doubled in size. Mr. Jonescu (jo nes'cu), one of the leading Rou- manian statesmen, prophesied that a new war would break out within fourteen months. He could see that Austria and Germany were not going to leave things as they were. As a matter of fact, the Austrians were eager to attack Serbia immediately and crush her once for all. The Italians, however, notified Austria that they would frown on any such plan at this time. They did not wish to see the Austrians annex any more lands on the eastern side of the Adriatic. Italy had always planned to capture the harbors of Durazzo (du rat/ so) and Avlona (avlo'na) for herself. Then, again, the Germans thought that the attack on Serbia would bring Russia, and possibly France, in on the side of Serbia. France and Russia had an agreement by THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 35 which they had promised to go to each other's help if one of them should be attacked by two nations at once. The Junkers were planning for a great war in which they should throw their whole army on France first and then return in time to defeat the slow-moving Russians, but they were not quite ready for it yet. They wanted time to make a few more big guns, to store away an immense amount of shells, and to lay by enough food to last till the next harvest time. Then, too, the Kiel Canal was being enlarged. The war- ships most recently built were so large that they could not pass through it, and the work of widening the canal would not be finished until June, 1914. German and Austrian diplomats, hoping to build up strong friendships in Bulgaria and Turkey, had failed. Instead, they saw a barrier of little states, mostly Slavic and hence friendly to Russia, extend- ing across the line of the road to Bagdad. Now they proposed to use force to do what diplomacy had failed to bring about. In the spring of 19 14 Marquis Pallavicini (pal'la vi chi'ni) , the Austrian Ambassador to Turkey, told Mr. Morgenthau, the American Ambassador, that a great European war would soon break out, because the terms of the treaty of Bukarest were so unsatisfactory to Austria and Germany. The empire of Austria, as you have been told, was governed by Germans and Hungarians (Magyars). Over half of its inhabitants (Poles, Ruthenians, 36 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Slovenians, and Croats) belonged to the Slavic branch of the white race, speaking languages similar to the Russian. These Slavs had been fighting for a long time for a share in the government. They wanted the empire divided into three parts instead of two, one of the three to consist of the Slavic countries. The old Emperor, Franz Josef, who had been reigning since 1848, could not last very much longer, that was plain. His children were dead, and the heir to the throne, his nephew, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was a man who was very unpopular. He was arrogant and headstrong — a true Junker. He was greatly disliked in Serbia, for he wanted to put down forcibly all the movements among the Serbs and Croats in Bosnia to break away from Aus- tria and annex themselves to Serbia. But he was especially hateful to the other Junkers, both Aus- trian and Magyar, who really were the rulers of the empire, and the tools of the Kaiser at Berlin. His wife was a Czech, and as she was not of royal blood it had been voted by the Austrian Congress that none of her children could follow their father on the throne. However, she was an ambitious woman, and the little crowd of Junkers were afraid that she would persuade her husband, when once he became Em- peror, to divide the empire into three parts and give the Czechs and other Slavs equal rights with the Austrians and Hungarians. In June, 1914, the Archduke took a headstrong THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 37 notion to visit Sarajevo in Bosnia, to see if he could help to suppress the anti-Austrian and pro-Serbian riots that had been breaking out there. The Serbian government sent word to him advis- ing him not to go. He paid no attention, but went. There was a deep-laid plot to kill him. A bomb was hurled at his carriage in the morning, but it fell short. In the afternoon, as he was out with his wife in an automobile, the chauffeur deliberately drove the machine to the wrong side of the street and stopped where a Bosnian young man was stand- ing. The young man, raising a pistol, killed first the Archduke and then his wife. There is no proof that this murder was plotted in Vienna, but there is strong suspicion. Germany and Austria-Hungary were all ready for the big war ; the Kiel Canal was finished, the new submarine boats and the big guns that were to crush the French and Russian forts were completed, an enormous supply of shells and other ammunition had been manufactured. All that was needed was an excuse for attacking Serbia. Russia was bound to step in to protect this small Slavic sister state — and then the mailed fist would strike. Franz Ferdinand was hateful to the crowd of Junkers at Vienna. Would it not be a stroke of genius to kill two birds with one stone — get him out of the way and provide the needed excuse for the attack on Serbia ? That all this was planned cannot be proved, but a great many facts seem to confirm the belief. 38 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR In the first place there seems now to be no doubt that the government police at Sarajevo were in the plot. Their only part in the events of the day was to arrest the assassin and protect him from the people. Again it is plain that the assassin knew a secret that was supposed to be known only to the members of the court circle at Vienna : Franz Ferdinand always wore a thick silk garment that was woven on the fashion of the inner fabric of an automobile tire. No bullet would go through it. The murderer did not aim at his body, but fired straight at his neck. In the third place, the assassin, not satisfied with killing the Archduke, murdered his wife also. The Duchess was very popular with the common people and especially with the Slavs, her own race. On the other hand she was cordially hated by the Junkers at Vienna and Budapest. They wanted her out of the way as much as they did her husband. A fourth point was the behavior of the court at the time of the funeral. A great majority of the mili- tary group openly gloated over the fact that Franz Ferdinand was dead. Again, it seems strange that the murderer was never put to death. He was merely imprisoned for three years, at the end of which time he caught influenza and died. However, whether or not the murder of the Arch- duke was encouraged by the Hungarian or Austrian Junkers really does not matter. The great war had been planned for the summer of 1914, and another THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 39 excuse for beginning it would easily have been found. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why did Germany let other nations beat her in the race for colonies ? 2. Why was Germany driven to seek the trade of Turkey? 3. What was the result of the visit of the Kaiser to the Sultan? 4. What were the great advantages of the Berlin to Bagdad railway ? 5. What small countries barred Germany's road to the East? 6. How had the Serbs and Croats lost their independence ? 7. Which were the two ruling races in Austria-Hungary and which the subject peoples? 8. What dissatisfied peoples were to be found in Germany? 9. What was the result of the Koweit incident? 10. In what way did the union of the four little Balkan countries against Turkey upset the German plans? 11. How were the German- Austrian plans defeated also in the Second Balkan War ? 12. Why did the Junkers wait till 1914 before starting the World War? 13. Why is it suspected that the Austrian Junkers had a hand in the plot to kill the Archduke? CHAPTER III The Blow A lull to disarm suspicion. — Springing the trap. — Impossible de- mands are almost met. — The wolf and the lamb. — Germany turns a deaf ear to peace proposals. — Austria attacks Serbia. — Sazonoff and Grey. — What Germany really planned. — What she expected in Belgium. — How France was to be put out of the fight. — The method of dealing with Russia. — Great Britain next. — A piratical plan. — Italy and England. — The threat of the "jehad." — Sounding out the British. — As Austria is about to weaken, Germany strikes. — France refuses to be trapped. — Promises to the troops and to the manufacturers. — A weak attempt to hold the friendship of neutrals. The Archduke of Austria was murdered by an Austrian subject, in an Austrian city, on the 28th of June, 1 9 14. For nearly four weeks there was no hint of trouble. The Kaiser was touring in his steam yacht among the fiords of Norway. The President of France and his Prime Minister were paying a friendly visit to St. Petersburg (now called Petrograd). Most of the diplomats and foreign ministers were taking vaca- tions. The Austrian government had let the news leak out that they would not be harsh in their deal- ings with Serbia over the murder. The murderer and two of his helpers (all Austrian citizens) had been arrested and would be tried in about six months. The 40 THE BLOW 41 incident was no longer mentioned on the first page of the newspapers. Then, like lightning out of a clear sky, the Aus- trian Minister to Serbia called at the office of the Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs at six o'clock in the evening of July 2$ and left a note such as no government had ever before addressed to that of an- other independent nation. It demanded an answer within forty-eight hours — otherwise war would be declared at once. The delivery of the note was so timed that nearly a day was gone before the Serbian Cabinet could get to- gether and hear it read, for at six o'clock at night the officials had all gone home. That gave them only one day in which to telegraph to Russia, England, and France, to get answers, and to frame the reply. The ' ' mailed fist ' ' at work again ! The answers came back from Russia and France : ' ' Give in ; yield everything that you honorably can. They are trying to pick a quarrel : don't let them have an excuse on which to start it." Meanwhile the ministers and cabinet officers of other countries, appalled at the vision of a terrible European war, in frantic haste telegraphed their ambassadors at Vienna to see the Austrian Foreign Minister and get him to give Serbia more time for her reply. The ambassadors wired back that Count von Berchtold (bairkh'told), who was the only man that could extend the time limit, had gone to a summer resort and would not be back for two days. 42 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Two days — and Austria would have already bom- barded Belgrade and thrown her army across the Danube ! France and England appealed to Germany, Aus- tria's partner, without whose help Austria would never dare quarrel with the Tzar. The German Foreign Office said that Germany knew nothing about Austria's plans, but that the nations could trust her ally to do the right thing. Meanwhile nobody must interfere between Austria and Serbia. In the same breath with which the Germans denied that they knew how severe the Austrian note was, they calmly told the other nations that of course Austria's demands from Serbia were justified (How did Germany know this if she was ignorant of what the note said ?) but would probably be refused (Why refused, if they were fair and justified?) and that if any nation tried to come between Austria and Serbia the results "would be impossible to measure." In other words : "Hands off ! If not, war ! " Again the mailed fist ! Prince Bismarck once said that "a liar should have a good memory." The German diplomats forgot the lies that they had agreed to tell, all alike. They mixed their stories and betrayed themselves. Three or four of them let it slip that they had known beforehand all about the Austrian note to Serbia, and had approved of it. To all appeals from England, Italy, and France that Germany ask Austria to give more time to THE BLOW 43 Serbia to reply to the note, the German Foreign Office turned a deaf ear. It was nobody's affair but Austria's ; Austria and Serbia must be left to fight it out. A nation of 52,000,000 against a little country of 4,000,000, exhausted, by two recent wars ! And Germany knew that Russia had notified the nations that Serbia would not be left without a friend. At 5 : 45 o'clock on the evening of July 25, the Serbian Foreign Minister handed the Austrian Min- ister at Belgrade the Serbian answer. The Austrian note demanded (1) that the Serbian government stop the publication of any newspaper or magazine in Serbia that printed anything showing " hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy." Serbia agreed to this, although it would compel her to repeal her laws providing for free speech and free press. The Austrian note demanded (2) that Serbia put out of existence the secret society called Narodna Odbrana (na rod'na od bra'na) , seize its property, and dissolve any other society that had worked against the interests of Austria- Hungary. Serbia agreed to do this. The note demanded (3) that the Serbian govern- ment "eliminate" from all the Serbian schools any teaching that would show Austria-Hungary in an unfavorable light. Serbia agreed to do this. The note demanded (4) that Serbia dismiss from its army and from its government all officers and 44 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR officials that had been working to stir up trouble for Austria- Hungary, the list of names to be furnished later. Serbia agreed to this, simply saying that they must first have a fair trial. The note demanded (5) that Serbia accept the cooperation in Serbia of Austro-Hungarian officials in putting down the agitation against the Dual Monarchy. Serbia claimed that she did not clearly understand what was meant here, but she would "permit such cooperation " as would be proper in international law. The note demanded (6) that Serbia arrest and punish all those who were then in Serbia who had had a hand in the plot to kill the Archduke, and added that Austrian officials would take part in these trials. Serbia promised to do this, but called attention to the fact that her laws would not allow Austrian officials to take part in Serbian court trials. How- ever, she agreed to keep Austria informed of every- thing that went on at the trials. The note demanded (7) that Serbia immediately arrest two men, who were named, one a major in the Serbian army. Serbia answered that the major had been arrested and that the other man would soon be caught. The note made five other smaller demands, to all of which Serbia agreed. The note demanded that the Serbian government publish on the front page of its "Official Journal' ' THE BLOW 45 the following : ' ' The Royal Government of Serbia condemns the propaganda directed against Austria- Hungary . . . and it sincerely deplores the fatal con- sequence of these criminal proceedings." In other words Serbia was to stand up before the world, confess that she had plotted the murder of the Archduke and was sorry for it. Serbia agreed to do this, changing only one word : "condemns all propaganda," instead of "the propa- ganda." Never in the history of the world had an inde- pendent nation so humbled itself in the interests of peace. The Serbian answer ended by saying that if anything in the reply was not satisfactory, Serbia would be glad to lay the matter before the inter- national court at the Hague or before a court com- posed of men from the great nations of Europe. In just three-quarters of an hour from the time when the reply was handed to him, the Austrian Minister notified the Serbian government that he had orders to leave Belgrade and break off all rela- tions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary if a satis- factory reply were not received by six o'clock. The reply handed in, he said, was not satisfactory, so he was leaving. Hereafter, Austria-Hungary would talk to Serbia only through her cannon. There had hardly been time for a copy of the Ser- bian answer to be written out, much less telegraphed to Vienna and considered there. The only way that the action of the Austrian Minister can be ex- 46 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR plained is that Austria knew that Serbia could not accept the fifth and sixth demands : (that Austrian officers should investigate and try Serbian govern- ment employees in Serbian courts). Knowing this, and expecting an indignant refusal of the whole note, the Austrian Minister had been instructed to make a pretense of reading through the answer and then to announce that it was very unsatisfactory. The humble, yielding tone of the Serbian answer quite knocked the props out from under the Austrian war platform. For the next two or three days Austria and Germany were kept busy explaining to the various governments of Europe that the Serbian answer was rejected because it was "insin- cere." In other words, it was so near to being ex- actly what Austria demanded that of course Serbia couldn't mean it ! On the next day, July 26, the Austrian army was "mobilized." This means that all men of certain ages dropped their work and reported to various central places where they were fitted with uniforms, weapons, etc., and were held ready at a moment's notice to get on board trains for the front. Meanwhile the Russian bear was growling threat- eningly. The Russian people had never been fond of Austria, and this bullying of the little kindred nation of Serbia raised their anger to the boiling point. The French diplomats, scenting trouble from afar, worked earnestly, begging the Austrians to be reasonable, and urging Germany to request Aus- THE BLOW 47 tria to grant Serbia more time before going to war. Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Minister, la- bored hard for peace. He proposed that the quarrel be laid before a court composed of Italy and Germany, friends and allies of Austria, and France and England, friends of Russia. Italy and France agreed to this; Ger- many refused, point blank. One word from Germany to Austria, asking her to wait, would have stopped the whole trouble, but that word never came. Germany and Austria had determined on war. The newspapers in Austria and Germany were not allowed, by the government, to publish the reply of Serbia, for fear that the people of these countries would discover how completely Serbia had yielded. They were simply told that the reply was unsatisfactory. The people in Vienna sang and cheered. The prospect of punishing Serbia quite appealed to them. The people of Berlin mobbed the houses of the Russian and Serbian ambassadors. On the 28th, her army all ready to strike, Austria declared that she was at war with Serbia. She began bombarding Belgrade, and flung her army into Ser- bian territory. As it was seen that the whole Aus- trian army was in motion, Russia began to fear that Austria was going gunning for bigger game than little Serbia, so she, too, began to gather in the fighting men from her southern countries. Meanwhile there were clear-headed men who saw 48 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR plainly the war that was threatening and worked hard to head it off. Chief among these was the Russian, Sergius Sazonoff (sazo'noff). He had known that Germany was eager for a fight. She had been kept from declaring war on France and Russia in 1 9 1 1 by only two things : first because the great banking house of Rothschild, with branches all over Europe, had moved so much gold out of Germany that there was not enough ready money in the banks to pay the expenses of mobilization, and second because Lloyd George of England had given warning that Great Britain considered France's quar- rel just, and would back her to the last man. Remembering the result, — that Germany backed down then, Sazonoff vainly tried to get Sir Edward Grey to state, positively, that Great Britain would not be an onlooker if Germany attacked France now. Germany was counting on Great Britain's keeping out of the quarrel, this time ; the reckoning with her was to come after France and Russia had been sub- dued. But Sir Edward Grey could not promise that Great Britain would take a hand. Great Britain is a country where public opinion is ruler, and where the government cannot order the newspapers to print only what it wishes the people to believe. In 191 1, the British people were indignant over Germany's bullying attitude toward France. In 191 4, they did not know much about Serbia and her troubles, and they did not see that the matter con- cerned them at all. So, although Sir Edward THE BLOW 4Q worked hard, harder than any other man in Europe, to fend off the war, he could not promise Sazonoff that Great Britain would join Russia and France in case of an attack by Germany. At this point let us stop to look behind the scenes. Let us state the facts .as we learned them, five years later. Austria, backed by Germany, had determined to crush Serbia utterly, and stop, thereby, the unrest among her Serb and Croat subjects, who were constantly wishing to be annexed to the Ser- bian nation. She would leave no Serbia to annex them. Austria believed that if Germany's mailed fist were thrust in front of Russia, Russia would back down, as she had in 1909. There were labor troubles in Russia, and strikes and riots in her cities. Revolution was in the air, and the Russian govern- ment, Germany thought, would hesitate to enter a war. Germany, on the other hand, filled with the idea that she was the greatest nation in the world, and that it was her mission in life to send efficient Germans to rule ' ' decayed France ' ' and ' ' barbarous Russia" with the superior methods of the Germanic Kultur (civilization), was tingling to draw the sword that had so long been rattling in its scabbard . Everything was ready. In the fall of 191 3 the standing army had been increased by 150,000 men. The enlarged Kiel Canal was opened on July 1, 19 14. A great number of branch railroads had been built right up to the Russian border so that troops could be sent in great hordes to twenty places at once. 50 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Russia was planning to build, the next year, roads of the same kind leading to the German boundary, and it would be a great mistake to put off the war till then. In the spring of 19 14 Germany had built a large number of branch lines which reached the Belgian border. The French had strongly fortified their east- ern boundary, where the Vosges Mountains formed a natural rampart. On the northern side, however, toward Belgium and Luxemburg there was only one fort, Maubeuge (mobuzh') — for these little coun- tries had been promised, by all the great European nations, that no army should ever invade their lands. Therefore, the Germans, since the French had been simple-minded enough to trust to their honor, pro- posed to swoop down upon France through the unprotected northern boundary, by taking a short cut through Belgium and Luxemburg. Of course Belgium would protest, but would never dare to resist. True, she had solemnly pledged her word to the other nations that she would resist if anybody tried to send armed men across her land, but think how terribly she would be punished if she tried to stop the Germans ! Oh, no, the Belgians would be wise. They were no fools. They would take the money Germany offered for a free passage for her armies, and be so much better off at the close of the war, besides being friends of the winning side ! A quick dash across the railroads of Belgium, and the German armies would be in France one week after war was declared. THE BLOW 51 One smashing victory — the French were poor, weak fighters anyway ; and their army would be much smaller than Germany's and poorly equipped with guns, — a triumphal march into Paris, a peace held out to France on the point of the bayonet, and the Germans would jump on their trains and be rushed back to eastern Germany, long before the Russians were ready to fight. But they would not return empty-handed. "To the victor belong the spoils." Little did the French know that right in their cities had been living thousands of German spies. They had become managers, superintendents of factories, cashiers of banks. They knew just who had money hidden away and who had not. A list of all the wealthy people of each town to be invaded was in the hands of the German officers. All the machinery from the factories should be torn out and taken to Germany to enrich German manufacturers. And the French government would pay a tremendous sum as an indemnity — Bismarck had made a great mistake in 1871, — letting France off with the payment of a billion dollars — he should have made it two billion. But never mind, the mistake would be made good this time. Germany would take ten billions — and if France would not pay it, Paris should be razed to the ground ! Oh, never fear, — they would pay, these Frenchmen. And as for the Russians ! Germany had watched them make war against Japan in 1905. Their gen- 52 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR erals had no intelligence, their equipment was poor, they had very few factories to make ammunition, and their whole army was honeycombed with graft and treason. A great many of the Russian soldiers were of German descent and many of these would secretly aid Germany. In 1904 the Russian soldiers had all gotten so drunk on vodka that it had taken them six weeks to finish their mobilization. Six weeks ! in that time Germany would have smashed France to a pulp and would be ready to hurl her mighty army back to finish the conquest of Russia. A million Aus- trians, meanwhile, would have invaded southern Russia, and when the victorious Germans joined them, it would be only a short time before Russia, too, would be suing for peace. As a part of the peace terms Russia and France would be required to surrender their navies to Ger- many. Two years of rest and preparation and then, Great Britain, beware ! The seas as well as the land should come under German control. The Junkers would be lords of the earth ! Such was the magnificent picture that the Kaiser painted to his war lords, his bankers, and great manu- facturers, called together in Potsdam on July 5, 19 14. He took them, to speak figuratively, up on a high mountain, and showed them the kingdoms of the earth — and they were tempted and fell. In all that great assembly, representing the intelligence, the wealth, the power of the German nation, not one man THE BLOW 53 had the moral courage to stand up and say, "This sounds like the speech of Attila, the Hun ; or Timur Beg, the Tatar ; or Lobengula, the cannibal chief of Central Africa ! The world to-day will not tolerate such practices. All business is based on honor, and if you put through this program, what faith will the world ever again put in the word of a German?" Questions were asked about Italy. The Kaiser replied that the agreement with Italy required her to rush to Germany's help if Germany were attacked by two powers ; and they would be able to make it appear that France and Russia were the aggressors in the war, just as Bismarck had been able to persuade the world in 1870, that France had attacked Prussia. "How about England ?" asked some one. Eng- land, answered the Kaiser, would never dare fight. True, she had promised to protect Belgium. But if Belgium accepted Germany's terms for the free passage of the German army, there would be no need of England's interference. But all the world knew, said the Kaiser, that Great Britain was on the verge of a civil war over the question of Irish Home Rule. Fifty thousand rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, all from Germany, had secretly been distributed among the Irish during the last spring, and the war was likely to break out at any moment. Again, there was an agreement with certain Boers in South Africa and with Hindoos in India, to start rebellions if England showed signs of entering the war. Oh no, England knew better than to enter the 54 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR war. And if she did, what then ? She had no army at all — merely a few regiments. True, she had the biggest navy in the world. But this was scat- tered over the seven seas, while the German fleet was collected at the mouth of the Kiel Canal. It would be simple for the whole German fleet to dash out and overwhelm the separate parts of the British navy before they could unite. But the English were not fighters — they were a nation of shopkeepers. Instead of learning war they spent their time at fox hunting or playing silly games like cricket or football. They would not fight — all the German secret agents in England were agreed on this, — for one thing the Labor and Irish parties would be too strong in their opposition. Then the Kaiser had in reserve another weapon. If it were shown that they needed her help Turkey would join in the war. This would divert one-fourth of the Russian army to guard the Caucasus region. And best of all — the Sultan of Turkey would command the Sheik-ul-Islam, the head of the Moham- medan church, to proclaim a jehad — a holy war against the infidel Christians. Then woe be unto England and France and Russia — for India, Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, Tur- kestan, and Central Africa would at once be aflame with revolt. The meeting broke up. The bankers asked for two weeks in which to make their loans and sell their foreign stocks and bonds. This was granted — THE BLOW 55 and the springing of the trap was set for the latter part of the month. In the meantime, in order to remove suspicion, the Kaiser went cruising in Norway, and the newspapers were ordered to "put the soft pedal" on any talk of wars resulting from the murder of the Austrian Archduke. Can any one imagine a more fiendish plan ? For the sake of their own vainglorious pride, for the sake of their thirst for power, for the sake of the loot of a continent, this little group of men, already gorged with power, already rich beyond the dreams of avarice, already masters of the world's trade and manufacture, deliberately planned a war which was destined to slay ten million men, and bring misery and sorrow to four-fifths of the world. Now we can understand what happened. When the British Ambassador at Berlin tried to induce the German Government to hold Austria back until the dispute had been heard before a court of Ger- mans, Italians, French, and English, he was asked to promise that England would stay neutral, in case of war between Germany and Austria on one hand and France and Russia on the other. "We will promise not to take any more land from France if Great Britain will remain neutral," said the German Foreign Minister. "How about the French colonies?" asked the Englishman. Ah, that was a different matter. Nobody could tell what would become of them. 56 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Austria, by this time, had captured Belgrade and was driving the Serbian army away from the banks of the Danube. Once more Sir Edward Grey tried to induce the diplomats to talk the matter over, quietly. He pro- posed that Austria hold Belgrade, Serbia's capital, while a court was held to decide the rights and wrongs of the affair. Austria finally sent word to Russia that "she would discuss the matter with the Tzar's government, but meanwhile the expedition to punish the Serbians must keep on. In other words, after Serbia had been ravaged and her young men killed, it could be decided whether she deserved the punishment or not! This was the first sign of any disposition to talk the matter over on the part of the Central Powers (Austria and Germany), and the friends of peace took hope. On the same day, however, the German Imperial Government took a step which destroyed all chance of a peaceful settlement. Russia had notified Ger- many that as the Austrian army was mobilized, ready to attack Russia, the Russian armies along the Austrian border would be mobilized also. However, the troops from the north would not be mobilized against Germany. The Tzar in a telegram to the Kaiser had given his solemn promise that not a Russian soldier should march for the front while there was the slightest chance for TTIE BLOW 57 peace. In the face of this, the Berlin govern- ment sent an arrogant and insulting message to Russia, ordering her to stop immediately all mobilization and warlike preparations. If this were not done within twelve hours Germany would declare war. The mailed fist, on its last and fatal appearance ! What Germany asked was a physical impossibility. The message was sent at midnight, July 31. It could not be forwarded to the various mobilization centers within twenty-four hours, for there were parts of the great Russian empire that could not be reached by telegraph. The Tzar and King George of England in vain appealed to their imperial cousin, the Kaiser. His answer was that Russia, by her mobilization, forced him to this act. All Europe, outside of the Central Powers, knew that this was false. Both Russia and Austria had mobilized their armies in 1909, but no war came of it. Germany then asked France whether she intended to stand by her pledge to help Russia. France gave an answer which meant, "That is our affair, not yours." Meanwhile the French had given orders to their sentries along the German frontier to draw back six miles, for fear some German act might pro- voke a Frenchman into firing on German territory. Germany waited till noon, August 1, for an answer from Russia. Then her rulers took the step for which their names will be forever hated. They declared war on Russia, and started their armies westward 58 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR for a smashing drive on France. One army headed toward the northern end of the Vosges Mountains ; a second overran Luxemburg, a little neutral state, which, as you will remember, had been promised protection against just this very thing ; a third, the largest, started toward the eastern boundary of Bel- gium. In the meantime, the German Ambassador at Brussels was solemnly assuring the anxious Belgians that Germany had not any thought of marching her armies through Belgian lands. If he had told the truth the Belgians might have had time to get together their troops to resist ! The Germans had expected to provoke France into firing the first shot so that it could be made to appear that Germany was fighting a war of defense. But the French remained cool and refused to be caught in the German trap. By drawing back their soldiers from the border, they exposed their own people on the boundary line to the German armies, but they showed the world which side was the attacking party. Meanwhile crowds in Berlin and other German cities were screaming joyously, as the news was published that war was actually declared. The German constitution said that any declaration of war must be made by the Reichstag (see page 3) except a defensive war, which might be declared by the Kaiser. The newspapers, nearly all controlled by the government, told the people that this was a defensive war, for Germany was surrounded by hate- THE BLOW 59 ful neighbors, who were jealous of her wealth and power. To the merchants and manufacturers the military crowd held out the prospect of the ruining of the French factories, thus making Germany mistress of the trade of the world. To the army was promised a short war with great glory to the conquerors, the chance to rob the rich cities of France of their treasures, and a triumphant return home "before the leaves fall from the trees." Yet even in this hour the Germans tried to hold the friendship and respect of some of the neutral nations. They made strenuous efforts to justify themselves and throw the blame on other govern- ments. They left their ambassador at Paris two days after their troops had invaded French territory, hoping that France would declare war first. But again the French refused to walk into the trap. When the German Ambassador at Paris finally did hand the French government the declaration of war, it stated that because French cavalry had crossed into Germany and attacked German soldiers, and because French aviators had dropped bombs on certain German cities, Germany was forced to defend herself ! This tissue of lies did not deceive any one outside of Germany. In fact, it did not deceive the Germans themselves very long, for the cities that were supposed to have been bombed by the aviators came out with statements that nothing of the kind had ever happened. One of the most pitiful attempts of Germany to 6o HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR appeal to the friendship of neutral countries was the telegram to President Wilson written by the Kaiser in his own handwriting and handed to Mr. Gerard, the American Ambassador. The latter gives it in his book, "My Four Years in Germany." It is so weak, lame, and insincere as to be a real confession of guilt. True to the prediction of the old Chancellor "the young fool" (no longer young, but still a fool) was playing his hand and playing it at the wrong time. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW i. If the murder of the Archduke and his wife was committed on Austrian soil by an Austrian subject, how could Serbia be blamed? 2. Why was the matter apparently neglected for several weeks? 3. Why was the Austrian note delivered at six p.m. ? 4. What was the advice of Russia and France? 5. What is shown by Count Berchtold's "vacation"? 6. How did German diplomats show that they were dishonest in claiming to have known nothing about the Austrian note before- hand ? 7. What demands in the Austrian note did Austria know Serbia could not accept? 8. How did Serbia reply to these demands? 9. What shows that Austria knew that Serbia could not accept the demands? 10. How did Germany reply to the peace invitation of Sir Edward Grey? 1 1 . Why could not Grey promise what Sazonoff wished ? 12. Why did the time seem ripe (to Germany) for the war? 13. Why was France to be attacked? 14. What was to be done to Great Britain after Russia and France were defeated ? 15. Why did the Junkers feel that England would never enter the war? THE BLOW 6 1 1 6. What did Germany do when Austria, by agreeing to talk the matter over, showed that she was weakening? 17. What was being told to the Belgians by Germany? 18. What did the German people believe? 19. How did the French avoid the German trap? CHAPTER IV Where Germany Miscalculated The greatest crime in two centuries. — Immortal Belgium. — Great Britain speaks, then acts. — The Chancellor's "scrap of paper." — The rage of Germany against Britain. — Italy not deceived. — How France received the news. — ■ The Tzar makes Russia "dry." — The advance of the Russian "steam roller." — Hindenburg of the swamps. — Nicholas defeats the Austrians. — Hindenburg, aided by Rennenkampf's treachery, wins a big victory. — The retreat of the "Old Contemptibles." — Joffre and Gallieni. — The end of the great retreat. — Forward all ! — The taxicab army. — Foch breaks the German center. — The great plan is broken. — A new kind of battle. — The race to the sea. — The attack on the Channel ports. — Flooding the land. — The last grand assault. — Seesaw in the east. — The "punishing expedi- tion" returns home. "Belgium will never resist us," the military leaders had said. "She has too much to lose." And so, when the German army arrived at the Belgian boundary and demanded free passage on Bel- gian railroads to enable them to dash through to the unprotected northern side of France, it was done with much the air that one would use if he were asking a favor of another who was greatly his debtor. True, Germany covered up her effrontery by say- ing that information had reached the General Staff that the French intended to attack Germany through Belgium, and, of course, as Belgium would not be 62 WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 63 strong enough to fight the French army, the German army would march through Belgium and fight the French for the Belgians. The Belgian answer rang true. The noble little country saw herself about to be trampled, bleeding, under foot, by the mightiest war machine that the world had ever seen, yet she never wavered. The French, she answered, showed no intention of invading Belgium. If they did, the Belgian army would resist them with all its power. The invasion which Germany proposed was the very thing that Belgium had sworn to oppose, at the time when the nations of Europe had guaranteed her independence. This oath she would make good, though she were destroyed ! True Faith and Perjured Faith stood face to face. To the lasting honor of Belgium, she kept her plighted word, though she bled and starved for four long years as a result. To the lasting disgrace of Germany, she broke her solemn promise, broke it in the hope of ravaging and plundering France, a country which wished nothing but peace, and as a result she fell, a nation beaten, humiliated, and scorned, "and none so poor to do her reverence." The mighty machine advanced to attack the forts of Liege (le-ezh'). The Belgian bullets cut them down by the thou- sand. But more thousands took the places of those who fell. The civilized world was appalled at the stories of the losses. 64 HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR There was a halt for a while, then the invading forces swept around the city, driving the Belgians before them. The big howitzers* that were following the army, to be used on Maubeuge and Paris, were brought up and placed in position. One shot — and a great bastion, f built of steel and concrete, crumbled apart, then heaved to the sky in a tremendous explosion. There was no withstanding these tremendous weapons. Fort after fort was taken, and the flag of Germany waved over the conquered city. The little Belgian army, hastily gathered and un- prepared for war, retreated sullenly, resisting every step of the way, although outnumbered ten to one. The quick rush to the northern boundary of France was not to be, after all, and the Germans fought desperately, rapidly, realizing that time was fight- ing against them. Meanwhile, what of England ? On August 3, she was the only one of the nations that had promised to defend Belgium who was not at war. Even the German Chancellor, on the 4th of August admitted, in a speech to the Reichstag, that the in- vasion of Belgium was a wrong, that Germany would try to set right after her armies returned, victorious, from the war. The German Foreign Secretary, Von Jagow (ya'go) , in explaining to the British Ambassador why it was * Howitzer : a short cannon of large diameter. t Bastion : a projecting angle of a fort. WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 65 necessary to take the short cut through Belgium, pointed out that by doing so Germany ' ' avoided the southern route, with its few roads and many for- tresses," as if that were an excuse for breaking one's solemn pledge. The Chancellor, too, said that "France could afford to wait, while we could not. We are in a state of necessity and necessity knows no law." It would be hard to find in the history of any country since 1700 so callous an attitude toward right and justice. You will remember that at the war conference in Potsdam on July 5 (see page 52) it had been made plain to the Junkers by the Kaiser just why England would have to keep out of the war. The prophecy about the Irish civil war made at that time had meanwhile come true. On July 26, a Dublin mob had attacked the soldiers who had been sent to pre- vent the landing of ten thousand more German rifles, and there had been a battle, with over sixty people wounded or killed. All Ireland was in an uproar. No, England would never care to go to war. Imagine, then, the consternation and agitation in Berlin when, on the evening of August 4, Sir Edward Goschen, the British Ambassador, notified the German Secretary, Von Jagow, that unless Great Britain received word by midnight that the German army had been ordered to withdraw from Belgium, the British government would do everything in its power to defend Belgium, a thing which the Germans as well as the British had sworn to do. 66 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Von Jagow gloomily replied that it was too late. Germany had formed her plan and must go through with it. Sir Edward then asked to see the Chan- cellor, Von Bethmann-Hollweg (beVman-hol'veg) . The news of England's ac- tion had already reached him. When the ambassa- dor entered his office the Chancellor was pacing ex- citedly up and down. He bitterly assailed the British government. Just for a word, "neutrality" — just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was going to make war on a kindred nation that was anxious to remain friends with her. He stormed on for twenty minutes without giving Sir Edward a chance to speak. All his plans were falling about his ears like a house of cards, said he. Finally Sir Edward remarked quietly that as the Chancellor felt that it was a matter of life and death for Germany to strike France quickly from the north, through Belgium, so it was a matter of life and death for the honor of Great Britain that she keep her solemn promise to stand by Belgium in her hour of need. If Great Britain failed to keep this promise through fear of Ger- The German Imperial Chan- cellor, von Bethmann- Hollweg WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 67 many, how could any country ever believe her word again ? The Chancellor then, threateningly, asked whether the British government had counted the terrible cost of keeping its word. Fear of the result, answered Sir Edward, could hardly be regarded as an excuse for breaking solemn pledges. But the Chancellor by this time was so excited and so disturbed that he could not talk sensibly. The fun was gone out of the whole scheme. It would have been merely a holiday to rush through to Paris, smash the French army, and to return in time to help Austria polish off the clumsy Russians. And on the ocean the German and Austrian navies would have made short work of the French and Russian fleets. The commerce of these countries would have disappeared from the seas. The German ships would have blockaded their ports, captured their merchant vessels, and taken away the French colonies. But the British empire ! That was a horse of another color. Now Germany would have to fight a long, hard war. "The British are a stubborn people," said the Kaiser, gloomily, to the American Ambassador. And the hate of the Germans flared out against England. It was the same feeling that the thief has for the detective who seizes him just as he is breaking into an undefended house where he expects to make a rich haul. "God punish England," was the cry all over Germany. For what? For 68 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR daring, at a huge cost to herself, to refuse to break her solemn promise. ~~ Meanwhile, what of Italy? The Italians were not deceived for a minute by the German claims of a "defensive" war. They saw that a monstrous wrong was being done by their former partners, and they were anxious to right it as far as possible. Therefore, they sent a prompt notice to France that they would remain strictly neutral. No Italian army would cross the Alps to stab France in the back, while Germany thrust for her undefended northern side through Belgium. Another little miscalculation at Potsdam. Bismarck had been able to make it appear that France was the attacking party in 1870, and they had planned to repeat this maneuver in 19 14, thus bringing Italy to their defense. But France and Italy had both refused to fall into the trap. To tell the truth, the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, and Italy) had been slightly strained by re- cent events. Germany and Austria had never quite forgiven Italy for making war on Turkey in 1 9 1 1 and taking Tripoli. Then, too, in 1913, when Austria had proposed to Italy and Germany that an immediate attack be made on Serbia, Italy had replied with a strong "no." She did not care to see Austria in control of the Balkan countries. Italy, also, could not forget the harsh treatment of the people of her own race and speech who were under the rule of Austria. WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 69 Meanwhile, what was going on in France? For forty-three years the French people had lived under a shadow. The great military machine to the northeast had yearly grown more formidable, as the population of Germany increased rapidly while that of France stood still. The remembrance of the great horde of warriors with their spiked hel- mets who had poured down from the Vosges in 1870 was still vivid and fresh. It seemed that nothing would, prevent their coming again. In 1 875 and 1 887, in 1905 and 191 1 the German saber had rattled loudly, and each time it seemed that only a miracle had kept away the war. When the unprovoked attack of 1 9 14 at last burst on them, the French, conscious that they were outnumbered and outgunned, set their teeth grimly and vowed to sell their lives as dearly as possible. There were three days of de- pression and anxiety — when suddenly, out of a maze of rumors and doubts, burst the great news, pro- claimed by the newspapers in flaring headlines : 11 England Declares War against Germany." With a glad relief, and a warm expression of gratitude to her island neighbor, her chivalrous foe in many wars of the past, France shook off her gloom and set to work. Ca va mieux. (That is going better.) Only to hold the first rush of the beast and beat him back. Courage ! powerful friends were coming ! Meanwhile, the great gray-green war machine from the east was slightly behind its schedule. The un- expected and annoying decision of the Belgians to 70 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR stand by their treaties had caused a delay of several days. Precious days they were, too, for every day brought boatloads of Zouaves from Tunis, hardened warriors from Algeria and Morocco, even black men from Senegal, all wearing the gay red and blue uniform of France's fighting men. Rapidly, ; desperately, silently, France was gathering to meet the German rush. In the east a French army swarmed, without due regard for the consequences, across the Vosges Moun- tains into the beloved country of Alsace, torn from France in 1871. The Alsatian inhabitants, although their sons had been forced into the German army, in a frenzy of joy tore up the boundary posts and wept with gladness at the sight of the familiar red and blue. As it turned out, the Germans had laid a trap for the French by leaving this part of the border unpro- tected. When they had descended from the moun- tains into the plain, an immense German army from the north, outnumbering them heavily, swooped down and drove them out of several of the cities that they had reclaimed. But once back in the hill country the French rallied and held. There were parts of Alsace that France never gave up. Let us turn, for the moment, to see what was hap- pening in the east. You will recall that the German plan called for an invasion of southern Russia by the main Austrian army, a million strong, while a small German army held the country of East Prussia against any Russians that might appear on the coast WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 71 of the Baltic. But it was a well-known fact that the drunkenness of the Russian soldiers and the poor management of the Russian officers would probably keep the Russian army from being fully mobilized until after the French army- had been blotted off the map. In Russia, all the saloons, all the distilleries, and all the breweries were owned by the government. Only govern- ment agents were allowed to sell vodka, the favorite strong drink of the Russians. As the Russian army was called to its colors, the Tzar sent out a command that the sale of vodka should stop, at once. That order was obeyed. From being the most drunken nation in the world, Russia turned, in a day, into the "dryest." As a result, when the Austrians poured triumphantly across the bound- aries and began to pillage the country, a mighty Russian horde, steady and well disciplined, under the command of the Grand Duke Nicholas, cousin of the Tzar, fell upon them like a thunderbolt, and hurled them back in confusion into their own lands. In the north, the war was hardly a week old when another great army under General Rennenkampf poured into East Prussia, sweeping everything be- Key stone View Co., Inc. The Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia 7 2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR fore it. In a few days people from this country, fleeing from their homes before the advancing Rus- sians, began flocking into Berlin. Panic and conster- nation reigned in the German capital. Himme.1 ! What did these Russians mean, appearing so early ? They were not due for six or seven weeks, according to the plans of the General Staff! Finally, with the greatest reluctance, the Staff sent word that two army corps (about 80,000 men) should be sent back from Belgium and hurried to the help of the defenders of Konigsberg, around which Rennenkampf's army was intrenched. There was a crusty, rough, old German general who had made a special study of this East Prussia district. It is full of lakes, swamps, and slow-flowing rivers. There had been a plan to drain these lakes some years before, but this old fellow had raised such a furious clamor that the government finally gave up the project. So they called him "Swampy" Hinden- burg. He had grown so old that they had put him on the retired list, which pleased the Kaiser, for Hindenburg had an unpleasant way of saying just what he thought. Often at the sham battles that Keystone Vietc Co, Inc. General von Hindenbuk. ; WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 73 the army went through he would tell his Majesty just how the latter had blundered. But now there was a great need. Some one had to take charge of the army that was opposing the Russians in East Prussia. So Hindenburg was called from his retire- ment. Meanwhile, in northeastern Austria, the Grand Duke Nicholas was heavily punishing the Austrians under Generals Dankl and Von Auflenberg. Battle after battle he won, and town after town fell into his hands. Finally Lemberg, the largest city in Austrian Galicia, was taken, and the beaten Aus- trian army retreated to the Carpathian Mountains. All of this took place within six weeks after the begin- ning of the war. Panic took possession of people in Budapest and Vienna. This war was not going to be a holiday excursion, after all. But the Grand Duke, great soldier that he was, could not be everywhere at once. In the north the Russian armies were badly ded if not betrayed by their leaders. Hindenburg, once in command of the troops in East Prussia, had gathered an army out of the reserves, the older men and the two corps sent back from Belgium. In former times, for just such an occasion as this, he had had some roads built which appeared passable, but which really led into the swamps and fens. Attacking the southern of the Russian armies, General SamsonofT's in East Prussia, he forced it to retreat. German spies, or traitors of German blood in the Russian army, directed the re- 74 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR treat along these false roads. And then, when it was too late, part of the Russians found themselves cut off from the rest of the army and caught between Hindenburg's army and the swamps. Fearing to turn back, they tried to wade through the mud and water, but, pushed on by the thousands from behind, they sank in, deeper and deeper, till fifty or sixty thousand of them, unable to move, were sinking inch by inch to a terrible death. Another sixty thousand were forced to surrender and the whole Russian army was destroyed. Meanwhile the heart-rending cries and screams from the poor wretches who were sinking into the mud grew so terrible that some of the German soldiers who had to listen to them actually went insane. When Hindenburg learned of this, he turned his guns on the struggling, slimy mass, and cut them to pieces with shells. Meanwhile General Rennenkampf, only a few miles away, with an army nearly as large as Hinden- burg's, had not stirred a hand to save Samsonoff in the south. Not until the other Russian army had been completely destroyed did he move. Then he gave up the siege of Konigsberg and retreated into Russian territory. The first Russian invasion of Germany had failed. Nearly a year later authorities in Russia, re- membering that he was of German blood, ordered Rennenkampf to be deprived of his command and to be tried for treason. Meanwhile what was England doing to help WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 75 France ? The "English, protected by their mighty fleet and the still mightier ocean, had never forced their young men to learn military drill and serve a certain time in the army, as all the other Euro- pean nations had been compelled to do. The British army was made up of a small force of men who had enlisted for a certain number of years and were paid for their services. The whole army did not amount to more than 200,000 men, of whom a little over half were in England when war was declared. It was a little group, compared with the million and a quarter that Germany was hurling at the throat of France. When the Kaiser heard that they were crossing the channel, he told his troops to " drive England's contemptible little army into the sea." Immediately the British nicknamed themselves "the Old Con- temptibles." Small in numbers they might be, but they were "bonny fighters," as the Scotch would say. They had left their blood all over the globe, from South Africa and the Soudan to Burma and Afghanis- tan. It was near Mons (mon(g)s) and Charleroi (shar le rwa) in Belgium that they and their French comrades first encountered the Germans. The war was now three weeks old, and all the fighting had been done by the Belgians, with the exception of the French dash into Alsace, of which you have already read. At Mons the British stood, while, Germans, five times their number, fell upon them. Sullenly, 76 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR doggedly, making their opponents pay for every inch of the way, they retreated. There was no single commander-in-chief, at this time, on the allied side, so the French, not knowing just which way the British were about to move, left a gap in the line between the two armies. Through this gap poured the Germans, determined to surround and destroy the little British army. But still the dogged, cool courage of the islanders held them off. They held together in perfect order, although cruelly punished by the German guns. Their own artillery had not yet arrived, and they were fighting against machine guns and cannons with rifles and pistols. At Le Cateau (le ca to') they stood once more, and after inflicting stinging losses upon the pursuing Germans, were finally forced back again by the weight of superior numbers and heavier guns. A dark pall fell over France. "The Prussians once more!" "It is 1870 over again!" "Can our men never stop them ? ' ' Thus muttered the people as the daily bulletins showed the Germans at Namur, then at Givet (zhi'va), at Maubeuge, at Hirson (ir'son(g)), at Rheims (ranss), at the Marne. The government moved its offices from Paris to Bordeaux. A great many Parisians followed the offi- cials to the south. Those who remained were down- cast, gloomy. Would victory never come ? And the soldiers, fighting, then retreating, always moving backward, could not understand it. The French- man, full of fiery impetuosity, is eager to rush to meet WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 77 his foe. It galls him to retreat, retreat in this fashion, when he is positive that if his generals would only give him a chance, he could make these Ger- mans bite the dust. But while Berlin screamed its joy over these rapid, wonderful victories, and the German soldiers were driven faster and faster on the heels of the retreating French, while France feared and her soldiers chafed over this rearward motion, there was one man absolutely calm. This was "Papa" Joffre (zhofr), the French General-in-chief. Day by day his army was growing stronger, as the men from the south, the African fighters, and the regiments of older men were rapidly mobilized and rushed to his support. His steady retreat had given the Germans the idea that the French could not stand against them, and that they were about to score the greatest victory that the world had ever seen. Intending to smash the French in one big battle, they now had formed a still bigger scheme. Swinging on the fortress of Verdun (var dun '(g)) as a pivot, they set out to sweep the whole French army south and eastward, fence it in with its back to Swit- zerland, cut it off from its supplies, and capture the entire million men at once ! Faster and faster swung the German right wing, commanded by the redoubt- able Von Kluck. They had started for Paris, but here was bigger game. With the French army des- troyed or captured they could loot Paris at their leisure. Meanwhile there had been appointed as military © Keystone View Co., Inc. General Joffre WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 79 governor of the capital city, a remarkable old man, General Gallieni (gal ya/ni) . He had fought all over the world under the tricolored flag. "I have been commanded by the government to hold this city against the enemy," said he to the down-hearted citizens. "That command will I obey to the end." Ah, that sounded bet- ter. Here was a man and a fighter, in spite of his seventy years. And Paris armed itself, gritted its teeth, and muttered "jusqu'au bout!" (zhoosk- 6-boo), (to the end). It was the first week in September. The great retreat was still in prog- ress. Six great German armies were 'rushing southward, driving before them the apparently broken and disorganized French, and the little British force, like leaves before an autumn wind. They had crossed the Marne, and, neglect- ing Paris, left it behind on the right. The moment for which Joffre had been waiting was here. At last his army, at the important points at least, was nearly equal in numbers to that of the Germans. The far-seeing Joffre had formed a new Keystone View Co., Inc. General Gallieni 8o HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR army, under the General Manoury (manoo'ri), and slipped it north unnoticed by the Germans, until it stood on Von Kluck's unprotected -right flank. E.VGfUND po^ er English Channel THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE ' —i French troops wmmmm British troops ^hmh^b German troops r."-v.rr zi Position of Germans after the battle Williams Engraving Co., N.y. 1 The Taxicab army 2 Sixth French army - Manoury 3 British army - Sir John French 4 French cavalry - Conneau 5 Fifth French army - Franchet d'Esperey 6 Ninth French army - Foch 7 French corps stopping gap in line 8 Fourth French army - Langle de Gary 9 French corps stopping gap I O Third French army - Sarrail f J French armies of Lorraine and Alsace - I 3 S f t ' t " era ' s Vubail, de Castelnau and Pau A First German army - von Kluck B Second German army - von Billow C Third German army - von Hausen D Fourth German army - Duke of Wuriemberg E Fifth German army - the Croivn Prince 8 German armies of the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the Kaiser, and vonHeeringen I Austrian corps lent to Germany "Strike," said Joffre, and Manoury struck. Taken by surprise, but able and resourceful, Von Kluck turned part of his army to face these new opponents. WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 81 Manoury's army was a small one and, even with the British attacking on the south, Von Kluck's men were not outnumbered. The Germans were brought to a standstill on the extreme western front end of the line, but they were still far from beaten. At the same time JorTre sent out the command all along the two hundred mile front — ' ' The hour has come to advance ; cost what it may ! The men will die where they stand rather than to retreat a step further." That was what the French were waiting for ! Like hunting dogs that have been held in leash too long, they sprang at these invaders who had been devastating their lands, burning their homes, and killing their people. For two days the battle raged furiously. The little British force, wedged in on the French left between Manoury's men and the Fifth French Army of Franchet D'Esperey (fran sha des' pra), fought valorously, forgetting its long retreat, and the heavy punishment it had taken. The battle between Von Kluck on the one side and Manoury and the British on the other was long and doubtful. On the second day of the fight, Joflre sent word to Gallieni: " Every available man to aid Manoury!" The old man, full of resource, seized every one of the five thousand taxicabs in the city and loaded them to full, ten soldiers to the cab. Old veterans, policemen, anybody who had a rifle, all were piled in. Out from the city sped these thousands of cars and suddenly 82 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR on the flank of the astonished Von Kluck appeared this new French army, as though let down from the clouds. Caught between the taxicab men, Manoury, and the British, Von Kluck found himself in a trap. Scenting the danger, he gave the order to retreat. By the narrowest of margins he got away, but it was a narrow escape. If the British had not been so ex- hausted from their continuous fighting and marching, if they had been able to pursue as Joffre hoped, Von Kluck' s whole army might have been cut off. Meanwhile, to the eastward, the Germans were striking heavy blows. The battle wavered. A ninth French army, made up at the last moment of late arrivals, had been thrown into the center and placed under the command of Joffre' s most trusted helper, Foch (fosh) , the professor of strategy and tactics at the Military College. At last came a time when the Germans, in order to strike heavier blows on the sides, had withdrawn some of the troops that had been hammering Foch's army. Like a flash, Joffre saw his opportunity. He sent word to Foch that he might strike. Back came the word, "My right is defeated, my left is thrown back, I shall attack with my center." And the vigorous thrust that followed broke clear through the German lines. On the third day the battle was no longer doubtful. Von Kluck and Von Biilow, on the German right, were headed northward on the double quick. Von Hausen, next in order, WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 83 had to move back, too, or he would have been caught in the rush of victorious French. In front of Foch were only broken fragments of what had been an army. The great General Staff had gambled and lost. Such was the famous first battle of the Marne, fought for the most part miles south of that river. Had it gone the other way it is hard to say how fatal would have been the result. France, with the small but valiant help of the "Old Contemptibles," had saved herself and civilization. For years and years the German Junkers had planned this smash at France. For this the great guns had been made, for this the "strategic" railroads built, for this thousands and thousands of shells and rounds of ammunition had been stored away, for this whole factories built. For this special occasion millions of uniforms had been made, of a special gray-green cloth, that made the wearers very hard to see against field or wood or hillside. (The French fought for the first six months in their old red trousers and dark blue coats, which made them plain targets for the German rifles.) For this thousands of German spies had lied and stolen General Foch as He Appeared Early in the War 84 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR and filled France with their plottings. For this thousands and thousands of German officers had spent the best years of their lives drilling and planning. The towns which, a few days before, had seen a haughty, arrogant army of conquerors striding south- ward in the wake of the French, now saw those same hosts spurring frantically in a frenzy of fear, rushing northward almost in a panic, just extricating them- selves, with the loss of their baggage, from the jaws of Joffre's trap, which closed, hungrily, behind them. Among the baggage was a trunk full of medals. These were marked: "The Germans in Paris — 1814 — 1871 — 1914." Just north of the little River Aisne and paralleling its course for a considerable distance stretches a chain of low hills. Here, with true German foresight, the General Staff had had some trenches dug, taking ad- vantage of numerous French stone quarries which could easily be defended. Into this haven rushed the panting warriors of Von Kluck and Von Bulow. Close at their heels were the. French and the British. But here was a real fortress to be stormed, with trenches, dugouts, and ramparts, all manned with machine guns and backed up by. field artillery. After vainly trying the ends of this line of trenches, the Allies, too, dug themselves in, and a new phase of the war had begun. People all over the world who were following closely the progress of the armies, failed, at first, to understand what had happened. Days and weeks went by and yet there was little WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 85 change in the position of the two armies. The news- papers talked about the ''Battle of the Aisne" and spoke of the fact that it was the longest battle in the history of the world. As a matter of fact, it had ceased to be a battle — it had become a siege. Old "Papa" JofTre was soon on the scene. He swung a new army (the Tenth, under General Maud'huy) (mod'we) up towards the north, trying to get around the end of the German line. But it met, face to face, overwhelming new masses of Ger- mans, who, as soon as they could be armed and. fitted out, were being rushed to the west in fast moving trains. Both armies struck, recoiled, and dug them- selves in. And now began that part of the fighting which is known as "the race to the sea." While JofTre was straining every nerve to throw new armies to the north and thus get around behind the Germans' line, more and more Germans were being hurried west- ward to meet the new armies of France. As each arrived, and was unable to get around behind the enemy's line, the line of trenches was pushed further and further northward. Early in October the great siege guns were brought up by the Germans to crush the forts of Antwerp, where the Belgian army had taken refuge. An English naval brigade had landed to help the Belgians, but British and natives were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by the con- stantly growing gray-green horde from the east. It soon became evident to all that Antwerp could 86 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR not be defended, so the garrison retreated in a south- westerly direction along the coast to meet their friends ^"^-ZVO-R TH SEA England) ^v: English Channel F Paris II ~ — v s)\ 3 // V '• y *» \£ Y s* A- \ i **• ° H w \ r\ ^V Uarn THE RETREAT FROM ANTWERP AND THE RACE FOR THE SEA m French troops British troops Belgian troops i German troops A A French troops moving north to overlap the German line B B French troops ready to replace the British in the trenches along the Aisne C The British force, moved north into Belgium by the path - » D D German troops moving westward to overlap the French line E E E German troops besieging Antwerp F F 77ie Belgian army defending Antwerp G British naval brigade, helping to defend Antwerp < Route along which British and Belgians retreated from Antwerp 7Zzz:".z Line finally formed reaching to the sea H H H Trench system reaching from Switzerland and being extended northward "by the race for the sea advancing northward through France. The Germans strove hard to cut them off, but the strong defense of Ghent by the British held up the attacking troops WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 87 until the retiring Belgians had reached the line of the Yser River and Canal, in very truth the last ditch in Belgium. The parallel lines of trenches now stretched from Switzerland to the North Sea, across all northern France, a distance of some three hundred fifty miles. General French, Commander of the British, had suggested to Joffre that the British be swung around from their place in the line near Soissons (swa s6n'(g)) , where they had ' ' dug in ' ' after chasing Von Kluck to the Aisne, to the left flank of the armies of the north, with the idea of reaching Lille before the Germans should seize it. Accordingly, this was done. New French troops, raised from among the older men, slipped quietly in and took the places of the British. The latter sped northward, filling in the curve in the allied line about the Belgian city of Ypres (eepr). Hardly had they dug their trenches, when new German forces, partly the army that had just captured Antwerp and partly fresh troops consisting of young boys and older men not called out in the first rush, began a powerful attack on the twenty miles of Allied trenches that were nearest to the sea. The last eight miles were held by the Belgians, the next five by the French marines, then came the British. It must be remembered that France had a popula- tion of only 40,000,000 people from which to draw. Behind the German trenches were three and a half million French, from whom only the young men 88 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR between twenty-one and twenty-four years of age had made their way into the army. This left only 36,500,000 people to draw from as compared with Germany's 68,000,000. Every able-bodied man in both countries had been trained to fight, and as the war went on the older men were called out until all men under fifty years of age had been pressed into the army, with the exception of the skilled work- ers in the steel plants where the shells and big guns were made. In England men were joining the army, but six months of training were required before they were ready to be sent into battle. So in October and November Germany was able to send great masses of men, far outnumbering the French and British, to attack the new-made trenches along the shores of the North Sea. It was announced that the ports of France directly across from England, Dunkirk, and Calais, were to be captured by the Ger- mans in order that they might carry on a war by sub- marine boats against English ships. The attack began on October 15. Germans rushed on the trenches of the little Belgian army close to the sea. For a solid week there was no rest for the gallant defenders. The great German guns pounded them with thousands and thousands of huge shells. Then the guns would rest while the flood of gray- green infantry poured across the land between the two lines of trenches. Charge after charge was driven back by the steadiness and sheer grit of the WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 89 defenders. The Belgians, the French Marines, and the British never wavered. If the Germans swarmed into their trenches, as happened several times in the course of the week, they re-formed back of the lost ground, and then, counter-charging, drove out the assailants. Along the coast the British navy lent its powerful help. Monitors, carrying big guns, but drawing little water, sailed up into the shallow water close to the shore and sent death and destruction into the ranks of the charging Germans. Finally, it seemed that the Belgians could bear no more. The men had had no rest for days. Standing in water up to their knees, sleeping in mudholes or in dugouts swarming with vermin, harried by the big German shells morning and night, they were at the end of their endurance. There were no troops to relieve them, while the Germans, after one battle, could be drawn back of the lines for a rest, as fresh troops took their places in the front line trenches. The memories of Leyden came to their help. A great deal of the land where the Germans stood was below sea level at high tide. Just as the Dutch had let in the sea to drive out the Spaniards, so the Bel- gians now sent out their engineers, who by opening the gates when the tide was high and closing them when it was low, began a systematic flooding of the land where the Germans had intrenched them- selves. On the 27th of October the Germans noticed a slow rising of the water in their trenches. On the next 90 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR day it was still higher. They sent out their scouts to find the gates and close them, but the Belgians kept the secret too well. A furious German assault was now ordered to gain, at all costs, the dry land south of the Yser before the water should drive them out of their trenches altogether. But help had come at last. A new French division from the south relieved the jaded Belgians and took the brunt of the attack. It was a failure. The charging masses were sent reeling back. And now, with the water rapidly rising behind them, the Germans in turn were in danger. With a shout of triumph the French and Belgians charged in their turn and threw the Germans back across the Yser and into the water, now three or four feet deep. Numbers of them were drowned, for they fell into the canals, whose location could no longer be discovered. Abandoning their guns and baggage the Germans fled. For a space by the sea there was peace ! But in the end this trick of the Belgians only nar- rowed the righting front. Driven from the Yser, the Germans fell, with redoubled efforts, upon the little British army guarding the city of Ypres. Not only were the defenders outnumbered two to one, but they had guns that carried only half as far as those of the Germans. A battery of big German cannon could retire far beyond the range of the Brit- ish and French guns, and then demolish them at their leisure. Another advantage that the Germans had WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 91 over the Allies was the fact that the great arms fac- tories of Germany had been producing shells in count- less numbers, all stored up for the day when Germany should decide to impose her civilization on an unwill- ing world. The English shells were so few that some guns were ordered to fire only once in four hours ! Against all these terrible odds the little British army, their faithful allies from India, and their gallant French comrades, struggled tenaciously. "The English are a stubborn people," the Kaiser had said, as he mourned their entrance into the war. But the Belgian and French soldiers, to the consterna- tion of their enemies and the joy and pride of the people in the allied lands, showed the same dogged, obstinate, enduring courage as the British. General Foch, late professor of the Military College, was put by Joffre in command of the armies of the north. The British, no less than the French, admired and trusted him. In spite of their grievous losses, in spite of their lack of guns and shells, in spite of the weary weeks in the rain-soaked trenches, the courage of the armies of Flanders burned high. Meanwhile, rage and impatience rilled the German commanders. They had said that they would break through and capture the Channel ports, and after three weeks of steady assaults, they were no nearer than at the beginning. The Kaiser himself came to make speeches to the troops ; the famous Prussian Guard, made up of the crack fighters of the whole German army, was brought up, and all the heavy guns 92 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR on the north of the long battle line were gathered for one last grand assault. On the nth of November, there suddenly burst out a cannonade which made everything that had gone before seem like child's play. The British trenches in some places were simply blotted out by the infernal rain of steel. After so many shells had been hurled at them that it seemed as if no living thing could remain in the zone of fire, the guns suddenly ceased and fifteen regiments of the Prus- sian Guard, emerging from the woods that hid the German trenches, rushed on the double-quick toward the line where the English trenches had been. And then, wonder of wonders, the few who survived in the front trenches crawled out of their holes, and with rifle and machine gun riddled the advancing masses. Straight on the Germans came, however, in spite of fearful losses. Far away, out of reach of a stray Brit- ish shell, through his powerful glasses, the Kaiser was watching them. In three places they broke through. No more British in the way — the road to Calais was open. One battalion, in fact, was in a position to turn and take in the rear the British in the adjoining trench. But they had lost their officers — and there was nobody to tell them what to do, and so, like good obedient German soldiers, they did nothing ! Mean- while, help was at hand. From both sides the British rallied to fill the breach. Order was forgotten as WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 93 German and Briton fought it out with cold steel, hand to hand. In the end British pluck and tenacity won, in spite of the superior numbers of the attacking forces. Back to their own trenches fled the shattered remains of the Kaiser's crack troops. The battalion that was waiting for orders finally got them — from a British officer. He told them to drop their arms and surrender. They obeyed ! The drive for the Channel ports was over. Six hundred thousand Germans, attacking on a front of less than thirty miles, although backed by the biggest guns in the world and supplied with countless shells, had been unable to drive out half their number of Allies. The German General Staff knew what their own soldiers could do, but it had never occurred to them that British, French, and Belgians might do as much, and a little bit more ! , Meanwhile Hindenburg, now commander-in-chief of the Austro-German armies on the eastern front, was seesawing back and forth with the Rus- sians. He had not more than two million men, of whom over two- thirds were Austrians, while the Rus- sian army opposed to him probably numbered three million. But the excellent system of railroads along the German and Austrian boundaries made it pos- sible for Hindenburg to shoot his troops around the slow-moving Russians, attacking them at unex- pected places, and always outnumbering them where the actual fighting was going on. There were few railroads in Russian Poland, and these did not run 94 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR parallel to the boundary line. The wagon roads were poor, and it was very hard for the Russians to bring shells, guns, and ammunition in large enough quantities from Moscow and Petrograd. About the first of October, the Germans and Aus- trians with fresh troops and new guns made a rapid advance. They proposed to take the city of War- saw and drive the Russians out of Poland. But new Russian regiments were rushed up and the march of the invaders was stopped just west of the Polish capital. A fierce battle took place, and the Austro- German forces had to retreat. On their heels came the triumphant Russians. They surrounded for a second time an Austrian army in the big fortress of Przemysl (prshemi'sl) , swarmed over the Carpathian Mountains into the plain of Hungary, approached within a few miles of Cracow and even invaded the German states of Posen and Silesia. But again the strategic railways came to Hin- denburg's aid. It was the middle of November and the great drive on the Channel ports had just failed. Several German divisions from northern France were hurried into trains and hurled eastward to stop this new Russian invasion. Rushing them around the northern and southern borders of Poland, Hindenburg struck the flanks of the Russian armies such heavy blows that he stopped their forward march and sent them reeling back. A great wing of the southern army was surrounded and Berlin began to celebrate a wonderful victory. But the celebration WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 95 was started a little too soon. The Grand Duke Nicholas rushed to the scene of battle the garrisons of the near-by forts (like Gallieni and the taxicab men) and flung them on the rear of the encircling German army. The Germans in turn were caught between two fires. The surrounded armies on both sides cut themselves out, but the losses were terrible. The traitorous Rennenkampf a second time failed his chief ; otherwise there might have been a great German disaster. Once more Hindenburg struck for Warsaw, but once more he had to confess defeat. The year 19 14 closed with the Germans holding a considerable part of western Russian Poland, but, on the other hand, the Russians had not released their hold on East Prussia, and they held almost all Austrian Galicia, as well as the mountain barrier between this state and the Hungarian plain. In the midst of all the fighting among the men of the five great nations, we have completely ignored the fortunes of little Serbia. We last heard that the Austrians were bombarding Belgrade, and flinging their troops across the river which separated the two countries. For some weeks the Austrians con- tinued to advance, devastating the country and driving before them the Serbian troops. But the rapid successes of the Russians in Galicia had kept the Vienna government from sending more troops for the ' ' punishment ' ' of the Serbs. The little group of fighters from the South gathered all their forces, fell upon the Austrians at the river Jadar (ya'dar) and 96 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR put them to a disgraceful rout. Joined by their kins- men from the little Serb state of Montenegro, they now began an invasion of Bosnia, where lived two million Serbs who longed to be free of Austrian rule. This happened in the latter part of August and the first half of September. About the middle of September, the Russians having been beaten by Hindenburg, the Austrians breathed more easily for a time, and began a second invasion of the little kingdom to the south. This was on a bigger scale than the first attempt, and made deeper inroads into the country. The little Serbian army fought desperately, and the people of the in- vaded lands lost no opportunity to harass and annoy the invaders. These, in turn, particularly the Hun- garian troops, treated the inhabitants with barbarous cruelty, revenging the murder of one Hungarian soldier by the execution, in cold blood, of the inhabi- tants of a whole village. The retreating Serbian troops had few guns, and were almost out of ammunition. At last, by way of Greece, fresh ammunition came. The Russians were again striking heavy blows in the north, and some of the Hungarian troops had to be rushed up to pre- vent the invasion of their own country. The Serbs rose to the occasion. Their aged king called together as many as could hear him and made them a stirring speech. ' ' Heroes, ' ' said he, " you have sworn an oath to defend me and another to defend your country. I am an old, broken man on the edge WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 97 of the grave. I release you from your oath to me. If you have come to the end of your endurance, go home ! I am going forward, to drive the hated in- vaders out of my land or to die by an Austrian bullet." And he gave the order to advance. With a yell of fierce desperation, the Serbs rallied for an attack. With the old king leading them, as he had promised, they stormed the Austrian center. On December 3, everywhere along the line the Austrians were in headlong flight. By the 14th, the retreating army had fled across the Danube, and the next day King Peter, at the head of his troops, reentered Belgrade, his capital city, amid the wild enthusiasm of his liberated people. The little "punishing expedition" had not proved the conspicuous success that Vienna and Berlin had expected ! QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why did the Germans expect Belgium to grant them free passage for their armies ? 2. Why was it a great help to France to have Belgium oppose the Germans ? 3. Why were the Germans, as they said, "in a state of necessity" ? 4. Why were the Germans so surprised when Great Britain de- clared war ? 5. How does the "scrap of paper" incident reflect upon Junker honor ? 6. How did Great Britain's entry change Germany's plans? 7. Why did the Germans feel so much hatred for England? 8. How did Germany hope to bring Italy into the war? 9. Why had France feared a German invasion? 10. What was the effect of the Tzar's order against vodka? 98 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 11. Why was Hindenburg called from retirement? 12. What did the Grand Duke Nicholas do in the first six weeks? 13. What was the result of Rennenkampf's treachery? 14. How did the "Old Contemptibles " gain their name? 15. What was the feeling of the French during the retreat before the Germans? 16. What was Joffre's plan and what was the plan of the Germans? 17. How was Von Kluck trapped? 18. What was the result of the First Battle of the Marne? 19. How did the Battle of the Aisne become a siege? 20. Why was Germany able to put bigger armies into the field than Great Britain and France combined? 21. How did the Belgians hold the line of the Yser River? 22. What saved the Channel ports? 23. How did King Peter of Serbia revive the courage of his men? CHAPTER V The Seven Seas and the Six Continents The great review of the Grand Fleet. — Enter the submarine. — How Germany seized from Japan the spoils of the Chinese war. — Japan's revenge. — The three men who ruled Turkey. — ■ The Goeben and the Breslau. — The unprovoked attack on Russia. — A new kind of jehad. — The expeditions into Egypt and Meso- potamia. — The German raiders. — The battle in the Pacific. — The revenge of the British. — The Boers of South Africa. — The loss of the German colonies. — Contraband of war. — The submarine attacks on merch ntmen. — The coast raiders and their punishment. It was Winston Churchill who did it ; not Winston Churchill, the American, author of many popular books, but his namesake in Great Britain, great- great-great-great-grandson of the famous British general John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. If the British fleet had been scattered when war broke out, so that the Germans, by rushing out with their whole fleet, could have destroyed the British ships a few at a time, Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Navy (or Admiralty, as they call it in England) would have been the person blamed. But Winston Churchill had called the Grand Fleet to- gether for a great review, in the latter part of July, and after the review was over he had refused to let them separate again, for the Austrian note had been 99 IOO HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR sent to Serbia and — well, it would do no harm to be on the safe side. And so, on August 4, when Germany refused to draw T back her troops from Belgian soil, the waters of the North Sea were ploughed by the mighty dreadnoughts and cruis- ers of Great Britain, and the Kaiser's sailors who had so long clam- ored for w the Day " when they might be allowed to attack the British navy, thought better of it, and concluded that the Kiel Canal was a very healthful spot in which to stay, after all ! True, German war- ships did venture out every now and then, to a short distance and in small numbers. But even this proved to be dan- gerous. For in the latter part of August some German cruisers, w T ith destroyers and submarines in company with them, were chasing two British light cruisers and some small torpedo boats when up came Admiral Beatty (ba'ty) with some larger British ships. Three German cruisers were quickly set on fire and sunk by the well-aimed fire of Keystone View Co., Inc Winston Churchill THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 101 Beatty's flagship Lion and her sister ships. There was considerable danger from the German subma- rine boats, but Beatty and his captains took the risk and returned in safety. It was not long, however, before the Germans had their revenge. In the latter part of September, three British armored cruisers, sister ships, built all alike, were struck in quick succession by the torpedoes of a single German submarine. They were the Rogue, the Cressy, and the Aboukir* The Aboukir was struck first, and the others could have escaped had they taken warning. They could not bear to leave the men from their sister ship struggling in the water, however, so they rushed to the rescue, and to their doom. A Dutch captain, whose sailing vessel at that moment was crossing the North Sea, was called up on deck by one of his men, who said that there were three British warships in sight. He looked, but could see only two. A moment later he glanced in that direction again, and there was only one. Gasping with astonishment, he saw the last ship heel over slowly and disappear beneath the waves. A thou- sand gallant men would never serve England again. A great peril lurked in the waters around Great Britain. The British fleet grew cautious. New boats were built to hunt submarines, aircraft were perfected which could look down into the depths and sight them, but still the losses kept up. Three more warships in 19 14 met the same fate as the Cressy and her sisters. 102 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Let us leave European waters for the time being and see what was happening in the Far East. You will recall a reference, in Chapter I, to a threat of the "mailed fist" directed against Japan and China. In 1895, after Japan had been the victor in a short war with China, she proposed to annex the Liaotung (lee ah'o tung') peninsula, a strip of land extending southward into the Gulf of Pechili. Certain European countries, however, especially Germany and Russia, had hoped to secure part of this land for themselves. Chinese trade promised to be profitable, and they did not propose to let Japan have too much of it. Accordingly Germany and Russia each warned Japan that she would not be permitted to keep the peninsula. The German note was very polite, but contained a slightly veiled threat. It said that the German gov- ernment ' ' hoped for the best interests of peace in the Far East that Japan would be willing to withdraw from the occupied territory." Japan had no inten- tion of fighting Russia and Germany combined, so, in the " interests of peace," she sullenly gave up the spoils of her victory. Only two years after this, in an outbreak against European peoples, who were turning many China- men away from the religion of their fathers, two German missionaries in China were killed. They belonged to a religious order all members of which had been driven out of Germany by the Kaiser, but THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 103 this made no difference. Their memory suddenly became very dear to him. The German admiral in the Far East landed his marines and took forcible possession of Kiaochow peninsula. The Kaiser notified the Chinese that as a payment for the death of these two Germans, he intended to keep possession of Kiaochow, one of the best harbors and most valuable trading ports of all China. The Chinese were helpless in the matter, and the Germans stayed. In the seventeen years that followed they made of the city of Tsingtau, at the end of the peninsula, a model German colony. The Japanese, meanwhile, had not forgotten that the Germans had done to China just what they had forbidden Japan to do. Accordingly, on the 16th of August, 1 9 14, when the World War was just two weeks old, and the great English fleet was sweeping the sea clear of German ships, Japan sent a polite note to Germany suggesting that Kiaochow be turned over to the Japanese for safe-keeping, and hoping "for the best interests of peace in the Far East that Germany would be willing to withdraw from the occupied territory." Imagine the rage of the Germans ! They had spent millions of dollars on this colony and were expecting great things of it, and now when it was about to be taken from them they were helpless to prevent it. They consoled themselves by telling each other all the fearful things they would do to Japan, after they had finished off Russia, France, and Great Britain. 104 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR The garrison of Tsingtau fought well. Japanese troops shut them off from any possible retreat to the westward. On all other sides of them stood the warships of Great Britain and Japan, pounding, pounding with their heavy guns. For two months they held out, but it was only a question of time. On the sixth of November a joint attack by the Brit- ish and Japanese captured the most important forts, and the next day the garrison surrendered. One Austrian cruiser and six small German warships which had lain in the harbor were sunk by their own crews to prevent their capture by the enemy. The fruits of two decades of extortion and violence were lost. Again the scene of our story shifts, this time to the Near East. Baron von Wangenheim, at Constanti- nople, was by far the most influential of the ambas- sadors. He represented Germany, and Germany, in the minds of the men who controlled the Turkish government, was the one strong friend that they possessed. These men were none too sure of " hold- ing their jobs," for they owed their rise to force, and deserved no good at the hands of the Turk- ish people. While there was a Sultan on the throne and a Grand Vizier acting, to all appearances, as his prime minister, the real power was in the hands of three men : Talaat (ta'lat) , Enver, and Djemal (dja'mal). Behind them was the so-called "Com- mittee of Union and Progress," a crowd of active leaders who ' ' bossed ' ' the ' ' Young Turk ' 'party. The THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 105 " Young Turks " had driven one Sultan off the throne, and had the present one so cowed that they forced him to sign an order for the beheading of his own son-in-law, who was thought to be plot- ting against the "Committee of Union and Prog- ress." Talaat was a big, powerful man, who had fought and bullied his way to power. In his early days he had been a telegraph operator and before that a mail-carrier. En- ver, too, came from the common people. He was small, but cool and resolute, and was a dead shot with a pistol. Dje- mal was noted for his cold-blooded cruelty to those who stood in his way. Such were the three men who really ruled Turkey. As Minister of War, Enver controlled the army; Talaat, Minister of the Interior, controlled the levy- ing of the taxes ; Djemal, Minister of Marine, was in charge of the navy. © Keystone View Co., Inc. Talaat Pasha in Berlin io6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Wangenheim and Liman von Sanders, the German general who had been drilling the Turkish army, had persuaded the three "bosses" that their only chance of retaining their power was to join forces with the German war machine. The three knew that the great majority of the better class of Turks de- spised them, and they felt the need of German help. The Germans, in turn, were using these adventurers simply for their own purposes. The Young Turks, knowing that the victory of Russia in the great war meant an end to their hold on Constantinople, were ready, at the beginning, to throw their lot in with Germany and Austria. When the Goeben (gu'ben) and the Breslau (bres'low), two power- ful German warships, were caught at the beginning of the war in the Mediterranean and were chased by the British and French fleets, they made for the Dardanelles. The Allies had not thought of guarding this strait, for it was neutral water, and under the rules Turkey would have to force them to "move on" within twenty-four hours. If they moved into the Black Sea, the Russian warships were waiting for them. If they came out into the ^Egean, there were the English and French. They did neither ! When the twenty-four hours had gone by, the French and British Ambassadors at Constantinople called on the Turks to order them away and were told that the two ships had been "sold" to Turkey. The Allies knew that the Turks were lying about the THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 107 "sale" of the ships, but they were afraid to press the case, for fear Turkey should come out openly to join the Germans. It was the latter part of October. Things were Keystone View Co.. Inc. The Goeben off Constantinople going badly for Germany. The great drive into Poland had been repulsed with slaughter. The sacrifice of her best troops against the thin Franco- Belgian- British line in Flanders (the southwestern corner of Belgium) was gaining her no ground. The Austrians had been thrown out of Serbia. Wan- genheim did not want Turkey to enter the war, if Germany and Austria could win without her, for 108 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR if Turkey entered the Turks would demand a share of the plunder when the war was over. But things were getting serious. Something was needed to cheer the drooping spirits of the German people. On October 29, the Sultan Selim and the Midullu, once known as the Goeben and the Breslau, flying Turkish flags, but manned and commanded by their own German officers and crews, steamed across the Black Sea and, bombarded, without any warning, the Russian ports of Odessa and Theodosia. Panic seized the older men in the Turkish govern- ment. They saw themselves drawn into the war on the losing side, and could look ahead to the final end of Turkish rule in Constantinople as a result of this act. There was a hastily called meeting of the Cabinet, and the Grand Vizier and other old governmental leaders wished to disclaim all responsibility for the act of the German Admiral. Talaat and Enver, however, were bent on war. They pointed out that Turkey had already sworn to the Entente (the French name for the English-French-Russian alliance) that Germany had ''sold" these ships to Turkey, so that their acts now could not be disavowed. Fi- nally, Enver, in an icy voice, cut the discussion short by saying, "As Minister of War, I take full respon- sibility for this act. If anybody wishes to discuss it further, I shall be pleased to go into the matter with him alone." He laid a pistol on the table, looking around to see who would take up his chal- THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 109 lenge. The man was a dead shot — it would have been suicide for any of the opposing party to fight a duel with him — so he won — won by his nerve and the timidity of the others. Russia promptly declared war. France and Brit- ain followed her. A great Turkish army started for the Caucasus district, another for Egypt, where the British were in control, although Egypt was still supposed to be part of the Turkish empire, and still paid tribute to Constan- tinople. You will remember that the Kaiser had counted on a " jehad" or holy war of the Mohammedans against the Christians. There were millions of these followers of the Prophet in the lands ruled over by Britain, France, and Russia. It was expected that through all northern Africa, India, and Turkestan the true believers of the Moham- medan faith would rise up at the command of the Sheik-ul-Islam, the mighty head of the church, to slaughter their Christian neighbors. The Sheik, obedient to the command of the Committee of Union and -Progress, as voiced Enver Pasha HO HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR by the Sultan of Turkey, proclaimed the jehad. But it was a peculiar kind of jehad — different from all other jehads of the past. It appeared that there were two special kinds of giaours (heathen) who must not be killed. The true Mohammedan must slay all Christians — except the German and Austrian Chris- tians ; — for some reason or other the jehad did not apply to them ! In fact, the command to kill the in- fidel English and Russians, in many cases, was given to the Turks by an infidel Prussian officer. Do you wonder that the jehad failed ? The fa- natic, the one kind of man to whom this order would appeal, could see no difference between German and Austrian unbelievers and any other kind. He wanted to kill all ; — so this order seemed to him irregular and improper. The sensible Mohammedan knew that his French and English rulers had treated him well. They were in trouble — attacked by some "outcaste" Germans, and needed his help. The Bedouins and Moors in the French army, the Indians in the British army, remained true to their rulers. Once more the Germans had made a poor guess. An expedition was fitted out to reconquer Egypt, under the command of Djemal. Meanwhile a British force had landed at the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, as the lower part of the Eu- phrates River is called, and was slowly making its way up the valley of Mesopotamia. Its aim was finally to capture Bagdad, the great city on the THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS in Tigris, the eastern end of the great Middle-Europe railway. The Turk was going to have trouble in guard- ing his own territory. England had command of the seas and from scattered parts of the globe came her sturdy sons, responding to the call of the mother land. Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Indians, all were eager to enlist. This Mesopotamian army was made up largely of troops, both native and European, who had served in India. The command of the sea helped wonderfully. British troop ships and merchant vessels came and went, unhindered. True, a few German vessels, for the first three or four months of the war, still roamed the sea, steaming desperately from harbor to harbor and playing hide and seek with British, Australian, and Japanese boats. Two cruisers, one the Emden, the other the Karlsruhe, sailed about, capturing and sinking the Allies' merchantmen and doing a great deal of damage. Both finally went down, the Emden sunk by the Australian cruiser Sydney in the Indian Ocean. A squadron of five strong German cruisers kept together as they crossed the Pacific Ocean. On November i , they fell in with a fleet of British ships, three cruisers and an armed passenger steamer, and immediately gave battle. The Germans had the bigger guns and the heavier armor. They had the advantage of the light, for they were on the dark side H2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR of the British, while the latter were plainly visible to them against a bright horizon. The battle was short. Two British cruisers went down, carrying to death most of their officers and men and Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, commander of the fleet. The third cruiser and the liner escaped. There was one other British ship in South American waters. This was the battleship Canopus. The British now laid a clever trap for the German squadron. A wireless message was sent out to the Canopus ordering her to report to the Falkland Islands the first week in December. As was in- tended, the Germans picked this message out of the air. They took the bait. The Canopus had heavier guns than any one of the five German cruisers, but would be no match for the five com- bined. The German squadron passed through the Straits of Magellan on the track of the Canopus, headed for the Falklands. In the meantime a fast squadron of two powerful battle cruisers and four lighter cruisers had left Eng- land on November 10. They arrived at the Falk- land Islands on the 7th of December, and found the Canopus there to join them. The trap was set. Next morning the lookout announced that strange warships were approaching. These were the German cruisers who, having learned beyond question that the Canopus was there, had assembled to destroy her. Yes, she was there, without doubt. The Germans could see her tops across the tongue of land that THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 113 separated the harbor from the ocean, and as they came within range, her big guns opened fire. On came the Germans: — they had expected this. But something else besides the Canopus was now visible in the harbor, and from another point broke out the fire of big guns, as the Inflexible and Invincible be- gan to speak. The Germans turned, and ran for their lives. The hunters had become the hunted. After them raced the avengers, swift in their wake. Recognizing at once that he had fallen into a trap, the German Admiral, Count von Spee (shpay) or- dered his squadron to scatter. His two heavily armored cruisers, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, which, he hoped, might defend themselves, kept together, while the Dresden, the Niirnberg, and the Leipzig took different courses. But the British scattered, too. The fast Carnar- von and the two battle cruisers kept after the two larger ships of the enemy, while the light cruisers chased the smaller three. With the light British squadron was the Glasgow, a survivor of Admiral Cradock's fleet, now helping to avenge her lost mates. The fight was short. The Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, finding that their speed would not save them, turned to put up the best fight that they could. As they were soon seen to be burning and sinking, the British ceased fire, and lowered all boats to pick up the survivors. In a short time both had gone down, and the British boats were busy rescuing the German H4 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR sailors who were struggling in the chilly waters of the South Atlantic. Down, too, went the Leipzig and the N umber g, overtaken and sunk by the stronger British ships. The Dresden alone, thanks to better speed and to the different direction which she followed, was able to make a South American port. She was later caught and sunk in Chilean waters. Admiral Sturdee had avenged the disastrous defeat of his friend Cradock, and the seas were once more swept clean of the German flag. One of the great hopes of the Germans after Great Britain entered the war was that subject peoples in British colonies or in countries under British protec- tion would rise in rebellion. Fear of such uprisings in Ireland, India, Egypt, and South Africa had been counted on, in Berlin, to keep England neutral. But many of the Irish forgot their differences for the time being, and the In- dians and the Egyptians loyally stood by their protectors. The troops of the Union of South Africa, led by General Botha, who thirteen years before had been one of the best generals of the Boers in their war against Great Britain, started an invasion of the German colony of Southwest Africa. But some of these Dutch farmers were obstinate and stubborn in their hatred of their conquerors. The leader of the group who refused to be placated was the famous General Christian De Wet, who, together THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 115 with Botha and Cronje, had been one of the chief leaders in the war against the British. No sooner had Botha and his loyal troops started on their conquest of the near-by German colony, than this chieftain, aided by Colonels Beyers and Maritz, raised, the standard of revolt, and called on all Boers to rise against the tyranny of Great Britain. Great rejoicing took place in Berlin when this news reached the Germans. The British empire was going to fall to pieces at last. But alas for Ger- man hopes ! The average Boer farmer was thoroughly satisfied with the treatment that Great Britain had given him. They had allowed him the use of his lan- guage in the schools ; they had given him the right to govern himself. In fact, the Prime Minister and the majority of the government officials were Boers. He saw nothing to gain by enlisting in a hopeless cause, led by the sullen, hot-headed De Wet. The latter gathered a few kindred spirits around him, but the great majority of the Boers stood firm. Botha turned back ; and sorrowfully he and General Smuts, with their loyal troops, surrounded and cap- tured the little band led by their former comrades. De Wet tried to break through the ring and was shot. Beyers was drowned while trying to ford a swollen river. Maritz was captured. The rebellion at an end, the South African troops once more turned west and in a short time had rounded up and captured the German forces in the Southwest African colony. n6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Meanwhile, what was happening to the rest of the German colonial empire ? In losing Southwest Africa the Germans had lost a province with an area as large as Germany itself. There were three other colonies in Africa that were to follow. Togoland had been quickly captured. The Cameroon country is much larger and was harder to get through. French and British forces, however, worked together ; and by July, 191 6, German resistance in this great territory had ceased. German East Africa, however, proved a much harder nut to crack. Belgian troops .from the Congo cleaned up Lake Tanganyika while the British from the north and east advanced slowly southward, driving the Germans before them. In the Pacific the German possessions were cap- tured, one by one, by the Australians, the Japanese, or the British. By the end of the first eleven months of fighting, the great colonial empire of Germany had crumbled almost to nothing. All that was left was a little piece of the Cameroon country and a small corner of German East Africa, and these were grow- ing steadily smaller. Sea power was surely making itself felt. England and France were able to buy in the markets of the world, while the trade of Germany was limited to Switzerland, Denmark, and Holland, small countries adjoining her territory, and to Sweden, across the Baltic. Until 1870, Germany had been able to grow, within her own boundaries, enough food for the whole THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 117 nation. After this time, however, the rapid in- crease in her population, and the growth of the factory system, with the resulting shift of people from the farms to the cities, made it necessary to im- port about one- third of her food. Austria-Hungary had no food to export, neither had the four small countries that could trade with Germany. The result was that the Germans, by offering high prices for it, were able to persuade Holland and Denmark to sell food to them, which meant, of course, that these countries in turn had to buy from the United States, the Argentine Republic, and neutral countries. The rules of war as observed in the past allowed the fighting nations to make a list of articles called "contraband of war" which could be seized, even when found on neutral ships, if they were known to be supplies for the enemy. This list usually included guns and ammunition of all kinds and materials for making these. Also food which had been sold to the government of the enemy for use in the army could be included. In this war the Allies made a list of contraband articles much longer than ever before . Automobile trucks were a very neces- sary part of the German war machine, so rubber, as the material from which tires were made, was put on the list. So was gasoline, or any oil from which this could be made. Cotton came next, for great quanti- ties of this were needed to make guncotton and other explosives. n8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR By December, 19 14, the German war lords knew that they were doomed to fight a long, hard war. The leaves had fallen from the trees, but the soldiers were a long way from home, and further yet from a victorious peace. They had gambled and lost, as far as their plan to win the war in one swift campaign was concerned. They must now fight on until their enemies, tired of the struggle, should be ready to make peace on terms that would allow Germany to keep part, at least, of her plunder. Then to get ready for the next war. "Next time," said one of the German generals, "we shall lay in a supply of cotton, copper, and oil to last ^ve years." But the Allies had no intention of allowing Ger- many a chance to quit, when she was ahead in the game, in order to gather her strength for the next war. To their minds there must never be a "next war." By this time the food problem in Germany began to worry the Junkers. They proceeded to seize all wheat, and to give it out in little portions at a time, allowing each family only so much a day, and saving the rest for the army. At once Great Britain declared wheat to be "contraband of war," and her warships began stopping all vessels that were headed for neutral ports, carrying grain meant for German buyers. These ships were taken to British ports, where a court decided what should be a fair price for the government to pay for the cargoes. Germany came back with an order, telling the THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 119 world that her submarines would sink any ship that was found carrying food to Great Britain, no matter which nation owned it. This was going a little too far, and the United States, which had protested against British seizures of American vessels, sent a sharp warning to Germany that this sort of thing could not go on. Germany promised to sink no ships without warning, and to give the crews a chance to escape in the lifeboats. Still, this was high-handed piracy, and a violation of all the rules of war as respected by every civilized nation up to this time. Germany was making new rules and paying no attention to the old ones. A few days after the fleet of von Spee had gone down under the fire of Sturdee's guns, a squadron of swift ships stole across the North Sea under cover of darkness, and bombarded three peaceful little coast towns in England, which had no forts protecting them, and should therefore, under all agreements between nations, have been safe from attack. A great shell exploded in a woman's kitchen, as she was getting her husband's breakfast. She and her baby were killed instantly, and her little girl frightfully wounded. About a hundred people in the three towns were killed or wounded. Before the British fleet could come to the rescue the Germans had fled. The raid was planned to throw panic into the British and make them eager for peace. Another bad German guess. THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 121 A cold rage filled the British people. Men who had been rather half-hearted about the war up to this time now threw themselves into it heart and soul, eager to ''square the account with the baby-killers." The recruiting offices were thronged with men anxious to enlist. The great fleet, ashamed of this one failure to protect its home shores, redoubled its watchfulness. A month later, in January, 191 5, came the navy's chance. At daybreak on the morning of the 24th, Admiral Beatty, in command of a squadron of five fast battle cruisers, and accompanied by four lighter warships, caught sight of a German fleet of eight ships. Three of these were fast battle cruisers, one a slower armored cruiser and the others lighter ships. There were forty big guns in each fleet, but the British were the heavier, and the Germans, who had been on their way to make another raid on the English coast, turned and ran. There followed a running fight for five hours, in the course of which the German armored cruiser Blucher was sunk with all on board. Two other German ships were damaged, as was one of the British vessels. As the British drew near to the German coast and submarines appeared, Admiral Beatty thought it prudent to turn back. However, the people of the coast towns were avenged. The Blucher had been one of the ships that took part in the first raid, so no sympathy was wasted on her. The raids were at an end. 122 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Over the seven seas, surrounding with their water the six great continents, floated the flags of Great Britain and her Allies ! QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. How might the German navy have had a chance for victory over the British at the outset of the war ? 2. What great weapon could the Germans use against the British ? 3. How did Germany get a foothold in China? 4. Why was Japan very angry at the Germans ? 5. How did Japan use her chance to square her account? 6. How did Talaat and Enver hold their power? 7. What do you think of the way the Turks acted toward the Allies in the matter of the two German warships? 8. Why did Wangenheim first wish to keep the Turks out of the war, then later wish to thrust them into it? 9. How was the latter brought about? 10. What was expected of the jehad? 11. Why did it fail ? 12. What was the reason for the British expedition into Mesopo- tamia ? 13. Why did the Germans win the naval battle in the Pacific? 14. How did the British trap Admiral von Spee? 15. Why was the Boer rebellion a failure? 16. Why did Germany lose her colonies? 17. What is meant by "contraband of war"? 18. Why was the list of contraband articles increased? 19. Had Great Britain the right to put wheat on the contraband list? 20. Was Germany justified in sinking merchant ships by submarine attack ? 21. Had Germany the right to attack unfortified towns? 22. What effect had the raids on the British people? CHAPTER VI The Year 191 5 Kitchener's prediction. — The fall of Przemysl. — Winter in the Carpathians. — Russia, rich in food but poor in munitions. — The fleets at the Dardanelles. — The forcing of the straits. — The fatal 1 8th of March. — If they had but known. — Gallipoli and Suvla Bay. — Disaster on the Dunajec. — The great retreat. — Italy grows restive. — Her declaration of war. — Joffre's "nib- bling." — Neuve Chapelle. — A new horror of war. — Loos and Champagne. — Bulgaria to the highest bidder. — Venizelos, Del- casse, Constantine, and the Kaiser's sister. — The fate of Serbia. — The British in Mesopotamia and Egypt. — Germany's sub- marine campaign. — The Lusitania. — Belgium : Hoover and Whitlock. Lord Kitchener of Khartoom, hero of the Eng- lish expedition into Upper Egypt and the Soudan in 1898, and conqueror of the Boers in 1901, had said, in August, 191 4, that the war would last at least three years. Few believed him at the time, — the Germans, because their program called for a six weeks' smash to finish France, and another two months to dispose of Russia. When the victory of the Marne wrecked this plan, many English and French military men believed that Germany would soon ask for peace. But as summer wore into au- tumn, and autumn became winter ; — as the battle of the Aisne settled down to trench warfare, with two parallel lines running across Belgium and France 123 124 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR from the North Sea to Switzerland, people began to think that perhaps Kitchener was right. The year 191 4 had closed with the armies on the western front deadlocked in the same trenches ■■mbmi German trenches \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\m British " , French " — .-— International Boundaries THE LINE OF TRENCHES FROM SWITZERLAND TO THE SEA Thali J, n | 3! DECEMBER 31st, 1914 Williams Engraving Co., N.T.^ ^^ where they had stood on October 15. On the Polish front, the line of battle had moved back and forth and the trenches were not so strongly and deeply made, nor so lasting, but the end of the year found the Russians holding a little of East Prussia, found the Germans and Austrians in the THE YEAR 1915 125 western part of Russian Poland, and the Russians in possession of all Austrian Galicia except the extreme western end, around Cracow, and the fortress of Przemysl, where 125,000 Austrians were closely surrounded. Twice the advance of Hindenburg to the north had forced the Russians to give up the siege, but twice they had come back to it, and since early in December the ring around the doomed fortress had not been broken. After several determined assaults, beaten back with severe losses, the Russian commanders settled down to wait for the slower but surer method of starving out the garrison. Austria made several desperate efforts to bring up an army of relief, but this never got within twenty miles of the doomed town. Airplanes flew into it up to the day of its surrender, but they could not carry food enough for the generals alone, much less for the whole besieged army. On the twenty-second of March the garrison, reduced to 120,000 men, could hold out no longer. The white flag was raised, and the victorious Russians celebrated their greatest military triumph since the day when they drove the great Napoleon from Moscow. A quarter of a million men were thus let loose to join the other Russians on the Austrian front. These were the besiegers of Przemysl, who, with their com- rades, were soon threatening to break through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains and pour out 126 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR into the fertile plains of Hungary. This would have been a terrible blow for the Central Fowers. Half their food came from these plains, and it would have meant starvation during the coming winter if these wheatfields had been in the hands of the Russians. The situation was dark for Berlin and Vienna. Meanwhile, the forces of treason were at work in Russia, — undoing all the splendid achievements of the Grand Duke and his patient, loyal soldiers. The great supply of men was Russia's one strength. She had neither guns enough nor sufficient ammuni- tion to equip them. They froze to death in the snows of the lofty Carpathians, because they were poorly furnished with clothing and warm food. Trai- tors were doing their best to keep food and shells and other supplies from reaching them. The greatest munition factory in Russia was blown up by a traitor in German pay. Another great factory, whose owners were men of German descent, was turning out shells, but by the orders of its manager was con- demning as unfit and throwing away three out of every hve that were made. It is not hard to guess who paid for these shells. Time after time the Russians charged the German and Austrian machine guns through a hail of lead, eager to reach their foe because, their ammunition gone, they had as weapons only their bayonets and the butts of their rifles. Russia had abundant food — the black earth district just north of the Black Sea is the richesj; THE YEAR 1915 127 wheat-growing region in the world. But how to get this wheat out to her hungry allies, France and Britain, and how to receive from them shells in return was a difficult problem. If Turkey had not entered the war, the wheat could have moved out through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. But the straits were closed. The Turkish army in the Caucasus, commanded by our young Napoleon, * Enver Pasha, had met a disas- trous defeat the first week in January, so that Tur- key's success in a military way amounted to nothing, so far. Nevertheless, by holding the Dardanelles, she was doing Germany a tremendous service ; and the Allies were determined to break her hold on the Dardanelles. Toward the latter part of February, while the crowds in Berlin were still celebrating a new vic- tory of Hindenburg over the Russians in the Mazurian Lake region, there suddenly appeared at the mouth of the Dardanelles a powerful Anglo- French fleet. At its head was the super-dread- nought, Queen Elizabeth, the most powerful fight- ing ship afloat, with her giant guns, firing shells fifteen inches in diameter which weighed nearly a ton apiece. The Turkish forts at the entrance of the straits were well armed with new German guns, and partly manned by German gunners. Nevertheless, they * Enver was a great admirer of Napoleon, and imagined that he was destined to follow a similar career. THE YEAR 1915 129 stood only a few days against the terrible hammering that came from the Allied fleet. By the end of February, they were silenced, and the fire of the Allies shifted upstream. Fort after fort fell under their well-aimed shells. But as the ships moved into the strait, the going became more and more dangerous. A swift current flows south west ward, and floating and submerged mines by the score were sent down from the Sea of Marmora by the Turks and the Germans. Panic seized the " Young Turks." As the boom of the big guns at the mouth of the straits reached their ears, growing louder and nearer all the while, they began to get ready to leave their capital and flee into Asia Minor. A German admiral stationed with the Turkish fleet had said that it would cost the Allies ten ships to force the straits, but that if they were ready to pay that price Constantinople un- doubtedly was theirs for the taking. Up the straits, slowly, but steadily, came the French and British. The fire from the forts was good ; several ships were hit, but not fatally. On the 1 8th of March came the turning point. The Turks were nearly out of ammunition. They made no large-sized shells themselves, and could only rely on shipments from Germany, which reached them with difficulty after a roundabout journey through Austria and Roumania. The Allies, now several miles up the strait, made an attack in force that day. The narrow channel was nearly filled with 130 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR warships. Desperately the Turkish gunners worked to drive them back. Mines in great droves were loosed above, to be borne down the current upon the swiftly maneuvering vessels. Luck turned against the Allies. Three great battle- ships, two British and one French, went down with almost all on board. Two others were so badly damaged that they had to retreat. The deadly mines and the swift current began the work which the Turkish batteries finished. For as the ships, crippled by striking the mines, lay helpless before them, the German and Turkish gunners blazed forth with all their guns, and sent them to the bottom. The Allied fleet withdrew. The Turks waited, in suspense, wondering how they could stand another day of such pounding. In the strongest Turkish fort there remained, at the end of the day's fighting, only seven armor-piercing shells. They dreaded the return of the fleet on the morrow. But the morrow came, and the Allied fleet did not return to the attack. The staggering losses of the previous day had made the British admiral fear that, after all, the price was too great. Thus passed one of the first great chances to cut short the war. For, the straits once forced, and Constantinople in Allied hands, a flood of munitions could have been poured into Russia, while the pent-up streams of Russian wheat could have come forth to feed the French and British. Bulgaria and Roumania would THE YEAR 191 5 131 have joined the Allied side, and the two Central Empires would have been forced to make peace before the year was out. But it was not to be. The British admiral waited five weeks before renewing the attack, and when the fleets returned, the Turks, with new guns shipped from Germany and a big supply of new shells, were ready for them. On the 2 2d of April the fleets once more returned to the attack. A furious bombardment was kept up for five days. Then, under cover of the great naval guns, troops from British and French trans- ports were landed at the tip end of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was a costly venture, for the Turks, warned by the vigorous shelling of the previous days, had massed their troops and their guns to resist the invaders. Fifteen thousand men were wounded or killed among the British troops alone. The suffering of the survivors was intense. They had not food enough, nor ammunition enough, nor even water to drink. Within a few days, when the invaders had pushed their way a few miles up the narrow neck of land, they came to Turkish trenches so strong that they could not be taken without tremendous artillery fire — and the British had not the big guns — or tremendous loss of life. The battle had become another deadlock, with parallel trenches stretching across the rocky hills from strait to sea. Further north, on the western side of the peninsula, the Australians and New Zealanders had 132 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR landed, charged into the teeth of a galling Turkish fire, and gained a foothold at Gaba Tepe. But it was plain that the Turks were not taken by surprise, and that the conquest of the rocky tongue of land was going to be a long, hard, and bloody task. The Turkish troops were well supplied with a.mmunition and were fed from Constantinople, which was close at hand. On the other hand the British, French, and Anzacs (so called from the initials of the Australian- New Zealand Army Corps) had to be supplied, under cover of night, with all their food, water, and munitions, which in turn were brought great distances over seas infested by German and Austrian submarines. The troops suffered terribly. The sun beat down pitilessly on the rocky soil, and there was no shelter from the heat. Water was not to be had, at times, and the invaders had to endure agonizing thirst. The Turk, when well led, is a sturdy, dogged fighter, and in this case he felt that the life of his nation hung in the balance. For four months inces- sant trench warfare went on, both sides suffering heavy losses,, but gaining no ground. One night in August the British made another surprise landing, this time at Suvla Bay, the westernmost point of the peninsula, and almost succeeded in reaching the Dardanelles. The Turks had not been looking for anything like this. Halfway across the tongue of land the British were met by the enemy. Another five miles and they would have had the Turkish THE YEAR 1915 133 army at their mercy. The troops at the tip of the peninsula would have been cut off from retreat on the European side. But at the critical moment, when a few more reinforcements would have turned the tide, the Turks were able to halt the British advance. The golden opportunity passed, never to return. By October it was plain that the road would soon be open for guns and ammunition to pass rapidly from Berlin to Constantinople. Accordingly, the troops on the peninsula were withdrawn, skillfully, with very little loss of either men or supplies. An enterprise which gave great promise of success and which, if successful, would have brought the war to a rapid end, had failed — failed by a narrow margin. Had England and France broken through (by way of the Black Sea) with supplies of guns and ammunition to Russia and had they been able to bolster up the waning power of the Russian govern- ment, the history of the next few years might have been very different. It was April, and the Russians were threatening, for the third time, to pour through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains upon the fertile plains of Hungary. The large city of Cracow was almost with- in sight of the advancing Muscovites. Meanwhile, two things were happening. In the first place, the traitors in the Russian capital were doing their best to undermine the Grand Duke Nicholas and have him discharged from command of the armies ; they 134 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR were also crippling the manufacture of guns and am- munition, as you have already been told. The Ger- mans, on the other hand, were massing an enormous number of guns and a great quantity of shells for a violent and unexpected attack on the center of the Russian line. In the closing days of April a hurricane of shells rained down upon the Russian trenches on the east bank of the little rivers Biala (bia'la) and Dunajec (ddbn a' yetz). In number of guns per mile and number of shells per min- ute the storm surpassed any- thing that had yet been expe- rienced in war. It grew in intensity until the first of May, when picked German troops, following a bar- rage* (bar-razh') of their own shells, which moved forward just ahead of them, advanced toward what had been the Russian trenches. They found these literally wiped out. Hardly a trace of them remained. With few guns and hardly enough ammuni- tion to last through the day, General Dimi- trieff, the Bulgarian, who commanded this part of the line, was compelled to order a retreat. But * Barrage ; a moving curtain of exploding shells. j : • ' -' : ' ; l r © Keystone View Co., Inc. General Dimitrieff THE YEAR 1915 135 his men retired in good order. They went back slowly and sullenly, firing till their ammunition was gone, then resorting to bayonets and rifle butts in hand-to-hand fighting. The German plan had been to break clear through the army of Dimitrieff, then to divide, part turning north and part south, rolling up the Russian troops on each side, and capturing the greater part of the Grand Duke's forces. The dogged, stubborn courage of Dimitrieff and his men spoiled this scheme. Although their advanced positions had been blown to pieces by the tornado of big shells, and their ammunition was gone, they held on, hanging to every bit of ground as long as they could, and falling back only when it was plain that they would be cut to pieces or surrounded if they remained any longer. The Grand Duke meanwhile, after storming in vain at the War Office because his ammunition was withheld, had ordered a general retreat, all along the line, from the Carpathians to the borders of East Prussia. All through the month of May the great re- treat continued. In the first week of June the Aus- trians and Germans retook Przemysl. The Russians were not making the mistake of trying to hold fortresses or cities, for they realized that their armies must be kept together with as little loss of men as possible, no matter how many towns, fortified places, or even countries were surrendered to the enemy. Still the needed ammunition did not come, and still the 136 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR soldiers of the Grand Duke fought with bayonets and clubbed muskets against the machine guns and high-explosive shells of the Germans. In the latter part of June, Lemberg was given up. The Germans and Austrians claimed to have taken 300,000 Russian prisoners and to have killed or wounded as many more. July passed, and still the great retreat continued. The. group of pro- German traitors at the Russian court who had been trying to undermine the power of the Grand Duke Nicholas now, at last, were successful. They had kept ammunition away from his armies and thus forced the great retreat. Then they had demanded his removal as commander-in- chief on the ground that the Germans were driving him back. As a matter of fact, his handling of the retreat had shown wonderful generalship. Not once in the four months had the Germans been able to break through his stubborn resistance and to drive the Russians into a rout. Even now, when the Tzar finally asked him to resign his command, he did not dare to force him to retire to private life. There were too many of the officers and men who knew the truth — that it was not the Grand Duke's fault that the armies had had to retreat. So he was put in command of the armies in the Caucasus district, which were fight- ing the Turks on the south of the great mountain range. We shall hear of him again. In September came the first bit of good news THE YEAR 191 5 137 from the Russian front in five months. General Brusiloff (brusi'loff), attacking the Austrians near »••••••••• Furthest Russian advance, 1914 mmtmtmm mm Battle Line about April 27th, 1915 ■a^ Battle Line in the fall of 1915 The Great Russian Retreat Tarnopol, had captured 17,000 men and several guns. A small number compared with the half million Rus- sians lost as killed and prisoners during the great re- treat, but it showed that ammunition was at last ar- 138 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR riving and that the spirit of the Russian generals and soldiers was far from broken. Soon afterwards, Hindenburg, massing all avail- able guns, and his best troops, made a strong attempt to march northward toward Petrograd. After bitter fighting, which lasted several days, he was unable to break through the Russian lines, which lay along the Dvina (dvin'a) River between Riga (ri'ga) and Dvinsk. For some weeks the Germans, intermittently, threw their men in massed formation first on Riga, then on Dvinsk. The Russians, reen- forced by new levies, and at last supplied with ammunition and guns, stood firm. The great retreat was at an end. It will be remembered that the cunning Bismarck had induced the Italian statesmen to sign a treaty pledging Italy to join Germany and Austria in case of an attack upon either of them by Russia and France combined. Bismarck had promised to make Austria release all her subjects of Italian race, but because the Italians had been beaten in their battles with the Austrians (in the war of 1866, fought between Prussia and Italy on one side, and Austria and the states of South Germany on the other) he refused to keep his word. There had been left under the rule of the Austrian Emperor nearly a million Italians, living in the cities of Trent, Trieste, Pola, and Fiume (fiu'ma), and the country near them. This territory was called Italia Irredenta (un- THE YEAR 1915 139 redeemed Italy) and every Italian looked forward to the time when it should be freed from Austrian rule. One of the provisions of the Triple Alliance stated that if Austria secured additional territory in the Balkan states (Roumariia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece), Italy should also be given compensation in the shape of extra lands elsewhere. As it became more and more evident that the sympathies of the Italian people were strongly with France and Eng- land, the Italian statesmen grew bolder and more independent in their dealings with Austria. Finally the government at Rome notified the Austrians that as Austria had invaded Serbian territory and was holding it by force, Italy must ask "compensation" somewhere else. By this time Germany, thoroughly alarmed at the stand Italy was taking, decided that it was time to intervene in the quarrel. Accordingly she sent, as ambassador to Rome, Prince von Biilow, the former chancellor of the empire, whose wife was an Italian. The Prince, who was very well liked by the Italian leaders, lost no time in offering his services to secure a friendly settlement of the dispute. He admitted that Italy, under the treaty, was entitled to some land, and proposed that the city of Trent and the surrounding country (inhabited wholly by Italians) should be given over to Italy by Austria, the whole bargain to remain a secret until the end the war. 140 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR This did not satisfy the Italians. They answered that Trieste must also be given to them. The Austrians, on the other hand, pointed out (this was in December, 19 14) that they were rapidly being driven out of Serbia, and that soon they would have no new land for which to compensate Italy. Meanwhile the Italians had swooped down on the Albanian city of Avlona, and were holding it with ships and men. Austria pointed out that Italy, too, had gained new ground in the Balkan countries by the capture of Avlona, and refused to admit that she owed Italy anything on account of her campaign against Serbia. About this time the former prime minister of Italy, Giolitti (jiolit'ti), revealed the fact that if it had not been for Italy's refusal to allow it, Austria would have attacked Serbia in the fall of 191 3, just after the close of the Second Balkan War. This added to the unpopularity of Austria among the Italian people, who were growing more and more friendly to France and Great Britain. Finally, in April, the Italian government, in spite of Von Billow's frantic efforts to modify its demands, notified Austria that Trentino (the region including the city of Trent, the upper valley of the Isonzo River and certain islands on the northeast coast of the Adriatic) must be given to Italy, that Trieste and the surrounding country must be made an independent state, that Italy did not trust Austria's promises to "do something after the war was over," hence THE YEAR 1915 141 these demands must be complied with at once. In return, Italy agreed to pay thirty-eight million dollars in gold and to keep out of the war. These demands were flatly refused by the Austrian government, and the whole matter seemed deadlocked. In the first week of May, the Italian Prime Minister announced to the world that Italy was withdrawing from the Triple Alliance. This action so alarmed Austria and Germany, that Prince von Biilow was able to get the Viennese government to make a proposal to Italy that would have given her almost all she asked. The Italians, however, had now gone too far. They could not draw back. The people of the Peninsula, hating Austria always, would have risen up and over- thrown any government that now talked peace with the Dual Monarchy. Meanwhile, the statesmen at Rome were inducing France, Great Britain, and Russia to sign a treaty which should give to Italy not only all the Italian- speaking cities and districts in the Austrian empire, but a great deal of the coast of Dalmatia, besides, a district inhabited almost entirely by Serbs and Croats. This was the secret treaty of London, which was to cause trouble later. Finding herself well paid for doing what she wanted to do and for what she would gladly have done with- out pay, on the 23d of May, Italy solemnly declared war on Austria- Hungary (but not on Germany) and joined in an alliance with the Entente. 142 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR By this time the Russians were in full retreat across the eastern front. Austria, hard pressed a few months before, now could devote her energies to preparing to meet the new foe. In fact, for a month before Italy's declaration of war, Austrian troops had been making lines of concrete-lined trenches along the course of the Isonzo River, stretching barbed wire, and placing little nests of machine guns at places where an army advancing from the west could most easily be checked. The country along the common boundary of the two nations is very mountainous, and hence almost impassable for an army when a strong enemy bars the way. The Italians struck northward toward Trent and eastward toward Gorizia and Trieste. After the first Italian successes which carried the fighting well into Austrian territory, both in the Trentino district and along the seacoast, the war settled down into the deadlock of parallel trenches which had become so familiar to the armies of the Allies in northern France. General Cadorna, the Italian commander-in-chief, flung his men across the lower Isonzo River, but reinforcements for -the Austrians arrived in great numbers and, for a time, the city of Gorizia stood firm. Meanwhile, the first serious efforts to break through the German line in the west were begun by the British and French. From the time in No- vember, 1 9 14, when the continuous line of trenches stretched from the Swiss border to the North Sea, THE YEAR 191 5 143 Joffre had given his foe no rest. Now, a well- planned attack would gain a little ground in the neighborhood of Rheims ; again there would be a surprise attack near Arras. In January, the French began a determined assault in Alsace that drove back the German lines and kept the enemy on the defensive in this region for many months. The summit of a peak known as Hartmann's- weilerkopf — which reached far out into the valley on the Rhine side of the Vosges Mountains, was taken and retaken many times. It finally remained, for good, in the hands of the French, but not until enough brave men had fallen there to equal the number of black- ened and shot-scarred stumps of what had once been a magnificent forest. "I nibble them," said Joffre, meaning that by taking a little bite here and a little bite there, he kept wearing down the enemy, giving them no rest, and keeping them constantly worried as to where the next attack might break out. Around the old fortress city of Verdun the French thrust back their foe in an ever widening circle. "We must give Verdun room to breathe," said Joffre. ©Keystone View Co., Inc. General Cadorna 144 HTSTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Not long after the disastrous retreat from the Marne, the Germans had made a determined effort to break through the French lines between Toul and Verdun. This portion of the line was not held so strongly as it had been in the first days of September, 1 9 14, when De Castelnau (cas' tel' no') had thrust back a German army which was under the personal direction of the Kaiser, although the French were outnumbered nearly two to one. At the time of this new German attack, the attention of the French was centered on the "race to the sea" and they were caught off their guard. They quickly rallied and brought up their reserves, but the result of the Ger- man thrust was an ugly dent in the French lines, reach- ing the river Meuse (muz) at St. Mihiel (san mi el') and actually giving the enemy a bridgehead, as it is called, on the west bank of the stream. Both sides of this angle, or salient, as military men call it, were soon the object of Joffre's "nibbling." Important ground was gained both at Pont-a-Mous- son (mbb / son(g)) and Les Eparges (laz aparzh'). The enemy, on his side, taking advantage of a flood in the river Aisne, attacked the French lines near Soissons in January, gained some ground, and captured some prisoners. The most ambitious attempt to break through the German lines was planned by Joflre in March, when he and Sir John French massed some tremendously heavy guns to the west of the village of Neuve Chapelle (nuv shape!'). THE YEAR 191 5 145 The main attack was to be made by the British army, although the French were to make a smaller drive further north. It was hoped that the Allies might break clear through the German lines and recapture the important city of Lille. At seven thirty o'clock on the morning of March 10, the British guns opened fire. Nothing like the bombardment that followed had ever been seen in war up to this time. The German trenches were turned into small volcanoes, as the big shells burst, wiping out the entire force of men who had taken refuge in them. Then the guns all together lifted their fire to the village in the rear of the trenches, and the British soldiers, with their comrades, the Gurkhas from India, went "over the top" of their own trenches and advanced rapidly, following the advancing hail of shells from their own guns in the rear. The barbed-wire entanglements had been cut to shreds, and in the front line trenches of the foe they found hardly a living soul. On they rushed, still preceded by the rain of shells, until a mile and a half forward, after taking the village of Neuve Chapelle itself at the point of the bayonet, they were held up by some new barbed- wire lines. Here some one had blundered. No one knows just which British general should bear the blame, but the fact remains that the guns that were to have moved forward to cut this new wire obstacle never came, and when the officers tried to telephone back 146 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR to headquarters and ask for reinforcements of men and guns they found that their wires were cut and that they could not get word to their generals. Held up by the barbed wire, and by the rapidly arriving Ger- man reserves, they were a mark for the enemy's guns. Ten thousand men, over a fifth of the attacking force, were killed or wounded in the course of battle, and the great majority of them were lost at this point. Finally, late in the afternoon, another rush forward was made, but the Germans were gathering in force, and the Britons had to "dig themselves in." Two days later the Crown Prince of Bavaria sent his men in great waves to win back the lost ground. But the British were ready, and fifteen thousand Germans were lost in three bloody, fruitless charges. Neuve Chapelle showed the world that Britain's new army had the fighting men, who, when properly led, were more than a match for the Germans. Had the generals done their work as well as the privates did theirs, the path to Lille might have been cleared. About the first of April the Germans gave out the statement that the French were using poisonous gases to kill men in the German trenches. This was a lie, made up out of whole cloth, and the French government denounced it. The world wondered why the Germans should have taken the trouble to make up this falsehood, but on April 22 the answer came. Along the Allied lines just north of the Belgian THE YEAR 191 5 147 city of Ypres stood a division of Canadians. Next them was a force of black men from the Senegal colony of France, as brave fighters as any in the French army. Suddenly, out of the German trenches, a few hundred yards away, there rose a cloud of greenish fumes, which, carried along by the strong northeast wind, moved swiftly toward the Canadians and Senegalese. One moment these men stood, alert and wondering, every faculty awake ; the next they were rolling on the ground, coughing, choking, gasping for breath, clawing at their throats, reeling, falling unconscious, and dying. The black men were fearless fighters. The Ger- mans had learned to respect their rifles and their terri- ble knives. But this was something beyond their knowledge, — they saw no way to fight it. Leaving the flank of the Canadians open, they turned and fled The white men knew what it was, the terrible chlorine gas. But they had been put there to hold the lines, and hold them they must, somehow. They buried their faces in their coats, in their handkerchiefs, in the mud of the trenches. They died by the hundreds, a horrible death, — but they held the lines for a time. The retreat of the Sene- galese had left open their flank and they finally had to retreat, but not until sufficient reserves had arrived to prevent a clear break through. Germany had torn up another " scrap of paper." For at a conference held at the Hague all civilized nations had signed an agreement not to use poison 148 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR or poisonous gas as a weapon in war. In the end it furnished only another proof of the stupidity of the unscrupulous cunning of the German war lords. For the Allies began at once to make gas masks to protect their men, and soon turned out gases which did far more damage to the Germans than the latter inflicted with their chlorine. During the greater part of the year the winds in northern France blow from the west, so that the Germans often had their own weapon turned upon them with telling effect. They had greatly increased the cost of the war (for millions of masks had to be made at once), had increased the hatred that their enemies and many neutral nations had for them, and in the end suffered far more from the gases of the Allies than did the Allies from theirs. The Germans soon began throwing gases in shells — in fact in this same attack of April 22 there were some shells sent over that were full of a substance that irritated the eyes and injured the sight for the time being. But again the Allies beat them at their own game, and proved that the boasted German chemists were not a match for theirs. This attack on Ypres was the only German offensive on the west during 191 5, but the French tried several. General Foch tried hard to break through Loos (los) and Lens (lans) and to capture Vimy (vi'my) Ridge, but he lost heavily in the attempt. The French, however, drove the Germans out of many strong positions just north of Arras, THE YEAR 191 5 149 among them a wonderfully fortified spot called ' ' the Labyrinth." In the early autumn, on September 25, General Joffre made a determined effort to break through the German lines in the county of Champagne, halfway between Rheims and Verdun. Attacking with wonderful gallantry, the French swept over the first system of German trenches, and drove their foes back more than two miles along a great part of the front. The Germans, however, had been busy pre- paring second and third lines of defense in the rear of their first line trenches. They had forced the inhabi- tants of the occupied French territory, at the point of the bayonet, to dig these trenches for them. In like manner they had used their prisoners of war for the same kind of work, although the rules of warfare, as drawn up at the convention of the Hague and signed by Germany as well as by the other civilized nations, flatly forbade this use of men who had been captured. The Hague agreement became just one more " scrap of paper " for Germany, — to be torn up whenever her interest demanded it. (This proved a great and un- fair advantage to the Germans throughout the war, for the Allies refused to break their signed pledges regarding the use of prisoners.) This strong secondary defense line, two miles back of the front line trenches, proved a harder barrier to break. The French guns had not been brought up to* support the infantry and the Germans had rushed their reserve troops to meet the threatened attack. ISO HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR As a result, seeing that it was costing him the lives of too many of his men, Joffre had to give up the attempt. On September 25, attacks were also made just southeast of Ypres ; and further south the British captured Loos and the French took Souchez (soosha/)- The object of these drives was to prevent the Germans from sending help from this part of the line to the Champagne district, where the French were making their main attack. All told, over 20,000 Germans were captured, besides the wounded who had been left behind, and nearly thirty miles of front line trenches had been stormed. This gain was nothing, however, compared with the great retreat of the Russians. They had moved back in some places nearly three hundred miles, while, in the main, the trenches in the west stood as they had been. The German lines were still too strong to be pierced. Germany and Austria were able to hold back the French and English in the west and to drive the Russians before them in the east. These successes of the Central Powers had their effect upon the nations, especially in the south- eastern part of Europe, which thus far had been neutral. Tzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria had never recovered from the effects of the peace of Bukarest in August, 191 3, when he had been compelled to give up part of his northern territory to Roumania, THE YEAR 191 5 151 and to allow Greece and Serbia to divide Mace- donia, a territory which all Bulgarians had been taught to believe was inhabited entirely by their countrymen. As a matter of fact, Macedonia was a mixture. While the Bulgarian-speaking people were the most numerous group, by far, they did not comprise much more than a majority of the population because there were so many Gypsies, Turks, Albanians, Greeks, Spanish Jews, and Kutzo-Wallachs (a people of Roumanian blood). But Ferdinand wished for revenge on the Serbs ; he wanted Macedonia, he wanted the ports of Kavala and Salonica, he wanted the Turkish city of Adrian- ople, he wanted the Dobrudja, Roumania's province bordering on the Black Sea. As the World War grew hotter, he made advances to each side, asking what he would be given in return for the services of his army. France and Great Britain were willing to promise him Turkish territory, and even induced Serbia to agree to give up part of Macedonia, but with Greece they could not make any headway. They asked Greece to agree to give Kavala to Bulgaria, promising to pay her back with districts in Asiatic Turkey that are in- habited by Greeks. In like fashion Serbia was to be rewarded for giving up part of Macedonia by receiving Bosnia and Herzegovina after Austria had been thoroughly defeated. The Greek Queen was the sister of the German i$2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Kaiser, and she and her husband were doing every- thing possible to keep their country from joining the Allies. On the other hand, the prime minister, the wonderful Cretan, Venizelos (ven i zel'os) , wished to see his countrymen join in the war against the Turks, and thus free from Turkish rule millions of Greeks who were still subjects of the miserable government at Constantinople. Venizelos was willing to surrender Kavala to Bulgaria, but the King, the peace party, and the narrow-minded patriots who could not see very far ahead defeated the scheme. Meanwhile, although Ferdinand had made a secret agreement with Berlin and Vienna as far back as April, 1 9 14, he was ready to sell out to the highest bidder. As he was hesitating, the French foreign minister, the shrewd Delcasse (del cas sa') , urged that the Serbian army line up on the Bulgarian border and force Ferdinand, at the point of the pistol, to join the Allies. He also urged that a strong Anglo-French force be landed at Salonica by agreement with Greece, and be marched up to the Serb-Bulgar boundary, in order to help overawe the wavering Ferdinand. This policy seemed too rough and high- handed to the British and the majority of the French, so Delcasse resigned, and the plan of trying to win over Bulgaria by peaceful means was continued. The war of 191 3 had left Bulgaria one new seaport, on the^Egean, the town of Dedeagatch (deda a gatch). But the only railroad from Sofia to this seaport passed THE YEAR 1915 153 through Turkish territory. In order to induce Bulgaria to join the Turks and Germans, the Kaiser persuaded Turkey to give up to Bulgaria a strip of land, comprising all of European Turkey west of the little river Maritza, and including part of the town of Adrianople. The railroad to Dedeagatch now* ran wholly on Bulgarian soil. In addition to this Bulgaria was promised all of Serbian Macedonia, and eventually, the Rouma- nian province of Dobrudja, although this was kept secret at the time, as the Central Powers still hoped that Roumania might enter the war on their side. On October 6, Bulgaria, having pretended up to the last that she was still considering the offer of France, Great Britain, and Russia, cast off the mask and declared war on Serbia. As the Bulgars struck westward, an army of nearly half a million Germans and Austrians struck southward across the Danube, and fell like a thun- derbolt on the brave little army of Serbia. Twice before Serbia had been invaded, and twice her fierce warriors had rallied and driven the Austrians back across the Danube. This time, however, with not enough ammunition, with no heavy guns, and out- numbered by the Bulgars alone, to say nothing of the Austro-German force, the gallant little nation looked death in the face. She appealed to Greece, with whom she had a treaty for mutual protection against the Bulgars, but the pro-German Queen and King were able to 154 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR bring about the rejection of the request for troops. The Allies appealed to Venizelos, to stand by Greece's promise to help Serbia. As prime minister, he gave permission to the French and British to land troops at Salonica and march them north to join the Serbs. The Allies, when it was too late, realized that Delcasse, after all, was right in his idea of the way to treat the Bulgars. They rushed troops to Salonica, as many as could be spared from the western front. But in the meantime, the gallant little Serbian army, which had never numbered over a quarter of a million and included every able-bodied man in the country, was slowly driven back, back into the hills. The half million Germans and Austrians in the north, the three hundred and fifty thousand Bulgars on the east advanced, laying waste the country and killing off the Serbs. The tiny army of Montenegro had thrown their lot in with their Serbian kinsmen. Ammunition gone, the Serbs and Montenegrins fought with bayonets, with clubbed muskets, with rocks. History has no record of a braver, more hopeless fight. Leaving their families to the tender mercies of the Hungarian and Bulgar invaders, they retreated, sullenly, stubbornly, over the mountains to the west. Up the valley of the Vardar came the French and English, straining every nerve to reach their brave allies. The effort proved to be in vain, for before a junction could be made with the Serbs, strong forces of Bulgarians had cut in, south of Uskub, and the THE YEAR 191 5 155 ■■■■ ■■■■ Bulgarian army attacking from the east ESS BS Au8tro-Hungarian-German army attacking from the north 1 1 1 1 Serbian army, finally forced to retreat along lines minium IIIIIIIIIIH Franco-British force, arrived at Saloniki, too late to join the Serbs at Uskub ••■^•■™« International boundaries __^___ Chief railways j Territory (including part of the city of Adrianople) given up to Bulgaria by Turkey, '-ct< to induce the Bulgarians to enter the war on the side of the Germans and Turks Allies, outnumbered, were compelled to retreat. It was feared that the whole Serbian army would 156 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR be surrounded and captured, but the gallant little fighters made their way across the Albanian moun- tains to the coast, where Allied warships and trans- ports received them and carried them to safety on the island of Corfu. Meanwhile, Greece was in the throes of a struggle between the party which favored entering the war on the side of the Allies, and the friends of Germany, who wished to keep the country out of the war. When Bulgaria first stabbed Serbia in the back, the Serbs called on the Greeks to come to their aid, as they had sworn to do. Prime Minister Venizelos with a majority of the Greek Congress and most of the Greek people were ready to go to war. But the Kaiser's sister and her husband would not have it so. Defying the Greek constitution, King Constantine refused to let Venizelos be prime minister, though the people held an election and sent to Congress a large majority for Venizelos and war. General Sarrail and the French and British troops, who had failed to reach the Serbs, were being driven back out of Serbia into Greece by stronger forces of Bulgars and Germans. The king sent word that if they retreated upon Greek soil he would send out his army to make them prisoners. France and England retorted that if he did so their warships would blockade his whole coast and starve Greece out in a month. They pointed out that General Sarrail and his men had gone to Greece at the THE YEAR 1915 157 invitation of the Greek prime minister to do what Greece herself should be doing — to help Serbia against the Bulgars. Constantine thought better of it, and the Allied force stayed in the hills just north of Salonica — in fact, right along the Serbian boundary line, but he left nothing undone in the way of aiding Germany except actually fighting the Allies. Meanwhile, the British force at the Dardanelles had been withdrawn. Some were sent to Salonica, some to Egypt, to help guard the Suez Canal, some to the Persian Gulf, from which a slow advance had been begun up the Tigris River toward Bagdad. In Egypt, too, the British were beginning to make trouble for the Turks. At first they had been content to keep the Turkish forces from cutting the canal, but as their troops grew in number, they began, in a cautious way, to extend their lines across the desert to the east. One by one other nations had been drawn into the great war. In 191 5, Italy had joined the Entente ; Bulgaria, the Central Powers. The neutral nations were having a hard time to keep out of it. German submarines were sinking ships of all nations found carrying provisions or muni- tions to England or France. At first the submarine commanders stopped these vessels and gave the crew time to take to the boats, but every now and then some unusually brutal captain would let fly his torpedo at a ship and sink it with all on board. 158 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR In the past, it had often happened that warships had sunk merchant vessels of the enemy, but only after all passengers and the crew had been transferred to the war vessel. The submarines, however, refused to take on board the crews of their victims, and started a new reign of terror on the seas by forcing the occupants of sinking vessels to take to the open boats, in some cases many miles away from land. This was bad enough ; but when it came to drowning innocent men, women, and children in peaceful mer- chant vessels, neutral nations felt that the limit of inhumanity had been reached and that it was time to call a halt to such actions. The most brutal case on record was the torpedoing of the great ocean liner Lusitania, sunk off the Irish coast in May, with the loss of nearly a thousand people, over a hundred of whom were Americans. Children and women in great numbers were on board. While the civilized world stood aghast at this new proof of the callousness of the German war lords, the German people showed themselves worthy followers of their rulers by closing all the schools, striking medals to celebrate the event, and giving themselves to riotous joy. American citizens, considering themselves safe by all the laws of nations and all the rules of humanity, had lost their lives. A sharp note was sent to Germany by President Wilson, so sharp that his peace-loving Secretary of State, Mr. Bryan, resigned rather than sign it. Germany finally apologized THE YEAR 191 5 159 and promised that such an offense should not occur again. Yet before the end of the year three or four other ships were torpedoed without warning and the great liner Ancona was sent down in the Mediterra- nean by an Austrian submarine. There followed another sharp warning from the United States, and another promise of good behavior, on the part of Germany, and the trouble slumbered for a while. Other matters were happening to show the world how ruthless the military spirit had made the whole German nation. Belgium, whose only crime had been that she refused to break her plighted word, was in a worse state than any other country except Serbia or Poland. Germans held nineteenth -twentieths of her soil, and commanded every foot of the other twentieth with their heavy guns. Her people were forced to work for Germany without pay, her towns were fined and forced to contribute millions of money to the German war chest, — but worst of all, her citizens were starving. In times of peace the little nation had imported about half its food, and now food simply could not be obtained. But help was at hand. A committee of Americans organized the Association for Belgian Relief, and put in charge of the distribution of food an American engineer, Mr. Herbert Hoover. Our minister to Belgium, Mr. Brand Whitlock, toiled early and late, trying to soften the rigors of German rule. Mean- while, Mr. Hoover brought in food, and protected 160 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR it from being stolen or confiscated by the Germans. The whole Belgian nation knows who it was that kept them from starvation during the trying four years, and they will be eternally grateful to the great Republic of the West and her noble sons, Whitlock and Hoover. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why did so few people believe that the war would last a long time? 2. Why had so many men been left behind in Przemysl? 3. Why did the Russian advance through the Carpathians seem so threatening to the Austrians and Hungarians? 4. What was the great weakness of Russia in 191 5? 5. Why were France and Great Britain so anxious to force the Dardanelles ? 6. How did fortune turn against the Allies? 7. What would have happened if the fleets had returned to the attack on the 19th of March? 8. What were the great difficulties of the Allies at Gallipoli ? 9. What prevented a victory at Suvla Bay? 10. What was the plan of the German attack at the Dunajec River ? 11. What became of the Grand Duke Nicholas after the great retreat ? 12. For what reasons was Italy not satisfied to be allied with Austria ? 13. What promises were made to Italy by Russia, France, and Great Britain? 14. What prevented Neuve Chapelle from being a great victory? 15. Why was Germany foolish to use poison gas? 16. What led Tzar Ferdinand to join the Germans? 17. Why did not Greece stand by her treaty with Serbia? 18. What happened to the Serbian army? 19. Why was Germany's submarine campaign unlawful? 20. How did the Americans save Belgium? CHAPTER VII Ups and Downs The lines in 1916. — The Grand Duke at Erzerum. — Falkenhayn and Petain. — They did not pass ! — Disaster at Kut. — The drive at Italy. — Brusiloff the wary. — The recoil in Italy. — Britannia still rules the waves. — Kitchener's work is done. — At last the "big push." — Roumania takes a hand. — Sturmer and the Zemptsvos. — The defeat of Roumania. — A German peace. — Nivelle and Mangin at Verdun. — The Serbs once more at the front. — Dissensions in Bulgaria. — The staying power of France. New year's day, 1916, found the lines on the western front practically where they had stood a year before. The Allies had made some small gains, but at the rate at which they had moved forward during the twelve months, it would take a hundred years to drive the Germans out of France and Belgium. In the east, the great Russian retreat had moved the lines back as much as three hundred miles in some places. Still, the land that had been surrendered was the country of the Poles, the Lithuanians, and the Letts. True Russia had, as yet, no German invaders, while the eastern end of Austrian Galicia was still within the Russian lines. In the valleys of the Isonzo and the Adige, the lines of the Italians and the Austrians were dead- locked. North of Salonica, General Sarrail and his 161 1 62 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Franco-British force held the Greek frontier against the Bulgars. In the valley of the Tigris, the British expedition was in trouble. A large army of Turks, released by the withdrawal of the British from the Gallipoli Peninsula, had suddenly descended the Tigris River and beaten back General Townshend's forces, which had been approaching Bagdad, and compelled them to take refuge in Kut-el-Amara. There, protected by the river on three sides, they were now surrounded by superior forces of the enemy. A new expedition, to rescue Townshend, was being organized at the mouth of the river. The Russian government had fallen into evil hands. A crowd of aristocrats, who hated all progress toward liberty, was in control. They secretly sympathized with Junker-led Germany, for they belonged to the Junker class themselves. They hated and feared the Grand Duke Nicholas, the friend of progress and the idol of the army; and they had tried to " shelve" him by putting him in command of the armies operating against the Turks in the Caucasus region. But Nicholas Nicholaivitch (son of Nicholas) was not the man to be shelved. Instead of sulking over his undeserved dismissal, he set to work with energy and skill to plan a winter campaign against the Turks. The difficulties were tremendous. The country which had to be crossed was very mountainous, very UPS AND DOWNS 163 1 64 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR high above the sea, several feet deep in snow at this time of the year, and traversed by few roads. Right in the path of the invaders stood the mighty city fortress of Erzerum. Ringed around by its eighteen forts and rising high above the surrounding country on a snow-clad mountain, it lay grim and menacing. Slowly but powerfully the Grand Duke closed in on the doomed city. A Turkish force sent to its relief was met and driven off. From three sides the Russians approached. At last with a silent rush of men armed with cold steel, one of its forts was taken, then another, then another, until on the 15th of February, nine of them had fallen. The Russian guns were dragged through the deep snow to the captured forts, and next day the city surrendered. For the next three months, the Grand Duke won an unbroken series of victories. But these vic- tories were alarming the pro-German crowd of traitors at the court of the Tzar. A new prime minister, Sturmer, of German blood and German sympathies, was now in control. It became harder and harder for Nicholas to get the supplies and ammunition that he needed. His advance slowed down little by little, and at last he was forced to halt. A new commander-in-chief of the German army had been appointed. He was General von Falken- hayn, and his pet scheme was the crushing of France before the new armies of Great Britain were ready. At the northeastern corner of the eastern half of UPS AND DOWNS 165 the long line of trenches that reached from Switzer- land to the North Sea stood the old French fortress city of Verdun. Around it curved the opposing trenches, in a rough semicircle twenty-five miles in diameter . This had been the pivot on which the German attacks had hinged in the first week of Sep- tember, 1914. On its east- ern side De Castelnau had flung back the Kaiser's chosen men, while to the west had been fought the so-called First Battle of the Marne. Verdun, itself, stood like a headland jutting out into a sea of enemies. At one time it seemed as if it must be surrounded, for the hostile lines lacked only twenty miles of meeting in its rear. Against this fort, the most prominent in the whole French line, Von Falkenhayn had chosen to strike his blow. On the 20th of February, there was calm along the front on Verdun. Fierce fighting had been going on in the county of Champagne, twenty- five miles to the west. In fact, the Germans had made a feint there, in order to divert the attention of the French from their main attack. Keystone View Co., Inc. General von Falkenhayn 1 66 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR On the 2 ist, there burst forth the most tremendous hurricane of fire that the world had seen up to this time. The French trenches just north of Verdun © Keystone View Co., Inc. The Gun That Saved France (Poilus Firing a Seventy-Five) were simply wiped out by a furious storm of huge German shells. Shells full of high explosive, which tore holes fifteen feet deep and thirty feet across, shells full of poison gases, shells filled with shrapnel, burst in a torrent on the doomed lines. After several hours of this terrible bombardment from a formidable array of big guns that had been secretly massed for the purpose, it suddenly ceased, and a few Germans came walking out to inspect the UPS AND DOWNS 167 damage that had been done. To their astonishment, they were greeted with well-aimed rifle fire, and went hurrying back to report that there must be a few Frenchmen left alive in the trenches, after all. Von Falkenhayn had been sure that after such a terrible fire no living thing could survive in the trenches. But the Frenchmen had "dug in," like rabbits, and from the ends of their underground bur- rows, they were waiting, grimly, with rifle and ma- chine gun. Then another storm burst, burst in great waves 6i gray-green troops. Four hundred thousand men were massed on seventy miles of front, and out of these armies certain picked divisions now advanced to the attack. The Frenchmen remaining in what had been the front line trenches shot them down by scores and hundreds. But they came on faster than they could be killed. By sheer weight of numbers they swept on. The surviving French defenders of the first line trenches were killed or captured, and the Germans advanced toward the lines of support. Here the famous 75*s came into play. These guns, whose recoil mechanism is the one French military secret which the Germans have been unable to dis- cover, can be fired four times as rapidly as the German 77's. They shot with deadly accuracy and with surprising speed. Their shells, 75 mil- limeters (about 3 inches) in diameter, burst among the advancing Germans with deadly effect. Still 1 68 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR they came on ! They captured the front line trenches and drove southward nearly two miles before they had to stop. The next day, after another fearful storm of artillery, the Germans advanced again. Again the French retired, slowly, in good order, punishing their foes terribly. As one French- man said, at Verdun land was sold in very small pieces, and the price paid was high. Meanwhile, a new commander of the French fortress was ap- W V v \| pointed, General Henri Petain (pa tan (g)') , whose spirit put new life into the defense. " lis ne passer out pas!" he declared, General Petain " Courage, mes braves, 071 les aura!" ,(" Tne v shall not pass! Have courage, my brave fellows, we'll get them !") On the fourth day of the savage attack, the French reserves began to arrive. The single railroad that connected Verdun with the rest of France was wholly unable to bring forward the great numbers of men that were required, and to transport the enormous quantities of ammunition of all kinds and food that the men at the front needed so sorely. An army of trucks was brought up, trucks whose drivers toiled night and day, trucks that traveled roads swept by the foe's big guns and raided by his bombing airplanes. UPS AND DOWNS 169 As the struggle increased in intensity, it finally came to be known that it was the German Crown Prince who was in command of the attacking armies and that he was to have the glory, when Verdun fell. With savage stubbornness Von Falkenhayn flung his men in swarms at the outer circle of the forts of Verdun. Day after day the attack continued, varying from point to point, as the Germans tried first one place, then another, in the slowly nar- rowing circle. France was determined that they should not break through. Her men died in their tracks, muttering with their last breath, "lis ne passer out pas! ' ' but break or surren- der they would not. Like a cold blue rock jutting out into a stormy sea, Petain's small army stood. When the commander decided that a spot had be- come impossible to hold, he drew back his men and "sold" it to the enemy, at the highest price that he could get. The Germans had boasted to their allies and the neutral world that they would soon capture Verdun, and that the fall of the city would be a sign of the The German Crown Prince 170 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR collapse of the French army. The French had said nothing, but with set teeth, they silently vowed that their army should die to the last man before a German should set foot in the now immortal city. February wore into March and March into April. Still Von Falkenhayn and the Crown Prince would not give 4 up. And the valor of their men was second only to that of the defenders. They were fighters to the core, no doubt about it. No one will ever know what the assault on Verdun cost the Germans. They had proclaimed to the world that this was the blow that would end the war, and they were caught in the trap of their own boasting. During the first month, they pushed their lines forward in some places as much as three or four miles. During the second month their greatest gain was not quite a mile deep, and every now and then the French, by a dashing, skillful counter-attack, would win back in a day ground that had cost the Germans a week of steady assaults. As spring advanced, the new British army was ready, and Sir Douglas Haig, who had followed his former chief, Lord French, as its commander, begged to be allowed to take part in the glorious defense of Verdun. But Joffre knew the pride of his countrymen, and would let none but French troops hold the fort. Germany still stormed on, far into the month of June, hoping against hope that her boast might be UPS AND DOWNS 171 made good. Then on the first of July — but that, as Kipling says, is another story, and you shall hear it later. Verdun stood safe — they did not pass ! We have left General Townshend and his nine thousand men cooped up by the Turks in Kut-el- Amara. Underestimating the strength of his op- ponents and forgetting that the Serbian campaign had opened up the Berlin to Bagdad railway, by which German reinforcements and German ammu- nition could reach the Turks, he had been caught and surrounded by superior forces of the enemy. Up the river to his relief came the expedition of General Lake. After being delayed for a month by the floods of the Tigris, the British made a determined effort to break through in the early part of April. They were so near to succeeding that Townshend' s sur- rounded force could hear their guns booming down the river. It proved to be all in vain, however. On the 28th of April, with General Lake's column still ten or fifteen miles away and held to a standstill by a superior Turkish force, Townshend' s men gave up, without conditions. Nearly nine thousand troops were surrendered, with quantities of military stores and almost five million dollars in money. A great blow had been dealt to British pride, and to Great Britain's standing in the East. There was a great shake-up among the officials in India, who had planned the campaign with so little knowl- 172 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR edge of the enemy's strength. General Lake was removed, and in his place was appointed General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, under whose careful direction the expedition against Bagdad was organized anew. Let us return for a moment to a scene of the war that we have neglected for some time — the eastern Alps and the valley of the Isonzo, where Austrians and Italians stood, locked in a fierce struggle. The Austrians, like their allies, had decided that Russia was practically out of the fight. As Germany made a supreme effort to smash France, so now in like manner the Dual Monarchy attempted to put Italy out of the war. Transferring about 360,000 men from the Russian front, and secretly massing great quantities of heavy cannon, the Austrians, on May 16, launched a strong attack against the Italian positions in the southern Tyrol district, following it up, soon after- ward, by a similar storm on the Isonzo front. Bul- garian troops were brought to aid in the attack, and every available man was launched at the trenches which the Italians had taken after such long and arduous labor. Overwhelmed by numbers and out- gunned, the Italians had to retreat. In the first week's fighting over 30,000 men were taken prisoners, and more than two hundred and fifty cannon were captured. But after ten days of almost steady disaster, the Italians stood firm, and refused to retreat any farther. UPS AND DOWNS 173 For the next ten days they stood on the defensive, here and there retaking a mountain peak or driving the invaders out of Italian territory. Then something happened. The great Russian bear, which had been left alone by Germans and Austrians for the past eight months, as a creature nearly dead, suddenly came to life and put up a fight which for suddenness and unexpected vigor can hardly be equaled in the whole story of the war. It was General BrusilofI who planned it, the same BrusilofT who had put heart into the Russians by his victory at Tarnopol in September, 191 5, the first success after four months of discouraging disasters. He laid his plans quietly and stealthily. He knew that Austria had withdrawn many of the troops from her eastern front in order to give Italy her death wound. He knew, too, that the swarming spies and traitors at court would betray his scheme to the enemy if given half a chance. "There is a secret wire from the Tzar's palace to Berlin," said he, and he kept his own counsel. On the whole southern half of the front, from the Pripet (prip'et) marshes to the Roumanian border, he massed his men for an attack. Opening with the usual hurricane of fire from the big guns, he tore the Austrian trenches to pieces with his shells. Then he ordered the artillery to cease, and gave every indication of attacking with his infantry. The Austrians, expecting a charge, rushed their reserves, their guns, even their cavalry, 174 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR in some places, up to the shell-torn front. But the wily BrusilofI was watching them. As soon as his airmen reported that the front trenches of the enemy were again filled with men, he suddenly let loose another blast of death from his big guns. The Austrians, massed to repel an infantry charge, were literally cut to pieces. When the guns ceased the second time and Brusi- loffs soldiers advanced, they found only broken and scattered remnants of what had been Austria's first line troops. With wonderful dash BrusilofI swept on, recap- turing, with their gar- risons, important Russian forts that had been left behind in the great retreat. Through Bukowina and Galicia his army rolled in a great flood, even faster than it had crossed this same ground in September, 1914. Prisoners in great numbers fell into his hands. In the first six weeks of his victorious advance, he took over 300,000. And now the Austrians cried lustily for help from their German allies. But help could not be spared from Germany without abandoning the attack on Verdun, and this the Germans could not yet bring themselves to do. Accordingly men had to be General Brusiloff UPS AND DOWNS 175 withdrawn from the Italian front, where the Austrian attack had been so successful three weeks earlier. Italy was quick to take advantage of this, and her ■%•— - 'in V s1 f^Neudorf jrestTitoTsk Ruda D J T,n n Oatrovlo " .Baaok Bainary, TUT >^Ru/tao Prip* R. 'Moke* ^V, Lubleteff, ^Olbe 1mU«/ Tarn off □ Tluoliitohoff •c;.* Savin RegoTlce •14 Zboren > ^/^J™ Opalic Lubotnl Olcek SmldilnS o KoveL PTurzysk 03 /stobykbra / Rafalofkaj ■Manevitohe Pladilvfriecaj ChMtoiyiek^Werbtoto J "« PWysock r To .fiffe/p 1 mi iZamosc [Holorin Tyma, BerexnaW? Kolbanta Pluiet _ radomytobel .7 g toJ . •— ^B«Kl Kolk Motor (j^ _V /J^XSvidnrki ' .X f Vladimir /^^^E- 1 . T?he"*' 1/ ^Gor^o^^Wo^^ ^ ^Stoymoff Cknasofl VyXoiln Ostroj^ Laohoff / opoy Plolbujno a \ ^ n 't\o Jjf If Z Badtlechoff 1 Cbtyyn \r \\ I I / I All j/s*l»oVi\ /^Villia l^ionka^ ^BRODlWp^^^Memieniets ri^K^ ^k / n C\ wr*** ' W" \ ° o # Blologrodkar/^ 1 / BuskVo jT JK o * Popovo*/ v. ^^ Kraeiis, o \Popo?oe/ lU » hn Vo / yAlexiniets ^ Teofipo» ■ nuasian rront in may, iviu mRuaslcin Front In Sept., 1916 SCALE OF MILE8 10 20 30 40 60 leb^yslany fS^Vor&ljoAa - "^ " " ^5!&2i*V jr Zbarazh o Baaalya KEY 7 ^^Pnemr.lanj |S£*N*VoroJljoAa 1 mmmm Russian Front In May, 1916 1 N *m k^ D F«— C_«„» l_ O A fOIA U^V WWUm &£& The Great Advance of Brusiloff men began to win back the territory that Austria so recently had gained. From peak to peak they fought their way, growing bolder and more aggressive as their successes developed. Finally, in the early 176 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR part of August, General Cadorna, Italian com- mander-in-chief, won his greatest triumph in the taking of Gorizia, one of the three largest cities inhabited by Italians in Austrian territory. The Austrian blow at Italy had proved a boomerang. For a year and a half no German warships had been seen on the high seas. Ever since the Lion, Tiger, and their sister ships had sunk the Blucher and badly damaged the other German cruisers that had started across the North Sea on a raid on the defenseless English coast towns, the British navy had had only submarines and practice targets at which to shoot. On the afternoon of May 3 1 , however, as Admiral Sir David Beatty, with his fleet of fast battle cruisers, was patroling the North Sea, the message was sud- denly relayed from ship to ship — "enemy fleet in sight." It proved to be the fast battle cruiser squadron of the German fleet, commanded by Vice- Admiral von Hipper. Flashing a wireless to Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, who with the Grand Fleet was miles to the north, Beatty headed on a southeasterly course, parallel to the German ships. Behind him, but too far behind to be of any immediate service, came Rear Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas with his squadron of four super-dreadnoughts of the Queen Elizabeth class. The two battle cruiser squadrons were well matched in guns, speed, and size. The British ships UPS AND DOWNS 177 were slightly the faster and they outnumbered the Germans, six to five. But the Germans were eight miles to the east, and a gray mist surrounded them, while Beatty's ships were silhouetted clearly against the western sky. A furious battle followed as the two squadrons raced southward on parallel courses. The battle had raged for a short time only when the British Indefatigable was struck by a heavy shell which plunged through the roof of her forward turret. There was a great explo- sion, her magazine blew up, and she swung out of the battle line, sinking rapidly.' Twenty minutes later the Queen Mary was similarly hit by a shell which fell, by plunging fire, through her decks. A tremendous explosion followed, and the next instant the ship had disappeared. A thousand lives had been snuffed out in a twinkling. Suddenly on the southeastern horizon appeared the whole German High Seas Fleet, twenty-two battleships and dreadnoughts, besides a great num- ber of cruisers and some ninety destroyers. Beatty was in imminent danger of being trapped between (£) Keystone View Co., Inc. Admiral Beatty 178 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the cruisers on the east and the great battleships which were rapidly coming up from the south. He turned abruptly and headed for the northwest. The German cruisers turned, too, to join their battleships in pursuit of Beatty. As they were turning,- the four Queen Elizabeths (the Queen herself was not among them ; they were the Bar ham, the Valiant, the Malaya, and the War spite) con- centrated their fire on the new battle cruiser Lutzow, a match for the Queen Mary in size and speed, and they left her a sinking wreck. The Queen Elizabeths turned, too, and headed northward. Beatty, with two ships lost, and Evan-Thomas, with his four heavy battleships, were fighting the whole navy of the German empire. For an hour the unequal combat raged. The superior speed of the British ships told, and they were able to cross the bows of their pursuers and force them to head into a more northeasterly course. Beatty and Thomas were playing a desperate game — it was possible- for them at all times to steam out of range, but they were working to lure the Germans on till Jellicoe's Grand Fleet might cut them off from retreat — they were aiming to capture the whole German navy. So they offered their ships as targets, fighting back gamely, and straining their eyes for a sight of Jellicoe's ships. At one time the steering gear of the Warspite was put out of commission, and the whole German fleet concentrated their fire on her as she turned UPS AND DOWNS 179 around in a little circle. Nevertheless, her captain was able finally to get his ship under control and to rejoin his consorts. A German cruiser was sunk in this part of the fight, for the British ships were giving a good account of themselves. The Germans, carried away with their success in sinking two of Beatty's ships so quickly, were eager to finish the others. But now the Grand Fleet was in sight. Coming up fast they cut in between the German ships and the Danish coast. (Ahead of them as an advance guard came some cruisers, which, unaware of the presence of the German ships, suffered rather severe losses. The Invincible and three lighter cruisers went down at this point.) The Germans would soon be driven away from land, and shut off from their safe return. The great British battleships poured a hail of fire upon the head of the German fleet, as these vessels turned westward, desperately seeking to flee. It was now after six o'clock, and all that Jellicoe needed was another two hours of daylight. But after a few minutes of good light, during which the battleship Pommern and some of the smaller Ger- man cruisers were sent to the bottom, the mist came down, and under cover of fog and darkness the High Seas Fleet got back to Cuxhaven and the entrance of the Kiel Canal, never to venture forth again, until the war was over. The German papers proclaimed that their navy 180 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR had won a tremendous victory — that the British hold on the seas was broken at last. The British were frank to admit their losses — three battle cruisers, three smaller cruisers, and eight torpedo boat destroyers, but claimed that the Germans had suffered more heavily than their official report confessed. The Germans admitted losing one battleship, one battle cruiser, three smaller cruisers, and five destroyers, but strongly denied the British claims that two more ships, both new dreadnoughts, had gone down with the others. But, even though the British losses were the greater, the relative strength of the two fleets re- mained the same. After all, the proof of victory lay in the fact that never again did the Germans take the risk of coming out, while the British fleet roamed the seas, unmo- lested, save by mines and submarines. Six days after the. battle, a small British cruiser, on its way to Russia, struck a mine near the Orkney Islands and went down with nearly all on board. In this disaster perished Lord Kitchener of Khartoom, British Secretary of War and founder of the new Brit- ish army that was so soon to take its part in the war. For two years Kitchener had advertised for men, had shamed the unwilling into enlisting, had called for volunteers, and done everything but draft them into service. In order to intimidate the British people and make them sick of war, Germany had sent over UPS AND DOWNS 181 huge airships, of the kind invented by Count Zep- pelin, to drop bombs on the defenseless citizens of London, Dover, and other British cities. These barbarous and cruel attacks on women and children, along with the savage sinking of peaceful merchant ships and fishing boats by the submarines, did much to inflame the whole British nation into a white heat of anger against the Germans. On one of these raids a bomb had been dropped through the roof of a school house and had burst among the children of the kindergarten. The agonizing screams of these dying little ones echoed all over Great Britain, and had sent hundreds of men to enlist who before this time had been rather indifferent to the war. Kitchener had refused to let his new recruits go into battle until they had received a hard course of training for several months. He knew that it would be a sad mistake to put raw regiments against the veteran Germans, trained to war for years, and seasoned by twenty-two months of trench fighting. But now, though he was gone, his army was ready. A million strong, it held nearly one-fifth of the long line stretching across northern France. The French, too, were ready. Their most daring and brilliant general, Ferdinand Foch, had been placed by Joflre in command of the troops im- mediately south of the British. For "the big push," as the British called it, that was to come, great quantities of shells had been 182 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR amassed. Early in 191 5 one of the London papers had fearlessly exposed the fact that the Germans had ten shells to fire to the British one, and ten big guns to one for Great Britain. The British govern- ment, which had either ignored this fact or had not known it, woke up with a start. Lloyd- George, the fiery, energetic little Welshman, had been made Minister of Munitions,, and under his galvanic force the factories of Great Britain multiplied their output of cannon and shells. On the first of July the long-expected attack began. Opening with a terrific bombardment of big shells, the French and British for twenty miles on both sides of the little Somme River stormed the German trenches. The French veterans quickly forced their way eastward. Within a few days they had moved forward four miles and stood close to the city of Peronne. The British, however, met stronger re- sistance. In two weeks time they had gained about two miles along a front of twelve miles. The Ger- mans fought with determination and skill. It was only by dogged persistance and the power of their big guns that the islanders were able to force their way through the wonderfully strong German defenses. Still they gained steadily. All through July, August, and September they kept hammering away. German prisoners and German guns fell into their hands. On an ever- widening front the Allies were driving a wedge into the German line. By UPS AND DOWNS 183 September they had bitten into it some eight miles in places, and were still going forward, slowly, against desperate resistance, but doggedly, steadily. Meanwhile, at Verdun, the German attacks had ceased. Germany needed all her men to hold back the Allies along the Somme, — needed them to bolster up the Austrians, retreating in the east before the victorious Russian advance and in the southwest before the advancing Italians. Verdun stood safe, — the German boasts were not made good. The appearance of German officers among the Aus- trian troops fighting the Italians brought the latter nation to declare war on Germany — for up to this time Italy had been, in name, at war with Austria only. This happened during the last week in August (191 6) and was followed, the next day, by another declaration of war that had been expected for some time. The little nation of Roumania had been for two years the center of a struggle of the diplomats of the two opposing groups of powers. Like Bulgaria, she had a German king. In fact her ruler was a Hohenzol- lern, a distant cousin of the Kaiser. At the beginning of the war, old King Carol, wishing to side with his German kinsman, had asked General Averescu, the commander of the army, what would happen if Roumania should throw her lot in with Austria and Germany. "I fear that your majesty would be the first victim," answered the straightforward old soldier. 184 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Roumania remained neutral. The aged king, Carol, died soon after the great war broke out, and his nephew Ferdinand, who succeeded him, knowing how strong were the sympathies of his people for France, England, and Serbia, showed some friendliness him- self. His wife, an English princess, and a distant cousin of the Tzar, was strongly pro-Ally; and Take (ta'ka) Jonescu, the wisest and most popular of the Roumanian statesmen, worked early and late to force the government to join the Entente. Roumanians in great numbers were living in lands ruled by other countries. Transylvania, the most southeasterly of the states of Austria-Hungary, had nearly three million of them. Many others were found in Bukowina and the Banat (ba'nat) of Temesvar (ta'mesh var), two other Austrian states. The Russian county of Bessarabia was full of them, and there was a big colony of them also in northern Greece and Macedonia. The mother country desired to. gather all these lost children into the fold once more, and most Roumanians were willing to go to war to accomplish this. Each side wished her help, and would promise her additional lands at the expense of the other side, but each was unwilling to give back its own Roumanian subjects. It became plain that if Rou- manians wished to redeem their brothers in bondage, they must fight to do so, for no one was going to hand over territories and people to a nation which was a mere onlooker at the fight. The day after UPS AND DOWNS 185 Italy declared war on Germany, Roumania an- nounced to the world that henceforth a state of war should exist between herself and Austria- Hungary. Cut off from Western Europe by the Austro- German- Bulgarian lines and from the open water by the Turks, Roumania could turn for help and mu- nitions only to her big neighbor, Russia. But forces were at work in Petrograd, as you have already learned, which were traitorous and dangerous. The prime minister, Sturmer, was plotting to help the Germans. Certain powerful members of the nobility were strongly pro- German. The Tzarina, herself a German, was plainly on the side of her own kins- men. German agents and German spies were everywhere. They hampered shipments of supplies, they blew up ammunition factories, they worked all kinds of mischief. A train load of guns, landed by the British on the north coast of Russia, and badly needed at the front, was lost for several months. It finally was discovered, two thousand miles away, in the Ural Mountains. The whole Russian military system was full of treachery and double dealing. In this state of things, the forces that kept the armies supplied at all with food and munitions came from the zemtsvos. These were little county gather- ings, made up of men elected by the people, who managed local affairs. But in this great need, the zemtsvos got together, formed a strong, nation-wide 186 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR committee, and took into their own hands the provi- sioning of the men at the front. So, in spite of the corrupt court and the pro- German officials, Rus- sian armies still could go on fighting, secure in the thought that the zemtsvos and the great major- ity of the plain people were back of them. But in the case of Roumania it was different. When the Roumanians had rushed across the moun- tains to make a hasty and rashly planned invasion of Hungary, they found that their supplies of ammunition were giving out and that the new quantities promised by the Russian government were not being delivered. By November there had been a strong invasion of Roumania from the south by an army of Turks, Bulgars, and Germans. The Roumanian army in Transylvania, short of ammunitions and supplies, was being driven rapidly backward. To the north, the great Russian drive had come to a standstill from lack of ammunition and from the disorganization of the supply system. The great drive of France and England on the Somme had gained only about ten miles, after four months of terrific effort. The fall rains and the constant plowing of the ground by the artillery fire, had turned into a sea of mud the land over which any further advance must be made. Thus the Germans and their allies were able, for the time being, to turn their full attention to the brave but inex- perienced army of Roumania. UPS AND DOWNS 187 A powerful force, commanded by Von Falkenhayn, (no longer chief of the General Staff, since his failure at Verdun) advanced upon the Roumanians from the north. Breaking through their lines at the elbow of the Transylvanian mountains, he forced their armies in western Wallachia to retreat westward for fear of being cut off. Meanwhile, the attack from the south was developing. An army of Turks, Bulgars, and Germans under Von Mackensen ad- vanced rapidly from the northern boundary of Bulgaria, crossed the Danube, and threatened to cut off the retreat of the western Roumanian forces. In her desperate plight Roumania appealed to her Allies for help. France sent General Berthelot (bairtlo'), one of her best strategists. But Russia sent, not the guns, munitions and men that were needed, but only promises, and promises, and yet more promises. Berthelot saw through it, as did King Ferdinand. The pro- German party at the Russian court had betrayed them. Loyal Russian generals did all they could to assist, but the Roumanian army, full of German spies, short of food and ammunition, and overwhelmed by numbers, lost nearly half its men, and had to surrender more than half of Roumania to the enemy. Roumanian wheat was taken to Germany in great quantities. Roumanian oil wells poured out, for trucks and cars, quantities of the fuel that had been so scarce in Germany and Austria. Germany, ap- 1 88 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR parently beaten in September, by Christmas time (191 6) was again celebrating wonderful victories. These celebrations, however, were like the whis- tling of the timid boy, to keep his courage up. Down in their hearts the war lords of Germany knew that they could never win the smashing victory, with its loot and its big indemnities, that they had originally planned. What they now wished was to make peace on the basis of what they had gained in war so far. Already they were planning for the next war. Accordingly, hoping to trap the war- weary people of Great Britain, France, and Italy, they addressed to their enemies a letter (in December, 1916), asking whether now it were not possible to talk peace. This note began by stating that "our aims are not to shatter nor annihilate our adversaries." After repeating the old cant about the war's having been forced upon them, the note went on to say that the German government, " seized with pity in the face of the unspeakable misery of humanity," was "ready to give peace to the world" by asking the people whether it were possible for the warring nations "to find a basis for an understanding." The answers came, swift and unmistakable. The Russian Duma spoke out : resolutions passed by a unanimous vote declared that peace was possible only after Germany, broken in military power, should renounce the greed for conquest "which renders her responsible for the world war." By an overwhelming vote the Italian Chamber of UPS AND DOWNS 189 Deputies (the law-making body of the nation) declared that there should be no peace which was not based on the right of small nations, "their honor and the free development of their peoples." Lloyd-George, who had just become prime minister of Great Britain, made a historic speech in which he said that Germany must give back what she had stolen, pay for the damage that she had done, and guarantee that never again would she attempt to loot and conquer by force of arms. The formal answer of the Allies was along these same lines. They declared that ' ' no peace is possible so long as we have not secured reparation for violated rights and liberties, the recognition of the principle of nationality and of the free existence of small states." The Kaiser's answer to this was published soon afterwards. He said to his soldiers: "I proposed to our enemies to enter into peace negotiations. Our enemies refused my offer. Their hunger for power desires Germany's destruction. " Before God and humanity I declare that on the governments of our enemies falls the heavy re- sponsibility for all the further terrible sacrifices from which I wished to save you. "With justified indignation at our enemies' ar- rogant crime — you will become as steel. "Our enemies did not want the understanding offered by me. With God's help our arms, will enforce it. Wilhelm." But in spite of the loud boasts of the Kaiser I go HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR there were three small Allied gains made in the late fall and early winter that showed Germany what was in store for her later. For several months all had been quiet at Verdun. Both sides held their trenches with strong forces of men, but each had wearied of the struggle and was merely watching the other closely. On the 24th of October, however, General Nivelle (nlvel')» who had succeeded Petain as commander of the fortress, with four divisions made a surprise attack which won back in one day all the ground which the Germans had taken at a tremendous price, by three months of furious daily assaults, from April 1 to the end of June. Fort Douaumont (dob 6 mon(g)'), one of the two forts which had remained in German hands, was quickly taken, and the French turned such a terrific fire upon the other, Fort Vaux (vo), that the enemy were forced to abandon it a few days later. In the meantime there was stirring along the Salonica front. Besides the original army of French and British, there had been added a detachment of Russians and some Italians. The Russians had come by a long and roundabout route, to fight shoulder to shoulder with their Allies. In like manner a Russian division had been landed at Marseilles and amid the hearty enthusiasm of the French people had been transferred to the front in Champagne. Russia had plenty of men, but, as stated before, was short of guns and munitions. UPS AND DOWNS 191 Meanwhile, another nation was sending its fighting men to the Salonica front. You will recall that when the armies of Germany, Austria, and Bulgaria over- ran Serbia in the early winter of 191 5-1 6 the main part of the Serbian forces escaped over the Albanian mountains to the coast, where Allied ships met them and carried them to the island of Corfu. After a good rest they were refitted with weapons and uniforms and carried around Greece to Salonica. Out of the original Serb army of three hundred thousand men there remained a little over one- third, but these were mostly the flower of the nation, veterans of three wars, a body of men that for valor and war wisdom could hardly be matched anywhere in the world. This magnificent force of fighting men, ready once more for front line duty, proved a powerful rein- forcement to General Sarrail. He at once gave them their hearts' dearest wish, which was to be brought face to face with the hated Bulgars and Hungarians. All through the late summer and fall continuous attacks were made on the Bulgarian lines. The Serbs fought like madmen. In October, supported by French and British forces, they drove the Bulgars from the Grecian boundary and stood once more upon the soil of their own country. Finally, on November 19, they entered the important city of Monastir, which the enemy had held for exactly one year. North of Monastir was a rocky and 192 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR forbidding mountain range which the retreating Bulgars and Austrians had fortified with great care. Here for the time being the Serbs and their allies were halted. Nevertheless, it was evident that the Serbs, in- stead of being crushed and conquered, were still very much to be reckoned with in the Balkan war game. Also it was plain that the Bulgars were not fighting with the same zest and enthusiasm that their opponents showed. In fact, it leaked out that there was a serious difference of opinion among the Bulgars. Many of the people resented the fact that at the command of their German king they had been forced to ally themselves with the Turks, infidel oppressors of their ancestors, to fight against Russia, the country which had won their freedom for them and befriended them so many times in the past. This party of Russophiles (friends of Russia) was very strong. When Russian warships appeared off the Bulgarian port of Varna, on the Black Sea, two Bulgarian regiments refused to obey the orders of their officers to fire upon them. It was found necessary in order to quell the mutiny to bring up four other regiments re- cruited from among the Armenians who in 1895 had settled in Bulgaria. These Armenians had no feeling, either for or against the Russians, but they had a lively hatred of the Turks, whose cruel massacres of their fathers had driven them to take refuge in Bulgaria. They, too, UPS AND DOWNS 193 were not happy over the Turkish alliance. Bulgaria, on the whole, was not a prop to the German military machine, but rather a source of weakness, requiring to be bolstered up and kept in a happy mood by news of great German victories. Another event which disturbed the peace of mind of the German war lords was an enterprise of the French army at Verdun. There had been quiet on this part of the front, following the victorious entry of the French into Fort Vaux on November 5. On December 12, the French guns began pound- ing the German lines on the west of the Meuse River. On the fifteenth, the attack was suddenly shifted to the east bank of the river. Without warning the infantry shot forward. The Germans were taken by surprise. With wonderful accuracy the French guns supported their advancing men. The batteries of the Germans, already spotted by the airmen, were overwhelmed before they could get into action. At the first rush the famous Pepper Hill, which had cost the Germans so many lives in the bloody battles of March, was covered by a wave of the men in sky blue. While the prisoners were pouring in, the victorious French, now in a position to fire eastward down the length of the German trenches, swept on, cleaning out the machine gun nests as they went. After a day and a half of furious assault they rested. Their lines had been advanced by a mile or two over a front of six miles. All the ground that the 194 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Germans had won in the terrible fighting of the five weeks following February 26, ground purchased at the cost of a hundred thousand German lives, was retaken in less than thirty-six hours. The French lost seven thousand men, in killed and wounded, out of the eighty thousand engaged in the attack. Five German divisions, nearly a hundred thousand men, had been used up in the defense. They had lost ten thou- sand unwounded men as prisoners, besides killed and wounded amounting to more than twice this number. It was a clean- cut victory of careful planning and intelligent fighting, reflecting credit upon General Mangin (man'zhan(g)'), who led the assault, and upon Ni- velle, his chief. The year's campaign in the west had begun with an example of the dogged, stubborn courage of the French soldier, holding the blood-stained hills of Verdun against the whole might of the German army. The year closed with an example of what the same Frenchman could do, when intelligently led and backed by his superb artillery. Both augured well for the staying power of General Berthelot UPS AND DOWNS . 195 France (France whom the Kaiser boasted that he would " bleed white") and lent point to the efforts of the war lords to bring about a German peace. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. What great change had taken place in the battle lines during 1915? 2. Why was the Grand Duke Nicholas unable to reach Con- stantinople from the East ? 3. Why did Falkenhayn insist on the attack on France? 4. What saved Verdun ? 5. Why was Townshend's army forced to surrender? 6. What was the reason for Austria's attack on Italy ? 7. How did Brusiloff trap the Austrians? 8. Why could Italy retrieve her early defeat? 9. What was the German plan and what Beatty's plan in the great naval battle ? 10. Why did the German fleet escape ? 11. What was the effect upon recruiting in England of German air raids and submarine attacks ? 12. Why was the British army so slow in getting into shape? 13. What induced Roumania to enter the war? 14. What saved the Russian armies from the pro-Germans? 15. What was the chief reason for Roumania's defeat? 16. Why were Germany and Austria anxious for peace in December, 1916? 17. How did the Serbs get back into the battle? 18. Why were the many Bulgarians dissatisfied with the war? 19. Why was great credit due the French for these victories near Verdun? CHAPTER VIII The Issue Plain President Wilson's appeal and the answers. — Slavery for Belgians and French. — The black flag at last. — The Russian Revolution. — Milioukoff, Kerensky, Lenin, and Trotzky. — The strategic retreat of the Germans. — A Hunnish deed. — The British in Bagdad. — Dr. Zimmerman helps to unite the American people. — Our declaration of war. — The joy of the Entente. — Nivelle at the Chemin des Dames. — The British at Vimy and Messines. — Progress on the Carso. — Portugal and Greece. — Kerensky, the compromiser. — Russia's last effort. — Reprisals through the air at last. — Curtain at Verdun. In the closing days of 191 6 — just a week, in fact, after the peace "feeler" of the Germans and their allies, President Wilson sent a note to each of the warring nations, asking them to state on what terms they would be willing to make peace. So far the United States had been able to keep out of the struggle. Germany and Austria had been inflaming the minds of their subjects against us, by complaining bitterly that the United States was selling munitions to Britain and France, and not to the Central Powers. Americans of German origin were stirred up by agents of the Kaiser to demand that Congress prohibit the export of materials for war purposes. This accusation, however, was partially silenced 196 THE ISSUE PLAIN 197 when a great German submarine boat made two trips across the Atlantic and carried back valuable metals and rubber that could not be secured in any other way. The United States was ready to sell munitions to any nation which came to buy ; it was not our fault that England, and not Germany, held command of the seas. Still, there were loud com- plaints from Germany that we were not neutral. But the case of the Lusitania, on the other hand, and that of several other ships which were torpedoed without warning, kept our government continually on the brink of war. The mass of the American people, although the great majority of them were anxious for Allied victory, were earnestly hoping that we might keep out of the war. We are a peace- loving, non-militaristic people, and it seemed to us a brutal and senseless manner of settling a dispute, to go out slaughtering and maiming men who had never personally harmed us. Some leaders, among them ex- President Roosevelt, were loudly denounc- ing the apparent weakness and cowardice, as they put it, of our government for not having declared war on Germany as soon as the Lusitania was sunk. At any rate, there was room for apprehension on the part of the President, for we might sooner or later be drawn in, and as he had been reelected on the plea that "he kept us out of war," he wished to make one sincere effort to bring the contest to a close. In his note to the warring nations he says, in so 198 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR many words : ' 4 What are you fighting for ? Each side says that they did not wish war — that it was forced upon them. The nations of each side say that the rights of small nations must be protected. Each side wants to be safe against attack in the future. If this is all you wish, why fight ? Let us hear you state the terms on which you would be willing to make peace." The German and Austrian governments were the first to reply. Entirely ignoring the President's request that they state their terms of peace, they proposed "the speedy assembly, on neutral grounds, of delegates of the warring nations." The reply of France, Great Britain, and their Allies was returned early in January, 191 7. It stated, in a courteous manner, that the President was hardly fair when he said that apparently both groups of warring nations desired the same end ; that Germany and her allies had insisted on the war, that they had waged war for conquest and plunder, in a manner unworthy of any nation that called herself civilized. Then they stated their terms : First, the restora- tion of Belgium, Serbia, and Montenegro with the in- demnities due them ; then withdrawal of their enemies from the invaded parts of Russia, France, and Rou- mania, with just payment for damage done ; the reorganization of Europe on a basis which would give all nations, great and small alike, freedom and security from attack ; the giving back of lands taken THE ISSUE PLAIN 199 by force in the past, the freeing of the Italians, Roumanians, South Slavs, and Czecho-Slovaks from foreign rule, the driving of the Turkish Empire out of Europe ; the reestablishment of the Polish nation. While insisting that they had no thought of destroying- the German nation, they stated that Europe must be freed from Prussian militarism, and that as Germany began the war, so the Allies must end it only by a complete victory, upon which depended, not only their own safety, but the future of civilization itself. A few days went by, and then the world was given a fresh shock, a fresh proof of the utter disregard of the German government for the rules of civilized warfare. Only recently it had become known that the Germans, being short of men, had carried off, by force, at the point of the bayonet, men and women of Belgium and that part of France which was held by their armies and had compelled these captives to work like slaves, without pay, in German factories where shells and guns were made. Wives were torn from husbands and mothers and fathers from their children. All the civilized world protested, the Pope sent a note of strong disapproval, but Germany needed the workers, and what she needed she took ! So Belgian and French women were compelled to make the munitions that went back to kill their own people. But although the world thought that the govern- ment at Berlin had already gone to the limit of bru- 200 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR tality, on January 31, 191 7, it learned that some- thing new in this line could still come out of Ger- many. For on that day the Chancellor announced in the Reichstag (and formal notice was sent to the still neutral nations) that beginning the next day German submarines would send to the bottom of the sea, without warning, any ship found in the waters surrounding the British Isles and France. This ap- plied both to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. This was Germany's answer to the statement of the peace terms of her enemies. In a separate note, addressed to the United States, the German government agreed that once a . week a ship might sail from America to England, if it traveled along the 50th parallel of latitude, and was marked with red, white, and blue stripes, "with a yellow streak around the captain's cabin," so that the submarines would know it. In another note to the United States, it was stated that England and her allies were "violating all rules of international law" in preventing neutral nations from trading with Germany. Therefore, Germany proposed to remove all restrictions in using her submarines. The note went on to say that this submarine campaign would quickly force the peace which the United States so much desired, so that, of course, the Germans were confident that the United States would ' ' understand the necessity of adopting such meas- ures as are destined to bring about a speedy end of the horrible and useless bloodshed!" THE ISSUE PLAIN 201 This supposedly civilized nation, which had been proclaiming that she was fighting for "the freedom of the seas" and which had solemnly promised the United States in May, 191 6, that she would never again sink a merchant vessel without warning, now flung to the air the black flag and turned pirate on a scale that the world had never before dreamed of. In his address to the Reichstag the German Chancellor explained that the reason he had prom- ised the United States, eight months before, that there should be no torpedoing without warning, was that Germany at that time had not built enough submarines to make a success of starving England. But that now, with poor harvests of wheat in the Entente nations, it would probably be only a short time till England was brought to her knees by famine. The U-boats would sink enough cargoes of wheat and meat to starve out, not only Great Britain, but also France and Italy, each of whom depended, for much of her food, on overseas trade. We are told that a considerable party among the Germans opposed this " unrestricted " submarine war, not because it was brutal and inhuman, but for fear it might bring into the war the United States and other neutral nations. The sea- Junkers, how- ever, pointed out that as the United States had only a very small army, it would take several years before she could put any troops on the fighting front in France, whereas the submarine boats would sink 202 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR vessels so rapidly that Great Britain, starved into surrender, would make peace within six months. On January 31, Count von BernstorfT, German Ambassador to the United States, handed our Secre- tary of State the German note. Three days later, Secretary Lansing handed Herr von BernstorfT his passports, and informed him that the steamer which was to take him back to Germany would sail very promptly. The President went before Congress and an- nounced that he had recalled our Ambassador from Berlin and that he had broken off all relations with the German government, and with a roar of approval, Congress voted that he had done well ! Meanwhile, in Russia, things were going badly for the pro- German party. In November, 191 6, Professor Paul Milioukoff (mil yoo'koff) had risen in the Duma and, amid the thunderous applause of the true patriots in that body, had exposed the pro- German plotting of Sturmer and his followers. As a result, Sturmer had been forced to resign. The treacherous conduct of his friends, however, still continued. Many of these men were hoarding food supplies with the idea of selling them, later, at a great profit. This was causing a shortage, espe- cially in the cities, and the hungry people began to murmur, and utter threats against the government. Riots and outbreaks against the tyrannical rule of the court were not new in Petrograd, but the gov- ernment had always been able to rely upon the THE ISSUE PLAIN 203 soldiers, especially the Cossacks, who were horse- men from a tribe living in the southwestern part of Russia, and who enjoyed much more freedom than the Russians themselves. On the 8th of March, 191 7, the crowds in Petro- grad were more numerous and more threatening than ever before. People demanded bread, and talked of a general strike (everybody to quit work) in order to force the government to seek out the food supplies that they were sure were being hoarded. Soldiers were sent into the city to keep order. But they, too, murmured against the government and sympathized with the people. Even the Cossacks caught the infection. They were actually cheered as they rode through the streets, for the people felt that the Cossacks were with them. Two days later an order was issued by the police, commanding people to stop parading the streets. This was too much. Up to this point there had been no violence. Now the mob showed its teeth — it would not be dispersed. The police opened fire ; but — to their astonishment and chagrin — the soldiers in the city, even the Cossacks, took the side of the mob. Other regiments, loyal to the government, were rushed into the city. Orators from the revolting troops begged the newcomers not to fire on their "brothers." There was a dramatic pause, with the two bodies of troops, rifle in hand, facing each other from opposite sides of the street, while the peace- makers rushed back and forth between them. After 204 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR half an hour of this tense situation, the hitherto loyal troops threw down their arms and rushed across the street to fraternize with the revolutionists. Word was sent to the Tzar that the situation was grave. He made the crowning mistake of his life, by ordering the Duma to ad- journ. The Duma refused to adjourn, and supported / t QIP\ by the people of the city jj| and the revolting soldiers, it solemnly voted that the right to rule the nation belonged not to the Tzar, but to the representatives f»* W0^' "-^ES^ii °^ ^ e p e °pi e - 0^2$- - JmJEm Word reached the gen- erals at the front of what had happened at the capi- tal, and they promptly agreed to support the new government. The well- meaning but misled Tzar tried to resign the crown to his brother. But the Duma was through with the Romanoff (ro ma'noff ) family. Their new govern- ment, a cabinet, was composed of some of the ablest and most patriotic men in Russia. But the new government lived only by tolerance of the mob. And a Russian mob was an unstable thing, swayed, because of their ignorance, by any "soap-box orator" who might harangue them. Nicholas ii Tzar of all the Russias THE ISSUE PLAIN 205 When Professor Milioukoff assured the Allies that Russia would go on fighting, the mob, ignorant of the great issues at stake, howled their disapproval, and forced his resigna- tion as foreign minister of the new government. Back from Switzer- land, helped by the German authorities, and supplied liberally with German gold, came Nicholas Lenin (Lenin') (whose real name was Ulianoff) (ool ya'noff) a radical leader, banished by the Tzar's government. Back from America came Leon Trotzky (whose real name was Herman Braunstein) another fanatic and former Nihilist. The Milioukoff government lived but a short while. A young lawyer, Alexander Kerensky, be- came the real ruler of Russia, thanks to his ability to sway the crowds by his eloquence. He had been Minister of Justice in the Milioukoff cabinet and had shown his poor judgment by ordering the release of all prisoners within the jails of Russia. Although many of these were political prisoners, shut in for opposing the tyrannical rule of the old government, the majority of them were cutthroats, thieves, and Keystone View Co., Inc. Alexander Kerensky 206 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR ruffians, who took advantage of their new-found liberty to take up, now unmolested by the police, their old-time trade of robbery and murder. The better class of Russians had no patience with Lenin and Trotzky and agitators of their type. To these jail birds, however, and to the hungry, ignorant mobs of the great cities, the doctrine of Lenin, that all property should be held in common, seemed like a heaven-sent plan. Al- though at first he was howled down when he at- tempted to speak, his plen- tiful supply of German money won him followers among those who could be bribed and his party began to gather strength in a way that boded no good for the Kerensky government. In the meantime, important events were happen- ing. The steady pressure of the British and French armies on the Somme River was beginning to be felt heavily. To be sure, their progress was slow, but their success was not marked entirely in territory gained. They were killing and capturing Germans, blasting them out of one trench after another, wound- ing them and weakening their resisting power. The courage of the German troops was always good, but depression seized them, as they saw themselves Nikolai Lenin THE ISSUE PLAIN 207 unable to hold their new trenches, and unable to stay long enough in one line to make it unbreak- able. The mud of the fall and winter had halted the great drive of the British and French, but the Ger- man armies and airmen could see wide roads being built and giant guns placed in position, and great heaps of ammunition being piled up for a renewal of the attack as soon as the spring had dried up the winter's moisture. The Allies were biting in so deeply on the Somme that there was danger of their breaking through and catching in the rear the Germans who stood at Roye (rwa), Noyon (nwa- yon(g)'), and Lassigny (las sin yi')- Accordingly, the Germans began to construct a new line of trenches, varying from three to twenty miles behind their old positions. French men and women, inhabitants of this region, were compelled to labor on these works, as were the prisoners, — all this in direct violation of the rules of war as laid down by the nations at the Hague Convention and signed, among others, by Germany. This new line curved around the hills and plateaus which were covered by the forests of Coucy (coo'sy) and St. Gobain (go ban (g)'); from these points it ran north and a little west, passing two miles west of La Fere (la fair) and St. Quentin (kan tan(g)'), and crossing the Bapaume-Cambrai road about mid- way between the two cities. It met the old trench lines at the southern end of Vimy Ridge, the slope 2 o8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR which had cost the French so many gallant lives in their efforts to take it. It was not a single line ; it was a series of lines, each in itself a terrible obstacle to overcome. In many places it took advantage of the Canal du Nord (nor) and other artificial waterways. The English had developed powerful land battleships, familiarly known as "tanks," which crawled over the ground on endless belts instead of wheels. These great monsters, equipped with artillery, crashed through barbed-wire fences as though there were nothing in their way, and crawled across ordinary trenches as if on level ground. They had spread terror among the German ranks. A deep, wide canal or a good- sized stream alone would stop them. Hence the use of the waterways. In the middle of March, the Germans began quietly, little by little, to transfer their troops to the rear of the new defenses. This retreat was very skillfully and secretly carried out on a front of over seventy miles. The French toward the south of the line awoke to what was going on, and a pursuit of the Germans was begun which demor- alized the retreat almost into a rout in places, but the British remained seemingly unconscious until the Germans were safely back behind their new lines. Although the newspapers of the Allied nations made all manner of fun of the German claims that this was a "retreat to victory," it is plain that the plans of Haig THE ISSUE PLAIN 209 and of Nivelle (who had followed Joffre, as French commander-in-chief) were seriously upset. As they retreated the Germans had made a desert of the land that they were giving up. Over a thousand square miles of French land was regained and in all this dis- trict hardly one stone was left standing upon another. Not only were the roads, bridges, and railroads blown up, but every private house was leveled to the ground. Wells were poisoned and every tree was felled. Rage and bitterness filled the hearts of the Frenchmen as they marched on the heels of the Germans into what had been a happy, smiling coun- try, the fairest in France. The British were almost equally filled with indignation. They never spoke of their enemy as Germans; always as "Huns," in memory of the savage tribe that had swept over Europe nearly fifteen hundred years before. But not even the Huns, or the Vandals, Germans of olden times, had ever laid waste a country with the sys- tematic, fiendish thoroughness with which this land of France was devastated in the year of our Lord 191 7, by the rulers of a nation that had a contempt for the civilization (Kultur) of the rest of the world, as being inferior to their own. A thousand square miles of France, as has been said, were freed from German control. But of the miserable inhabitants of this region only the sick, the crippled, the old, and the very young were left in their ruined homes. Every able-bodied man and woman had been dragged away as a slave THE ISSUE PLAIN 211 to work in the fields or the factories of the Ger- mans. While this advance was taking place along the western front, in the far-off valley of the Tigris the second British expedition was meeting with better success than the ill-fated invasion of General Town- shend. Sir Frederick Maude did not underestimate his enemy, as Townshend had done. He knew that he- was dealing with as brave a body of men as ever- carried arms and that they were led and drilled by Germans whose life work had been the development of the art of war. The fortifications at Kut-el- Amara, the scene of Townshend' s surrender, proved a difficult obstacle. The position of the town gave the Turks an excellent opportunity to in- trench, protected as it was by the Tigris on three sides. However, after some brilliant strategic moves, General Maude threw his cavalry north of the town on the west bank of the river, and then crossing the stream in the rear of the Turks, threatened to cut off their retreat to Bagdad. The result was a speedy withdrawal from Kut, and a headlong flight up the river. Again and again the British horsemen, paralleling on the west bank the Turkish retreat on the east side, by threatening to get be- tween them and their source of supplies turned them out of position after position. All this was happening during February and early March, 191 7. The Turks made a desperate attempt to hold 212 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the line of the Diala (di a/la) River, but, on March 8, the British forced the crossing of this stream, and three days later they entered Bagdad unopposed, for the Turks were fleeing rapidly up the river. Thus the famous Mesopotamian city, the eastern terminus of the great German railway, fell into the hands of the British, and all hope of a German trade conquest of the East began to fade. The inhabitants, the majority of whom were not Turks, but Arabs, with a mixture of Armenians, Persians, Hindoos, and Jews, welcomed the end of the Turkish rule, and received the British as liberators. General Maude did not stay to enjoy the triumph, but hurried north on the trail of the fleeing enemy. After driving them northward for fifty miles, he had to pause. His men had outrun their supplies. It was a serious task to transport munitions and food for so large an army in a country where there were no good roads, and the river was the only means of communication. . . . Let us return for a time to the United States. In spite of the breaking off of relations with Ger- many, the great mass of our people still hoped that we might be kept out of the war. They looked upon it as a European quarrel in which we had no concern. In the latter part of February, however, our State Department gave to the newspapers a note, caught by one of the secret service agents of our government, which had been sent from the THE ISSUE PLAIN 213 German embassy in Washington to the German min- ister in Mexico. As they read it, our peace-loving people boiled up, overnight, in a fighting rage. The message, signed by Dr. Zimmermann, the Ger- man Foreign Secretary, and dated January 19, ordered the German Ambassador, in case the United States broke off relations with Germany over the torpedoing of her merchant vessels, to propose to the Mexicans to declare war on the United States. Germany would declare war also, and would agree to make no separate peace without Mexico. Mexico was to be urged to approach Japan with offers to bring about peace between Japan and Germany and war between Japan and the United States. The ambassador was told, also, to make it plain to the Mexicans that they would be sure to be on the winning side, for the submarine campaign would ' ' force England to make peace in a few months." Mexico's reward for allying herself with Germany was to receive back her ' ' lost territory" — Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Nothing was said about California ; that was evi- dently to be left for Japan ! The majority of the German newspapers published in this country denounced the note as a clumsy forgery, "planted" by British secret agents, in order to inflame the people of the United States against Germany. They pointed out that no German states- man, even if he were unscrupulous enough to form such a plan against a friendly nation, would be so stupid as to think that the great state of Texas, to say 214 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR nothing of New Mexico and Arizona, would ever submit to Mexican rule. Just as this "alibi" was nicely framed up, Dr. Zimmermann himself proceeded to knock the props out from under it ' by stating, with an engaging frankness, that of course he had written the note. He expressed astonishment that the note had stirred up so much of a row. Wasn't it good strategy to make as much trouble as possible for a nation that soon might be your enemy? As a matter of fact, the United States was already Germany's enemy; the only reason the Americans had not declared war was that they could give more help to Great Britain and France as a neutral than as an ally ! So spoke Dr. Zimmermann. The Americans of German descent had their eyes opened, at last, to the standards of honesty and morality held up in government circles at Berlin ; and the great majority of them swung over to the side of their adopted country. It was all very well for them to sympathize with the Kaiser when he attacked France and Belgium. But now he and his agents were plotting against the peace and welfare of the United States — and that was a different matter. Weeks passed, and the brutal murders on the high seas continued. One American ship was sent down — then another. Congress had ad- journed, but the President, calling the members to- gether in a special session, told them, on April 2, that a state of war had been thrust upon us by the THE ISSUE PLAIN 215 German Imperial Government. American ships were being sunk and American citizens murdered on the high seas. Even hospital ships, plainly marked with the Red Cross, and ships carrying food given by Americans to the starving people of Belgium had not been spared. No other course was left us, said he, but to enter the conflict with all our hearts and souls, and to end, once for all, this brutal method of warfare. The world must be made safe for democracy. With the German people, we had no quarrel. But with their autocratic government, we must fight. With the passing of the Tzar, the last autocrat on the side of the Allies had been removed. The new Russian Republic was a fit partner in the league of nations, where the people ruled. The issue was plain at last. It was autocracy, military governments controlled by Junkers and feudal chiefs, against democracy, the rule of the people. With a great outbreak of patriotic feeling, four days later, the Con- gress passed, by an overwhelming vote, a resolution stating that we were at war with Germany. The ships of the United States Navy, alert and seaworthy always, slipped from their moorings and swung across the great Atlantic to convoy merchant- men and to hunt down the pirates from under the sea. We had only a small army, as was fitting for a nation which had none but kindly feeling for its neighbors. (During the first year of the great war, a large number of Germans could not understand why 216 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the United States did not take advantage of England's troubles by seizing Canada by force of arms !) To increase this army was our first problem. Two months after our declaration of war, Congress passed a law drafting all young men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty- one. They were called before boards, composed of three men in each district, and were either sent into the army, or excused from service because they were not sound in body, or because they were needed in more important work at home, or because they had families who would be in distress without their support. By October, there were almost a million men in the United States army, and the number was growing at the rate of two hundred thousand a month. Officers' training schools were opened all over the country. British and French veterans came over to teach our men all that they had learned in two and a half years of modern warfare. Shipyards were set up on all our coasts. Men set to work with a will, making new ships to carry our soldiers across, to carry the tons and tons of supplies that our army needed, and to convey to Europe the munitions and above all the food that the Allies so sadly lacked. In Allied lands the entry of the United States into the war was greeted with frantic joy. The newspapers and statesmen of Great Britain, France, and Italy hailed the event as "the turning point of war," They praised our action as unselfish and THE ISSUE PLAIN 217 generous. Having nothing to gain for ourselves, they said, we had come into the struggle to save Europe from a military despotism, to safeguard the rights of small nations. April 19 was made ''American Day," in Great Britain, and the Stars and Stripes flew from the Victoria Tower of Parliament House, an honor that no other nation had ever before enjoyed. In June, the first American soldiers went across, with General John J. Pershing as Commander-in- Chief of our army in Europe. The British gave them a wonderful reception. From the King to the street boy, all London turned out to do them honor. But this welcome, warm as it was, could not be compared with their greeting in Paris. England had not been invaded as France had been. Her mighty navy stood between her and the German hordes. But Paris was only seventy miles from the German lines ; and between French civilization and destruc- tion by the enemy there stood as a bulwark only a thin line of small, wiry, determined men, clad in their faded, sky-blue uniforms. As the victor of the Marne stood beside the American general on the balcony of the Military Club, looking down on the screaming, tumultuous crowd, some one cried out "Vive [viv (long live)] Joffre, who kept us from defeat ! Vive Pershing, who brings to us the victory !" But we are getting ahead of our story. Important events were taking place on the fighting fronts. y_y Brown Bros. General Pershing Delivering an Address at the Tomb of Lafayette (Note Marshal Joffre applauding) THE ISSUE PLAIN 219 General Nivelle, the new commander of the French, was a man of action. He proposed to blast the Germans out of France. While the British were striking hard blows in the north, Nivelle suddenly flung his men at the German trenches which stretched along from Soissons for forty miles eastward. These were the unusually strong positions among the limestone cliffs and stone quarries which the in- vaders had held since September, 19 14. Very strong by nature, they had been made almost impregnable by tunnels, caves, and dugouts, cut so deeply into the solid rock that whole regiments could take shelter in them from the terrific fire of the French artillery, and be ready to come to the top in time to meet the infantry charges. The Germans had known from their spies that the attack was coming, and they had massed men and guns to meet it. Nevertheless, the French troops swarmed up the hills through a withering fire, with a dash that carried all before it. Along the whole front the first line trenches were taken, and thou- sands of prisoners were sent to the rear. On the 1 8th of April (19 17), the Germans brought up nearly a quarter of a million of fresh troops, but all to no avail. For another two weeks the French drove them steadily back, piercing the line first here, then there, but always going ahead, always bagging prisoners. There is a famous old road, named the Road of the Ladies (Chemindes Dames) (she man (g) da dam), built 220 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR long ago along the heights of the Aisne for the con- venience of some ladies of the court of King Louis XV. This road, and the ridge along which it ran, were to be the scene of some of the most desperate fighting of the whole war. Only the shot-scarred hills of Verdun can lay claim to equal slaughter. By the first week in May, Nivelle 's men were masters of the whole ridge, including the village of Craonne (cra6n'). But somebody in Paris was not satisfied. The cost of the victory, in killed and wounded, fright- ened the politicians. There were secret forces at work, too, that would not bear the light of day. Ex- Caillaux (cayo') was in- were dealing with the it cannot be General Xivelle Prime Minister Joseph triguing with men who Germans. It is whispered, though proved, that these people were afraid that Nivelle would win too big a victory, and that they wanted him removed, along with General Mangin, another fighter whose name had come to be feared by the Germans. Be that as it may, within the next month Nivelle was reduced, and General Henri Petain, Nivelle s THE ISSUE PLAIN 221 predecessor at Verdun, became commander-in-chief of the French armies on the western front. Fifty- two thousand Germans had been captured since April 1 , and the Ladies' Road from Laflaux (laf fo') to Craonne lay wholly behind the French lines. There are many who believe that Nivelle's system was winning, and that had he been allowed to hammer away, the German front might have been broken a year sooner than it finally was. Meanwhile, the British, too, were busy. On April 9, they had opened a terrific attack on the German lines north of Arras. The famous Vimy Ridge, a hill some two hundred feet high and a mile long, which had been the scene of bloody struggles in 1915, was taken by the Canadians, who, having dug in under it, exploded their mines just before their rush. German prisoners came pouring in, while Haig's men pushed on. They took village after village and threatened the whole district around the city of Lens, the center of the coal-mining country in northern France. The new unbreakable defense lines constructed by the Germans before the " strategic retreat" were called by the Allies the Hindenburg Line, because it was understood that this retreat was made by the order of the old field marshal, who, since Falken- hayn's failure at Verdun, had been chief of the Ger- man General Staff. The Germans themselves named various parts of the line after heroes of the old mythology. They spoke of the Wotan (vo tan) 222 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Line, the Siegfried (seeg'freed) Line, the Kriemhilde (kreem hil'da) Line. The main Hindenburg line just south of Lens was broken by the British, and the Germans had to retire to a second position, still stronger than the first, which the British called the Queant-Drocourt (ka'an(g)'-dro cooV) Switch Line from the two towns which stood at its ends. On the seventh of June, the British struck another mighty blow for which they had been preparing for over a year. You will remember the old Belgian city of Ypres, to which the British had clung as grimly as the French to Verdun. Just south of Ypres the German lines curved around a long hill which was known as the Messines-Wytschaete (mes sm'-witshee'tee') Ridge, from two towns which stood at its ends. From this elevation, the highest ground along the German lines for many a mile, the enemy's big guns had shelled the British trenches and the ruined city of Ypres for two and a half years. Like Vimy Ridge, forty miles to the south, the possession of this hill had meant much to the Ger- mans. Vimy had been taken two months before, and now this position, too, was doomed. Patiently digging beneath the enemy trenches, the Australian and British sappers had been burrowing under the ridge for more than a year. Nineteen powerful mines, holding five hundred tons of a new giant ex- plosive, had been placed beneath the unsuspecting THE ISSUE PLAIN 223 Germans. At three o'clock in the morning (June 7) a British engineer pressed a button that brought the ends of the two electric wires together, which set off the explosive. With a roar that reached the listening ears of Prime Minister Lloyd-George, 140 miles away, the whole top of the famous ridge blew into the air, carrying with it guns, big and little, and fragments of its unlucky German garrison. A terrific rain of metal from the big British guns followed this up- heaval. The German trenches which had survived the explosion were practically wiped out by this deadly storm. The guns ceased, and with wild cheers the Second British Army, led by its great general, Sir Herbert Plumer, dashed forward, and in a short three hours was master of the hill. Irish, English, and Australians took part in this memorable fight. From the summit of the hill the Germans had been able to observe all the preparations for the attack. Knowing that it was coming they had massed some of their best divisions to meet it. The only surprise to them was the explosion of the mines, and the terrific intensity of the British gun fire. For two years the Allies had fought with bayonets and rifles against the big guns of the Germans. Now the tide had turned. The munition factories of France and England were turning out monster cannon and great supplies of shells faster than Germany could make them, and the enemy was at last getting a taste of his own medicine. 224 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Still the picked troops of the Germans fought gamely and well. Over the hill and to the east of it rushed the victorious British. Out from the woods beyond, a fresh division of the enemy came forward to meet them. A fierce and bloody hand-to-hand conflict followed which was won by the British. The day closed with the whole ridge in their hands. A tract of land five miles long and three wide had been taken ; but thirty thousand Germans had fallen as against only one third that number of the victors. Another terrific blow had been struck at the morale of the enemy. He was fast learning that the "contemptible little army " was outfighting and out gunning his best divisions. Let us turn for a short time to a scene of the war that we have not visited recently. The Italians were not satisfied with the capture of Gorizia. Their tireless engineers were constantly plotting and planning new ways to break through the Austrian defenses. The upper Isonzo River was a hard barrier to cross. It flows for a great part of its length between steep banks, and could easily be defended. Working at night, however, the Italians accomplished a wonderful feat. By digging a canal they were able to divert the greater part of the water into a new channel, reducing the depth of the river from twenty feet to three or four. In the shallow water, they built, always under cover of darkness, numerous bridges across the channel. Just before daybreak each morning, the canal was closed up and THE ISSUE PLAIN 22$ the water flowed back in its old channel, covering the new bridges six feet deep. When, on August 18, all was ready for the grand assault, the water was once more turned from its natural bed, and four pontoon bridges were laid across the shallow stream in addition to the many cross- ings that had lain concealed beneath the water. Strong searchlights were turned upon the opposite Austrian batteries which blinded the gunners to what was going on below them. With wonderful dash, the Italians flung themselves across the stream in irresistible numbers, and before the astonished Austrians could realize what had happened they were made prisoners by the thousands. Just beyond the Isonzo lie two plateaus, largely surrounded by mountains. The northerly table- land is called the Bainsizza (bin sit'sa) , the southerly the Carso. The attack of the Italians in the north carried them six miles east of the river along the Bainsizza plateau, while a similar assault to the south took them even deeper into the Carso. Over 35,000 prisoners were taken in the drive and it is estimated that Austria must have lost one hundred thousand men in killed and wounded. Reinforcements were rushed up from Vienna, and the progress of the Italians was checked consider- ably. Nevertheless, they continued to gain, bit by bit, until the third week in October. By this time two more nations had entered the war. For over two hundred years there had t&gn ,a 226 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR treaty between Portugal and England that bound each nation to come to the aid of the other when sorely beset. In the days of the first Napoleon, British troops had saved the little peninsular nation from being conquered by the French. Roused by German attacks on her merchant ships, Portugal had retaliated by seizing all German vessels that had taken refuge in her harbors. Ger- many promptly declared war, whereupon Great Britain called upon her ancient ally, under the terms of the treaty, to furnish 10,000 troops for service in France. In due time these came, and were joined to the British army. The other nation was Greece. The King, by dismissing Venizelos, in defiance of the will of a ma- jority of his people as expressed in two elections, was ruling like a despot. Finally there appeared a call to the Greek people, signed by Venizelos, by the chief admiral of the navy, and by one of the generals in the army. This proclamation stated that the king, by setting aside the constitution and rejecting the leaders voted into power by the people, had forfeited his right to the throne. It pointed out that he was be- traying Greece into the hands of her enemies, the Turks and Bulgars, in order to oblige his German brother-in-law, the Kaiser. It told the people that their true friends were the democratic nations of the world, like France and Great Britain. At Salonica, Venizelos and his friends set up a republic of Greece, under the protection of the army THE ISSUE PLAIN 227 of the Entente. The entire northern half of Greece and the people of the islands joined the new govern- ment, which promptly declared war against Turkey, Bulgaria, Austria- Hungary, and Germany, and sent its troops to fight on the northern battle line. Meanwhile, at Athens, King Constantine kept up his pro- German plottings. When General Sarrail, in the fall of 191 6, planned a great attack in order to keep the Bulgarians from joining in the assault on Roumania, the spies of King Constantine at Salonica betrayed his preparations to the enemy. By attack- ing first, they upset his plans and spoiled the main effect of his blow. At last the nations of the Entente could stand it no longer. In June, 191 7, they notified the Greek government that they had put up with Constantine just as long as they could. Const an tine's second son, Alexander, was offered the throne. With the guns of French and British war- ships bearing on his capital, Constantine decided that perhaps he would do well to join the growing body of ex-kings. A British warship carried him off, and he went to live in Switzerland. Alexander took the throne and invited Venizelos to come back to Athens as prime minister. The latter accepted, and his entry into the capital was the occasion for a wonderful welcome from the people. Greece, once more united, entered the war on the side of the Entente. Meanwhile, the Russian republic was having trouble. You have been told how Alexander Kerensky 228 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR had become the prime minister. Kerensky was prone to compromise. He had not the strength of character to deal with the Russians. They were like a lot of children who had been used to strict orders and iron discipline in the past and now were let loose to do as they pleased. They de- manded that there should no longer be any putting to death for crime or military desertion, and Kerensky weakly agreed to this. Germany and Austria, who had felt, during the winter, that the coming year would see their downfall, unless the submarine campaign could starve out England, now took heart again. The most autocratic and despotic govern- ments in Europe themselves, they began to disarm the suspicions of the Russians by talking about the "brotherhood of men," telling them that it was the Tzar's government that made them fight against their brothers, the Germans. "Let us have peace," said the German spies, mingling with the childlike Russians. "Let each side bear its own losses. Let there be no annexations and no indemnities." German soldiers, acting under orders, grew friendly with the Russians in the opposite trenches and told them that the war ought to stop, as the Tzar, the chief cause of the trouble, was no longer ruler of Russia. All this plotting, combined with the new free- dom and loss of discipline, had so taken the fight out of the Russian army that the Germans had been able to leave only regiments of older men along the THE ISSUE PLAIN 229 eastern front. Their best troops were rushed west- ward to take part in the furious assault that Hinden- burg was making on the French along the Chemin des Dames. Here for several weeks there raged a battle that, for violence of attack and stubbornness of defense, was surpassed only by the siege of Verdun. At last Kerensky, awake to the peril of a German conquest of his country brought about by under- mining the discipline of the Russian army, went to the front himself. He made numerous speeches to the troops and inspired them to attack. During the first half of the month of July, 191 7, led by Kerensky himself, the Russian armies in Galicia and Volhynia (the Russian province adjoining Galicia) attacked along a hundred mile front, driving back the Ger- mans and Austrians and capturing thousands of prisoners. Great joy filled the Allied nations, for they had feared that Russia had lost her will to fight. It proved only a "flash in the pan," how- ever, a last effort of the splendid fighting soldiers of Russia. Reenforcements began to arrive for the Austrians and Germans, and the Russian drive slowed down to a crawl and then halted. For three years the Germans had been breaking all rules of honorable nations by their barbarous bombing of French and British cities. Airplanes and Zeppelins had sailed across the North Sea and had dropped death among the crowded streets of 230 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR London, murdering women and children in a vain attempt to break down the courage of the English people and to force them to make peace. For all these years a number of people in Great Britain had urged that the only way to stop these barbarous attacks was to pay back the Germans in their own coin — to send French and British aviators to bomb German cities. People in the Allied countries felt so much horror at the methods of the Germans that for a long time they would not permit reprisals of this sort. A French aviator flew over Berlin and the famous Italian poet, D'Annunzio, flew over Vienna ; but in each case nothing was dropped except printed handbills, telling the people that the Allies would not make war on women and children. In the summer of 191 7, however, the Germans had become so brutal in their bombing of field hospitals, all of which were marked plainly on the roof with the Red Cross, that Great Britain and France sent notice to Germany that if there were any more of such offenses they would send airplanes to bomb Ger- man cities. The Germans kept on, and so, at last, in June, 191 7, the Allies began raids on German towns. The air- men were instructed to bomb only railway tracks and stations, arsenals and munition factories. Neverthe- less, it was a beginning of reprisals, and it threw a chill of fear into the towns all up and down the Rhine. Inhabitants of western Germany set up a loud cry about the " barbarity" of the English and French, THE ISSUE PLAIN 231 forgetting that for three years they had read with joy of the deadly air-raids on London. It will be recalled that in two brilliant attacks Generals Nivelle and Mangin had won back at Verdun all the ground that the Germans had gained at the price of four months of terrific assaults. Since December, 1916, there had been comparative quiet around the old French fortress. The Germans still held the ground that they had gained in the first six days of their attack. On the 20th of August, 191 7, after a bombardment of three days, the French at Verdun leaped out of their trenches, and dashed forward on both banks of the Meuse to a depth of over a mile. On the next day another brilliant stroke took them forward again and added 5000 prisoners to the 4000 taken on the first day. Four times within the next two weeks the sons of France struck out again. At the end of the operation twenty thousand prisoners had been taken, and the lines around Verdun were back again where they had been on February 21, 191 6, when Falkenhayn and the Crown Prince struck the terrific blow that was to have ended the war. The "poilu," as they nicknamed the common soldier in France, had always been known for his brilliant dash in attack, and for his quick thinking in an emergency. Military critics of other countries, however, had had doubts about his ability to ' ' stand 232 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the gaff" of a long, hard, punishing defense, with the odds against him, and no relief in sight. These doubts, however, were set forever at rest by the magnificent conduct of the whole French army throughout the World War, but especially by the gallant defense of Verdun, a name never to be for- gotten in the history of France. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW i. Was it right for the United States to sell munitions to France and Great Britain? 2. Why did President Wilson, in December, 1916, ask the warring nations to state the terms on which they would consider peace? 3. How was Germany breaking rules of war recognized by civilized nations ? 4. Why had Germany put off, for a time, her submarine campaign ? 5. What were the reasons for the Russian Revolution? 6. What were the great mistakes made by the early leaders of the Russian republic? 7. Was the "strategic retreat " truly a good move for the Germans ? 8. How did the fall of Bagdad harm the German cause? 9. What was the effect of the Zimmermann note on Americans of German blood? 10. How did the United States prepare to take part in the war? 1 1 . Why did Nivelle's great attack fail ? 12. Why was it that the British were able to gain ground in 1917? 13. How did the Italians arrange to cross the Isonzo ? 14. Why did Portugal and Greece enter the war? 15. Were the Allies right in dealing with the Greek king as they did ? 16. How was the fighting spirit of the Russian army being broken down? 17. Were the British and French justified in paying back the Germans in their own coin (air raids) ? 18. What qualities did the French soldier show which people in general did not know that he had? CHAPTER IX Dark Days The submarine at its worst. — Russia on the decline. — Korniloff loses. — Lansing's disclosures : " spurlos vorsenkt " ; the decora- tion for the Swedish minister. — Undermining the spirit of the Italian army. — The disaster of Caporetto. — Stopped at last. — The Bolsheviki in control of Russia. — A new nation is born. — Russia drops out of the fight. — Mud in Flanders. — New cabinets rise to bear the burden. — Byng at Cambrai and the German rebound. — The United States at war with Aus- tria. — Slow progress in Palestine. — Wilson and Lloyd-George state their terms of peace. — The Tuscania goes down. When in February, 191 7, Germany sent out her submarines to sink merchant vessels without warn- ing, she practically declared war on the whole world. Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, and other neutral vessels were sent to the bottom along with those of the warring nations. Spain was kept from entering the conflict by the plottings of her pro- German nobles and by the liberal spending of German money to bribe her newspaper writers and editors. Denmark, Holland, and Norway were intensely indignant when their citizens were murdered in cold blood on the high seas, but with the fate of Belgium and Serbia staring them in the face they did not dare to declare war. Brazil, Cuba, and three or four 233 234 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR other South and Central American nations broke off all dealings with Germany, and some of them finally declared war. As time went on the Germans became more and more merciless in their methods. At first they simply shot a torpedo or two into a ship and left her to sink. Later they amused themselves by rising to the surface and firing shells at the lifeboats of a sinking steamer, or at the helpless victims as they struggled in the water. But it remained for one German captain to put the finishing touch of savagery to his sink- ing of a steamer called the Belgian Prince. He invited the crew to seek safety on the deck of the submarine. They did so ; whereupon he sailed along for a short distance, then submerged, leaving the unfortunate men who had trusted him to drown or to swim as best they might. Only two of them were rescued and that by a remarkable chance. Otherwise the story of this deed might have gone untold, like that of many similar oc- currences. Men and women, cast adrift in open boats without food or even water, died by the hundred from hunger, thirst, or exposure. British, French, and American destroyers, swift vessels of small draft (so light that there was little of the boat below water to furnish a target for a torpedo) scoured the seas, seeking the " U-boats" and rescuing their victims. Great hydroplanes flew over the sea, for it was discovered that from a position DARK DAYS 235 high in the air one could often look down into the depths and see the lurking submarines, which were invisible to boats on the surface. A French scientist invented a listening device which gave warning of the nearness of a submarine through the hum of its motor as carried by the water. The English devised great nets which in- snared them, or warned the destroyers of their presence by pulling under water wooden floats just like the floats of an ordinary fishing tackle. Admiral Madden of the British navy suggested the depth bomb, afterwards perfected by an American. It was an arrangement shaped like an ash- can which sank to a certain depth and then exploded with a force that would blow in the sides of any submarine within a hundred yards. In spite of all these efforts the sinkings went on, twenty ships a week, twenty-five a week, thirty a week. The size of a ship is measured by the weight of the cargo that she will carry. A large ship will carry from 10,000 to 20,000 tons. The first six months of the "unrestricted" submarine campaign contained some dark days for the Allies. The Germans were sinking ships at the rate of more than half a million tons a month. In fact in one month eight hundred thousand tons went down. British and American shipyards worked night and day, turning out new ships, but for a long time the supply could not keep pace with the destruction. And nothing could replace the food and supplies that were lost, 236 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR nor the brave sailors that were daily giving up their lives in the cause of humanity. It will be recalled that the Russians, led by Kerensky, the leader of the second revolutionary government, had begun a vigorous attack in July that flung the Austrians and Germans back along a hun- dred-mile front and threatened to retake Lemberg. When the Germans found that the fighting spirit of the Russians was still high they brought up some of their best troops and struck back. The system of supplying the Russian army with food and ammuni- tion was bad enough under the Tzar's government, as you have already learned. It was worse under the new government, for many of the old officers, who really knew how to do things, had been removed, and the discipline of the whole organization had gone to pieces. The Germans, through spies and pretended de- serters, spread among the gullible Russian soldiers the story that the new government was dividing free land among all men who were at home in their own little villages or counties. "Go home and get your share," said these spies, and the ignorant Russians rushed home in droves, only to find that they had been gulled. As a result of all this intrigue and the teaching of the Lenin-Trotzky party that this was a capitalist war, the great Russian war machine cracked and fell apart. All the ground that had recently been gained was quickly lost ; on a front of one hundred DARK DAYS 237 and fifty miles, the Russians fell back. They re- treated almost to the eastern borders of Galicia. The only thing that prevented the retreat from becoming a disastrous rout was the inability of the Germans and Austrians to pursue as rapidly as the Russians retreated. In a few places some strong generals, like Alexieff or Korniloff (kor ni'loff), kept up the old discipline, but as a whole, the Rus- sian army was out of the war for good. Korniloff, a fighting Cossack, disgusted with the weakness and lax discipline allowed by the Kerensky government, at last started to march on to Petrograd, meaning to restore order and insist on strict military rule. But the spirit of revolt and poor discipline had secured the upper hand. His troops deserted him ; he was arrested by Kerensky' s order, and the last spark of fighting spirit among the southern armies flickered out. Russia, as a member of the Entente, was no more a partner in the war. About this time the State Department at Washing- ton struck a few blows at secret diplomacy by publish- ing several messages from German ministers in the New World which had been caught and translated, although written in a complicated secret cipher. Three of these were messages from Count von Luxburg, German Minister to Argentina, which, it was proved, had been sent to Stockholm by the Swedish Minister at Buenos Aires to be sent on to Berlin. In one of these notes Von Luxburg called the 238 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Foreign Minister of Argentina "a notorious ass and Anglophile" (friend of England). In the other two he told the Berlin office that Argentina was getting angry about the sinking of her ships by German submarines, and recommended that in future, if they were sunk, they be "sunk without leaving any trace " (" spurlos versenkt"). This meant, of course, that, not content with sinking the ships the submarines should also murder every man in the crews, so that no witness could be left to testify against them. This cold-blooded scheme, so true to the Junker nature, did not appeal to the people of Argentina. Mobs gathered in the cities, and German clubs and German newspaper offices were stoned and wrecked. The government at Buenos Aires handed Herr von Luxburg his passports, and told him to get out of the country in a hurry. The people of Sweden were far from happy at learning that their minister was secretly and un- fairly helping the Germans to transmit their private messages, and the cabinet at Stockholm had a stormy time for a while. The Swedish government had just given out a statement that their minister to Argentina thought it was only proper for him to send on the German messages but that nothing of the sort would happen again, when Mr. Lansing (our Secretary of State) gave out another message that had been caught in passing. This was from Von Eckhardt, German Minister to Mexico, addressed to the government DARK DAYS 239 at Berlin. It told of the great help that had been given by Herr Cronholm, Swedish Minister to Mexico, in getting ■" information from the hostile camp." Herr von Eckhardt urged his government to give Mr. Cronholm a decoration (a star or medal of the Crown Order) to reward him. This method of dealing with dishonesty and secret diplomacy was new to the world. In Europe, governments which had discovered something dis- creditable about other governments sometimes used this knowledge for purposes of blackmail. Not so the United States. Our State Department gave out the whole truth at once, trusting public opinion to force right to prevail. We left the Italian army slowly fighting its way eastward and southward on the plateaus of Bain- sizza and the Carso. ' The bulk of the fighting forces were on the eastern front. To the northeast, among the mountains, the lines were held by regiments made up of the older men. There had been very little fighting in this section for some time. In fact the troops had gotten into the habit of fraternizing with the soldiers in the opposite Austrian trenches. The German generals, who were really in command of the Austrian armies, formed a cunning plan to take advantage of this friendliness. Cer- tain picked soldiers were carefully taught to go among the Italian troops and fill their heads with lying stories that would make them anxious to return to their homes. These men informed 24C HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the Italians that now the British and French had gotten the Italian men out of the way, they were looting and plundering the helpless coast of Italy. To prove this, the Germans distributed many thousands of copies of a Roman newspaper, which told how the French and British were shooting women and children in Rome and laying waste the whole city. Of course the whole thing was a fake, but the more ignorant of the Italians swallowed it, "bait, hook, and sinker." These trained German and Austrian spies went among the Italians at this northeastern corner of the battle lines, telling them that it was a shame for brave men to be killing each other just because of the quarrels of a crowd of kings. They proposed that when the next general attack should be ordered all the soldiers along this line, Austrians and Italians alike, should throw down their arms and rush for- ward to embrace their enemies, and thus end the war. Again many credulous Italians were tricked and agreed to this proposal. On the 24th of October the Austrians, after an intense bombardment of three days, launched a severe attack on the Italian lines near Caporetto, in the sector where all this work had been going on to undermine the fighting spirit of the troops. It had been the usual custom to hold up the in- fantry attacks until after the artillery had ceased firing, but on this occasion the German gunners left a small gap of a quarter of a mile where no shells DARK DAYS 241 were to fall for a few minutes, all the while keeping up a furious firing on the rest of the lines, in order to hold the Italians down in their trenches. Through this narrow space poured a picked division of German troops. At their head was a chosen company of Austrians who spoke Italian. These men were dressed in Italian uniforms. They scattered among the Italian troops just behind the first line trenches, crying out, "All is lost. Let us flee to our homes ! " In the meanwhile the artillery ceased firing, and, true to their pledge, most of the Italians in the front line trenches threw down their arms and rushed forward to embrace their on-coming Austrian brothers. But the "brothers" had not thrown down their arms ; and they paid no attention to the unarmed Italians. These were allowed to pass through to the rear, where they were quickly herded off to prison camps. The pretended panic of the Austrians in Italian clothes and the rapid advance of the Germans behind them, started a real panic among the Italians of the reserve troops. These men, already burning with eagerness to defend their children against the French and English, were ready on any pretext to start home at once ! They ran ; and in their wake came the invaders. The line was broken, and through the gap, in an ever increasing flood, poured the best troops of the Austrian army, with four crack German divisions from the Russian front. 242 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Almost the entire Second Army of Italy turned and fled. Here and there regiments resolved to stand to the death, like the gallant ^lpini (alpi'ni), as they were called, on Monte Nero. These devoted bands, by selling their lives as dearly as possible and resisting until the last man was shot down, saved the retreat from being turned into a disgraceful rout. The Austrians had other men dressed in Italian uniforms, who mingled with the retreating army until they came to some commanding point, where- upon they opened fire with machine guns, mowing down the weaponless Italians around them. Meanwhile the Third Army, commanded by the Duke of Aosta, holding the line of the lower Bainsizza and Carso plateaus, was giving a good account of itself. When the news came of the break in the lines of the Second Army, the Third went forward in a sweeping charge that drove the Austrians back out of their trenches. Then, learning that the advance of the Germans was threatening to cut them off from Italy, Aosta's men slowly began their retreat, taking their guns with them. At regular intervals they turned and gave a stinging reminder to the pursu- ing Austrians that they must not approach too near. By November 4 they had reached the line of the Tagliamento (tal ya men'to) River, forty miles to the rear, where an attempt was made to stop the retreat. The Germans and Austrians, however, were stream- ing over the mountains from the north in such num- ^Alpini : a special corps of mountaineers. DARK DAYS 243, bers that they threatened to take the Tagliamento line in the rear. On November 6, the Taglia- mento was left behind. On the tenth, the Third Army reached the line of the River Piave (pya'va), which empties into the sea about seventeen miles east of Venice. Here they stood, destroyed all bridges, and defied all attempts of the Austrians to cross, except at one point, where they managed to gain a small portion of the southwest bank. The great drive was over. The Austro- Germans had bagged twenty-three hundred guns and nearly a quarter of a million prisoners, largely from the ranks of the Second Army. For the next few weeks the Germans and Austrians made desperate attempts to break through the new line. But help had arrived. Several French di- visions j the pick of the army, commanded by General Foch, France's greatest strategist, and a small British army under Sir Herbert Plumer, Haig's most able general, had arrived on the scene. The danger point was at the eastern end of the line near the sea coast. But Italian engineers cut the dikes that held in the delta of the Piave and let the waters overflow all this land, to a width of several miles. The waters were soon swarming with Italian gunboats. Cannon were mounted on floats, on rafts, on ships of all description. Every attempt of the Austrians to follow up their advantage was beaten back. The Italians had learned the truth now. They 244 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR had been beaten, not by fighting but by lies and trickery. They were angry with themselves for hav- ing been so gullible, but they were furious at the Germans and Austrians for having deceived them. The Battle of the Venetian Plain was the greatest victory of the war so far, both in amount of ground gained and guns and prisoners taken. But it was in- tended to crush Italy entirely, to put her out of the fight and to force her to make a separate peace. In this it failed utterly. Instead of discouraging the Italian people, it put them on their mettle. The dis- graceful rout of the Second Army was atoned for by the splendid fighting retreat of the Third, and the slow, orderly retirement of the First and Fourth armies from the mountains to the north and northwest. The gallant Alpini on Mount Nero had not given their lives in vain. The news of their death' proved an inspiration to the whole of Italy. Instead of suing for peace, the Italian nation, its courage high, was burning for a chance to avenge the disgrace of this defeat. But it had been a narrow escape. If the line of the Piave had been broken, if the troops had given way at the point where the river approaches the Asiago (a sya'go) plateau, it might, indeed, have re- sulted in putting Italy, like Russia and Roumania, into the class of the down and out. For Russia had fallen into evil days. A party of extreme Socialists called the Bolsheviki (which means "the majority") had tried in July, by street DARK DAYS 245 fighting in Petrograd, to overthrow the Kerensky government. They were put down at the time, but went on gaining strength for the next attempt, secretly undermining the support of Kerensky among the soldiers. Their leaders were plentifully supplied with German gold which they used to buy and bribe those who could not be persuaded to join them. In the first week of November, having won over the sailors on the warships, the Bolsheviki made an- other attempt. A cruiser was brought up the River Neva so far that its guns commanded the buildings where the Kerensky government had its offices. Then Bolshevist troops surrounded the Winter Palace, and Kerensky, seeing that he was deserted, slipped out of a back door, disguised as a servant, and fled up the Neva in a boat. The next day found Lenin and Trotzky in com- plete control at Petrograd. In Moscow, after rioting in which 3000 people were killed, the Bolsheviki also triumphed. A condition of lawlessness followed throughout Russia. The great empire of the Tzars, built up through hundreds of years of aggression and con- quest, fell apart overnight. The Siberians refused to submit to the Trotzky crowd and set up a separate republic. The Cossacks of the Don, led by their fighting hetman (as the chief of these tribes is called), General Kaledines, did the same. Finland soon announced to the world that it should have a government of its own, inde- 246 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR pendent of Russia. Then, to the great astonishment of Europe, the Ruthenians, or Little Russians, called an assembly of their own and set up a new republic called the Ukraine or Ukrainia. Their country is the rich, wheat-growing, black- earth belt stretching across the southern part of Russia from the Austrian border to the Black Sea and the Don River. Thirty million Ruthenians had been prohibited by the Tzar's government from using in schools, courts, and churches their own language, which differs from Russian as much as "Plattdeutsch" (plat doitsh) or Low German does from the High German of Bavaria and Saxony. There were three million Ruthenians in eastern Galicia. These had really been given more liberty by the Austrian government than had their brothers across the border by the officials of the Tzar. Here was a new nation suddenly sprung into existence. The most southwesterly state of Russia, Bes- sarabia, is inhabited largely by Roumanians. These people now took advantage of the break-up to declare that their land should henceforth be joined to the mother country. All through the great empire there was confusion, lawlessness, and disorder. Murders and plundering took place unchecked. Neither property nor life was safe. Meanwhile, Lenin and Trotzky announced that they were going to end the war. They sent a dele- gation under a white flag into the German lines to DARK DAYS 247 ask for an armistice (an agreement to stop fighting while peace terms are being considered). The first agreement was finally signed between the Russians on the one side and the Germans, Austro- Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Turks on the other. It called for a truce for four weeks, from December 17, 1917, to January 14, 1918, during which time peace was to be discussed. This was a complete betrayal of France and Great Britain by their former ally. In only one way did the Bolsheviki show any interest in the nations which were fighting to end the rule of militarism in Europe. They stated in the agreement that Germany should not take advantage of the truce on the western front to send German troops across from Russia to France. Having signed this, the German government gave another proof to the world of its lack of honor by rapidly transferring to the western front some of the best troops left in Russia. It was another case of "a scrap of paper." There was need for reinforcements along the western front. The French had made a vigorous thrust north from the Chemin des Dames, capturing many prisoners and pushing the Germans off an important ridge. The British, beginning as early as September, had opened a big campaign to drive the Germans out of western Belgium. From this coast the submarines preyed on the commerce of the Allies. They could not use the port of Antwerp, for the River Scheldt passes through Dutch territory. 248 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR The harbors of Zeebrugge (za broog'ga) and Ostend, however, were known to be their bases of supply. In fact, it was suspected that submarine vessels were carried in parts on railroad trains to the Belgian city of Bruges (bruzh), assembled (put together) here HOHBHBttHH^:^ A s .f\3 '-5 ; r^~I~k . 4 %2& gL3|§ • -*■'*. Li-> VA Pill-box © Keystone View Co., Inc. with French Poilus A Captured German and launched in the canals leading to these seaports. The submarine campaign was hurting, — hurting worse than the Allies would admit, and the recap- ture of the coast towns would make it much harder for the U-boats to operate. The British had to advance their lines only twenty- five miles, but this small gain would be fought by DARK DAYS 249 the whole power of the German army. The Ger- mans had hit upon a new way of defending the ground that proved very effective. They drew most of their men back from the front line trenches, leaving as outposts little " pill-boxes," as the English call them, — little round huts with walls and roof built out of solid concrete. These housed four or five men each, armed with machine guns which fired through small round holes in the sides of the box. As the English soldiers advanced they were caught by the cross fire from the machine guns in the pill-boxes and mowed down before they could get anywhere near the main German forces. The only thing that could damage a pill-box was a direct hit from a big gun, and that was very uncommon as the "boxes" were so small and the big guns so far away. Finally, the British parked their big guns almost wheel to wheel and sent a rain of steel ahead of the charging troops that left hardly a yard of ground untouched by shell-fire. The fire was so terrific that the machine-gunners in the pill-boxes could not stand it. The British broke through, but they met stout resistance and fought their way ahead by inches. -All through the two months beginning September 20 they had gone steadily ahead. Their greatest feat had been the capture of the ridge of Passchendaele (pa shen-da/le) . By Novem- ber 17, they had gained more than half the fourteen miles between Ypres and Roulers. But 2^0 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the fall rains had set in, and the country, plowed up for miles and miles by shell-holes, became a great slimy sea of mud. Just as the mud had slowed up and finally stopped the advance on the Somme in the fall of 191 6, so in the following year it was the greatest friend of the Germans in Belgium. British soldiers sank into shell holes and were swal- lowed up. Guns stuck fast and could not be moved. Roads were im- passable. Horses, unable to pull themselves out, had to be shot. A great depression settled over the British army. They had given their best ; they had fought their hardest. After two months they had gained seven miles ; and now the Russians had dropped out and the German armies from the eastern front were arriving. Meanwhile, there had been a political shake-up in more than one Allied nation. Ministers were changed and generals ousted. In Italy, General Cadorna resigned the chief command and was suc- ceeded by a much younger man, General Diaz (di'as). The cabinet resigned, and a new prime minister, Vittorio Orlando, was appointed. In General Diaz DARK DAYS 251 France there had been several changes. Vivi- ani, Briand [brian(g)'], Ribot (ri bo'), and Pain- leve (pan'le va') had in turn served as prime minis- ter. Now, the Chamber of Deputies, feeling that the Painleve cabinet was not dealing firmly enough with pro-Germanism that had been uncovered among prominent men, refused to support it any longer. A strong man was needed — and he was found. Georges Clemenceau (cla'man so') , aged seventy-seven, the fighting "Tiger, " whose fearless attacks had so often caused the downfall of ambitious and self-seeking ministers, was now called to the leadership himself. This remarkable old man, forty-seven years before, had been the leader of the faction in the French Congress which refused to vote for the treaty of peace with Germany because it gave up Alsace and Lorraine. Clear-headed, tenacious, stubborn, coura- geous, he was himself the very embodiment of the spirit of the French nation. He chose for his cabinet men of his own type, not caring whether they were Socialists or Royalists (those who wished to have France ruled again by a king) , if only they were men of resolution and courage. These were dark days for the Allies, and courage among the men in high places was needed. An event which happened on the western front during the latter part of November brought joy for a short time, but this was quickly followed by depression. General Sir Julian Byng, commander of the Third British Army, succeeded in giving the 25^ HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Germans a sharp surprise. He secretly brought up a great number of tanks and massed them along the Hindenburg Line about halfway between Bapaume and Cambrai. On the morning of No- vember 20, without the firing of a gun, these great gray monsters crawled forward toward one of the strongest parts of the German trench system. Barbed- wire defenses were pierced as though they were paper ; the tanks crashed through them, fell across the main trenches, and crawled up the op- posite side, spitting fire and death from every loop hole. The astonished Germans turned to flee, but, pouring through the gaps torn by the tanks, came the British infantry and behind them a sight that had not been seen for three years, cavalry in hot pursuit. On a front of thirty- two miles the British broke through, capturing more than nine thousand prisoners, and advancing five miles, to within three miles of Cam- brai. In the attack they lost fewer men in killed and wounded than the number of unwounded Ger- mans that they captured. Keystone View Co., Inc. General Bvng DARK DAYS 253 The German High Command was now thor- oughly alarmed. The loss of Cambrai, an important city of 32,000 inhabitants, the center of several railways and good wagon roads, would have been a severe blow. Reserves were hastily summoned, and Byng's men soon found further progress impossible until their big guns could once more advance to their support. The drooping spirits of the Allies were greatly cheered by the news of the smashing victory. It showed something new — this breaking of the sup- posedly unbreakable Hindenburg Line by tanks alone, without artillery help. But the echoes of the cheers over the victory had hardly died down when the Germans came back with a counter blow that was as sudden and unexpected as that of Byng. The British again underestimated the strength of the enemy. On the southern edge of the blunt three-sided dent that had been made in the Hinden- burg Line, the Germans struck in force. They found the lines before them almost stripped of men. Two miles further on they met some engineers and sappers — building roads — but very few fighting men. Some one had blundered — and the Germans were in a fair way to take in the rear the troops who held the line nearest to Cambrai. Then the British woke up, and fierce fighting followed, but in the end the Germans won back half of the ground that they had lost, and took almost as many prisoners as Byng had a week before. 254 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Thus what promised to be a brilliant victory and a forerunner of other successes became instead a warning of what the Allies had to expect after the soldiers from the thousand-mile Russian front had been transferred to the west. For it was the arrival of fresh men from the eastern trenches that gave the advantage to the German side of the line. Two events that happened about this time cheered the drooping spirits of the Allies. The first was the declaration of war on Austria- Hungary by the United States. This action was especially help- ful to Italy at this time, for now American help, in money, food, and men could be sent to prop up the Mediterranean ally, whose nerves were greatly shaken by the disaster which began at Caporetto. Austria- Hungary, while not the nation to begin submarine sinkings without warning, had followed Germany's lead in the matter. American lives had been lost through the sinking of merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea by Austrian submarines. The Austrian ambassador to the United States had been implicated in plots to blow up American factories that were making munitions of war, and with the forging of passports to get Austrian subjects in this country a safe passage through the lines of the En- tente. War was not declared on Turkey for two reasons. First, Turkey had not given any cause of offense to the United States other than her general alliance with Germany against the friends of the United DARK DAYS 255 States. In the second place, American property in Turkey, to the amount of $20,000,000, would have been promptly seized by the Ottoman government. There were certain people who urged that war be declared on Turkey and on Bulgaria too. Our government very wisely decided to remain friendly to Bulgaria. Bulgaria had no real interest in Ger- many's success. She had entered the war to win Macedonia from Serbia. She had Macedonia now and was only anxious for the war to end. There were many Bulgarians who owed their education to the American Robert Col- lege at Constantinople, and they had a very friendly feeling for this country. In fact, when the Germans ordered Bulgaria to send home the American minister and to break off all re- lations with the United States, the Bulgarian gov- ernment refused to do so. Mr. Murphy, the Ameri- can representative, stayed at Sofia, where he gave valuable aid to the Entente, and had great influence on the closing events of the war. The second event was the capture of Jerusalem, on December 10, by the English army of Sir Keystone View Co., Inc. General Allenby 256 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Edmund Allenby. With Sir Edmund were detach- ments of French and Italian troops, and he was aided by the Arabs from the Hedjaz country, who had thrown off the Turkish yoke, and were righting for their independence, but the main body of his troops were Englishmen and "Anzacs." After the unsuccessful attempt of the Turks to cut off the line of the Suez Canal during the first year of the war, the British had gradually worked their way eastward and northward, until, in De- cember, 191 7, their lines stretched from Jaffa on the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Without attacking the Holy City, General Allenby put such pressure on the Turkish lines near the city that they had to retreat to the northward. On the tenth of the month, the commander-in-chief entered the historic city, afoot, accompanied by members of his staff and a few soldiers of each of the different nationalities that were fighting under his banner. The people, Jews, Armenians, Christians, and Mohammedans alike, welcomed the British troops as deliverers. Shouts of joy filled the air, and tears of emotion ran down the cheeks of more than one old Mohammedan when he learned that the rule of his hated co-religionists, the Turks, was ended. Still the capture of Jerusalem, important as it was for its moral value, meant only that the British expedition was making slow progress northward. A long, hard road lay before them, barred by Turk- ish forces that were still strong and which were David Lloyd-Georg 258 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR due shortly to be reenforced, as the German High Command realized the danger of further advance on the part of the British. In the early days of 191 8, while Russia was making rapid progress toward a separate peace, which would apparently not only take her out of the ranks of the Entente, but actually make her almost an ally of Germany, the resolution of the people of France and the other Allied countries was strengthened by two great speeches. On the 5th of January, Mr. Lloyd- George, the British Prime Minister, told the Trade Union Con- ference what the Allies were fighting for. On the 8th of the same month President Wilson laid before the Congress of the United States his "program of the world's peace." The two speeches were very similar in their tone. Both breathed defiance to Germany and promised that no peace should be made until a just peace could be obtained. Wilson's ideas of what a just peace should be were summed up in fourteen different points. Lloyd- George did not number his points, but spoke in a similar manner. The terms of peace as- laid down by the two statesmen are given in parallel columns below : Wilson Lloyd-George 1 . Open covenants of peace ; We can no longer let the no more private understand- future of European civilization ings between nations. be decided by a few arbitrary negotiators trying to secure DARK DAYS 259 2. The navigation of the .sea to be free to all, alike in peace and war, except where it is closed by international action. the interests of* this or that royal family or nation by trickery or persuasion. 3. All trade barriers to be removed ; unfair agreements to be done away with. Conditions of trade and in- dustry at the end of the war will be very difficult. The countries which control raw materials will desire to help themselves and their friends first. 4. Armies and navies to be made as small as possible for domestic safety. Modern armaments, com- pulsory military service and the vast waste of wealth and work spent in warlike prepara- tions are blots on civilization. 5. Fair settlement of all colonial claims, considering the interests of their people as well as that of the European nation that has governed them. The fate of the German colonies to be decided by a council which must think first of the interests of the people living in them. 6. The Germans to with- draw from all Russian terri- tory now held by them, and Russia to be given the oppor- tunity to decide upon her own government. The present rulers of Russia are engaged in separate nego- tiations with the enemy. Great Britain cannot be held accountable for decisions about which she has not been consulted. 260 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 7. Belgium must be evacu- ated, restored, and left free from German interference. 8. All French territory to be evacuated and restored. The great wrong done to France by Germany must be righted. 9. The boundaries of Italy must be drawn along lines of nationality, so as to include districts clearly inhabited by Italians. 10. The peoples of Austria- Hungary should be given the freest opportunity of govern- ing themselves. 11. Roumania, Serbia, and Montenegro to be evacuated. Occupied parts to be restored and Serbia to be given an out- let to the sea. Balkan rela- tions to be settled along the lines of nationality. 12. The purely Turkish parts of the present Ottoman empire to remain Turkish, but other peoples now under Turkish rule to be given self- The complete restoration of Belgium and such payment for damage as can be made. This is not an indemnity such as Germany collected from France in 187 1. The occupied part of France to be evacuated and restored. The great wrong of 187 1 must be reconsidered. The rightful claims of the Italians to be united to the people of their own tongue and race should be satisfied. Genuine self-government on democratic lines for those peoples of Austria-Hungary who have long desired it. The restoration of Serbia, Montenegro, and the occupied parts of Italy and Roumania with payment for damage done. Justice to men of Rou- manian blood and speech in their desire to join the mother country. The Turkish empire to be kept up in the homelands of the Turkish race with its capi- tal at Constantinople. Ara- bia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, DARK DAYS 261 government. The Dardanelles to be open to the free pas- sage of all nations. 13. An independent Polish state to be set up, including all territory inhabited by unques- tioned Polish populations, and with an outlet to the sea. 14. A League of Nations to guarantee independence and protection to all nations great and small alike. Syria, and Palestine to be recognized as separate na- tions. The Dardanelles and Bosphorus to be open to all nations and to belong to no particular nation. An independent Poland in- cluding all truly Polish dis- tricts that desire to join it. Some organization between nations to limit warlike prepa- ration and lessen the proba- bility of war. Equality of right among all nations, great and small. In France, Italy, and other Allied countries these speeches were hailed with delight. It was pro- claimed by the newspapers and by statesmen that Lloyd- George and Wilson had spoken for all the Allies. The Central Powers made no official answer to the terms proposed. Their attitude was clearly shown in a speech of the Kaiser made before the Second German Army in France. After compli- menting the soldiers on their repulse of the British attack, he said that if the enemy nations would not accept the German terms of peace then "we must bring peace to the world by battering in with iron 262 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR fist and shining sword the doors of those who will not have peace." But the German people were getting uneasy. Their leaders had promised them that the sub- marine campaign would bring England to her knees within six months. Six months had passed, and yet another six months, and if England were on her knees it was not visible from Germany. As for the United States, they were told that even if we had troops to send (which we had not) they could not cross the Atlantic, for the German submarines would sink the ships which bore them and drown them in the deep. By February, 191 8, there were three hundred thou- sand young American soldiers in France, and they were coming at the rate of 50,000 a month. One troopship had been sunk on its return voyage, but it was nearly empty of men at the time. On the sixth of February the people of the United States were startled to hear that the troopship Tuscania, with 2100 men on board, had been sunk off the coast of Ireland by a German sub- marine. The men were largely from Wisconsin and Michigan, with some foresters recruited from the great northwest. Very few of them had ever seen salt water, or traveled on an ocean steamship. It would not have been surprising if the explosion of the torpedo and the sudden sideward lurch of the boat had thrown them into a panic. But when the story was told a thrill of pride went through the DARK DAYS 263 entire country, for these gallant young landsmen showed no signs of fear. As the little British destroyers, skillfully handled, came near to take off as many men as they could hold, the finest discipline was in evidence. There was no panic, no rush. As the boat keeled over further and further, the men on the deck who were waiting their turn to be taken off struck up a mighty chorus of the popular song : ' ' Where Do We Go From Here, Boys?" Two hundred of them were going to their death in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, and they knew it. If the sound of that song reached the ears of the pirates, who, having done their work, were fleeing away in the dark, they must have known, as the gallant British seamen knew, that there was no doubt of the courage of the young Americans. They were to be reckoned with before this war was over, for they were game to the core. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why did not Spain, Holland, Denmark, and other European nations declare war on Germany for sinking their ships ? 2. What were the chief aids in fighting submarines? 3. Why did it seem for a while that the Germans would win the war? 4. How did the Russian army cease to be a fighting force? 5. What did Korniloff intend to do in case he won? 6. What did Secretary Lansing's disclosures show? 7. How did the Germans and Austrians demoralize the Italian Second Army? 8. What saved Italy in November, 1917? 9. How did the Bolsheviki overthrow Kerensky? 264 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 10. Who were the people of the Ukraine? 1 1 . Why were German reinforcements needed on the western front ? 12. What new method of defense was used by the Germans? 13. Why was the British attempt in Flanders unsuccessful? 14. What was the reason for so many changes in generals and cabinets ? 15. What made Byng's victory at Cambria astonishing? 16. What turned it into disaster? 17. Why did the United States declare war on Austria and not on Bulgaria and Turkey ? 18. Why was the capture of Jerusalem important? 19. How are Wilson's terms of peace different from those of Lloyd- George ? 20. What was shown by the sinking of the Tuscania? CHAPTER X At Lowest Ebb Bolshevist proposals for peace. — Representative government in Russia lives one day. — Disbanding and ceasing to resist fail to win peace terms. — The Ukraine signs. — More " scraps of paper." — The final terms held out to Russia on the point of a bayonet. — The Germans' idea of a fair exchange of prisoners. — The wanderings of the Czecho- Slovaks. — The fate of Roumania. — Why the Central Powers had more men in March, 1918, than the Allies. — Ludendorff's plan for the final battle. — The great drive of March 21. — The failure of Sir Hugh Gough. — Carey and Fayolle stop the gaps. — Schrecklichkeit at long range. — Church and orphan asylum. — At last a Commander-in-Chief. We left the Russians, under their new leaders, Lenin and Trotzky, preparing to make peace with the Central Powers. Three days before Christmas (191 7) there met at Brest-Litovsk, a Russian city held by the Germans, a conference of delegates from the four Central nations and from Russia. After a speech by Herr von Kiihl- mann, the German Foreign Minister, in which he be- came very enthusiastic about the future friendship and trade between Russia and Germany, and in which he pointed out that this was the season of the year when everybody thought of peace on earth and good will to men, the Russians were invited to 265 266 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR present their terms. They did so, demanding a pro- gram which was truly fair and just. Let all German troops, said the Bolsheviki, with- draw from Russian * territory. Let Poland, Lithu- ania, and Latvia (the country of the Letts, north of Lithuania on the Baltic) govern themselves, free from domination by either Germany or Russia. Let the Turks give self-government to Armenia. Let Alsace and Lorraine take a vote on whether they shall remain German or once more be part of France. Let Belgium be restored through a fund raised by all the warring nations. Let Serbia, Montenegro, and Roumania be restored in the same way. Let Serbia have access to the sea. Let Bosnia have self-government. Let the Italian parts of Austria take a vote on whether they should go to Italy or not. Let the German colonies be given back. Let all straits and ocean canals be unfortified, so that the ships of all nations should be allowed to sail everywhere on the high seas, unharmed ; submarine warfare to be forbidden. Let there be no indemnities ; let all forced col- lections of money be given back. Let peace be settled by delegates from all nations. Let all nations gradually disarm on land and sea, replacing standing armies by militia. It can be imagined with what joy the Junkers re- ceived these terms. Nevertheless, to gain time, they pretended to be considering the Russian proposals, AT LOWEST EBB 267 all the while keeping up their demoralizing of the Russian armies, and receiving from Russia the oil and wheat that they so badly needed. A few days later the conference met again, and the Central Powers presented a smooth reply to the Russians, in which they pointed out that while they agreed heartily with the proposals made, still because the British, French, Americans, and Italians had not agreed to them, it would be impossible to carry them out. In short, they avoided the whole Russian program, not even binding themselves to get their troops out of the Baltic Provinces (Lithuania, Livonia (Latvia), Courland, and Esthonia). At this reply the Bolsheviki came out of their dreams. They left Brest-Lit ovsk, denounced the Germans in their chief newspaper as "wolves in sheep's clothing" and pointed out that the Germans, while they were pretending peace and friendship, had forcibly carried off 300,000 people from Russian Poland and Lithuania to work as slaves in German fields and munition factories. They demanded that the peace conference move to some neutral city, like Stockholm ; and threatened to start the war again unless the Germans left the Baltic Provinces and Poland. These demands the Germans firmly refused. Meanwhile, the new Ukrainian republic, much more under German control than Great Russia, to the north, gave signs of agreeing to the German terms. The Bolsheviki finally came back to Brest- 268 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Litovsk, but with a different delegation. Trotzky himself headed the group. After a heated dis- cussion, the Bolsheviki were told that they were " talking as if they had been victorious in the war and could dictate terms of peace." It was the German General Hoff- man who said this, and he went on to say that force was go- ing to settle this thing. The Germans settled things by force, just as the Bolsheviki had won the leadership in their nation by force and Leon Trotzky fc^ ft j n t ^ e same way < The Russians did not enjoy this language, but it was true, as was proved by something which hap- pened a few days afterward in Petrograd . The B olshe- viki announced that Russia was going to have a Con- stituent Assembly (a Congress or Parliament) elected by the people, to make laws for the nation. The as- sembly was duly elected and met for the first time on January 18. The very first thing that it did was to vote down — 237 to 146 — a resolution proposed by the Central Committee of the Bolshevist Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. The followers of Kerensky, together with the friends of Milioukoff, had a majority in the Assembly. Finding they could not control it, AT LOWEST EBB 269 Lenin and Trotzky forcibly disbanded it. Real demo- cratic government in Russia lived one day ! The rule of the Bolsheviki now became as tyrannical as that of the Tzar had been. The lowest classes of society were in the saddle, byforce, just as Hoffman had pointed out. Finally, the Bolshevist ambassadors asked the Germans just what terms they proposed to give them. For answer General Hoffman turned to a map, and drawing a line from the shore of the Gulf of Finland near Petrograd through Pskoff, Minsk, and Brest-Litovsk, he stated that this should be the western boundary of Russia. "What about the boundary south of Brest- Litovsk?" asked Trotzky and the others. "That," answered the German, "is a question that need not worry you. We shall settle that with the delegates from Ukrainia." "What if we refuse these terms?" asked the Bolsheviki. "Within a week our troops will be in* Reval," replied Hoffman, naming a Russian city a short distance west of Petrograd. This was the answer, then. After talking honeyed words about peace and friendship for two months until the little discipline that remained in the Russian troops was gone, and the army was prac- tically disbanded, the Germans had at last dropped the mask and showed themselves to the simple- minded Russians in their true character, bent on forcible conquest and plunder. 270 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Trotzky and his friends asked a short postpone- ment in order that they might go home for a few days and think it over. The result of their deliberations was that, on February 10, they announced to the world that they would never sign such a shameful treaty. At the same time they ordered their soldiers, remain- ing on all the fighting fronts, to disband and go home ! They trusted, they said, that their brother work- ingmen in Germany and Austria would not allow a new attack upon the helpless Russians. As a matter of fact there were strikes and riots among German and Austrian workingmen about this time. But they were put down with an iron hand. Troops were ordered to fire on the mobs and did so. Leaders were tried and imprisoned and the military chiefs showed the world that they were still rulers of Germany. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian republic had formally signed a treaty of peace with the Central Powers. After rnarking out the western boundary of the Ukraine, it went on to state that each side agreed to pay no indemnity, but to bear its own expenses for the war. Prisoners of war were to be given back, but above all trade must spring up. As the Ukraine had been the great wheat-growing district of Europe, the Germans eagerly looked forward to replenishing their depleted stores of food. Peace having been signed with a new nation of about 25,000,000 souls, the invasion of Great Russia was started. German troops marched, almost un- AT LOWEST EBB 271 opposed, into Dvinsk, Pskoff, and other cities in the Baltic Provinces. They began plundering and looting on a large scale. As one American newspaper remarked, the Germans who came to Pskoff remained to prey. Pretending that the new Ukrainian republic needed German protection against the Bolsheviki, they also invaded the Ukrainian state of Volhynia and took the city of Lutsk. By February 22 so much of Russian territory had been invaded and plundered that the Bolshevik leaders became alarmed. Awakening from their dream of protection at the hands of their brother German workingmen, they began frantically to try to defend themselves against the on-coming hordes. Too late they repented the demobilization of their fighting forces. The Germans captured the troops that were sent against them with as much ease as if these had been unarmed schoolboys. Then the wild-eyed enthusiasts at Petrograd realized, for the first time, what can be done by a military group who have absolute discipline over a docile, subservient people. Telling the Russians that if they did not make peace the Germans would put back a Tzar upon the throne, Lenin announced that he would make peace "to save the revolution," and the Bolshevik Central Committee upheld him, by a vote of one hundred and twelve to eighty-four, although twenty-two refused to vote. But the Germans now refused to grant the armis- 272 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR tice for which the Russians asked. Faced by necessity, the Petrograd Council really made some energetic preparations. Men were enlisted in what was known as the Red Guard, men who knew the danger and volunteered, patriotically, to go out to meet it. The Germans met some real resistance, and the plundering expedition ceased. Battles took place, in which the Germans, in some places, were forced to retreat. But the old regular army was thoroughly demoralized ; and when the Bolsheviki marched some of the regiments out to help the valiant Red Guard, they refused to fight and fled in a panic, looting as they went. Meanwhile, the Bolshevist envoys had gone back to Brest-Litovsk, to talk peace once more. On March 3, came the announcement that they had signed the peace treaty. The Germans promptly ceased their advance, which, in the two weeks' time, had brought them more than 60,000 prisoners, with thousands of guns and great quantities of muni- tions and supplies. They now held all of the Baltic Provinces and the western half of the Ukraine, including the city of Kief. The humiliating peace treaty was accepted two weeks later by the Bolshevik government, which, in the meantime, had removed the capital from Petrograd to Moscow. The terms of peace, as finally signed, forced Russia to give up one-quarter of the land which formerly was included in the European part of the AT LOWEST EBB 273 40° 30" 20" 10" o" 10" 20" 30" 40" 50° 60° 70° 80 The Central Powers Conquests of the Central Power 1 j§H|l||l Vassals of the Central Powers 1 \ The Allies /^ \ j Conquests of the Allies I I Neutrals Heavy black lines indicate battle-fronts 10 Q Longitude East 20° from Greenwich 30" Russian Losses through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 274 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR empire, inhabited by one- third of the inhabitants of the whole empire, and including her richest agricultural regions and a great part of her wealth in minerals. She lost Finland, Esthonia, Courland, Livonia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Ukraine. Considering that Germany had begun talk of peace by agreeing completely with the Russian program of "no annex- ation and no indemnities," one can see how much faith could be put in the work of the Junker govern- ment. The final treaty also called for each party to bear its own war burden — pay its own war debts, etc. This proved a " scrap of paper" also, for the Germans, after peace had been signed, kept on advancing into Russian and Ukrainian territory, forcing contributions from cities that they passed, and hunting everywhere for wheat and other food supplies, which they took without so much as a "by your leave." They seized, among others, the port of Odessa, and marched inland to a spot only one hundred and fifty miles from Moscow. The treaty also stated that "prisoners of war of both sides will be sent home." You will notice that it did not state how many prisoners should be sent. When the time came for the exchange and the Russians brought back the three-quarters of a million of German and Austrian prisoners whom they held, the Germans accepted only the strong and able-bodied. The sick and the crippled were sent back, and the Russians were ordered to nurse AT LOWEST EBB 275 them and feed them, until the Great War was over. On the other hand, the Russian prisoners in Germany who were sent back were the sickly and infirm'. The strong and healthy were to be kept and forced to work for Germany in fields and munition factories. That was the German idea of a fair exchange with a nation with whom peace had just been made. The million able-bodied Russian prisoners were to be kept as slaves, doing forced labor for Germany, while the two hundred thousand sick ones, who made just so many more helpless mouths for Ger- many to feed, were to be sent home to be fed by Russia. On the other hand Russia, while surrender- ing all the prisoners who now could be of use again to Germany and Austria as fighting men, was forced to keep on feeding and nursing such as were useless. One body of prisoners, however, refused to be returned to Austria. These were the Czechs and Slovaks, of whom you have heard before. They had no desire to be shot as deserters,* and so, keeping their arms and equipment, when the Bolsheviki made their peace with the Central Powers, they started across Asia on the Siberian Railway, intend- ing to take ship at Vladivostok for America. Finally they got back on the firing line, after completing the circuit of the earth. The treacherous Bolsheviki pretended to be their friends, but, acting under orders from Germany, *They had been fighting in the Russian Army. 276 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR they first tried to disarm the Czecho-Slovaks and then fired upon them as they were taking a train for the East. The Czechs returned the fire and routed their false friends. Then for months they held the line of the Siberian railroad, which stretches for five thousand miles from Moscow to the shore of the Pacific. Thousands of them made their way back to Europe, where they were able to get into the final battles against their ancient oppressors, the Austrians, and against the Germans in France. Meanwhile, poor Roumania, deserted by Russia and cut off completely from any aid from her other allies, had to make the best bargain that she could. Unlike the Russians, her small army stood reso- lutely on the small part of their country not yet overrun and gallantly resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible rather than surrender to the same kind of disgraceful bargain as the one made by Lenin. By the first treaty of peace, signed in the early part of March, Roumania gave up all her territory south of the Danube River. This was largely territory inhabited by Turks and Bulgars, and was called the Dobrudja. Austria demanded the chang- ing of the northwestern boundary line so as to give her control of the mountains and passes. No sooner was the treaty signed than the Central Powers began making fresh demands. They tried to compel the surrender of all war material. They AT LOWEST EBB 277 refused to let go their hold upon the Roumanian oil fields. In fact they demanded that all the wells be turned over to the control of a German company. The final treaty was signed during the first week of May, 191 8. The Roumanian delegates were treated with such insolence by the Germans and Austrians that General Lupesco, the Roumanian Chief of Staff, announced that if they were not received with more courtesy the Roumanians would leave the conference and defy their enemies to do their worst. The oil wells were turned over to Germany under a "lease " of ninety-nine years. All grain not actually needed for food by the Roumanians was to be sur- rendered to Germany. All statesmen, who, before Roumania's entry into the war, had been outspoken friends of France and England were compelled to resign from the cabinet. Meanwhile, with rage and bitterness in their hearts, the Roumanians, disarmed and despoiled, hoped and prayed for a victory of the Entente on the Western front, which should revenge them upon their foes. The Central Empires had stood between two sets of enemies. On the east they had faced Russia and Roumania, 127,000,000 people all told. On the west they faced Great Britain, France, and Italy, and the small remnant of Belgium that was not overrun, but which lay wholly within the range of the German guns. Let us consider the strength of the two groups of 278 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR fighting nations with Russia and Roumania out of the struggle, and exclusive of the United States. On the one side the strength of the Central Powers was represented by : Germany 68,000,000 people Austria 52,000,000 people Bulgaria 7,000,000 people Turkey 20,000,000 people Total 147,000,000 people On the other the strength of the Allies was repre- sented by : Great Britain 45,000,000 people France 40,000,000 people Belgium 6,000,000 people Greece 4,000,000 people Serbia 4,000,000 people Portugal 5,000,000 people Italy . 33,000,000 people Montenegro 250,000 people Australia and New Zealand . . 5,000,000 people Canada 6,000,000 people Total 148,250,000 people On the face of these figures, the two groups seem about equal in strength. As an actual fact, the Central Powers and their allies had a great advan- tage over their opponents. The British, French, and their allies were able to keep in the field an army of some seven million men. Every man had been sent to the front who was not absolutely needed at home in factories that made the guns and munitions or AT LOWEST EBB 279 for raising the food that the soldiers had to have. Ordinarily the Germans and their allies would have had an army about equal to that of their enemies. But we must remember that there were a million Russian prisoners working like slaves for the Ger- mans. These men took the places, in German farms and German factories, of Germans, who thus were able to be sent to swell the Kaiser's armies. Three hundred thousand Poles and Lithuanians likewise had been carried off to Germany to take the places of men who had gone into the army. Six million Belgians, three million French, four million Serbs, and a million Italians, caught behind the Ger- man lines, were forced to labor for their conquerors. The result was that in the month of March, 191 8, after the close of the fighting on the Russian and Rou- manian fronts, the Germans were able to put upon the western front an army which outnumbered the French, British, and their allies by more than a half million men. It must be remembered that 300,000 of the Allied army were the Americans who had arrived in France by March, most of whom were, as yet, not well enough trained to be sent into battle. However, more were on their way, and two million were to be expected by 19 19, so Ludendorfl and Hindenburg decided that the war must be over before America should get well into it. One mighty drive was to do it, a colossal effort. The doors of peace were to be splintered open by the "iron fist and shining sword." 28o HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR The date set for the attack was the first day of spring, March 21. Although Hindenburg was still Chief of the General Staff, which position made him practically Commander-in-Chief of the German armies, it is com- monly thought that the real brain at the Ger- man Headquar- ters was General von LudendorfL This officer had been Hinden- burg's right- hand man in all the eastern cam- paigns. It was he who planned the strategy of the battles of Tannenberg and the Mazurian Lakes. He was now the Quartermaster-General of the army. In his book on the war, published in 191 9, he tells how the original plan of the March attack had been to smash through the British lines south of Ypres and to get to the sea, cutting off and capturing the British and Belgian forces to the north. The deep, sticky Flanders mud was to be con- sidered, however. It would be April before it General Ludendorff AT LOWEST EBB 281 would be dry enough to get through. But the American soldiers were coming — 50,000 per month now, and Hindenburg and Ludendorff felt that they must strike hard and quickly while they still had the advantage of numbers. Accordingly, the higher ground to the south was picked out for the point of attack. The main assault was to be made by the German Seventeenth Army just west of Cambrai, where Byng's men of the Third British Army had remained intrenched ever since the battle of the first week of December. It was planned that the Germans should break through and curve northward, rolling up the British to the north by taking them in the rear. The Second and Eighteenth German Armies were to break through to the south, near St. Quentin. They were not expected to go far, for in front of them lay the region that the Germans had so thoroughly and cruelly laid waste during their retreat the year before. They were merely to dislodge the British Fifth Army, drive a wedge between this force and the French troops farther south, and prevent any French help from being sent north. Meanwhile, other armies in Flanders, east of Rheims, and in Alsace were to pretend to attack, in order to keep reinforcements from being sent to the Arras-Cambrai front. Such was the plan. But the result was far different. On the morning of the 21st of March, a terrific bombardment broke out on a front of over fifty 282 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR miles. High explosive shells and shells filled with new and deadly poisonous gases burst in a terrible rain on the British front line trenches and the space just behind. After five or six hours of this storm, so frightful that the Germans might well believe that not a living thing was left in the area bom- barded, picked German troops advanced to the attack. For days these men had been assembling. Moving forward only at night, hiding by day in woods and under " camouflaged" canvas screens, they had escaped the notice of the British air ob- servers. On a narrow front near St. Quentin three British divisions stood guard. There had been an equal number of Germans facing them, but on the morning of the attack there were eight hostile divi- sions and not three who poured "over the top." Nearly 1,100,000 Germans were hurled, after this deadly rain of gases and big shells, upon 600,000 British on a front of fifty miles. To make the surprise and. confusion all the worse, the weather was very foggy, and the British out- posts, who stood with their machine guns ready to repel any hostile attack, in many cases found them- selves surrounded and captured, before firing a shot, by Germans who had filtered in between them in the mist. For some time there had been warnings of a great German attack. The British Generals Home (First Army), Plumer (Second Army), and Byng (Third Army) had been on the alert. General Rawlinson of the Fourth Army was also on the AT LOWEST EBB 283 lookout, but the Fifth British Army under General Sir Hugh Gough had fallen into the old error of underestimating the strength of the enemy. The suspicious signs behind the German lines that told of something unusual going on had been re- ported to Gough. He had neglected to post his reserves, and he paid the penalty of his neglect. Outnumbered three to one, overwhelmed by gases and shells as well as by the numbers of their as- sailants, his men put up a brave but fruitless fight. They had to retreat, and to retreat rapidly to keep from being wiped out. Meanwhile, the French troops to the south of them had been pushed aside and flung into a new position, facing nearly directly north. Straight to the west retreated the broken forces of Gough, followed by the victorious Eighteenth German Army. It will be recalled that these troops were not expected to drive their opponents very far. The chief break in the British line was to have been made further north, where the Seventeenth and Second German Armies faced Byng and Home. But when General von Hutier, their commander, saw Gough 's men in rapid retreat, he felt that victory lay in completing the disorganization of this force, thus separating the British from the French. On he drove, over the great stretch of desert left behind by the Germans in the retreat of 191 7. A gap over thirty miles wide was left between the retreating British and the French. Things looked dark, indeed. 284 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Meanwhile, what of the attack in the north ? Here, as you have been told, was the Germans' main effort. The break through was to have been between Home and Byng. But, though out- numbered nearly as badly as had been the Fifth Army, the First and Third were better handled. Though the gray-green masses swarmed upon them in countless hordes, they did not budge. The carnage was terrible. Firing at point blank range, the British and Canadian gunners spread death among the on-coming Germans. Home's men, with their backs to Vimy Ridge, refused to be moved from this ground that the Canadians had won at such a cost the year before. Byng's men, farther south, held their ground "not wisely but too well," for while they stood firm Gough's army, south of them, was moving rapidly westward. The result was that on the next day there was opened up, between the two British armies, a gap eight miles wide, toward which the troops of Von der Marwitz were swiftly moving to take Byng's men in the rear. The rout of Gough's men had opened up two great gaps which seemed to spell disaster for the Allied forces. But at this juncture Sir Douglas Haig called upon a brigadier general literally to throw himself into the breach. General Sandeman Carey was ordered, at all costs and by any means that he could use, to close the eight-mile gap between Gough's retreating men and the army of Byng. AT LOWEST EBB 285 It was a "rag-tag and bob-tail" force that Carey collected : sappers, signal men, laborers, and engineers, anybody who would handle a rifle or work a machine gun. They worked frantically to dig shallow trenches, and there they stuck for five vital days, days that saved the British army from a great disaster. General Carey and his officers, none of whom knew the men that they had collected, walked up and down the lines, encouraging the soldiers by word and example. Finally the reserves came up — help was at hand ; Byng had moved back the southern end of his army to keep the line where Gough's men finally stuck, and the French began to arrive. And the thirty-mile gap to the south had been closed in similar manner. General Fayolle (fay61'), one of the greatest soldiers of France, had arrived on the field at a critical time. Rapidly he hurled three French divisions into the gap. Ten German divisions at once attacked them, but the thin blue line held firmly. The Germans had moved so rapidly in their frantic effort to end the war by one "big push" that they were broken up and disorganized. LudendorfT tells us that the men found appetiz- ing food in the material left behind by the British. It was the first time that many of them had tasted butter for months, and, instead of following up the retreating British closely, many of them dropped out of the pursuit in order to stuff themselves with the spoils. Be that as it may, Fayolle's thin line 286 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR in the south, like Carey's in the north, refused to budge. And the French reserves came up swiftly, to stop the gaps and to take the places of Gough's tired men. But when the drive was over the Germans were only ten miles from the important city of Amiens. They had retaken all the territory that they had abandoned (and had laid waste) in 191 7, and had advanced, in some places, nearly ten miles farther west than the old trenches of 19 14-19 1 6. More than eight hundred square miles of French territory had fallen into their hands, including the important towns of Albert, Lassigny, Noyon, Montdidier (mon' (g)did'ya')> and Moreuil (mo'ru'ee')- Ninety thou- sand prisoners, chiefly British, and over a thousand guns had been taken. That Ludendorff did not relish his new position he freely admits, for behind his lines lay the desert that his men had made the year before, and it would be no easy task to transport food and am- munition across this waste. Desperately he tried to get out of this bad situation Keystone View Co., Inc. General Fayolle AT LOWEST EBB 287 Bruges i. • \ B E w m ^ ■ *,*.♦*.( O Lille ■ ■ * *«v Arras °f * °^ 9 ** 1 Ifiillll^ 6 Cambrai G U M ,*•*% Amiens I c ••V r x- THE DRIVE OF MARCH 21 AS PLANNED BY LUDENDORFF, AND AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED Hindenburg Line, as held by the Germans on March 20 H H Portion of line held by Home's British Army (First) B B " " " " Byng's " " (Third) GG " " " " " Gough's " " (Fifth) ■hh Battle line on April 1, after the drive had been halted m^m Gap closed by Carey's men J lm l^ if ■> Fayolle's " Territory held by the Germans from 191U to 1917, and laid waste by them in their retreat to the Hindenburg Lint 288 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR by pushing on to Amiens in the west. But his exhausted troops could go no further, and the French and British, rapidly digging in, barred his way in all directions. His losses, in all probability, had been nearly as great as those of the Allies, for while he had taken many prisoners, the number of men sacrificed in the massed attacks on Home's and Byng's armies had been tremendous. And all the while peace was no nearer. For the Allies could not be stampeded, nor frightened, nor bluffed into premature dealings with the enemy. On the morning of March 23, when the news of the great German drive was filling the thoughts of the people of Paris, a shell burst in the city, and then another and another. Twenty-four in all fell in the course of the day. The air men searched the skies to locate the enemy who was dropping the bombs, but could find none. For a day or two the whole city was puzzled. Finally a piece of one of the shells was shown to Prime Minister Clemenceau. who promptly declared that the Germans must have invented a long range gun which sent these shells all the way from the German trenches, over sixty miles away. The Allied artillery experts said that this was nonsense, for a gun would burst if loaded with a charge strong enough to carry a shell sixty miles. Yet Clemenceau was right, and the artillery experts were wrong. The Germans were bombarding Paris with three great guns, hidden away in the forest of St. Gobain, seventy-four miles AT LOWEST EBB 289 distant. The military advantage gained by the guns was very small. It was simply intended to frighten the people of Paris,- to make them fear the Germans, and to incline them toward peace. The firing of the guns was begun just at the time when the Germans judged that the people of Paris would be in a panic on account of the near approach of the German armies. But it was proved once more that the Junkers did not understand the temper of the French. As soon as they knew what it was, they shrugged their shoulders and went about their business as usual. Every day a few people were killed, but — "Cest la guerre' (sa la gair) (That is war) said the French. On Good Friday a great number of people had gathered for worship in the church of St. Gervais (san'zhair va') . A shell from one of the German guns struck the side of the building, and thousands of tons of stone fell with a mighty crash upon the kneeling congregation. It is doubtful whether any one discharge of a single gun before ever did so much mischief, for seventy-five people were instantly killed, fifty-four of whom were women; and ninety others, several of whom died later, were writhing in agony on the floor. The Pope sent a strong letter of protest to the German government, and all over the world people were filled with horror at the deed ; but the Kaiser sent a letter of congratulation to the Krupp Gun Works, where these guns had been made, and the great weapons kept on blazing away. 290 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Not long afterwards the Germans scored another triumph. A baby asylum was hit by a shell and twenty little lives were ended. The Germans had guessed badly again. French- men gritted their teeth and swore that there should be no peace until this brutal force was crushed for all time. For nearly four years the Allies had fought, each his own battle in his own way. True, the com- manding generals often agreed to act together, as Foch and Haig had attacked at the same time on July 1, 19 1 6. But true unity of command, such as the enemy had, was sadly lacking. However, in the crisis of the week following March 21, General Per- shing, the American commander, told the Allied War Council in Paris that the Americans favored the appointment of a French general as commander-in- chief of all the armies in the field. The British General Wilson admitted that a commander-in-chief was needed. There was only one name considered : that of General Ferdinand Foch, of whom Joffre had said, "Foch is the best strategist in Europe." On March 28, it was announced that there was a Commander-in-Chief, and next day General Pershing placed at the disposal of the new chief all the Ameri- can forces in France. The offer was accepted, and the men in training camps were hurried up and placed in reserve behind the new fighting lines. From March 29 to April 9 there was no change worth mentioning in the battle lines. But it was AT LOWEST EBB 291 not the rest caused by inactivity. It was the lack of motion due to two tremendous forces, pushing with equal power in opposite directions. For the Germans, undaunted by their previous failure here, made a second determined attempt to capture Arras and Vimy Ridge. Although it was given very little attention at the time, this was one of the most tremendous battles of the entire war. Nine- teen chosen divisions, all picked storm troops, over 200,000 men, attacked on a front of ten miles. It was as determined and well planned an assault as the drive of March 21. The formation of the Ger- mans was even more dense, if possible, and the difference in the result came from the fact that the British were ready. The blow fell, but the London regiments, which happened to be holding that part of the line, were looking for it. Outnumbered and outgunned, the British held on with the same dogged courage that saved Ypres and the Channel ports in the desperate fighting of October and November, 19 14. Their machine guns and light artillery poured a murderous fire into the advanc- ing Germans. Underwood and Underwood General Horne 292 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Finally flesh and blood could stand it no more. Von Biilow and Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria drew off their exhausted men. Arras and Vimy Ridge were safe. These positions were the keys to the whole situation. While the British held them firmly there could be little advance on either side by the forces of the enemy, without exposing themselves to a flank attack. The one great object of Ludendorffs drive was to break through the Brit- ish line at Arras. After two weeks of terrible car- nage the British line before Vimy Ridge and Arras was still unbroken. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. How did the Bolshevik peace proposals compare with the terms of Wilson and Lloyd-George? 2. Did the Bolsheviki represent a "majority" of the Russian people, as their name would indicate? 3. Why did the Bolsheviki fail in their appeal to the German work- ingmen ? 4. How did the Germans keep their peace pledges to the Russians ? 5. How did Germany profit in the "exchange of prisoners"? 6. Why were the Czechs and .Slovaks unwilling to be turned over to the Austrians ? 7. Why did Roumania have to surrender? 8. Why did the Central Powers have the advantage in man power ? 9. What was the first plan of the Germans for the big attack ? 10. Why was the plan changed? 11. Why did it not work out as originally planned? 12. What caused the two gaps in the Allied line? 13. Why was Ludendorff's position unsatisfactory to him? 14. What was the purpose of the long range guns? 15. Why was a commander-in-chief needed? 16. Why was Vimy Ridge so important to the Allies? CHAPTER XI Ships, Fuel, and Food Torpedoes vs. depth bombs. — Why the Grand Fleet was safe. — The convoy system. — The "Q" boats. — Ship building vs. ship sinking. — Taking over the interned German vessels. — The bridge of ships carries 10,000 men a day. — Food saving and substitutes. — The fuel administration. — The "work or fight" order. — Ribot, Vilgrain, and the American commission. — Seal- ing up the submarine exits. There is no doubt that if the German submarines had continued to sink ships at the rate at which they were torpedoing them in April, 191 7, the war would have been over before January. The Germans were not so far wrong in boasting that within six months they would have England suing for peace. England had to have food ; she could grow very little of what she needed on her own island. The great bulk of her food had to be shipped in to her. But with 800,000 tons of food and other supplies going to the bottom of the sea every month, it was a simple problem in arithmetic to figure just when the starving time would be reached. The Grand Fleet of the British empire rode the seas unharmed. Why? Because all around it circled the swift destroyers. A torpedo is a little submarine boat in itself. It sails along about fif- 293 294 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR teen feet under water. (If it came nearer the surface the waves would turn it from its course.) It is driven by compressed air which turns the blades of its propeller. This compressed air, as it escapes, leaves a white trail of bubbles in the water which lingers long enough for one to trace back its path to the spot whence the torpedo was launched. Let the white streak appear on the water when a destroyer was within a quarter of a mile. Instantly this speedy little terror of the seas dashed to the beginning of the whiteness, dropped a depth bomb, then circled rapidly around, dropping bombs at short intervals. As it could travel five times as fast as the submerged enemy, the submarine which escaped was lucky. After Otto Weddingen, captain of the U-2Q, had leaped into fame by torpedoing the Hogue, the Cressy, and the Aboukir in rapid succession, the Germans felt that it would only be a question of time till their submarines would so diminish the size of the British Grand Fleet that their own High Seas Fleet could venture out and fight it on equal terms. But a little later the final adventure of the same Otto Weddingen taught them that their hopes were vain. His U-2Q dived under the screen of destroyers, and, rising in the midst of the British battleships, shot a torpedo at the Neptune, but the Neptune avoided the blow and the Dreadnought ran him down. He and his men met the awful fate that they SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 295 had dealt to a thousand British sailors, and no more attempts were made to torpedo the British Fleet. It was out in the open seas where thousands of freighters were sailing that the submarines did their deadly work. The destroyers were too few. The submarine had all the advantage. She could see her enemy at a great distance, while invisible herself save at short range. When the destroyer arrived at the scene of a sinking the pirate might be miles away, safe and out of sight. In April, 191 7, the British naval authorities were downcast and gloomy. In May an experiment was tried which showed them that they could protect their shipping. A large group of the ships sailed together from Gibraltar, surrounded by swift, circling destroyers. Now for the first time the hunters had a chance, for the submarine had to come to them instead of their seeking him. For when this convoy system should become general, the submarine could seek his prey only behind the circle of his dreaded foes, the destroyers. There still were serious losses. There were not enough destroyers, even after the American ships joined their British comrades in this work, to convoy the fleets of merchantmen from the New World to the Old. The best that could be done was for the convoy of destroyers to meet them and to escort them through the sea lanes where the greatest danger lay. It was impossible to convoy all vessels. Some 296 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR still had to sail singly and to run their chances. Sub- marines were able, often, to break through the ring of destroyers and to torpedo some vessel within. True, they took great chances when they did so, and an increasing number of them committed suicide in this manner. A streak in the water, — a dull explosion as the torpedo strikes a ship of the convoy, — a list to one side, and the crew takes to their lifeboats ; but in the meantime a swift avenger dashes toward the far end of the white streak, a tremendous up- heaval of water comes from far below the surface ; another and another, as the destroyer circles around dropping "ash-cans" astern. Finally, a smooth spot on the surface of the sea, a space covered with oil, through which air bubbles are bursting. That is all ; but the destroyer knows that one more pirate of the deep will never sink another ship. Meanwhile, daring Englishmen, true descendants of Hawkins and Drake, were hunting the U-boats after their own fashion. Certain ships, disguised as unarmed merchantmen, roamed the sea offering them- selves as bait to unwary German captains. Torpedoes were expensive, costing as much as $8000 apiece, and when the U-boat saw a helpless enemy ship he frequently rose to the surface and sank her by gunfire. Let him approach one of these "Q" ships, as they were called, and he would be allowed to come close, even to put two or three shots into the pretended merchantman. Suddenly, there was SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 297 a signal, a large portion of the side of the ship fell away, and a great gun, which had been aimed at him from behind the screen, let fly a six-inch shell. One shot, in most cases, did the business, but if the first missed, there was generally time to com- plete the task with a second. One submarine finally escaped from a "Q" boat, and the word was passed to beware of approaching too closely to innocent-looking, lonely merchant ships. It was a race to get ships. The shipyards of the British Isles were working day and night to make up the losses at sea. All along the coast of the United States new shipyards sprang up. The Army and Navy Departments of our country made prep- arations for a war that would last five years, if not seven. Everywhere there was speeding up. Ameri- can shipyards were launching ships in increasing numbers. By the end of 191 7 the production of new ships each month was equal to three-fourths of the monthly loss by submarines. By the summer of 191 8 it had almost caught up. But there were other means of gaining ships. When the United States entered the war a great number of German vessels were in American ports. They had been caught on this side of the water in 19 14 and had not dared put to sea since that time. Among them was the Vater- land, the greatest steamer afloat, together with other big ocean liners. After Von Bernstorff was sent home, the crews of 298 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR these vessels, foreseeing that war would probably follow, took advantage of the fact that they were still allowed to remain on board. They smashed the turbine engines that drove them, and chuckled i Committee on Public Information Damage Done to One of the German Ships Docked at Hoboken with glee as they thought that nobody outside of Germany would ever be able to repair them. When war broke out and the United States government took over the ships, electric welders were sent on board, who, in a short time, had welded together the broken parts of the machinery in such a fashion that it was stronger than ever. The Vaterland, renamed the Leviathan, carried 300 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR American troops to France at the rate of 26,000 a month. When the German drive broke through the British lines in March, 191 8, the Allies called on America for more men. There were 300,000 in France on March 1 ; 200,000 crossed the seas in the months of March and April, and 245,000 in May. By July 1, there were a million Americans in France, and they were coming at the rate of 10,000 a day, 300,000 a month ! In order to feed this great army and to supply it with munitions, one hundred pounds of cargo for each soldier had to reach France every day. This amounted to 50,000 tons per day on the first day of July, and it kept mounting until November 1, when the number of our soldiers in France had reached 2,000,000. A perfect bridge of ships, was needed to carry this great mass of material. And in addition to supplies for our own army it should be remembered that we were feeding a large part of the people of Great Britain, France, and Belgium. Before the war we exported a great deal of wheat each year. But we also imported a great deal from Canada. We really produced only about 2,000,000 bushels more than we actually ate ourselves. Yet now we were called upon to export wheat and still more wheat. This meant that we had to do without wheat, save wheat, substitute other grains for wheat. A campaign for the saving of food was begun, sys- tematically, all over the United States. All Europe, SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 301 for months and months, had been on strict rations — just so much meat and so much sugar and butter allowed each person each day, but it was a new experience to the average American to deny himself anything or any amount of anything that he might wish to eat. Mr. Herbert Hoover, the American engineer who had saved the Belgian people from starvation, was called home and made Food Administrator. Con- gress gave him very wide powers and allowed him to appoint other men with similar powers in every state and county. Mr. Hoover and his assistants began a campaign to let the people of the United States know the situation. "Food will win the war — don't waste it!" said one of their posters. 1 1 Put it here and the Kaiser will get it ! " said another, showing a picture of a garbage can. "Save meat (use more fish and eggs), sugar (use syrups instead), wheat (use rye, barley, and corn), and fats," said another. All over the country patriotic people used as little wheat as possible. The sugar was rationed out. Sub- stitutes for butter were freely used . Certain days were Clinedinst Studio Herbert Hoover 302 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR set aside as ' ' wheatless " ; others as "sugarless"; still others, as "fatless." It was not uncom- mon to find a food administrator making a program like this : ' ' Monday and Wednesday, wheat- less days, Tuesday and Friday, meatless days. Have every morning a baconless breakfast. Satur- day, fatless day, etc." Of course these rules could only be carried out because the patriotic spirit of the people was behind them. Here and there people were found who were selfish enough to eat whatever they wanted, when- ever they wanted it; but these cases were few. Public opinion was back of the government, and not many people dared to oppose this great force. The winter of 191 7- 191 8 was a terribly severe one. All over the United States the weather broke records for continued cold, deep snow, and low temperatures. All these ships crossing the Atlantic needed coal, and more coal. France and Italy needed coal. The greatest coal region of France was in the hands of the Germans, and Italy had almost no mines of her own. Congress gave the President the right to appoint a fuel administrator, and then gave that official great powers. Harry A. Garfield was appointed to this important post. (Dr. Garfield, president of Williams College, is a son of James A. Garfield, President of the United States in 1881.) The coal problem came to be a severe one. At last a crisis was reached, and Dr. Garfield issued an SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 3°3 order that all stores, shops, factories, and other works not engaged in an " essential industry" should close for four continuous days in order to save coal ; and then, until further notice, should be open only five days a week, closing Mondays. In spite of some murmurs at this drastic order, the great majority of the business men affect- ed took this in a patriotic manner, and lived up to the rule. The government issued a "work or fight" order that had a big effect in getting rid of the parasites that the nation had been feeding. Whether he were the lazy son of a million- aire who had refused to earn his living in the past, or an equally worthless beggar or tramp, the idle man had to account for himself ; he either had to get into some useful work or enlist in the fighting forces. At a time when patriotic women were taking men's places in the numberless industries, when some one had to do the work of the three million young men who were in military service, there was no sympathy wasted on the loafer, whether he was rich or poor. Dr. Harry A. Garfield 304 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR ' ' Help feed our fighters ! Save food ! ' ' said the posters. And the nation saved in a way that it had never saved before. White bread almost dis- appeared. In its place there came loaves of various shades of brown or gray, according to the pro- portion of rye, barley, or rice flour mixed in with the wheat. Meat disappeared from many a table. Sugar became a luxury. An American commission of six men had gone abroad to confer with the governments of Great Britain and France upon the food situation. At this time the British Food Administrator was Lord Rhondda, a Welshman whose name used to be Mr. Thomas before he was made a peer. The French Food Administrator was Alexandre Ribot, the aged ex-prime minister of the Republic. M. Ribot had as his assistant M. Vilgrain, a rather remarkable man. Vilgrain had walked into Paris at the age of twelve, a barefooted boy without a cent in his pocket. When the war broke out, at the age of fifty, he was worth twelve million francs, and was counted one of France's most prominent business men. He had walked into the ofrice of the prime minister, had laid down his check for twelve million francs, his entire fortune, and had said: "That is for France. When the war is over, I can start anew. Now, put me to work !" When the members of the American commission called upon M. Ribot, they had found him and M. Vilgrain plunged into the deepest gloom. On the desk before them lay a telegram from Lord Rhondda, SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 305 saying that Mr. Hoover had just cabled him that six million bushels of wheat a month was all that America could spare to France for the next half year. It seemed that France had asked for eleven million bushels a month, as the least amount on which she could get along. "Messieurs les Ame- ricains" said Ribot. "It is a terrible thing that Monsieur Hoover has said to us. I do not know what we can do! France needs bread ; it is our one great food. We haven't wheat ourselves, and we cannot get it. I dread to think of the hungry women filling the streets, crying for ' Bread, bread, bread!' as they did in '93. If the sound of that cry reaches our brave poilu in the front line trenches, it will break him. He cannot fight when he knows that his wife and his mother and his children are starving. France has held out for three and a half years, on starvation rations, but there is a limit to human endurance. If this message is true, I tell you France will crack !" The old gentleman's grief and anxiety were pathetic. Photo by Manuel Alexandre Ribot 306 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR The Americans were sure that there must be some mistake. America would not fail her ally in that fashion, said they. They would cable Mr. Hoover at once, and return as soon as they had some news. A cable was immediately sent, and the com- missioners paid for it out of their own pockets, — #240.00 it cost them. Then they waited, anxiously and impatiently, for the reply. No reply that day, although they sat up almost all night waiting for it. But early next morning came the answer : ' ' Your information incorrect. Message should have read : 'Will not send eleven million bushels of wheat per month to France, but sixteen million, and this the American people will save by depriving themselves at their daily table.' Hoover." Such a jubilation as followed the receipt of this message. Now to get the news to Ribot ! Getting a 'taxicab in Paris in January, 191 8, was a serious matter. One had to give at least an hour's notice, and then it was by no means sure that he could get one at all. Almost all the cabs of France were at the front, carrying wounded men to the rear, or fresh soldiers into the fight. The six Americans were too impatient to wait. Although it was the middle of winter, they dashed out into the street to waylay the first motor car that might come by. Presently they saw one, and they strung out across the street so that it could not get by without running down one of them. None of them could think of SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 307 the French word for "Stop," but they shouted all kinds of French phrases to the driver, as he drew near. One yelled "Bon jour, monsieur" (Good day, sir), another " a la gauche, a la gauche " (to the left, to the left), another " combien? combien? " (How much, how much?) The driver pulled up, looked over this crowd of hatless and coatless maniacs and in the broadest of Bowery accents, asked, "Hey, wot's matter wid youse guys? Are youse drunk ? " He was a New York boy, it appeared, and had recognized them as fellow Americans. They all piled into the car, and the driver broke the speed laws getting them to the office of the Food Administrator. They rang the bell, and the old wooden-legged soldier, veteran of the Marne who, dressed in an evening suit, answered calls morn- ing, noon, and night, opened the door. Ah yes, Messieurs the Americains ! If messieurs would kindly be seated, perhaps M. Ribot would see them. But Messieurs les Americains would not be seated. Instead of that, messieurs rather rudely ran by the old soldier into M. Ribot 's private office. There at the table sat Ribot and Vilgrain. They evidently hall not been in bed at all, for the table was covered with paper on which they had been figuring, figuring desperately how much hay and straw and potato flour and stubble they would have to mix each month, with the six million bushels of American wheat in order to keep France from starvation. They looked wretched. Ribot seemed ten years 308 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR older than on the day before, and Vilgrain's face was worn and haggard. "Messieurs Ribot and Vilgrain," began Everett Colby, the chairman of the American group, "We told you there was some mistake. We told you that America was not going to fail France. Read that!" and he threw Hoover's cablegram on the table. The aged Ribot picked it up, but his hand trembled so that he could not read it. Vilgrain came to his assistance, and together they held it steady for just one minute, then both fell forward, sobbing, over the table. They arose quickly and embraced in true French fashion. Then the white-bearded ex- prime minister, with tears streaming down his cheeks, exclaimed, "Messieurs les Americains, tell your noble country that she is repaying us twenty fold for any little service we may ever have done for her." One more story of a heroic exploit at sea and then we shall return to the fighting by land. For three years the Belgian ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend had been the favorite harbors of refuge of the German submarines. They were connected by deep, wide canals with Bruges, where the U-boats, brought in pieces from Germany, were put together and launched, as you have already been told. On the night of April 22, 191 8, a gallant attempt was made, under the direction of Vice Admiral Sir Roger Keyes SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 309 (Kiz), to block up the mouths of these troublesome canals. Four small British cruisers, too old to be fit for modern war, took part in the raid on Zeebrugge. They were accompanied by British and French de- stroyers, which went ahead, making a screen of smoke so dense that none of the vessels were seen until they were close to the long, curving, concrete breakwater which protected the harbor. Three of the old cruisers, filled with cement, waited while the fourth, the Vindictive, accompanied by two ferry boats, steamed up alongside the break- water. Then, when the alarm had been given, and while the Germans were turning all their search- lights and guns on the Vindictive and her consorts, the other three cruisers slipped around inside the breakwater and steamed up the channel toward the mouth of the canal. The Thetis, leading the way, got her propeller tangled in a net that hung to keep out enemy submarines, and had to stop just outside the mouth of the canal. The other two fared better, landing well inside the canal and turning so as to fill it from side to side. Then their crews sunk all three vessels, boarded motor launches, and fled away in the darkness. The Germans had found them, meanwhile, and they did not get off unscathed. As the ships, laden with cement, filled with water, the water turned them into solid blocks of concrete, sealing up the canal as with stone. Meanwhile, the gallant Vindictive was being shot to pieces on the other side of the mole (breakwater). 310 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Her deck carried an extra high platform of wood, from the top of which the sailors and marines had climbed to the top of the mole. This storming party, about five hundred in num- ber, suffered cruelly from the fire of the German guns. One big shell burst among a party of fifty-six marines who were waiting, on the Vindictive, for orders to land. Forty-nine were killed, the other seven wounded. When the stormers met the Germans on the mole, a fierce hand-to-hand fight broke out. In the midst of this combat there was a thunderous explosion and a great portion of the breakwater flew into the air, carrying with it a number of the Ger- mans. An old English submarine had quietly moved in and had been exploded under a portion of the mole which was really a bridge, for there was a passage beneath it for the tide- water. Thus the forward Germans, cut off from retreat, were driven into the sea. All this time the Vindictive 1 s big howitzer was registering direct hits on the German seaplane station ; but at last came a big shell that put the howitzer and its whole crew out of action. Finally the word came that the Thetis, Intrepid, and Iphigenia were successfully sunk ; the survivors of the landing party were called back ; and the gallant old Vindictive, her upper parts in rags and tatters, steamed out to sea. Her hull had been pro- tected from serious damage by the concrete mole behind which she lay. The two ferry boats had SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 31 1 played no small part in the adventure. Theirs had been the task of holding the Vindictive against the mole. With their noses against her side their engines had kept up the pressure. Five hundred and eighty-eight men, two hundred of whom were killed, were lost to the British navy by this heroic exploit. But one submarine lair had been closed, for the rest of the war. Captain Carpenter of the Vindictive had seven bullets through his clothes, his hat, and his binocular case, but escaped with only one wound. The expedition to close the canal at Ostend the same night did not fare so well. Small British craft ran in and lighted fires to mark the two sides of the mouth of the canal. But the wind turned about this time, and blew strongly out to sea. The screen of smoke was blown away and the Germans could see the British ships plainly by the glare of the searchlights. Gunfire extinguished the fires that had been lighted, and there was nothing to tell the commanders of the old cruisers, the Sirius and the Brilliant, where the mouth of the channel lay. These were the two ships that were to do for Ostend what the Intrepid and Iphigenia had done at Zeebrugge. They ran aground in the shallow water, some distance from the mouth of the canal, and had to be abandoned. The Ostend expedition had failed. But the British were not content. Seventeen days later the battered old Vindictive started out (5 i2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR once more, this time toward Ostend. The Germans were on the alert this time. Their six big batteries cut loose with all guns, while the star shells and rockets turned night into day. But the weather, which had been hostile at the time of the first attempt, now turned friendly. A mist came down which partially hid the Vindictive and her attendant destroyers and motor launches. Twice the old cruiser passed the mouth of the channel in the darkness, and twice she saw her mistake and turned back. On the third trip she came in close, and as the mist cleared away for a minute, there lay the entrance, dead ahead. A motor boat dashed in and lighted a flare on the water, by the glare of which the Vindictive en- tered the canal. Commander Godsal, who had been captain of the Brilliant in the previous attempt, was the present captain of the cruiser. He ob- served a break in the eastern wall of the channel about two hundred yards from its mouth. Up past this point he steamed, his ship now plainly visible. A hail of death rained in upon the cruiser, as the helm was put over and she turned to lay her 320 feet of length across the canal. A shell struck the conning tower, and the captain was killed. The ship turned until she would turn no further, and the engineer and Lieutenant Crutchley threw the switches that ex- ploded the charges laid in the hull. The old ship leaped, then settled six feet till she lay on the bottom. Her work was done. SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 313 No more submarines and German destroyers came forth from the mouths of the Ostend and Zee- brugge canals to prey upon helpless merchantmen. A photograph of Bruges, where the two canals meet, was taken shortly afterward by a British airman. It showed a great number of these pests of the sea, lying at the docks there, securely bottled up and use- less for the rest of the war. There were still sub- marines preying upon Allied and neutral commerce ; but they had to take the long, roundabout journey from Cuxhaven, Heligoland, and the mouth of the Kiel Canal. The British Navy had shown that its men were just as ready to give their lives for their country as in the days of Drake or Nelson. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why did so much food have to be shipped into Great Britain? 2. What protected the war vessels from the submarines? 3. How could the destroyers detect a submarine? 4. How did the convoy system help to solve the problem? 5. How were the "Q" ships able to sink submarines? 6. What happened to the German ships that were in our ports when war was declared? 7. Why was America called upon to save so much wheat? 8. What foods were especially needed for export? 9. Why were Food and Fuel Administrators appointed? 1 o. Would a " no loafing ' ' law be a good thing in peace as well as war ? 11. What did Ribot fear? 12. What had France done for America? 13. What was the plan at Zeebrugge and Ostend ? 14. Why did the first attempt at Ostend fail? 15. Why were the U-boats at Bruges useless for the rest of the war? CHAPTER XII Hold the Fort The mighty drive at the Channel ports. — The defeat of the Portu- guese. — Haig's appeal to his men. — The French to the rescue. — How they died on Mont Kemmel. — The great attack of April 29. — Rizzo and the Austrian navy. — The drive at the Aisne. — Foch prepares the way for counter attacks. — The "Tiger" defies his enemies. — Help is on the way. — The Ameri- cans at Cantigny. — The Second Division at Chateau-Thierry. — The young Americans show their ignorance. — The drive toward Paris. — Petain strikes back with Mangin's army. — u Le Bois de la Brigade de Marine." We left the British standing firmly on Vimy Ridge and in front of Arras. In order to hold these important positions men had been taken from the territory to the north, in the valley of the Lys, between Ypres and Vimy. While still pretending to keep up the attack on Arras, the Germans were secretly massing men and guns for a third tremendous thrust farther north. On April 9 they opened with a most terrific bombardment, selecting as the point of attack the trenches in front of the town of Armen- tieres, held by the small Portuguese army. On the space of eleven miles, from Armentieres to La Bassee (bas'sa/) Canal, it is estimated that sixty thousand shells exploded, full of poison gas, so that a wide area was positively drenched in this evil vapor, 314 HOLD THE FORT 315 which killed every living thing that breathed it. The British troops were all supplied with gas masks, but some of the new gases were so powerful that they partially passed through the masks and stupefied the wearers. The high explosive shells fell for miles behind the front line trenches. In fact it seemed as if no creature, man or beast, could be left alive in a deep area, almost ten miles square. Then came the charge of the infantry. Thirty German divisions, about 350,000 men, attacked over a space of ten, then fifteen miles, as the battle widened out. The Portuguese resisted bravely, but they had been nearly wiped out by the terrific bom- bardment. By sheer weight of numbers, the enemy pushed them back. Armentieres, Laventie, Warneton, Estaires fell into their hands, one after the other. The Messines-Wytschaete Ridge was taken, re- taken by a fierce charge of English regiments, then lost again. Still the Germans swept on. By the fifth day they had moved forward ten miles in some places*- ^and were still gaining. Sir Douglas Haig gave out an order to the British army which told the men of the seriousness of the danger. ''Victory," said he, "will belong to the side which holds out the longer. 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 retire- ment. The French army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support. With our backs to the wall, each one of us must fight to the end. The 3i6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment." How different from the Kaiser's bombastic speeches was this simple, soldierly statement ! For four more days the British held out, outnum- bered and outgunned. And then, oh, welcome sight ! there appeared a long line of stocky, wiry soldiers in horizon blue. They came marching up the roads to the front, a great river of men, flowing swiftly and filling all the low places and weak spots in the British lines. And now the task of the invaders became harder ; harder because the numbers were more nearly equal and because they were still in the low, flat plain of the Lys valley, while the Allies held the hills to the west. Pretty small hills they were, not much more than mounds, but they were easier to defend than the lowlands had been, and the Germans had to pay a high price for any further advances. Still they kept on, driving their men in great masses at the blue- and khaki-lined trenches before them. The German drive was intended to capture Calais, Western Newspaper Union Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig HOLD THE FORT 317 Dunkirk, and Boulogne, to destroy the left wing of the British army or to drive it into the sea. Finding the going in front of them somewhat slow, on April 17, the Germans made a surprise attack on the Belgians between Ypres and the sea. Their heavy massed formation plowed through to some depth, but the Belgians made a sharp counter- attack, drove some of the Germans into the over- flowed lands, ' and captured seven hundred others. No admittance along the line of the Yser ! Foiled here, the Germans made a determined attack south of Ypres, intending to encircle the city, and to pinch off the northern end of the line by getting in behind it. The first high ground to the west of the Wytschaete Ridge is known as Mont Kemmel. It is a' low hill", — not much more than a hummock, but it was of great importance in the eyes of both commanders. A French regiment, stationed on it, had been told to hold the hill at all costs. Once more, as on March 21 and April 9, the Germans were favored by a heavy fog. Under cover of this, they were able swiftly to" thrust a wedge between the British and the French. The garrison of Mont Kemmel found themselves suddenly cut off from their comrades and surrounded by Germans. They were summoned to surrender, but sent back a message of defiance. And now the German artillery had found the range and a rain of death fell upon the doomed regiment. 318 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Picked German troops, including the Alpine Corps and the famous Bavarian " Jagers," were sent against them, only to be hurled, reeling back. Again the rain of shells and again the attack of the infantry. Precious hours were passing ; the whole German program was behind its schedule because of this one French regiment. They could not go on, leaving this hill still in the hands of the enemy. Morning wore into noon and noon into afternoon. Still little groups, intrenched at strategic points on the west side of the hill, were holding out. Finally, after one last rain of shells, the "Jagers" and Alpine Corps advanced once more to the assault. No shot greeted them as they swarmed up the slopes, as they descended the western side. The garrison of Mont Kemmel had perished to the last man. "Jusqu'au bout" the phrase of the old Gallieni, had become the motto of the whole French army ! Ther- mopylae had its messenger of death, but Mont Kemmel had none. Meanwhile, the reserves were gathering. Kemmel was taken on April 26. On the 29th, the entire Fourth and Sixth Armies of Germany, under the command of General von Arnim, made a strenuous attempt to advance along a twelve-mile front from Meteren northeast to Zillbeke Lake. It resulted in a bloody, crushing defeat. A few small gains were made by the Germans, while the loss of life was tremendous. Everywhere the trium- phant British and French flung back the invaders, HOLD THE FORT 319 and when night fell, Von Arnim drew off his battered divisions and gave up the attempt. The great drive for the Channel ports was over, and the Germans had gained twelve miles instead of the forty-five that they had planned. About this time came the word of a valorous exploit of certain Italian sailors, which cheered the Allies and did much to keep up the pride of the Italians in their fighting men. In December, 191 7, Lieuten- ant Rizzo (rit'so) of the Italian navy had slipped across the head of the Adriatic Sea with two tiny launches, to enter, if possible, the harbor of Trieste. The entrance to this port has three great stone piers, jutting out to the sea, forming two channels, one on each side of the central breakwater or mole. These channels were closed by nets and booms, all full of mines, and all secured to the piers by great steel cables. Lieutenant Rizzo and his men crawled out of their launches, up on one of the piers, and set to work, swiftly but silently, to cut the cables, strand by strand. It was hazardous work, for the least jar to the booms would have set off one of the mines and the whole party would have been blown to bits. Eight cables, one after another, were severed, until the weight of the mines broke the last remaining strands and the whole web of steel and mines fell apart and dropped to the bottom. The harbor was open to them. Slipping in silently, each of the two launches sought a battleship, and, at a signal from Rizzo, each boat discharged two torpedoes at its victim, 320 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR then turned and dashed for open sea. Behind them came the roar of an explosion and a burst of flame — then another, as the second ship was struck. Wild cries, wilder firing, and confusion in their wake. Back, unscathed, came the two little Italian launches ; and the news soon spread that the Austrian battle- ship, Wien (veen), lay at the bottom of the harbor, while her sister ship, the Monarch, although still afloat, was seriously disabled. On May 14, Rizzo, now Captain Rizzo, dupli- cated this trick. Entering the harbor of Pola in like fashion, he sent to the bottom one of Austria's newest dreadnoughts and returned unscathed. One would have thought that two such exploits would have been enough glory for one man. But Rizzo was determined to put out of commission the whole Austrian battleship fleet. On the tenth of June, scouting in the Adriatic with two small torpedo boats, he met two of the three remaining dread- noughts of the Austrian navy. They were protected by the usual screen of destroyers, but this peril did not deter Rizzo. He slipped inside the ring of protecting boats and launched his swift torpedoes. One mighty vessel went down before his eyes, and while the other still floated as he sped for safety, wreckage from her was afterward found on the water. Four Austrian battle- ships had been sunk and another seriously damaged, and all by the daring and intelligence of a single man. All Italy rang with his praises, and the echoes came HOLD THE FORT 321 back reassuringly among the Allies. Italy was herself again. Not only could she hold her own but she actually offered to send some divisions to help hold the hard-pressed western front. The offer was accepted, and now the men of five freedom- loving peoples were found facing the Junkers in France. There were signs that Ludendorff and Hinden- burg were soon to strike again, but there was much uncertainty as to where the blow would fall. For four weeks, since the bloody repulse of April 29, the Germans had been resting and refitting their troops. On May 27, the blow finally fell. A pretended attack was made in the north in the Lys valley, and another bombardment was begun near the Somme, but the spot where the great bulk of German troops had been secretly massed was on the heights north of the famous ridge of the Chemin des Dames. After a stupendous rain of gas shells and high explosives, twenty-five chosen divisions, over 300,000 men, were hurled in dense masses at the Allied lines. Only seven divisions were holding this portion of the trenches, four British and three French. There was no withstanding the gray-green flood. Four men to one, especially after the terrible rain of shells and poison, proved too great odds. But the Franco- British troops did not break, as Gough's army had, on March 21. They retreated in good order, sell- ing each position as dearly as possible. Here and 322 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR there detachments turned and stood to the death. One large group, in particular, composed partly of Englishmen and partly of French regiments made up of the older men, resolved to hold a certain wood on the banks of the Aisne or die in the attempt. They died, almost to a man, but not until they had taken terrible toll of the advancing masses of Ger- mans. But, meanwhile, help was at hand. Foch may have been taken by surprise by the first attack, but he promptly took steps to reduce the German gains. He ordered his men to give way in the center, all the while stiffening the resistance of the sides. The attack began on a forty-mile front. The Germans crossed the Aisne, three miles to the south, on a front of eighteen miles. They reached the Marne, twenty-seven miles further south, on a front of six miles, and could go no farther. Thus they found themselves in a deep and dangerous pocket, the sides of which they attacked with furious energy, in order to widen it. Lu- dendorff threw more and more troops into the battle. Forty divisions all told were now engaged — more than 400,000 men. But try as he would, he could not widen the tip of the pocket. . At the top he was more successful. The city of Soissons fell into his hands, and he gained a strip of ground some six miles deep to the northwest of this city. The fifth great German drive of the spring was over. Ludendorff claimed forty thousand prisoners and more than four HOLD THE FORT 323 hundred guns captured. But his losses had been appalling. The drive of April upon Arras and Vimy Ridge, and that of April 29 aimed at the hills southwest of Ypres, had cost him heavily, without yielding any gain in ground. This new attack had been the most costly drive so far. But, worst of all, its purpose had failed. In spite of the fact that the German trenches were now only forty-two miles from Paris, there was no sign of panic or pleading for peace on the part of France. The great long- range cannon had begun once more to rain shells on Paris. But Paris laughed and went about its busi- ness. The French treated the long-range gun as it deserved, as a stage bugaboo intended to frighten the weak-spirited. Ludendorff confesses, in his book, that he looked forward eagerly to the meeting of the French Chamber of Deputies (Congress) the first week in June, hoping to hear demands for peace. His heart sank as he read that the old " Tiger," the fighting prime minister, Clemenceau, had mounted the platform and, amid the cheers of the deputies, declared, "We are giving ground, but we shall never surrender." Two other statements of his that caused LudendorfFs hopes to sink were: "We shall be victorious, if the public authorities are equal to their task," and "I fight before Paris, I shall fight in Paris, and I shall fight behind Paris." The Germans had been strai-ning every nerve to take the French capital, and generals and men alike had 324 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR persuaded themselves that, once in the city, the French government would have to sue for peace. This speech of the aged prime minister showed them that they had a long, hard task before them, and that France was far from that readiness to give up which they had pictured to themselves. Meanwhile, the Germans had every available man in the field. They still outnumbered the Allies, but their superiority in numbers was lessening with every week that passed by. Britain was withdrawing men from Egypt, from Palestine, from Salonica. The munition factories were being combed for recruits, whose places were taken by women. The young men of the next age to be called in France were ready to appear on the firing line. But these gains, important as they were, were nothing compared with the stream of young Americans, crossing the sea in an ever increasing flood. A quarter of a million of them crossed in May ; a still larger number were to reach France in June. The German High Command had scoffed at the Americans. The German people had been told that they would not fight. In the first place, they had no officers to lead them. It had taken years of careful training to make the German army what it was, and now, after four years of fighting, they had not enough officers of intelligence left to com- mand the various companies, battalions, and regi- ments. The old Von Moltke, German commander- in-chief in the wars of 1866 and 1870, had loftily HOLD THE FORT 325 remarked that he had not studied the battles of the American Civil War, because he was "not interested in the conflicts of armed mobs." But on May 28, 191 8, the day after the great drive began at the Chemin des Dames, the Germans had their first taste of American fighting. Oh the western edge of the territory captured by the Ger- mans in the great drive of March 2 1 lay the little town of Cantigny (cantin'yi)- Its possession by the Germans was an annoyance to the Allies, as it was situated on a hill from which the enemy could control the valleys on either side. It was decided to let the American First Division have its "baptism of fire" by retaking this town. The attack was carefully re- hearsed beforehand and each company knew just what it was expected to do. Promptly at the appointed time the boys from overseas went "over the top." The Germans were taken by surprise but fought stoutly. In just thirty-five minutes, however, from the time when they started over, the Americans had the town. It was a fierce hand-to-hand fight with bayonet, hand grenade, and trench knife. Prisoners were sent back, and the attacking waves moved on. A mile forward they moved, then halted according to orders, and dug in, awaiting the counter-attacks, which came, thick and fast. But the "Yanks" held their ground and were a good match for the Kaiser's veterans. The First Division had "made good." Meanwhile the Second Division (which contained the Marines) 326 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR with parts of the Third and Twenty-Eighth had been thrown into the battle for the road to Paris. The Germans had reached the Marne at Chateau- Thierry and were attempting to force their way westward when the American troops struck them. The official report of the fight, as given by the French war office, is as follows : "American troops checked German advanced forces which were seeking to penetrate Neuilly Wood, and by a magnificent 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 regiment which had crept across to the left bank of the river was counter-attacked by French and American troops and hurled back to the other bank, after having suffered heavy losses." No bluster or boasting about these French official communiques. Just the plain, unvarnished facts. If the French government bulletin said that it was a magnificent counter-attack, we can rest assured that it was. As a matter of fact the Second Division, ordered to stop the rush of six Prussian divisions, did not wait for the enemy to come. They climbed out of their trenches and ran for the foe, straight across the open ! The Germans numbered perhaps fifty thousand men, while the Americans were just about half as many. But the Prussians were weary with their long drive and with the strain of four years of war, and the HOLD THE FORT 327 young men from the west were going into their first big battle. As a French general had remarked, sixty-five years before, of the British charge at Balak- lava (ba la kla' va) , ' ' It was magnificent , but it was not war." Not war, at least, as veterans fought it. If this had been a division of British or French, they would have known better than to charge across open ground at twice their number of the enemy. They would have dug in, taking advantage of every unevenness of the ground, and would have picked off the Germans as they advanced, holding each position as long as possible and retreating only if in danger of being overwhelmed by superior num- bers. But the very nerve and daring of the young Americans, foolhardy as it was, won them the victory. Seeing them come on in this fashion the Germans reasoned, in true German fashion, that of course there must be great numbers of reinforce- ments behind them ; if so, then they, the Germans, must be outnumbered. And they faltered, and halted ; the Marines fell upon them, like a pack of wildcats, although having suffered cruel losses in their advance. The Prussians stood and fought for a time, but the ferocity of the young Westerners was too much for them. They broke and fled. You are right, all-wise Kaiser ! And wise Hinden- burg and Ludendorff ! The Americans do not know the rules of war ! According to all the rules they should have been wiped out as they charged across 328 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the open to meet your Prussians. But they do not know the danger, and they do not fear your men. The Second Division's blood was up. Not satisfied with stopping the German drive for Paris at this point, they took the offensive, two days later, June 6, and advanced two miles toward Berlin. Their French comrades, taking fresh hope when they saw the fighting spirit of the newcomers, took the offensive with them. Between the two forces the Germans were chased out of Torcy, Bouresches, and two other small towns northwest of Chateau-Thierry. To the great astonishment of the French officers, the troops opposite them proved to be the famous Twenty- eighth and Fifth Guard Divisions, two of Hinden- burg's very best. When prisoners were questioned, it was found that orders had been given to stop the Americans at all costs. The Kaiser feared the effect on his people when it should leak out that these peaceful young Westerners could fight, after all. And now the German High Command prepared a new blow, the sixth drive, counting the two that had failed to gain. They had forced two great dents, each thirty miles deep, in the Allied lines. They now drove at the curve that connected these wedges, intending to break clear through the French lines, down to the valley of the Oise to Paris. With 300,000 men, Ludendorff struck, on June 9, along a front of twenty-two miles, between Montdidier and Noyon. But this time Foch was prepared. For HOLD THE FORT 329 some days the gathering of troops had been observed . There was not the same secrecy that had marked the attacks of March 21 and May 27. The French artillery was ready ; the gunners had the range ; and as the German hurricane of fire broke loose, it was answered by a storm nearly as great from the French guns. Then the artillery lifted its fire, and on came the gray-clad "storm troops." With deadly effect the French guns plowed and raked their ranks. No thinly held line to be stormed here ; no great outnumbering of the defenders. Pe- tain, who was in personal charge, yielded a little ground here and there, only to take it back from them by a skillful and unexpected counter attack. Plemont hill, overlooking Lassigny, was held by a determined French regiment, whose fire strewed its slopes with gray-clad bodies. Fourteen assaults were made upon it, and yet its defenders held out, though surrounded on all sides. Furiously Von Hutier drove on his men. The Americans were coming, and Paris must be reached and the war ended. By sheer weight of numbers he pushed the French back, in some places as much as seven miles. Once more, in a last attempt to frighten the people of Paris, the long- range gun fired its senseless shells. But on the eleventh, two days after the drive began, Petain gave Mangin permission to advance. In three bril- liant charges Mangin' s men won back part of the ground that they had lost. For three more days the lines seesawed back and forth. But in the end 33° HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the French held their places and the extreme depth of the German gain was four or five miles. The road to Paris was firmly blocked. HOLD THE FORT 33* Not satisfied with their gains of four days before, the Americans of the Second Division on June 10 started forward again. For twenty-four hours their artillery rained shells on the important stronghold of Belleau (bel'lo') Wood, held in force by the crack Fifth Division of the German Guards. Then the Ma- rines went "over the top" and never stopped going till they had ' ' mopped up" the entire wood. It was filled with Germans, and from every tree and rock the Marines were met by a bitter fire from the machine guns. When the fight was over, and three hundred prison- ers had been brought in, one of their officers, asked what he thought of the Americans as fighters, re- plied that they fought as if they were crazy — or drunk. According to all the rules of war it should have been impossible to take the wood. The Second Division took it, though they paid a fearful price. On the maps of that part of France, you will look in vain for Belleau Wood. Out of recognition for one of the finest feats of the war, the grateful French nation has renamed it "The Wood of the Marine Brigade." General Mangin 332 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. What was the object of the German drive through Armentieres ? 2. Why was the drive of April 29 a failure? 3. How were the Austrian harbors protected? 4. How did the Germans take the Allies by surprise on May 27? 5. Why did Ludendorff feel that his position after the drive of May 27 was not favorable? 6. Why were the Germans so depressed at Clemenceau's speech ? 7. How did the question of time affect the German chances of victory ? 8. What was the chief source of Foch's steadily growing army? 9. How did the First Division take Cantigny ? 10. What did the Germans think of the way in which the Second Division fought ? 1 1 . Why did the sixth German drive fail ? 12. What was accomplished by the French counter-attacks? CHAPTER XIII The Beginning of the End The Italians bold. — The swollen river aids. — The Albanian cam- paign. — The situation in the Balkan States. — Three days in July (15 to 18). — More "nibbling" by the Allies. — The seventh great German drive and Foch's counter thrust. — The Marne pocket wiped out. — The British in the Lys valley. — The great blow of Rawlinson and Debeney. — The Czechs are recognized as a nation. — No food to be had from Russia. — The British in the Caspian oil fields. — Plumer strikes. It was an open secret that the German High Command had ordered the Austrians to make one more grand attempt to put Italy out of the war. At last they were ready. As Ludendorff realized that the road to Paris was blocked, he gave the word to the Austrians to advance. One army was to push down from the north on the eastern side of the Lago di (la/go di) Garda, while the main force was to sweep across the Piave River on the fifty-mile front from II Montello to the sea. There were at- tacks among the mountains and plateaus to the north, also. In fact, there was hardly a spot from the Lago di Garda eastward where the Austrians were not threatening to break through in force. On June 1 5 , along a ninety-seven-mile front, from the Asiago plateau to the sea, the main attack burst forth. 333 334 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR By sheer weight of numbers, after the manner of the German attack of March 2 1 , the Austrians forced their way across the Piave River in three places. In the mountains also there were spots where the Italian line showed signs of giving way. But some of the British and French troops that had been rushed into Italy to stop the great retreat of November, 191 7, were still available. They were flung into the fray between Monte Grappa and the Asiago plateau. The result was that the threatened break in the lines was prevented. On the third day of the attack the Austrians claimed the capture of 28,000 men and more than one hundred and fifty guns. But on the sixth day of the battle, with Austria-Hungary throwing every available man into the front lines, the Italians were still holding doggedly to their ground. Nowhere had the enemy forced their way more than two and a half miles across the river. In the neighborhood of II Montello, a long, low hill at the hinge of the line, where it turned aside from the Piave and ran up among the mountains, the defenders, by the sixth day of the battle, had actually pushed the enemy back of the line from which they began the attack. About this time, luck broke for the Allies, for al- most the first time during the war. Tremendous rains in the mountains swelled the Piave into a rush- ing torrent. Pontoon bridges, rafts, and boats, by means of which the Austrians had crossed, were THE BEGINNING OF THE END 335 swept away in great quantities. The enemy on the western bank could not receive help nor ammuni- tion nor food. They could not retreat.' British aviators, dropping tons of bombs, had destroyed the permanent bridges, seven in number, between Mon- tello and the delta. On the eighth day of the battle, General Diaz ordered his men forward all along the line. With wild energy the Italians flung themselves on the foe. By the tenth day no Austrians were left west of the Piave but the killed and prisoners. It is estimated that they had lost a quarter of a million men. The victorious Italians, not satisfied with restoring their former lines, made a vigorous attack on the Austrians in the delta of the Piave, land that had been held by the enemy since November, 191 7. In these bogs and swamps there was little chance to dig deep trenches. Instead, the enemy had pro- tected themselves by barbed- wire fences, entangled with brushwood. These proved obstacles very hard to break through. Finally, one picked regiment of daring Italians, providing themselves with long poles, made a rush on one of these barriers, vaulted over it, and planted their daggers in the bodies of the astonished Austrian machine gunners. The Austrians gave way and sought only to escape towards firm ground. By July 6 the great battle was over. Italy had not only won back all that she had lost in the be- ginning, on June 15, but had retaken the important 336 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR delta of the river and dealt a stunning blow to the hopes of Austria and Germany. Far away to the south another little campaign began to worry the Central Powers. From the first arrival of their troops at Avlona, in Albania, the Italians had gradually extended their lines up into the mountains until they joined forces with the Salonica army. Thus the Allies now held a con- tinuous line across the peninsula, from the Adriatic to the ^Egean. Some 400,000 Italians with one French division formed the western wing of this line, 100,000 Serbs the left center, 200,000 French and British the right center, while the new Greek army, 200,000 strong, held the extreme right. The com- mander-in-chief was now General Franchet d'Esperey, one of Joflre's army leaders in the battle of the Marne, a cool-headed and skillful leader, one of France's best. Opposing them was the entire Bulgarian army, some 350,000 strong, several strong divisions of Austrians, numerous batteries of German artillery, and some 100,000 Turks. Up to the time when the new Greek army had been ready to join the Allies, there had been little progress made. The country through which the opposing lines of trenches ran was mountainous and easily defended. The Germans and their allies talked of it as a good joke that so many soldiers of the Entente were tied up, doing no good, at Salonica.. They spoke of Salonica as ■ ' the greatest internment camp" (camp for prisoners of war shut up by THE BEGINNING OF THE END 337 neutral governments) "in Europe." Now, however, as an echo to the Austrian attack in Italy came a swift thrust northward in Albania by the Italian troops, aided by a French division. From the Voyusa River, just northeast of Avlona, the Allies drove in toward the town of Berat, twenty miles away. On the nth of July, five days after the attack began, the Italians chased the Austrians out of Berat. Two days later the French had reached a point on the Devoli (dev 6 li) River eighteen miles northeast of this town. Reinforcements were hurriedly summoned by the Austrians. This Balkan activity would never do. As a matter of fact Bulgaria was growing colder toward the war with every week that passed. Prime Minister RadoslavofI (ra'do slav'off ) , friend of Ger- many, had been compelled to resign in June, and a new cabinet had been formed under the leadership of Malinoff (mali'noff), a statesman who, before Bulgaria's entry into the war, had been a friend of Russia and France. Among the members of the new cabinet was Liaptcheff (li ap'cheff ) , a firm friend of America. The Bulgarian front was the weak spot in the German suit of armor, and the Central Powers lost no time in reenforcing their troops in Albania, fearing the effect of a defeat here upon the spirit of their Bulgarian allies. But now, on the western front, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were preparing one more overwhelming blow, of the sort that had driven the Allies back for 338 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR more than thirty miles, both on March .21 and May 27. The storm this time was due to burst on either side of the city of Rheims, the home of the beautiful old cathedral that the Germans had taken such pleasure in bombarding. There had been a direct attempt to carry the defenses of the city by storm on the 18th of June, but this had failed, with bloody losses, and Luden- dorfl, changing his tactics, now proposed to strike in behind from each side, and "pinch off" this prominent point in the French lines. For a month things had been going badly for the Kaiser's allies. Their big drives in Italy and at Rheims had failed utterly. In little operations, not large, but important, the soldiers of the Entente had been driving them out of points that were of great strategic value. The Americans, as we have already learned, had taken Cantigny. The French had driven the Germans across the little Avre brook. The British had forced them to retire across the Ancre, a little farther north. The Australians, with some American help, had celebrated the Fourth of July by taking the important village of Hamel. The Ameri- cans had captured the little town of Vaux, near Chateau- Thierry. The French, by a quick movement, had taken the town of Corey, southwest of Soissons. The British had pushed in the bottom of the pocket in the Lys valley. LudendorfT confesses in his book that he could not trust his soldiers in purely defensive THE BEGINNING OF THE END 339 warfare. They fought better when they were going forward, with the hope that one more big smash would break down the resistance of the French and win the war. On July 15, accordingly, one more titanic effort was made. From the bot- tom of the Marne pocket they struck eastward, across the river, with twenty-four divisions of shock troops. East of Rheims, along a thirty-mile front twenty fresh divisions drove into the French lines. Both attacks were begun by the usual terrific bombardment of big shells and poison gas. But Foch was waiting for them. His generals, Berthelot, southwest of Rheims, and Gouraud (goo ro') , the one-armed hero of the Dar- danelles, now commanding the Fourth Army east of Rheims, had their orders. Leaving only a few machine gunners to hold the front line trenches, they drew back the bulk of their forces two or three miles to the rear. The usual terrific storm of German shells and poison gas fell on the lines where the French armies were supposed to be. It fell on empty trenches. Gouraud, mean- while, learning on July 14, by a timely raid on the Photo by Underwood & Underwood General Gouraud 340 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR enemy's lines, that the big attack was set for the next day, cut loose with his great guns before the Germans began, and did terrific damage to the closely packed storm battalions of the enemy. In fact, many of the crack divisions that were to rout Gouraud's line never reached the new trenches of the French. They were so savagely punished by the French guns that they were sent back and dis- banded. Their remnants were used to stop the gaps in other regiments. To the southwest of Rheims the enemy made more progress. Attacking on a twenty -mile front, they crossed the Marne and drove south and east of that river to a depth, in some places, of three miles. On the north bank of the river they gained about four miles in an easterly direction, toward the town of Epernay (a'pair'nay') • General Berthelot, who commanded the French here, had not been able to guess the exact time of the German attack, as had his friend and colleague, Gouraud. Nevertheless, he used the same tactics, leaving only a few chosen machine gunners to hold the front lines, while by drawing back the great bulk of his men he let the German artillery exhaust its efforts, shelling the empty trenches. The German plan had been to smash through on both sides of Rheims, making prisoners of the main part of Berthelot's and Gouraud's men, and then to throw back the French armies to the east upon Verdun and the Swiss border, capturing the bulk of THE BEGINNING OF THE END 341 French Official Photograph General Foch as He Appeared at the End of the War them and ending the resistance of France with one gigantic stroke. In the light of what they had done in March this 342 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR did not seem impossible. But with characteristic German confidence in themselves and equally typical German contempt for their enemies, they had over- looked three or four things. First, they forgot that for many months Petain and Foch had been saving their men, refusing to be drawn into rash attacks, piling up for the final struggle a strong army of reserves. Second, owing to the fact that the Entente had been on the defensive for so long, they forgot that Foch had the reputation of being a master of attack, with a love of doing the unexpected. Third, in their eager intentness upon their own plans, they neglected to think that Foch might have a plan of his own. In their anxiety to land a knock-out blow upon his right, they forgot that he had a powerful punch in his left, and that he might strike them on that comparatively un- defended side. Fourth, they ignored the fact that there were now in France i ,100,000 young Americans, and that these men had already proved their game- ness and eagerness to fight. In fact, their very inex- perience and greenness in war gave them a reckless courage that was very disquieting to their German opponents. At all events Ludendorff and Hindenburg blun- dered. They made the same mistake that Von Moltke and Von Kluck had made four years before on that same field, when they swung eastward in pursuit of Joffre and left their right flank open to the attack of Manoury and of Gallieni's taxicab arm} 7 . THE BEGINNING OF THE END 343 On the 15th of July every German was sure of winning the war ; winning it, probably within a few days. On the 18th something happened that made them open their eyes to some disagreeable facts. What happened was this : Sure that Gouraud and Berthelot, without help, could hold back the new German smash, Foch had prepared a stroke of his own. The details had been care- fully planned by Petain and Fayolle, the second in command of the French armies, in con- sultation with Generals Mangin and Degoutte, who were to lead the assault. The finished plan had been laid before the com- mander-in-chief, who had given his approval. By July 17, two days after the German drive started, they had gained, as has been told, some two or three miles of ground across the Marne east of Jaulgonne (zhol'gon'), due largely to the fact that Berthelot' s men retired, under orders, to avoid the German storm of shells. Between Jaulgonne and Chateau-Thierry two American divisions, the Third General Degoutte 344 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR and Twenty-eighth, stood guard, together with some French troops. Here the Germans forced their way across the river, but the Americans, with some French help, fell upon them and drove them back, after fierce hand-to-hand fighting. The long-range bombardment of Paris was started once more, the Germans still feeling that they had the French on the run and that it would not take much to break their spirit. One division of the American army was with Gouraud, east of Rheims. Here the magnificent defense of the soldiers of the one-armed hero com- pletely shattered the German plans. Caught in their own trap, they felt that their only chance lay in pushing forward. But next morning, at a quarter to five, there sud- denly fell upon the west side of the Soissons-Cha- teau-Thierry-Rheims pocket the blow that was the beginning of the end. Out of the woods that stretched northward for nearly thirty miles from Chateau-Thierry to Soissons there struck like a thun- derbolt upon the unsuspecting Germans an army of 400,000 men. About half of these were Americans, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second, and Forty-second Di- visions being engaged. The rest of the troops were among France's best, the famous Moroccan division fighting between two American regiments. Without any artillery preparation the troops moved forward, accompanied by tanks to break the THE BEGINNING OF THE END 345 German barbed wire. A rolling barrage of French shells went ahead of them. They found the most surprised crowd of Germans of the whole war, asleep, in many cases, when the tanks and the guns and the ' ' Yanks " and the French burst in upon their slumbers. Confident that Foch would have to send every avail- able man to slow up the drives on either* side of Rheims, the Germans had thrown all their best troops into these attacks, leaving second class divisions, composed of older men, to hold the west side of the pocket. Through the great holes torn by the tanks in the barbed-wire defenses streamed the eager Americans and French, the former yelling like Indians, the latter no less keen, and both at work, grimly, with rifle and bayonet, cleaning up, taking prisoners, and capturing guns and great stores of supplies. Through the breaks in the line poured, too, the French cavalry, in action on horseback for the first time in many months. Eagerly they rode in pursuit of the fleeing Germans, sabering those who resisted, surrounding and herding in the prisoners. By noon the victorious advance of the olive-drab and pale blue had reached the line set for them to pause, but after a short rest to reform the rather scattered divisions, Mangin and Degoutte ordered them forward again. By this time his Serene Highness the Crown Prince, who was supposed to be in command of the attacking German armies, and Generals von Below, von Einem, and von 346 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Mudra, who were the real commanders, learned that all was not well along the western side of the pocket. Reserves were hurled into the fight : — divisions that were to have followed up the successful drive across the Marne were faced hurriedly about and marched westward, and every nerve was strained to hold the pocket open. But Mangin's French and Americans drove on, gaining six, miles in two days' fighting, until they were held up at last, by great enemy reinforcements, just south of Soissons. Degoutte's men to the south met stiff er resistance, but managed to gain from three to four miles before they were forced, for the time being, to come to a halt. Seventeen thousand prisoners, three hundred and sixty guns, and great quantities of supplies fell into the hands of the Allies. Meanwhile, news had reached Berthelot of the victorious advance of his two colleagues. He im- mediately ordered his men to give up the defensive and to go forward, all along the line. His Italian regiments, aided by a British division, struck west from Rheims, recovering ground lost three days earlier, and threatening to break through, join Mangin, and thus trap the Germans in the south of the pocket. His French divisions drove the enemy before them, and on the next day not a German, save the dead and the prisoners, was left south of the Marne. Meanwhile, just as Joffre, at the. first battle of the Marne, had surprised the Germans by slipping THE BEGINNING OF THE END 347 a new army (that of Foch) into the center of the line, so now Foch flung the new army of De Mitry between Degoutte's Americans and Berthelot's French. On the other side of Rheims, Gouraud's men drove forward, and all along the eighty miles THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE MARNE JULY 18— AUGUST 1st, 1918 Grand Pr^ >• Battle Line before the German Drive of May 27 m* Battle Line between July 6th and July 15th g§ Ground gained by the Germans between July 15th and 18th ^ ^ ^ ^ 4* Farthest advance of the Germans on July 18th IGround gained by the French and Americans on July 18th Ground regained by the French, British and Italians between July 18th and July 22nd of the sides of the pocket and for thirty miles east of it, raged the Second Battle of the Marne. Desperately the enemy sought to stave off the retreat that they dreaded. For over six months they had been moving forward, except for the small losses already mentioned. To retreat now would be to confess defeat. So every available man was thrown into the Marne pocket. As many as twenty-two divisions, over 200,000 men, were sent 348 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR against Degoutte. But the French and Americans were not to be held back. On they drove. Jagers, Prussian Guards, the Kaiser's crack Brandenburgers, none could check them. By July 20 the Germans realized that the game was up, that they could not hold the line of the Marne. They began withdrawing rapidly from the south (bottom) of the pocket, all the while throwing every division available against the Allies in the neighborhood of Soissons and Rheims, in order to hold open the top of the trap until they had with- drawn all their men out of the bottom. They fought hard to hold a line running from Epieds (ep ya') to Ville-en-Tardenois (tard'nwa) , but the triumphant Allies, tasting victory for the first time in long months, drove on with a fury that could not be stopped. On the 25th of July strong counter- attacks, with fresh troops, were thrown against the eastern side of the diminishing pocket. They proved of no avail. Meanwhile, the enemy was frantically pulling back his guns and stores and blowing up heaps of shells to prevent their falling into the hands of the advanc- ing French and Americans. Nevertheless, by August 1, the French official announcement told of 33,400 prisoners bagged since July 15, and of the capture of great quantities of supplies. Next day the French retook Soissons. The pocket was gone. Instead of the deep loop to the south, with a front of eighty miles between Soissons and THE BEGINNING OF THE END 349 Rheims, there stretched a comparatively straight line of forty-five miles. It followed the little Vesle (vail) River which, six miles or so to the south, roughly paralleled the Aisne. The Marne had been left twenty-five miles to the rear. All over the Entente lands there burst forth a great chorus of rejoicing. The day for which the Allies had been waiting so long was come at last. For four long years that seemingly unbreakable barrier had stretched across from Switzerland to the sea. It had been broken by the Germans themselves in their desperate bid for victory in March. Once out of their deep, concrete-lined trenches and in the open field , numbers counted . Numbers were winning . But the superiority of numbers had passed to the other side. Ludendorfl had poured out his men recklessly in the spring, hoping to win the war before the Americans arrived. But now there were one million two hundred thousand Americans in France, and more were coming at the rate of ten thou- sand a day. Foch had waited his time ; and when his time came, he struck, — heavily, unexpectedly. On the 15th of July the Germans were certain of winning the war. On the 1 8th they knew that they could not win it. Meanwhile, Hindenburg and LudendorrT, aware for the first time of Foch's power, suddenly awoke to the meaning of the little advances and captures of strategic places that the Allies had been making in so many spots. The German troops were drawn 3 So HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR back in several places where it was plain that an Allied advance would put them in danger This was on the 5th of August. On the 7th, Foch gave Sir Douglas Haig permission to advance in the Lys pocket. Striking north from the southern side the Britishers drove back the enemy for a mile on a front of more than five miles. This attack was severe enough to send German reserve divisions scurrying northward to the rescue. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince and his generals were fever- ishly fortifying the line of the Vesle River, from Sois- sons to Rheims, evidently convinced that Foch was going to try, now that he had them on the run, to shatter their front with one grand assault. But it was not Foch's plan to attack where it was expected. Shrewdly he had forced the enemy to reenforce their lines near Rheims and near Ypres. Meanwhile, he was preparing a blow, which, when it fell, proved the most damaging single stroke of the whole war. In the early dawn of August 8, the Fourth British Army under General Rawlinson and the First French Army under General Debeney (da'ben y) Keystone View Co., Inc. General Rawlinson THE BEGINNING OF THE END 351 leaped from their trenches on a twenty-six-mile front, from Albert to Montdidier, and swept all before them. The morning was misty, like that of March 21, and the same advantage lay with the attacking forces, which took the Germans completely by surprise. Leading the way were hundreds of tanks, many of them of a new, smaller, speedy kind, which broke the German lines and then showed all the swift- ness of cavalry in pur- suit. Rawlinson's men, in some places, found whole companies of Ger- mans engaged in cutting the ripe wheat. The French, further south, had to cross the little Avre River under the fire of the enemy's guns, so did not make quite such rapid progress as their British comrades. However, the Allies could not be stopped. On drove the British ; on drove the French. By the second day Rawlinson had advanced as much as nine miles, in places, and was still going. On the third day Debeney broke the line of the Germans before him and pushed forward six miles. Huge gasoline tractors, dragging forward the heavy guns, followed, General Debeney 352 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR while the relentless tanks in front kept up the pursuit. By this time the Germans from near-by regions were stripping their lines to bolster up the rapidly retreating armies of Von der Marwitz and Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. On the eleventh of August, the French Third Army, com- manded by General Humbert (um'bair), without any artil- lery preparation suddenly leaped forward and drove before it in confusion the weakened army of Von Hutier. Again the surprise was The fast little French tanks, like land cut through the German wire and In their General Humbert complete. battleships, plowed ahead through a sea of enemies. wake came Humbert's men, taking part in the first great offensive that had been permitted them since they stopped, with Mangin's fighters, the drive toward Paris on the 9th of June. The method of Ludendorff had been to strike one huge blow, battering down resistance by sheer force of numbers, drive as far as possible, then refit for several weeks in preparation for the next colossal effort. Foch, on the other hand, always chose to do the unlooked for. He struck invariably where no blow 354 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR was expected. First Mangin and Degoutte attacked, then Berthelot, then, just as the enemy had gathered all his forces to meet these advances, there was a sudden stroke by the British in the Lys valley far to the north. One day more and the biggest surprise British Official Photograph German Prisoners Guarded by British " Tommies " of all — the blow of Debeney and Rawlinson — fell like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. The enemy rushed to meet this threat, when lo ! Humbert struck and the whole western line of the enemy was threatened with being outflanked. In their retreat the Germans left behind them guns, rifles, and shells in enormous quantities. The THE BEGINNING OF THE END 355 was that not viewed as a when the news of French cavalry pursuing, with the armored motor cars and tanks spread dismay and confusion every- where. LudendorfT, in his book, says that the retreat from the Marne pocket disaster in Germany, but the defeat of August 8-10 was published, a great de- pression of spirit settled heavily upon the German people. Meanwhile, the Allies were slowly but surely undermining the tottery Hapsburg crown. Pro- fessor Thomas Masaryk (ma sa'rik) , leader of the Czechs, driven out of the country by Austria, had organized, first in America and then in France, a Czecho-Slovak National Council. This body of men, with Masaryk at their head, directed the Czechs and Slovaks who had sur- rendered to the Russians to make their way to the fighting fronts to join the forces fighting for their freedom. These gallant troops, when the Russians broke and ran in the summer of 191 7, had fought, according to their general, the famous BrusilofT, in a way to win the enthusiastic admiration of the world. Surrounded in Russia by treacherous Bolshevist © Keystone View Co., Inc. Professor Thomas G. Masaryk 356 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR soldiers, who tried to wheedle them into surrender- ing their arms, and by former German prisoners who finally fired upon them, as they were taking trains for the East over the Siberian railroad, they had fought off both bodies of Enemies. They had held the entire five thousand miles of the railroad, and made their way back in great numbers across Siberia, the Pacific Ocean, America, and the Atlantic, to the western fighting fronts. The Czech members of the Austrian Congress, as early as May, 191 7, had openly declared to that body that their people and their cousins, the Slovaks, intended to form an independent state. Another new state was also coming into being, about this time. Representatives of the oppressed Croats and Serbs of Hungary and Bosnia and the equally down- trodden Slovenians of Austria had met with Serbians and Montenegrins to proclaim to the world their in- tention of forming the "Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes." These peoples, closely akin, and speaking languages almost identical, are fre- quently spoken of as the Jugo- Slavs, from the word jugo in their own language, meaning south. In the spring of 191 8, representatives of these South Slavs met the Czechs and Slovaks in Prague, capital of Bohemia, which is the country of the Czechs, and swore to fight together to win their in- dependence from the oppressive rule of Austria- Hungary and of the House of Hapsburg. And now France first, and then Great Britain, THE BEGINNING OF THE END 357 on August 13, recognized the Czecho-Slovak nation as an independent country and an ally in the war. The United States did the same on September 2. Czecho-Slovak troops fought under their own red and white banner in France, in Italy, and in Russia. Their National Council, all exiles, met in Paris. Is it any wonder that dissension and revolt grew more and more threatening in the ill-fated empire of Kaiser Karl? The German plans for plundering Russia were not working out as intended. To begin with, the great stores of wheat that they had expected to find in the Ukraine could not be found. As a matter of fact, very little wheat had been planted during 191 7. The Russians and Ukrainians, rejoicing in their new-found freedom, had been too lazy and indifferent, or too busy plundering the homes of the rich, to think of doing the usual hard work on the farms. Each peasant raised just what his own family needed. The city folks could go without ; he did not care about them. They were parasites, anyway ; he had always had to feed them ; now let them go hungry. So the Germans found little or no wheat. Another great need of the Central Powers, gaso- line, was to be met by German capture of the Russian oil fields around the Caspian Sea. But to the astonishment of the world, a force of British cavalry, setting out from the Tigris army north of Bagdad, made their way across country, through mountains 358 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR and passes, to Baku on the Caspian. Great Britain would hold the oil fields against the Germans. It will be recalled that the Lys pocket was formed by the big German drive during the second and third weeks in April, when Haig issued his famous "backs to the wall" order. The plan had been to break clear through to the coast, and its failure left the Germans in a deep and narrow angle from which they would have been very glad to extricate their troops, without serious loss, had they been able to do so. On August 1 8 Sir Herbert Plumer, Haig's brilliant assistant, flung his Second British Army suddenly forward along a line of seven miles. In two days time his men had driven the Germans back several miles, had taken a thousand prisoners and many machine guns. Wherever Foch struck now, the re- sult was the«same: the Germans, their hope of final victory gone, resisted desperately, but despondently. The end was coming, and they knew it. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. What was the purpose of the Austrian attack on Italy? 2. How did rains aid the Italians ? 3. What was the result of the attempt to break the Italian army? 4. What political change had taken place in Bulgaria? 5. What was the German plan in the attack of July 15 ? 6. What was the meaning of the little successes of the Allies ? 7. How did Gouraud defeat the German drive? 8. How did Foch take the Germans by surprise? 9. Why did the Germans narrowly escape a great disaster in the Marne pocket? THE BEGINNING OF THE END 3S9 of The IZ ^ the SeC ° nd Battle ° f the Marne the *«** point 13. Out of what states was the new Jugo-Slav country formed? CHAPTER XIV From Victory to Victory From the 1914 trenches Mangin strikes for Lassigny, Byng for Albert. — The French at Noyon, the Americans at Juvigny, the British at Peronne. — Through the Hindenburg line at last. — Progress all along the line. — German gains of 191 8 wiped out. — Back on the Hindenburg line. — America alone at St. Mihiel. — The threat to the iron mines and the Sedan-Longuyon railway. — The Serbs' revenge at last. — Armageddon. — The end of five centuries of oppression. — Forward France and America. — Belgium's redemption begun. On the 19th of August the German armies stood on a line following, roughly, the old trenches of 191 6. With these deep, concrete-lined ditches still intact, it would look as if the soldiers of the Entente faced the same problem that had balked them through all the long months of the first two years of the war. Then it was only after a terrific effort that they had been able, about twice a year, to drive back the Germans only a mile or two on a short front. But now with tanks to break the way; with great guns a plenty and an unlimited quantity of big shells, the British, French, and Americans marched forward to their tasks with confidence. The French Tenth Army was the first to move. Before them was the formidable plateau of Lassigny, 360 FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 361 which for two and a half years had been the German outpost nearest to Paris. On the other side of the Oise they had to scale another table-land, the top of which was fringed with German machine guns. With the same masterly skill that had marked his retaking of the Verdun forts in the fall of 191 6, General Mangin led his men up the slopes. Cover- ing his infantry by a rolling barrage from the big guns, and breaking the way with tanks, he took the plateau of Lassigny, recaptured the town, and scaled the heights between the Oise and the Aisne with astonishingly small losses. Ten thousand Germans were taken in this brilliant assault, and quantities of valuable material. This attack was still in progress, and Ludendorfl was rushing men to support this weak portion of the line, when another part of the front, quiet since May 1 , suddenly leaped into action. After a terrific bombardment for three hours, the British Third Army, under General Byng, struck, just north of Albert, on a front of seven miles. To the south of the town a smaller thrust was made, with the same result : a net gain of two miles in depth, the town re- captured, and several hundred prisoners taken. On the next day, when the enemy were expecting another drive either on the Champagne front or in the valley of the Lys, Foch surprised them by again hurling Humbert's Third Army forward. Mangin' s men, too, were under way, and the British drove in two more miles in the direction of Bapaume, the town 362 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR toward which they had crawled by inches in the bloody, slow hammering of the summer and fall of 1916. Desperately the Bavarian Crown Prince tried to stave them off, throwing in his best divisions to stem the tide. It was the same story : the Allies were not to be stopped ; the consciousness of defeat had entered the minds of the Germans at last, and some of them were surrendering, willingly. Hammer, hammer ! A blow here, a quick jolt there, a thrust yonder. The whole German line was being dislocated and hustled back in sections. So far, there was no clean break, but a series of jars and pushes, each alike vigorous and unexpected. It was on the 226. of August that the capture of Albert took place. Two days later the British struck again, this time a little to the south. The town of Bray and ten other ruined villages fell into their hands. The men were like schoolboys on a holiday. The long, long night of depression, defeat, and deadlock was over. They had "Fritz" on the run for Berlin at last, and they were going to keep him going. They cheered as they met other groups, and acted like different men from those who had retreated so sullenly over this same ground only five short months before. A stroke from the French and a sharp attack by the Americans on the Vesle, and another day had passed. Ludendorff and Hindenburg had told the Kaiser that they could not win the war. The best FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 363 they could hope for now was a drawn battle, with both sides exhausted and ready for " peace without victory." But no such thoughts were on the other side. The magnificent old Tiger of France, Georges Clemen - ceau, the clear-thinking Foch, unterrified in the dark days of the spring and undeceived as to the enemy's condition now, were determined to rid the world, once and forever, of this menace of the Prussian saber. No less iron in their resolution were the fiery, buoyant little Welshman who ruled England, Lloyd- George, and our own inflexible leader, President Wilson. This war was going through to the finish. On drove the British, smashing all opposition. Twelve towns were taken on August 25, and in one place the gains took them within a mile of the old Hindenburg line, from which the enemy set out in the spring campaign. Still there was no rest for the bewildered Germans. Fortifying their lines before Roye for a frontal at- tack by the French, they found that Foch, who had a dislike of doing what the enemy expected him to do, was encircling them and threatening to cut off their retreat. Then followed a quick thrust from the north, and another from the south. General Debeney's First French Army closed in on Roye, and it fell. The victorious troops drove the enemy out of six more towns and captured the 19 14 trenches all along this part of the front. On the same day, August 27, their British comrades 364 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR to the north drove forward. The Canadian corps, which had been helping the French in an attack just north of Roye only a few days before, was suddenly swung, miles to the north, upon the German lines at Monchy and Orange Hill. With them were some Scotch Highlanders, whose arrival was a tre- mendous surprise to the Germans, for they had thought that on that sector of the line they were safe from attack for the time being. On the next day there was another offensive and the main Hindenburg Line, just southeast of Arras, was badly dented for a distance of three or four miles. This position had been threatened in the fierce fighting of the spring of 191 7 and the Germans had built, as you have already read, a " switch line" from Queant to Dro- court, which was even stronger than the main system itself. When the British were attacking Gavrelle, Oppy, and Arleux so savagely, the Germans were ready to retire to the switch line. Now for the second time they had to take refuge behind it. Meanwhile, by a series of skillful dislocating thrusts, the First French Army had captured Chaulnes and was pushing the Germans back a distance of eight miles in some places. Forty ruined villages fell into their hands in the course of this drive. Some of the Germans still fought savagely, but the spirit was gone out of them, for they knew that victory was gone forever. On the next day the French took Noyon, while the pile of brick-colored dust that used to be the city of Bapaume fell into FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 365 the hands of the British, for the second time within a year and a half. Smash, jolt, smash ! How Foch hustled them back ! Ludendorff never knew where the next blow was due to fall, for Foch behaved in the most erratic manner, sometimes striking several successive blows with the same army ; then again alternating and driving in regular rotation, with French, Americans, and British taking turns. The record of the next two weeks is one of un- interrupted successes for the Allies. The young Americans were in it, righting as part of the French Tenth Army under Mangin, and of the Sixth, under Degoutte. Both generals were enthusiastic in their praise of the fighting qualities of the men from overseas. Degoutte, in a general order issued on August 9, says that the Americans "have taken the most glorious part in the second battle of the Marne, rivaling the French troops in ardor and valor." It will be recalled, too, that these were some of the picked divisions of the whole French army. He goes on to say "These young divisions, who saw fire for the first time, have shown themselves worthy of the old war traditions of the regular army. They have had the same burning desire to fight the 'boche,' the same discipline which sees that the order given by their commander is always executed, whatever the difficulties to be overcome and the sacrifices to be suffered. "The magnificent results obtained" (the wiping 366 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR out of the Marne pocket) " are due to the energy and the skill of the commanders ; to the bravery of the soldiers. I am proud to have commanded such troops." This report, of course, had to do with the fighting of the latter half of July. A month later we hear of the Americans again. The Twenty-eighth, Thirty- second, and Seventy-seventh Divisions were with Mangin in his drive north of Soissons, to clear the western end of the Chemin des Dames. On August 28 these forces took part in an im- portant attack on Juvigny. Their coming was a great surprise to the Germans, who had been facing French troops alone in this sector. One American force, sandwiched in between two famous French divisions, fought in a way to earn the high praise and admiration of the fighting Mangin. Finding strong German resistance in the shape of machine gun detachments ahead of them, they filtered through the woods, Indian fashion, and swooped down upon the astonished enemy from the west, capturing practically the entire group. For five days this division fought its way on, against the most stubborn and determined resistance. Four different German divisions were opposed to it in the course of this drive. (The German, French, and British divisions were only about half as large as ours — from ten to fourteen thousand men as against our twenty- six thousand.) The Yankee officers outguessed the Germans in FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 367 one part of the fighting. It had been customary to "lay down a barrage" (that is, to send a curtain of exploding shells) ahead of an infantry attack. The Germans remained in their shelters during the American barrage fire, then, when it ceased, they came out into the open, expecting the infantry. But, when they were all out within range, instead of an infantry advance, here came another withering barrage, spreading death and disorder. A ' second time this happened ; and when the third barrage had ceased, the Germans were so demoralized that the on-coming Americans took them prisoners by the hundreds. At the end of the operation the towns of Juvigny, Terny, and Sorny were in the hands of the Americans, the end of the Chemin des Dames lay open to attack, and, twelve miles to the northeast, the twin spires of Laon (laon(g)') cathedral were visible from the Allied lines for the first time in many months. It had been a bloody, grueling fight against picked German troops who had been ordered to hold the position at all costs, but our men and their French comrades were not to be held back. September 1, a brilliant attack by the Australians took Mont St. Quentin and forced the Germans to get out of the ruins of Peronne. One Australian corporal, crawling through tall wheat, suddenly rose up with a bomb in his hand amidst thirteen Germans, and frightened them into surrendering. On September 2, the British marines and Lowland 368 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Scotch troops of General Home's First ^British Army broke not only the main Hindenburg trench system but the famous Drocourt-Queant line be- hind it, driving ahead four miles in places. Next day they held Queant and thirteen other little towns that had been in German hands since 19 14. The fact that the ten thousand prisoners came from ten different German divisions, showed how hard the enemy had striven to hold this (to them) vitally im- portant position. In their retreat from the line gained during the . spring the Germans knew that they had behind them the old, but deep and serviceable trenches of 1914-1915, where they would be safe for the time being. In retreating from this position they knew that their next stand could be made at the tre- mendously strong Hindenburg line. They had fallen back to this with a sense of relief, knowing that it had withstood the terrific hammering of the whole force of the French and British armies in the spring and summer of 191 7. They were confident that behind its deep trenches and its water defenses, a sure barrier to the tanks, they could hold out until the Allies grew tired of 1 ' butting their heads against a stone wall ' ' and should agree to make peace on terms that would permit Germany to keep the plunder she had collected. It had been one thing for the British and French to break through the Albert- Montdidier position, not any too well fortified and with a desert ot FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 369 plundered and wrecked territory behind it. But to smash through the Wotan (Queant-Drocourt) and Siegfried (Hindenburg) Lines, with their sys- tems of trenches miles deep, — that would be a very different matter. But to the consternation and dismay of the Ger- mans, the Canadians and Scots, after a heavy rain of big shells, followed their tanks through the Siegfried and Wotan lines with the same ease and confidence with which they had crushed the shallow trenches in the Lys pocket. Panic reigned at the German headquarters. Lu- dendorff and Hindenburg began the construction of a new defense system, the Hermann Line, they called it, which should run from the Dutch frontier just east of Bruges along the Ecloo Canal to the Lys, pass east of Courtrai and southwest of Valenciennes through LeCateau and Guise. They then began to withdraw their armies little by little behind the main Hindenburg or " Sieg- fried" position, helped on by the accommodating French, British, and Americans. The systematic destruction of all property that they could not carry away to Germany began once more. They wrecked all the coal mines of Lens so that it would take at least five years for the French to get them into working order again ; then they drew away from the town, leaving it full of poison gas. They retreated on a twenty-mile front along the Vesle, back to the Chemin des Dames again. The 37© HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR gains made by the Americans in the west laid them open to the danger of an attack in the rear of the Vesle position. They retired, hotly pursued by the French, on a ninety-mile front extending northward from the Aisne to the break in the Hindenburg Line west of Cambrai. Systematic looting of the country was carried on as they withdrew. Just as an example of this — an order was found, left behind by the Germans in Noyon, telling the soldiers to collect all cushions and mattresses which were stuffed with wool. It was estimated that over ten thousand tons of this substance had been stolen from northern France in this way, and sent to Germany to be made into uniforms for the soldiers. Two pockets or salients, as they are called, which bent into the Allied lines, were to be emptied of Germans, and new lines built across the mouths, in order to shorten the fighting front and to release for service elsewhere the men that were needed to guard them. One was the pocket in the valley of the Lys, the other the deep salient east and southeast of Verdun, where the German lines cut the river Meuse at St. Mihiel. This angle had been thrust deeply into the French lines in September, 19 14, and all of Joffre's " nibbling" had been unable to wipe it out. Now it was decided that this should be the scene of the first great attack of the American army, fighting by itself and under the command of its own generals. Photo by H. Levy & Co. General Pershing 372 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Orders had already been given to the German generals to draw their troops out of the pocket when, at one o'clock, on the morning of September 12, a terrific bombardment from all the big guns of the American army broke loose. At 5 a.m., after four hours of this hurricane of shells, the men went "over the top" on the south side of the angle and an hour later on the west side. The First, Second, Fifth, Forty-second, Eighty- second, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth attacked on the south, the Fourth and Twenty-sixth together with four divisions of French colonial troops on the west. All told the attacking forces numbered about 300,000 men, while the Germans within the angle were about 80,000. Two Austrian divisions had been sent to support the weakening west front, so that the total number of the defenders was about 100,000. The plan was to drive in on both sides of the salient and meet in the middle, cutting off from retreat the entire German garrison. But the four hour rain of shells had given the Germans warning of what was coming. They had already planned to withdraw from the pocket, and were sure they would never be able to hold it against the coming attack. Therefore, while their best men were left to hold the lines of the sides as long as possible, the men from the tip of the pocket were drawn back with the greatest rapidity. It is estimated that they were escaping from the trap at the rate of about a thousand an hour when the attack of the "doughboys" and their French com- FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 373 rades struck the front line trenches. The Germans had fortified these, through the four years' time they had held them, by every art known to war. Concrete and steel, barbed wire, "pill boxes," canals, and water ditches all were opposed to the on-coming troops. On the west the Fourth and Twenty- sixth Divisions and the French colonials had to climb the heights that paralleled the Meuse. These slopes, bristling with machine guns, had resisted all attempts of the French up to this time. The forts of Les Eparges, southeast of Verdun, like those of Brimont [bri / mon(g)], north of Rheims, had been a thorn in the side of the French, which for four years they had tried in vain to remove. There was slow progress on the west side. The best German troops were stationed here. On the south side the other American divisions, across the plain of the Woevre, made rapid progress. With hundreds of tanks breaking the way, they smashed through the German defenses, already greatly weakened by the terrific rain of shells that had preceded the attack. The First, Forty-second, Eighty-ninth, and Second Divisions, outnumbering the defenders about three to one, made short work of them. They drove ahead some six miles in the course of the day, capturing thousands of prisoners and great stores of provisions and guns. On the other side a dent some three miles deep had been driven in, St. Mihiel itself was in the hands of the French, and the whole front line trench system of the Germans had fallen. 374 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR All through the night the tanks kept going, and the infantry followed, hot on their trail. At midnight the men from the west reached Vigneulles (vin yul')» and the mouth of the trap was only three miles wide. At three in the morning the men from the south also reached Vigneulles, and the pocket was closed ! All Germans and Austrians remaining west and south of this town were surrounded. Leaving the re- serve divisions, the Third, Thirty- third, Thirty-fifth, Seventy-eighth, Eightieth, and Ninety-first, to secure the prisoners and collect the booty, the others drove ahead. Ludendorfl was now thoroughly alarmed. He had planned to withdraw from the pocket in order to shorten his lines ; he no longer had men enough to hold the four hundred miles of front line trenches which stretched from Switzerland to the sea. The Americans were threatening to do more than take the pocket. They were within a mile or two of the German boundary line in places, and were drawing dangerously close to the iron mines of Briey (bri ay') . Half of these mines were in French territory and half in that part of France which had been forcibly taken by Germany in 1871. All had been in German hands for the entire four years of the war, and the metal taken from them was the greatest single factor in the manufacture of German guns and shells. In fact, it was claimed that if the Germans should be driven out of this iron district FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 375 they could not keep up the war for more than three months longer. Then, too, the Americans were getting close to the main supply line of the German army. This was the railroad which ran just south of the north- eastern boundary of France. It passed through the French towns of Longuyon [long'i'on(g')], Sedan, and Mezieres (mez yair') . If this were cut the whole southeastern half of the German armies would be practically helpless. The only other line leading into Germany went through central Belgium to Liege and thus across the border. Between the two lay rough, hilly, wooded country, including the great forest of Ardennes (ar'den') , through which no railroads ran except one branch line which extended north and south. This Sedan- Longuyon railroad must be kept open at all costs, the Germans knew. The Briey iron mines must not be taken from them. The advance of the Americans threatened both. Therefore, Ludendorfl threw in his best reserve divisions and the great guns of the western forts around Metz began speaking, as they sent big shells into the American lines. We shall hear of this railroad again. The first big drive of the new army from overseas was finished. Nearly two hundred square miles of French soil was freed from the invaders. Over four hundred guns, some thousands of machine guns, and great quantities of supplies fell into the hands of the victors. 376 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Of the 100,000 Germans and Austrians in the pocket about 70,000 escaped. Besides the killed and wounded their losses included about 20,000 un- wounded prisoners. The poor inhabitants of the region were frantic with joy when the Americans appeared among them. For four years they had been cut off from the outside world and had been robbed and starved. The little town of St. Mihiel had been forced to pay three million francs in money, to say nothing of the metals, wool, and food- stuffs that had been taken away. All the able- bodied men and boys had been carried off to work as slaves in the munition factories of Germany. The mayor of St. Mihiel declared to Mr. Baker, the American Secretary of War, who visited the re- deemed town on September 13, that the only thing that had kept many of his people from starving during the first two years of the war was the food distributed by the American Relief Committee. Meanwhile, other parts of the front were active. The French and British struck heavy blows at the Hindenburg Line on either side of St. Quentin and succeeded in denting it badly. Just as Germany was rushing her reserve troops to bolster up the Lorraine front, threatened by the Americans, and the Hindenburg Line, threatened by Rawlinson and Debeney, there came a loud cry for help in another quarter. The trenches that stretched across Albania and Macedonia, from the Adriatic to the ^Egean, had been FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 377 very quiet of late. Following the drive of the French and Italians in July, came a short counter-attack by the Austrians, which had won back part of the lost ground, but after that there was inaction again. Then, suddenly, on September 16, with a roar of guns all along the line, from Avlona to Salonica, the Allied armies sprang into action. On the ex- treme east the British and Greeks attacked the trenches held by the Turks and the Second Bulgarian Army ; in the center the French and Serbs drove upon the First and Third Armies of the Bulgars, while in the west the Italians began a second time to push back their old-time foes, the Austrians. It was all rocky, mountain- ous country. The hills north of Monastir had been held by the Bulgars for three years, and they had had ample time to fortify the trenches here until they were almost impregnable. Great tunnels and caves had been hollowed out of the solid rock, from the openings of which machine gunners .sprayed death upon the advancing Serbs. But the Serb was reckless. In the trenches before him lay the men who had burned his home, slain his wife, and starved his children. All he craved was a chance to face a Bulgar with a weapon in his hand. Twice the Serbs charged up to the deadly openings in the stone. Twice they were sent reeling back. A third time they advanced, armed with hand grenades, which they threw, with deadly aim, at 378 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the openings in the rock. There were muffled ex- plosions, still more muffled cries, and then no more shots came. With fierce shouts the Serbs broke s w\\\ i . THE BREAKING OF THE BULGARIAN FRONT, SEPTEMBER, 1918 A Austria- Hungary I 1 Rumania YMWWY/A Bulgaria I I Montenegro I ^ Rumania \////////,/A A lhnnAn. Serbia Turkey Territory given to Bulgaria by Turkey in order to induce Bulgaria to enter the war (October, 1915) i Battle Lines early in September, 1918 Position of Allied armies at the time of Bulgaria's surrender through the Bulgar lines. The day of reckoning was come at last. With the pent-up hatred of five years burning in their souls, they fought like wild men. Once past the machine gun posts there was no stopping them. The First Bulgarian Army showed signs of breaking. Vigorously General FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 379 d'Esperey pressed them. His French veterans broke through by the side of the Serbs. The Bulgarians beat a hasty retreat. In two days the Serbs and French had advanced ten miles over most difficult country, and were gain- ing speed as they went. Four thousand prisoners were in their hands, and fifty big guns. The Second Bulgarian Army, finding its left flank exposed, and beginning to suffer in its turn from the blows of the Greeks and British, was forced to retreat. But the Serbs had cut all commu- nication among the three Bulgarian armies. One was being forced northeast- ward, the other two in a northwesterly direction. Tzar Ferdinand and his ministers in a panic ap- pealed to Berlin and Vi- enna for help. But help was not to be had. Close in the wake of the news of the Bulgarian defeat there came an- other message to Berlin which completed the misery of the Junker crowd. Turkey, too, was cracking apart. We left Sir Edmund Allenby just north of Jeru- salem, holding a line which stretched across forty © Keystone View Co., Inc. Tzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria 380 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR odd miles of country from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan. Beyond the Jordan were the forces of his ally, the Arab king of Hedjaz. Facing Allenby was a strong Turkish army of some 125,000 men, aided by some Germans, with German aviators in attendance, all under the command of the German Field Marshal Liman (li'man) von Sanders, who had been in Turkey for five years, drilling and preparing her armies for this war. The forces of General Allenby were larger than those of the enemy, but not overwhelmingly so. For months they had been able to hold him prac- tically motionless. Finally, however, he prepared a blow which he hoped would surprise the foe. Secretly he massed large forces of infantry and cavalry on his extreme left wing, along the Medi- terranean coast. Having gotten this force ready, he gathered his guns and opened a vigorous bom- bardment on the extreme right, near the Jordan River. The Turks, fearful of a break through here, rushed their reinforcements to the threatened spot. No sooner w T ere the Turkish reserves transferred to the east, than the troops concealed along the coast charged straight for the trenches of the enemy with a vigor that swept everything before them. The lines once broken, there streamed through the breach great bodies of cavalry, — Australians, Indians, British. Dashing down the coast, these magnificent troops cut across the line of the enemy's retreat on the plain FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 38i of Armageddon. Meanwhile, the victorious infantry of the left wing had turned eastward and were swiftly rolling up the enemy's line. The only part of the Turkish trench system which held was the ex- treme left, along the river, but when the troops here learned that their line of sup- ply had been cut by the cavalry and that the right wing had given way completely, they, too, began a rapid retreat. What followed was the greatest military disaster that had hap- pened to any one army in the war up to that time. With the victori- Allenby's Victory over the Turks ous British pouring down upon them from the sea, with the Arabs swooping down upon any who crossed the river, with the cavalry cutting off their retreat, more than half the Turkish army found themselves 382 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR hopelessly surrounded. More than 70,000 of them gave themselves up to the British, another 8000 fell into the hands of the Arabs, and the rest of the forces scat- tered, never to reunite. French sailors and marines, landing at Beirut, were wildly cheered by the inhabi- tants. The British were everywhere hailed as deliver- ers. The five hundred-year rule of oppression was over. Syria and Palestine were freed forever from the domination of "the unspeakable Turk." The latter half of September saw the crumbling of the German military empire in more places than one. Not only were the Bulgarian and Turkish armies rapidly going to pieces, but the great German army gave evidence of cracking under the strain. Having wiped out the three salients that the Germans had dug into the Allied lines in the spring (the one toward Amiens, the Lys valley, and the Soissons-Rheims pocket) Foch had dented the Hindenburg Line for two salients of his own, one made by the British in front of Cambrai and the other by the French and Americans north of Soissons. During the last week in September, Foch struck three blows which showed the strength of the Allied offensive and the weakening of the man-power of Germany. On the 26th, Gouraud's Fourth French Army suddenly struck northward in the Champagne district, and the First American Army, fresh from its victory at St. Mihiel, drove north from the Verdun front. Nine divisions, the Seventy -seventh, Twenty- FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 383 eighth, Thirty-fifth, Ninety-first, Thirty-seventh, Seventy-ninth, Fourth, Eightieth, and Thirty-third, in. the order named, with the Thirty-third resting its flank on the River Meuse, went over the top. Along a front of twenty miles they charged trenches of the enemy which had been unchallenged for years, so impossible had it seemed to take them. Foch and Pershing had prepared a surprise party for the Ger- mans. The enemy had been expecting an attack upon the iron fields in the direction of Metz, and had massed some of their best troops to oppose it. Instead, the blow fell to the west, in sections that were thinly held. Only six German divisions, some 70,000 men, stood in the path of the 230,000 Ameri- cans. In like manner Gouraud's French Army out- numbered the defenders five to two. By the close of the first day's fighting the French had gained from three to four miles, the Americans in some places as much as seven. Between the two armies lay the Argonne forest, the most difficult bit of territory on the whole western front. It consisted of a series of low hills cut by ravines with steep sides, the whole clothed with a dense growth of trees and underbrush. Shell fire had felled great numbers of the trees, and the whole forest had been crisscrossed with barbed wire and rabbit netting, with a German machine gun nest behind every fallen log. On either side of the forest the French and Ameri- cans made much more rapid progress than through Trenches and Barbed Wire 384 IN THE ARGONNE FOREST M. Branger FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 385 it ; and the result was that the center of the wood was left, biting into the new line of the Allies, a deep salient, from the southern tip of which German guns were able to fire upon the rear of the troops that had passed farther northward. Major General Maurice, of the British Army, in his account of this battle says, "To clear these heights and enable the center to advance, the American left had to force its way forward through nine miles of the most difficult country on the whole western front. ... It was a question of hard, slogging infantry fighting, and the American in- fantryman did slog hard ; after eleven days of continuous, grim, slogged effort he won his way through." Eight thousand prisoners were taken in the first three days of the battle by the Americans alone. Then some of the best fighting divisions in the German army were thrown in, and the contest settled down to a hard, grueling, hand-to-hand struggle, with the "doughboys" pushing forward by inches through a zone of barbed- wire fences, ten feet apart, and four miles deep in places ; over great masonry walls, built out of solid concrete and steel, and across the tangled forest, with machine gunners sending their hail of death from every fallen tree. Badly as Ludendorff needed men in the other parts of the front, he threw in twenty-two divisions, after the first two days, with orders to stop the Americans at all costs. For the goal of the 386 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Americans was the Sedan- Longuy on railroad, and once that was cut, half the munitions and supplies needed for the German armies could no longer be sent to the front. Meanwhile, on September 27, the British, on a front of fourteen miles, had attacked the Hindenburg Line in front of Cambrai. The Canal du Nord, the barrier that the Germans had counted on to stop the tanks, was crossed in force, and the main ''Sieg- fried" trench system was riddled in several places. On the next day the attack was continued, and good progress was made in the same direction. Foch was now attacking practically all along the line from Verdun to the sea, for the Americans, Gouraud, Berthelot, Mangin, Humbert, Debeney, Rawlinson, Byng, Home, and Birdwood (Gough's successor in command of the British Fifth Army) were all in action at once. To cap the climax and to complete the misery of the Germans, a new sector suddenly leaped into ac- tion. For four years the gallant little Belgian army had held the small fragment of their country between Ypres and the sea. It was only twenty-five miles long and ten deep, so that there was not a spot which could not be reached by the big German guns. But it was Belgium to them, a sacred soil never to be yielded. And now the time had come to begin the redemption of their country. On September 28, alongside the Second British Army of Sir Herbert Plumer, the troops of King FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 387 ^gjr * '" A " ^SSSfc f &/ A * HI j&Mw?'' ' IHk Keystone View Co., Inc. Albert, King of the Belgians Albert swarmed over the German trenches on a ten- mile front between Dixmude and Ypres. Five miles deep they drove, capturing four thousand prisoners and great quantities of supplies. The next 388 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR day further advances were made, more towns were freed and additional prisoners taken. Foch sent Degoutte with the Sixth French Army to join Plumer and King Albert, and the three armies began a for- ward movement which threatened to make short work of the Germans in Belgium. Wilhelm von Hohenzol- lern, All-Highest War Lord and Serene Majesty of Mittel-Europa, what would you not have given to exchange places, at this moment, with the man whom you had so cruelly wronged, the man whom you had pitied and des- pised all through these past four years, the king without a country whom you had kept in exile, but who now was to ride into his redeemed capital on the shoulders of his devoted men with the affectionate shouts of his people hailing his return — Albert of Belgium ? General Plumer QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW i. Why did the Allies face a difficult task on August 19? 2. Why was the progress of the Allies faster than in 1916? 3. What was the hope of the Germans during the month of August ? 4. How did the young Americans rank as fighters? FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 3 8g 5. What is meant by "laying down a barrage"? 6. Why was the victory of General Home on September 2 so important ? 7. Why did the Germans destroy the coal mines of France? 8. Why had the Germans planned to withdraw from the St. Mihiel salient ? 9. Why did the rapid gains of the Americans alarm Ludendorff? 10. Why was the Briey district so important to the Germans? 11. Why was the Sedan- Longuy on railroad so necessary to them? 12. Why were the Serbs so eager to get at the Bulgars? 13. Why could not Berlin and Vienna send help to Ferdinand? 14. How did General Allenby outwit the Turks ? 15. Why had there been no attacks on the enemy's trenches in the Argonne ? 16. Why was it good strategy, late in September, to attack all along the line at the same time? CHAPTER XV The Home Fronts France, led by Clemenceau, vs. Bolo and Caillaux. — Pacifism and the Sinn Fein in the British Isles. — " General Apathy " is beaten at last. — The United States and the pro-German propaganda. — German-Americans at last in line. — The Committee on Public Information. — The Four Minute Speakers. — "No indemnities and no annexations." — Socialists deceived no longer. — The Pope's peace proposal and Wilson's answer. — Discord is sown in Germany. — Lies to the German people are gradually uncovered. — German terms of peace in June. — Kaiser Karl and his letter to Prince Sixtus. — Lichnowsky and Muehlon. — Propaganda : truth vs. fiction. — Advertising Allied successes. — The feelings of the Bulgarian people. — The war-sick Turks. — The Austro- Hungarian state a mass of discord. It was no less a personage than Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg und von Beneckendorff who had said that the war would be won by the nation with the strongest nerves. Of course he believed that this nation would be Germany, but the result proved otherwise. For when it came to the crisis, and cold, disquieting, unnerving, and disheartening facts had to be faced, it was the spirit of the German people that cracked, while France and Britain stood the strain and pulled through. But it had been a battle. The war was won no more upon the fighting lines than upon the home 390 THE HOME FRONTS 391 fronts. And Lloyd George and Clemenceau were the generals to whom no less than to Foch, Petain, Haig, and Pershing, belongs the glory of the victory. In France, to begin with, there were seeds of dissension. Instead of two or three principal political parties, her lawmakers were divided among a dozen, and her prime ministers always had a hard time adjusting their many differences. The leader of the opposition, the man who had wrecked more ministries than any other French statesman, was Georges Clemenceau, the "Tiger," as he was called, a clear-thinking, obstinate, quick-witted, eloquent old fighter, who hated all sham and hypocrisy. He had been prime minister himself from 1906 to 1909, but he found the task of tearing down the weak acts of others more to his liking than trying to lead the discordant parties of the French Congress. As early as 1871, when he was thirty years old, he had been the leader of those members of the law- making body who refused to vote for the treaty of peace with Germany because it forced France to give up Alsace and Lorraine. From that time on, men had had cause to fear his biting tongue, his clear brain, and his fearless pen. As editor of VHomme Libre (the Free Man) he wielded a big influence throughout France. In the early days of the war his paper had been ordered dis- continued on account of his bitter criticism of the government ; whereupon he had promptly brought out a new paper which he named VHomme 392 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Enchaine (the Chained Man) in which he kept up the same attacks. Another prominent figure in France, a man who had a powerful influence among certain classes, was a second ex-prime minister, Joseph Caillaux. A man of undoubted genius, he was very ambitious for power, wealth, and social prominence, although he had risen to high position by the votes of the radical Socialists. In 1914, just before the war, Gaston Calmette, editor of the Paris Figaro, had attacked Caillaux in his paper, accusing him of political dishonesty and of aiming at a dictatorship. Whereupon Caillaux' s wife had walked into Calmette 's office and shot the editor dead. A jury had acquitted Madame Caillaux, who claimed that Calmette was about to injure her reputation. But a suspicion remained that Calmette really knew some discreditable facts about the ex-Premier, and that it was to stop his pen that Caillaux, trusting a French jury to take a woman's part, had sent his wife to do the deed. When the war broke out Caillaux was given an office in the army Pay- master's Department, but some dishonesty on his part was discovered. He was forced to serve a term in prison, and came out more embittered than ever against the government. He sailed for the Argentine Republic, where he visited the famous Count von Luxburg, the German minister. Just what passed between them is not fully known, but it certainly boded no good for Britain, nor in truth, for France. THE HOME FRONTS 393 The American Secretary of State, Mr. Lansing, gave the French government some of Luxburg's telegrams in which there were complimentary words about Caillaux, and orders to German submarine commanders to treat him most kindly, in case they should capture and sink the vessel which was carry- ing him back to France. Caillaux, upon his return, visited Italy, and was soon found to be plotting with certain Italians who were suspected of being pro- German. About the same time it was learned that a certain Paul Bolo, a rather poor man, had been spending large sums of money to get control of some Parisian newspapers. He bought the Paris Journal from Senator Humbert, he paid thousands of dollars for shares of stock in Le Rappel, another leading paper, and even tried to buy V Homme Enchaine. Three other smaller papers he bought outright. The government wished to know the source of his money. The answer came finally, but not until after a diligent and vigorous campaign by the French government against all traitors and "de- featists" (advocates of peace without victory). It was proved that the Deutsche (doit'sha) Bank of Berlin had deposited more than a million and a half dollars in New York for Bolo to use in buying up French newspapers. These newspapers were to criticize the French government and army ; sow dis- trust of Great Britain and Italy in the minds of the French people ; persuade them that a separate peace 394 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR with Germany would be a good thing ; prove that it was impossible to win the war by righting ; and in general, to undermine the courage and spirit of the nation. The ministry of Ribot fell, and Professor Painleve took Ribot' s place as premier. But L. J. Malvy, a close friend and follower of Caillaux, was kept as Minister of the Interior. A certain paper called the Bonnet Rouge (Red Cap), which had often been used by Caillaux in former times, was found by the Intelligence Depart- ment of the Army to be spreading seditious matter among the soldiers. The editor, a Spaniard, was clapped into prison. He promised to make a full confession, but before he could make it, was found dead in his cell. Again it was felt that the hand of Caillaux was at work. Because the Painleve ministry failed to take energetic measures against this kind of treason, the lawmakers voted it out of power. The seventy- six year old "Tiger" was called upon by his former enemies, including the Monarchists and Clericals, to step into the breach and to save the nation. Promptly he responded and decisively he acted. Malvy was deprived of his office and sentenced to two years' banishment from France. Caillaux and Senator Humbert were arrested and thrown into jail to await trial for treason. Bolo and a man named Duval, who was proved to have taken Ger- man money to spread treasonable talk among THE HOME FRONTS 395 French newspapers, were tried, condemned, and compelled to face a firing squad of soldiers. The forces of treason were throttled. France had won her battle, and the home front stood, unbroken. Britain, too, had her battle at home to fight. There were strong parties among her citizens who felt that war was too horrible and too cruel a manner of settling quarrels between nations. At the very outset of the struggle, in the first week of August, 1 914, Lord John Morley and the well-known labor leader, John Burns, resigned from the cabinet rather than be held responsible for any part in "the war. These were honest, sincere men. Before long both had come to see that the Junker government of Germany was a menace to the peace of the world which could only be removed by an overdose of its own medicine, — brutal, destructive, savage war. Our own President Wilson, who had clung to peace as long as possible, even to the extent of bringing on himself and the nation scorn and contempt from some Europeans, when he fully understood the question at issue, told the Central Powers that the answer to their acts should be "force without stint, force to the utmost," force which should finally bring the Junkers to their knees and leave them powerless to disturb the peace of the world. However, there remained in Great Britain a strong body of "conscientious objectors" to war, whose attitude gave great "aid and comfort" to the enemy. The Irish society, Sinn Fein (shin fane), was a source 396 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR of trouble. In the spring of 191 6 these people started ' an outbreak in the city of Dublin which resulted in several days of rioting and caused nu- merous deaths in that city. It was proved that the plot had been hatched in Germany by an Irishman named Sir Roger Case- ment. Ireland at the same time was being flooded with German propaganda. Casement was landed from a German submarine upon the coast of Ireland, but was caught by the British and put to death as the prime mover in the rebellion. Great Britain endeavored not to provoke the Irish after this. When the draft law which com- pelled able-bodied young men to serve in the army was finally passed, they exempted Ireland, making it apply only to England, Scotland, and Wales. Meanwhile, there were hundreds of thousands of the finest young men of Ireland serving of their own free will in the British armies. There were no better fighters than the men of the Irish regiments. The first man to win the Victoria Cross in the great war was Sergeant O'Leary, who killed six Germans single handed. Ireland too did more than her share of the raising of foodstuffs to feed England. One Englishman made the remark that the best general fighting on the side of the Germans was in Great Britain, and that his name was General Apathy. By this he meant, that the British people were a long time in being waked up to what the war meant, and in really getting down to business in THE HOME FRONTS 397 striving to win it. But soon came the shelling of the defenseless coast towns by German ships and the brutal killing of women and children by the bombs of German Zeppelins. The British woke up ; their anger was slow in mounting, but once up, it would not go down until punishment was brought upon those who would do these things. The United States, too, was having its battle on the home front. There were more Germans among our citizens than foreigners of any other blood. According to the census of 19 10, eight and a half million people in the United States had either been born in Germany or were children of German immigrants. The famous Delbruck law, passed by the Reichstag, made it possible for a German to remain a subject of the Kaiser even though he formally took out naturalization papers in some other country. There had been a systematic plan on the part of Germany to cultivate the friendship of the United States. The visit of Prince Henry, brother of the Kaiser, in 1904, the scheme by which German and American universities exchanged professors at regular times — all were part of the ' ' propaganda ' ' sent out by the court at Potsdam to curry favor in America. To our shame be it said, there were villages in the United States where young men, born in this country, were unable to speak a sentence in the English language. These were not always German villages, either. There were other groups of immi- 398 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR grants who had been allowed to retain their Old World language, their private schools taught in that language, and a European attitude toward everything. Some of our politicians were so afraid of losing the votes of these people that they had been allowed to set up a little Germany, a little Hungary, or a little Poland, as the case might be, right in the midst of American institutions. Some of these citizens of the United States, how- ever, who were loudest in their praise of Germany, during the early years of the war, were not foreigners by birth, but sons and daughters of immigrants. The older generation, who had fled away from the old country to escape the military service and the lack of freedom, or the arrogance of the Junkers, were not so zealous in the Kaiser's cause as their sons, who had never seen Germany. To keep up this feeling among the German- Americans, millions of dollars were spent by the Berlin government. Speakers were hired to tour the country, books were given away, newspapers were bought, and weekly and monthly magazines were organized. But little by . little our Americans with German blood in their veins began to see. the light. The sinking of the Lusitania converted some of them, the unrestricted submarine campaign, some, and the publication of the Zimmermann note (see page 212) turned thousands of others against Germany. By April, 191 7, when we formally declared war, the great THE HOME FRONTS 399 bulk of German-Americans were enlisted on the side of the United States. Still the battle of the home fronts was not over. The majority of those who at heart were pro- German still kept very, very still. Nevertheless, a small but dangerous minority went about the country doing all the mischief possible. The explosion of bombs in mu- nition factories had almost ceased, but attempts to weaken the spirit of the nation continued. Lies were circulated for the purpose of keeping people from subscribing to the loans which the gov- ernment asked, to prevent the saving of food, or to keep them from helping the work of the Red Cross, or that of the Young Men's Christian Association, the Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, or other associations that were doing much to keep up the spirit of our soldier boys. The government early took steps to fight this propaganda. A Committee on Public Information was organized, consisting of the Secretaries of State, War, and Navy, and a well-known correspondent and magazine writer, Mr. George Creel. This committee gave out to all newspapers a great deal of material on the causes of the war, the progress of our army and navy, etc. It published for circulation, among our people, pamphlets which told the truth in a way which everybody could understand. Professor G. S. Ford was lent to the Committee by the University of Minnesota in order to edit these bulletins. A group of men in Chicago, headed by Donald THE HOME FRONTS 401 M. Ryerson, had formed the plan of speaking to the spectators at moving-picture theaters during the intermission between reels. All sorts of patriotic subjects were discussed, and German lies and propa- ganda were nailed as false. Soon this organization, known as the "Four Minute Men," became country wide, and was taken over by Mr. Creel as part of the "Public Information" work. These men (there were women among the speakers also) gave their time without pay, speaking two or three times a week wherever they might be sent. They were lawyers, preachers, teachers, business men, actors, writers. Each week a new bulletin was sent out, directing each of the 75,000 speakers to discuss the same subject. One week it was the Second Liberty Loan, another a request for telescopes and field glasses for work in the navy, another a plea to the people to save sugar and do without wheat. With each speaker addressing audiences of from two hundred to a thousand persons each week, it was easy to see that a great proportion of our citizens heard each message. No small share of the credit for keeping the home front unbroken is due to the founders of this organ- ization, and to William McCormick Blair, its director, and his three able assistants, William H. Ingersoll, Professor S. H. Clark of Chicago Uni- versity, and Samuel Hopkins Adams, the well- known author. The British Food Controller made the statement 4 o2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR that the action -of the people of the United States in depriving themselves, voluntarily, of 60,000,000 bushels of wheat in order to feed their Allies was without parallel in history. Even before we declared war, American women were organized into groups to sew for the Red Cross, but after our entry there were literally hundreds of thousands of these patriotic women who gave up their time to this work. There was hardly a village too small to have its Red Cross Unit, where bandages of all sorts were made and sweaters and socks knit for the boys in France. All this was possible because the spirit of America, like that of France, Britain, and Italy, was heart and soul for the war. The home fronts were sound. Germany had tried, in the fall of 191 7, to make capital out of the cry of the Russian Bolsheviki : "no indemnities and no annexations." They had echoed this sentiment, hoping to weaken the nations of the Entente by persuading the Socialists that Germany was merely waging a defensive war, while the other nations were fighting to annex German territory and force Germany to pay them large sums of money. It had only temporary influence. When the Italian Socialists found themselves so grossly deceived by the Austrians at the time of the Caporetto disaster, as you have learned in a previous chapter, they lost all faith in German and Austrian promises. The treatment of Russia and the Ukraine after the signing of the armistice, in THE HOME FRONTS 403 December, 191 7, opened the eyes of the Socialists in Allied lands. If the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a sample of the German manner of carrying out "no indemnities and no annexations , ' ' then the western world saw that it could talk to Germany only from the mouth of cannon until the Junkers were driven from power and the Prus- sian military ma- chine was crushed and humbled into the dust. There had been other attempts to bring the leaders of the warring coun- tries together to talk peace. The Central Powers Pope Benedict XV had always eagerly accepted these offers, because, holding great stretches of enemy country as they did, they hoped to make peace on the basis of keeping what they had, or using it to exchange for something still more valuable. In August, 191 7, the Pope, Benedict XV, addressed Photo by Betlini 4 04 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR "to the Rulers of the Belligerent (warring) Peoples" an appeal in which he begged them to cease fighting and see if they could not settle the whole matter by a treaty, after talking over the points of issue across a table in some neutral country. He suggested that the Germans withdraw their troops from France and Belgium, and that the Entente give, back the captured German colonies. He hoped that the questions of Alsace-Lorraine and "Italia Irredenta" could be settled by going into them "in a conciliatory spirit." He pointed out that the cost of the war in treasure and human lives was so much greater than the value of the lands that were being fought over, that it was foolish to continue it, if one looked upon the question from the practical side only. The whole letter was lofty in tone and worthy of the high source from which it came. The comments on the note as printed in news- papers of the Central Powers were very favorable. The leaders of the Entente were uneasy, knowing that the spirit behind the proposal was right, yet feeling that it was impossible to treat for peace with the Junker governments of Germany and Austria. It remained for President Wilson to give the reply which settled the question. In vigorous and un- mistakable language it tore through the mist of uncertainty and doubt that surrounded the question in the minds of many people, and left the issue as clear as day. He said, in so many words, that the object of the THE HOME FRONTS 405 war was to deliver the free peoples of the world from the threat and from the power of a tremendous military machine directed by a government that did not have to answer for its acts to the people who maintained it ; a government, which having secretly planned to conquer the world by force of arms, went about it without any regard to its own sworn promises, or the laws of decency and humanity. He went on to say that this power was not the German people ; it was the pitiless master of the German people ; that it is no business of ours how that people allowed themselves to be ruled by this military group, but it was our business to see to it that the history of the rest of the world should not depend upon its will ; that to treat with this government along the lines proposed by the Pope would merely give it new strength. He asked whether a peace could be made which was based upon any pledge or promise it could make. After restating the war aims of the United States, especially as regards the freedom of small, weak nations, he closed by stating that the world could not believe the oath of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything unless backed up by convincing evidence that the German people them- selves would see that it was enforced. At present that people had no hand in their government. God grant that soon there might be some representatives who could truly speak for that nation. Then the Junker-controlled papers of Germany 406 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR began to cry out. They loudly professed that the German people loved their princes and Kaisers and Junkers ; that the President's answer was " grotesque nonsense." In fact the Entente did not know how deeply the shaft had sunk through the weak spot in the German armor until they read these bitter comments. The Berlin Vorwdrts (f or'vairts) , the Socialist paper, admitted the truth. It pointed out that in all the countries warring against Germany, the people could control their governments, and asked "Why can it not be so with us ? " As a matter of fact, the President had hit upon a sore spot. A great many people in Germany had begun to ask, "Why are we giving the lives of our best young men? Is it for the glory of the Kaiser and the Junkers ? " A serious mutiny broke out at Kiel among the German sailors. It was suppressed with an iron hand, but the incident left scars that would not heal. A number of the English and French journalists had the feeling that Wilson had made a mistake in separating the German government from the Ger- man people in assigning the guilt ; for the people, said they, were as guilty as their rulers. However, as events proved, later on, this was just the sort of rea- soning that broke the home front of Germany in the end, and crushed into dust the Empire of the Junkers. Both sides were fighting, not only with weapons, but also with propaganda. The spreading of the THE HOME FRONTS 407 truth among the Germans was one of the main factors in winning the war. The Berlin govern- ment had misrepresented facts to its people in the same manner in which it had lied to its enemies and broken its pledged word. Regarding the bat- tle at the Marne, in the first part of September, 1914, no hint was ever given the people at home that everything had not gone just as the great General Staff had planned it. The army marched northward from the Marne (and twenty miles south of it) to the Aisne "for strategic reasons." There was no hint to the home people that the strategic reasons were the generalship of Joffre, Gal- lieni, and Foch, and the furious valor of the French- men, defending their homes, aided by the dogged courage of the little band of "Old Contemptibles." But returned soldiers whispered it to their friends, who in turn passed on the news to others that Ger- many had suffered a tremendous defeat in one of the biggest, most decisive battles of the world's history. Thus the German people gradually learned that they could not trust their government's accounts of what was happening at the front. In the end these lies, like chickens and curses, came home to roost. For example, at the beginning of the unrestricted submarine warfare, in February, 191 7, the German people had been told that Great Britain would be suing for peace within six months. When the six months had gone by and the number of ships sunk by submarines was steadily growing less, owing to 4 o8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the convoy system and the increased number of submarines that were being destroyed, the German authorities began exaggerating the number of tons of Allied shipping that was being sent to the bottom. Six months lengthened into twelve, -and twelve into eighteen, and still there were no signs of a surrender on the part of Great Britain. The intelligent Ger- man, adding up the figures that had been supplied him by his government, found that apparently over half the British ships had gone to the bottom. Yet here was Britain, supplying with food and munitions a force in Northern Russia, a big army in Palestine, another at Salonica, five in France, besides trans- porting over half the American troops to Europe, and collecting food and materials from all over the world. It dawned upon the Germans that they had been deceived again, and as they learned the truth a mighty despair settled upon the people. In June, 191 8, the whole nation had been confident of win- ning. Russia and Roumania had been crushed and dismembered. Two mighty smashes at the western front had each come within an ace of breaking the French and British armies into disordered fragments. One more such drive must take Paris and end the war. Foch's army of reserve had been eaten up. All his troops were in the front line trenches and when these were gone there were none to replace them. The submarine campaign was a little behind schedule, THE HOME FRONTS 409 it is true, but was due in a short time to bring Britain to the breaking point. Such was the dream of the Germans. A high German official about this time told of the terms on which peace would be made. After the German colonies had been re- turned, Germany was to annex all of Belgium as a dependent state, like Poland, Lithuania, and the other Baltic . Provinces. Verdun and the district around it was to be taken from France. The cost of the war was to be collected from France, Italy, Great Britain, and the United States, and a huge indemnity was to be asked, in addition, running into hundreds of billions of dollars. Great Britain was to surrender Egypt, South Africa, Gibraltar, Malta, and the Suez Canal. Belgium must give up the Congo State. France must surrender Morocco, Madagascar, and her part of Central Africa. Serbia was to disappear, divided between Austria and Bulgaria. So talked and thought the Junkers in June, and so nearly the whole German nation believed. No question of right or fairness bothered them then. They had the might. They proposed to take all they could get. There had been a time, a year previous, before the collapse of Russia, when there was a powerful peace party in both Germany and Austria, com- posed of the merchants and manufacturers who were afraid that German goods would be boycotted everywhere after the war ; and of the independent 4io HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Socialists headed by Dr. Liebknecht, who saw that it was a Junker war that they were fighting. In fact, at one time in 191 7, Count Czernin (chair'nin), the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, had proposed that Germany offer to surrender Alsace-Lorraine as the price of peace. The young Emperor Karl, who had followed his aged great- uncle upon the throne of Austria- Hungary, at one time wrote to his wife's brother, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon, who was fighting as an officer in the Belgian army, suggesting that the prince call upon the French president and the prime minister and see if they would consider a separate peace with Austria. He stated that French claims to Alsace-Lorraine would not be an obstacle in the way of peace, for he considered them just. When this letter was published poor Karl had to deny that he ever wrote it, and Kaiser Wilhelm had to write publicly saying that he believed this denial, which, of course, was only another lie, and many intelligent Germans so understood it. Meanwhile, two documents which appeared in print in Germany, in spite of all that the government E'mperor Karl of Austria THE HOME FRONTS 411 could do to suppress them, made a tremendous impression on the minds of the German people. One was the story of his stay in London (191 1- 19 14), written by Prince Lichnowsky (likh nof 'ski) , German Ambassador to Great Britain at the outbreak of the war. In it he pointed out that Sir Edward Grey and the British government, far from provoking the war, as the Junkers had told the people, had worked desperately to avert the conflict, and would have been successful in doing so if they had had the slightest help from Berlin. He accused the Kaiser and the military crowd of having deliberately planned the conquest of France, Russia, and Serbia. He pointed out (1) that Germany encouraged Count Berchtold of Austria to attack Serbia, although no German interest was at stake, and the danger of a world war was well known ; (2) that in the days between July 23 and 30 when SazonofI had notified Germany that Russia would not stand by and see Serbia attacked, Germany had rejected all the British offers of mediation, although Serbia, un- der pressure from Russia and Britain, had accepted almost the whole Austrian ultimatum, and an agree- ment about the other two points could easily have been reached ; (3) that on July 30, when Berchtold wished to yield, Germany, without Austria's having been attacked, replied to Russia's mere mobilization by sending an ultimatum to St. Petersburg, and the next day had declared war on Russia although the Tzar had pledged his word that so long as negotia- 412 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR tions continued not a man should march — and thus Germany had ' ' deliberately destroyed the possibility of a peaceful settlement." "In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that the whole civilized world, outside of Germany, attributes to us the sole guilt for the world war." So wrote Prince Lichnowsky, and the Germans heard the truth about the origin of the war for the first time from one of the Junker class. Right on the heels of this came the publication of a statement by Dr. Muehlon, a director of the famous Krupp Gun Works in Germany, in which he accused the German government, in even stronger terms than Lichnowsky's, of starting the war, and said that the deportations of Belgians, the cruel, systematic destruction of northern France, the brutal submarine attacks, especially on English hospital ships, had convinced him that "the present rulers of Germany are disqualified forever" for the working out of "a sincere and just agreement" toward peace. He declared that "the triumph of their methods" would be " a defeat for the ideas and supreme hopes of mankind." In vain did the German authorities try to keep these statements away from their people. Millions of copies were printed in Britain and France and fired over into the German trenches in packages. They were sent up in balloons that were carried by the west wind all over western Germany. Tons and tons of them were dropped by French, British, and American aviators all along THE HOME FRONTS 413 the German lines, and in the midst of the cities of the Rhine valley. The German government had the habit of printing only parts of the speeches of Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Wilson, particularly of the latter. They would garble and twist other parts of the speeches, to make them seem to mean something different from what was originally intended. The propaganda department of the Allied armies took particular joy in printing the whole speech, after the other version had been given out in Ger- many, and sending it across to be read by the Germans. The garbled or omitted parts were "played up" in red letters, and the Germans were told to compare the true version with the false one sent out from Berlin. Ludendorff, in his book, after telling how success- ful the German propaganda had been with the Rus- sians, confesses that it was a failure, when used against the intelligent French and British. "Tommy Atkins," as the British soldier is called, and his com- rade, the French poilu, laughed at the attempts of the Germans to undermine their courage by the clumsy misstatements told in the pamphlets flung over into the Allied trenches. On the other hand, Ludendorfl complains that "we found ourselves, bit by bit, attacked by enemy propaganda, by speech and writing, through the neutral countries, especially across our land frontiers with Holland and Switzerland, and also through 4 i4 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Austria- Hungary and in our very own country, and last of all through the air, with such cleverness and on so large a scale that many people could no longer distinguish between enemy propaganda and their own sentiments." Here again, the Allies won because they fought with truth. When the German officers, in the hope of making them fight to the end, told their men that the Americans killed all their prisoners, the Allies replied by showering the German lines with cuts made from photographs of German prisoners in American hands. These men were shown cheerful, smiling, well fed, smoking their pipes, and playing skat or pinochle. A trick that induced many a German to surrender was the printing of a list of all the good things to eat that were furnished the German prisoners in American prison camps. These were dropped by thousands over the German lines, and the food listed was so much better than what they were getting from their own quartermasters that many Germans were thereby tempted to surrender. They gave up, not for a mess of pottage, but for a plate of pork and beans with wheat bread and real butter on it. ''Prussian militarism" loomed up big in all the propaganda of the Allies, and it fell on willing ears when a Saxon or Bavarian heard it. Lichnowsky's words and Muehlon's letter, when printed and scat- tered broadcast among the German soldiers, did more damage than tons of bombs would have done. THE HOME FRONTS 415 When the Allied armies began to win back ter- ritory and to capture prisoners and guns the exact amount of these captures was told by Allied propaganda to the German soldiers, each week. Again it hurt all the more because it was true. Pamphlets were hurled into the German lines telling the men that Germany was beaten, that 300,000 young Americans were coming each month, and that their own men were being captured at the rate of 50,000 a week. ' ' Why prolong the war ? Why give your lives for a cause that is lost? Sur- render, and end your own danger. Surrender, and help the folks at home by bringing to a quicker ending the blockade that is starving them." vSo cried the Allied propaganda, echoing, as Luden- dorff confesses, the very thoughts that the Germans were already beginning to think. It was in August, after the news of the first blow dealt by the Fourth British and First French Armies, under Rawlinson and Debeney, respectively, that the fact dawned upon the German people that they were not going to win the war this summer, after all. Shortly afterward Ludendorfl sent a messenger to tell the diplomats at Berlin that they had better hurry to make peace while there was a chance to save their plunder, for the spirit of his army was beginning to crack, and he could not guarantee how long the front would hold unbroken. With a stunning blow the truth came home to the Germans at last. Not only was Foch's army of 416 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR reserve not used up, but it was actually growing larger by 10,000 men every day, while their own armies were dwindling at about the same rate. Bulgaria and Turkey were collapsing, Austria was sending word that she could not hold her army together through another winter, and at any moment the French, with the accumulated wrongs of years to wipe out, might be upon the soil of the Rhineland and on the road to Berlin. It was true that Bulgaria and Turkey were col- lapsing. The Bulgarian people never had been very keen for this war. Once Serbia had been conquered and the Dobrudja retaken from Roumania they could not see why they should continue fighting against the French and British, whom they genuinely admired, and the Russians, who had been their friends of old. It hurt, too, to be fighting against fellow Christians as allies of the Ottoman Turk, the hated oppressor of their race for centuries past. The entry of the United States into the war on the side against Germany and Austria had a marked effect in Bulgaria. As has been said earlier, many of her leading men had been educated at Robert College, an American school in Constantinople, and America was respected and admired by most of the leaders among the Bulgarian nation. Neither the Bulgarians nor the Turks enjoyed being the tail to the German kite, and the arrogant manners of the generals and colonels sent by the Kaiser to direct their armies did not help the situation at all. THE HOME FRONTS 417 The Turkish people were sick of the rule of Talaat and Enver. They were war- weary, taxed and starved to the limit of their endurance. They had gotten to the point where the war meant nothing to them ; they had almost nothing left to lose. It is no wonder that Berlin heard that no help must be expected from Bulgaria and Turkey. Austria, too, was seething. The Hungarians were loudly crying that their best troops were being sacrificed to spare the Austrians. LudendorfT speaks of this outcry and deplores it, saying that the Hungarians might well have learned a lesson from the French, who under like circumstances in 191 7, kept "a great and dignified silence." The Allied propaganda was doing its work here, inviting the Bohemians to revolt and proclaim the Czecho-Slovak state independent ; inviting the Poles to form a new, free Poland ; inviting the Croats and Slovenians to join the Serbs in a new kingdom of the South Slavs. The empire of the Hapsburgs, founded on ambition and maintained by intrigue and oppression, was rapidly cracking apart. To the Junkers, after their grandiose dreams in June of dictating peace at Versailles (vair si') or Buckingham Palace, with loot and plunder, indem- nities and annexations, with the nations of the Allies their vassals for years to come, the world seemed to be coming to an end. The mighty structure of Mittel-Europa, founded upon force and broken treaties, erected through lies 418 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR and intrigue and a callous disregard for the rights and opinions of the rest of the world, was falling in dust about their ears. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1 . Why was Clemenceau called to the leadership of France ? 2. What looked suspicious in Caillaux's conduct during the war? 3. What was it that Bolo had been hired by the Germans to do? 4. How did Great Britain treat Ireland during the war? 5. Why had the German government tried so hard to cultivate the friendship of the United States? 6. How were the German-Americans gradually converted? 7. How did traitors try to undermine the support of the war? 8. What subjects did the Four Minute Men talk about? 9. Why did President Wilson tell the Pope that it was out of the question to talk peace with Germany ? 10. How was the confidence of the German people in their own government destroyed? n. Why was Karl of Austria anxious for peace? 12. How did Prince Lichnowsky prove that his own government was to blame for starting the war? 13. How did the Allies get news to the German people? 14. Why was the German propaganda successful against the Russians, but unsuccessful against the French and British? 15. Why was the Allied propaganda so successful? 16. What influences were at work in Bulgaria and Turkey? 17. What was the great trouble in Austria-Hungary? CHAPTER XVI The Sinking Ship and the Rats Austria's plea and Wilson's answer. — Bulgaria surrenders. — The British smash the formidable Siegfried Line. — Australians and Americans. — Foch's generals. — A race with winter. — Social- ists are admitted to the German Cabinet. — Prince Max begs for an armistice. — Wilson's reply clears the air. — The Ameri- cans clean up the Argonne. — The Serbs in Nish. — Ostend, Lille, La Fere, Laon, and a thousand square miles retaken in four days. — The Czechs and Slovaks declare their independence. — The Hungarians proclaim themselves out of the war. — Kaiser Karl grants self-government to his various peoples. — The end of the submarine campaign. — Wilson's last answer. — The Serbs and the French reach the Danube. — Allenby and Marshall put out the Turks. — The surrender of Turkey. — The anni- versary of Caporetto. — Austria begs for peace. The smashing of the Siegfried and Wotan Lines by Home's Canadians and Scotsmen on Sep- tember 2 had sent a chill through the hearts of the Junkers, and LudendorfT had warned the home authorities that they had better begin bargaining for peace while they still had something with which to trade (Belgium and northeastern France). The pride of Germany would not allow her to make the first move, so Austria was used as a cat's-paw. On September 15, 191 8, in a long, rambling note addressed to all the warring nations, " friend and foe alike," Austria- Hungary invited them to send 419 420 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR representatives "to a confidential" (secret) "and non-binding discussion at a neutral meeting place" to begin the work of bringing peace to the world. This note of the Austrian government was handed by the Swedish Minister to Secretary of State Lansing, at 6: 20 p.m., on September 16. At 6:45 the same day, the Secretary of State gave to the newspapers of the world the following statement, which, he said, was a short summary of the answer that would be returned : ' ' The Government of the United States feels that there is only one reply which it can make to the suggestion of the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Government. "It has repeatedly and with entire candor stated the terms upon which the United States would consider peace, and can and will entertain no pro- posal for a conference upon a matter concerning which it has made its position and purpose so plain." Checkmate to the smooth scheme of getting together to cajole and intrigue out of the Allies what Germany and Austria had failed to win by force ! There was no answer. Britain and Italy also gave replies that rang true; while in France, the old "Tiger" delivered a statement to the French Senate which began with these words : ' ' We will fight until the hour when the enemy comes to understand that bargaining between crime and right is no longer possible. We want a just and a strong peace, protecting the future against the abominations of the past." THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 421 Meanwhile, the Junkers were singing a different tune than they had sung in June. They were no longer annexing everything in sight and collecting indemnities from the whole world. On September 12, the German Vice-Chancellor, Von Payer (Pa'yer), made a speech in which he stated that Germany did not desire to keep Belgium, but would get out of that country if the German colonies were handed back. Also he confessed that it would be better to forego the pleasure of collecting the cost of the war from the British, French, and Americans, forperhaps that plan would delay the peace which everybody so desired. Also — significant fact — the Prussian Diet showed signs of reforming its Junker election laws, and giving the common people a little more voice in their government. The leaven of democracy was be- ginning to work in proportion to the failing strength of the Junker armies. We left the Bulgars retreating northward and eastward, their armies divided by the impetuous rush of the Serbs and the French. In the east the British and Greeks were moving forward steadily, Photo by Underwood & Underwood General Franchet d'Esperey 422 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR while the Italians, stretched across Albania, were driving heavy blows at the Austrians before them. Within a few days it became plain that the Serbs and French had made a clean break through, and that General d'Esperey, by pushing swiftly up the valleys of the Czerna ( chair 'na) and Vardar rivers, had cut off the greater part of the First Bulgarian Army, and stood between it and its source of supplies. The eager Serbs, pursuing their hereditary ene- mies, lived for eight days with no food other than that which they could find in their path. Their sup- ply trains, organized for years to feed men in the stationary trenches, could not get forward over the poor roads and mountain paths by which the men were following the fleeing foe. But their day of vengeance had come at last ! By September 25, the Serbs and French were forty miles north of their former lines, capturing town after town and taking thousands of prisoners. While southern Serbia was thus being freed of the enemy, the British and Greeks, were on Bulgarian soil, and Tzar Ferdinand was frantically demanding help from Vienna and Berlin. But Vienna was afraid to spare a man from her Italian lines, which held only because the enemy was not yet ready to break them, and Berlin was sending every available regiment to bolster up the cracking west front. With sinking hearts the Junkers sent word to Ferdinand that Bulgaria must hold, somehow, and fight out her own salvation. THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 423 But Bulgaria was past caring what became of her German ruler. Her people had never whole- heartedly supported the war. They had been forced into it by their Tzar and his pro-German minister, Radoslavoff. An official statement given out in 1919 by the Bulgarian government tells that the majority of the people entered the war with a heavy heart. ' ' The prospect of retaking Macedonia which the Serbians had usurped — stifled in the soldiers the horror they felt at a war in which the Turks were their allies and the Russians their foes. But, Macedonia once occupied, the army was seized again with its re- pugnance to the unnatural alliance into which the government had pushed it. The necessity in which the Bulgarian soldier found himself of fighting against four great European nations, which he had always regarded as being the protectors of Bulgaria, put him into a violent moral crisis. This crisis was transformed into a latent revolt when the United States entered the fray. The newspapers of Sofia had published the fourteen points of the memorable message of President Wilson. The troops which had learned of it began to ask themselves whether there was any sense in continuing to fight against a coalition" (group of nations) "toward which they were animated by no hatred whatsoever, and which, through the President of the United States, had pro- claimed once again the principles which Bulgaria pleaded in favor of her cause, and beyond which she asked for nothing." 424 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR The home front was broken. Mobs surrounded the offices of the government in Sofia, demanding peace, and crying out bitterly against the German alliance. With .revolution hanging over him, the crafty Tzar, who had plotted and intrigued for thirty years to make himself the ruling force in the Balkan Peninsula, saw the handwriting on the wall, realized that his plots and bargaining had all been in vain, and consented to ask for an immediate armistice. A Bulgarian officer hurried to Salonica and there begged Franchet d'Esperey to cease fighting, as delegates from Sofia were on their way to ask for peace. Fearing a trick, the Frenchman answered that he would be glad to receive the Bulgarian delegation, but that meanwhile his men would keep on capturing Bulgars and retaking Serbian towns. On September 29, the delegates arrived at Salonica and terms were soon signed. It was a complete surrender. All of Bulgaria was thrown open to the Allies, the only stipulation upon which the Bulgars insisted being that only French, British, and Italian troops should occupy their lands ; — they did not care to expose their homes and families to the tender mercies of the Greeks and Serbs ! All Bulgarian guns and munitions of war were to be placed at the disposal of the Allies for their war against Turkey and Austria, and they were to be allowed to use all Bulgarian railroads and Bulgarian boats on the Danube. The next day the Allied governments gave their con- THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 425 sent to these terms, and the fighting for the Bulgari- ans ceased, — just as the French and Serbs reached Uskub, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Serbia. When the news reached Berlin, the Junkers knew that the game was up. There was nothing to pre- vent the army of d'Esperey, one million strong, from advancing northward through Serbia and Albania into Austria. Once on the Danube, this force would be joined by half a million Roumanians, smarting under the cruel peace terms just forced upon them, and thirsting for revenge. A part of the Salonica army might turn eastward through Bulgaria and take Constantinople, but this now was hardly worth while, for the overwhelming victory of Allenby had put Turkey out of the running and it was only a ques- tion of time when this country, too, must surrender. General Maude, the captor of Bagdad, had died of the cholera, but under his successor, General Marshall, the army on the Tigris was slowly ad- vancing up this river. With Allenby in Damascus, it was plain that this Turkish force facing Marshall would soon be caught between the two British armies and forced to surrender. Now all the fronts were aflame with action. Plumer and Degoutte with the Belgians were making real progress, while Gouraud and the Americans were forcing their way through the supposedly impregnable Argonne Forest. Having driven hard at the two ends of the great curve stretching from the German border to the sea, Foch now hurled Rawlin- 426 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR son's Fourth Army and Byng's Third at the most formidable part of the Hindenburg Line, the sector stretching from Cambrai to St. Quentin, a zone of trenches, canals, and barbed wire some twelve miles deep, defended by the best men that Luden- dorfl could muster. A thrust by Home's men, and another by Debeney's French had drawn the German reserves to the sides of the spot toward which the main drive was aimed. Debeney had taken St. Quentin, from which the Germans had carried away the whole population — 50,000 people. Meanwhile, a clean break through the German lines to the north had been made by the reorganized Fifth British Army, now commanded by General Sir William Bird wood. As a result a big withdrawal was necessary, freeing Lille, the great industrial center of northern France, and its neighboring cities of Roubaix (roo'ba/) and Tourcoing (toor'cwang') and a hundred other towns and villages which had been in German hands for more than four years. Returning to the big thrust at the center of the Hindenburg Line, we find the British, on October 8, smashing forward against the most formidable defenses of the whole western front. There were other parts of the lines, like the Chemin des Dames, where the hillsides made the going especially diffi- cult, and others, like the Argonne, where thicket and tangled underbrush added greatly to the man- made defenses ; but for massive masonry, barbed THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 427 wire, deep water-filled moats, and elaborately for- tified trenches there was nothing to compare with this Cambrai-St. Quentin sector of the Siegfried Line. In all, a front of twenty miles was attacked. As has been said, the brunt of the fighting was borne by Byng's men and Rawlinson's, though Home to the north and Debeney to the south were in it, too. The 27th American Division and afterwards the 30th were in the thick of the fight, accompanying their new friends, the Australians, where the work was hottest. (A warm friendship based on mutual admiration and understanding had sprung up be- tween the Americans and these fierce fighters from the Southern Continent. A London newspaper spoke of how "astonishingly alike" the Americans and Australians looked and acted. After the Americans and Australians had celebrated Fourth of July by capturing Hamel together, King George, talking with a group of Australians, asked what kind of fighters the Americans were. "Very much all right, sir," came the answer, "but a bit rough !") It was a serious undertaking to tackle this position, with the great canal paralleling the Scheldt River as a positive barrier to the tanks ; but the great British guns roared, and the British Tommies stepped forward to their work, confident that this was the last great task that they would have to accomplish. For Ludendorfl and Hindenburg had planned to 428 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR hold this position. In the north they could retreat, running a new line from the Dutch boundary down through Courtrai and Tournai, but they felt they must hold the Siegfried trenches till winter put an end to the active fighting. Then the German diplomats would save all they could from the wreck of the dream of "World Power" as the Junkers called it, and would make the best possible bargain for peace. But the fighting spirit was oozing out of the Ger- man army. The Allied airmen were showering the soldiers with leaflets, more fatal to the Junkers than explosives. "Do you know that Bulgaria has sur- rendered ? " said these papers. "Had you heard of the complete ' cave-in ' of the Turkish forces ? Do you realize that the Salonica army is sweeping northward without opposition and that it will be in Austria within a few days? Surrender and end the war. Why sacrifice lives needlessly?" In spite of their machine guns, their canals, their concrete trenches and barbed wire, the Germans could not stop the Islanders. On the 8th of October the attack began ; after furious fighting on that day a good-sized dent had been made. On the ninth it deepened and widened ; the canal and river were crossed, the engineers rapidly threw their bridges over, and the dreaded tanks were once more in action. On the tenth Cambrai fell into the hands of the British, at last, and the troops found only open country and fleeing Germans before them. THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 429 The British Army had won its greatest victory, fought over the same ground where the "Old Con- temptibles" took such a dreadful hammering during the last week in August, 191 4. Thirty German divisions had been thrown into the fight by Luden- dorfT in a desperate attempt to hold them back. Meanwhile, Foch had been keeping the French pushing hard at the south- ern side of the great salient. The armies of Humbert, Man- gin, Berthelot, and Gouraud gave the Germans no rest. The campaign that finally forced the enemy to aban- don the Hindenburg Line from the Forest of St. Gobain to the Argonne will stand as a masterpiece of military work. One by one the war had weeded out the generals who could not " deliver the goods." On the British side only Haig and Rawlinson remained of those who had held the more important commands at the beginning. On the French side first JofTre and then Foch had pitilessly removed or demoted the weak, the wavering, the slow, the vain, the stupid. Of the generals prominent in the French army at the outset of the war besides Foch himself and Franchet d'Esperey only De Castelnau was still in General de Castelnau 43° HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR active service. He was well advanced in years and commanded a group of armies where not much active fighting was going on. Petain remained the com- mander-in-chief of the French armies, with Fayolle his second in command. DeMitry, Maistre, and Hirschauer the Alsatian, commanded on quiet sectors, but the bulk of the actual fighting was done by the armies led by Degoutte, Debeney, Humbert, Guillaumat, Mangin, Berthelot, and Gouraud. These seven were "the flower of the flock," masters of their trade, who had gone to school to Professor Foch of the Military College and now were proving that they had learned their lessons well. A skillful thrust by Mangin cleared the south bank of the Ailette, and landed his men on the right flank of the Germans to the southeast, who were holding the Aisne. On October 3, Gouraud struck north unexpectedly, capturing the im- portant railroad town of Challerange (shal ranzh') with 2800 prisoners. Here Ludendorff had thrown in some '& Keystone View Co. General Guillaumat THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 431 of his very best fighters. Divisions of the Guards and other crack regiments, among them the famous 200th Jager Division, were the troops that strove to hold back the French. An order was captured, addressed to the 200th Jagers, which read as follows: "You must make the determination to hold out to the very end enter the heart and life's blood of every soldier. No inch of ground must be abandoned without instant counter-attack. It must be a point of honor for officers to force their men everywhere to resist until death." The Junkers were ready to sacrifice their best men, — anything to hold back the French from the vital railroad in the rear ; on the other hand both Mangin and Gouraud won their victories mainly by a clever concentration of artillery and skillful outflanking of the enemy positions, at a cost which was very small in comparison with the value of the ground that was gained. On the 8th of October, the same day on which the British began their grand drive through the Sieg- fried Line, the Germans discovered that Berthelot on the west and Gouraud on the east had dug in so far behind their lines before Rheims that the whole army of Von Mudra was in danger of capture. Accordingly a rapid retreat was ordered, and the whole pocket, thirty miles wide and eight miles deep, was abandoned without firing a shot. The famous forts on Brimont Heights, north of Rheims, where so many thousand gallant Frenchmen had died 432 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR in fruitless attacks, and the almost equally bloody Moron villers Hills to the east, were left behind for good. It had seemed to the Germans that these positions could not be taken, and their despair at giving them up was equal to the triumphant joy of the French. Foch gave the enemy no rest. It was a race, now, with the weather. If the Germans could stave off a crushing defeat and hold their main railway lines till winter slowed up the Allies' advance, then their diplomats might still patch up a peace which would leave Germany some spoils and keep the Kaiser on his throne. The next day Gouraud struck again, this time to the northwest. Again he penetrated an unsuspected chink in the German defenses, and by filtering in behind them forced the enemy in despair to retreat from the hills of Notre Dame des Champs, which they had fortified with tier after tier of " pillboxes," and which they had imagined would hold back the French forever. Meanwhile the enemy home fronts were crack- ing. The surrender of Bulgaria, coming so sud- denly and without any warning, had thrown the German people into a state of desperation. In a vain attempt to appease the people, Chancellor von Hertling (Von Bethmann-Hollweg had been forced to resign in 191 7) was tossed overboard and a new pilot called on to steer the ship of state — ■ Prince Max of Baden, who was popular with the masses. THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 433 But the most distressing news kept coming from the capitals of Germany's allies. On the 4th of October, Berlin heard that Fer- dinand of Saxe-Coburg, German Tzar of Bulgaria, had been forced to give up his throne to his young son and flee the country. On the same day Con- stantinople reported that Talaat, the brutal "boss" of the Turkish empire, had resigned his post as Minister of the Interior, and was a fugitive. In an eleventh hour, death-bed-repentance sort of spirit, the Junkers, the first week in October, admitted to the German cabinet three Socialists, David, Bauer, and Scheidemann, and the Catholic leader, Erzberger. Shades of Bismarck and Von Moltke ! These were the people whom the Junkers had always treated as if they were the scum of the earth, and here they were, invited to become members of the All-Highest' s cabinet of trusted counselors and ministers ! But fresh shocks were in store for the Junkers. On October 5, there came a request from Prince Max ' and the new German Cabinet, addressed to the President of the United States. It asked him in the name of the new German government to in- vite representatives of all the warring nations to meet to discuss terms of peace, assuring him that "it accepts the program set forth by the President on January 8" (see page 258) "and in his later announcements, as a basis for peace negotiations." The message closed by demanding an immediate 434 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR armistice "with a view to avoiding further blood- shed." Clear and unmistakable came back Wilson's answer. "Do you mean that you accept my terms as stated on January 8 and subsequently, and that the only reason for calling a peace conference is to agree upon the practical details of their applica- tion?" He went on to say that he could not think of asking the Belgians, French, and Italians to cease fighting while German armies were on their soil. The note closed by asking "whether the Chancellor is speaking merely" for the Junker group "who have so far conducted the war." On October 1 2 (the Hindenburg Line having been smashed by both British and French in the mean- time) back came Germany's reply. The peace meet- ing would be only to agree on practical details, it said. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians were ready to evacuate Allied territory. As for the Presi- dent's question about the authority of the Chancellor to speak for the whole German nation, let him set his mind at rest. The present cabinet represented all parties in the Reichstag, and so stood for the entire population of the empire. The Junkers thus fancied that they had completely met all of Wilson's objections and that nothing remained to prevent a peace which would leave them secure in their places, when two days later came back a new reply from the President which struck them a stunning blow. THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 435 No armistice, said he, in effect, can exist with any army which continues the illegal and inhuman practices that Germany still persists in. At the very moment when you are asking for peace, your subma- rines are killing peaceful women and children as they try to escape in life-boats. You are robbing and wantonly destroying villages in Flanders and France and carrying off their inhabitants to slavery. There will be no stopping of fighting while you continue acts that we justly look upon with horror and burning hearts. You say you are ready for peace on the basis of my terms. Do not forget that one of them, as given in my speech of July 4 was, "The destruc- tion of every arbitrary power that can secretly and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world." The power that has ruled Germany is of the sort here described. If the Germans want peace, they must know that it will have to be guaranteed by others than the Junker military group. Like an ice-cold shower this answer fell upon the Germans. This American was not so easy, after all. As one Parisian paper said, "The leaders of Germany asked for public debate. They have it. As a first result they are shown to the eyes of their own people who are gasping for peace, as the prin- cipal obstacles to that peace." In the meanwhile fierce fighting was going on everywhere along the front. The terrific battle of 4.36 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR the Meuse-Argonne was steadily moving northward. Crack German divisions were thrown into the fight in a desperate effort to hold back the Americans, who were slowly but surely approaching the all- important railroad through Sedan and Longuyon. The Americans did not avoid German machine- gun nests and fortified strongholds with the skill of the veteran French. But the men rushed them, giving their lives with the most reckless courage. One battalion of the Seventy-seventh Division was lost for three days, surrounded by Germans on all sides and pounded by artillery and machine guns. The men refused to surrender. The French to the west made an attempt to break through and rescue them. It failed, but saved them from being cut to pieces by diverting their enemies on that side. The next day a determined assault by their comrades broke through the ring that surrounded them and saved the survivors, three-fourths of the original number. By October 12 the entire Argonne Forest was cleared of the enemy. The French on the west and the Americans from the east met at the gap where the Aisne breaks through the woods. Not a German was left south of the stream. It had been a bitter, savage battle, against the worst country on the whole western front as well as against some of the crack troops of the Kaiser. On October 16 the Americans took Grand Pre. The Argonne Forest lay behind them, its defenses a memory only ; but before them rose, menacing and 1 THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 437 grim, the mighty concrete ramparts of the Kriemhilde Line, the last serious obstacle, but one, between the Americans and Gouraud's French, on the one side, and the Longuyon railroad on the other. Meanwhile, cheering news kept coming in from the other fronts. The triumphant Serbs, chasing the fleeing Germans and Austrians out of their redeemed country, had reached Nish, their war capital, on October 13, having fought their way northward one hundred and fifty miles in four weeks. The Germans and Austrians in Serbia and Albania had been reen- forced by the army which had been occupying Rou- mania, but nothing could stop the onward rush of d'Esperey's men. On the 15th the Italians took Durazzo, on the coast of Albania, and a few days later the Austrians were hastily fleeing across Mon- tenegro into their own province of Bosnia. The Roumanians were rising, and at any moment their army of half a million men might be added to the forces of the Allies for an invasion of Austria-Hungary, together with the Serbs and French, from the southeast. The effect of the three great drives at the German western front (the British near Le Catelet (cat/la), the French east of Rheims, and the Americans north of Verdun) now began to be evident. A great retreat was ordered by Ludendorff. Out of the Belgian coast towns came the sullen Germans. The cities of Courtrai and Bruges were in the hands of the Allies by October 18. Ostend and Zeebrugge 438 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR welcomed their countrymen, after four years of night- mare under German rule. In France the cities of Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Douai, La Fere, Laon, and Vouziers (voozya/), to- gether with over a thousand square miles of French and Belgian territory were the fruits of the breaking of the Hindenburg Line. Desperately, Ludendorfl strove to rally his men on the new — Hunding and Kreimhilde — lines. Especially must the latter posi- tion be held at all costs. If the Americans broke it, then the great German armies must go out of Bel- gium through the small end of a funnel — over the one railroad through Liege — and a terrible rout might be the result. But the home fronts were cracking behind the armies of the Central Powers. On the 1 8th of October the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris declared the independence of their nation. On the same day the Czechs rose up in Prague, their capital, threw out the Austrian govern- ment officials and raised the Czecho-Slovak flag over the public buildings. Wild joy marked the celebration of the day, both in Bohemia and among the troops fighting in the Allied armies. The Czech troops in the Austrian army tore off the Hapsburg colors from their hats and decorated themselves with the red and white of the new republic. The Czecho-Slovak division of General Gouraud's army, fighting on the heights of the Aisne, in a frenzy of enthusiasm attacked THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 439 and captured, after an hour's fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the village of Terron, one of the strongest positions in the German line. The Hungarians, too, were through. On October 20, Count Michael Karolyi urged, in the Hun- garian Congress, a separation from Austria. Three days later a Hungarian National Council was formed, and steps were taken to set up an independent government. This government announced its in- tention of making peace with the newly formed Czecho-Slovak and South Slav states and of taking no further part in the war. On the 1 8th of October poor Karl of Hapsburg, Emperor of Austria- Hungary, gave out the an- nouncement that henceforth the empire would be organized as a union of federated states, each state enjoying the greatest freedom in self-government ! It was too late, like the deathbed repentance of the Junkers in Germany. Had the offer been made in 1 916, it might have held the " ramshackle empire" together for a little while longer. But the Czechs, Magyars (Hungarians), Roumanians, and South Slavs had now gone too far. They could not retrace their steps . Desperately the Junkers strove for peace while their armies could still resist. On October 20 came their third note to the President. Surely they would evacuate Belgium and northern France with- out any further damage. That had been their intention always. Only military damage : blowing up bridges, railroad tracks, etc., would be done. 440 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Any other destruction would be punished. (At this point it is interesting to read the statement of the people of certain Belgian cities like Bruges, who testified that only President Wilson's stern note of October 14 had saved their towns from terrible, wanton destruction. They said that on that date the Germans suddenly ceased making preparations to blow up and raze all buildings. Also Ludendorff confesses that his aviators had been supplied with a new kind of bomb for setting towns on fire. He had planned to send two great squadrons of airplanes to set London and Paris afire in a thousand places at once, but lost his nerve at the last moment, because he feared that Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg might be burned in like manner, later on, by the infuriated enemy.) The German answer then went on to state that although it was not true that Germans had ever fired upon the life-boats of sinking ships, never- theless orders would be sent out at once to all submarine commanders, telling them not to sink any more passenger ships. As to the question of the President regarding the destruction of any power that can secretly and of its own single choice start a war ; to this the German government replied : Up to this time the repre- sentatives of the people had not had an influence on the formation of the government. (What a con- fession from the Junker war lords !) The people or their representatives had had no voice in the matter THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 441 of peace and war. But now all that was changed. There was a new government, and its first act had been to lay before the Reichstag a bill to let the people vote on the question of peace or war, etc. On the 23rd of October back came Wilson's answer — a shot right in the center of the bull's-eye. Now that the German government had agreed to accept peace along the lines laid down in his addresses of January 8 and September 27, and had promised to obey the rules of civilized warfare on both land and sea, said he, he would ask Britain, France, and the other Allies to agree to an armistice. He must warn the Germans, however, that the only kind of armistice that he would think of proposing would be one that would leave the enemy helpless and unable to renew the war. For to be perfectly frank, in spite of the changes spoken of by the German government, they had not gone to the root of the trouble. Future wars might be under the control of the German people but the present one was not. It was plain that the power of the King of Prussia to control the policy of the empire was as strong as ever, and that the military group were still the masters of Germany. In plain language, the nations of the world could not trust the word of those who had up to this time been directing the German state, and if they con- tinued in control, the government of the United States would have to demand, not peace negotiations, but surrender. 442 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Snap ! The jaws of the trap so carefully set to catch the easy, soft-hearted Americans closed Underwood & Underwood Woodrow Wilson suddenly, and in its pitiless teeth the Junkers and the Kaiser lay struggling. In tens of thousands the copies of this speech were scattered by aviators THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 443 over the German lines and over the cities of the Rhine valley. And the war- weary, despairing people saw the Kaiser with his followers as the Old Man of the Sea, to be cast off, if peace was to come again to them. Let us turn again to follow the progress of the armies. The victorious Serbs and French were rapidly driving the Germans and Austrians out of Serbia. On the 21st of October the French reached the Danube near the Serb-Bulgar boundary line. On the same date the Serbs were only eighty miles from Belgrade. Both forces had fought their way northward two hundred miles during the last month. It was no wonder that Hungary wanted peace. The Hungarians knew what their soldiers had done to the Serbian people, and had no wish to see the Serbs north of the Danube, revenging in full measure the wrongs done to their old men, women, and children. Meanwhile, in Syria, north of Palestine, Sir Edmund Allenby and his men were making the same rapid progress northward that marked the rush of d'Esperey's army. On the 26th of October he captured Aleppo, on the Berlin to Bagdad railroad, and the forces facing General Marshall on the Tigris were cut off from retreat. But Marshall had begun, two days before, to move upon them in force. After a severe battle, lasting several days, he drove his troops between the enemy and the city of Mosoul (mo'sobT) and shut them off from their supplies. On 444 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR October 30, the survivors, hemmed in and helpless, surrendered to him unconditionally. Turkey, like Bulgaria, had no more fight left in her. The old Sultan had died during the summer, and Talaat and Enver, the real rulers, had fled, one to Germany, the other into the interior of Asia Minor. On October 31, just four years from the time when Enver had allowed Admiral Souchon to take the Sultan Selirn and the Midullu (otherwise known as the Goeben and the Breslau) to bombard the Rus- sian ports on the Black Sea, Turkey formally signed the papers that took her out of the war. It was a complete surrender, like Bulgaria's. On the historic island of Lemnos, in the ^gean Sea, the Turkish representatives met the British Admiral Cal thorp. With them, freed, and restored to his countrymen, they brought General Town- shend, prisoner in Turkey since his surrender at Kut-el-Amara in the spring of 19 16. There had always been a party in Constantinople who were pro-British, and these men now came to the front, trying to save as much as possible from the wreck that had been made of their country by Talaat, Enver, Djemal, and the " Committee of Union and Progress." The battles in France were still fiercely contended. The cream of the remaining German troops had been thrown into the fray, in a desperate effort to hold the Hermann, Hunding, and Freya (fra'ya) Lines. The Hunding fortifications lay in the center, THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 445 and it was the task of the French to break them. Foch flung the armies of Guillaumat and Mangin at weak spots in the enemy's positions, while Gouraud and the Americans, having broken the Kriemhilde barrier, made one last drive at the Freya trenches. The dash and vigor of the French troops in these final battles was remarkable. After four years and three months of fighting, they charged and climbed with the same spirit as that of the young men from overseas and showed the same eagerness to get at their foe. On October 24, in Berlin, Karl Liebknecht, the fearless Socialist, who had denounced the war as a Junker scheme for plunder and conquest, was released from prison. On the next day, pathetic effort, the Prussian House of Lords at last passed the laws for reform of elections. Too late, my lords Junkers, too late ! Toward the middle of October Foch sent word to Diaz that it was time for Italy to strike. The numbers of the opposing armies on the Piave were not far from equal. There were sixty-three Austrian divisions facing fifty-one Italian divisions with three British, two French, one Czecho-Slovak, and an American regiment, the 332nd. But Foch knew that with the turmoil and revolution brewing at home, the Austrian army was like a rotten melon, ready to burst into pieces if some one struck it one vigorous blow. Although they were ready sooner, the Italians waited ; waited nearly a week for the anniversary 446 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR of Caporetto. October 24 should not be marked in their calendar as one of Italy's black days. In- stead it should be celebrated for their final revenge upon their ancient enemy and oppressor. Beginning the attack in the district of Monte Grappa, between the Brenta and Piave rivers, the battle soon spread all along the hundred and twenty mile front. Six days after the first assault the Italians had over 33,000 prisoners and the Austrian army, cut into two parts, was being rolled back all along the line. By November 1, the battle in the plains had become a rout, with the Austrians fleeing in wildest confusion. Eighty thousand prisoners had been counted, and enormous quantities of supplies had fallen into the hands of the victors. From Vienna came frantic appeals for an armistice. First an Austrian captain rode into the Italian lines bearing a white flag. He was sent back and told that the question of ceasing firing must be discussed with some one with authority to speak. The next day another white flag appeared, and a delegation of eight high officers, headed by General von Weber, asked to see the Italian Commander-in-Chief. Alone in a world of enemies, oh Kaiser ! You who would have smashed in with shining sword the doors of those who did not wish a German peace thrust upon them, now find that the world has moved forward several hundred years since the days when might was right. Deserted by your allies, scorned and detested by the whole civilized world, and on THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 447 longer obeyed by your own people, your day of pomp and power is fast hastening to its end. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. Why was it that Austria and not .Germany began the peace negotiations ? 2. Why did the Prussians move to give the people more voice in the government? 3. Why did the Bulgarians grow cold toward the war? 4. What forced Bulgaria to make peace ? 5. How did the victory over Bulgaria threaten Austria and Tur- key? 6. . Why was the breaking of the Hindenburg Line near Cambrai so important ? 7. What was the effect on the German army of the surrender of Bulgaria? 8. Why was the railroad in the rear of the Germans so important to them? 9. Why was time so important in the campaign in France? 10. Why was Talaat forced to flee from Turkey? 11. Why did the Junkers admit Socialists to the German Cabinet ? 12. Why did President Wilson ask the Chancellor whether he spoke for the people also? 13. How did Wilson's second reply show the Junkers "as the principal obstacles to peace"? 14. Why was the advance of the Americans through the Argonne Forest so fatal to Germany? 15. What was the great danger to the German armies? 16. Why did Czechs and Hungarians declare their independence? 17. What forced the Germans to give up the submarine campaign? 18. How was Turkey put out of the war? 19. Why did the Italians wait till October 24 to begin their attack on Austria? 20. How many allies were left to Germany after Austria's sur- render ? CHAPTER XVII The Closing Scenes The Americans on the Meuse. — A stubborn, savage conflict. — The American big naval guns at work. — The Germans are broken at last. — An order to the fleet to sacrifice itself. — The rev- olution flares out. — - The disappearance of the Austrian army. — Germany protests against Allied air raids. — The Germans on the run. — Wilsons last word, Surrender. — The German envoys meet Foch. — The terms. — Germany boils over. — The All-Highest and his son become private citizens. — The Bel- gian refugees in Holland recognize a fellow exile — The British at Mons. — The French at Sedan. — Cease firing — The Tiger s triumph. — The news in London and Washington. — The top- pling of the crowns. — Karl of Austria and Albert of Belgium. — The German fleet at last celebrates "Der Tag." The attention of the world had been drawn to the spectacular victories of Allenby in Palestine, of d'Esperey in Macedonia, of Diaz in the Venetian plain, of Plumer, Degoutte, and King Albert in Flanders, of Byng and Rawlinson at the main Hindenburg Line, and of Mangin and Guillaumat at the Hunding Line. But in one part of the western front there had been raging a grim, desperate, hand-to-hand battle which would settle once for all the question whether Germany could hold her armies together for another year's campaign or would be obliged to surrender un- conditionally in order to prevent a panic and a rout. 4*8 THE CLOSING SCENES 449 This was the fight that the Americans of the First Army, under General Hunter Liggett, together with Gouraud's Fourth French 'Army were making to break the Kriemhilde and Freya Lines. "The fate of the Fatherland may hang upon the fight north of Verdun," said a Ger- man general to his men, during the course of this battle. About one-sixth of the fighting men of the German army were being used along twenty-five miles of the front, in a determined effort to keep the Americans and Gou- raud from cutting the Longuyon-Sedan railroad. Meanwhile, a Second American Army, under General Bullard, was being formed on the right, to operate on the eastern bank of the Meuse. The Germans had been forced to guard the ap- proaches to Metz and the Briey iron fields. A group of American signal corps men, sending fake wireless messages, had kept the enemy expecting a severe attack in this direction. As a consequence, some of the best German troops had been held in reserve near Metz, looking for the American attack which never came. © Keystone View Co . , Inc. General Liggett 45° HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR A big quantity of heavy artillery and great num- bers of machine guns had been massed before the advancing First Army, and these were manned by picked men, ordered to resist to the death. These orders were obeyed. There were no braver fighters in the war than the defend- ers of the Freya Line. Some of the hills and villages on this system of trenches were taken and retaken five and six times. It was a hard, punishing task, with one hill after another to be stormed, and line after line of barbed wire and machine guns to be forced. But the young Americans kept pouring out their blood and their lives. They were paying a heavy price for each mile that they advanced, but, once through the Kriemhilde Line, the task grew easier. By the 28th of October the sixteen-inch naval guns, the most powerful weapons on the western front (with the exception of the freak cannon that shelled Paris), were . landing their terrific shells on the Longuyon railway. This was the beginning of the very end. For once this road were put out of commission, A 1 1 R 1 v x Xy 1 <& ^ General Bullard THE CLOSING SCENES 451 the German armies between Valenciennes and Sedan were cut off from their base of supplies. When the first shell from one of these monsters fell on a German railroad the enemy awoke to the fact that another nation besides their own could do big things with machines. By the 30th of October the tremendous shells from these guns were busy tearing up the all-important, road, and the Germans knew that the end was near. On November 1 , the American First Army crashed through the last German line (the Freya) that barred their way northward. The constant, dogged pressure and pounding of the whole month of October was bearing fruit at last. Over toward the west Gouraud's men had discovered the same thing : the enemy, beaten, were in rapid retreat northward. The race with winter had been won. The Germans could no longer stand up against the terrific hammering of Foch. The story of the next few days is the story of a triumphal procession. The Americans between the Meuse and Gouraud's French army advanced north- ward at the rate of from four to six miles' a day. Only here and there did the enemy stand and resist. Not content with their success on the western bank, the Americans began crossing the river to the east. This passage the Germans vigorously disputed, fighting with renewed energy through the night of November 4. Nevertheless, when morning came, the American engineers had three pontoon bridges 452 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR in place, and thousands of troops were pushing their way across the river. Meanwhile, what of the home front in Germany? The Arch- Junker Erich von Ludendorff had resigned as Quartermaster- General, on October 27, after the Reichstag had voted that the military command should be responsible to the (civil) cabinet. There followed days of turmoil. The Kaiser's abdication from the throne was openly demanded in the Reichs- tag, where an astonishing freedom of speech had sprung up within the last few days. Then came the match that touched off the maga- zine. Thinking that somebody must make a grand, heroic, spectacular sacrifice in order to reawaken the fighting spirit of the nation, the Kaiser sent orders to his gallant sailors that they should steam out into the North Sea, attack the British Grand Fleet and go down with bands playing and colors flying. This might save the throne and show people that there still was the old devotion to the All-Highest. The admiral of the fleet, knowing the temper of his sailors, among whom a serious mutiny had been put down, with difficulty, in 191 7, sent back word that the men would obey the order much more cheer- fully if the Kaiser should share their fortune by going out to battle, himself, on one of his great dreadnoughts. And then Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, who had been taught all his life that men should die for him and his family, had his one opportunity to wipe THE CLOSING SCENES 453 out, in the courage with which he should go out to meet death, a great deal of the scorn and contempt with which the civilized world had looked upon him. To go to the bottom in one of his favorite ships, in a brave, though theatrical death, would have enabled the Germans to lift up their heads and say "This Kaiser whom we worshiped and obeyed so long was a man, after all." But, consistent with his training and his life — the Junker thought that others must be sacrificed that he might enjoy all of the world's best things — Wilhelm von Hohenzollern sent back the message to his fleet that he declined their invitation to die with them, but that they should go ahead and die, anyhow, to save the glory of the Imperial Family. And then the smoldering mutiny burst out into a blaze ; the long-suppressed anger boiled over. The sailors on the ships rose up, shot any officers that resisted them, joined forces with their brothers on land, and hoisted the red banner of revolution. Prince Henry, the Kaiser's brother, raised a red flag on his auto and escaped, although some marines recognized him and sent a volley of shots after the fleeing machine. The triumphant sailors swarmed upon trains and rushed to Hamburg, Bremen, and other near-by cities, revolution and rioting following in their footsteps. Meanwhile, in Berlin, it had been announced that the Kaiser had surrendered to the people all his rights, — meaning that after this, he would reign 454 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR as a figurehead only, like his royal cousin of England. Too late, Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, too late ! Now, with Austria falling apart, and the German throne tottering, what of that dauntless little nation whose resolute attitude had provoked the first onslaught of the war for World Power? Where were the Serbs ? On November 3 their triumphant army once more occupied the capital city, Belgrade, and the next day not an enemy was to be found in arms on Serbian soil. The invasion of the Serb- inhabited provinces of Austria now followed. A few days later Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and scene of the killing of Franz Ferdinand, gave a joyous welcome to the invading Serbian army. The South Slavs were united at last. The assembly of Croats and Dalmatians at Agram voted that the three provinces of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia should hence- forth be part of the kingdom of the Jugo-Slavs. Only Austrian bayonets had. kept this part of the empire under the sway of the Hapsburgs, — and where was the Austrian army now? It could no longer be called an army. Three hundred thousand prisoners had been taken by the Italians, nearly half the forces that, a few days before, had held the trenches from Lago di Garda to the Piave and thence to the sea. As for the remainder of the troops, they were disorganized, broken into fleeing fragments, and traveling across the country without leaders or orders, like droves of helpless sheep. The Imperial Army no longer existed. i THE CLOSING SCENES 455 While the Austrian General von Weber was receiv- ing from General Badoglio (ba dol'yo) , Chief of Staff to General Diaz, the terms under which fighting would be stopped, the triumphant Italians were pouring into the redeemed city of Trent, and from the Italian ships sailors and marines were landing to take pos- session of Trieste, where the population gave them a frantic reception. Italia Irredenta was no more. On November 3 the armis- tice was signed, to go into effect the next day. It was another case of complete surrender. The Italians had taken enormous booty in the shape of guns and military supplies, yet Austria agreed to surrender half her remaining artillery and equipment. All the Tyrol south of the Brenner Pass, all the country about Gorizia, Trieste, and Pola, and the greater part of Dalmatia and its islands were to be occupied by Italian and Allied forces. All railway and military equipment in these districts was to be turned over, and the Allies were to have the right of free move- ment over all Austro- Hungarian railroads and waterways in making war on Germany. All German troops were to be sent out of the Keystone View Co., Inc. General Badoglio 456 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR empire within fifteen days, under penalty of being interned. All Allied prisoners were to be set free immediately, but Austro-Hungarian prisoners were still to be kept in Italy. Fifteen Austro- Hungarian submarines and three battleships, three cruisers, nine destroyers, twelve torpedo boats (practically all of the Austrian navy that was left after Rizzo finished destroying it), and six Danube monitors were to be surrendered. All the Austrian ports were to be left in Allied hands. Such was the end of the ''punishing expedition" against the ''impudent Serbs" which Count von Berchtold had organized with so light a heart. On November 4, there came from Germany to the United States a note which for brazen effrontery is hard to match. It stated that for the past few weeks the Germans had ceased sending airplanes to bomb unfortified towns in France, feeling sure that the Allies would also stop bombing German cities ; but that they were pained and surprised to observe that English and American aviators still kept on dropping bombs on German cities along the Rhine. This from the nation which had sent its Zeppelins to drop their deadly missiles on British kindergartens and French churches ; which had deliberately bombed Allied hospitals, marked plainly on the roof with the red cross ; which had torpedoed British hospital ships ; and had planned, as late as October 1, to burn London and Paris by dropping firebrands upon these cities. The only reason why the German THE CLOSING SCENES 457 aviators had stopped bombing French towns was that all of them were sorely needed on the battle lines as their number grew less. And now Foch was throwing forward his great armies all along the line from the Vosges Mountains to the Dutch frontier. For the Belgian coast had been left behind in the swift advance of the armies of Degoutte, Plumer, and King Albert. In fact, some 15,000 German troops, caught between the advancing Allies and the Dutch border, had to cross over into the Netherlands and give themselves up. The great battle along the western front had become a pursuit. Northward from the region of the Argonne Forest came the swift advance of the American First Army. On the 7th of November their vanguard stood just below Sedan, where the Germans, on September 2, 1870, had captured the French Emperor and half his army. The railroad upon which the Germans relied for retreat was in their hands. The Americans did not enter Sedan itself, reserv- ing that honor for Gouraud's French army, which had paralleled their northward march, and which now stood with them astride the only road to safety for half of Hindenburg's troops. The forces of the enemy were in a trap. Foch had prepared two great drives, one northward, to herd the German armies into the narrow neck of the fan of railroads leading from Liege ; the other with fresh American and French troops eastward into German Lorraine 458 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR and Lower Alsace. Within a week the German retreat would have become a hopeless rout, like that of the Austrian armies. But help was at hand. The German Foreign Secretary, Dr. Solf, had written President Wilson on October 27 that his government was ready for the armistice. This meant surrender, and was so understood. One final note, dated November 5, was sent by Secretary Lansing to Germany. In it he stated that while the Allies were ready to make terms on the basis of President Wilson's speech of January 8, in which he named fourteen points as needed for a lasting peace, they wished it distinctly understood that point two, on the freedom of the seas, might mean a very different thing from what the Germans thought it did. Then, too, regarding the " restoring" of occupied territories : this would mean that Germany must pay for the damage that she had done to the property of the Allies by land, by sea, and from the air. He closed by referring the Germans to the Allied Commander-in-Chief. On November 7, the German headquarters sent a message by wireless to Marshal Foch that a party headed by Secretary of State Erzberger was leaving for the front to ask the terms of the armistice. The French signaled back that orders had been given to meet them on a certain road. Late in the evening of that day they were led through the French lines. The next morning at nine o'clock they were con- THE CLOSING SCENES 459 ducted into a wood near Rethondes to a railroad car which the Marshal was using for his headquarters. The scene was impressive. Two of the Germans wore the uniforms of generals, one that of a captain in the navy. The other two, Count Oberndorf and Herr Erzberger, wore civilian clothes. As the Ger- mans were ushered in, there rose. to meet them the Marshal ; his Chief of Staff, General Weygand [va'gan(g)] ; Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss (weemz) of the British navy ; and the American Vice- Admiral William S. Sims. The Germans saluted, but the Marshal did not respond. Instead, he fastened his eyes upon a decoration adorning the breast of Herr Erzberger, — none other than that of the French Legion of Honor, given to him in the days when France had hoped to continue to live at peace with her eastern neighbor. With amazing effrontery the man had dared to put it on for this meeting. The figures stood, immovable, for a moment or two, during which the steely eyes of the Allied Com- mander-in-Chief never left the offending ribbon. Finally Erzberger blushed and removed the decora- tion. Foch's hand came smartly to salute, and he asked the Germans to state their errand. They replied that they had been advised by Presi- dent Wilson that Marshal Foch was to tell them the terms upon which an armistice might be granted. After a few questions had been asked and answered the Marshal drew out a paper and proceeded to read from it the terms. These were as follows : 460 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 1. That all of Belgium, France, Alsace-Lorraine, and Luxemburg be emptied of German troops and occupied by the Allies within fourteen days ; and that all inhabitants of these countries who had been carried away to Germany be brought home again within fifteen days. 2. That the Germans surrender 2500 heavy guns, 2500 field guns, 25,000 machine guns, 3000 mine-throwers, and 1700 airplanes. 3. That the Allies should hold all the left bank of the Rhine as well as the three cities of Mainz, Koblenz, and Koln (Mayence, Coblence, and Cologne), and the territory around them for a half circle, 30 kilometers in diameter, eastward. The inhabitants of the occupied territories were not to be molested, nor should any damage be done to property. 4. Five thousand locomotives, 150,000 railroad cars, and 5000 motor trucks were to be surrendered. The railways of Alsace and Lorraine were to be handed over, with all their cars and locomotives. 5. All poisoned wells and planted mines were to be pointed out within two days. 6. All Allied prisoners to be sent home at once. But German prisoners were to remain, for the time being, in captivity. 7. All German troops were to be withdrawn at once from Austria-Hungary, Roumania, and Turkey, and from Russia as soon as the Allies thought it wise. All German agents to leave Russia at once. THE CLOSING SCENES 461 8. No more supplies for Germany to be stolen from Russia or Roumania, and the treaties of peace forced upon these two countries in the spring of 191 8 to be declared null and void. 9. All damage done to be paid for. The money stolen from the National Bank of Belgium to be put back ; also all money, bonds, and valuable papers taken from the invaded countries. The gold collected forcibly from Russia and Roumania to be turned over to the Allies to be held by them until it could be returned to its rightful owners. 1 o. The surrender of all submarines and the intern- ment in Allied ports of six German battle cruisers, ten battleships, eight light cruisers, fifty destroyers. 1 1 . All mines in the seas to be swept up, Germany indicating their position. 12. All ships, boats, naval supplies, and arms in Belgian ports to be left where they were. 13. No destruction of ships or material to be permitted. 14. The armistice to last thirty days, with the opportunity to extend it. An armistice commission to be appointed, from all nations concerned, to see to the carrying out of the terms. As these terms, which meant nothing short of complete surrender, were read in a clear, distinct voice by the Commander-in-Chief, the Germans seemed to realize, at last, that the trap that they had prepared for others had closed upon themselves. They ap- peared like men stunned, unable at first to say a word. 462 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR At last they said that they must send a messenger to German headquarters, and must send a wireless message ahead of him. This was granted. Herr Erzberger then asked Marshal Foch to stop the fighting until the answer came back. The Marshal replied that such a course was absolutely out of the question ; and the parties separated. Some difficulty was found in getting the German messenger through his own lines, as the German guns kept on firing for some time after being ordered to stop, and it was thought that he would have to be sent by air- plane. At last, however, he reached headquarters, but not until ten o'clock on the morning of Novem- ber 10. He had been away only three days, but they were momentous days in the history of Germany. The news of the successful revolt of the sailors was spreading like wildfire over the land. At several cities, notably Stuttgart and Munich, there had gathered great mobs, who waved red flags and cried, "Down with the war and the Kaiser." The news of these uprisings was given to the All-Highest. He refused to believe it. Had not these people been trained all their lives to believe that the only thing in Germany worth while was the glory of the Hohenzollern Family? Prince Max, the Chancellor, and other leaders urged him to announce that he had given up his throne. He refused to do so. There was no time to be lost. The temper of the mobs was becoming THE CLOSING SCENES 463 more and more ugly. Finally Max and the cabi- net took matters into their own hands. They announced, on November 9, that the Kaiser had "decided to renounce the throne." The Chan- cellor, said the announcement, would remain in Keystone View Co., Inc. Friedrich Ebert Keystone View Co., Inc. Kaiser Wilhelm II. office until the details about the abdication of the Kaiser and the renouncing of his rights by the Crown Prince should have been settled. He would then appoint Herr Ebert, the well-known saddle- maker and Socialist member of the Reichstag, to take his place. In the meantime it was proposed 464 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR that the Reichstag pass a law allowing everybody to vote for members of a National Assembly which should decide the future form of government for the German nation. And then the "lid" of the boiling pot suddenly blew off. Everywhere the red flags appeared, work- men struck, and cheering mobs filled the streets. As haughty Junker officers appeared on the sidewalks of Berlin, — the same officers who used to crowd the common people and foreigners, even ladies, into the gutters, — the formerly downtrodden commoners stripped off their shoulderstraps and ornaments and forced them to cry out "Long live the Revolution." Oh, haughty Junkers ! For years you had lived on the best of the land, contributing nothing to the world's betterment or happiness, but showing your brother men, who fed you by their labors, that you considered them as the dirt beneath your feet. For centuries you and yours lorded it over the people whom you might have taught to love you. They were a docile people, who fawned upon you when you kicked them. But under- neath all their servility there lived resentment and the feeling that one day their time would come. It is here at last, and you must sing their songs and wave red flags — otherwise it will go hard with you! A great ovation was given Herr Scheidemann as he announced to the crowd before the Reichstag THE CLOSING SCENES 465 building that the Kaiser had abdicated. The revolu- tion had passed into history. Meanwhile, what of the All-Highest? At Spa, in Belgium (the General Headquarters), he had fought to the last against the surrender. He had even given orders that the armistice delegation should not start for the French lines. But Hinden- burg insisted that the game was up and said that he would not be responsible for anything that might happen if the Kaiser refused to sign his abdication. Herr Scheidemann, who three weeks before had hinted that the Kaiser's resignation might be the only way out, now sent a message from the cabinet practically ordering him to yield. After a stormy scene, in which the aged Field Marshal told his master some unpleasant truths, the mighty War Lord sat down and set his trembling signature to the fateful document. Then Friedrich Wilhelm, darling of the military crowd and hope of the Junkers, signed after his father. This was late on Saturday, November 9. Early the next morning, the Dutch sentry at the little town of Eysden on the frontier was startled to see a group of officers in German uniform rolling up in automobiles. He promptly challenged them, and asked for their papers. They told him that here was the great Kaiser, and that all was right, as it had been arranged with the Dutch government that he should go on to the castle of Count Bentinck in Amerongen. The sentry was dubious, and refused to let them pass 466 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR until he had sent for an officer. Meanwhile, a royal train of sleeping and dining cars had followed the party and now stood in the station. After a long delay, during which the ex-Kaiser strode up and down the station platform, chafing and fuming because he was thus held up, the Dutch officers in charge of the troops on the border at last decided to allow the train to pass. The Kaiser took his seat at a window of one of the parlor cars. But as he did so there gathered around the station in the gray mists of the early morning a group of Belgians, some of those who had been driven by German cruelty to leave their homes and take refuge in Holland. They recognized the Kaiser. There, shorn of his power and glory, sat the man who had slain their loved ones, had burned their homes, and ravaged their land. " Assassin ! " " Murderer ! " "Cowardly dog ! " they cried. "Give us back our young men ! " "Give us back our girls, torn from their mothers to go into slavery in your accursed land!" And as the train began to move they ran after it, pelting it with stones and clods, and screaming curses. Only five short months ago, Wilhelm von Hohen- zollern, you were planning to plant your mailed heel upon the prostrate neck of civilization, and to order the free peoples of the earth to bring }^ou their treas- ure and their liberties and, cringing, to lay them at your feet. Instead, you sit wincing and shrinking as you THE CLOSING SCENES 467 mmii Lines during January and February, 1918 Line marking furthest German advance {July 17th) Line at the time of the armistice, Nov. 11th Railways by which the German armies were supplied International boundaries Territory gained by the Germans, MarchSlst to July 18th, but retaken by the Allies, July 18th to Sept. 2nd itory held by the Germans from 1914, but retaken by the Allies, Sept. 2nd to Nov. 11th Territory of France, Belgium and Luxemburg still held by the Germans at the time of their surrender Alsatian territory taken from the Germans by the French before 1918 hear for the first time how the common people of the world regard you, and you draw away from the window lest you be struck by the missile of an angry Belgian peasant. 468 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR Sic transit gloria mundi. Meanwhile, Foch is still driving. His sw T ift pur- suit gives the Germans no rest. Early in the morn- ing of November n, the inhabitants of Ghent, in Belgium, awoke to realize that the machine guns which had been fiercely blazing away to the west of their city on the evening before had become strangely still during the night. They peered out, cautiously — no Germans in sight. It might be an ambuscade for the Allied troops ; they would take no chances. Ah, some soldiers ! The Belgian uniforms ! With sobs and screams of joy the citizens poured out of their houses into the streets to fall upon these newcomers, embracing them and each other in their ecstasy. The long nightmare of German occupation was over, the sinister shadow of Prussian militarism had passed away forever. There had been fierce fighting near Oudenarde fifteen miles away, but the British had broken the front of the retreating Germans and were pushing on rapidly. Still farther to the south, one of the British armies had reached familiar ground. They entered, on the morning of November n, the city of Mons, where the "Old Contemptibles " had first met the enemy, and from which they had retreated, overwhelmed by the gray-green flood which had poured upon them so ceaselessly. The French, meanwhile, were sweeping forward all along the line. The Italian division fighting with them stormed the historic town of Rocroi (roc'rwa') THE CLOSING SCENES 469 on the morning of November 11, while Debeney's men had left Maubeuge behind them and had crossed the line into Belgium. The American First Army, having seized the heights south of Sedan, courteously stood aside, and let Gouraud's men be the first to enter the town. For Sedan was sacred ground to the French. About seven o'clock the order was flashed along both lines : "Cease firing at eleven ; the armistice has been signed." For four hours more the guns kept on pounding away, — then suddenly ceased. The great war was over. Let us turn for a moment to Paris, where the people had known, since morning, that the armistice had been signed. Tense with suppressed emotion, they had waited for the offi- cial announcement, to be made before the lawmakers by the prime minister in person. As the old fighter with quick, brisk step ascended the rostrum, the © Keystone View Co., Inc. Georges Clemenceau 470 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR deputies rose as one man and gave a mighty cheer for "the father of the victory." "I read," said he, "the terms of the armistice," and he began, in a clear, distinct voice. The chamber rocked with applause as it was indicated that the return of Alsace-Lorraine was included, that the submarines were surrendered, that the French troops were to march to the Rhine. The deputies roared with laughter at the "Tiger's" sarcastic reference to the "Imperial German Government," for the news of the Kaiser's flight had spread. From the same platform where, forty-seven years before, he had passionately denounced the treaty of peace with Germany because it tore away Alsace and Lorraine, this wonderful old man now announced the fruits of his wise counsel and intrepid spirit. The greatest war of all time was over, and it was France who had triumphed ; France, the weak, decadent nation, which the Germans had so pitied. As the old man ceased amid a roar of cheering, he stepped down from the platform to find himself surrounded by his old enemies, the Socialists, rushing forward to grasp his hands, a symbol of the united France whose spirit had won the war. In London, as well as Paris, the people gave them- selves up to wild enthusiasm and whole-hearted enjoyment. All through the Allied countries there were parades and celebrations. It is doubtful whether any event in the history of the world ever brought such a universal outbreak of joy. THE CLOSING SCENES 471 In Washington there was a hurried summoning of Senators and Representatives for a joint session. At one o'clock promptly the President appeared before them. He was greeted by a great outburst of cheering. As he read the terms of the armistice, his hearers listened intently. They frequently in- terrupted him with applause, but only once with cheers, the heartiest of cheers. It was the return of Alsace-Lorraine that brought them to their feet. Thus did the heart of America respond to the dearest wish of France. Meanwhile two kings in Europe were hearing from their subjects. Poor Karl of Hapsburg, last ruler of that famous family of Junkers who first became lords of the empire in the thirteenth century, had been doing some deep thinking. News had reached him that mobs on the street were compelling officers to tear off the imperial colors from their caps. He had heard how the Hapsburg flag had been hauled down from the Parliament building in Vienna amid the enthusiastic cheers of .the people. He had learned of the proclamation of the Czecho-Slovak republic, with Professor Masaryk as its first presi- dent. A formal notice had come from the Poles that they had organized a new republic and had annexed all of Galicia. The separation of Hungary was an accomplished fact, as was the union of the South Slavs of the empire with their cousins, the Serbs and Montenegrins. For Karl there was no empire. 472 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR It had fallen apart over night, leaving him only German Austria, which was tearing down his flag and proclaiming itself a republic. On November 13, he gave out a notice that he did not wish to be a hindrance to the free develop- ment of his people, and that accordingly he would give up all part in the administration of the state and release Austrian officials from their promises to obey him. This signed, he stole away with his wife and children to their castle at Eckhartsau. A well-meaning young man, who had inherited the results of the mistakes and follies of his uncle, personally he had not been to blame. He had been caught in the net of German intrigue and could not extricate himself. The aged Franz Josef had been the tool of the Ger- man Junkers and the military party of his own Empire, headed by Berchtold, Hoetzendorf, and Count Tisza (te'so). This last named nobleman, who had hated Franz Ferdinand and is suspected of having plotted his murder, was sitting in his palace on November 3 with his wife and two other ladies, when three Hungarian soldiers entered. The Count asked them what business they had with him. They said that they would tell him after the ladies had left the room. The ladies, thoroughly alarmed, refused to go. Then the leader of the three, telling the Count that he had betrayed his country by forcing it into the war and that his time was come, drew his pistol. The other two did the same, and THE CLOSING SCENES 473 they fired at the same instant. Thus perished the chief Junker of Hungary. At almost the same instant that Karl of Hapsburg was stealing away from Vienna, hoping to escape the notice of his people, another king was returning to his own. The heroic Albert of Belgium, who through the entire four years had never left his little army, who had shared the rough quarters of the fighters, their dangers and their defeats, was making his entry into Ghent. On his right rode General Plumer, Commander of the British Second Army. On his left General Degoutte of the French Sixth Army. Belgian, French, and Brit- ish officers escorted the Queen and the young prince. As they halted in the Place d'Armes (plas' darm') , the veterans of the Yser, of Dixmude, and Ypres marched past in review. And as the flowers fell in a rain from the windows and balconies above, the liberated people cheered and sobbed their welcome to the heroes who during all the four and a half years of suffering and privation had stood, literally in the last ditch in Belgium, and defied the gray- green hordes of the All-Highest to do their worst. Here was a king who had kept his faith and had never faltered in his devotion to his men. But all through Germany crowns were falling, as one by one, the Junker monarchs and lords gave up their thrones. The King of Bavaria anticipated the Kaiser by one day in becoming a plain citizen of the new republic. The Duke of Brunswick, the Kings of Wiirttemberg 474 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR and Saxony, the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and Baden followed in rapid succession. The last relics of the Middle Ages were falling upon the scrap heap. One more scene, and this last chapter of our story is closed. It will be recalled that the favorite toast among the swagger young Junkers who formed the officer class of the German navy was "der Tag" (the day) meaning the day when their fleet should steam out to meet the English on the open sea. With the single exception of the Jutland battle, which, as you recall, was ended by the flight of the Germans under cover of night, the High Seas Fleet of Von Tirpitz had confined its activities to the guarding of the Kiel Canal. But on the 21st of November the German fleet at last came out. They met the British fleet, reenforced by five American battleships. Guided by wireless signals, and piloted by the British cruiser Cardiff, five great battle cruisers, nine dreadnoughts, seven cruisers, and forty-nine de- stroyers (one had struck a mine on the sea and had sunk) steamed in a long line between the ships of the British Fleet and gave themselves up, in ignominious surrender. There comes before one's eyes the picture of Sir David Beatty, Admiral of the Fleet, as he stood on the bridge of the Queen Elizabeth, watching these would-be lords of the water celebrate "der Tag." What must have been his thoughts ! THE CLOSING SCENES 475 QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW t. What efforts did the Germans make to stop the northward march of the Americans? 2. What was the result of the breaking of the Freya line? 3. Why were the German warships ordered out to sea? 4. Why did they refuse to go? 5. What had become of the Austrian army? 6. Had the Germans any other fortifications to hold back the Allies? 7. What plans had Foch for further drives at Germany? 8. Why did the Germans surrender ? 9. Of what did the terms make sure ? 10. What was happening in Germany between November 7 and 10? 1 1 . Why did the Kaiser decide to give up his throne ? 12. Why was the Crown Prince forced to sign away his rights to the German crown? 13. Why did the Kaiser seek refuge in Holland? 14. Why were the British glad to close their fighting by retaking Mons? 15. Why did it mean so much for the French to capture Sedan? 16. What brought the greatest joy to the French deputies? 17. What was left to Kaiser Karl of his former empire? 18. Why did the Hungarian people hate Count Tisza? 19. Why were the Belgians so loyal to their king? 20. Why did the kings and dukes of Germany have to give up their thrones ? 21. Why was the surrender of the German fleet so important? INDEX Albert of Belgium, 386, 473. Allenby, captures Jerusalem, 256 ; routs Turks, 380-2, 425, 443. Alsace-Lorraine, taken from France, 1 1-3 ; people of, 29, 70 ; question of, 404. Americans, take Cantigny, 325 ; check Germans, 326-7 ; take St. Mihiel salient, 370-3 ; drive north of Verdun, 382-6 ; advance through Argonne, 425; break German lines, 449-5 1 . Anzacs, 132, 256. Arabia, 29. Austria, interferes in Balkan affairs, 32 ; sends ultimatum to Serbia, 41-6; declares war, 47; invades Russia, 70; loses greater part of its navy, 319-20 ; beaten back by Italy, 334-6; invites warring nations to a conference, 419 ; goes to pieces, 438; signs treaty of peace, 456. Austrian empire, ally of Germany, 24; composition of, 25. Bagdad, 22, 29, no; captured, 212. Balkan Wars, 31, 33. Beatty, Admiral, 100, 176-8, 474. Belgian Prince, sinking of the, 234. Belgium, refuses passage to German armies, 63 ; plight of, 159. Belgrade, captured by the Austrians, 56 ; finally retaken, 454. Berchtold, Count, 41, 411. Berlin-Bagdad railroad, 22, 29, no. Berthelot, 187, 339~43, 346. Bismarck, 9-12; dismissal of, 15; feeling toward colonies, 20; deal- ings with Austria and Italy, 138. Boers, 53, 114-5. Bolo, 393-4- Bolsheviki, 244, 247, 402. Bonaparte, Napoleon, 7. Bosnia, 25. Brandenburg, 5-6. Brest-Litovsk, council of, 265-70, 272, 403. Brusiloff, 137, 173-6. Bulgaria, enters first Balkan War„ 3 1 ; starts second Balkan War, 33 ; enters World War, 153; loses enthusiasm for the war, 192, 255 ; shows signs of weakening, 337 ; calls for help, 379; collapsing, 416; asks for peace, 424-5. Bullard, 449. Bundesrat, 3. Byng, 251, 281, 282, 284, 361. Cadorna, 142, 176, 250. Caillaux, 220, 392-4. Calmette, 392. Cameroon country, 17, 116. Canadians, 147. Caporetto, disaster to Italians at, 240 ; anniversary of, 446. Carey, 284-5. Chemin des Dames, 219, 229, 247, 321, 366-7. China forced to surrender rights to Germany, 18, 21. Churchill, Winston, 99. Clemenceau, 251, 288, 323, 363, 391, 420, 470. 477 478 INDEX Colonies, Germany's race for, 20. Committee on Public Information, 399- Contraband of war, 11 7-8. Croats, 26, 356. Czechs, 26, 36, 275, 354; declare their independence, 438. Czernin, 410. Dardanelles, 127-30, 157. Debeney, 350-1, 363. De Castelnau, 165, 429. Degoutte, 343, 347, 365, 388, 425, 473- Delbruck law, 397. Delcasse, 152, 154. Denmark, beaten in war, 9. Diaz, 250, 335, 445. Dimitrieff, 134. Djemal, 104-5, no, 444. Egypt, trade of, 23. England, appeals to Germany to prevent war, 42. Enver, 104-9, 127, 444. Erzberger, 433, 458-60. Erzerum, capture of, 164. Falkland Islands, battle of, 113. Fayolle, 285, 343, 430. Foch, 82, 91, 148, 181, 243; ap- pointed commander in chief, 290 ; counter attacks, 349, 354, 363, 430, 445- Four Minute Men, 400-1. France, beaten by Prussia, 10-12 ; appeals to Germany to prevent war, 42. Franchet d'Esperey, 81, 336, 379, 424, 437- Franz Ferdinand, 36-8. Frederick the Great, 6. Gallieni, 79. Gallipoli, landing at, 131. Garfield, 302. Gas, first use of, 147. German empire, government of, 3. German navy, growth of, 17-8; ordered out, 452 ; mutinies, 453 ; surrenders, 474. German war plan, 49-55. Germany, refuses to intervene in Austro- Serbian quarrel, 42-3 ; sends ultimatum to Russia, 57 ; declares war, 57 ; attacks France, 58 ; demands passage for her armies through Belgium, 62 ; car- ries off Belgian and French civilians as slaves, 199; begins ' ' unrestricted ' ' submarine war- fare, 200 ; drops bombs on civil- ians, 230; bombs Red Cross hospitals, 230 ; spends great sums on propaganda in United States, 398 ; gives out its intentions in June, 19 1 8, 409; asks an armis- tice, 432 ; admits Socialists to the Cabinet, 433; receives terms of peace, 460-1 ; overthrows Kaiser's government, 464. Gough, 283. Gouraud, 339~43, 344. 3^2, 4 2 5, 430, 451,457- Great Britain declares war on Ger- many, 65. Greece, enters first Balkan War, 31 ; enters World War, 227. Grey, Sir Edward, 47-8, 56. Guillaumat, 430. Haig, 170, 208, 315. Henry of Prussia, 397, 453. Hindenburg, 72-4, 93-5, 127, 229, ' 279-81. 337, 390. Hindenburg Line, 221, 252, 364, 369, 386, 426-7. Hoover, Herbert, 159, 301. Home, 282, 284, 419, 426-7. Humbert, 352, 361. Hungarians (Magyars), 26, 417, 439. Ireland's part in the war, 396. Irish civil war, 65. INDEX 479 Italia Irredenta, 138, 404. Italy, forms Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria, 14 ; refuses to declare war on France, 68 ; de- clares war on Austria, 142 ; de- clares war on Germany, 183. Japan, threatened by Germany, 18, 102 ; replies by warning Germany, 103 ; captures Tsingtau, 104. Jehad, 54, 109-10. Jellicoe, 176-9. Jerusalem, 255. Joffre, 77, 86, 143, 217. Jonescu predicts World War, 34. Junkers, 5, 12, 13, 16, 403, 404, 406, 417,421,445,464. Kaiser Karl of Austria, 410, 439, 471-2. Kaiser Wilhelm I, crowned, 10 ; death of, 14. Kaiser Wilhelm II, character of, 14; visits the Turkish empire, 22, 91 ; replies to Allies, 189, 261 ; con- gratulates Krupps, 289 ; accused by Lichnowsky, 411 ; orders navy out, 452 ; resigns crown, 463-5 ; flees to Holland, 466. Kerensky, 205, 227, 229, 236, 245. Kiel Canal, 35, 37, 49, 474. Kitchener, 123, 180. Korniloff, 237. Koweit, Sheik of, 30-1. Lansing, makes disclosures of Ger- man diplomacy, 238 ; sends final note to Germany, 458. Lemberg, taken by the Russians, 73 ; retaken by Austria, 136. Lenin, 205, 245, 265, 271. Lichnowsky, 41 1-2. Liggett, 449. Lloyd-Geroge, 48, 182, 189, 223; states terms of peace, 258. Long-range gun shells Paris, 288, 323, 344- Ludendorff, 279-81, 286, 292, 323, 333, 337, 352, 361, 413, 415, 4 J 9, 437; planned to burn Paris and London, 440; resigns, 452. Lusitania, sinking of, 158. Luxemburg invaded by Germany, 58. Macedonia, 151. Mangin, 194, 220, 331, 343, 361, 430. Manoury, 80-2. March 21st, attack of, 280-6. Marne, first battle of the, 79-83 ; second battle of the, 346-9. Marshall, 425, 443. Masaryk, 354. Maude, 172, 211, 425. Mesopotamia, 22, no. Milioukoff, 202. Mons, first battle of, 75-6 ; retaken by British, 468. Mont Kemmel, 317-8. Muehlon accuses German govern- ment of having started the war, 412. Neuve Chapelle, 144-6. Nicholas, Grand Duke, 71, 126, 136, 162. Nivelle, 190, 209, 219, 220, 231. Old Contemptibles, 75, 83, 407, 429. Ostend, 248, 31 1-3, 437. Pershing, 217, 290, 383. Petain, defends Verdun, 168 ; be- comes commander in chief, 221, 329, 343, 430. Piave River, 243, 334-5. Pill-boxes, 249. Plumer, 223, 243, 282, 358, 386, 425- Poland, 417. Pope Benedict XV, 289, 403. Portugal enters the war, 226. Portuguese troops, 315. 480 INDEX Prussia, history of, 4-1 1. Prussian election system, 4-5, 421, 445; Prussian military system, 8. Przemysl, 125, 135. " Q " ships, 296-7. Raids on coast towns, 11 9-21. Rawlinson, 282, 350-1, 426-7. Red Cross, its hospitals bombed by Germans, 230; work in United States, 402. Reichstag, 3, 58, 397, 441. Rennenkampf, 71, 74, 95. Ribot, 251, 304-8, 394. Rizzo, 319-20. Roumania, enters second Balkan War, 33 ; declares war on Austria, 185; signs treaty of peace, 276; rises against Austria and Germany, 437- Russia, appealed to by Serbia, 32 ; has agreement with France, 34-5 ; sets up Constituent Assembly, 268 ; signs treaty of peace, 272-4. St. Mihiel salient, 144, 370-3. Salonica, 154, 336, 377, 424-5. SamsonofT, 73-4. Sazonoff, 48, 411. Schleswig-Holstein, 9, 17, 29. "Scrap of paper," 66, 147, 149, 274. Sedan- Longuyon railroad, 375, 386, 436, 449-52. Serbia, 25 ; enters first Balkan War, 31 ; second Balkan War, 33 ; yields to Austrian demands, 43- 6 ; drives out Austrian army, 97 ; attacked by Bulgaria, 153; re- sumes fighting, 191 ; routs Bul- garia, 378, 422, 437, 4431 re- covers Belgrade, 454. Sinn Fein, 395. Sixtus of Bourbon, 410. Slovaks, 26, 36, 275, 354. Somme, battle of the, 182-3. Submarine warfare, 101, 157-8, 202., 293-7, 407-8. Suvla Bay, 132. Talaat, 104, 444. Tisza, 472. Townshend, 162, 171, 211, 444. Treaty of Bukarest, 34-5, 150. Trotzky, 205, 245, 265. Tunis seized by France, 14. Turkey, German friendship for, 22- 4; drawn into the war, 108-9; driven out of Palestine, 382 ; grows weary of the war, 416-7; signs treaty of peace, 444. Turkish empire, composition of, 28. Tuscania, sinking of, 262. Tzar of Bulgaria, 150, 379, 422, 433. Tzar of Russia, pledges no war with Germany; 56, 411; works for peace, 57 ; stops sale of strong drink, 71 ; orders Duma to ad- journ, 204. Ukraine, 246, 267, 269 ; signs peace treaty, 270. United States, enters the war, 215; drafts its soldiers, 216; welcomed by Allies, 216-7; declares war on Austria- Hungary, 254 ; sends men to France in great numbers, 300; saves food, 301-2 ; replies to Austrian peace " feeler, " 420. Venizelos, 152, 154, 156, 226, 227. Verdun, 77, 143, 165-71, 183, 190, 193,231. Vimy Ridge, 148, 221, 284, 291, 314. Vindictive, at Zeebrugge, 309-12; at Ostend, 311. Von Bernhardi, 13. Von Bethmann-Hollweg, 66, 432. von Billow, General, 82, 291. von Billow, Prince, 139-49. Von Falkenhayn, 164, 187, 231. Von Hipper, 176. Von Hutier, 283, 329. INDEX 481 Von Kluck, 77, 84. Von Luxburg, 237, 392. Von Mackensen, 187. Von Tirpitz, 17. Wilson, warns Germany, 158; asks combatants to state aims, 196; breaks off relations with Germany, 202; asks Congress to declare war on Germany, 214; states fourteen points, 258; proclaims need of force, 395 ; replies to the Pope, 404-5 ; answers Germany, 435, 441 ; reads terms of the armistice, 471. Ypres, 87, 90, 222, 317. Yser, 87, 90, 317. Zeebrugge, 248, 308-11, 437. Zeppelins, 181, 229, 397, 456. Zimmerman note, 213-4, 39^- I