BATTLES EAST AND WEST
After gallantly holding their own for many months against repeated
German attacks, the Canadian troops holding that section of the western
front southeast of Ypres, between Hooge and the Ypres-Menin railway,
were engaged during the week ending June 3, 1916, in a battle scarcely
less determined in its nature than that of St. Julien and other great
encounters in which they distinguished themselves and added to Canadian
military laurels earlier in the war.
On Friday, June 2, the Germans, after a concentrated bombardment with
heavy artillery, pressed forward to the assault and succeeded in
penetrating the British lines. During the night they pushed their attack
and succeeded in cutting their way through the defenses to the depth of
nearly a mile in the direction of Zillebeke. The hard-fighting Canadians
then rallied and began counter-assaults at 7 o'clock on the following
morning. By Sunday morning, June 4, they had succeeded in gradually
driving the Germans from much of the ground they had gained, but the
losses to the Canadians were severe.
In the British official report of the engagement, it was stated that
"the Canadians behaved with the utmost gallantry, counter-attacking
successfully after a heavy and continued bombardment." The German
losses were very heavy and a large number of dead were abandoned on the
recaptured ground. Frederick Palmer, the noted war correspondent, said
that for a thousand yards in the center of the line where the Germans
secured lodgment the Canadians fired from positions in the rear and
filled the ruined trenches with German dead.
It was announced by the War Office that Generals Mercer and Williams,
who were inspecting the front trenches on June 2, during the German
bombardment, were among the missing. Soon after it was found that
General Mercer was severely wounded during the fight, and was taken
to hospital at Boulogne, while General Williams, who was wounded less
severely, was captured by the enemy. General Mercer was the commander
of the Third Division of Canadian troops, which in this action had its
first real test in hand-to-hand fighting, and came out of the trial like
veterans with glory undimmed.
The two-days' fighting occurred around the famous Hill No. 60 and
Sanctuary Wood, names destined to live in Canadian history. It was
entirely a Canadian battle, and while the losses of the devoted troops
from the Dominion probably reached the regrettable total of over 6,000,
including a number of men captured by the Germans during the first day's
attack, when they overran the front trenches, they doggedly bombed and
bayoneted their way back to the wrecked trenches next day and regained
nearly all their front. The commanding officers were especially pleased
that the newer Canadian battalions had kept up the traditions of the
first contingent, established in 1915 at St. Julien and elsewhere in
France and Flanders, by immediately turning upon the Germans with a
counter-attack which was carried out both coolly and skilfully.
The Ypres salient, thus successfully defended by the Canadians in one of
the hottest of the minor battles of the war, was regarded by the British
commander-in-chief as an important position which must be defended
despite the heavy losses. General Gwatkin, Chief of Staff for Canada,
stated that the German losses during the heavy fighting exceeded those
of the Canadians.
Colonel Buller of the Princess Patricia Regiment was killed by shrapnel
while leading his men at Sanctuary Wood.
The total enlistments in Canada up to June 10 exceeded 333,000 men.
GREAT DRIVE BY THE RUSSIANS.
The first week of June, 1916, saw the Russians successful in a great
drive against the Austrian positions in Volhynia and Galicia, a movement
that for awhile overshadowed the events on the western front. In the
space of five days a new Russian commander, General Brusiloff, who had
succeeded General Ivanhoff as Chief of the Russian Southwestern Armies,
captured 1,143 Austrian officers and 64,714 men, recovered almost, four
thousand square miles of fertile Volhyman soil, and recaptured the
fortified town of Lutsk. He had the advantage of a most efficient
artillery preparation, which blew the Austrian entanglements, trenches
and earthworks into such a chaos that the bewildered occupants
surrendered in thousands when the Russian infantry charged.
German reinforcements from the trenches north of the Pripet River tried
to stay the Russian rush, but in vain, and many Germans were among the
prisoners taken. At several points the Russian cavalry led the attack
after the artillery had done its work. A division of young Russians, by
an impetuous attack, captured a bridge-head on the Styr and took 2,
German and Austrian troops and much rich booty. In Galicia the Russian
armies crossed the Stripa and by June 10 were once more too near Lemberg
for the comfort of the Austrian garrison. At that time the total number
of prisoners taken in this drive was considerably over 100,000, while
the booty in guns, rifles, ammunition and supplies of all conceivable
kinds was enormous. The Allies were greatly heartened by these Russian
successes on the eastern front, and on June 15 Germany was preparing to
meet them by troop movements from the north, where Field Marshal von
Hindenburgh was in command on Russian territory. The extent and rapidity
of the Russian successes up to that time were without parallel in
military history.
RUSSIA COMPELS AUSTRIAN RETREAT
During the following month the Russian advance toward the Carpathians,
for the second time in the war, continued steadily. It was apparent that
General Brusiloff, unlike his predecessors in command, was well supplied
with effective artillery and ammunition in plenty, and that the vast
resources of the Russian Empire had been at last successfully mobilized
for attack. Guns and ammunition, in immense quantities, had been secured
from Japan, among other sources, and this former enemy of Russia, now
her strong and capable ally, aided materially in changing the aspect of
affairs on the Eastern battle front.
On June 16, the Russian offensive had progressed to the Galician
frontier, and terrific fighting marked the advance along the whole line
south of Volhynia. Two German armies went to the aid of the Austrians in
the region of the Stochod and Styr rivers, and German forces also made
a stand before Kovel. The mortality on both sides was described as
frightful, but the Russians continued to make headway and the capture
of thousands of Teutonic prisoners was of almost daily occurrence, the
total reaching 172,000 before June 18.
Czernowitz, the capital of Bukowina, fell into the hands of the Russians
at midnight of June 17, after the bridgehead on the Pruth river had been
stormed by the victorious troops of the Czar. One thousand Austrians
were captured at the bridgehead, but the garrison succeeded in escaping.
The invading troops swept on, crossed the Sereth river, and soon gained
control of about one-half of Roumania's western frontier. By July
the Austrians were retreating into the foothills of the Carpathian
mountains, hotly pressed by the Russian advance. The German army around
Kovel continued to make a stubborn resistance, but could not prevent the
Austrian rout, and as the Russians approached the Carpathian passes the
Austrian prisoners taken by them during the drive reached a total of
200,000 officers and men. Immense quantities of munitions of war also
fell into their hands.
On July 4 Russian cavalry patrols advanced over the passes into southern
Hungary, and General Brusiloff's army neared Lemberg, which was defended
by a combined Teutonic army under General von Bothmer, along the River
Strypa. The losses of the Austrians and Germans, in killed and wounded
up to this time, were placed at 500,000 men, the Russian offensive
having lasted one month, with no evidence of slackening. General von
Bothmer then began a retirement westward, while General Brusiloff
advanced between the Pruth and Dniester rivers, and a concerted push
toward Lemberg was begun.
"BIG PUSH" ON THE WESTERN FRONT
After many months of preparation by the British, during which
"Kitchener's army" was being sedulously trained for active service, a
new phase of the great war began on July 1, 1916, when a great
offensive was started on the western front by the British and French
simultaneously, after a seven-day bombardment of the German trenches.
In this preliminary bombardment more than one million shells were fired
daily, and the prolonged battle which ensued was the greatest of all
time.
This offensive proved that the Allies had not been shaken from their
determination to bide their time until they were thoroughly prepared
and ready for the attack, and were able to co-ordinate their efforts in
genuine teamwork against the powerful and strongly-entrenched enemy in
the west, while the Russian offensive on the eastern front was also in
progress. This long-awaited movement was no isolated attack, costly but
ineffectual, like those of the English at Neuve Chapelle and Loos,
but "a carefully studied and deliberately prepared campaign of severe
pressure upon Germany at each of her battle fronts." It proved that the
war-councils of the Allies held in Paris and London, in Petrograd and
Rome, were no mere conventional affairs, but were at last to bear fruit
in concerted action that might decide the issue of the war.
The "big push," as it was popularly called in England, was started by
the British and French on both sides of the River Somme, sixty miles
north of Paris, at 7:30 o 'clock on the morning of July 1, and resulted
on the same day in a great wedge being driven into the German lines
along a front of twenty-five miles, with its sharp point penetrating
nearly five miles. The French advance was made in the direction of
Peronne, an important center of transportation and distribution long
held by the Germans.
An eyewitness who watched the beginning of the battle from a hill said
that overwhelming as was the power of the guns, yet as the gathering
of human and mechanical material proceeded, "the grim and significant
spectacle was the sight of detachments of infantry moving forward in
field-fighting equipment, until finally the dugouts were hives of khaki
ready to swarm out for battle."
As the days of the bombardment passed, the air of expectancy was
noticeable everywhere through the British army, commanded by Sir Douglas
Haig. Finally the word was passed that the infantry was to make the
assault early the next morning. Then, "at 7:20 A.M. the rapid-fire
trench mortars added their shells to the deluge pouring upon the
first-line German trenches. After ten minutes of this, promptly at
7:30 o'clock, the guns lifted their fire to the second line of German
trenches, as if they were answering to the pressure of a single electric
button, and the men of the new British army leaped over their parapets
and rushed toward the wreckage the guns and mortars had wrought. Even
close at hand, they were visible for only a moment before being hidden
by the smoke of the German shell-curtain over what remained of the
trenches."
Of the deadly work beneath that pall of smoke, as steel met steel and
the new soldiers of Britain fleshed their bayonets for the first time,
and fell by the thousand under the murderous fire of machine-guns,
history will tell the tale long after the survivors have ceased to
recount the deeds of the day to their grandchildren wherever the English
tongue is spoken. Each side gives credit to the other for the utmost
bravery and devotion during the battle. The new English regiments fought
like veterans, and fully maintained the traditions of the British army
for dogged bravery, while the Germans fought with desperate tenacity,
valor and resourcefulness, this last quality being displayed in the
devices which had been invented and were used to prevent or delay
the Allied advance. It was indeed wonderful how well the Germans had
protected their machine-guns from the devastating effects of the
preliminary bombardment, which tore trenches to pieces and utterly
demolished barbed-wire entanglements, but failed in many cases to
destroy the deep bomb-proofs in which the Teuton machine-guns were
protected and concealed.
CONTINUATION OF THE GREAT BATTLE
On July 2 and 3, the battle of the Somme continued without cessation
of infantry fighting, while the big guns thundered on both sides.
The British offensive took Fricourt on the 2nd, after a tremendous
bombardment, and occupied several villages, while the French advanced to
within three miles of Peronne. Ten thousand more prisoners fell into the
hands of the Allies on these two days. On the 4th, German resistance
temporarily halted the British, but the French offensive took German
second-line positions south of the Somme on a six-mile front. Violent
counter-attacks by the Germans on July 6 failed to wrest from the French
the ground won by them during the previous five days, and the Allied
troops resumed their advance, taking the German second-line trenches all
along the front in the face of a heavy fire. Next day Contalmaison was
won by the British, but recaptured by the Prussian Guard, who held the
town for three days, when they were again driven out.
A desperate struggle for the possession of the Mametz woods marked
the fighting from the 10th to the 12th, the British and the Germans
alternating in its possession. Victory at this point finally lay with
the British, who on July 12 gained possession of the whole locality,
together with the Trones wood, which had also been the scene of a bloody
straggle. By this time some 30,000 German prisoners had been taken by
the Allies during the offensive, while the losses in killed and wounded
on both sides, in the absence of official reports, could only be
estimated in appalling numbers.
TRAGIC TALE OF A GERMAN PRISONER
A typical description of some of the horrors of the battle, as it surged
around Contalmaison, was given by a German prisoner on July 12 to the
war correspondent of the London Chronicle. He spoke English, having been
employed in London for some years prior to the war. With his regiment,
the 122nd Bavarians, he went into Contalmaison five days before his
capture. Soon the rations they took with them were exhausted, and owing
to the ceaseless gunfire they were unable to get fresh supplies. They
suffered agonies of thirst and the numbers of their dead and wounded
increased day after day.
"There was a hole in the ground," said the German prisoner, whose head
was bound with a bloody bandage and who was still dazed and troubled
when the correspondent talked with him. "It was a dark hole which held
twenty men, all lying in a heap together, and that was the only dugout
for my company, so there was not room for more than a few. It was
necessary to take turns in this shelter while outside the English shells
were coming and bursting everywhere. Two or three men were dragged out
to make room for two or three others, then those who went outside were
killed or wounded.
"There was only one doctor, an unter officer,"--he pointed to a man who
lay asleep on the ground face downward--"and he bandaged some of us till
he had no more bandages; then last night we knew the end was coming.
Your guns began to fire altogether, the dreadful _trommelfeuer_, as we
call it, and the shells burst and smashed up the earth about us. "We
stayed down in the hole, waiting for the end. Then we heard your
soldiers shouting. Presently two of them came down into our hole. They
were two boys and had their pockets full of bombs; they had bombs in
their hands also, and they seemed to wonder whether they should kill us,
but we were all wounded--nearly all--and we cried 'Kamerade!' and now we
are prisoners."
Other prisoners said in effect that the fire was terrible in
Contalmaison and at least half their men holding it were killed or
wounded, so that when the British entered they walked over the bodies of
the dead. The men who escaped were in a pitiful condition. "They lay on
the ground utterly exhausted, most of them, and, what was strange, with
their faces to the earth. Perhaps it was to blot out the vision of the
things they had seen."
Meanwhile, despite the threatening character of the Allied offensive on
the Somme, German assaults on the Verdun front continued unabated during
July, and there was little evidence of the withdrawal of German troops
from that point to reinforce the army opposed to the British. But
except at Verdun, Germany was at bay everywhere, and the situation was
recognized in the Fatherland as serious. Never before had the Allies
been able to drive at Germany from all sides at once. Only at Verdun the
German Crown Prince, long halted at that point, was keeping up a slow
but strong offensive pressure.
GERMAN SUBMARINE REACHES BALTIMORE
On July 9, the German merchant submarine Deutschland, in command of
Capt. Koenig, slipped into port at Baltimore, after eluding British
warships in the North Sea, English Channel, and Atlantic. The
Deutschland carried as cargo nearly a million dollars' worth of
dyestuffs, as well as important mail. The owners announced that she was
the first of a regular fleet to be placed in service between German and
American ports, to thwart the British blockade. She made the 4,000-mile
voyage in sixteen days, including nine hours during which, according to
her captain, she lay at the bottom of the Channel to escape capture. On
July 25 she was preparing for her return voyage with a cargo said to
consist largely of crude rubber and nickel, having been accepted by
the United States Government as an innocent merchantman and granted
clearance papers on that basis. Outside the Virginia capes, beyond the
three-mile limit, British and French cruisers awaited her possible
appearance, with the hope of effecting her capture. But it was announced
in Germany that the Deutschland reached her home port safely Aug. 23.
CANADIANS STRENGTHEN THEIR FRONTS
Along the portion of the western battle front held by Canadian troops,
there were frequent heavy bombardments by the enemy during the month
of July, but the gallant soldiers of the Dominion consolidated their
positions won in battle at Loos and elsewhere, and fully held their own.
In trench mortar fighting their batteries maintained the upper hand,
often returning six shells for one thrown by the Germans. The Canadian
patrols were very active; every night reconnaissances were made all
along the Canadian front, and numerous hostile working parties engaged
in strengthening German trenches and entanglements were dispersed by
Canadian rifle fire.
On July 8, in the gardens of Kensington Palace, London, Princess Louise,
Duchess of Argyll, presented to General Steele, for the Canadian forces,
a silken Union Jack and a silver shield, given by the women and children
of the British Isles in acknowledgment of Canada's good will and
valuable co-operation. The Princess made a short address expressing high
admiration and enthusiastic appreciation of the eager readiness with
which the officers and men of Canada had come forward to take their
share in the cause of the Empire. General Steele, in receiving the
gifts, returned thanks on behalf of the Canadian troops.
NEW RUSSIAN DRIVE NEAR RIGA
On July 24, General Kuropatkin began a new Russian drive in the battle
sector south of Riga. After making a preliminary breach in the German
lines, Kuropatkin drove in a wedge of fresh troops which swept Marshal
von Hindenburg's German forces back along a front of 30 miles, and to a
depth at one point of 12 miles. The attack was preceded by a bombardment
lasting four days, which battered into ruins the German defense along
the coast line from the Gulf of Riga to Uxhull. The Kaiser and his chief
of staff recognized the importance of General Kuropatkin's advance by
hastening to the Eastern battle front on July 25.
TWO TEARS' WAR CASUALTIES
Killed. Wounded. Missing.
Russia 1,200,000 2,500,000 2,000,000
Germany 900,000 1,900,000 150,000
France 850,000 1,500,000 325,000
Austro-Hungary 475,000 1,000,000 900,000
Great Britain 160,000 450,000 70,000
Turkey 75,000 200,000 75,000
Serbia 60,000 125,000 75,000
Italy 50,000 100,000 30,000
Belgium 30,000 70,000 50,000
Bulgaria 5,000 25,000 5,000
_________ _________ _________ __________
Total 3,805,000 7,870,000 3,680,000
THE STRUGGLE ON THE SOMME
The second phase of the great Anglo-French offensive on the western
front began to develop late in July, and attacks were continuous
throughout the month of August and up to September 15. At every point in
the Somme region the giant British and French guns poured shell into
the German works, destroying barbed wire entanglements and wrecking
trenches, while Allied gains were reported almost daily, as the Germans
were slowly but surely ousted from their original positions along a wide
front.
An engagement typical of the prolonged fighting on the Somme occurred
near Armentieres, where the Australians on a two-mile front made the
greatest trench raid ever undertaken in any war, inflicting heavy damage
upon the enemy by bombing and hand-to-hand fighting. The German position
at Longueval passed into British control on July 28, after what was
called the most terrific fighting of the war, in Delville Wood.
Between August 6 and September 10 the British under Gen. Sir Douglas
Haig and the French under Gen. Foch fought off many determined German
counter-attacks in the Somme sector, and continued their advance, the
French gaining Maurepas and the British moving closer to Guillemont
and Ginchy, driving the Germans back along eleven miles of front and
capturing Thiepval Ridge and other important positions near Pozieres.
On September 9 German official reports admitted considerable losses on
the western line, both in the section south of the Somme and to the
northeast of Verdun. Fierce attacks by the Germans at Verdun had been
renewed during August, but the French, under the able command of Gen.
Nivelle, more than held their own, recapturing a considerable portion of
the terrain occupied by the enemy, including Fleury and the important
Thiaumont Work.
ITALIANS CAPTURE GORITZ.
The greatest blow which the Italian army had struck against Austria
since the beginning of the war was completed on August 9, when Italian
troops captured the fortified city of Goritz, for which they had been
struggling for months. The number of prisoners taken by the Italians
was 21,750, and in the next few days nearly 20,000 more fell into their
hands, with great stores of war munitions and many guns.
The taking of Goritz, one of the strongest fortresses in Europe,
compelled the retirement of the Austrians at other points along the
Isonzo River, and opened the road for the Italians, under Gen. Cadorna,
to strike at the coveted city of Trieste, twenty-two miles to the
southeast. With the capture of the "keystone" at Goritz, the Italian
commander confidently expected the resistance of the Austrians to weaken
and looked forward to the early occupation of the coveted provinces of
the Trentino.
ITALY AT WAR WITH GERMANY
On August 27, Italy declared war on Germany, giving as a reason the fact
that Germany had sent both land and sea forces to the aid of Austria.
The declaration became inevitable when Italy sent troops to Saloniki to
cooperate in the campaign of the Entente Allies on the Macedonian front.
For more than a year Italy's position with regard to Germany had been an
anomalous one, for although she withdrew from the Triple Alliance on May
25, 1915, and declared war against Austria, she remained officially at
peace with Germany until August 27, 1916.
RUMANIA ENTERS THE WAR
After many months of hesitation, Rumania finally decided to enter the
war on the side of the Allies and declared war on Austria, August 27.
The next day Germany declared war on Rumania, and the issue was squarely
joined in the Balkans, which then became the scene of a mighty struggle
for the possession of Germany's road to Constantinople and the East.
Tremendous activity at once began on the Balkan front, with Rumania's
endeavor to aid Russia in cutting off Bulgaria and Turkey from the
Central Powers. In the event of the success of this move, it was
expected that the Allies would start a gigantic drive toward
Constantinople.
The most important gain for either side in the Balkans up to the middle
of September was the capture by the Bulgarians and Germans, on September
7, of the great fortress of Turtukai, fifty miles to the southeast of
Bucharest, the Rumanian capital, and chief defense of the capital on
that side. Russian troops were rushed to the aid of the Rumanians,
and the loss of Turtukai was offset by Rumanian successes across the
Hungarian border, where they captured a number of towns, driving the
Austrian defenders before them as their invasion of Hungary progressed.
RUSSIAN ARMIES ACTIVE
By September 10, Russian troops were massed in great force in
southeastern Rumania, and engaged the Bulgarians on the whole
seventy-mile front from the Danube to the Black Sea, fighting fiercely
to wrest the offensive from the enemy invading Rumania. In Transylvania
the Rumanians were advancing rapidly, having captured the important town
of Orsova, on the Danube, which gave them a grip on the Austrian second
line of defense behind the mountains dividing Transylvania from Hungary.
The entrance of Rumania into the war had increased the Austro-Hungarian
front by about 380 miles, which military men regarded as altogether too
long for the Teutonic armies to hold with any hope of success.
The Russians were also on September 10 winning ground in their campaign
against Lemberg, the capital of Galicia. They had advanced until they
were within artillery range of Halicz, an important railway junction
sixty miles south of Lemberg. They had cut the railway line between
Lemberg and Halicz, and the latter town was in flames.
ALLIED PROGRESS ON THE WESTERN FRONT
British and French successes on the Western front continued during the
month of September, and the gains were encouraging to the Allies. On
September 15 the British took Flers, Martinpuich, the important position
known as the High Wood, Courcelette, and almost all of the Bouleaux
Wood, and also stormed the German positions from Combles north to
the Pozieres-Bapaume road, arriving within four miles of Bapaume and
capturing 2,300 prisoners. A prominent feature of the attack was the use
by the British of armored automobile trucks of unusual size and power,
so constructed that they were able to cross trenches and shell-holes.
These "tanks," as they were called, proved a genuine surprise to the
enemy. They were said to be developed from American tractors of the
"caterpillar" variety, which lay their own tracks as they proceed.
A two-mile trench system, believed to be impregnable, was stormed by the
Allied forces near Thiepval September 17, while south of the Somme the
French took the German trenches along a front of three miles. Next day
more ground was taken in the advance toward Bapaume and German prisoners
continued to fall into the Allies' hands. The number of Teuton captives
taken during the Somme fighting from July 1 to September 22 was placed
at 55,800 men and officers.
The month of September was remarkable for the great number of aerial
combats on the western front and the efficiency developed in this mode
of fighting. Many airplanes were shot down on both sides, but the Allies
seemed to be gaining the mastery of the air. On a single day, September
24, over a hundred air combats were reported, during which fifty-seven
airplanes were destroyed. On the same day two French airmen, in flights
of 500 miles, dropped bombs on the Krupp works at Essen in Germany.
In a forward sweep near the end of the month the British took a number
of German positions northeast of Combles, while the French advanced
south of that point, so that the two armies almost surrounding it were
scarcely a mile apart. A day later British and French troops entered
Comibles from opposite sides and drove the Germans out. Continuing
the drive from Thiepval, which had also been occupied, the British
consolidated their positions and straightened their line a short
distance from Bapaume, their objective point at this time. More than
5,000 German prisoners were taken September 26 and 27.
More Allied gains in the Somme sector were reported in the first week of
October. German counter-attacks were frequent, but lacked the vigor and
success of former efforts on this front. In a joint attack on October
the village of Le Sars was taken and the Allies found themselves within
two miles of Bapaume. General Foch with his French infantry took a
number of German positions near Ablaincourt, south of the Somme, October
14, and held his gains against repeated German attacks. The fighting was
extremely desperate and of a hand-to-hand character. Gas and liquid fire
were used by the Germans, but the new Allied lines were firmly held.
Liquid fire was also used against the British at Thiepval, but without
success.
The Allied attacks on the Somme from October 9 to October 13 were
reckoned in Berlin dispatches as amongst the greatest actions of the
entire Somme battle, the enemy believing that the Allies themselves then
attempted to reach a decision by breaking through the German lines on
the largest possible scale. The losses on both sides during this period
were admittedly very heavy.
On October 18 the town of Sailly-Saillisel fell to the French after hard
fighting and commanding ridges on either side of it were also captured.
Fresh progress brought the French troops to the outskirts of Peronne
next day, and on the 21st the British advanced their lines along a front
of three miles, capturing the Stuff and Regina redoubts and trenches and
taking more than 1,000 prisoners, besides bringing down seventeen enemy
airplanes.
Captain Boelke, Germany's greatest airman, was killed October 28 in a
collision with another airplane during a battle on the western front. He
was 25 years of age, had been wounded several times during the war, and
is credited with having brought down forty Allied airplanes.
The October losses of the British in the Somme campaign were announced
by the War Office to be 107,033, bringing the British total from the
beginning of the campaign to 414,202 men and officers, killed, wounded
and missing.
In the first days of November the principal activity was in the vicinity
of Sailly. The Germans effected a successful counter-attack on November
6, recapturing some of the ground won by the Allies, with 400 prisoners,
300 of them French. Next day, however, a greater number of
German prisoners was taken by the French in an advance along a
two-and-a-half-mile front south of the Somme, and on the 9th the French
strengthened their positions near Sailly, clearing out German trenches
and taking more prisoners.
On November 13 the British took a five-mile front in the German line
near the River Ancre, capturing two towns and 3,000 prisoners, the
Germans being taken by surprise in the early morning mist. Continuing
their advantage the following day, the British took Beaucourt-sur-Anere
with more than 5,000 prisoners. On the 15th German troops took the
offensive on both sides of the Somme and succeeded in forcing their way
back into some of the trenches and advance positions held by the French,
but the British continued their advance north of the Ancre. Next day the
French recovered the lost ground and their airmen engaged in fifty-four
air battles with German machines along the Somme front. On the 18th
British and French airplanes again bombarded Ostend, dropping 180 bombs,
and once more raided Zeebrugge. In an ensuing battle six German planes
were brought down.
Infantry fighting in the Dixmude sector between Belgian and German
troops occurred on four consecutive days, from November 17 to 20, with
hand-grenade battles but no definite result. There was a general lull in
operations after this, caused by heavy weather and fogs.
FRENCH ARE FINAL VICTORS AT VERDUN.
In a dramatic blow at Verdun, after a period of comparative quiet at
that point, the French on October 24 took the village and fort of
Douaumont, also Thiaumont, the Haudromont quarries, La Caillette Wood,
Damloup battery and trenches along a four-mile front to a depth of two
miles. The ground retaken was the same that the Germans under the Crown
Prince took by two months' hard fighting. This was the quickest and most
effective blow struck in the Verdun campaign and reflected the highest
credit on the French general commanding, General Petain, and his devoted
troops, who thus turned the tide of victory at Verdun in favor of
the French and stamped with failure the efforts of the Crown Prince,
continued for nine months, to wrest Verdun from French control and open
a road to Paris. It was a campaign in which failure meant defeat for the
Germans, and its cost in men, money and munitions was enormous.
Four thousand German prisoners were taken on the 24th and the next day
the French began encircling Fort Vaux, the only one of the outer ring of
forts at Verdun which remained in German hands. All attempts on the
part of the Crown Prince to regain the lost ground were fruitless. Four
German attacks were beaten back on the 26th, and the following day the
French advanced south and west of Vaux and tightened their grip on the
fortress. During violent artillery duels, many German attacks on the
gained ground were repulsed, and by November 1 the prisoners in French
hands numbered 7,000.
On November 4 the French began the attempt to take the village of Vaux
held by the Crown Prince, and gained a foothold in the village. Next
day they captured the whole of Vaux village and also the village of
Damloup. The fort at Vaux had been evacuated by the Germans a few days
previously. Thus the long and bloody struggle for the possession of
Verdun apparently ended, although artillery duels of varying intensity
continued at intervals, and the laurels of the prolonged campaign rested
with the French.
BRILLIANT WORK OF CANADIAN TROOPS.
Brilliant work on the part of the Canadian troops on the Somme front
aided materially to gain the British successes recorded on October 21.
William Philips Simms, an eyewitness with the Canadian forces, gave a
graphic account of the attack, which was typical of much of the fighting
on the Somme. He said:
"Eight minutes of dashing across a sea of mud worse than the Slough of
Despond, of methodically advanced barrage fire, of quick work in trench
fight, sufficed for the Canadians to take Regina trench--one of the
smoothest bits of trench-taking that has been witnessed in the Somme
drive. I saw the Canadians, muddy to the eyebrows--but grinning--on the
day after they had accomplished the feat.
"The assault was over in eight minutes. It was carried out in brilliant
moonlight, and despite a terrific German counter barrage fire and a sea
of mud. Every objective the Canadians sought was won.
"Though the Germans repeatedly counter-attacked, the Canadians not only
kept every inch they had wrested from the enemy, but before dawn they
had strongly reorganized their position and dug over 250 yards of
connecting trenches."
ACTIVITIES OF THE RUSSIANS.
On the eastern front in the middle of September strong Russian attacks
before Halicz were driving the Teutonic troops back toward Lemberg, and
several thousand German and Turkish troops were captured. The Russian
advance was checked, however, on September 18, after a total of 25,
prisoners had been taken by the Russians near Halicz.
The Russian offensive was shifted September 21 from the Lemberg sector
to the east of Kovel and a few days after a fresh offensive began along
the entire eastern front, heavy fighting being reported west of Lutsk
and in the Carpathians. Turkish troops at this time appeared on the Riga
front, with German equipment and led by German and Austrian officers.
The great 300-mile battle continued unabated to the end of October, with
fighting all along the line from the Pinsk marshes on the north to the
Roumanian frontier on the south.
By a sudden drive through the Russian front north of the Pinsk marshes
on November 10, the Germans succeeded in cutting the Russian first line,
taking nearly 4,000 prisoners and twenty-seven machine guns. The Russian
lines were believed to have been weakened by the transfer of troops to
Roumanian positions in the south. Following this there was terrific
fighting in the Narayuvka, where the Russian trenches were carried
by the Germans after they had been practically destroyed by high
explosives; but the ground lost, located near Slaventin, was gallantly
regained by the Russian troops on November 15.
The Russian dreadnought Imperatritsa Maria was sunk by a mine near
Sulina, at the mouth of the Danube, November 11. It was launched in
and had a displacement of 22,500 tons. On November 18 Russian troops
near Sarny, southeast of Pinsk, brought down a Zeppelin airship,
capturing the crew of sixteen and 600 pounds of bombs.
German casualties from the beginning of the war, as compiled in London
from German official lists, were set November 10 at 3,755,693. Of this
total 910,234 were killed. The total German casualties for the month of
October, 1916, reached 199,675 officers and men, of whom 34,231 were
killed.
GREAT CAMPAIGNS IN THE BALKANS.
For some time after Roumania entered the war her fighting forces were
divided between two campaigns--in the Dobrudja and in Transylvania, the
Austrian territory invaded by Roumania as soon as she declared war. On
September 15 the Roumanians began a retreat in the Dobrudja, before
advancing forces of Germans and Bulgarains led by General von
Macksensen. The Russo-Roumanian center was driven back thirty miles,
while the German and Bulgarian troops occupied several of the Roumanian
Black Sea ports.
Then came a great six-day battle in the Dobrudja, with fighting along a
forty-five mile line from ten miles south of Constanza to Cernavoda, on
the Danube, and in this battle the Russo-Roumanians were successful,
compelling the Teutonic forces to retreat southward toward the border.
For a while Von Mackesen was on the defensive, but in a counter-attack
on September 23 he gained a marked victory over the Roumanians.
Gradually the latter were forced to retire, and although they made
a desperate resistance to the forces under Von Mackensen the latter
reached the coast by October 21, advancing on Constanza, Roumania's
chief port on the Black Sea, which was captured October 23. Cernavoda
fell on the 25th.
Meanwhile in Transylvania events of a similar character had been
happening. At first successful in their invasion of Austrian territory,
the Roumanians were unable to hold their advantage, and while the tide
of battle was for several weeks in doubt, the German and Austrian troops
under General von Falkenhayn at length drove the invaders back across
the mountains. By October 8 a Teutonic invasion of Roumania from the
northwest was imminent, and two days later the Roumanians were pursued
through the passes by Austrian troops. By the 17th Teuton forces were
five miles inside the frontier.
On October 25 Von Falkenhayn's army stormed the Vulcan Pass and pushed
nearer the railroad at Kimpolong, seventy-five miles from Bucharest.
These successes were not gained, however, without hard fighting, the
Roumanians making a desperate stand to prevent the Teuton invasion which
threatened their capital. They were aided by a French commander, General
Bertholet, and struck back hard at Von Falkenhayn, gaining some signal
successes in the last days of October and early in November and
capturing several thousand prisoners and much war material. These
successes, however, proved insufficient to do more than check the Teuton
advance toward Bucharest.
In the Dobrudja, after the capture of Cernavoda by Von Mackensen, there
were strenuous efforts by the Roumanians, aided by Russians, to regain
their lost territory. In their early retreat they destroyed the great
eleven-mile bridge over the Danube at Cernavoda and so cut off for the
time being Von Mackesen's threatened drive to Bucharest from the south.
The Roumanians that had been opposing him fell back northward to the
Danube forts. They were hotly pursued by Bulgarians, who on October
29 were reported to be at Astrovo, fifty miles north of the
Constanza-Cernavoda railway line. The possession of the latter was an
immense advantage to Von Macksensen.
General von Falkenhayn continued his advance into Roumania during
November and at the beginning of December the battle for Bucharest was
ranging on three sides of the capital, with the Roumanians successful at
some points, the invaders at others. West of Bucharest the defenders
had been pressed back to the Argesu River, while to the northwest the
Germanic forces had smashed through the Roumanian lines and were rapidly
moving down the Argesu Valley from Pitesci and down the Dombovitza from
the Kompelung region.
To the south of the capital, King Ferdinand's troops delivered a
powerful counter-attack on December 2 that forced the Teutons back from
the Argesu line and reclaimed two villages.
The Russians meanwhile were making a determined effort to relieve the
situation at Bucharest by a counter-demonstration in the Carpathians,
where on December 3 a great battle was developing in their favor. They
had gained a foothold in Kirlibaba, the key to the Rodna Pass and the
plains of Hungary, and were attacking successfully at other points on
the 250-mile front. The Russians also had seized the western end of the
Cernavoda bridge over the Danube, thus putting a check on any movement
of General von Mackensen's troops across the river from Dobrudja.
General Sakharoff's forces continued furious, attacks along the entire
line in the Dobrudja.
ITALIAN CAMPAIGN IN THE TRENTINO.
The Italian forces operating in the Trentino continued their activity
during the fall and early winter of 1916, continual gains being made
in their difficult undertaking. General Cadorna began a new drive on
Trieste in October, transferring the weight of his attacks from the
Carso sector to the Trentino front. The total number of Austrian
prisoners taken on the Isonzo front from August 6 to October 12 was set
by the Italian War Office at 30,880. No decided advantage was gained by
either side up to December 5, although the Italians continued to take
many prisoners and much Austrian war material in the course of their
operations, and in November compelled the Austrian generals to transfer
many troops from the Roumanian front in order to cope with the Italian
attacks, delivered in the most difficult terrain of the entire war
and often under weather conditions that tried the hardihood of troops
trained to Alpine warfare.
DEATH OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPEROR.
Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, died at
Schonbrunn Castle, near Vienna, November 21, at the age of 86. He had
ruled for sixty-eight years, his reign being marked by much turbulence
in the empire, both political and social, and by a long series of
domestic and personal disasters that culminated in the assassination of
his nephew, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the joint thrones of
Austria and Hungary, which furnished the Teutonic excuse for the great
war. Francis Joseph was succeeded by his grandnephew, Archduke Charles
Francis Joseph, of whose personality little was known outside Austria.
ZEPPELIN RAIDERS BROUGHT DOWN.
Several German Zeppelins were brought to earth on English soil during
the progress of aerial raids in September and November, 1916. Commander
Robinson and Lieutenants Tempest and Sowery of the Flying Corps each
accounted for one of the huge aircraft in the London district The
former received the Victoria cross for his exploit. The crew of one of
the Zeppelins was captured, but in the other cases the crews perished
with the airships, which fell flaming to earth. Two more Zeppelins were
brought down late in November on the eastern coast of England and fell
into the sea. One of these was destroyed nine miles from the coast by
naval seaplanes and a patrol boat.
DEPORTATION OF BELGIAN WORKMEN.
A wave of indignation swept over the civilized world, already outraged
almost beyond endurance by the unprecedented German disregard of
international law and the recognized customs of war, when it was
announced on November 10 that 30,000 Belgians had been deported into
exile by the German authorities in Belgium. It was alleged that all
males between the ages of 17 and 30 were being sent in cattle-cars to
Germany. Cardinal Mercier of Belgium protested in the name of humanity,
the men being ruthlessly torn from their families, and said the Belgians
were being reduced to a state of slavery. The Pope protested to the
German government against the reported action, and the State Department
at Washington made representations concerning it to Berlin. The total
number of Belgian males to be deported to work in German industries was
alleged to be 300,000. After investigation Viscount Bryce of England
and many other statesmen and publicists denounced the German action as
infamous.
POLAND PROCLAIMED A KINGDOM BY GERMANY.
By a joint manifesto, issued on November 4 by the Emperors of Germany
and Austria, the ancient kingdom of Poland was revived and Polish
autonomy ostensibly re-established. The kingdom was proclaimed with due
ceremony in Lublin and Warsaw. The definite territorial limits of the
new nation were not set, according to the proclamation, and would not
be until the close of the war. Constitutional rule and a national army,
however, were to be established at once. The joint opinion of other
nations, neutrals and Allies of the Entente, was that Poland as captured
territory could not be recognized as a new kingdom.
THE FALL OF BUCHAREST.
By December 2 the battle for Bucharest had reached the outskirts of
the Roumanian capital and the guns of Von Mackensen's forces began a
bombardment of the outer forts, and on December 6 the armies of the
Central Powers took Bucharest, cutting off a large part of the defending
army. Ploesci, the great oil center of Roumania, and Sinaia, the
summer capital, also fell. Many thousands of Roumanian troops were taken
prisoners in the operations near Bucharest, the number being estimated
at 38,500 for the first week of the month, and the Roumanians retired to
new positions to the north and east of their fallen capital. General von
Heinrich, governor of Lille during the deportation of Belgians from that
city, was appointed military governor of Bucharest, on which the Germans
imposed a levy amounting practically to $400 a person, or a total of
$140,000,000.
Von Mackensen continued to press his advances in the Dobrudja and
eastern Wallachia during the month, though retarded by sturdy Russian
and Roumanian resistance. As Christmas approached the forces of the
Central Powers were pressing the Russo-Roumanians close to the Danube
where it runs east and west, forming the boundary between Roumania and
Bessarabia.
CHANGE IN BRITISH GOVERNMENT.
On December 7 Mr. Henry Lloyd-George accepted the British premiership
and formed a new Cabinet, which included an important representation
of labor and other elements of strength pointing to a systematic and
determined prosecution of the war from all angles. The Cabinet as
announced December 12 included Sir Edward Carson, the Irish Unionist
leader, as First Lord of the Admiralty, and Baron Devonport as food
controller, a new position. The size of the war council was reduced to
five, including the premier. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was appointed
First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, being succeeded in command of the grand
fleet of Britain by Admiral Sir David Beatty, who commanded the British
battle-cruiser fleet in the battle of Jutland.
France followed suit in reorganizing her war council under Premier
Briand, also restricting the number of members to five, and General
Joffre was succeeded in command of the armies of the north and the
northeast by General Nivelle, commander of the French troops at Verdun,
where notable victories were gained by the French in December, regaining
almost all the ground lost during the previous operations of the year.
General Joffre was promoted to the high honor of Marshal of France, the
ancient rank being revived for him.
CENTRAL POWERS MOVE FOR PEACE.
On December 12 the Central Powers simultaneously presented notes
to neutral powers for transmission to the nations of the Entente,
containing a proposal for an armistice to discuss the possibilities
of peace. No terms of peace accompanied the German notes and after
consultation with the allies of Great Britain Premier Lloyd-George
delivered a speech in the House of Commons on December 19, declaring
that the proposals of peace could not be entertained, and in which he
said:
"I appear before the House of Commons today with the most terrible
responsibility that can fall upon the shoulders of any living man as
chief adviser of the Crown in the most gigantic war in which this
country was ever engaged--a war upon the events of which its destiny
depends.
"We accepted this war for an object, and a world object, and the war
will end when the object is attained under God. I hope it will never end
until that time.
MUST KNOW BERLIN PLANS.
"We feel that we ought to know, before we can give favorable
consideration to such an invitation, that Germany is prepared to accede
to the only terms on which it is possible peace can be obtained and
maintained in Europe, Those terms have been repeatedly stated by all the
leading statesmen of the Allies. They have been stated repeatedly here
and outside. To quote the leader of the House last week:
"'Reparation and guarantee against repetition, so there shall be no
mistake, and it is important that there should be no mistake in a matter
of life or death to millions.'
"Let me repeat: Complete restitution, full reparation, and effectual
guarantees.
NO HINT OP REPARATION.
"Did the German Chancellor use a single phrase to indicate that he was
prepared to accept such a peace? Was there a hint of restitution? Was
there a suggestion of reparation? Was there an implication of any
security for the future that this outrage on civilization would not
again be perpetrated at the first profitable opportunity?
"The very substance and style of the speech constitutes a denial of
peace on the only terms on which peace is possible. He is not even
conscious now that Germany has committed any offense against the rights
of free nations.
"Listen to this from the note:
"'Not for an instant have they [the Central Powers] swerved from the
conviction that respect of the rights of other nations is not in any
degree incompatible with their own rights and interests.'
"The note and speech prove that they have not yet learned the alphabet
of respect for the rights of others.
"The Allies entered this war to defend Europe against the aggression of
Prussian military domination, and, having begun it, they must insist
that the only end is the most complete effective guarantee against the
possibility of that caste ever again disturbing the peace of Europe.
"You can't have absolute equality in sacrifice. In war that is
impossible. But you can have equal readiness to sacrifice from all.
There are hundreds of thousands who have given their lives; there are
millions who have given up comfortable homes and exchanged them for
daily communion with death. Multitudes have given up those whom they
loved best.
FOR NATIONAL LENT.
"Let the nation as a whole place its comforts, its luxuries, its
indulgences, its elegances on the national altar consecrated by such
sacrifices as these men have made! Let us proclaim during the war a
national Lent! The nation will be better and stronger for it, mentally
and morally, as well as physically. It will strengthen its fiber and
ennoble its spirit. Without it we shall not get the full benefit of this
struggle.
"Our armies have driven the enemy out of the battered villages of France
and across the devastated plains of Belgium. They might hurl him across
the Rhine in battered disarray. But unless the nation as a whole
shoulders part of the burden of victory it won't profit by the triumph,
for it is not what a nation gains, but what it gives that makes it
great."
PEACE MESSAGE BY PRESIDENT WILSON.
A bombshell was cast into the camps of the nations at war on December
20, when President Wilson unexpectedly addressed a message to the
belligerents, urging them to state their terms of peace and end the war
without further fighting.
An explanation of the President's message to the nations was made by
Secretary of State Lansing on the morning of its publication. In the
course of this he asserted that the United States had been brought
to "the verge of war," which was generally understood to mean that a
threatened resumption of submarine activities by Germany on a large
scale might create an intolerable situation; also that the President
desired to know the terms of peace contemplated by the powers at war,
so as to be informed as to how they would affect the interests of the
United States.
Germany replied to the President's note on December 26, giving no terms,
but lauding the "high-minded suggestion" of Mr. Wilson and proposing "an
immediate meeting of delegates of the belligerent states, at a neutral
place," continuing as follows: "The imperial government is also of the
opinion that the great work of preventing further wars can be begun only
after the end of the present struggle of the nations. It will, when this
moment shall have come, be ready with pleasure to collaborate entirely
with the United States in this exalted task."
The reply of the Entente Allies to President Wilson's message was
received January 11. While disclaiming any intention of exterminating
the Teutonic peoples, the Allies in this reply stated terms of peace
which would result in the humbling of Germany and Austria-Hungary and
the expulsion of Turkey from Europe.
ENTENTE PEACE TERMS.
The Entente peace terms enumerated in the reply to the President were:
Restoration of Belgium, Serbia and Montenegro, with the payment of
indemnities to each by Germany.
Evacuation of France, Russia and Roumania, with reparation to each by
Germany.
Reorganization of Europe "guaranteed by a stable regime and founded as
much upon respect of nationalities and full security and liberty of
economic development, which all nations, great or small, possess, as
upon territorial conventions and international agreements suitable
to guarantee territorial and maritime frontiers against unjustified
attacks."
ALSACE-LORRAINE TO FRANCE.
Restoration to France of Alsace and Lorraine by Germany and to Italy of
the former northern provinces by Austria.
Liberation of Italians, Slavs, Roumanians and Tcheco Slovaques (Czech
Slavs) from domination by the Central Powers, which would mean the
cession of several outlying portions of Austria-Hungary to Russia,
Roumania, Serbia and Italy.
Enfranchisement of the Armenians and other "populations subject to the
bloody tyranny of the Turks."
Expulsion of the Turkish empire from Europe, thus giving Constantinople
to Russia.
WOULD LIBERATE EUROPE.
"It goes without saying," concluded the note, "that, if the Allies wish
to liberate Europe from the brutal covetousness of Prussian militarism,
it never has been their design, as has been alleged, to encompass the
extermination of the German peoples and their political disappearance.
"That which they desire above all is to insure a peace upon the
principles of liberty and justice, upon the inviolable fidelity to
international obligation with which the government of the United States
has never ceased to be inspired.
WANT VICTORIOUS WAR.
"United in the pursuits of this supreme object, the Allies are
determined, individually and collectively, to act with all their power
and to consent to all sacrifices to bring to a victorious close a
conflict upon which they are convinced not only their own safety and
prosperity depend, but also the future of civilization itself."
Belgium, in addition to joining with her allies in the reply to the
President, sent an individual note, in which the conquered kingdom made
a stirring appeal for American sympathy in its purpose to fight on till
it won freedom with reparation.
The Allies promised that in the event of peace on these terms Russia
would carry out her announced intention of conferring autonomy on
Poland.
THE PECULIAR SITUATION IN GREECE.
A curious situation developed in Greece during the fall and early winter
of 1916. The German sympathies of King Constantine had brought him into
conflict with the considerable portion of the Greek people led by
the former premier, Venizelos, and the latter had proclaimed a Greek
republic and placed troops in the field in active co-operation with
the Allies. Diplomatic representatives of the Entente Powers who had
remained in Athens were ordered to leave early in November, their
presence being felt to be a menace to the interests of the Allies, whose
warships commanded the Greek ports and whose troops were stationed
at Saloniki in large numbers. The ostensible neutrality of King
Constantine's government was regarded by the Allies as dangerous, the
failure of Greece to respond to the call of Serbia, its treaty ally,
having demonstrated the governmental inclination toward the cause of the
Central Powers. In order to minimize the danger, therefore, the French
admiral, Du Fournet, in command of the Allied fleet, demanded the
surrender to the Allies of certain guns and war material, and this
demand being refused French and British marines were landed at the
Piraeus on December 2, 1916, and took possession of the Acropolis. This
led to their being fired upon by Greek reservists who had been called
out, and some bloodshed resulted, there being about 200 casualties
before a compromise was reached between King Constantine and the Allied
commanders and the Greek crisis passed for the time being. The king
submitted to part of the Allied demands, the others were waived, and the
forces landed were withdrawn, after a day of fighting in which the
Greek reservists engaged in many clashes with the armed followers of
Venizelos.
On January 9 ministers of the Entente Powers handed to the Greek
government an ultimatum giving Greece forty-eight hours to comply with
the demands contained in the note drawn up by France, Great Britain and
Russia on December 31.
Included in the ultimatum was a request by the Entente Powers that the
Greek government fulfill at the earliest possible moment the agreement
of December 14 regarding the transfer of Greek troops from Thessaly.
BRITISH ENTER GERMAN LINES.
During the night of January 14 a party of British troops entered the
German lines east of Loos. Many casualties were inflicted on the enemy,
his dug-outs were bombed and some prisoners were secured. North of the
Ancre an enemy transport was successfully engaged.
In addition to the usual artillery activity the enemy's positions were
effectually bombarded southeast of Loos and opposite the Bois Grenier.
GERMANS DRIVEN BACK.
The official communication of the French war office January 15, 1917,
announced that reciprocal bombardments took place on both banks of the
Somme, the right bank of the Meuse and in Lorraine.
After a bombardment the night before between the Aisne and the Argonne
the Germans attacked the French advanced posts; they were driven back
after a spirited combat with grenades.
On their side the French carried out several surprise attacks on the
enemy lines, taking material and prisoners.
On January 16 a powerful offensive was started by the Russo-Roumanian
forces in the Roumanian theatre of war, with strong attacks between the
Casinu and Sushitza valleys and on both sides of Fundeni. In places the
trenches of the German Allies were entered.