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 Blighted Arena of Conflict_.
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING
Cavalry fighting on the banks of the River Marne in the year 1914 was
almost identical with the charge in the days when Hannibal's Numidian
horse charged at Romans at Lake Trasimene, or when Charles Martel and
the chivalry of France worsted the Moors and saved Europe on the plains
of Tours.
A good description of a cavalry charge was given by Private Capel of the
Third British Hussars, a veteran of the Boer war, who took part in the
fighting beginning at Mons and was separated from his regiment in a
charge at Coulommiers, in the battle of the Marne, when his horse fell.
"You hear," said he, "the enemy's bugles sounding the charge. Half a
mile away you see the Germans coming and it seems that in an instant
they will be on you. You watch fascinated and cold with a terror that
makes you unable to lift an arm or do anything but wait and tremble.
"They come closer and still you are horrorstruck. Then you feel your
horse fretting and suddenly you start from your daze, and fear changes
suddenly to hate. Your hand goes to the saber hilt, your teeth clinch
and you realize that you must strike hard before the enemy, who is now
very close, can strike. Every muscle tightens with the waiting.
"Before your own bugles have sounded two notes of the charge you find
yourself leaning forward over the neck of your galloping horse. All the
rest is a mad gallop, yells of the enemy and your own answer, a terrible
shock in which you are almost dismounted, and then you find yourself
face to face with a single opponent who, standing up in the stirrups, is
about to split your head. You notice that you are striking like a fiend
with the saber.
"After that madness passes it seems almost like a complex maneuver and
soon you find yourself riding for dear life--perhaps to escape, perhaps
after the Germans. You then realize that you have been whipped and that
the charge has failed, or you see the backs of the fleeing enemy,
feel your horse straining in pursuit and know that you have gained a
victory."
FRIGHTFUL MORTALITY AMONG OFFICERS
The official reports of the loss of life in the battles in France tell
of the large number of officers killed. Sharp-shooters on both sides
have had instructions to aim at officers. These sharpshooters are often
concealed far in advance of their troops. Their small number and their
smokeless powder make their discovery most difficult. This lesson was
learned at great cost to the British during the Boer war.
Dispatches from Bordeaux stated that letters found on dead and captured
German officers prove the truth of reports regarding the terrible
mortality in the German ranks, especially among officers. In the Tenth
and Imperial Guard Corps of the German army it is said that only a few
high ranking officers escaped being shot, and many have been killed.
The German officers have distinguished themselves by their courage,
according to the stories of both British and French who fought them.
An officer of an Imperial Guard regiment, who was taken prisoner after
being wounded, said:
"My regiment left for the front with sixty officers; it counts today
only five. "We underwent terrible trials."
A German artillery officer wrote:
"Modern war is the greatest of follies. Companies of 250 men in the
Tenth Army Corps have been reduced to seventy men, and there are
companies of the guard commanded by volunteers of a year, all the
officers having disappeared."
SAYS GEBMANS FOUGHT EVERY DAY
The following is from a letter, written during the prolonged battle of
the Aisne by a lieutenant of the Twenty-sixth German Artillery:
"The Tenth Corps has been constantly in action since the opening of the
campaign. Nearly all our horses have fallen. We fight every day from
5 in the morning till 8 at night, without eating or drinking. The
artillery fire of the French is frightful. We get so tired that we
cannot ride a horse, even at a walk. Toward noon our battery was
literally under a rain of shrapnel shells and that lasted for three
days. We hope for a decisive battle to end the situation, for our troops
cannot rest. A French aviator last night threw four bombs, killing four
men and wounding eight, and killing twenty horses and wounding ten more.
We do not receive any more mail, for the postal automobiles of the Tenth
Corps have been destroyed."
HOW IT FEELS TO BE WOUNDED
Many men in the trenches have proved themselves heroes in the war. A
wounded British private told this story:
"We lay in the trench, my friend and I, and when the order to fire came
we shot, and shot till our rifles burned up. Still the Germans swarmed
on toward us, and then my friend received a bad wound. I turned to my
work again, continuing to shoot slowly. Then I rose a little too high on
my shoulder.
"Do you know what it is like to be wounded? A little sting pierced my
arm like a hot wire; too sharp almost to be sore, and my rifle fell from
me. I looked at my friend then and he was dead."
In one casualty list made public by the British war office in September,
sixteen officers were reported killed, thirty-eight wounded and ten
missing. The famous Coldstream Guards and the Black Watch regiments were
among the sufferers.
HOW GENEBAL FINDLEY DIED
A correspondent in France described the death of General Neil Douglas
Findley of the British Royal Artillery as follows:
"When at dawn the British advance continued toward Soissons the enemy
was fighting an exceptionally fierce rearguard action. A terrible
shell fire was directed against our artillery under General Findley,
temporarily situated in a valley by the village of Prise. It seemed a
matter of moments when we should have to spike our guns and General
Findley saw the urgency for action.
"'Boys,' his voice echoed down the line, 'we are going to get every gun
into position,' Then deliberately the general approached a regimental
chaplain kneeling beside a gunner. 'Here are some of my personal
belongings, chaplain. See that they don't go astray,'
"One by one our guns began to blaze away and the general had a word
of encouragement and advice for every man. In vain his staff tried to
persuade him to leave the danger zone.
"Our range was perfect, the German fire slackened and died away and with
a yell our men prepared to advance. The outburst came too soon, one
parting shell exploding in a contact with Findley's horse, shattering
man and beast."
KILLED FOE IN REVOLVER DUEL
While their men battled on a road near Antwerp, it is said that a
Belgian cavalry sergeant and an officer of German Uhlans fought a
revolver duel which ended when the Belgian killed his foe, sending a
bullet into his neck at close range.
The daring Uhlans had approached close to the Antwerp fortifications on
a reconnoitering expedition. They were seen by a small Belgian force,
which immediately went out on the road to give battle. As they neared
each other, the German commander shouted a jibe at the Belgian sergeant.
There was no answer, but the sergeant rode at a gallop straight for
the Uhlan. Miraculously escaping the shots aimed at him, he drew up
alongside the officer and informed him that his life was to be forfeited
for the insulting words he had uttered. Both began firing with their
revolvers, while at the same time their men clashed.
Only a few of the soldiers witnessed the thrilling duel, for they
themselves were fighting desperately. After their officer's death the
Uhlans withdrew, leaving a number of dead. Someone carried word of the
duel to King Albert, who had just arrived in Antwerp, and he called
before him and personally congratulated the sergeant, Henri Pyppes. The
latter was wounded in the arm by one of the Uhlan's bullets, but he
refused to be taken to the hospital and remained on duty in the field.
LITTLE STORIES FROM FRANCE
Count Guerry de Beauregard, a French veteran of the war of 1870, thus
announced the death of a son at the front: "One son already has met the
death of the brave beyond the frontier at the head of a squadron of
the Seventh Hussars. Others will avenge him. Another of my sons, an
artilleryman, is with the general staff. My eldest son is with the
Twenty-first Chasseurs. Long live France!"
A wounded French soldier who was taken to Marseilles verified a
remarkable story of his escape from death while fighting in German
Lorraine. The soldier owes his life to a small bust of Emperor William,
which he picked up in a village school and placed in his haversack. A
German bullet struck the bust and, thus deflected, inflicted only a
slight wound on the soldier.
Twenty German prisoners taken during the melee near Crecy, were herded
together in a clearing, their rifles being stacked nearby. In a rash
moment they thought that they were loosely guarded and made a combined
rush for the rifles. "They will never make another," was the laconic
report of the guard.
SAYS DEAD FILLED THE MEUSE
Edouard Helsey of the Paris newspaper, Le Journal, reported to be
serving with the colors, wrote under date of August 29:
"It would be difficult to estimate the number of Germans killed last
week. Whole regiments were annihilated at some points. They came out of
the woods section by section. One section, one shell--and everything was
wiped out.
"At two or three places which I am forbidden to name corpses filled the
Meuse until the river overflowed. This is no figure of speech. The river
bed literally was choked by the mass of dead Germans. The effect of our
artillery surpasses even our dreams."
DETROIT ARTIST'S NARROW ESCAPE
Lawrence Stern Stevens, an artist of Detroit, narrowly escaped death
near Aix-la-Chapelle at the hands of a crazed German lieutenant, by whom
he was suspected of being a spy.
Stevens left Brussels on Aug. 24 in an automobile. He was accompanied by
a photographer and a Belgian newspaper correspondent, and his intention
had been to make sketches on the battlefield. His arrest at Laneffe
thwarted this plan. He underwent a terrifying ordeal at the hands of his
demented captor, although he was not actually injured.
On the evening of Aug. 24 he was court-martialed and sentenced to death
and held in close confinement over night. Early on the morning of Aug.
25 he was led out, as he supposed, to be shot, but the plans had been
changed and instead he was taken before Gen. von Arnim. After being
forced to march with German troops for two days, Stevens fell in with
a party of American correspondents at Beaumont, from which point he
traveled to Aix-la-Chapelle on a prison train, and eventually reached
Rotterdam and safety.
SAD PLIGHT OF FRENCH FUGITIVES
M. Brieux, the noted French dramatist, who witnessed the arrival at
Chartres of a train full of fugitives who had fled from their homes
before the German advance, described his experience for the Figaro. The
fleeing people gathered round him and told him stories and he wrote his
impressions as follows:
"Children weep or gaze wide-eyed, wondering what is the matter. Old
folks sit in gloomy silence. Women with haggard cheeks and disheveled
hair seem to belong to another age.
"They tell of invaders who scattered powder around or threw petroleum
into their houses and then set them afire.
"And when did this happen? Yesterday! It is not a matter of centuries
ago in distant climes, but yesterday, and quite near to us. Yet one
cannot believe it was really yesterday that these things were done."
One of the fugitives explained to M. Brieux why after the first hour of
their flight she had to carry her elder child as well as her baby. She
showed him a pair of boots.
"I felt the inside with my fingers," says Brieux. "Nails had come
through the soles. I looked at the child's feet. They were dirty with
red brown clots. It was blood."
CHAUNCEY DEPEW ON A RUNNING-BOARD
Chauncey M. Depew, former United States Senator for New York, was in
Geneva when the trouble began. He said on his return: "After crossing
the border into France we picked up men joining the colors on the way to
Paris, until our train could hold no more.
"Whenever I stuck my head into a corridor the soldiers would set up a
cheer on seeing my side whiskers. They mistook me for an Englishman and
cried: 'Long live the _entente cordiale!_'"
IN THE "VALLEY OF DEATH"
The fiercest fighting of all that preceded the Russian victory at Lublin
was in a gorge near the village of Mikolaiff, which the Russian soldiers
reverently named the "Valley of Death."
The gorge was full of dead men, lying in heaps, according to an officer
who participated in the battle. "When we attacked at 3 o'clock in the
morning," he said, "the gorge contained 15,000 Austrians, a large
proportion of whom were mowed down by the artillery fire which plowed
through the valley in the darkness. The Austrians surrendered and we
entered the gorge to receive their arms, while their general stood
quietly on a hill watching the scene. Eight of his standards being
turned over to the Russians was more than he could bear, for he drew a
pistol and shot himself."
GENERAL USE OF KHAKI UNIFORMS
The war put everybody into khaki, with a few exceptions. On the battle
line or in the field the English soldier and the English officer get
out of their richly colored and historic uniforms and into khaki, of a
neutral hue. The Germans are in gray. The Austrians have most of their
soldiers in khaki, and the Russians all wear khaki-colored cloth. The
French still cling to their blue coats and brilliant red trousers,
although steps are being taken to reclothe the army in more modern
fashion, and the Belgians have a uniform that is very similar to the
French.
The French and Belgian officers are dangerously ornamented with gilt
trimmings during warfare and present such brilliant targets that some of
the Belgian regiments during hard fighting with the Germans have lost
nearly all of their leaders.
The new twentieth century mode of warfare puts the ban on anything that
glitters, even the rifle barrels, bayonets and sabers.
A BELGIAN BOY HERO
On a cot in the Red Cross hospital at Ostend, September 12, lay one of
the heroes of the war. He is Sergeant van der Bern of the Belgian army,
and only 17 years old. He was only a corporal when he started out with
twenty-nine men on a reconnoitering expedition during which he was
wounded, but displayed such valor that his bravery was publicly related
to all the soldiers, and Van der Bern was promoted.
Van der Bern and his little command came suddenly upon a band of fifty
Uhlans while on their expedition. Outnumbered, his men turned and fled.
The corporal shouted to them and dashed alone toward the Germans. The
other Belgians rallied and threw themselves upon the Uhlans. Within a
few minutes only Van der Bern and two others of his command remained.
Twenty-seven Belgians were dead or wounded. Within a few minutes more of
the corporal's companions fell, mortally wounded. Then the boy picked
them up and displaying almost superhuman strength carried them to
safety. As he was making his retreat, burdened by the two wounded men,
Van der Bern was hit twice by German bullets. He staggered on, placed
his men in charge of the Red Cross and without a word walked to
headquarters and reported the engagement. Then he fell in a faint. WHEN
THE GERMANS RETREATED
A vivid description of the rout and retreat of the Germans during
hurricane and rain on September 10, which turned the roads into river
ways so that the wheels of the artillery sank deep in the mire, was
given by a correspondent writing from a point near Melun. He described
how the horses strained and struggled, often in vain, to drag the guns
away, and continued:
"I have just spoken with a soldier who has returned wounded from the
pursuit that will go down with the terrible retreat from Moscow as one
of the crowning catastrophes of the world. They fled, he declares, as
animals flee who are cornered, and know it.
"Imagine a roadway littered with guns, knapsacks, cartridge belts,
Maxims and heavy cannons even. There were miles and miles of it. And
the dead--those piles of horses and those stacks of men! I have seen it
again and again, men shot so close to one another that they remained
standing after death. The sight was terrible and horrible beyond words.
"The retreat rolls back and trainload after trainload of British and
French are swept toward the weak points of the retreating host. This
is the advantage of the battleground which the Allies have chosen. The
network of railways is like a spider's web. As all railways center upon
Paris, it is possible to thrust troops upon the foe at any point with
almost incredible speed, and food and munitions are within arm's reach."
PRINCE JOACHIM WOUNDED
Prince Joachim, youngest son of Emperor William, was wounded during a
battle with the Russians and taken to Berlin. On September 15 it was
reported from Berlin that the wound was healing rapidly, despite the
tearing effect of a shrapnel ball through the thigh. The empress and the
surgeons were having considerable trouble in keeping the patient quiet
in bed. He wanted to get on his feet again and insisted that he ought to
be able to rejoin his command at the front in about a fortnight.
"The prince treats the wound as a trifle," said the Berlin dispatch.
"He smilingly greeted an old palace servant whom he had known since
childhood with the remark: 'Am I not a lucky dog?'"
From an officer who was with Prince Joachim when he was wounded the
following description of the incident was obtained:
"It was during the hottest part of the battle, shortly before the
Russian resistance was broken, that the prince, who was with the staff
as information officer, was dispatched to the firing line to learn how
the situation stood. He rode off with Adjutant Captain von Tahlzahn and
had to traverse the distance, almost a mile, under a heavy hail of shell
and occasional volleys.
"As the Russian artillery was well served and knew all the ranges from
previous measurements, the ride was not a particularly pleasant one,
but he came through safely and stood talking with the officers when a
shrapnel burst in their vicinity. The prince and the adjutant were
both hit, the latter receiving contusions on the leg, but the shot not
penetrating.
"To stop and whip out an emergency bandage which the prince, like every
officer and private, carries sewed inside the blouse, and bind it around
the thigh to check the bleeding was the work of but a moment. It was a
long and dangerous task, however, to get him back to the first bandaging
station, about a mile to the rear, under fire and from there he was
transported to the advanced hospital at Allenstein, where he remained
until he was able to travel.
"Prince Joachim, who was already recommended for the Iron Cross for
bravery before Namur, received the decoration shortly before he was
wounded. The prince, who has many friends in America, conveyed through
his adjutant his thanks for assurances of American sympathy and
interest."
EX-EMPRESS DEVOTED TO FRANCE
The aged ex-Empress Eugenie of France, widow of Napoleon III, has been
living for many years in retirement in the county of Hampshire, England.
She was recently visited by Lord Portsmouth, an old friend, who found
the illustrious lady full of courage and devotion to the French cause
in the present war. In explaining her failure to treat her guest as she
would have desired, the empress said:
"I cannot give you dinner because most of the men of my kitchen have
gone to war."
A "BATTLESHIP ON WHEELS"
Just before the war France added to its equipment the most modern of
fighting devices. It is a train of armored cars with rapid-fire guns,
conning towers and fighting tops. As a death-dealing war apparatus it
is the most unique of anything used by any of the nations. This
"battleship" on wheels consists of an armored locomotive, two rapid-fire
gun carriages and two armored cars for transporting troops. The
rapid-fire guns are mounted in such manner that they can be swung and
directed to any point of the compass. Rising from the car behind the
locomotive, is a conning tower from which an officer takes observations
and directs the fire of the rapid-fire guns. Rails running on top of
the cars permit troops to fire from the roof of the cars. For opening
railway communications this "battleship on wheels" is unexcelled.
GAVE HIM A FORK TO MATCH
The scene is a village on the outskirts of Muelhausen, in Alsace. A
lieutenant of German scouts dashes up to the door of the only inn in
the village, posts men at the doorway and entering, seats himself at a
table.
He draws his saber and places it on the table at his side and orders
food in menacing tones.
The village waiter is equal to the occasion. He goes to the stables and
fetches a pitchfork and places it at the other side of the visitor.
"Stop! What does this mean?" roared the lieutenant, furiously.
"Why," said the waiter, innocently, pointing to the saber, "I thought
that was your knife, so I brought you a fork to match."
DECORATED ON THE BATTLEFIELD
On a train loaded with wounded which passed through Limoges, September
11, was a young French officer, Albert Palaphy, whose unusual bravery on
the field of battle won for him the Legion of Honor.
As a corporal of the Tenth Dragoons at the beginning of the war, Palaphy
took part in the violent combat with the Germans west of Paris, In the
thick of the battle the cavalryman, finding his colonel wounded and
helpless, rushed to his aid.
Palaphy hoisted the injured man upon his shoulders, and under a rain of
machine gun bullets carried him safely to the French lines. That same
day Palaphy was promoted to be a sergeant.
Shortly afterward, although wounded, he distinguished himself in another
affair, leading a charge of his squad against the Baden guard, whose
standard he himself captured.
Wounded by a ball which had plowed through the lower part of his stomach
and covered with lance thrusts, he was removed from the battlefield
during the night, and learned he had been promoted to be a sublieutenant
and nominated chevalier in the Legion of Honor.
This incident of decorating a soldier on the battlefield recalls
Napoleonic times.
"AFTER YOU," SAID THE FRENCHMAN
Lieutenant de Lupel of the French army is said to have endeared himself
to his command by a most unusual exhibition of what they are pleased to
term "old-fashioned French gallantry."
Accompanied by a few men, Lieutenant de Lupel succeeded in surrounding a
German detachment occupying the station at Mezières. The lieutenant, on
searching the premises, came upon the German officer hiding behind a
stack of coal. Both men leveled their guns, and for a moment faced each
other.
"After you," finally said the Frenchman courteously.
The German fired and missed and Lieutenant de Lupel killed his man.
The French soldiers cheered their leader, and he has been praised
everywhere for his action.
A "WALKING WOOD" AT CRECY
A correspondent describes a "walking wood" at Crecy. The French and
British cut down trees and armed themselves with the branches. Line
after line of infantry, each man bearing a branch, then moved forward
unobserved toward the enemy.
Behind them, amid the lopped tree trunks, the artillerymen fixed
themselves and placed thirteen-pounders to cover the moving wood.
The attack, which followed, won success. It almost went wrong, however,
for the French cavalry, which was following, made a detour to pass the
wood and dashed into view near the ammunition reserves of the Allies.
German shells began falling thereabouts, but British soldiers went up
the hills and pulled the boxes of ammunition out of the way of the
German shells. Ammunition and men came through unscathed. By evening the
Germans had been cleared from the Marne district.
CHAPLAIN CAPTURES AUSTRIAN TROOPERS
The Bourse Gazette relates the story of a Russian regimental chaplain
who, single-handed, captured twenty-six Austrian troopers. He was
strolling on the steppes outside of Lemberg, when suddenly he was
confronted by a patrol of twenty-six men, who tried to force him to tell
the details of the position of the Russian troops.
While talking to the men, the priest found that they were all Slavs,
whereupon he delivered an impassioned address, dwelling on the sin of
shedding the blood of their Slav brethren.
At the end of the address, the story concludes, the troopers with bent
heads followed the priest into the Russian camp.
A BRITISH CAVALRY CHARGE
Here is a picturesque story of a British cavalry charge at Thuin, a town
in Belgium near Charleroi, and the subsequent retreat to Compiègne:
"On Monday morning, August 24, after chafing at the long delay, the 2nd
British Cavalry Brigade let loose at the enemy's guns. The 9th Lancers
went into action singing and shouting like schoolboys.
"For a time all seemed well; few saddles were emptied, and the leaders
had charged almost within reach of the enemy's guns when suddenly the
Germans opened a murderous fire from at least twenty concealed
machine guns at a range of 150 yards.
"The result was shattering, and the Lancers caught the full force of the
storm, Vicomte Vauvineux, a French cavalry officer who rode with the
brigade as interpreter, was killed instantly. Captain Letourey, who
was the French master of a school in Devon, was riding by the side of
Vauvineux, and had a narrow escape, as his horse was shot from under
him. Other officers also fell.
"While the bulk of the brigade swerved to the right the others held on
and rode full tilt into wire entanglements buried in the grass thirty
yards in front of the machine guns, and were made prisoners. Three
regiments of the best cavalry in the British went into the charge, and
suffered severely. The 18th Hussars and the 4th Dragoons also suffered,
but not to the same extent as the others.
"A happy feature of the charge was the gallant conduct of Captain
Grenfell, who, though twice wounded, called for volunteers and saved the
guns. It is said that he has been recommended for the Victoria Cross.
"After this terrible ordeal the British brigade was harassed for
fourteen days of retreat, the enemy giving them rest neither day nor
night. At 2 o'clock each morning they were roused by artillery fire, and
every day they fought a retiring action, pursued relentlessly by the
guns.
"It was a wonderful retreat. Daily the cavalry begged to be allowed to
go for the enemy in force to recover lost ground, but only once were
they permitted to taste that joy, at the village of Lassigny, which they
passed and repassed three times.
"The Germans made repeated efforts, which were always foiled, to capture
the retreating transport. It had, however, many narrow escapes. At one
point it escaped by a furious gallop which enabled the wagons to cross a
bridge less than an hour ahead of the enemy. The engineers had mined the
bridge and were waiting to blow it up. They sent a hurry-up call to the
transport, and the latter responded with alacrity. The bridge was blown
up just in time to separate the two forces. "At Compiègne the brigade
for the first time saw and welcomed their French brothers-in-arms."
BOY SCOUT HERO OF THE WAR
One of the popular heroes of Belgium is Boy Scout Leysen, who has been
decorated by King Albert for his valor and devotion to his country.
This young man, who was born at Liège, is described as of almost uncanny
sharpness, with senses and perceptions as keen as an Indian. He was able
to find his way through the woods and pass the German sentinels with
unerring accuracy.
Leysen made his way through the German lines from Antwerp for the
tenth time on Sunday, September 6, carrying dispatches to secret
representatives of the Belgian government in Brussels. He discovered and
denounced eleven German spies in Belgium, and performed a variety of
other services, and all without impairing his boyish simplicity.
KAISER ASKS FOR PRAYERS
After the first three weeks of war, Emperor William requested the
supreme council of the Evangelical Church throughout the German empire
to include the following prayer in the liturgy at all public services
during the war:
"Almighty and most merciful God, God of the armies, we beseech Thee in
humility for Thy almighty aid for German Fatherland. Bless our forces of
war; lead us to victory and give us grace that we may show ourselves to
be Christians toward our enemies as well. Let us soon arrive at a peace
which will everlastingly safeguard our free and independent Germany."
SPIRIT OF FRENCH WOMEN
When sympathy was expressed in Paris for a poor woman, mother of
nine sons, eight of whom were at the front, she replied: "I need no
consolation. I have never forgotten that I was flogged by Prussians in
1870. I have urged my sons to avenge me and they will."
As one train of soldiers for the front moved out of a Paris railway
station two girls who had bravely kissed farewell to a departing man
turned away, and one began to cry, but the other said: "Keep up a little
longer, he can still see us." Another carried a baby, and as her husband
leaned out of the window and the train started she threw it into his
arms, crying: "Leave it with, the station master at the next station,
and I will fetch it; you must have it for another few minutes."
A Paris painter, called for military duty, was obliged to leave his wife
and four children almost destitute. When he communicated with his wife
on the subject she replied: "Do your duty without worrying about us. The
city, state and our associations will look after us women and children."
In her letter, the wife enclosed a money order for $1 out of $1.20, the
total amount of money which she possessed.
KILLS MANY WITH ARMORED CAR
Lieutenant Henkart, attached to the general staff of the Belgian Army,
perfected a monitor armored motor car which was successfully used by the
Belgians.
During the war the officer engaged in reconnoitering in one of his
armored cars. He had several encounters with Uhlans, of whom he killed a
considerable number, virtually single-handed. His only assistants in his
scouting trips were a chauffeur, an engineer and a sharpshooter.
On one occasion the party killed five Uhlans. Two days later it killed
seven and on another occasion near Waterloo, the auto ran into a force
of 500 Germans and escaped after killing twenty-five with a rapid-fire
gun, which was mounted on the motor car.
A GERMAN RUSE THAT FAILED
A Belgian diplomat in Paris related an incident he observed at
Charleroi. He said:
"Twenty Death's Head Hussars entered the town at 7 o'clock in the
morning and rode quickly down the street, saluting and calling out
'Good-day' to those they met, saying, 'We are friends of the people.'
"Mistaking them for English cavalrymen, the people cried 'Long live
England!' The Belgian soldiers themselves were deceived until an officer
at a window, realizing their mistake, ran to the street and gave the
alarm. The Belgian soldiers rushed quickly to arms and opened fire on
the fleeing Germans, of whom several were killed." DIED WRITING TO HIS
WIFE
Here is a story of a heroic death on the battlefield, told simply in a
letter found in the cold hands of a French soldier who had just finished
writing it when the end came. "I am awaiting help which does not come,"
the letter ran. "I pray God to take me, for I suffer atrociously. Adieu,
my wife and dear children. Adieu, all my family, whom I so loved. I
request that whoever finds me will send this letter to Paris to my
wife, with the pocketbook which is in my coat pocket. Gathering my last
strength I write this, lying prostrate under the shell fire. Both my
legs are broken. My last thoughts are for my children and for thee,
my cherished wife and companion of my life, my beloved wife. Vive la
France!"
IN THE PARIS MILITARY HOSPITAL
A visitor to the military hospital within the intrenched camp of Paris,
just outside the city walls, said on September 18:
"Men of all ranks are there, from the simple private to a general of
division. There is no sign of discouragement or sadness on the pale
faces, which light up with the thought of returning to battle.
"I saw hundreds of men lying on the beds in the wards with varieties of
wounds, no two being identical. This Turco--or African soldier--suffered
from a torn tongue, cut by a bullet, which traversed his cheek. Another
had lost three fingers of his left hand. A bullet entered the temple of
this infantryman and fell into his mouth, where by some curious reaction
he swallowed it.
"Many of the patients are suffering from mere flesh wounds. One poor
fellow whose eye was put out by a bullet said: "That's nothing. It is
only my left eye and I aim with my right. I need the lives of just three
Germans to pay for it."
SMOKE AS WOUNDS ARE TREATED
"The Turcos, though terrible hand-to-hand fighters, are hard to care
for. They have great fear of pain and it is difficult to bandage their
wounds. The doctors give them cigarettes, which they smoke with dignity
as if performing a ritual.
"All the African soldiers were wrathful at a German officer lying in a
neighboring room. They muttered in a sinister fashion, 'To-morrow!' and
put two hands to the neck. I understood this to mean that they would
strangle him to-morrow. Much vigilance is required to keep the officer
out of their reach.
"One Turco killed two Prussians with his bayonet and two with the stock
of the gun in a single fight. His body is covered with the scars of
years of fighting in the service of France. When asked if he liked
France he replied: 'France good country, good leaders, good doctors.' He
seemed to mind his wound less than the lack of cigarettes."
SPIRIT OF BELGIAN SOLDIERS
Writing from Antwerp on September 1, William G. Shepherd, United Press
staff correspondent, illustrated the spirit of the soldiery of Belgium
by the following story:
"The little Belgian soldier who climbed into the compartment with me was
dead tired; he trailed his rifle behind him, threw himself into the seat
and fell sound asleep. He was ready to talk when he awoke an hour later.
"'Yes, I was up all night with German prisoners,' he said. 'It was a bad
job, there were only sixteen of us to handle 200 Germans. We had four
box cars and we put twenty-five prisoners in one end of the car and
twenty-five in the other, and the four of us with rifles sat guard by
the car door.
"'We rode five hours that way and I expected every minute that the whole
fifty Germans in the car would jump on us four and kill us. Four to
fifty; that's heavy odds. But we had to do it. You see there aren't
enough soldiers in Belgium to do all the work, so we have to make out
the best we can.'
"That's the plucky little Belgian soldier, all over.
"In the first place, he's different from most soldiers, because he is
willing to fight when he knows he's going to lose.
"'We have to make out the best we can,' is his motto.
"In the second place, he's a common-sense little fellow. Even while he's
fighting, he's doing it coolly, and there is no blind hatred in his
heart that causes him to waste any effort. He gets down to the why and
wherefore of things.
"'I really felt sorry for those German prisoners,' said a comrade of
the first soldier. 'They were all decent fellows. They told me their
officers had fooled them. They said the officers gave them French money
on the German frontier and then yelled to them, "On into France!" They
went on three days and got to Liège before they knew they were in
Belgium instead of France.
"'We didn't want to hurt Belgium,' they told us, because we're from
Alsace-Lorraine ourselves.'
"'You see,' continued the logical little Belgian, 'it wasn't their
fault, so we couldn't be mad at them.'
"That is the Belgian idea--cool logic.
"'Why did you fight the Germans?' I asked a high government official.
"'Because civilization can't exist without treaties, and it is the duty
that a nation owes to civilization to fight to the death when written
treaties are broken,' was the reply.
"'It must be a rule among nations that to break a treaty means to fight.
The Germans broke the neutrality treaty with Belgium and we had to
fight.'
"'But did you expect to whip the Germans?'
"'How could we? We knew that hordes of Germans would follow the first
comers, but we had no right to worry about who would be whipped; all we
had to do was to fight, and we've done it the best we could.'
"It has been a cool-headed logical matter with the Belgians from the
start. Treaties are made with ink; they're broken with blood, and just
as naturally and coolly as the Belgian diplomats used ink in signing the
treaties with Germany so the Belgian soldiers have used their blood in
trying to maintain the agreements."
RIFLES USED BY NATIONS OF WAR
In the present war Germany uses a Mauser rifle, with a bullet of
millimeters caliber, steel and copper coated. Great Britain's missile is
the Lee-Enfield, caliber 7.7 mm., the coating being cupro-nickel.
The French weapon is the Lebel rifle, of 8 mm. caliber, with bullets
coated with nickel. Russia uses Mossin-Nagant rifles, 7.62 mm.,
with bullets cupro-nickel coated. Austria's chief small arm is the
Mannlicher, caliber 8 mm., with a steel sheet over the tip.
Hitting a man beyond 350 yards, the wounds inflicted by all these
bullets are clean cut. They frequently pass through bone tissue without
splintering.
When meeting an artery the bullet seems to push it to one side and goes
around without cutting the blood channel.
Amputations are very rare compared with wars of more than fifty years
ago. A bullet wound through a joint, such as the knee or the elbow, then
necessitated the amputation of the limb. Now such a wound is easily
opened and dressed.
Even Russia, which made a sad sanitary showing in the war with Japan,
now has learned her lesson and has efficient surgical arrangements.
All the nations use vaccine to combat typhoid, the scourge which once
decimated camps, and killed 1,600 in the Spanish-American war.
GERMAN UHLANS AS SCOUTS
Concerning the German Uhlans, of whom so much has been heard in the
European war, Luigi Barzini, a widely known Italian war correspondent,
said:
"The swarms of cavalry which the Germans send out ahead of their advance
are to be found everywhere--on any highway, on any path. It is their
business to see as much as possible. They show themselves everywhere and
they ride until they are fired upon, keeping this up until they have
located the enemy.
"Theirs is the task of riding into death. The entire front of the enemy
is established by them, and many of them are killed--that is a certainty
they face. Now and then, however, one of them manages to escape to bring
the information himself, which otherwise is obtained by officers in
their rear making observation.
"At every bush, every heap of earth, the Uhlan must say to himself:
'Here I will meet an enemy in hiding.' He knows that he cannot defend
himself against a fire that may open on him from all sides. Everywhere
there is danger for the Uhlan--hidden danger. "Nevertheless he keeps on
riding, calmly and undisturbed, in keeping with German discipline."
FOUGHT WITHOUT SHOES
The Paris Matin relates that on the arrival of a train bringing wounded
Senegalese riflemen nearly all were found smoking furiously from long
porcelain pipes taken from the enemy and seemingly indifferent to
their wounds. One gayly told of the daring capture of a machine gun
by eighteen of his comrades. The gun, he said, was brought up by a
detachment of German dragoons and the Senegalese bravely charged and
captured everything.
Though their arms and bodies were hacked by sabers, the Senegalese
complained of nothing but the obligation to fight with shoes on. Before
going into battle at Charleroi they slyly rid themselves of these
impediments and came back shod in German footwear to avoid punishment
for losing equipment.
KILLED A GENERAL
The shot which resulted in the death of Prince von Buelow, one of the
German generals, was fired by a Belgian private named Rosseau, who was
decorated by King Albert for his conduct in the battle of Haelen.
Rosseau was lying badly wounded among his dead comrades when he saw a
German officer standing beside his horse and studying a map. Picking up
a rifle beside a dead German, Rosseau fired at this officer and wounded
him. The officer proved to be Prince von Buelow. Exchanging his hat for
the German general's helmet and taking the general's horse, Rosseau made
his way to the Belgian lines and was placed in a hospital at Ghent.
HOW A GERMAN PRINCE DIED
The Hanover Courier gave the following account by an eyewitness of the
death of Prince Frederick William of Lippe at Liege:
"On all sides our detachment was surrounded by Belgian troops, who were
gradually closing in for purposes of exterminating us. At the prince's
command we formed a circle eight deep, maintaining a stubborn defense.
At length a strong division arrived to support us. The prince raised
himself from a kneeling position and turned to the standard bearer, who
lay prone beside him, covering the standard with his body.
"'Raise the standard,' commanded the prince, 'so that we may be
recognized by our friends.'
"The standard bearer raised the flag, waving it to and fro. This action
immediately brought upon the standard bearer and the prince a violent
fusillade. The standard was shot away and at the same moment the prince
was struck in the chest and expired instantly."
RAILWAY STATION A SHAMBLES
Mrs. Herman H. Harjes, wife of the Paris banker, who, with other
American women, was deeply interested in relief work, visited the North
railroad station at Paris on September 1 and was shocked by the sights
she saw among the Belgian refugees.
"The station," said Mrs. Harjes, "presented the aspect of a shambles.
It was the saddest sight I ever saw. It is impossible to believe the
tortures and cruelties the poor unfortunates had undergone.
"I saw many boys with both their hands cut off so that it was impossible
for them to carry guns. Everywhere was filth and utter desolation. The
helpless little babies, lying on the cold, wet cement floor and crying
for proper nourishment, were enough to bring hot tears to any mother's
eyes.
"Mothers were vainly besieging the authorities, begging for milk or
soup. A mother with twelve children said:
"What is to become of us? It seems impossible to suffer more. I saw
my husband bound to a lamppost. He was gagged and being tortured by
bayonets. When I tried to intercede in his behalf, I was knocked
senseless with a rifle. I never saw him again.'"
BURIED ON THE FIELD
The bodies of the dead in this war were not, with occasional exceptions,
returned to their relatives, but were buried on the field and where
numbers required it, in common graves. Valuables, papers and mementoes
were taken from the bodies and made up in little packets to be sent to
the relatives, and the dead soldiers, each wrapped in his canvas shelter
tent, as shroud, were laid, friend and foe, side by side in long
trenches in the ground for which they had contested.
GERMAN LISTS OF THE DEAD
In the German official Gazette daily lists of the dead, wounded and
missing were published. The names marched by in long columns of the
Gazette, arrayed with military precision by regiments and companies,
batteries or squadrons--first the infantry and then cavalry, artillery
and train.
The company lists were headed usually by the names of the officers,
killed or wounded; then came the casualties from the enlisted
strength--first the dead, then the wounded and the missing. A feature
of the early lists was the large proportion of this last class, reports
from some units running monotonously, name after name, "missing" or
"wounded and missing"--in mute testimony of scouting patrols which did
not return, or of regiments compelled to retire and leave behind them
dead, wounded and prisoners, or sometimes of men wandering so far from
their comrades in the confusion of battle that they could not find and
rejoin their companies for days.
THE LANCE AS A WEAPON
An attempt was made in lists of the German wounded to give the nature
and location of the wound. These were principally from rifle or
shrapnel fire. A scanty few in the cavalry were labeled "lance thrust,"
indicating that the favorite weapon of the European cavalry has not done
the damage expected of it, although the lance came more into play in the
later engagements between the Russian and German cavalry divisions.
"FATHERLAND OR DEATH!"
Writing from Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, on August 29th, Karl H. von
Wiegand, who is considered by the Allies a German mouthpiece, said:
"America has not the faintest realization of the terrible carnage going
on in Europe. She cannot realize the determination of Germany, all
Germany--men, women and children--in this war. The German Empire is
like one man. And that man's motto is 'Vaterland oder Tod!' (Fatherland
or Death!)
"English news sources are reported here as telling of the masterly
retreat of the allies. Here in the German field headquarters, where
every move on the great chess-board of Belgium and France is analyzed,
the war to date is referred to as the greatest offensive movement in the
history of modern warfare."
GERMAN PLANS WELL LAID
The German offensive plans were well laid. No army that ever took the
field was ever so mobile. Thousands of army autos have been in use. Each
regiment had its supply. The highways were mapped in advance. There was
not a crossroad that was not known. Even the trifling brooks had been
located. Nothing had been left to chance and the advance guard was
accompanied by enormous automobiles filled with corps of sappers who
carried bridge and road building materials.
THE TERRIBLE KRUPP GUNS
How well the German plans worked was shown when Namur, which, it was
boasted, would resist for months, fell in two days. The terrible work of
the great Krupp weapons, whose existence had been kept secret, is hard
to realize. One shot from one of these guns went through what was
considered an impregnable wall of concrete and armored steel at Namur,
exploded and killed 150 men.
And aside from the effectiveness of these terrible weapons, Belgian
prisoners who were in the Namur forts declare their fire absolutely
shattered the nerves of the defenders, whose guns had not sufficient
range to reach them.
GERMANS DEFY DEATH
"It makes you sick to see the way that the Germans literally walk into
the very mouth of the machine guns and cannon spouting short-fused
shrapnel that mow down their lines and tear great gaps in them," said a
Belgian major who was badly wounded. "Nothing seems to stop them. It is
like an inhuman machine and it takes the very nerve out of you to watch
it."
SPIRIT OF GERMAN WOMEN
"The women of Germany are facing the situation with heroic calmness,"
said Eleanor Painter, an American opera singer on landing in New York
September 7th, direct from Berlin, where she had spent the last four
years. "It is all for the Fatherland. The spirit of the people is
wonderful. If the men are swept away in the maelstrom of war, the women
will continue to fight. They are prepared now to do so.
"There are few tears in Berlin. Of course there is sorrow, deep sorrow.
But the German women and the few men still left in the capital realize
that the national life itself is at stake and accept the inevitable
losses of a successful military occupation. There is a grim dignity
everywhere. There are no false ideas as to the enormity of the struggle
for existence. A great many Germans, in fact, realizing that it is
nearly the whole world against Germany, do not believe that the
Fatherland can survive. But they are determined that while there is a
living German so long will Germany fight.
FATHER AND TEN SONS ENLIST
"A German father with his ten sons enlisted. General von Haessler,
more than the allotted three-score years and ten, veteran of two wars,
offered his sword. Boys who volunteered and who were not needed at the
time wept when the recruiting officers sent them back home, telling them
their time would come.
"The German women fight their own battles in keeping back tears and
praying for the success of the German arms. Hundreds of titled women are
at the front with the Red Cross, sacrificing everything to aid their
country. Baroness von Ziegler and her daughter wrote from Wiesbaden that
they were en route to the front and were ready to fight if need be.
"Even the stupendous losses which the army is incurring cannot dim the
love of the Fatherland nor the desire of the Germans, as a whole nation,
to fight on. I speak of vast losses. An officer with whom I talked while
en route from Berlin to Rotterdam, told me of his own experience. He
was one of 2,000 men on the eastern frontier. They saw a detachment
of Russians ahead. The German forces went into battle singing and
confident, although the Russian columns numbered 12,000. Of that German
force of 2,000 just fifty survived. None surrendered."
FEARFUL STATE OF BATTLEFIELDS
Dead men and horses, heaped up by thousands, lay putrefying on the
battlefields of the Aisne, Colonel Webb C. Hayes, U.S.A., son of former
President Hayes, declared in Washington on Oct. 7, on his return from
observing the war and its battlefields. He was the bearer of a personal
message to President Wilson from the acting burgomaster of Louvain.
"When I left Havre on Sept. 27," he said, "the Allies were fearful that
they would not be able to penetrate to the German line through the mass
of putrefying men and horses on the battlefields, which unfortunately
the combatants seem not to heed about burying. I don't see how they
could pass through these fields. The stench was horrible, and the idea
of climbing over the bodies must be revolting even to brave soldiers."
Col. Hayes had been on the firing line; he had visited the sacked city
of Louvain as the guest of Germans in an armored car; he had been in
Aix-la-Chapelle, at the German base, and had seen some of the fighting
in the historic Aisne struggle.
"It is a sausage grinder," he declared.
"On one side are the Allies, apparently willing to sacrifice their
last man in defense of France; on the other are the Germans, seemingly
prodigal of their millions of men and money and throwing man after man
into the war."
"What about the alleged atrocities in Belgium?" he was asked.
"Well, war is hell; that's about the only answer I can give you.
The real tragic feature of the whole war is Belgium. Its people are
wonderful folk--clean, decent, respectable. What this nation should do
is to concentrate its efforts to aid the women and children of Belgium.
Help for hospitals is not so much needed, but the fate of these people
is really pathetic." Asked for a brief description of what he saw along
the battle line, Col. Hayes declared:
"The battle front these days is far different from what it used to
be. There are few men to be seen, and practically no guns. All are
concealed. Shrapnel flies through the air and bursts. That is the scene
most of the time. In the hand-to-hand fighting bayonets are used much by
the French, while the Turcos use knives."
"Shall you go back?" Col. Hayes was asked.
"Does anyone wish to visit a slaughterhouse a second time?" he replied.
PRINCES WOUNDED BY THE FOE
Prince August William, the fourth son of Emperor William, was shot in
the left arm during the battle of the Marne and Emperor William bestowed
the Iron Cross of the first class on him.
Prince Eitel, the Kaiser's second son, was wounded during the battle
of the Aisne. Up to October 7 four of Emperor William's sons had been
placed temporarily _hors de combat_.
Prince George of Servia, while leading his battalion against the
Austrians September 18, was hit by a ball which entered near the spinal
column and came out at the right shoulder. The wound was said not to be
dangerous.
HOW THE SCOTSMEN FOUGHT
At St. Quentin, France, the Highland infantrymen burst into the thick
of the Germans, holding on to the stirrups of the Scots Greys as the
horsemen galloped, and attacked hand to hand. The Germans were taken
aback at the sudden and totally unexpected double irruption, and broke
up before the Scottish onslaught, suffering severe losses alike from the
swords of the cavalry and from the Highlanders' bayonets. The scene of
this charge is depicted in one of our illustrations.
TWO TRAGIC INCIDENTS
During the Russian retreat through the Mazur lake district, in East
Prussia, a Russian battery was surrounded on three sides by the enemy's
quick firers. The infantry was on the other side of the lake, and
the Russian ammunition was exhausted. In order to avoid capture, the
commander ordered the battery to gallop over the declivity into the
lake. His order was obeyed and he himself was among the drowned.
During an assault on the fortress of Ossowetz, a German column got into
a bog. The Russians shelled the bog and the single road crossing it. The
Germans, in trying to extricate themselves, sank deeper into the mire,
and hundreds were killed or wounded. Of the whole column, about forty
survived.
IN THE BRUSSELS HOSPITALS
A peculiar incident of the war is noted by a doctor writing in the New
York American, who went through several of the great Brussels hospitals
and noted the condition of the wounded Belgian soldiers. These soldiers
carried on the defense of their country with a valor which the fighting
men of any nation might admire and envy. The writer remarks:
"Two facts struck me very forcibly. The first was the very large number
of Belgian soldiers wounded only in the legs, and, secondly, many of the
soldiers seem to have collapsed through sheer exhaustion.
"In peace times one sees and hears little or nothing of extreme
exhaustion, because in times of peace the almost superphysical is not
demanded. War brings new conditions.
"These Belgian soldiers were at work and on the march during stupendous
days, practically without a moment's respite. They went, literally,
until they dropped. As a medical man, their condition interested me
enormously.
"What force of will to fight and struggle until the last gasp! The
exhaustion one sees often in heat strokes and in hot climates is
commonplace, but this type of exhaustion is, by itself, the final
triumph of brave spirits.
"The victims presented a very alarming appearance when first I met them.
They seemed almost dead; limp, pale, and cold. Recovery usually is not
protracted; in every case the men knocked out in this manner expressed a
fervent desire to return at once to the ranks.
GERMAN WARNING TO FRENCH TOWNS
Following is the text of a proclamation published in French and posted
in all towns occupied by the Germans:
"All the authorities and the municipality are informed that every
peaceful inhabitant can follow his regular occupation in full security.
Private property will be absolutely respected and provisions paid for.
"If the population dare under any form whatever to take part in
hostilities the severest punishment will be inflicted on the refractory.
"The people must give up their arms. Every armed individual will be put
to death. Whoever cuts telegraph wires, destroys railway bridges or
roads or commits any act in detriment to the Germans will be shot.
"Towns and villages whose inhabitants take part in the combat or who
fire upon us from ambush will be burned down and the guilty shot at
once. The civil authorities will be held responsible. (Signed) VON
MOLTKE."
MOTORS IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY
The Russian army has always placed much dependence on its horses, having
a vast number, but it has realized the importance of the motor vehicle
in warfare and already it is much better equipped than other nations
suppose. An illustration of the fact is the following, related by a Bed
Cross man who accompanied the Russian forces into eastern Germany:
"I was walking beside one of our carts. We could hear heavy artillery
fire as we went, when shouts from our people behind warned us to get
off the road. We pulled onto the grass as there came thundering past,
bumping from one rough place to another on the poor road and going at a
sickening pace, a string of huge motor cars crowded with infantrymen.
They looked like vehicles of the army establishment, all apparently
alike in size and pattern and each carrying about thirty men.
"They were traveling like no motor wagon that I ever saw--certainly at
not less than forty miles an hour. The procession seemed endless. I
didn't count them, but there were not less than a hundred, and perhaps a
good many more. That was General Rennenkampf reinforcing his threatened
flank."
JENNIE DUFAU'S NARROW ESCAPE
Jennie Dufau, the American opera singer, had one of the most thrilling
experiences told by a refugee from the war zone.
Miss Dufau was visiting in Saulxures, Province of Alsace, when the war
started, and was in the hitherto peaceful valley of that region until
August 24. She was with her sister, Elizabeth, and her two brothers,
Paul and Daniel.
On August 6 the German artillery occupied the heights on one side of the
valley, overlooking the town. On the 12th the Germans occupied the town
itself. At that time there were but two French regiments near Saulxures.
The French, however, opened fire on the Germans, and Miss Dufau with her
father and sister at once retreated to the cellar in an effort to escape
the flying shells.
"Then began a tremendous artillery duel that lasted for days," she said.
"All this time we were living in the cellar, where we were caring for
ten wounded French officers. I often went out over the battlefield when
the fire slackened and did what I could for the wounded and dying.
"My brothers Paul and Daniel were drafted into the German army. They had
sworn an oath not to fire a shot at a Frenchman, and their greatest
hope was that they would be captured and permitted to put on the French
uniform.
"Between August 12 and 24 the artillery duel raged, and finally the
opposing armies came to a hand-to-hand fight with the bayonet. First
it was the Germans who occupied the town, then the French. The Germans
finally came to our house and accused my sister, my father, and myself
of being spies because they found a telephone there. The soldiers lined
us up against the wall to shoot us, but we fell on our knees and begged
them to spare the life of our father. They gave no heed till a German
colonel came along and, after questioning us, ordered that we be set
free."
VALLEY OF DEATH ON THE AISNE
A non-combatant who succeeded in getting close to the firing lines on
the Aisne when the great battle had raged continuously for five weeks,
wrote as follows on October 21st of the horrors he had witnessed:
"Between the lines of battle there is a narrow strip, varying from
seventy yards to a quarter of a mile, which is a neutral valley of
death. Neither side is able to cross that strip without being crumpled
by fire against which no body of men can stand. The Germans have
attempted to break through the British and French forces hundreds of
times but have been compelled to withdraw, and always with severe
losses.
"A number of small towns are distributed in this narrow strip, the most
important being Craonne. The Germans and French have reoccupied it six
times and each in turn has been driven out. The streets of Craonne are
littered with the dead of both armies. The houses, nearly all of which
have been demolished by exploding shells, are also full of bodies of men
who crawled into them to get out of the withering fire and have there
died. Many of these men died of sheer exhaustion and starvation while
the battle raged day after day.
"Both armies have apparently abandoned the struggle to hold Craonne
permanently, and it is now literally a city of the dead.
"It is a typical French village of ancient stone structures; the tiny
houses all have, or had, gables and tiled roofs. These have mostly
been broken by shell fire. Under the shelter of its buildings both the
Germans and French have been able at times to rescue their wounded.
"This is more than can be said of the strip of death between the battle
lines. There the wounded lie and the dead go unburied, while the
opposing forces direct their merciless fire a few feet above the field
of suffering and carnage. I did not know until I looked upon the horrors
of Craonne that such conditions could exist in modern warfare.
"I thought that frequent truces would be negotiated to give the opposing
armies an opportunity to collect their wounded and bury their dead. I
had an idea that the Red Cross had made war less terrible. The world
thinks so yet, perhaps, but the conditions along the Aisne do not
justify that belief. If a man is wounded in that strip between the lines
he never gets back alive unless he is within a short distance of his own
lines or is protected from the enemy's fire by the lay of the land.
"This protracted and momentous battle, which raged day and night for
so many weeks, became a continuous nightmare to the men engaged in it,
every one of whom knew that upon its issue rested one of the great
deciding factors of the war."
BRITISH AID FOR FRENCH WOUNDED
The following paragraphs from a letter received October 15th by the
author from an English lady interested in the suffrage movement,
give some idea of the spirit in which the people of England met the
emergency; and also indicate the frightful conditions attending the care
of the wounded in France:
"London, October 7, 1914.--The world is a quite different place from
what it was in July--dear, peaceful July! It seems years ago that we
lived in a time of peace. It all still seems a nightmare over England
and one feels that the morning must come when one will wake up and find
it has all been a hideous dream, and that peace is the reality. But the
facts grow sadder every day, as one realizes the frightful slaughter and
waste of young lives. * * *
"But now that we are in the midst of this horrible time, we can only
stop all criticism of our Government, set our teeth, and try to help
in every possible way. All suffrage work has stopped and all the
hundred-and-one interests in societies of every kind are in abeyance as
well. The offices of every kind of society are being used for refugees,
Bed Cross work, unemployment work, and to meet other needs of the
moment.
"Every day of our time is taken up with helping to equip 'hospital
units,' private bodies of doctors and nurses with equipment, to go to
France and help the French Red Cross work among the French wounded. The
situation in France at present is more horrible than one can imagine.
Our English soldiers have medical and surgical help enough with them
for first aid. Then they are sent back to England, and here all our
hospitals are ready and private houses everywhere have been given to the
War Office for the wounded. But the battlefield is in France; many of
the French doctors have been shot; the battle-line is 200 miles long,
and the carnage is frightful.
"Last week we sent off one hospital unit, and a messenger came back from
it yesterday to tell us awful facts--16,000 wounded in Limoges for
one place, and equal numbers in several other little places south of
Paris--just trains full of them--with so little ready for them in the
way of doctors or nurses. One hears of doctors performing operations
without chloroform, and the suffering of the poor fellows is awful."
COMPARATIVE WEALTH OF NATIONS AT WAR
The wealth of the principal belligerent nations, in terms of property,
goods and appraisable resources of all kinds, is estimated as follows:
National National Percent
Wealth Debt
United States.............$260,000,000,000 $18,000,000,000 6.
Great Britain.............. 90,000,000,000 36,675,000,000 40.
France..................... 65,000,000,000 23,000,000,000 35.
Russia..................... 40,000,000,000 25,400,000,000 63.
Italy...................... 25,000,000,000 7,000,000,000 28.
Japan...................... 28,000,000,000 1,300,000,000 4.
Germany.................... 80,000,000,000 33,000,000,000 38.
Austria-Hungary............ 25,000,000,000 20,000,000,000 80.
It is worth noting in this connection that the fourth liberty bond issue
of six billions was oversubscribed to extent $866,416,300--almost an
extra billion. There were over 21,000,000 individual subscribers.
The war bills of the United States between April 6, 1917, and October
31st, 1918, as officially reported at Washington November 2, 1918,
amounted to twenty billions, five hundred and sixty-one million dollars
($20,561,000,000). Of this sum, seven billions and seventeen millions
($7,017,000,000) have been loaned to the allies and will be repaid.
Only a little more than one-fourth of the expense had up to the date
of the report been raised by taxation. Most of the remainder had been
raised by bond issues practically all of which were subscribed by our
own people, so that the debt is owing not to foreign creditors, but to
ourselves.
The same report shows that on November 1st, 1918, the treasury's working
balance stood at one billion, eight hundred and forty-five millions,
seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand dollars ($1,845,739,000) the
largest sum ever available at any one time in the history of the
nation--with continuing receipts of instalment payments on the fourth
liberty loan coming in at the rate of two billions per month, and
preparations for the fifth loan well under way.
FIGURES THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND.
The direct cost of the war for all belligerent nations to May 1, 1918,
was reported at about $175,000,000,000 by the Federal Reserve board
bulletin, issued November 18. It was estimated that the cost would
amount to nearly $200,000,000,000 before the end of the year.
For purely military and naval purposes, it appears that all belligerents
had spent about $132,000,000,000 to May 1. The remainder represented
interest on debt, and other indirect war expenses.
The mobilization and the first five months of the war in 1914 cost all
belligerents about $10,000,000,000. In 1915 the expenses jumped to
$26,000,000,000, in 1916 they increased to $38,000,000,000; and in
they were estimated at $60,000,000,000. In 1918 expenses ran only a
little above the rate of 1917.
The public debt of the principal entente allies is calculated at
approximately $105,000,000,000, not counting the debt incurred since May
1918. The annual burden to all belligerents to pay interest and sinking
fund allowances will be not less than $10,000,000,000, and probably much
more.
Unofficial reports indicate that Germany's national debt, represented
mainly by war bonds held within the empire, is now nearly
$35,000,000,000 (almost two-fifths of the estimate national wealth of
$80,000,000,000). Besides this, France claims a return of the
indemnity, $20,000,000,000; $28,000,000,000 for pensions; and reparation
of damages, $20,000,000,000; being $68,000,000,000 in all.
Whatever may be the weight of the final burden of reparation and
restitution to be placed on Germany, the size of the task ahead of her
may be illustrated by comparison of her national debt with that of the
United States, Germany has 66,000,000 population and $80,000,000,000 of
estimated wealth, to pay $35,000,000,000 of war debt already created.
The United States has 110,000,000 population and an estimated national
wealth of $250,000,000,000, to pay nearly $18,000,000,000 war debt
already created, or approximately $23,000,000,000 up to the end of May,
1919. This means that the per capita burden will be at least three times
greater in Germany than in the United States.