[Illustration: THE VICTORIOUS GENERALS
General Foch, Commander-in-Chief of all Allied forces. General
Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American armies. Field Marshal
Haig, head of the British armies. General d’Esperey (French) to
whom Bulgaria surrendered. General Diaz, Commander-in-Chief of the
Italian armies. General Marshall (British), head of the Mesopotamian
expedition. General Allenby (British), who redeemed Palestine from the
Turks.]
COMPLETE EDITION
HISTORY OF THE
WORLD WAR
An Authentic Narrative of
The World’s Greatest War
BY FRANCIS A. MARCH, Ph.D.
In Collaboration with
RICHARD J. BEAMISH
Special War Correspondent
and Military Analyst
With an Introduction
BY GENERAL PEYTON C. MARCH
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
With Exclusive Photographs by
JAMES H. HARE and DONALD THOMPSON
World-Famed War Photographers
and with Reproductions from the Official Photographs
of the United States, Canadian, British,
French and Italian Governments
MCMXIX
LESLIE-JUDGE COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1918
FRANCIS A. MARCH
This history is an original work and is fully protected by the
copyright laws, including the right of translation. All persons are
warned against reproducing the text in whole or in part without the
permission of the publishers.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF,
WASHINGTON.
November 14, 1918.
With the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the World
War has been practically brought to an end. The events of the past
four years have been of such magnitude that the various steps, the
numberless battles, and the growth of Allied power which led up to
the final victory are not clearly defined even in the minds of many
military men. A history of this great period which will state in an
orderly fashion this series of events will be of the greatest value to
the future students of the war, and to everyone of the present day who
desires to refer in exact terms to matters which led up to the final
conclusion.
The war will be discussed and re-discussed from every angle and the
sooner such a compilation of facts is available, the more valuable it
will be. I understand that this History of the World War intends to put
at the disposal of all who are interested, such a compendium of facts
of the past period of over four years; and that the system employed
in safeguarding the accuracy of statements contained in it will
produce a document of great historical value without entering upon any
speculative conclusions as to cause and effect of the various phases of
the war or attempting to project into an historical document individual
opinions. With these ends in view, this History will be of the greatest
value.
P. C. March.
General,
Chief of Staff,
United States Army.
FOREWORD
This is a popular narrative history of the world’s greatest war.
Written frankly from the viewpoint of the United States and the Allies,
it visualizes the bloodiest and most destructive conflict of all the
ages from its remote causes to its glorious conclusion and beneficent
results. The world-shaking rise of new democracies is set forth,
and the enormous national and individual sacrifices producing that
resurrection of human equality are detailed.
Two ideals have been before us in the preparation of this necessary
work. These are simplicity and thoroughness. It is of no avail to
describe the greatest of human events if the description is so
confused that the reader loses interest. Thoroughness is an historical
essential beyond price. So it is that official documents prepared in
many instances upon the field of battle, and others taken from the
files of the governments at war, are the basis of this work. Maps
and photographs of unusual clearness and high authenticity illuminate
the text. All that has gone into war making, into the regeneration of
the world, are herein set forth with historical particularity. The
stark horrors of Belgium, the blighting terrors of chemical warfare,
the governmental restrictions placed upon hundreds of millions of
civilians, the war sacrifices falling upon all the civilized peoples of
earth, are in these pages.
It is a work that mankind can well read and treasure.
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
INTRODUCTION BY GENERAL MARCH
PAGE
CHAPTER I. A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM
A Conflict that was Inevitable--The Flower of Manhood on
the Fields of France--Germany’s Defiance to the World--Heroic
Belgium--Four Autocratic Nations against Twenty-four
Committed to the Principles of Liberty--America’s
Titanic Effort--Four Million Men Under Arms, Two
Million Overseas--France the Martyr Nation--The British
Empire’s Tremendous Share in the Victory--A River of
Blood Watering the Desert of Autocracy 1
CHAPTER II. THE WORLD SUDDENLY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
The War Storm Breaks--Trade and Commerce Paralyzed--Homeward
Rush of Travelers--Stock Markets Closed--The
Tide of Desolation Following in the Wake of War 21
CHAPTER III. WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR
The Balkan Ferment--Russia, the Dying Giant Among
Autocracies--Turkey the “Sick Man” of Europe--Scars
Left by the Balkan War--Germany’s Determination to
Seize a Place in the Sun 41
CHAPTER IV. THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENE
The Assassination at Sarajevo--The Slavic Ferment--Austria’s
Domineering Note--The Plotters of Potsdam--The
Mailed Fist of Militarism Beneath the Velvet Glove of
Diplomacy--Mobilization and Declarations of War 58
CHAPTER V. THE GREAT WAR BEGINS
Germany Invades Belgium and Luxemburg--French Invade
Alsace--England’s “Contemptible Little Army” Lands
in France and Belgium--The Murderous Gray-Green Tide--Heroic
Retreat of the British from Mons--Belgium Overrun--Northern
France Invaded--Marshal Joffre Makes Ready to Strike 88
CHAPTER VI. THE TRAIL OF THE BEAST IN BELGIUM
Barbarities that Shocked Humanity--Planned as Part of the
Teutonic Policy of _Schrecklichkeit_--How the German and the
Hun Became Synonymous Terms--The Unmatchable
Crimes of a War-Mad Army--A Record of Infamy Written
in Blood and Tears--Official Reports 117
CHAPTER VII. THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE
Joffre’s Masterly Plan--The Enemy Trapped Between
Verdun and Paris--Gallieni’s “Army in Taxicabs”--Foch,
the “Savior of Civilization,” Appears--His Mighty
Thrust Routs the Army of Hausen--Joffre Salutes Foch
as “The First Strategist in Europe”--The Battle that
Won the Baton of a Marshal 153
CHAPTER VIII. JAPAN IN THE WAR
Tsing-Tau Seized by the Mikado--German “Gibraltar”
of Far East Surrendered After Short Siege--Japan’s Aid to
the Allies in Money, Ships, Men and Nurses--German
Propaganda in the Far East Fails 170
CHAPTER IX. CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST
Invasion of East Prussia--Von Hindenburg and Masurian
Lakes--Battle of Tannenberg--Augustovo--Russians Capture
Lemberg--The Offer to Poland 184
CHAPTER X. NEW METHODS AND HORRORS OF WARFARE
Tanks--Poison Gas--Flame Projectors--Airplane Bombs--Trench
Mortars--Machine Guns--Modern Uses of Airplanes
for Liaison and Attacks on Infantry--Radio--Rifle
and Hand Grenades--A War of Intensive Artillery
Preparation--A Debacle of Insanities, Terrible Wounds and
Horrible Deaths 212
ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I
PAGE
THE VICTORIOUS GENERALS _Frontispiece_
KINGS AND CHIEF EXECUTIVES OF THE PRINCIPAL
POWERS ASSOCIATED AGAINST THE GERMAN ALLIANCE 2
THE “TIGER OF FRANCE” 14
THE RIGHT HONORABLE DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 36
FRANCIS JOSEPH I OF AUSTRIA, THE “OLD EMPEROR”
ON A STATE OCCASION 44
THE KAISER AND HIS SIX SONS 82
KING ALBERT AT THE HEAD OF THE HEROIC SOLDIERS OF BELGIUM 94
A SCENE FROM EARLY TRENCH WARFARE 114
GERMAN ATROCITIES 126
THE SUPREME EXPONENTS OF GERMAN FRIGHTFULNESS 148
GENERAL PERSHING AND MARSHAL JOFFRE 156
MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ALLIED ARMIES 162
COSSACKS OF THE DON ATTACKING PRUSSIAN CAVALRY 188
THE MADE-TO-ORDER INFERNO OF THE FLAME-THROWER 230
TYPES OF LAND BATTLESHIPS DEVELOPED BY ALLIES AND GERMANS 234
THE WORLD WAR
CHAPTER I
A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM
“My Fellow Countrymen: The armistice was signed this morning.
Everything for which America fought has been accomplished. The war thus
comes to an end.”
Speaking to the Congress and the people of the United States, President
Wilson made this declaration on November 11, 1918. A few hours before
he made this statement, Germany, the empire of blood and iron, had
agreed to an armistice, terms of which were the hardest and most
humiliating ever imposed upon a nation of the first class. It was
the end of a war for which Germany had prepared for generations, a
war bred of a philosophy that Might can take its toll of earth’s
possessions, of human lives and liberties, when and where it will.
That philosophy involved the cession to imperial Germany of the best
years of young German manhood, the training of German youths to be
killers of men. It involved the creation of a military caste, arrogant
beyond all precedent, a caste that set its strength and pride against
the righteousness of democracy, against the possession of wealth and
bodily comforts, a caste that visualized itself as part of a power-mad
Kaiser’s assumption that he and God were to shape the destinies of
earth.
When Marshal Foch, the foremost strategist in the world, representing
the governments of the Allies and the United States, delivered to the
emissaries of Germany terms upon which they might surrender, he brought
to an end the bloodiest, the most destructive and the most beneficent
war the world has known. It is worthy of note in this connection that
the three great wars in which the United States of America engaged have
been wars for freedom. The Revolutionary War was for the liberty
of the colonies; the Civil War was waged for the freedom of manhood
and for the principle of the indissolubility of the Union; the World
War, beginning 1914, was fought for the right of small nations to
self-government and for the right of every country to the free use of
the high seas.
[Illustration: KINGS AND CHIEF EXECUTIVES OF THE PRINCIPAL POWERS
ASSOCIATED AGAINST THE GERMAN ALLIANCE]
More than four million American men were under arms when the conflict
ended. Of these, more than two million were upon the fields of France
and Italy. These were thoroughly trained in the military art. They had
proved their right to be considered among the most formidable soldiers
the world has known. Against the brown rock of that host in khaki, the
flower of German savagery and courage had broken at Château-Thierry.
There the high tide of Prussian militarism, after what had seemed to
be an irresistible dash for the destruction of France, spent itself
in the bloody froth and spume of bitter defeat. There the Prussian
Guard encountered the Marines, the Iron Division and the other heroic
organizations of America’s new army. There German soldiers who had
been hardened and trained under German conscription before the war, and
who had learned new arts in their bloody trade, through their service
in the World War, met their masters in young Americans taken from the
shop, the field, and the forge, youths who had been sent into battle
with a scant six months’ intensive training in the art of war. Not only
did these American soldiers hold the German onslaught where it was
but, in a sudden, fierce, resistless counter-thrust they drove back in
defeat and confusion the Prussian Guard, the Pommeranian Reserves, and
smashed the morale of that German division beyond hope of resurrection.
The news of that exploit sped from the Alps to the North Sea Coast,
through all the camps of the Allies, with incredible rapidity. “The
Americans have held the Germans. They can fight,” ran the message.
New life came into the war-weary ranks of heroic poilus and into the
steel-hard armies of Great Britain. “The Americans are as good as the
best. There are millions of them, and millions more are coming,” was
heard on every side. The transfusion of American blood came as magic
tonic, and from that glorious day there was never a doubt as to the
speedy defeat of Germany. From that day the German retreat dated. The
armistice signed on November 11, 1918, was merely the period finishing
the death sentence of German militarism, the first word of which was
uttered at Château-Thierry.
Germany’s defiance to the world, her determination to force her will
and her “kultur” upon the democracies of earth, produced the conflict.
She called to her aid three sister autocracies: Turkey, a land ruled
by the whims of a long line of moody misanthropic monarchs; Bulgaria,
the traitor nation cast by its Teutonic king into a war in which its
people had no choice and little sympathy; Austria-Hungary, a congeries
of races in which a Teutonic minority ruled with an iron scepter.
Against this phalanx of autocracy, twenty-four nations arrayed
themselves. Populations of these twenty-eight warring nations far
exceeded the total population of all the remainder of humanity. The
conflagration of war literally belted the earth. It consumed the most
civilized of capitals. It raged in the swamps and forests of Africa.
To its call came alien peoples speaking words that none but themselves
could translate, wearing garments of exotic cut and hue amid the smart
garbs and sober hues of modern civilization. A twentieth century Babel
came to the fields of France for freedom’s sake, and there was born an
internationalism making for the future understanding and peace of the
world. The list of the twenty-eight nations entering the World War and
their populations follow:
Countries Population
United States 110,000,000
Austria-Hungary 50,000,000
Belgium 8,000,000
Bulgaria 5,000,000
Brazil 23,000,000
China 420,000,000
Costa Rica 425,000
Cuba 2,500,000
France[A] 90,000,000
Guatemala 2,000,000
Germany 67,000,000
Great Britain[A] 440,000,000
Greece 5,000,000
Haiti 2,000,000
Honduras 600,000
Italy 37,000,000
Japan 54,000,000
Liberia 2,000,000
Montenegro 500,000
Nicaragua 700,000
Panama 400,000
Portugal[A] 15,000,000
Roumania 7,500,000
Russia 180,000,000
San Marino 10,000
Serbia 4,500,000
Siam 6,000,000
Turkey 42,000,000
------------
Total 1,575,135,000
[A] Including colonies.
The following nations, with their populations, took no part in the
World War:
Countries Population
Abyssinia 8,000,000
Afghanistan 6,000,000
Andorra 6,000
Argentina 8,000,000
Bhutan 250,000
Chile 5,000,000
Colombia 5,000,000
Denmark 3,000,000
Ecuador 1,500,000
Mexico 15,000,000
Monaco 20,000
Nepal 4,000,000
Holland[B] 40,000,000
Norway 2,500,000
Paraguay 800,000
Persia 9,000,000
Peru 3,400,000
Salvador 1,250,000
Spain 20,000,000
Sweden 5,500,000
Switzerland 3,750,000
Uruguay 1,100,000
Venezuela 2,800,000
------------
Total 145,876,000
[B] Including colonies.
Never before in the history of the world were so many races and peoples
mingled in a military effort as those that came together under the
command of Marshal Foch. If we divide the human races into white,
yellow, red and black, all four were largely represented. Among the
white races there were Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, English,
Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, Australians, South Africans (of
both British and Dutch descent), New Zealanders; in the American army,
probably every other European nation was represented, with additional
contingents from those already named, so that every branch of the
white race figured in the ethnological total.
There were representatives of many Asiatic races, including not only
the volunteers from the native states of India, but elements from the
French colony in Cochin China, with Annam, Cambodia, Tonkin, Laos,
and Kwang Chau Wan. England and France both contributed many African
tribes, including Arabs from Algeria and Tunis, Senegalese, Saharans,
and many of the South African races. The red races of North America
were represented in the armies of both Canada and the United States,
while the Maoris, Samoans, and other Polynesian races were likewise
represented. And as, in the American Army, there were men of German,
Austrian, and Hungarian descent, and, in all probability, contingents
also of Bulgarian and Turkish blood, it may be said that Foch commanded
an army representing the whole human race, united in defense of the
ideals of the Allies.
[Illustration: TERRITORIES OCCUPIED BY THE ALLIES UNDER THE ARMISTICE
OF NOVEMBER 11, 1918
Dotted area, invaded territory of Belgium, France, Luxembourg and
Alsace-Lorraine to be evacuated in fourteen days; area in small
squares, part of Germany west of the Rhine to be evacuated in
twenty-five days and occupied by Allied and U. S. troops; lightly
shaded area to east of Rhine, neutral zone; black semi-circles,
bridge-heads of thirty kilometers radius in the neutral zone to be
occupied by Allied armies.]
It will be seen that more than ten times the number of neutral persons
were engulfed in the maelstrom of war. Millions of these suffered
from it during the entire period of the conflict, four years three
months and fifteen days, a total of 1,567 days. For almost four years
Germany rolled up a record of victories on land and of piracies on and
under the seas.
Little by little, day after day, piracies dwindled as the murderous
submarine was mastered and its menace strangled. On the land, the
Allies, under the matchless leadership of Marshal Ferdinand Foch and
the generous co-operation of Americans, British, French and Italians,
under the great Generals Pershing, Haig, Pétain and Diaz, wrested the
initiative from von Hindenburg and Ludendorf, late in July, 1918. Then,
in one hundred and fifteen days of wonderful strategy and the fiercest
fighting the world has ever witnessed, Foch and the Allies closed upon
the Germanic armies the jaws of a steel trap. A series of brilliant
maneuvers dating from the battle of Château-Thierry in which the
Americans checked the Teutonic rush, resulted in the defeat and rout on
all the fronts of the Teutonic commands.
In that titanic effort, America’s share was that of the final deciding
factor. A nation unjustly titled the “Dollar Nation,” believed by
Germany and by other countries to be soft, selfish and wasteful, became
over night hard as tempered steel, self-sacrificing with an altruism
that inspired the world and thrifty beyond all precedent in order that
not only its own armies but the armies of the Allies might be fed and
munitioned.
Leading American thought and American action, President Wilson stood
out as the prophet of the democracies of the world. Not only did he
inspire America and the Allies to a military and naval effort beyond
precedent, but he inspired the civilian populations of the world to
extraordinary effort, efforts that eventually won the war. For the
decision was gained quite as certainly on the wheat fields of Western
America, in the shops and the mines and the homes of America as it was
upon the battlefield.
This effort came in response to the following appeal by the President:
These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, besides
fighting--the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless:
We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armies, and
our seamen not only, but also for a large part of the nations with
whom we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose
sides we shall be fighting;
We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry
to the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will
every day be needed there; and--
Abundant materials out of our fields and our mines and our factories
with which not only to clothe and equip our own forces on land and
sea but also to clothe and support our people for whom the gallant
fellows under arms can no longer work, to help clothe and equip the
armies with which we are co-operating in Europe, and to keep the
looms and manufactories there in raw material;
Coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces of
hundreds of factories across the sea;
Steel out of which to make arms and ammunition both here and there;
Rails for worn-out railways back of the fighting fronts;
Locomotives and rolling stock to take the place of those every day
going to pieces;
Everything with which the people of England and France and Italy and
Russia have usually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the
men, the materials, or the machinery to make.
I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant
foodstuffs as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no
better or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation
of the present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a large
scale, to feed the nation and the peoples, everywhere who are
fighting for their liberties and for our own. The variety of their
crops will be the visible measure of their comprehension of their
national duty.
The response was amazing in its enthusiastic and general compliance.
No autocracy issuing a ukase could have been obeyed so explicitly. Not
only did the various classes of workers and individuals observe the
President’s suggestions to the letter, but they yielded up individual
right after right in order that the war work of the government might
be expedited. Extraordinary powers and functions were granted by the
people through Congress, and it was not until peace was declared that
these rights and powers returned to the people.
These governmental activities ceased functioning after the war:
Food administration;
Fuel administration;
Espionage act;
War trade board;
Alien property custodian (with extension of time for certain duties);
Agricultural stimulation;
Housing construction (except for ship-builders);
Control of telegraphs and telephones;
Export control.
These functions were extended:
Control over railroads: to cease within twenty-one months after the
proclamation of peace.
The War Finance Corporation: to cease to function six months after
the war, with further time for liquidation.
The Capital Issues Committee: to terminate in six months after the
peace proclamation.
The Aircraft Board: to end in six months after peace was proclaimed;
and the government operation of ships, within five years after the
war was officially ended.
[Illustration: THE “TIGER OF FRANCE”
Georges Benjamin Eugene Clemenceau, world-famous Premier of France,
who by his inspiring leadership maintained the magnificent morale of
his countrymen in the face of the terrific assaults of the enemy.]
President Wilson, generally acclaimed as the leader of the world’s
democracies, phrased for civilization the arguments against autocracy
in the great peace conference after the war. The President headed the
American delegation to that conclave of world re-construction. With him
as delegates to the conference were Robert Lansing, Secretary of State;
Henry White, former Ambassador to France and Italy; Edward M. House and
General Tasker H. Bliss.
Representing American Labor at the International Labor conference
held in Paris simultaneously with the Peace Conference were Samuel
Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor; William Green,
secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America; John R.
Alpine, president of the Plumbers’ Union; James Duncan, president
of the International Association of Granite Cutters; Frank Duffy,
president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and
Frank Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor.
Estimating the share of each Allied nation in the great victory,
mankind will conclude that the heaviest cost in proportion to pre-war
population and treasure was paid by the nations that first felt the
shock of war, Belgium, Serbia, Poland and France. All four were the
battle-grounds of huge armies, oscillating in a bloody frenzy over once
fertile fields and once prosperous towns.
Belgium, with a population of 8,000,000, had a casualty list of more
than 350,000; France, with its casualties of 4,000,000 out of a
population (including its colonies) of 90,000,000, is really the martyr
nation of the world. Her gallant poilus showed the world how cheerfully
men may die in defense of home and liberty. Huge Russia, including
hapless Poland, had a casualty list of 7,000,000 out of its entire
population of 180,000,000. The United States out of a population of
110,000,000 had a casualty list of 236,117 for nineteen months of war;
of these 53,169 were killed or died of disease; 179,625 were wounded;
and 3,323 prisoners or missing.
To the glory of Great Britain must be recorded the enormous effort
made by its people, showing through operations of its army and navy.
The British Empire, including the Colonies, had a casualty list of
3,049,992 men out of a total population of 440,000,000. Of these
658,665 were killed; 2,032,122 were wounded, and 359,204 were reported
missing. It raised an army of 7,000,000, and fought seven separate
foreign campaigns, in France, Italy, Dardanelles, Mesopotamia,
Macedonia, East Africa and Egypt. It raised its navy personnel from
115,000 to 450,000 men. Co-operating with its allies on the sea, it
destroyed approximately one hundred and fifty German and Austrian
submarines. It aided materially the American navy and transport service
in sending overseas the great American army whose coming decided the
war. The British navy and transport service during the war made the
following record of transportation and convoy:
Twenty million men, 2,000,000 horses, 130,000,000 tons of food,
25,000,000 tons of explosives and supplies, 51,000,000 tons of oil and
fuels, 500,000 vehicles. In 1917 alone 7,000,000 men, 500,000 animals,
200,000 vehicles and 9,500,000 tons of stores were conveyed to the
several war fronts.
The German losses were estimated at 1,588,000 killed or died of
disease; 4,000,000 wounded; and over 750,000 prisoners and missing.
A tabulation of the estimates of casualties and the money cost of
the war reveals the enormous price paid by humanity to convince a
military-mad Germanic caste that Right and not Might must hereafter
rule the world. These figures do not include Serbian losses, which are
unavailable. Following is the tabulation:
THE ENTENTE ALLIES
Russia 7,000,000
France 4,000,000
British Empire (official) 3,049,992
Italy 1,000,000
Belgium 350,000
Roumania 200,000
United States (official) 236,117
----------
Total 15,836,109
THE CENTRAL POWERS
Germany 6,338,000
Austria-Hungary 4,500,000
Turkey 750,000
Bulgaria 200,000
----------
Total 11,788,000
Grand total of estimated casualties, 27,624,109, of which the dead
alone number perhaps 7,000,000.
THE ENTENTE ALLIES
Russia $30,000,000,000
Britain 52,000,000,000
France 32,000,000,000
United States 40,000,000,000
Italy 12,000,000,000
Roumania 3,000,000,000
Serbia 3,000,000,000
----------------
Total $172,000,000,000
THE CENTRAL POWERS
Germany $45,000,000,000
Austria-Hungary 25,000,000,000
Turkey 5,000,000,000
Bulgaria 2,000,000,000
----------------
Total $77,000,000,000
Grand total of estimated cost in money, $249,000,000,000.
Was the cost too heavy? Was the price of international liberty paid
in human lives and in sacrifices untold too great for the peace that
followed?
Even the most practical of money changers, the most sentimental
pacifist, viewing the cost in connection with the liberation of whole
nations, with the spread of enlightened liberty through oppressed and
benighted lands, with the destruction of autocracy, of the military
caste, and of Teutonic kultur in its materialistic aspect, must agree
that the blood was well shed, the treasure well spent.
Millions of gallant, eager youths learned how to die fearlessly and
gloriously. They died to teach vandal nations that nevermore will
humanity permit the exploitation of peoples for militaristic purposes.
As Milton, the great philosopher poet, phrased the lesson taught to
Germany on the fields of France:
They err who count it glorious to subdue
By conquest far and wide, to overrun
Large countries, and in field great battles win,
Great cities by assault; what do these worthies
But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighboring or remote
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe’er they rove
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy.