AMERICA'S WAR FOR HUMANITY
Pictorial History _of the_ World War _for_ Liberty
_By_ THOMAS H. RUSSELL, A.M. LL.D.
_Noted Historical and Military Writer. Member American Historical
Association_
[Illustration: Giants of Democracy]
[Illustration:
_Above_--Machine-gun team of an American balloon company at work on the
French front, trying to get an enemy airplane. These anti-aircraft guns
are known as "Archies"
_Below_--Men of the 313th U.S. Field Artillery cleaning and polishing
75-millimeter shells, to be sent over to the Hun at night. Dirty
or rusted shells are dangerous to use. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Scene in Chateau Thierry after the battle that
brought undying glory to American arms, and especially to the Marine
Corps. The effects of the heavy bombardment by the artillery of the
Third Division are plainly to be seen. (_Photo from I.F.S._)
_Below_--American and French soldiers looking over the town of Chateau
Thierry after the battle. This was the scene of America's first great
victory in the war. The town was stormed and the enemy routed by the
troops the Germans had chosen to belittle. (_Copyright by C.P.I.; Photo
from W.N.U._)]
[Illustration: _Above_--American automatic rifle team
making it hot for the Huns. Note the protective barricade of ammunition
boxes and sandbags.
_Below_--How hand grenades are thrown at the enemy in the trenches.
American soldiers soon became expert at this superlative kind of
baseball. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Surrender
of the German high-seas fleet. A British warship, which towed an
observation balloon, leading the line of seventy German vessels into the
Firth of Forth. _(Copyright, U. & U.)_
_Below_--Surrendering the German submarines at the port of Harwich,
England. Note the listless attitude of this particular German crew.
_(Copyright, I.F.S.)_]
[Illustration: Drafting the armistice terms by
the Allied plenipotentiaries at Versailles. On the left side of
the table from left to right are shown: Gen. du Robilant; next man
unidentified; Italian Foreign Minister Sonnino; Italian Premier Orlando;
Col. E.M. House; Gen. Tasker H. Bliss; next man unidentified; Greek
Premier Venizelos; Serbian Minister Vesnitch. On the right side of the
table from left to right: Admiral Wemyss, with back to camera; Gen.
Sir Henry Wilson; Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig; Gen. Sackville West;
Andrew Bonar Law; Premier David Lloyd-George; French Premier Georges
Clemenceau; and French Foreign Minister Stephen Pichon. (_French
Official Photo, from I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: The American delegates to
the Peace Conference at Versailles: _From left to right_--Colonel E.
M. House, Secretary of State Robert Lansing, President Woodrow Wilson,
Henry White, General Tasker H. Bliss. The photograph was taken in
the Murat Mansion, residence of the President while in Paris.]
[Illustration: The Human Flag--A wonderful triumph of artistic military
formation and photography, showing 10,000 Jackies at Great Lakes,
Illinois, the largest naval training station in the world, with nearly
60,000 sailors in the making, and a naval band of over 1,000 pieces.
_(Copyright,_ _U. & U_.)]
[Illustration: A typical aerial battle.
Destruction of a Boche plane by dauntless American aviators, swooping
like eagles upon their prey, regardless of the anti-aircraft shells that
burst all about them, and helping by their intrepidity and skill to
clear the air of the Hun and maintain the supremacy gained by the Allies
in aerial warfare. Thousands of American flyers were trained and ready
to carry the war into Germany when the Teuton forces collapsed and cried
"Enough!" _(Photo from I. F. S_.)] [Illustration: _Above_--An American
supply train in the town of Esnes, seen from the cemetery. In the
background Hill 300, which was held by the Germans since early in the
war and has been the scene of many attacks and great slaughter. Note the
utter ruin of the town as it was found by the Americans.
_Below_--An American patrol arriving at the ruins of the house used as
an observatory by the German Crown Prince during the famous battle of
Verdun. It is said that he watched the operations in comfort while
seated before the eyepiece of a periscope carried up through the roof.
(_U. S. Official Photos_.)]
[Illustration: Departure of President Wilson
from New York, December 3. 1918, on the steamship George Washington,
formerly a German liner, on his voyage to France to attend the Peace
Conference. This event made a new record in American history, it being
the first time a President has ever left the country for any length of
time. A destroyer is seen escorting the President's ship down the harbor
to Staten Island, where the battleship Pennsylvania assumed the chief
escort duty. _(Copyright, I. F. S_.)]
[Illustration:
_Above_--General Pershing decorating Private Nick Connors, Infantry,
42nd Division, with the Distinguished Service Cross, for bravery at
Chateau Thierry.
_Below_--Y. M. C. A. Secretary H. F. Butterfield, with a volunteer
detail of the 104th Infantry, 26th Division, loaded with cigarettes,
chewing gum, and tobacco for the boys of the 104th, who were chasing the
retreating foe in France. _(U. S. Official Photos.)_]
[Illustration: The
United States battleship Pennsylvania, showing an unusual view of some
of her heavy guns. This vessel is the pride of the Navy and was selected
to escort President Wilson on his voyage to Europe to attend the Peace
Conference. She led the way across the Atlantic, steaming ahead of the
George Washington, on which the President and his party of 200 were
passengers. She carries twelve 14-inch and twenty-two 5-inch guns.]
[Illustration: _Above_--American observation balloon being brought down
to its anchorage. One of many similar balloons used to direct the fire
of artillery and observe the movements of the enemy, a service of
considerable danger as the balloonists are constantly exposed to airplane
attack. Each observer is harnessed to a parachute and jumps when the
balloon is attacked and in danger of destruction. (_Copyright by C. P.
I., from W. N. U_.)
_Below_--Canadian officers of a Royal Air Squadron, lined up with their
machines behind the front in France. It was the splendid work of these
gallant fellows and thousands more like them--British, French, and
Americans--that kept the supremacy of the air in the hands of
the Allies. _(Canadian Official Photo, copyright by U. & U_.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Remarkable photograph of a flame-throwing attack
by French troops. The "flammenwerfer" or flame-thrower was originated
by the Germans, like other diabolical methods of warfare. The Allies
perfected the machine and turned it on the enemy with great success, and
the Germans did not like their own medicine. Note the reservoir on the
soldier's back. _(Copyright. U. & U._)
_Below_--A Belgian scouting party in Flanders, making its way over a
pontoon bridge, and dressed in the new khaki uniform of the Belgian
army, which turned the tables on the Hun. _(Photo, U. & U._)]
[Illustration: Part of the American army of occupation on its way
to Germany. After celebrating for awhile the announcement that the
armistice had been signed, the American troops at the front realized
that there was still serious work, though of a different kind, ahead
of them, and started for the cities across the Rhine with a firm
determination to carry on till all the fruits of their victory
were obtained. An American dispatch rider is seen at the right,
fraternizing with a French soldier. _(French Official Photo, from U.
& U._)]
[Illustration: GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING, Commander American
Expeditionary Forces in France, in August, 1918, had an army of
1,500,000 Americans in France, doing glorious service with their allies
against the common enemy. His selection for command was approved by
all Americans; he is the idol of his men. _(Copyright, U. & U._)]
[Illustration: A divisional headquarters on the British front in France
during the progress of a battle, showing troops in reserve, German
prisoners, and stretcher-bearers at work. (Australian official
photograph)]
[Illustration: Canadians entering a wood just evacuated by the Germans
and passing an enemy gun which has been rendered useless and abandoned
by the Huns in their retreat. The Canadians are advancing in the face
of machine-gun fire. (Canadian official photograph.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Going over the top. Allied troops with full
equipment are seen leaving their trench and advancing to attack. This
is the moment that tried men's souls, and showed themselves and their
comrades the stuff that was in them. _(Photo from I. F. S._)
_Below_--Scene when Cambrai was captured by the British, showing large
numbers of British troops moving forward across the battlefield. In the
foreground the men are seen leaving a communication trench. _(British
Official Photo, from I. F. S._)]
[Illustration: Scene at Gen. Sir E. H. Allenby's historic entry on foot
into Jerusalem, December 11, 1917, after its capture by the British from
the Turks, who had held the Holy City under Moslem domination for
centuries. All Christendom hailed the event with rejoicing. Every sacred
building, shrine, and traditional holy spot will in future be
scrupulously maintained and protected. The Holy City was not bombarded
by the British, but was evacuated by the Turks and surrendered by the
leading inhabitants when Gen. Allenby's forces, after defeating the
Turkish troops repeatedly in the field, reached Gazara, three miles from
Jerusalem. Subsequently the entire Turkish army in Palestine was
captured or dispersed in disorder. _(Copyright, U. & U_.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Easing the pain of the wounded in an evacuation
hospital in France. The Red Cross nurses in the photo (two girls from
Aberdeen, S. D.), are giving wounded Yank a newspaper from God's country
and some chocolate, and he evidently appreciates their work.
_Below_--The first batch of American troops to return.from France after
the armistice. The photo shows the camouflage of S. S. Mauretania as
she arrived in New York harbor, bearing 5,000 men, of whom 1,100 were
wounded. _(U. S. Official Photos_)]
[Illustration: Homecoming of
American soldiers from Europe. An upper deck of the steamship
Mauretania, sister ship of the ill-fated Lusitania, as she steamed into
New York harbor, bringing back the first batch of returning troops.
These men were all of the aviation service who had been in training
in England. Their faces show how glad they were to see the Goddess of
Liberty once more. _(Copyright, I. F. S._)]
[Illustration: War Map Showing Naval and Military Forces of Europe at a
Glance.]
[Illustration: and Naval Bases. (_Specially drawn by G.
F. Morrell for the London Graphic_.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Company M and Company K, 336th U. S. Infantry,
82nd Division, advancing on the enemy's positions and driving out the
Huns, while the 307th Engineers of the 82nd Division clear the way by
blowing up wire entanglements. (_Official U.S. Photo_.)]
[Illustration: _Below_--Photo taken from the body of the German soldier
at the left (in gray sweater) near Chateau Thierry. The three women in
the picture were at the time operating a German machine-gun under
armed guard. (_Photo from U. & U_.)]
[Illustration: Resting after the
battle--a most unusual photo, reminiscent of the famous historical
painting, "The Bivouac." After a tremendous battle, in which these
Italian troops of the Florence regiment acquitted themselves with great
glory the men were so completely tired out that they threw themselves
on the ground to snatch a brief rest. This regiment was one of the
mainstays of the Italian defense when treachery aided the Teutons in
driving the Italians back across the Piave River _(Copyright, U. & U.)_]
[Illustration: Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the great strategist in supreme
command of the allied forces on the Western front, who wrested the
initiative from the Germans and sent them reeling back in 1918. (_French
Official Photo by U. & U._)]
[Illustration: Leaders of France and England
on the battle front. Left to right: M. Thomas of the French Cabinet;
Sir Douglas Haig, Marshal Joffre, and Premier Lloyd George. (_British
Official Photo from I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: _Top_--One of the fast
"Whippets," or small British tanks, that created havoc and terror in the
German ranks in 1918. They precede the Infantry and completely destroy
machine gun nests. (_British Official Photo from I.F.S_.)
_Bottom_--The first American-built tank, called the "America," biggest
of all, weighing 45 tons and propelled by steam. (_Copyright, U. & U._)]
[Illustration: Canadian and German wounded receiving first aid in a
village which only a few hours before was in the hands of the Germans
responsible for the scene of ruin and devastation which it presents.]
[Illustration: Canadian and Imperial troops helping themselves
to free coffee supplied by the Canadian Y.M.C.A. at a roadside
stand made of biscuit boxes. The Helpful work of the "Y" was highly
appreciated by the troops in France and Flanders. (Canadian official
photograph.)] [Illustration: How the news of the armistice of November
11, 1918, was received on the French front. The picture shows a scene
along the French lines immediately after hostilities ceased. Myriads of
men sprang into sight from the concealment of the trenches, exposing
themselves to the view of the enemy for the first time in more than four
years, without fear of consequences. Note the fleet of tanks ready
in the foreground, also the wire entanglements and No Man's Land.
(_Copyright, I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: _Top_--Close view of the first
Handley-Page bombing aeroplane built in America. It is proposed to fly
these planes across the Atlantic under their own power, driven by Twin
Liberty motors of 400 H.P. each.
_Bottom_--Submarines of United States Navy at base in an Atlantic
port awaiting orders for coast defense duty. (_Copyright, U. & U._)]
[Illustration: Wounded Canadians being carried to the rear by German
prisoners taken in the pursuit of the retreating Boche army in the fall
of 1918. (Canadian official photograph.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Field
dressing station on captured ground near Cambrai, during the last great
drive on the British front. The wounded are being brought in by German
prisoners taken during the drive, as seen in the foreground. A typical
scene at a dressing station, where first aid is given the wounded.
(_British Official Photo, from I.F.S._)
_Below_--A dashing attack by French poilus, advancing with full packs,
bayonets fixed, and typical daring and courage. The spirit of the
poilu is admirably illustrated in this snapshot. (_Photo by I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: _Top_--How British fighting men advance to attack after
going over the top, spread out in thin columns. Very different from
mass formations of the enemy and less costly to human life. (_British
Official Photo, from I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: _Bottom_--A remarkable actual war photograph of British
machine gunners operating from German second line; captured in the great
Cambrai drive. The men are coolly preparing mess. (_Copyright, U. &
U._)]
[Illustration: _Above_--Red Cross men tenderly caring for the
wounded. The services of the American Red Cross were invaluable to the
army in France and won the admiration of all the Allies.
_Below_--Wounded man making his way painfully back to the rear, with
grim determination to keep going and all the grit of the typical
American soldier. (_Official Photos by Signal Corps, U.S.A_.)]
[Illustration: The longest-range field gun in the world, produced by
the Ordnance Department, U.S. Army, for service in France, though the
hostilities ceased before they reached General Pershing. More than a
hundred of these guns are said to have been prepared for shipping to
France, and their range and power would probably have astonished the
Germans, as did the great naval guns, mounted on railway cars and manned
by American seamen, that did such effective work in the closing days
of the conflict. (_U.S. Official Photo_.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--A
company of American infantry enjoying a well-earned rest after capturing
the German second-line trenches in the forest of Argonne, the scene of
desperate and protracted fighting in the fall of 1918. (_Copyright by
C.P.I., Photo from U. & U._)]
[Illustration: _Below_--A party of Serbian officers trying the effects
of gas while on a visit to the Western front. They entered a British
trench filled with gas for practice purposes, and are seen adjusting
their gas masks for protection. (_British Official Photo, Copyright by
U. & U._)]
[Illustration: _Top_--A great Australian howitzer in action
in France under a camouflage screen. Note the size of shells, which
require four men to handle. (_Australian Official Photo; copyright, U. &
U._)
_Bottom_--American Army Postoffice in France on Mothers' Day, 1918.
Letters and packages from the folks back home are the American soldiers'
greatest comfort on the battle front. (_Copyright, Committee on Public
Information_.)]
[Illustration: An American battery of howitzers ready to
fire upon the Huns from the ruins of a town in France. This was one of
the first United States official photographs of the American advance
in the Argonne, a district that is not all forest by any means, but
comprises much cultivated territory and many towns and villages that
have been wrecked by ruthless German fire. (_Photo by Signal Corps,
U.S.A_.)]
[Illustration: CHARGE OF THE BRITISH 9TH LANCERS ON A GERMAN
BATTERY DURING THE BATTLE OF MONS
The battery had inflicted heavy losses on the British troops. All the
gunners were cut down and the guns put out of action.--Drawn by Dudley
Tennant for The Graphic, from notes by a trooper.]
[Illustration: German prisoners captured by Canadians during a French
raid, with one of their captors. The Canadians became noted for the
success of their raids by day and night and seldom failed to bring back
prisoners. (Canadian official photograph.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--American negro infantrymen advancing toward the
front in the Argonne along a screened highway. It can truly be said of
these American soldiers and their ilk in the campaign in France that
"the colored troops fought nobly."
_Below_--Men of the 132nd U.S. Infantry, 33rd Division, in a front line
trench, looking toward the valley of the Meuse, where it is estimated
70,000 men lie buried. (_U.S. Official Photos_.)]
[Illustration: THE FIRST NAVAL RESERVE UNIT TO LEAVE FOR SERVICE IN
THE WAR.
The First Battalion of the Naval Militia of New York passing in review
of Mayor Mitchell and other officials on stand at Union League Club, 39th
Street and Fifth Avenue. (_Copyright by U. & U., N.Y._)]
[Illustration: Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, England's famous Field
Marshal and Secretary of State for War, who lost his life at sea while
on a mission to Russia, June 5, 1916.
Gen. Sir E.H. Allenby, British commander in Palestine and Syria, who
defeated the Turks and captured Jerusalem, the Holy City, in December,
1917.]
[Illustration: Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N.Y.
Top: United States Warship North Dakota.
Bottom: New type of rapid-firing machine gun used by the United States
Army.]
[Illustration: _Top_--Inspection of Czecho-Slovaks at railroad
station, Vladivostok, before leaving for interior of Siberia in campaign
against the Bolsheviki; later aided by American troops. (_Copyright, U.
& U._)
_Bottom_--"Blue Devils of France"; battle-scarred veterans of the
fighting lines leaving the White House after their reception.
President Wilson shook hands with every one of these gallant soldiers.
(_Copyright, I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: British cavalry engaged against
German infantry driven out of shelter of the trees by fire and smoke
near Chantilly. The charge down the grassy glade of the flaming forest.
The woods had been set on fire by British infantry in order to smoke out
a large force of Germans who had secreted themselves in the forest. As
soon as they emerged they were charged with destructive effect by the
British and sustained heavy losses.--_Drawn by Frederic de Haenen from
a sketch by Frederic Villiers_. (_Sun Printing and Publishing Assn_.)]
[Illustration: _Above_--How a commanding general works while his troops
are fast asleep. A night scene in the tent headquarters of Maj.-Gen.
Adelbert Cronkhite, U.S.A., division commander on the front in France.
The general stands at the right and his chief of staff, Col. Wm. H.
Waldron, at the left.
_Below_--U.S. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker getting ready to try
on an American infantryman's pack at a rest camp in England. (_U.S.
Official Photos_.)] [Illustration: President Wilson and General Pershing
receiving American troops at Humas, near the front, on Christmas day,
1918. The President is seen wearing the fur coat made from trophies
of the hunt, presented by Southern friends. Mrs. Wilson stands at the
right.]
[Illustration: _Top_--American fighters in France, just out of
the trenches, are seen at a wayside station of the American Red Cross,
receiving welcome refreshments within gunfire of the battle front.
(_Photo from I.F.S._)]
[Illustration: _Bottom_--First aid given to a wounded German prisoner by
American soldiers near the front. An example of American fair play in
striking contrast to Boche methods. (_Copyright, Committee on Public
Information_.)]
[Illustration: King Albert I of Belgium, the beloved
sovereign who never lost the confidence of his stricken people during
the four years of their intense suffering.
Marshal Petain of France, the hero of Verdun, who led the victorious
French into Strassburg and heads the French army of occupation in
Germany.]
[Illustration: Canadian soldier examining the rifle and kit
of a German killed by Canadian cavalry a few minutes before, while
protecting the rear of the German retreat. (Canadian official
photograph.)]
[Illustration: Canadian troops resting in a trench on the
hard-won Wotan line of the Germans, which was captured on the previous
day after a desperate struggle that resulted in the rout of the enemy.
(Canadian official photograph.)]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE GREAT GERMAN 16-INCH SIEGE GUNS USED AT ANTWERP
The above photograph shows the gun train complete, ready for
transportation. The motive power is furnished by the powerful motor
truck at the right, which also carries most of the artillerymen forming
the gun crew. About thirty men are needed to manipulate the gun in
action. The huge shells and ammunition are conveyed in separate trucks
or caissons. As a fort-wrecker this powerful piece of ordnance is most
effective. Its total weight is nearly 100 tons. The gun proper is at the
left and its Krupp sliding breech can be plainly seen at the side. In
the center is the gun carriage, with its very powerful recoil apparatus.
When the gun is in action these two sections are joined, being so
constructed as to fit together readily. The bursting projectiles were
called by the British soldiers "Jack Johnsons," "Black Marias" and
"Coal-boxes," from the thick black smoke they produced. These epithets
ignored their awful death-dealing qualities. (_Copyright, U. & U._).]
[Illustration: _Above_--African troops of the French army en route to
the Riviera to enjoy a well-earned rest after the battle of Douaumont,
in which their ranks were considerably depleted. These colored fighters
of France are commanded entirely by white officers and have done
splendid service. (_Copyright, U. & U_).]
[Illustration: _Below_--Colored Canadians imitating the Germans that
they captured in this dugout near the Canal du Nord, as they put up
their hands and shouted "Kamerad!" (_Canadian Official Photo, from
U.S_).]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE HUGE KRUPP SIEGE MORTARS, GERMANY'S
MOST POWERFUL WEAPON AGAINST FORTS.] [Illustration: French Artillery on
the Firing Line--The Modern Field Guns of the French and the Krupp Guns
of the Germans Have Proved to be Terrible Weapons of Destruction.]
[Illustration: This French soldier, tempted by the payment to him of
a hundred francs, signaled a message to the Germans, giving them the
position of the French batteries near Rheims. He was the first French
traitor of the war, and being caught in the act, met an ignominious
death by the roadside. (_Copyright, U. & U._).]
[Illustration: 1. French
Cuirassier being fed by Belgian woman. 2. Major Richardson of the
British Army and two of his bloodhounds used to find wounded soldiers on
Belgian battlefields. (_International News Service_.)] [Illustration:
Canada's Premier on a visit to the Western front in Europe, with a
notable group of Canadian officers. Sir Robert Borden is the central
figure of the seated row, and the other civilian in the picture is Mr.
Calder. Between them is seen General Currie, in command of the Canadian
forces in Europe, who have earned undying fame for the great
Dominion during the war. (_Canadian Official Photo, from W.N.U._).]
[Illustration: French Cavalrymen Bivouacked in the Streets of Paris,
Sleeping on the Fodder of Their Mounts, Standing in the Background.]
[Illustration: FOUNDERING OF THE BRITISH CRUISER ABOUKIR
A few minutes after the Aboukir was struck by a torpedo from the German
submarine U-9 early on September 22, 1914, she listed to port at an
angle of 45 degrees and the captain sang out from the bridge: "Every man
for himself!" The drawing depicts the scene that followed, as described
by a survivor. Two-thirds of the crew of 650 were drowned or killed by
the explosion. The boats of the cruisers Hogue and Cressy, which were
soon after also torpedoed and sunk, are seen coming to the rescue. The
total loss was over 1,400 lives.--_Drawn by Charles Dixon, R.I., for The
Graphic_.]
"_LaFayette, we are here_"--_General Pershing_
THE OFFICIAL STORY OF AMERICAN OPERATIONS IN FRANCE
_By_ GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING _Commander-in-Chief_
WILLIAM DUNSEATH EATON CONTRIBUTING EDITOR _Author "The War in Verse and
Prose" "A Soldier of Navarre" etc._
SPECIAL CHAPTERS BY HON. JAMES MARTIN MILLER _Former United States
Consul to France Author "Spanish-American War" "Prussian-Japanese War"
etc._
DEDICATION
To the soldiers and sailors of the United States and Canada; to the men
of the armies and navies of nations allied with us; to the splendid
courage and devotion of American, French, British and Belgian women, who
have endured in silence the pain of losses worse than death, and never
faltered in works of mercy for which no thanks can ever pay; to all the
agencies of good that have helped save civilization and the world from
the most dreadful menace of all time, this volume is dedicated.
To the honor of those nations upon whom the laurel of victory has
descended. To those who have vouchsafed for us the permanence of the
higher ideals of humanity and civilization.
To those who have sheltered posterity from the dominance of barbarity,
brutality, serfdom, bigotry and degradation.
To those who have striven against the Teuton and the Turk that God-given
and God-ordained freedom may triumph.
To those noble stoics of Belgium, of France, of Serbia, of Roumania,
of Poland and all other peoples who have felt the mailed fist of the
ruthless oppressor; who have looked upon their devastated fields, their
dismantled cathedrals, their violated hearth-stones and the desecrated
graves of their kindred, and that peace, tranquillity, contentment and
prosperity may again be restored to them in bounteous meed.
To those heroes who by their valor, their vigor and their inspired
devotion to right and patriotism have so nobly fought and conquered.
To those martyrs whom God in his immutable manifestations has chosen
for the ultimate sacrifice of their lives upon the altar of freedom and
humanity's cause.
In honor to these who have attained this glorious victory. In honor to
the commingling flags of the allied nations reflecting in their rainbow
hues a covenant of everlasting peace in this their hour of triumph,
may we all consecrate our purposes and our lives to a brotherhood of
mankind, a spirit of broadest humanity and universal peace on earth.
--_L.J. Robinson_.
PREFACE
With the signing of an armistice November 11, 1918, by the
plenipotentiaries of the nations at war, active hostilities were halted
while the sweeping terms of the truce were being complied with by
Germany. The collapse of the Teutonic forces came with a suddenness that
was surprising, and the collapse was complete. The German army and navy
ceased to be a menace to the civilized world--and all civilization
rejoiced with an exceeding great joy.
Remarkable events in the world's history followed with amazing rapidity,
and are duly recorded in all their interesting details in these pages.
The flight and abdication of the Kaiser; the abject surrender of the
German high seas fleet and submarines to the British Grand Fleet and its
American associates; the withdrawal of the defeated German armies
from Belgium and France; the return of the French flag to Alsace and
Lorraine; the occupation of Metz, Strassburg, Cologne, and Coblentz by
Allied and American forces, and the memorable entry of Belgian troops as
conquerors into Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen); the sailing of the President
of the United States to take part in the Peace Conference--all these
events and many others form part of the marvelous record of the recent
past, furnishing material that has never been equaled for the use of the
historian.
Now the eyes of all America are turned to the eastern horizon, and
would fain scan the wide waters of the Atlantic, on the watch for the
home-coming heroes of the great conflict. A million young Americans are
coming home--but a million more will stay abroad awhile, to safeguard
the fruits of victory and insure the safety of the world. Truly the
story of their achievements, in permanent form, should find a place in
every American home, for in the words of General Pershing, their great
commander:
"Their deeds are immortal and they have earned the eternal gratitude of
their country."
T.H.R.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PRESIDENT WILSON'S WAR MESSAGE
I WHY WE WENT TO WAR
Review of America's Good Reasons for Fighting--Memories of Beautiful
France--Why I Was Not Accepted as Consul to Germany--Why We Went to
War--Work or Fight--Rationing the Nations, by Hon James Martin Miller,
Former US Consul to France--What the Yankee Dude'll Do
II UNITED STATES ENTERS THE WAR
The President Proclaims War--Interned Ships Are Siezed--Congress Votes
$7,000,000,000 for War--Enthusiasm in the United States--Raising an
American Army--War to Victory, Wilson Pledge--British and French
Commission Reaches America--American Troops in France
III AMERICANS AT CHATEAU THIERRY
Personal Accounts of Battle--Gas and Shell Shock--Marines Under
Fire--Americans Can Fight and Yell--Getting to the Front Under
Difficulties--The Big Day Dawns--The Shells Come Fast--A Funeral at the
Front--Impression of a French Lieutenant--Keeping the Germans on the
Run
IV AMERICAN VICTORY AT ST MIHIEL
First Major Action by All American Army--Stories to Folks Back
Home--Huns Carry Off Captive Women--Hell Has Cut Loose--Major Tells
His Story--Enormous Numbers of Guns and Tanks--Over the Top at 5:
AM--Texas and Oklahoma Troops Fight in True Ranger Style--Our Colored
Boys Win Credit
V THE WAR IN THE AIR
Air Craft--Liberty Motors and Air Service--The Danger of Aviation--Air
Plane's Tail Shot Off--Champions of the Air--Lieut. Lehr's Personal
Stories of Air Fighting at the Front--American Aviator Grabs Iron Cross
as Souvenir--Eyes of the Army Always Open
VI CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR AND HOW WAR WAS DECLARED
VII INVASION OF BELGIUM
Belgians Rush to Defense of Their Frontier--Towns Bombarded and Burned
--The Defense of Liège--Destruction of Louvain--Fall of Namur--German
Proclamation to Inhabitants--Belgian Capital Occupied by the Germans
Without Bloodshed--Important Part Played by American Minister Brand
Whitlock--March of the Kaiser's Troops Through the City--Belgian Forces
Retreat to Antwerp--Dinant and Termonde Fall
VIII BRITAIN RAISES AN ARMY
Earl Kitchener Appointed Secretary for War--A New Volunteer
Army--Expeditionary Force Landed in France--Field Marshal Sir John
French in Command--Colonies Rally to Britain's Aid--The Canadian
Contingent--Indian Troops Called For--Native Princes Offer Aid
IX EARLY BATTLES OF THE WAR
Belgian Resistance to the German Advance--The Fighting at Vise, Haelen,
Diest, Aerschot and Tirlemont--Mons and Charleroi the First Great
Battles of the War--Allies Make a Gallant Stand, but Forced to Retire
Across the French Border
X GERMAN ADVANCE ON PARIS
Allies Withdraw for Ten Days, Disputing Every Inch of Ground with the
Kaiser's Troops--Germans Push Their Way Through France in Three Main
Columns--Official Reports of the Withdrawing Engagements--Paris Almost
in Sight
XII BATTLE OF THE MARNE
German Plans Suddenly Changed--Direction of Advance Swings to the
Southeast When Close to the French Capital--Successful Resistance by
the Allies--The Prolonged Encounter at the Marne--Germans Retreat, with
Allies in Hot Pursuit for Many Miles
XII THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN
Slow Mobilization of Troops--Invasion of German and Austrian
Territory--Cossacks Lead the Van--Early Successes in East Prussia--"On
to Berlin"--Heavy Losses Inflicted on Austrians--German Troops Rushed to
the Defense of the Eastern Territory
XIII THE AUSTRO-SERVIAN CAMPAIGN
Declaration of War by Austria--Bombardment of Belgrade---Servian
Capital Removed--Seasoned Soldiers of Servia Give a Good Account of
Themselves--Many Indecisive Engagements--Servians in Austrian Territory
XIV STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD
Thrilling Incidents of the Great War Told by Actual Combatants--Personal
Experiences from the Lips of Survivors of the World's Bloodiest
Battles--Tales of Prisoners of War, Wounded Soldiers, and Refugees
Rendered Homeless in the Blighted Arena of Conflict--Hand-to-Hand
Fighting--Frightful Mortality Among Officers--How It Feels to Be
Wounded--In the "Valley of Death"--A Belgian Boy Hero--A British Cavalry
Charge--Spirit of French Women--In the Paris Military Hospital--German
Uhlans as Scouts--How a German Prince Died--Fearful State of
Battlefields
XV THE MYSTERY OF THE FLEETS
Movements of British Battleships Veiled in Secrecy--German Dreadnoughts
in North Sea and Baltic Ports--Activity of Smaller Craft--English Keep
Trade Routes Open--Several Minor Battles at Sea
XVI SUBMARINES AND MINES
Battleships in Constant Danger from Submerged Craft--Opinions of Admiral
Sir Percy Scott--Construction of Modern Torpedoes--How Mines Are Laid
and Exploded on Contact
XVII AERO-MILITARY OPERATIONS
Aerial Attacks on Cities--Some of the Achievements of the Airmen in the
Great War--Deeds of Heroism and Daring--Zeppelins in Action--Their
Construction and Operation
XVIII BATTLE OF THE AISNE
Most Prolonged Encounter in History Between Gigantic Forces--A Far-Flung
Battle Line--Germans Face French and British in the Aisne Valley
and Fight for Weeks--Armies Deadlocked After a Desperate and Bloody
Struggle
XIX FALL OF ANTWERP
Great Seaport of Belgium Besieged by a Large German Force--Forts
Battered by Heavy Siege Guns--Final Surrender of the City--Belgian and
British Defenders Escape--Exodus of Inhabitants--Germans Reach the Sea
XX THE WOUNDED AND PRISONERS
Typical Precautions Used by the German Army--The Soldier's First-Aid
Outfit--System in Hospital Arrangements--How Prisoners of War Are
Treated--Regulations Are Humane and Fair to All Concerned CHAPTER PAGE
XXI HORRORS OF THE WAR
Plan to Send Santa Claus Gifts From America to War-Stricken Children of
Europe--A Widespread Response---Movement Endorsed by Press, Pulpit and
Leading Citizens--Approved by Governments of Contending Nations
XXII LATER EVENTS OF THE WAR
Results of the Battle of the Rivers--Fierce Fighting in Northern
France--Developments on the Eastern Battle Front--The Campaign in the
Pacific--Naval Activities of the Powers
XXIII SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA
Torpedoed by a Submarine--Crisis in German-American Relations--The
Diplomatic Exchanges
XXIV A SUMMER OF SLAUGHTER
Submarine Activities--Horrors in Serbia--Bloody Battles East and
West--Italy Declares War and Invades Austria--Russians Pushed Back in
Galicia
XXV SECOND WINTER OF THE WAR
XXVI CLIMAX OF THE WAR
XXVII WORLD'S GREATEST SEA FIGHT
XXVIII BATTLES EAST AND WEST
XXIX CONTINUATION OF WAR IN 1917
XXX GENERAL PERSHING'S OWN STOBY
XXXI WHEN THE DAYS OF RECKONING DAWNED
XXXII HOME FOLLOWS THE FLAG
XXXIII TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE
XXXIV HONOR TO THE VICTORS
XXXV CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD WAR
INTRODUCTION
PRESIDENT WILSON'S EPOCHAL ADDRESS
CALLING FOR ACTION AGAINST GERMANY, DELIVERED BY HIM TO THE CONGRESS IN
EXTRAORDINARY SESSION, APRIL 3,
"Gentlemen of the Congress: I have called the congress into
extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, choices
of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right
nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility
of making.
"On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the
extraordinary announcement of the imperial German government that on
and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all
restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every
vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and
Ireland or the western coast of Europe or any of the ports controlled by
the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.
HOPED FOR MODIFIED WARFARE
"That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare
earlier in the war, but since April of last year the imperial government
had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in
conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should
not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels
which its submarines might seek to destroy, when no resistance was
offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given
at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats.
"The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved
in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and
unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
"The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every
kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their
destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom
without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board,
the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.
"Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved
and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with
safe conduct through the proscribed area by the German government itself
and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk
with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.
RELIED ON LAW OF NATIONS
"I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would be in
fact done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane
practices of civilized nations.
"International law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law
which would be respected and observed upon the seas, where no nation
had right of dominion and where lay the free highways of the world. By
painful stage after stage has that law been built up, with meager enough
results, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accomplished,
but always with a clear view, at least, of what the heart and conscience
of mankind demanded.
"This minimum of right the German government has swept aside under the
plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it
could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is
employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity
or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the
intercourse of the world.
_PRESIDENT WILSON'S WAR ADDRESS_
CHALLENGE TO ALL MANKIND
"I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and
serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of
the lives of noncombatants, men, women and children, engaged in pursuits
which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been
deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of
peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine
warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
"It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk,
American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to
learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations
have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way.
"There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each
nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we
make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a
temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as
a nation. We must put excited feelings away. Our motive will not be
revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation,
but only the vindication of right--of human right--of which we are only
a single champion.
"When I addressed the congress on the 26th of February last I thought
that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right
to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our
people safe against unlawful violence.
"But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because
submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have
been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend
ships against their attacks, as the law of nations has assumed that
merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers or cruisers,
visible craft giving chase upon the open sea.
"It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity, indeed, to
endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own intentions.
They must be dealt with upon sight if dealt with at all.
"The German government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all
within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense
of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their
right to defend.
"The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed
on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and
subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is
ineffectual enough at best. In such circumstances and in the face of
such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely only to
produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to
draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of
belligerents.
"There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: We will
not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of
our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against
which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs. They cut to the very
roots of human life.
MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY
"With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the
step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves,
but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty,
I advise that the congress declare the recent course of the imperial
German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the
government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the
status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it; and that it
take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough
state of defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its
resources to bring the government of the German empire to terms and end
the war.
COURSE WE MUST PURSUE
"What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable
co-operation in counsel and action with the governments now at war with
Germany and, as incident to that, the extension to those governments of
the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so
far as possible be added to theirs.
"It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material
resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the
incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most
economical and efficient way possible.
"It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all
respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means of
dealing with the enemy's submarines.
ARMY OF 500,000 MEN
"It will involve the immediate addition to the armed force of the United
States already provided for by law in case of war at least 500,000 men,
who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principal of universal
liability to service, and also the authorization of subsequent
additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and
can be handled in training.
"It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to
the government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be
sustained by the present generation, by well conceived taxation.
"I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems
to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will now
be necessary entirely on money borrowed. It is our duty, I most
respectfully urge, to protect our people, so far as we may, against the
very serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of
the inflation which would be produced by vast loans.
MUST SUPPLY THE ALLIES
"In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be
accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering
as little as possible in our own preparation and in the equipment of
our own military forces with the duty--for it will be a very practical
duty--of supplying the nations already at war with Germany with the
materials which they can obtain only from us or by our assistance. They
are in the field, and we should help them in every way to be effective
there.
"I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive
departments of the government, for the consideration of your committees,
measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I have mentioned.
I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them, as having been
framed after very careful thought by the branch of the government upon
which the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the
nation will most directly fall.
SEEKS FREEDOM OF WORLD
"While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be very
clear, and make very clear to all the world, what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and
normal course by the unhappy events of the last months, and I do not
believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by
them.
"I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when I
addressed the senate on the twenty-second of January last; the same that
I had in mind when I addressed the congress on the third of February
and on the twenty-sixth of February. "Our object now, as then, is to
vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world
as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the really
free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose
and of action as will henceforth insure the observance of those
principles.
"Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the
world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that
peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed
by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will--not by the
will of their people.
"We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances. We are at
the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same
standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be
observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the
individual citizens of civilized states.
NO QUARREL WITH GERMANS
"We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards
them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse
that their government acted in entering this war. It was not with their
previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars
used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were
nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in
the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were
accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns and tools.
"Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies
or set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of
affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make conquest.
"Such designs can be successfully worked out only under cover and where
no one has the right to ask questions. Cunningly contrived plans
of deception or aggression, carried, it may be, from generation to
generation, can be worked out and kept from the light only within the
privacy of courts or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a
narrow and privileged class. They are happily impossible where public
opinion commands and insists upon full information concerning all the
nation's affairs.
MENACE OF INTRIGUES
"A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a
partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic government could be
trusted to keep faith within or observe its covenants. It must be a
league of honor, a partnership of opinion.
"Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plottings of inner circles
who could plan what they would and give account to no one, would be a
corruption seated at its very heart.
"Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a
common end and prefer the interest of mankind to any narrow interest of
their own.
WELCOME TO FREE RUSSIA
"Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our hope
for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening things
that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia?
"Russia was known by those who knew it best to have been always in fact
democratic at heart in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the
intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct,
their habitual attitude toward life. The autocracy that crowned the
summit of her political structure, as long as it had stood and terrible
as was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin,
character or purpose; and now it has been shaken off and the great,
generous Russian people have added in all their native majesty and might
to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice,
and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a league of honor.
"One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian
autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very
outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and
even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues
everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within
and without, our industries, and our commerce.
"Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even before the war
began, and it is unhappily not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proved
in our courts of justice, that the intrigues which have more than
once come perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the
industries of the country have been carried on at the instigation, with
the support, and even under the personal direction of official agents
of the imperial government accredited to the government of the United
States.
SOUGHT TO IGNORE PLOTS
"Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we have
sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them
because we knew that their source lay not in any hostile feeling or
purpose of the German people towards us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant
of them as we ourselves were) but only in the selfish designs of a
government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing.
"But they played their part in serving to convince us at last that that
government entertains no real friendship for us and means to act against
our peace and security at its convenience. That it means to stir up
enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note to the German
minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence.
FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
"We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know
that in such a government, following such methods, we can never have a
friend, and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying
in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured
security for the democratic governments of the world.
"We are now about to accept gage of battle with this natural foe to
liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to
check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that
we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight
thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its
people, the German people included; for the rights of nations, great and
small; the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and
of obedience.
SEEK NO SELFISH ENDS
"The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted
upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish
ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no
indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices
we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the right of
mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as
secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.
"Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object,
seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all
free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as
belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio
the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.
SILENT AS TO AUSTRIA
"I have said nothing of the governments allied with the imperial German
government because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to
defend our right and our honor.
"The Austro-Hungarian government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified
endorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare
adopted now without disguise by the imperial German government, and it
has therefore not been possible for this government to receive Count
Tarnowski, the ambassador recently accredited to this government by the
imperial and royal government of Austria-Hungary; but that government
has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United
States on the seas.
"On these premises I take the liberty, for the present at least, of
postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna.
We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there
are no other means of defending our rights.
"It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents
in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus,
not in enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or
disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible
government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of
right and is running amuck.
GERMANS IN AMERICA
"We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and
shall desire nothing so much as the early reëstablishment of intimate
relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for
them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our
hearts.
"We have borne with their present government through all these bitter
months because of that friendship, exercising a patience and forbearance
which would otherwise have been impossible.
"We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship
in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women
of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share our
life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact
loyal to their neighbors and to the government in the hour of test. They
are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never
known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with
us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind
and purpose. If there should be disloyalty it will be dealt with with a
firm hand of stern repression; but if it lifts its head at all it will
lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a
lawless and malignant few.
CIVILIZATION IN BALANCE
"It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the congress,
which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be,
many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful
thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most
terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be
in the balance.
"But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the
things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy,
for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their
own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a
universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall
bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last
free.
"To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything
that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who
know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood
and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness
and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no
other."
CHAPTER I
WHY WE WENT TO WAR
MEMORIES OF BEAUTIFUL FRANCE--WHY I WAS NOT ACCEPTED AS CONSUL TO
GERMANY
BY HON. JAMES MARTIN MILLER
FORMER UNITED STATES CONSUL IN FRANCE
To have lived on the principal battle ground of the world war was a
privilege the author did not appreciate at the time. As representative
of the United States Government in the Consular district of France that
includes the departments of the Aisne, Ardennes, Marne, Aube, Meuse,
Vosges, Haute-Marne and Meurthe-et-Moselle, he lived and had his
headquarters at Reims, some years before the war. Reims is (or rather
was) a beautiful city of 112,000 people. The story of the city goes
back to the days of the Roman empire, and bears the mark of many Gallic
insurrections. In comparatively later times Joan of Arc caused Charles
VII to be crowned in the great Cathedral there--one of the most
glorious and stately in all Europe, now a ruin. A history of the eight
departments (or small states) mentioned above would include a history
of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, and of the greatest and most
desperate of all wars, the one just brought to a close.
My Consular district bordered on Belgium, Luxemburg and Alsace-Lorraine.
The Marne, the Aisne, the Vesle, and other streams whose names adorn
with sad pride so many of America's battle-flags, flow through it. After
1914 Belgium saw very little fighting; but this district saw almost four
years of continuous and enormous battle. It was overrun time and again.
Neither Belgium nor any other country suffered such devastation, nor
such material destruction. Today it is a vast graveyard. Hundreds of
thousands of men dyed its soil with their lifeblood. All America and all
the world knows about Chateau Thierry and St. Mihiel, and the gallantry
of American troops in those two brilliant and significant actions. It is
difficult to realize the stupendous tragedy that through all those years
hung over that beautiful country, whose fields were once as familiar to
me as any fields of home. I look back to that time with affection, in
the glow of happy memories.
Americans before this war had held the Monroe Doctrine in high
reverence. Presidents had strengthened it in their messages. Candidates
for office for more than half a century had argued as a campaign issue
that the United States must never be drawn into foreign entanglements;
that no European nation ever would be allowed to interfere in the
affairs of the American continents. This doctrine was so deeply
rooted that objectors everywhere rose up when we began to talk of
"preparedness" against the ultimate day when we could no longer keep
out of the fight. Many declared it would be "unconstitutional" for the
United States to send troops to Europe. The war lords of Germany took
advantage of this traditional sentiment among our people and felt sure
that the United States never would come in, no matter how many American
lives nor how much American property Germany might destroy, nor how many
of our ships German pirates might sink at sea, without warning. The
German government had built up a propaganda in this country that at one
time threatened to poison the minds of all our people. There were some
among us who hated England, and wanted to see Germany win for no other
reason than that. Others hated Russia, and so desired Germany to win.
Germany's secret intrigues in Mexico came near to getting us into a war
with that country. In the face of all these things there was a strong
sentiment among our people and even in Congress favorable to Germany. It
is easy now to say that we should have gone to war when the Lusitania
was sunk, but pro-German feeling was so noisy and so strong, even though
it was held by a minority, that the Congress itself was affected and
withheld its hand.
Public sentiment had to be crystalized so that it would stand back of
the administration. With our lack of a secret service capable of coping
with the German agents who were busy everywhere and all the time, we
were at a disadvantage in gathering evidence to convince our people that
the Germans were menacing our very existence. Even after the secret
service was built up it took many months of hard work and several
thousand government men to uncover and stamp out their organizations
and their ruthless plots. The slimy tracks of the German ambassador at
Washington had to be followed through devious underground channels that
no one had suspected. The embassy had filled the country with German
poison gas, and backed the German campaign of wholesale arson. Germans
living here, many of them American born, were busily counteracting
public opinion as the evidences accumulated.
Democracies are always at a disadvantage in dealing with monarchies; in
the initial stages of war at least. We have seen it demonstrated that
a democracy must become autocratic if it is to carry on a war
successfully. But an American autocracy takes the shape of a temporary
delegation of unusual power in conditions that cannot wait for the slow
action of ordinary times; and those who exercise it are put in power
by the people themselves, to do the people's will. It was necessary to
consolidate not only the direction of the nation itself, but of our
military affairs abroad. We soon got the home situation in hand, and
then the President of the United States threw his influence, backed by
all the American people, toward bringing the allied armies and those of
the United States under one head in the person of General Foch as
Field Marshal. This was not accomplished until after the great Italian
disaster, when it looked as though the Austro-Hungarian armies would
crush Italy. The same may be said of the threatened disaster to the
British army early in 1918, when von Hindenburg began his great drive
toward Calais and Paris. Here were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and
Bulgaria, four monarchies dominated by the German government, fighting
nearly all the democracies of the world, not considering Russia, which
dropped out shortly before the United States effectively entered the
war.
We will not consider Japan's position as a nominal member of the
entente, except for her action at the beginning of the war in capturing
Kiauchau, China, the German fortified port and naval base in the Orient,
and sweeping Germany out of the Pacific by taking the Marshall islands.
Beyond this, Japan sent soldiers to Eastern Siberia to help in police
duty, and in guarding the great stores of supplies accumulated by the
Russians at Vladivostok. These stores had been bought largely upon the
credit extended to Russia by the United States.
With Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary gone as monarchies, Japan is
the greatest of the remaining imperial states. We have seen more than a
dozen kings, emperors, princes and grand dukes pass into the discard as
a result of a war which they themselves brought on.
France tried to discard kings and princes in 1798. The sovereignty of
the people was proclaimed in that war, but the governments which have
ruled France since have been many, and presented wide differences. In
this present age, no doubt it will be much easier to establish a stable
democracy upon the wreck of a monarchy than it could have been a century
ago. Still, the construction of a democracy is a difficult ordeal for
people who have always been imperialists. The several monarchies, big
and little, that have fallen in this war, present most perplexing
problems. There are boundary and racial disputes of the most bitter kind
between some of their peoples. But the great democracies of the world
that won this war are taking the part of "big brothers" to these, and
are seeing to it that their petty quarrels and internal differences
are held in check. Each of these countries, even though they establish
democracies, will have strong royalist parties that will constitute
a standing threat. France even to this day has a royalist group of
considerable strength. Their persistent claim is that France will again
be a monarchy. The United States is really the only democracy without
such a party. It is the only republic that was not founded on the ruin
of a monarchy.
WHY I WAS NOT ACCEPTED AS CONSUL TO GERMANY
I have had some personal experience with the late German Imperial
Government. As a war correspondent it was my duty to give to the world
an account of the forcible deportation of King Mataafa from Samoa to the
Marshall Islands, where he was kept in exile six years. The Germans had
shoved him aside to make room for Malieto, an imbecile and a German
figurehead. I was there again when Mataafa, at the end of those six
years, returned to Samoa, to the great joy of his people.
A few years later I discovered that Germany's policy was to "mark" any
individual who wrote or spoke in criticism of anything German.
I was appointed United States Consul to Aix la Chapelle, Germany, four
years after those articles appeared. My appointment came from President
Roosevelt, and was confirmed by the United States Senate. When I arrived
in Germany I found I was United States Consul so far as the United
States Government was concerned, but I was put off in the matter of my
exequatur (certificate of authority) from the government to which I
was accredited; and without an exequatur, I could not act. I was kept
cooling my heels in the consulate several months before I found out what
was the matter. My newspaper articles describing what the Germans had
done in Samoa, published four years earlier, were being held against me.
My presence in Germany was not desired.
I had crossed the Atlantic with Prince Henry, the Kaiser's brother and
Admiral of the German Navy, in February, 1901, when the Prince brought
his party of a dozen or so militarists to this country to "further
cement the amity and good will" existing between the great republic
and the great empire. It later developed that this was a well planned
operation in German propaganda. As a representative of the Associated
Press, I had written of it. That was just after I had written the Samoan
articles.
Speck von Sternberg was the German Ambassador to Washington. He was
in Paris. I went there to see him and ascertain, if I could, why my
exequatur was withheld. The Government at Washington could get no
information on the subject. The whole affair was clothed in mystery.
After some conversation I suggested to Ambassador von Sternberg that
perhaps the foreign office at Berlin was withholding the document
because of my writings on German colonial matters. Then it came out--my
guess was true. Some underlings in the foreign office had the case in
charge. The Ambassador suggested that as I knew Prince Henry, I would
better write him at Kiel. I did this, with the result that the obstacle
was removed and the exequatur issued.
WHY WE WENT TO WAR
_German Propaganda in the United States and Mexico_--_Sinking of the
Lusitania_--_Unrestricted Submarine Warfare_.
WHY WE WENT TO WAR
During two years preceding our entrance upon war, Germany had been
carrying on open warfare against us, within our own borders. For more
than thirty years Germany's policy of preparatory penetration had been
in course. As we know now, every country, all round the globe, but
especially the United States in North America and Brazil and Venezuela
in South America, had been filled with Germans, ostensibly settlers,
business men and followers of the higher professions, but for the
greater part agents of Germany, in continuous contact with Potsdam and
under Potsdam direction. It was the business of these imported Germans
to foster the German idea, exalt Germany's leadership in military power
and in science and the arts, impress their language, their literature,
music and customs upon our people, and to do all those things which
might work for the day when Germany, having faked a partnership with
Almighty God, should reach out for world dominion.
The processes were pressed with that strange blend of industry,
stupidity, mendacity and cunning which characterize the Prussian and all
his acts. Under our noses a German solidarity was attempted here, and in
part achieved. Organizations having Prussian ends in view were numerous,
large, popular and unsuspected. Threading them through and through was
a spy system unbelievably thorough and amazingly adroit. Potsdam had
us marked as a nation of easy going money getters, to be bled white,
crammed with her muddy kultur and taught the goose-step, at her imperial
leisure, after France and England had fallen to her guns.
But her blend of qualities, no matter how strong in itself, was
nullified by just one lack: the total inability of the Prussian mind to
understand the mind of the world exterior to Germany. In the day of test
it failed.
Because of that inability, and knowing full well how readily the German
mind could be terrorized, the outbreak of war in Europe brought an
outbreak of blind German violence in the United States. We were to be
impressed by the German power to strike. Our soil was chosen as a garden
of domestic sedition, and of foreign conspiracy against powers with
which we were at peace. To keep us busy with troubles of our own, German
propaganda and German money in Mexico raised on our southern border a
threatening spectre of war. We were to have been rushed into conflict
with Mexico and kept employed there while being terrorized by wholesale
arson and sabotage at home, so that by no chance could any friendly
European power look to us for help. The scheme came near to succeeding,
for our people were aroused by Mexican aggression, and the flaunting
insults of Mexican authority, prompted by German agents. The policy of
our Government saved us from falling into a trap that might have held us
fast while Germany overran the whole of Europe and made ready to come
a-plundering here at her own time and convenience.
If the truth had been known by the people then as clearly as it was
known at Washington, nothing could have held us back: We would not have
bothered with Mexico at all. We would have joined the free nations of
Europe, and nobody may guess what would have happened. Certainly we
could not have assembled the men and the resources we actually and
swiftly did assemble later, when the real hour sounded. We would have
cut a sorry figure and gone into the mess confusedly. Washington knew.
The President knew so well that through 1915 and 1916 he and others in
high places never ceased crying a warning to "prepare." The President
himself toured the country and told the people everywhere that with a
world on fire we could not hope to escape unsinged.
He said openly as much as he dared. Under the surface the Government
did much more. The rapid movement of events once we were declared
a combatant would have been impossible otherwise. That rapidity of
effective action surprised the world only because it had all been
planned before a word was said.
In the years of our neutrality our course as a nation was surely shaping
itself for war, without an outward sign or act. Ruthless destruction of
property and of life became too open, too frequent, too outrageous, for
the patience of even a long-suffering, tolerant people such as we. The
first impulse of genuine resentment was given when the Lusitania went
down with its neutral passengers, a defenseless ship on a peaceful
errand, drowning more than a hundred Americans of both sexes and all
ages without the slightest notice, or the faintest chance of escape.
Any nation other than ours would have gone to war in a moment over
such a blow in the face. We did not. Farther, we endured a sudden and
flagrant increase of German propaganda in high quarters and low, and of
German insolence openly and defiantly parading itself. The catalogue of
provocations grew daily, and daily bred anger, but our temper held until
in February of 1917, when Germany proclaimed unrestricted piracy by
submarines, and under the thin pretext of starving out the British
Isles, American and other ships were destroyed with all on board,
wholesale.
Even then our hand was withheld until Germany advised us that we might
send just one ship a week to Europe, one ship and no more, provided that
solitary ship were painted in a manner prescribed in the permission,
and then held strictly to a course laid down by the German admiralty.
Germany, a third rate naval power, had arbitrarily forbidden us the
freedom of the seas.
Then our patience broke. For this and all the other causes Germany had
given us, and for our own safety and the rescue of a world that without
us would have perished, the United States went to war.
WORK OR FIGHT
Back of every American soldier about fifty men and women were needed
in order that he be supplied with everything his physical, moral and
military well being might require. They were put there. The result was
a sweeping change, an immense expansion of energy in the United States
itself. The draft took care of the army. No time or trouble had to be
given to filling the ranks and keeping them full. The enormous sums of
money necessary to finance our allies as well as ourselves were promptly
oversubscribed in a series of loans, the first and least of which ran
into three billion dollars, the fourth into six billions, a sum larger
than any single loan ever floated by any other nation. Idleness was
abolished. The order to "work or fight" was strictly enforced upon all
the people, rich and poor alike, for any attempt to except any one or
any class would have been blown away in a gale of laughter. In a space
incredibly brief the United States became a nation of actual workers, in
which every individual did his or her share, submitting meanwhile, with
good grace and no murmuring, to being rationed. Interstate utilities
were taken over and operated by the government, including the railway,
telegraph and telephone lines; and government fixed prices on the
necessaries of life. Everything was subordinated to the one and only
purpose of winning the war. All that we were and all that we had was
thoroughly mobilized behind the fighting arms, the army and the navy.
RATIONING THE NATIONS
Almost immediately after the first military and naval preparations had
been set in operation the United States Government, taking no chance as
against the future, began to regulate the lives and living of Americans
at home. A policy of conservation, so well devised that it went into
effect without the slightest disturbance of daily living and daily
routine, was at once adopted.
England, France and Belgium had to be fed. Belgium had to be clothed and
housed as well as fed. Out of our abundance had to come the means to
those ends, as well as to equip and maintain vast armies of our own,
from bases three thousand miles away in Europe and twice as far in Asia.
The whole nation was mobilized for war.
Britain and France had come through more than three years of
close-lipped but bone-cracking effort, in which every aspect of domestic
life was changed, the final ounce of strength exerted, privations
unheard of endured in grim silence. America saved them, and not alone by
force of arms against the common enemy.
WHAT THE YANKEE DUDE'LL DO
BY TOM H. DEVEREAUX.
Uncle Samuel blew the bugle call,
For his boys to fall in line,
And they came, yes, by the million,
On the march at double time,
With muskets on their shoulders
They answered to the call
To defend our nation's honor,
And for Liberty of all.
They buckled on their knapsacks,
And they loaded up their guns,
To the tune of Yankee Doodle,
They whipped those Turks and Huns;
For their hearts were with the colors
Of the red, the white and blue,
And they've shown those fiendish Prussians
What the Yankee Dude'll Do.
REFRAIN
Singing rally round Old Glory, boys,
And fight for freedom true,
Rally to the Stars and Stripes
As your fathers did for you.
Oh! we sailed across the ocean deep,
With the red, the white and blue,
And we've shown that devilish Kaiser
What the Yankee Dude'll Do.
From our north land, and our east land,
To our far-off Golden Gate,
From our south way down in Dixie
And the old Palmetto State,
Bravest sons of all the nation came
To fight our country's foe,
Who would follow our Old Glory,
Where her stars and stripes might go;
To the battle cry of Freedom,
All our men would surely come,
And fight for world-wide Victory
At the call of fife and drum.
We have proved to all creation
That our boys are real true blue,
And we've shown those fiendish Prussians,
What the Yankee Dude'll Do.