[Sidenote: =Need of a united front=]
=245. Foch the Allied Supreme Commander.= Before the spring of 1918
each of the Allied armies had been acting on its own plan. The places
where the trenches of two armies came together were, of course, the
weakest, and were favorite points for German attacks. It was now
decided to have one commander for all the Allied forces. Foch, a French
general highly skilled in the science of war, was chosen for this great
task.
[Sidenote: =The German advance=]
=246. The Crisis of the War.= In their great drive the Germans always
struck at the weakest point. They found this where the French and
English armies were joined. They drove forward in mass formations or
solid blocks. Thousands upon thousands were mowed down by the English
and French guns, but on they came. Back, back the Allies fell, day
after day, until the Germans reached the Marne again. The world held
its breath. Each day the Germans were expected to break through, but
each day the Allied troops retreated. Slowly they moved, fighting like
demons and always holding at vital points.
[Illustration: TRANSPORTS CARRYING AMERICAN TROOPS CONVOYED BY
BATTLESHIPS]
[Sidenote: =American troops scattered along the front=]
America was eager to be of the greatest possible help in the grave
danger to Paris and France. The Allies were short of reserves. General
Pershing, putting his own honors second in the same generous way he had
done at school, decided to scatter the Yankee troops all through the
French and British lines, wherever they were needed.
[Sidenote: =Rushing troops to France=]
Germany had sneered at our nation because she thought our people were
so devoted to dollars that we could not or would not fight. Now she
began to learn how high the war spirit flamed in the soldiers we were
preparing to send by millions to France. By the help of England's great
fleet, we were able to send over more than a million men by the summer
of 1918. The American troops then formed a united army, fighting under
their own flag. They took over a hundred miles of the front, relieving
tired Frenchmen. Another million arrived by November.
The Allied command gave Pershing command of the region between the
Aisne and the Marne. The Germans thought the Americans untried, and
expected to break through by using their best "shock troops."
[Sidenote: =The battle of Château-Thierry=]
In July the Germans struck a terrific blow at Château-Thierry. Without
waiting for artillery, Pershing struck, and in six hours had captured
as much ground as the Germans had spent six days in getting possession
of. The Americans were advancing with great rapidity. The Germans were
dumbfounded. They did not have time to remove their supplies.
[Sidenote: =The turning point of the war=]
By the brilliant generalship of Foch the great German attack was
stopped in the middle of July, and after that it was the German army
which was in danger.
Now Pershing got ready for St. Mihiel. He drew from the French and
English ranks the Americans he had sent to learn war from these
veterans. Now he also had tried men. St. Mihiel was important. It
threatened the famous battlefield of Verdun and protected the great
German fortified city of Metz.
[Sidenote: =American victory at St. Mihiel=]
=247. Germans Cry "Kamerad."= On September 12 the Americans burst forth
in a rain of shot and shell such as the Germans had seldom before
witnessed. The fierce battle raged for four hours. The Americans then
charged across the river yelling like demons. The German soldiers had
been taught to despise these "green American troops." But these same
Germans now cried "Kamerad" in dead earnest. Five miles of ground were
gained before these "green" Americans halted.
[Illustration: SUBMARINE PURSUED BY AIRPLANE]
The next day our artillery opened fire at 1:30 in the morning. Before
the day was done, more than one hundred and fifty square miles of
German territory were in our possession.
Both the French and the English were busy. The French were driving
at the center of the great line stretching from the North Sea to
Switzerland. The English were driving the Germans out of the Belgian
cities.
[Sidenote: =The greatest American battle=]
=248. Battle of the Argonne.= Many large battles were fought by the
Americans, besides the smaller clashes that occurred. The greatest one
was in the Argonne Forest. This was a half-mountainous, woody country,
much of which was covered with underbrush. The Germans had fortified
it strongly. Besides their great cannon, they had filled the Argonne
with nests of machine guns, placing them in gullies and behind trees,
stumps, and rocks, for protection. Here too, they had their best
fighting men.
The battle started on September 26. This was the most bloody fighting
of the war. Companies and regiments were cut off and lost for a time.
The Germans were bound to hold the forest, and the Americans were
bound to win it. Gradually the Germans were forced back, thousands
were captured, and thousands more were killed. They could not stem the
American tide. After many days of hard fighting in which the Americans
proved themselves fully equal to the best shock troops of the German
army, victory fell to the better army.
[Sidenote: =Allied victories on all fronts=]
The storm was just breaking loose on Germany. The combined navy of the
Allies was choking out her life in spite of the submarines. The English
in Asia were capturing the strongholds of the Turks, and the Italians
now were gaining against the Austrians. Calamities came fast. Bulgaria,
an ally of Germany, surrendered. Turkey followed. The hungry people of
Germany began to plot revolution against their rulers, and the armies
were retreating toward the Rhine.
=249. The Kaiser Runs Away.= Seeing that his cause was lost, the German
ruler, the Kaiser, gave up his throne and fled to Holland. The German
generals agreed to an armistice November 11, 1918, by which they gave
up much fighting material and moved back many miles across the Rhine
into their own land.
[Sidenote: =The bravery of ordinary men=]
=250. American Soldiers in Battle.= The American doughboys were
splendid fighters. The officers had to check the rash daring of their
men, they did not need to urge them forward. The Americans were drilled
in methods of attack rather than defense, from the start. A joking
comment was made that it took only half as long to train American
troops as it did others, because they only had to be taught to go one
way.
The ordinary American showed what courage lay behind the quiet round of
his peace-time life. Our soldiers were clean and full of high spirits,
and they were keyed to the most stubborn efforts by knowing that they
were not fighting in a selfish cause. They "fraternized" famously with
the French children of the villages.
[Sidenote: =Work of the Peace Conference=]
=251. The Treaty of Peace.= After the armistice, the nations which had
won the victory planned to meet at Paris to make a treaty of peace.
President Wilson went over to France to take part in this meeting.
The men who made the peace treaty gave France her two states, Alsace
and Lorraine, which Germany had taken in the war of 1870. They divided
Austria into a number of separate states, giving to each kind of people
its own government. They took land from Germany and Russia and created
Poland. They also decided that Germany should pay Belgium and France
for the destruction of property in those countries.
[Sidenote: =Opinion favors a League=]
[Sidenote: =Why the League was defeated=]
=252. America and the League of Nations.= Included in the treaty was
an agreement called the League of Nations. Its purpose was to combine
all nations, great and small, in a covenant which would work for the
peace of the world. The need of a league was urged by men of different
parties in this country during the war. A great number of Americans
were in favor of such a world agreement. This country had always been
a peace-loving people, and had fought in the hope that this would be a
war to end war. But after the armistice Europe remained more unsettled
than anyone had expected. In spite of all the treaties, wars of various
kinds continued in Europe. President Wilson toured the country speaking
for the League, but met much opposition. The American people came to
believe that under the League they would be too closely bound up with
European affairs, which were now so disturbed.
In 1920 the question of entering the League in its original form was
widely debated. It was the chief point on which the presidential
election turned, and the result was overwhelmingly against the League
as it had been drawn up at Paris.