SECOND WINTER OF WAR
In all the arenas of the great struggle, the winter campaign of 1915-16,
the second winter of the war, was accompanied by unparalleled hardships
and sufferings. It was, in fact, described by Major Moraht, military
expert of the Berliner Tageblatt and the best known German military
critic, as "the most terrific campaign in the world's history." Hundreds
of thousands of men of all classes, in all the armies stretched along
the battle fronts east and west, struggled against wind, weather, and
winter amid conditions of the most extreme self-denial. Speaking for
the Teutonic forces in January, Major Moraht said: "On our western and
eastern fronts and along the lines held by our Austro-Hungarian allies,
the conditions under which we must stubbornly hold out are such as never
in the history of the world's most terrible campaign had to be endured
before." The winter was exceptionally severe and men were invalided by
the thousands, owing to frost-bites, despite ingenious precautions and
the fact that their spells in the trenches were reduced considerably.
The conditions faced by the Austrians and Italians in the Alps and on
the Isonzo were especially appalling. Thus a detachment of Austrian and
Alpine troops, engaged in patrol duty, met its doom in an avalanche in
southern Tyrol. Only one out of twelve was rescued alive, and he lay
buried under snow for fourteen hours before he was rescued.
Added to the sufferings of the fighting men during the winter the sum
total of human misery in Europe when 1916 dawned was vastly increased by
the awful conditions prevailing in Poland and in Serbia. Poland, a land
long recognized as given over to sorrows, had been crossed and recrossed
by hostile armies. It had been harried, almost destroyed. Towns and food
supplies, fields and granaries, were obliterated. The cattle had been
driven off by the invaders and the people were left starving. The misery
of Belgium a year before was as nothing compared with the misery of
Poland amid the rigors of winter, and the unhappy country clamored
for the help of happier peoples. It had become a land of graves and
trenches, of ruin and destruction on a scale that had been wrought
nowhere else by the war. Many of the abandoned trenches were the
temporary "homes" of countless refugees, mostly women and children, who
had been driven from their homes in the burned and ruined villages that
dotted the land. And there was little or no relief in sight for
the stricken Poles, innocent victims of a ruthless war and pitiful
playthings of Fate.
ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Artillery fighting with mortars and long-range cannon was a continuous
performance during December and January in nearly every section of the
western battle line. Every day tens of thousands of shells, both high
explosive and shrapnel, were hurled at the trenches and men were killed
or wounded by the score at a time. To the war-hardened men behind the
guns on both sides this business of slaying and running the risk of
being slain or crippled became so prolonged and monotonous that they
thought no more of it than of cutting down a forest or building a
pontoon bridge.
Early in January the city of Nancy, just behind the French lines, was
bombarded for three days by German 15-inch guns. Much damage was
done and a number of the inhabitants were killed and wounded. As a
consequence there was an exodus from the city, safe conducts being
issued to more than 30,000 persons.
Estimates made in Vienna of the total booty of the Teutonic allies
during the first seventeen months of the war, up to January 1, 1916,
were as follows: Nearly 3,000,000 prisoners, 10,000 guns, and 40,
machine guns, while 470,000 square kilometers of enemy territory had
been occupied.
About the same time the German losses, as compiled from official lists,
were estimated at 2,588,000, including over 500,000 killed and 350,
taken by the Allies as prisoners of war.
CONSCRIPTION IN ENGLAND
After every effort had been exhausted in the British Isles to raise
troops by voluntary enlistment, first under Lord Kitchener and then
under Lord Derby, the British government was finally compelled to resort
to conscription, although nearly 3,000,000 men had voluntarily responded
to the call to the colors. A bill was presented in the House of Commons
by Premier Asquith on January 5, 1916, providing for compulsory service
by "all men between the ages of 18 and 41 who are bachelors or widowers
without children dependent on them." Ireland was excluded from the terms
of the measure, which finally passed the Commons on January 20, the
opposition having dwindled to a meager handful of votes. Four members of
the Cabinet, however, resigned as a protest against conscription.
BRITISH BATTLESHIPS SUNK
On January 9 the British battleship King Edward VII foundered at sea
as the result of striking a mine. Owing to a heavy sea it had to be
abandoned and sank shortly afterward. The entire crew of nearly 800 men
were saved. The vessel was a predreadnaught of 16,350 tons and cost
nearly $8,000,000. A week previously the British battleship Natal, a
vessel of similar character, was sunk by an internal explosion.
The main battle fleets of both Britain and Germany remained "in statuo
quo" up to March 1, 1916. British cruisers and patrol ships maintained a
constant watch upon the waters of the North Sea, and visitors permitted
to see the battle fleet at its secret rendezvous reported efficiency and
eternal vigilance as its watchwords. The German fleet lay in safety in
the Kiel Canal, still awaiting orders to put to sea and enjoy "der Tag,"
after nineteen months of inactivity.
RUSSIA'S WINTER CAMPAIGN
After several months of comparative inactivity Russia launched a forward
movement against the Austro-German forces late in December. This winter
drive was not unexpected, as the Russian armies had had time to recover
from their reverses of the summer and autumn of 1915 and had received
much-needed supplies of guns and ammunition.
The fact that Russia was vigorously on the offensive again was soon
demonstrated. The first week of 1916 was marked by a progressive
development of a forward Russian movement extending along the Stye and
Strypa rivers from the Pripet marshes to Bessarabia. The main attack
seemed to be directed against Bukowina and Eastern Galicia, and for some
time the pressure of the Russian attacks forced back the lines of the
Austro-German right along the eastern front.
During January the Russians were also actively engaged against the Turks
in the Caucasus, where the battle front was over 100 miles long, and
against the Turks, aided by Germans in Persia, They began a general
offensive in the Caucasus on January 11 and made steady gains over the
Turks, while similar successes attended their efforts in Persia, where
revolutionists had entered the field against the Russians and British.
THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN
The month of December saw the end of the Austro-German and Bulgarian
drives through Serbia. By the end of the year the remnants of the
Serbian army had been driven across the frontiers and some 50,000 of
them found refuge in January on the Greek island of Corfu, which was
seized by the Allies for that purpose. King Peter found an asylum in
Italy; Belgrade and Nish were occupied by Austrians and Germans, and
the Bulgarians halted at the Greek border. The small British and French
forces in Serbia, greatly outnumbered, retired before the enemy's
advance from north and east, but saved the Serbian army from total
annihilation by protecting its retreat to the southern frontier. Then
the British and French retreated across the Greek border to Saloniki,
where they were largely reinforced and proceeded to fortify themselves
against possible German or Bulgarian attacks. King Constantine of
Greece, brother-in-law of the Kaiser, feebly protested against the
proceedings of the Allies on Greek soil, saying that he wished his
country to remain neutral--but his protest was offset by the facts that
the great majority of the people of Greece were favorable to the Allies
and that their landing at Saloniki was for the purpose of aiding Serbia,
Greece's friend and ally, which Greece had notably failed to do.
Frequent threats of the bombardment of Saloniki by the Germans or by the
Bulgars were made during January, but up to February 10 the threatened
attack had failed to materialize and the Allies were strongly intrenched
in a 30-mile arc around the town, while the guns of a powerful fleet
of British and French warships commanded the approaches and protected
transports and landings.
SINKING OF THE PERSIA
On December 30 the Peninsular & Oriental liner Persia was torpedoed by
a submarine, probably Austrian, in the Mediterranean about 300 miles
northwest of Alexandria, and sank in five minutes. One hundred and
fifty-five out of the 400 passengers and crew were landed at Alexandria
on January 1, and eleven others were subsequently reported safe. Among
those lost was Robert N. McNeely, who was on his way to take up his
duties as American consul at Aden.
FROM BERLIN TO CONSTANTINOPLE
By the middle of January German engineers had succeeded in repairing the
railroad bridges and roadbed destroyed during the Serbian campaign and
thus reopened direct communication between Berlin and Constantinople.
CANADIAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BURNED
On the night of February 3 the beautiful Gothic structure which housed
the Canadian Parliament at Ottawa--the architectural pride of the
Dominion--was wrecked by a fire which started in a reading room adjacent
to the chamber of the House of Commons. Six persons, two of them women
friends of the Speaker's family, lost their lives. The House was in
session when the fire broke out, and many members and other occupants of
the building escaped narrowly and with great difficulty. The money loss
from the fire was enormous, and priceless paintings, books and national
documents were destroyed.
Opinions differed as to the causes of the fire, but the occurrence
about the same time of several highly suspicious fires in Canadian
munition factories and the unexplained rapidity with which the
Parliament Building fire spread with mysterious volumes of suffocating
smoke, caused widespread suspicion that the disaster was of incendiary
and enemy origin. A tidal wave of resentment flooded the Dominion and
deep feeling was aroused against men of German birth or extraction
remaining in Canada, some of them occupying public positions of
responsibility. A Commission was appointed by the Government to
investigate the causes of the fire, and, pending its report, official
denials were made that German spies had anything to do with the burning
of the Houses of Parliament. These denials, however, failed to convince
the Canadian people that German sympathizers were entirely innocent of
any participation in the origin of the conflagration.
The ruined building was the central structure of the magnificent group
of Government buildings at Ottawa, and one of the finest examples
of Gothic architecture on the Continent. The Library of Parliament,
occupying a separate structure in the rear of the building wrecked, was
fortunately spared by the fire. It was announced by the Premier, Sir
Robert Borden, that steps would be taken to replace the Parliament
Building with a still finer structure, and the Houses of Parliament
continued their sessions in temporary quarters. One immediate result of
the fire and of the suspicions attached to its origin was to stimulate
recruiting in the Dominion and stiffen the resolve of the Canadian
people to do their utmost to aid the success of British arms at the
European front. Canada became more than ever an armed camp of determined
patriots. The general sentiment was expressed by the Toronto Globe,
which said: "If German agents see a way to injure Canada, they will stop
at nothing to compass their ends. Arson to them is a commonplace and
murder an incident in the day's work. The destruction of the Parliament
Building may have been the result of an accident, but the general belief
at Ottawa is that it was the work of an incendiary."
RUSSIAN SUCCESSES IN ASIA MINOR
On February 15, following a five days' siege, Erzerum, the great
Armenian fortress, where the main Turkish army of the Caucasus had taken
refuge, fell into the hands of the Russians. The Turkish army numbered
160,000 men and was under the chief command of the German general, Field
Marshal von der Goltz, formerly military governor of Belgium. The main
body of the Turks managed to avoid capture at Erzerum, but the Russians
took 15,000 prisoners there, besides hundreds of guns and immense
quantities of munitions and supplies. Then began a determined and deadly
pursuit of the Turkish army, with the object of driving it out of
Armenia, and the efforts of the Russians met with continued successes.
Turkish opposition in Asia Minor was swiftly broken down, and steps
were taken by the Russians to relieve the British force which had been
beleagured by the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopatamia, 150 miles from
Erzerum.
On February 27-28 the Turks hastily evacuated the important Black Sea
port of Trebizond and neighboring cities before the victorious Russian
advance. On March 1 two Russian armies were moving rapidly on Trebizond,
one along the shores of the Black Sea through Rizeh, and the other in
a northwesterly direction from Erzerum. The capture of Erzerum was
effected in bitter wintry weather. During the assault on the fortress
several Turkish regiments were annihilated or taken prisoners with all
their officers. Many Turks perished from the cold.
GREAT BATTLE BEFORE VERDUN
One of the greatest and most sanguinary battles of the war began before
Verdun on February 20, when the army of the Crown Prince of Germany, in
the presence of the Kaiser, started a determined and desperate drive
against the great French fortress. Ever since the battle of the Marne
halted the German advance on Paris early in September, 1914, the forces
of the Crown Prince had been striving unsuccessfully to break through
the French lines north and east of Verdun, but the fortress had well
maintained its reputation for impregnability and continued to bar the
high road to Paris.
For ten days the battle raged on the plains, in the forests and on the
hills before Verdun, and the loss of life was appalling on both sides.
By February 26, after six days of continuous fighting, the Germans had
penetrated the French lines along several miles of front, had occupied
several villages a few miles north of Verdun, driven the French from the
peninsula of the Meuse formed by a bend of the river about six miles
from the city, and carried by storm the outlying fort of Douaumont, at
the northeast corner of the Verdun fortifications. But their advance
was then halted by the French in a series of the most brilliant
counter-attacks, and the German offensive appeared to die down by March
1, when their losses in the ten days' battle were estimated at 175,000,
including between 40,000 and 50,000 killed. The French losses were
heavy, but the nature of the German attacks, in which huge masses of men
were hurled against the French entrenchments, exposed the Teuton
forces "to the most withering and destructive fire from the French
75-centimeters and machine guns. The battle exceeded in violence and
losses even the great battle of the Yser earlier in the war. Heavy
reinforcements had been brought to the Verdun front by the Germans, and
it was estimated that their forces engaged in the attack numbered at
least 500,000 men, supported by numerous 15-inch and 17-inch Austrian
mortars, with all the heavy German artillery used in the Serbian
campaign and part of that formerly employed on the Russian front.
While the battle of Verdun was in progress, the Germans also made
determined attacks in the Champagne region, graining some ground; but on
March 1 the Allied lines were holding fast all along the western front.
Wounded soldiers returning from the front during the bloody struggle
before Verdun told tragic tales of the fighting. "I watched the assault
of the Germans upon the village of Milancourt, near the Meuse," said a
wounded Frenchman. "They came in solid ranks, without a word, loading
and reloading their rifles without cessation. Our seventy-fives fell
among them, and then the mitrailleuses entered into action. It was no
longer a battalion. It was a few scattered groups of men that one saw,
torn by a rain of shells and bullets, squeezing close against each other
as though for mutual protection.
"On the border of Montfaucon I saw one of these groups disappear at
one blow, as if they had been swallowed into a marsh. Our shells! What
frightful work they did. Never will I forget those fragments of human
beings that fell just at my feet. Never can I forget that terrible
picture.
"I followed the attack on Haumont and Samogneux. The field of battle
was lighted as if in full day by star shells. Black masses of Germans
advanced, protected by their artillery, while ours remained silent.
Finally our artillery began, and then the enemy ranks wavered, halted
and disappeared.
"Our guns had waited until the Germans were in a little hollow all
arranged for the massacre. In a little while there lay the bodies of
some 2,000 or 3,000 Germans. They occupied some villages, but their
attack on Verdun has failed after terrible losses."
GERMAN SUBMARINE ACTIVITIES
The sinking of British and French ships, and sometimes neutral vessels,
by German and Austrian submarines continued during the month of
February. On February 27 the Peninsular & Oriental Line steamship
Maloja, of 12,431 tons, was sunk by a torpedo or mine only two miles off
the Admiralty pier at Dover, with a loss of 155 lives, including many
passengers, men, women and children, en route to India. Dozens of
craft went at once to the rescue, and one of them, the Empress of Fort
William, a vessel of 2,181 tons, was also torpedoed or struck a mine and
sank nearby. Of the Maloja's passengers and crew, 260 were rescued.
On February 28 the great French liner La Provence was sunk in the
Mediterranean with a loss estimated at 900 lives. It had a displacement
of 19,200 tons, length 602 feet, beam 65 feet, and had been in the
service of the French Government as a troop transport.
Under new orders to their submarine commanders, in spite of protests by
the United States Government, Germany and Austria inaugurated on March
1 the policy of sinking without warning all Allied merchant vessels
believed to carry any armament for defensive purposes, and the world
waited with bated breath for fresh developments of the Teutonic campaign
of frightfulness.