In 'The Last Shot', which appeared only a few months before the
Great War began, drawing from my experience in many wars, I
attempted to describe the character of a conflict between two great
European land-powers, such as France and Germany.
"You were wrong in some ways," a friend writes to me, "but in other
ways it is almost as if you had written a play and they were following
your script and stage business."
Wrong as to the duration of the struggle and its bitterness and the
atrocious disregard of treaties and the laws of war by one side; right
about the part which artillery would play; right in suggesting the
stalemate of intrenchments when vast masses of troops occupied the
length of a frontier. Had the Germans not gone through Belgium and
attacked on the shorter line of the Franco-German boundary, the
parallel of fact with that of prediction would have been more
complete. As for the ideal of 'The Last Shot', we must await the
outcome to see how far it shall be fulfilled by a lasting peace.
Then my friend asks, "How does it make you feel?" Not as a prophet;
only as an eager observer, who finds that imagination pales beside
reality. If sometimes an incident seemed a page out of my novel, I
was reminded how much better I might have done that page from life;
and from life I am writing now.
I have seen too much of the war and yet not enough to assume the
pose of a military expert; which is easy when seated in a chair at
home before maps and news dispatches, but becomes fantastic after
one has lived at the front. One waits on more information before he
forms conclusions about campaigns. He is certain only that the Marne
was a decisive battle for civilization; that if England had not gone into
the war the Germanic Powers would have won in three months.
No words can exaggerate the heroism and sacrifice of the French or
the importance of the part which the British have played, which we
shall not realize till the war is over. In England no newspapers were
suppressed; casualty lists were published; she gave publicity to
dissensions and mistakes which others concealed, in keeping with
her ancient birthright of free institutions which work out conclusions
through discussion rather than take them ready-made from any ruler
or leader.
Whatever value this book has is the reflection of personal
observation and the thoughts which have occurred to me when I
have walked around my experiences and measured them and found
what was worth while and what was not. Such as they are, they are
real.
Most vital of all in sheer expression of military power was the visit to
the British Grand Fleet; most humanly appealing, the time spent in
Belgium under German rule; most dramatic, the French victory on the
Marne; most precious, my long stay at the British front.
A traveller's view I had of Germany in the early period of the war; but I
was never with the German army, which made Americans particularly
welcome for obvious reasons. Between right and wrong one cannot
be a neutral. In foregoing the diversion of shaking hands and passing
the time of day on the Germanic fronts, I escaped any bargain with
my conscience by accepting the hospitality of those warring for a
cause and in a manner obnoxious to me. I was among friends, living
the life of one army and seeing war in all its aspects from day to day,
instead of having tourist glimpses.
Chapters which deal with the British army in France and with the
British fleet have been submitted to the censor. Though the censor
may delete military secrets, he may not prompt opinions. Whatever
notes of praise and of affection which you may read between the
lines or in them spring from the mind and heart. Undemonstratively,
cheerily as they would go for a walk, with something of old-fashioned
chivalry, the British went to death.
Their national weaknesses and strength, revealed under external
differences by association, are more akin to ours than we shall realize
until we face our own inevitable crisis. Though one's ancestors had
been in America for nearly three centuries, he was continually finding
how much of custom, of law, of habit, and of instinct he had in
common with them; and how Americans who were not of British blood
also shared these as an applied inheritance that has been the most
formative element in the American crucible.
My grateful acknowledgments are due to the American press
associations who considered me worthy to be the accredited
American correspondent at the British front, and to Collier's and
Everybody's; and may an author who has not had the opportunity to
read proofs request the reader's indulgence.
FREDERICK PALMER. British Headquarters, France.